On Monday a court convicted the French branch of the Church of Scientology of organised fraud. The Scientology Celebrity Centre and a related bookshop in Paris were fined a total of €650,000 ($1 million). On the same day, Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis severed his ties with the Church of Scientology in protest against the sect's position on gays and its treatment of members. A few days earlier, on October 22nd, Tom Cruise, John Travolta and their partners joined 4000 others celebrating the 25th anniversary of the International Association of Scientologists in England.
One hesitates to comment due to the sect's use of litigation and "other methods" to silence critics.
The cult religion is based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard, one of whose Sci-Fi books sat on my bookshelf for some years when I was a teen. I'm not sure why it lived there - perhaps I thought one day I would finish it, but I'm sure I never did. It was terrible.
"According to the 1965 Report of the Board of Enquiry into Scientology in the Australian state of Victoria, Hubbard falsely claimed scientific and other credentials and his sanity was "to be gravely doubted".[143] The report concluded that while Hubbard's followers are taught that they are entitled to question the beliefs, they are conditioned to believe that the teachings are correct.[144] It also notes that Hubbard's claims of finding a cure for atomic radiation is unsupported by evidence.[145] The Scientologists' response was a pamphlet entitled Kangaroo Court, describing Victoria as "the riff-raff of London's slums [...] a very primitive community, somewhat barbaric".[143]"
Wikipedia on L. Ron Hubard, Dianetics and Scientology
A public face of Scientology currently, Tommy Davis, has had many intriquing interviews. They don't have the same barking quality as some of Tom's, but you will be entertained. (or would have been had Youtube not terminated the account - not under any pressure, of course)
Tommy 'footbullet man' Davis on Youtube (9 mins)
Nov 2010: I could not find the video, but I did find an interesting site which lists other Scientology interviews. Mark Bunker's Xenu TV
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