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RELIGION and PHILOSOPHY
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By Virginia Stewart of Sydney
To all the critics, I have never met you, nor seen you in my Church. And having people like you before one thing clearly stick out. You have mostly read things about Scientology, not actual Scientology so can't answer any basic questions about what it is you so strongly object to. People who do, find many things that they can apply and that make sense to them. How to study, how to have successful relationships, how to handle depression and stress, etc. I can only be amused at this angry passion, because it is so laughably wrong.
Why waste so much energy on having a go at Scientology when it is not what you want to do and probably doesn't affect you in the slightest? I wouldn't even bother commenting on something I didn't like or want to know about. Speaking to religious scholars on the other hand who may not share the same beliefs, but who are objective and educated, is a refreshing change from some of the complete fabrication I have read here and the vitriol with which it is expressed. You would be good you have on a team fighting abuse and intolerance. Pity it is being used to express intolerance.
One thing to make clear. The Australian tax payer doesn't pay one cent to Scientology from their taxes. Not one. So don't worry. You can keep pouring your money into whatever you choose. And the funny thing is, that if you were in need, a Scientologist would help you anyway. Scientologists pay for their Church. It is their choice and right. Another person might spend $1,000 on a coat that wears away in a few years. A Scientologist might spend $1,000 to sponsor a group of kids to learn to read. That is where we differ. A church is the people. There are a lot of good people who want to make this world a better place.
People want walls for their Church so they donate. They want the lights to work, they donate. To get religious services from other churches such as weddings, funerals and the like, money is exchanged to enable the priest to eat and keep the church heated. No religion survives without donations and to say so is false. Our world doesn't work like that. If you want to find out about Scientology, go down to the library and pick up a Scientology book or two and read it and apply it. That is Scientology.
By Bella of Brisbane
As much as I disagree with Scientology, the article raises good point. I didn't realise they do not get tax exemptions like most other religions. As whacky as they are, why don't they? They are just as illogical as other religions, the difference is they have not been ingrained into the psyche after centuries of practice. There is no good reason to deny them tax exemptions providing they meet the same criteria of other religions.
By Elliot of Melbourne
If you are a Catholic and want religious counsel, a priest will not charge you. If you are Jewish and wish to consult a Rabbi, he will not present you with a bill for services rendered. The same goes for most religions, which offer free assistance to individuals seeking spiritual guidance. If the Church of Scientology did not charge for their auditing sessions, they would most likely be on the fast track to religion status.
Making donations is one thing, but expecting payment from your followers in exchange for services rendered is the same as a psychologist expecting tax exemption for the same reasons. They are both using their own methods to help an individual achieve a state of inner peace. Psychologists are up front and honest about all of their methods, regardless if how much mud Scientologists choose to throw at them. Free treatment for all first, and maybe then you can put your hand out.
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CATHOLIC SCHOOL PRINCIPALS MUST LIVE AND TEACH CATHOLIC DOGMA -- ARCHBISHOP PELL[SMH, June 4, 2007]The Catholic archdiocese of Sydney wants its 167 school principals, its deputy principals and religious education co-ordinators to publicly commit to a "vow of fidelity" by adhering to church teaching on homosexuality, birth control and women's ordination. In a first for the Australian church, the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, is set to extend the oath of fidelity and profession of faith, a requirement of church law for bishops, priests and heads of seminaries, to all senior educational leaders. The oath demands "religious submission of intellect and will" on questions of faith and morals -- even if these are inferred but not defined by the pope and his bishops -- and an acceptance that everything solemnly taught by church tradition is divinely inspired. It suggests they would be bound not only to impart these teachings but to live by them. The controversial requirement is contained in a draft pastoral plan circulated to all parishes of the Sydney archdiocese for comment. The plan, at least two years in the drafting, gives a series of priorities, goals and strategies for the archdiocese from 2008 to 2011. Among its other new measures are marriage preparation classes for senior secondary school students, twice-yearly reviews of its educational bodies, and forums so Catholic politicians can be updated on church teachings. There will also be renewed efforts to teach youth about "sexuality and life issues" through formal courses and seminars, and measures to bring in to the fold young people inspired by next year's World Youth Day. Cardinal Pell has taken an intense interest in Catholic education, ordering the rewriting of the religious education curriculum, and aiming to turn around Catholic thinking that faith is caught, not taught. The oath has symbolic value as a public commitment to the moral teachings and identity of the church and is not an attempt at control, the archdiocese says. But a recent Vatican push to institute an oath for theologians in the US was greeted as an attack on academic independence and an attempt to impose tighter doctrinal controls over education institutions connected to the church. One critic of the archdiocese's plan says it contains "shades of the Opus Dei," the Spanish-founded conservative Christian movement that achieved notoriety as the villain of the fictional bestseller The Da Vinci Code. Writing for the online magazine Catholica, a Sydney priest, Father Dan Donovan, said the plan needed a serious rewrite and failed to take note of the "infiltration" of Opus Dei and the Neocatechumenal Way, a lay movement that heads the turbulent Redfern parish. In addition, the plan lacked a suitable process for "critiquing structures and providing just outcomes, and was directed to the needs of clergy and not churchgoers," he said. "There must be developed a listening hierarchy who are able to connect with the broad masses of the faithful and their issues rather than endorsing the agenda of the various movements." The Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Julian Porteous said the oath would act as a reminder to educational leaders of their role in promoting church teachings. "It's not about control," he said. "The oath gives greater clarity to the importance of the role of principals in schools, that their first responsibility is that the Catholic faith is taught and lived authentically within the school. Anybody who speaks in a Catholic education institution is meant to be presenting the Catholic faith in its integrity. There can be a place for theologians to make explorations of criticism, but in teaching positions the role is to very much be faithful to the teaching of the church."
