The Scientologists: "The pack of scum ought to disappear..."

On Sat, 6 Jul 2002, EuroCult Report wrote: > After the aircraft collision over Bodensee, people in
> the region have made arrangements to console relatives of
> the 71 crash victims excerpt: In the town hall in Owingen
> the telephone doesn't stop ringing. "Everybody wants
> to help," said Ferdinand Veit, who usually works in
> maintenance. Many people want to console the relatives of
> the dead, if they come, and other bring giant cakes to the
> auditorium, a utility building out of glass building block,
> in which police, fire department personnel and other
> assistants can sit down.

> The people are great," said Reverend Reinhard Schacht.
> Some assistants are not wished for. A troop in bright
> yellow t-shirts from the Scientology cult has assembled in
> front of the fire-fighters' building and are offering what
> they call spiritual counseling. "The pack of scum
> ought to disappear," said one town hall employee.

The above was from
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, July 4, 2002

More from:
Berliner Zeitung of July 4, 2002

Using laying on of hands against pain and fatigue
The Scientologists recruit on - as emergency aids

On the big yellow sign next to the tangled cross the highly visible black letters carve out a common ground: "These are hard times." It continues, conspicuously non-personal, "Something can be done about it," and ends up with a telephone number and the surprising message, "Call a Volunteer Minister."

But you don't have to do that at all, because a "volunteer minister" is to be found in a big yellow tent erected on the parking lot at Rosa-Luxemburg Street. At least that is what it says on his yellow t-shirt. Smiling, he directs us into the tent. Later on it becomes clear that the Scientologists are trying to recruit staff members.

They've reorganized the process a little bit, though. You aren't offered a personality test, instead a display of photographs is hung up that show how and where the Scientologists and their "volunteer ministers" have done their good deeds. Little pictorial stories show ever-smiling alcoholics drying out, family fights being settled and over-stressed office employees being relieved of their mountains of paperwork.

Naturally they didn't forget to put up a picture of deceased Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

They are especially proud of the photographs from New York after the September 11th catastrophe of last year. Scientologists are to be seen in their yellow t-shirts amid the rubble of "Ground Zero" among firemen and even a somewhat surprised Rudolph Giuliani, who was mayor back then. "We were the only group they let in to give assistance," a woman told us proudly.

Thomas Gandow, cult commissioner of the Evangelical Church, however, describes it somewhat differently, "They used a trick to slip in and bother people," he said, "about which people complained." The campaign in front of the yellow tent is a "desperate attempt to find staff members in Germany," said Gandow. "They're making a last-ditch effort here to cast their solution upon stricken people." He estimates the number of active members in Berlin at 20 or 30. At least half that number appear to be in action in front of the yellow tent.

Most of them look a little uncertain, as if they themselves were not yet accustomed to the new recruitment stategy. It used to be they had cult courses set up to make people feel more successful. Today, however, they have been trained for something else, apparently as emergency helpers. And this has not been very extensive. "You become a volunteer minister when you put on the t-shirt with the writing," a woman on staff told us.

One of her colleagues showed us how they helped people in a different corner of the tent. There they have two stretchers where volunteers are being treated with "touch assists." Back and forth they touch arms and legs, up and down. That is supposed to help pain, fatigue and cramps. "That is how pockets of energy are removed from the body," the staff member explained the cross between massage and laying on of hands.

The procedure is described in a little booklet, which you can take along with you for four Euro. The four young women who received the assists are not interested in the booklet, though. They politely say thank you for the free treatment and go on their way. "What they're doing with the touch assists, of course, is quackery," said Gandow, "but it's interesting that they're offering something for free."

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