Cult News

Scientology is ranked lower than Islam as one of the most, unpopular religions in America. Even Islam, despite “Muslim terrorists” and rioting radicals making headlines, is seen better.

Specifically, Americans are twice as likely to view Islam favorably than Scientology.

The poll conducted by CBS News was actually focused on measuring the perception of Islam amongst Americans and not Scientology, but other religions were named and came up and also were measured in poll results.

CBS found that amongst Americans 45% said they have an unfavorable view of Islam, a rise from 36% in February reports Daily Times in Pakistan. 

Only 19% of had a favorable view of Islam, compared to 30% in 2002.

But only 8% of the American public view Scientology favvorably according to the CBS poll, which is less than one in ten.

That’s right, despite the star power of Tom Cruise Scientology’s “Top Gun” and all his efforts to promote the controversial religion, its religious ranking now may be lower than ever.

Other faiths ranked are also follows; 58% had a favorable impression of Protestantism, 48% of Catholicism, 47% of the Jewish religion, 31% of Christian fundamentalist religions and 20% of the Mormon religion.

What has happened to Scientology?

CultNews could not find before Cruise polling as opposed to post Cruise results.

However, it looks like “Muslim terrorists” and rioting radicals are doing a better job than the “world’s biggest movie star” promoting the faith they claim.

Likewise, Donnie and Marie have arguably done better for the Mormons as have televangelists like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell it appears for Christian fundamentalism, at least when compared to the job Cruise seems to have done for his church.

In all fairness, Scientology is perhaps a difficult religion to promote. The church has often been derided as a “cult” and Time Magazine once called it “a hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner.”

Perhaps if the product is bad the salesman shouldn’t be blamed?

But it does seem that Cruise has damaged Scientology’s public image, even taking into consideration its history of bad press. 

In an interview with GQ Magazine the actor insisted “that talking about his Scientology beliefs had not damaged his career” reports the Mirror of the United Kingdom.

“It’s the exact opposite. You can try and create a PR machine that’s going to put out misinformation and discredit someone. But that’s not gonna stop me. Ever, ever. It’s the right thing to do,” he said.

Well maybe the box office recepts will be OK for Mission Impossible III, but what about Scientology?

With pitiful numbers like CBS uncovered maybe Scientology should tell Tom Cruise that “the right thing to do” is just shut up.

Transexual Kate Bornstein was once a Scientologist, but now is an activist performing a solo show called “A Queer and Pleasant Danger,” reports Towerlight Online.

During the performance the former man who now lives as a woman says she was “kicked out of Scientology.” Bornstein symbolically spray paints an X on herself to represent that ex-Scientologist status.

Was the transsexual tossed aside for being too sexually ambiguous to suit Scientology?

The controversial religion’s founder L. Ron Hubbard had harsh words for gays. He wrote that homosexuals “should be taken from¦society as rapidly as possible” because “no social order will survive which does not remove these people from its midst” reported Rolling Stone.

Was Hubbard homophobic?

Did Scientology follow his instructions and remove Bornstein?

In Hollywood today Hubbard’s sentiments don’t sound “politically correct,” especially after all those Emmys Will and Grace got, not to mention the Oscars Brokeback received this year, so Scientologists repeatedly try to spin such quaint Hubbardisms.

For example one Scientologist writing commentary for The Post Chronicle insists Hubbard was only “speaking figuratively” when he made such seemingly nasty remarks and that they were written “in 1952, over half a century ago.”

Apparently the Scientology religious sage’s “words of wisdom” were not always “eternal truths,” but instead at times rather dated and some are now expired.

However, rumors have circulated for years that Scientology helps to hide its homosexuals if they are celebrities. South Park mocked that speculation with its hilarious send-up about the controversial religion titled “Trapped in the Closet.”

Tom Cruise allegedly kept that episode from repeating because he was supposedly so upset by it.

Does Bornstein have the inside scoop about what’s behind some Scientolostist’s closed closet doors?

Kate “makes it clear that she has plenty of ‘dirt’ she could ‘dish’ about the church,” reports Towerlight Online.  

But Bornstein isn’t about to tell her story explaining that she hasn’t found “a voice to write about the church of Scientology.” More tellingly the transsexual seems worried about possible retaliation and is looking for “a way not to be mean to [Scientologists] so they would not be mean to [her].”