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HAWAIIAN MORMONS CELEBRATE THEIR HERITAGE IN SKULL VALLEY, UTAH[Christian Science Monitor, May 31, 2007]If you want to test your pioneer spirit, come to Skull Valley. In this broad, sun-baked basin just south of the Great Salt Lake, dust devils rake the desert, rattlesnakes coil in the sagebrush, and the thermometer rockets between extremes. Rugged mountains, severely stunning against blue sky, rise to the east and west. Even today, this is an isolated place. A century ago, it was the end of the earth. In August 1889, a small group of pioneers set about surviving in Skull Valley. Their skin, used to the tropics, cracked in the dry desert air. Thoughts of their distant island homes, of lush blooms and ocean waves, must have pricked at them as they stared across the forbidding valley. Their story is a classic tale of courage and endurance, part of the pioneer tradition that still echoes through the modern American West. But in Skull Valley, the pioneer story is told by Polynesians. "Welcome to Iosepa!" Richard Poulsen's voice, its New Zealand accent undimmed by three decades in Utah, echoed across a busy festival pavilion last weekend. "Those of you in your camps, come out and talk to each other. You might find out you're related!" said Mr. Poulsen, who is part Maori. Today, little remains of the Polynesian settlement of Iosepa but a few disintegrating foundations and a small cemetery. Yet each Memorial Day weekend, hundreds – indeed, about 1,000 last weekend – gather in a weedy cow pasture to celebrate its history and the cultures it embodies. The partygoers roast pork until it falls from the bone, dance the hula, and weave family, faith, and multiple traditions into something that feels like home. "We come here to be Hawaiian," said Ned Aikau, who's been attending the Memorial Day gathering at Iosepa with his family since he moved from Hawaii to Utah in the 1970s. "We come so that we can laugh loud, sing loud, and talk loud." Most of the people at Iosepa last weekend were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – Mormons – and some were the descendants of converts who moved to Utah from Hawaii and other Pacific islands beginning in the late 1800s. The Mormon Church settled them in Skull Valley. Their new town was christened Iosepa – pronounced "yo-sepa," after Joseph F. Smith, a Mormon missionary who served in Hawaii. The first Iosepans suffered through broiling summers, frigid winters, and even an outbreak of leprosy. A church-owned company ran the town, and in the early years, residents were paid for their labor in company scrip. The Iosepans had left the tropics to be closer to the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City. But in Skull Valley, days of rough and expensive travel separated them from the temple. Despite the hardships – and some resentment over their transplantation here – few abandoned the valley, even when the Hawaiian government offered to bring them home. The Iosepans gradually gained a foothold in the desert, and by the early 1900s they were growing rosebushes and raising enough wheat, squash, melons, and livestock for the company to turn a profit. Transportation improved, wages increased (thanks in part to strikes), and life in Skull Valley became almost enviable. But in 1915, the church announced plans to build a temple in Hawaii, and offered to pay for the more than 200 Iosepans to return to the Pacific. Most accepted the offer, but not without genuine regret. Iosepa, after all, had been their home for decades, and some knew no other. The history they left behind remains contentious. Where some see only valiant endurance, others see racial segregation and mistreatment. "There are a lot of indications that it was an exile," said Matthew Kester, a historian at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. "But that doesn't take away from the commitment of the people who lived here." For years, Iosepa quietly crumbled into the desert. But after World War II, new waves of Polynesian pioneers began to arrive in Utah, drawn by the Mormon church as well as by economic opportunity. Utah now has a higher percentage of Pacific Islanders than any state except Hawaii. Poulsen, a Mormon who grew up in New Zealand, came to Utah via Hawaii with his family in the 1970s. When he visited Iosepa with his Hawaiian mother-in-law, whose grandmother is buried in the cemetery, "she was really mad it was in such disrepair," he remembered. "Families started coming out here every year for a few hours, just to clean graves and talk story." The gathering soon became a weekend affair, with dozens and then hundreds of Hawaiians and other Polynesians in the Salt Lake City area strapping mattresses and chairs to their car roofs and heading to the desert. They danced the hula among the tumbleweeds and cactus, pulling spines out of their feet. |
POPE WARNS AGAINST AUTHORITARIAN FORMS OF GOVERNMENT[Newsmax.com, May 21, 2007]Pope Benedict XVI ended his recent visit to Brazil by warning against “authoritarian forms of government” — a veiled shot at Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Speaking to more than 160 Latin American and Caribbean bishops in Aparecida, Brazil, on May 13, the pontiff declared: “In Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in other regions, there has been notable progress toward democracy, although there are grounds for concern in the face of authoritarian forms of government and regimes wedded to certain ideologies that we thought had been superseded, and which do not respond to the Christian vision of man and society as taught by the social doctrine of the church.” He added that “the Marxist system, where it found its way into government, not only left a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a painful destruction of the human spirit.” The Miami Herald reported: “Benedict's most political remarks appeared to be aimed at leaders such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Bolivian President Evo Morales, who have been accused of ruling autocratically.” The Pope also appeared to criticize indigenous leaders such as Morales, an Aymara Indian, by criticizing the revival of native religions. The Bolivian leader has threatened to remove Catholic instruction from the nation’s schools. Pope Benedict had earlier sparked controversy when he told reporters that legislators who voted in April to legalize abortion in Mexico City deserved to be excommunicated. Brazil is the world’s largest Catholic country, with about 125 million members of the church. |
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