Presenting Rod Keller's
Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review

Volume 8, Issue 22 - October 19 2003




Psychs

Psychology Today published an article on October 8th on distrust by blacks of the mental health profession Scientology's targeting of blacks with anti-psychiatry messages. "Blacks do not volunteer for studies, observes the University of Illinois' Carl C. Bell, M.D. 'So it is difficult to document that they need half the dose of antidepressant medication that whites need.' The cultural mistrust that keeps blacks from treatment has been successfully fueled by the Church of Scientology. Bell is particularly distressed that Scientology has specifically targeted black communities with its anti-psychiatry message. 'They are forever pumping into the black community scare tactics, that there's a genocidal plot to put black children on Ritalin, there's a genocidal plot to put black people on antidepressant medication.' "But when all is said and done, it may be that blacks turn less to the mental health system because they have long had other sources of coping. 'For us, the church has been our psychologist,' says Morrow. Unfortunately, she notes, 'the church has not often sanctioned people getting help other than from the church. Religious beliefs are supposed to sustain you through everything. There's the belief that 'your faith will carry you.'' But because African Americans 'pay attention to their pastors' she has sought the help of the religious community to give parishioners permission to take advantage of available treatments." Message-ID: 1065693705.323894@newshost02.voicenet.com

Tim Robbins

MSNBC reported on October 6th that actor Tim Robbins helped raise money for a Scientology-linked detoxification program for New York firefighters. "Did Tim Robbins know he helped raise money for a group linked to Scientology? Robbins's Actors' Gang recently performed a run of 'The Guys' in Vail, Colorado to benefit the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Fund. The group has drawn fire from certain quarters because it uses 'purification' techniques developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. "'Tim Robbins should have done a little Web surfing,' says Rick Ross of CultNews.com. 'He and Susan Sarandon may mean well but Tim was being used as a pawn. If he had gone to this group's Web site, he would have read that Tom Cruise is the co-founder, and that might have set off a few bells. And he would have read that their methods of 'detoxifying' firefighters are the ones outlined by L. Ron Hubbard.'" Message-ID: 1065434170.370646@newshost01.voicenet.com

Ireland

The Sunday Mirror reported on October 5th that a Scientology recruitment van in Dublin, Ireland is causing controversy. "Dublin City Council has been slammed for allowing an infamous sect to park a recruitment van on the city's busiest street. The Church of Scientology was allowed to park its trailer at Grafton Street for 11 days. In a bid to enrol members, they offered free personality and stress tests from their new location as they have abandoned their building on Middle Abbey Street. "Mike Garde, of cult watchdog Dialogue Ireland, said the council was being irresponsible. He said: 'It is no coincidence the group has intensified their enrolment campaign at the same time young, vulnerable teenagers are starting college.' Fine Gael health spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell TD said: 'It is regrettable that an organisation that preys on vulnerable students who are away from home for the first time has been facilitated in this way.'" Message-ID: 1065434468.480643@newshost01.voicenet.com

Kate Ceberano

The Sydney Morning Herald published an article on Australian musician Kate Ceberano on October 11th. "What did Kate Ceberano, one of Australia's highest-profile Scientologists, really think of John Travolta's movie Battlefield Earth? The singer's brown eyes widen, her head tilts back and she laughs raucously. 'Oh, shithouse film!' she cackles. 'I hated that film!' "Would she say that to Travolta, a fellow Scientologist? 'Hmm,' she says, still shaking with laughter. 'Yeah, I'd probably tell him it was a dog.' Travolta's big-screen adaptation of the novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was abysmal. But it's still something of a relief to hear Ceberano rubbish it. "She's a third-generation Scientologist, after all. Her latest album The Girl Can Help It carries a dedication to Hubbard and links on her website make her allegiances clear. But there's nothing sanctimonious about Kate Ceberano; she makes up her own mind. After 20 years in the business, she's grown used to journalists clearing their throat, gripping their pens a little tighter and saying: 'So, Scientology?' "'It's not really people who flip out [over Scientology], it's the media,' she says calmly. 'All I know is that Scientology has been a very practical tool to confront a very impractical world.' Specifically, Ceberano says, personal responsibility and education are two cornerstones of the religion. 'The ignorant can be controlled, but an educated person can have a point of view,' she says. She also talks about confronting adversity with a courage that 'can be learned' and endorses her religion's negative view of psychiatry and associated drugs such as Prozac. 'I don't want to be labelled [by a psychiatrist] and I certainly do not want to take anything which would subdue the honesty of the situation,' she says." Message-ID: d80eb3832dc3e7dd8d4e155794beb7f9@nox.lemuria.org

Russia

Izvestia reported on October 2nd that a program to reform psychiatric institutions in Russia is opposed by Scientology. "The chief Russian specialist in the field of psychiatry appealed to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in an open letter. Psychiatric assistance is the only branch of medicine that is not financed by medical insurance. Therefore the majority of our pscyh patients are in asylums like the orphanages in horror films, with no treatment or food. To what this may lead, doctors know, and the government knows it doesn't want. "The number of people who need help from psychiatrists is increasing every year. The mental health of the nation is under threat, think the eminent doctors; the human and economic loss from this outweighs the damages from military operations in Chechnia, the scholars add. "'All our efforts have met with opposition from the Scientologists, who have found a way into the State Duma,' thinks professor Valeriy Krasnov, director of the Moscow NII psychiatric MZ RF. 'The deputies, who promised support, are now refusing to associate with us. The active role in this opposition is played by the so-called Citizens Commissioner for Human rights, which has gotten generally out of control in our cities,' said Vladimir Agishev, chief doctor of one of the largest hospitals in Saint Petersburg, psychiatric hospital No. 3. 'They mass distribute leaflets, they write letters saying that psychiatric institutions ought not to receive one copeck, that psychiatrists are killers and their medicine is poison. We've had repeated conflicts with them. For example, over the summer they took pictures through the fence and made videotapes of our patients without consent. The heat stagnated and the patients were half-dressed in old pajamas (purchasing finances 5 percent of the inventory we need), and then they distributed these photographs under the title 'here is how people are treated in psych hospitals.' "It is known that this charitable organization is closely connected to the totalitarian cult of Scientology, which is prohibited in our country but finds the City of Peter a first-rate place to be. Now the hands of the Gekachepists ['CCHRers'] have stretched to the capital, they say their letters have even found their way to Gennadi Seleznev and they got a resolution 'examined and announced.'" Message-ID: Pine.LNX.3.96.1031007174917.112A-100000@darkstar.zippy


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A.r.s. Week in Review is put together by Rod Keller © This collection is organised for WWW by Andreas Heldal-Lund. Only edits done by me is replacing word encapsuled in * or _ with bold and underscore, and made links into HTML.


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