Scientology and its lawyers have been known to get pretty “mean.”

Bornstein is certainly no “anti-Cult activist,” but rather an author, playwright and performance artist focused on another message about gender and the freedom to make personal choices.

The closing message for the one-woman-show is “All roads in life lead nowhere so you might as well choose the road with the most heart and has the most fun.”

It might be fun to find out just what the road was like for the future gender bender while tripping along within Scientology.

Note: CultNews received a response from Kate Bornstein after this story ran. “May I please make some corrections? The reviewer in the Towson student newspaper did her best to report what she saw happen on the  stage, and she got a lot of it right, but not quite all. I  never claim to have been kicked out of Scientology. I was offered the choice of 3 years in the RPF or excommunication and I chose excommunication. And I’m pretty sure my transsexuality had nothing to do with why I was being offered that choice. Long story. And I do tell it all in the show, honest. I’ve found a voice to speak this story with,” said Ms. Bornstein. 

It seems the founder of Scientology might be considered a racist based upon some of his writings.

L. Ron Hubbard wrote within Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought “Unlike yellow and brown people, the white does not usually believe he can get attention from matter or objects. The yellow and brown believe for the most part that rocks, trees, walls, etc, can give them attention. The white saves people, prevents famine, floods, disease and revolution … the yellow and brown races are not very progressive.”

Hmm, does this mean that Hubbard saw something like a pecking order amongst the races with his own white race at the top?

This was recently reported by Zoe Williams for The Guardian in Great Britain.

Stars like Tom Cruise and John Travolta frequently extol Hubbard as their hero publicly, so on balance it seems fair to scrutinize the author’s writings critically.

But there doesn’t appear to be anything heroic about his racial theories, which sound more like condescending bigotry than an example of brave new thinking.

Scientologists often orchestrate awards and special celebrations for the creator of their religion.

Last month they gathered in Los Angeles for Hubbard’s birthday and to announce a “worldwide celebration” about what they call his “extraordinary life” stated Scientology’s official Newsroom.

One man attending the party was Reverend James McLaughlin, senior pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church of Houston, Texas.

McLaughlin praised Hubbard as a “genius.”

“I admire him. I respect him. I consider him to be an angel that came to help humankind to work out its problems,” said the African-American pastor.

Well according to Hubbard’s good book that recites the fundamentals of his faith, saving people is what white people do, while folks like Rev. McLaughlin crave attention from “rocks, trees, walls, etc.”

In fact, it seems that according to the “Word of Hubbard” the reverend would be relegated to the general category of “not very progressive.”

However, Hubbard himself wasn’t always judged as a fount for truth.

California Superior Court Judge Paul Breckenridge probably wouldn’t appear on any Scientology party list. He called Hubbard “virtually a pathological liar.”   

And apparently angered by the seemingly racist statements made within “Fundementals of Thought” Zoe Williams urged her readers to consider “boycotting [Scientology stars’] cinematic endeavors and pelting them with eggs.”

Well, that might be a bit much, but isn’t celebrating L. Ron Hubbard as a “genius” and calling him an “angel” just a bit over the top too?

Apparently Isaac Hayes isn’t the only Scientologist that has done voiceover for comedy cartoon characters that can’t take a joke and has no sense of humor when it comes to their controversial religion.

Nancy Cartwright, the voice for Bart Simpson on the TV show The Simpsons, seemingly suffers from the same malady as Hayes reports 7 Days.

Perhaps inspired by the creators of South Park, who ridiculed Scientology so successfully, some of The Simpsons writers wanted to have a little fun too.

The proposed line to be spoken by Bart went something like this, “Mormonism? That’s the second freakiest religion in America!”

One guess who must be the first “freakiest”?

Cartwright certainly got the joke, but she didn’t like it, so the show dumped it according to insiders.

So even a purported allusion to Scientology got the axe at the Fox show.  

“That’s ridiculous…Scripts change all the time as shows are prepared, and what goes into a show and what doesn’t go into a show is based on what’s funny, and that is it, her publicist.

Notice though that Cartwright’s spokesperson doesn’t flatly deny the report altogether.

Hollywood Scientologists and their publicists like to parse their language when responding to accusations that star power was somehow used to censor things within the entertainment industry.

Like South Park the longer running cartoon show The Simpsons has at times made fun of religion, but Scientologists seem to be very thin skinned when it comes to their own “sacred cow.”

However, unlike Isaac Hayes, Nancy Cartwright isn’t threatening anyone at Fox with a walkout.

The 58-year-old voiceover queen earns a reported $360,000 per episode, which means she takes in $8 million per season.

And besides, unlike Hayes, it appears Cartwright the cartoon diva cowed the show over her “sacred cow.”

It appears that Nicole Kidman was granted an annulment regarding her marriage to Scientology’s “Top Gun” Tom Cruise because it “did not conform to the requirements of the church,” according to Jeanette Walls at MSNBC.

But what does that mean?

Does this mean that the Cruise/Kidman marriage was somehow sexless or that matrimony Scientology-style is outside the parameters of what the Roman Catholic Church considers reasonable?

Maybe religious organizations like Scientology, which have been called “cults,” can’t “conform” to its “requirements” and therefore Ms. Kidman is off the hook.

How ironic that Tom Cruise’s Oscar-winning ex has returned to embrace the church, just as the next Mrs. Cruise has apparently rejected that same religious heritage.

Perhaps the conservative Catholic parents of Katie Holmes should look into the process of obtaining an annulment, given their future son-in-law’s marital track record?

But would their daughter giving birth before walking down the aisle be OK with Catholic clergy?

Probably not.

Looks like if things don’t work out for Katie Holmes she will probably have to get along without an annulment.

Maybe in Los Angeles and perhaps this week, the blessed event will occur.

Hallelujah! 

Katie Holmes, the apparent Scientology version of the “Virgin Mary,” will give birth.

“Silent birth” that is.

This Scientology practice requires Ms. Holmes to shut up and squeeze without any painkillers.

She may listen to some “mellow music” coming from an MP3 player given to her as a gift from her sweetie Tom Cruise reports China Daily.

The following could be considered Scientology’s founder L. Ron Hubbard’s top ten tips on “silent birth” and having kids, or for Scientologists probably more like Hubbard’s “Ten Commandments,” based upon a report filed by The Guardian.

1. You must stay silent because this avoids those pesky “engrams,’ impressions formed in the brain because of “physical pain or painful” experiences.

Katie might wonder, “Doesn’t my pain matter, won’t that make some engrams”?

Answer: “Shut up and push, hubby will likely get you a discount to clear them, but make sure that’s in the prenup.”

2. “A woman who is pregnant should be given every consideration by a society which has any feeling for its future generations.” 

Except for an epidural.

3. “Maintain silence in the presence of birth to save both the sanity of the mother and the child. And the maintaining of silence does not mean a volley of sh’s.”  

How about little cussing?

Can Katie curse and offer “a volley” of “sh-t that hurts”?

4. “Women, you have a right and a reason to demand good treatment.”

Except for an epidural.

5. “The womb is wet, uncomfortable and unprotected.”

Who gave Hubbard that inside information?

7. “Calm and harmonious atmosphere” for the child.

OK that means Scientology’s “Top Gun” should try to make his third marriage work and avoid another divorce.

8.  “Say nothing around a sick child or an injured child. Smile, appear calm, but say nothing.”

No problem for a long time professional actor, though for first time mom Katie Holmes it could be difficult.

However, with all that Scientology training she has seemingly perfected some kind of Hubbard smile.

9. “If she [the child] falls, she should be helped – but silently.”

Does that mean Katie, which child, this could be confusing for Tom Cruise?

10. “No drooling sympathy.”

No problem for a middle-aged actor, the drooling will start later, and a young wife can help clean it up. 

By the way Hubbard offered a few prophetic tips on prenatal care too. Here are some special gems of his wisdom.

Did you know that when a child bounces on a pregnant woman’s lap, her unborn child gets an engram?

Watch out Mr. Cruise that may include childish couch jumping.

And “anyone who is emotional around a pregnant woman is communicating that emotion straight to the child.”

Perhaps Scientology’s “Top Gun” should have eased up on Today Show host Matt Lauer, stopped threatening nasty lawsuits and avoided any conflict with South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

If the husband uses language during sex, “every word is going to be engramic.”

Maybe that’s no problem for someone supposedly “trapped in the closet“?

Victoria Beckham, the former “Posh Spice” and wife of soccer superstar David Beckham, has been approached by Tom Cruise about Scientology and is friendly with his pregnant bride-to-be Katie Holmes.

Not long ago the soccer stud’s queen was seen reading a copy of “Dianetics” by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

But it seems that Madonna and the Kabbalah Centre may have scooped her up despite Tom and Katie’s recent attentions.

Victoria Beckham was recently photographed wearing the “red string” reports Sydney Confidential.

The string is more than a fashion statement to Kabbalah Centre devotees like Madonna, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. Though the string supposedly wards off the “evil eye” according to the group, it also typically symbolizes something more–and affinity or interest in the organization that sells it.

It appears that there has been an almost frantic competition between the two most popular purported “cults” in Hollywood, to get the Beckhams onboard, they are Britain’s most popular celebrity couple, outside the royal family.

Each group’s top recruiter has come knocking on the door, Tom Cruise from Scientology and Madonna for her beloved Kabbalah Centre.

Certainly, whoever gets “Beck” and his wife Victoria will draw the attention of soccer fans worldwide, not to mention celebrity watchers, waiting for the next trend.

Has the Kabbalah Centre won?

Or will Victoria Beckham succumb to Scientology?

Perhaps Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie have the edge, since Ritchie after all is a Brit and his wife keeps a house in the English countryside.

But Katie Holmes’ coming blessed event coule reel the Beckham’s in for a visit to some Scientology venue?

CultNews continues to watch breathlessly, which “cult” will win?

Have you ever considered doing Scientology, but thought it might be just a bit too expensive? After all, not everyone has millions like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and other Scientology celebs.

But for those curious about what some call the Sci-fi “cult,” there is a cheaper way to get whatever Tom Cruise says he’s got and a dose of that Travolta “Saturday Night Fever.” And it can be done without maxing out your credit cards.

First, you can study all of Scientology’s so-called “secret teachings” through a Web site “Operation Clambake.” Find out for free what Scientologists paid thousands and thousands to learn.

“Clambake” includes in its “secret library” the zealously guarded “Operating Thetan” (OT) levels, one through eight, John Travolta has reached OT-7, but you can get to eight tonight if you cram.

Just click here to see it all.

Then there is that process Scientologists call “auditing,” which has cost Cruise and his girl Katie big bucks per hour. This process is largely predicated upon a device used by Scientologists called the “e-meter.”

A Scientologist using the e-meter called an “auditor” sits across from someone holding two cans wired to a box with a meter. The auditor asks questions and watches the needle on the meter to determine how the subject is doing. The auditor also often keeps copious notes on any responses and the general progress of the subject, which may be shared with others in the church.

But what is the e-meter?

Well, to Scientologists it’s almost a “sacred object” or perhaps a “holy relic” left behind by their beloved founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Hubbard may be dead, but the e-meter lives on.

However, there is really nothing so secret or unique about the e-meter.

This basic device is more commonly called a “Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) Meter,” or what some would see as simply one component of a machine known as the “lie detector.”

That’s right, Hubbard’s holy relic actually measures nervous tension, and as most people get a little tense when they lie or discuss upsetting aspects of their lives, this makes the needle move within the e-meter.

But you don’t have to pay money like Tom Cruise to be audited. Instead, you may be able to make your very own personal GSR for less than Tom and Katie probably pay for single Scientology auditing session.

“The LEGO lie detector makes interrogations fun,” reports Engadget.

Just click here for better understanding on how to build your very own GSR, or what you might call a personal “e-meter.”

After assembling your device to detect nervousness and/or differentiate truth from fiction, why not recruit a friend to become your personal auditor and take turns auditing each other for free.

And just think, you won’t have to sign away any of your civil rights through any Scientology “release forms” to perform these “religious services.”

What a difference a week makes. Last week it seemed as if Scientology had beaten South Park when Viacom apparently pulled the plug on the repeat of “Trapped in the Closet,” the stinging satire about the controversial church and its two leading celebrity faithful Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

“So, Scientology, you may have won this battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will not stop us…You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid…will fail!” South Park announced last week.

That warning proved to be prophetic when South Park took its revenge this week.

Isaac Hayes’ character “chef” met with a violent end on South Park’s premiere 10th season episode titled “”Return of the Chef.” The Comedy Central show’s co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker decided to use Isaac Hayes’ voice again, but this time it was spliced together to create a very different dialog.

In the rich baritone that made Hayes famous Chef tells the children of South Park, “How about I meet you guys after work and we make love . . . come on children, you’re my sexual fantasy, let’s all make sweet love.” 

From the “Shaft” super-stud that sang “Chocolate Salty Balls” to pedophile? 

But Chef was “brainwashed” by a cult-like group called “Super Adventure Club,” “thought to be a veiled reference to Scientology” reports BBC News.  

The South Park kids call the group “that fruity little club for scrambling…brains.”

After a failed deprogramming attempt Chef falls off a bridge and then is burned, stabbed and mauled by a lion and a grizzly bear.

At his funeral one child offers a fitting eulogy as follows:

“A lot of us don’t agree with the choices the Chef has made in the last few days. Some of us feel hurt and confused that he seemed to turn his back on us. But we can’t let the events of the past few weeks take away the memories of how Chef made us smile.”

Sounds more like a parting words to Isaac Hayes, who quit South Park protesting their Scientology show “Trapped in the Closet,” going so far as to accuse the co-creators of religious “intolerance” and “bigotry.”

It seemed as if Hayes had re-imagined South Park as some sort of warm, fuzzy, friendly, politically correct show instead of the stinging satire it has always been.

However, as CultNews has reported South Park is not 7th Heaven.

Payback can be hard and Stone and Parker got the last word. And Scientology and Hayes should have known that a weekly show like South Park always gets the last word.

Though according to Roger Friedman of Fox News there may be a sad twist. Isaac Hayes, who had a stroke, may not have actually acted on his own. Scientology may have staged the star’s resignation using him like a pawn to upstage the once planned rerun of “Trapped in the closet.”

However, in the end Scientology seems overmatched in this “slap down.” 

There is an old axiom: “Never mud-wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty, but the pig has fun.”

Matt Stone and Trey Parker may not be pigs, but they appear to have had quit a run with the press and a lot of fun wrestling with Scientology. And arguably at the controversial church’s expense, which seems to have walked away with mud on its face.

“Return of Chef” even exceeded the ratings triumph of “Trapped in the Closet” drawing the largest audience of any South Park show run in the past two years.

Adam Finley writing for TV Squad observed “Parker and Stone’s humor has always been drawn from anger…The guiding ethos of South Park has always been a deep-seeded anger towards people and institutions that take themselves too seriously.”

And Scientology seems to take itself very seriously.

Who really killed off Chef?

The most telling scene in “Return of Chef” is when Stan screams “You killed Chef!” shaking his fists at the cult-like “Super Adventure Club” and adds “You bastards!”  

Tom Cruise has taken up a somewhat strange venue. Instead of another installment of couch jumping on the talk show circuit, he’s seemingly taken up speaking in cafeterias.

That’s right, the “World’s Greatest Movie Star” accepted a speaking engagement at the lunch room of Yahoo, the second best search engine on the Internet reports NBC 11.com.

Does “Number Two” Yahoo think that “Number One” Cruise can help it to overtake its rival Google?

The media was not allowed in, but some Yahoo employees managed to get a few photos out through their cell phones.

Isn’t the Internet wonderful?

Well, Scientology doesn’t always seem to think so. 

Groups called “cults” most often like what they control and don’t like what they don’t control, and Scientology has a love/hate relationship with the Internet and search engines like Yahoo.

Scientology, dubbed the “Cult of Greed” by Time magazine, loves to promote itself, its projects and programs through the ubiquitous Internet, but seems to hate the fact that the “Information Highway” is a “two-way street.”

Is the controversial church using its “Top Gun” to groom Yahoo’s CEO Terry Semmel for some favor later on?

Cruise could potentially be a surrogate for Scientology and call up Semmel, and say request that Yahoo drop a critical Web site off its search results. After all, rumor has it that he persuaded Viacom to drop a South Park episode last week that he and Scientology didn’t like.

Scientology attempted to get Google to drop certain Web pages, though the preeminent Internet search engine said, “the company had only removed certain pages from the site because of a copyright dispute.”

Well, if that’s the way Scientology handles number one, how would it treat number two?

And isn’t that what Scientology’s crusading stars are really for, either to recruit powerful people or to play them?

It’s much more likely that the Tom Cruise appearance at Yahoo’s campus cafeteria was about garnering influence for his church rather than encouraging fans to support Mission Impossible III.