Subject: Religion

• Jason Beghe to Scientology Mouthpiece Tommy Davis: 'You're Losing Your Soul'

  May 14, 2008

• Scientology Reacts to the Voice

  May 16, 2008

• NY Scientology Chief: "I Smell Pussy"

  May 28, 2008

• Anonymous Readies 'Operation Sea Arrrgh' Scientology Protest

  June 13, 2008

• Comedian Works His Scientology Threat Letter Into His Act

  June 25, 2008

• Scientology's Crushing Defeat

  June 30, 2008

• L. Ron Hubbard: YouTube Messiah

  July 25, 2008

• Isaac Hayes Was No Expert Scientologist

  August 12, 2008

• Protesters Hit Scientologists' 9/11 Role

  September 14, 2008

• Jason Beghe Is Still Denouncing Scientology -- This Time in Germany

  September 16, 2008

• Will Smith Shows Off Scientology Brainwashing

  September 19, 2008

• Back-Door Messiah? New L. Ron Hubbard Publishers Don't Mention Scientology

  October 1, 2008

• Katie Holmes To Be Protested on Opening Night

  October 14, 2008

• Anonymous Works the Press at Katie Holmes' Broadway Premiere

  October 16, 2008

• Publisher Stays Mum on Author's Founding of Scientology

  October 28, 2008

• Prop 8 Protest in New York at Mormon Temple!

  November 9, 2008

• Scientology Protesters Gain Fans, Give Tours in Times Square

  November 15, 2008

• Pulp Fictions: Sita Sings the Blues at MoMA

  November 19, 2008

• Anons Mark Anniversary of a Scientology Victim's Awful Death

  December 6, 2008

• Scientology Not Christmas Compatible, Say Protesters

  December 14, 2008

• Is Scientology Really Worse Than Other Religions?

  A lot of antagonism has been built up against the Kabbalah and even more so over Scientology, throngs of people feeling these are "made up" religions without a lot of credibility or substance. But can anyone who practices a more established religion really perch on a high horse and offer such spewings of scorn? After all, I was raised Roman Catholic and taught with a straight face about the Garden of Eden, the immaculate conception, the parting of the Red Sea, and all manner of walking on wate

  January 5, 2009

• Jason Beghe to Anonymous: Grow Up

  (Beghe, left, in San Francisco at an Anonymous rally with Larry Wollersheim.)Jason Beghe is the veteran actor who, last April, became the first of Scientology's pampered celebrities to leave the organization and then denounce it publicly.Since then, he's continued to work to publicize the shortcomings of L. Ron Hubbard's wacky cabal, and he quickly became a hero to many in the Anonymous movement, who praised him for his courage.We checked in with Jason this morning about the news about the Vasel

  January 15, 2009

• Wise Beard Man to Anonymous: Don't be a Dope

  Yesterday, after putting up our first response to the idiotic Anonymous prankster who was arrested after slathering himself with vaseline and pubic hair clippings and rubbing himself on items at the Scientology building on W. 46th Street, we received this response from our old friend Mark Bunker, also known as Wise Beard Man:"Oh, thank god you're writing about this."He said he'd sent out his own "moderately angry" e-mail about the event to friends, and agreed to send us a message for all of Anon

  January 16, 2009

• Anti-Scientology Anons Defend Pube Warrior

  Anons sings "The Ballad of Agent Pubeit" at anti-Scientology demo Inside the protest pen stationed across the street from the Church of Scientology on West 46th Street, a group of protesters huddled. "I was a donor," one Anon laughed, as he explained the travails of concealing the act of snipping pubic hairs in the workplace bathroom from his boss. "I'm taking a dump," he recounted yelling to explain his lengthy toilet break. The Anons snickered. Others proudly piped up that their pubes als

  January 18, 2009

• Voice of Bart Simpson Robo-Calls for Scientology

  We aren't usually much troubled by celebrities' affiliations with Scientology. Hell, Celine was a Nazi collaborator, and we still love his books. And we're not such fans of Look Who's Talking Too that Kirstie Alley's and John Travolta's religious beliefs would spoil it for us. We do like Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson et alia, but because she's just a voice we don't have much opportunity to look at her and say, "She really believes little aliens live inside her and has given $10

  January 27, 2009

• New New York Archbishop Gets Right to Work

  We tend to forget that, despite our godless liberal reputation, the Catholic Church plays a huge role in the life of New York. It holds spiritual sway over millions of our citizens and owns some prime real estate, which always buys a seat at the power table. Historically its archbishop has been a prominent quasi-political figure, too; if the last archbishop, Eddie Egan, was not so assertive as Fulton Sheen or John J. O'Connor, it may have owed to the spirit of the times, to the pressing need to

  February 23, 2009

• Scientologists Arrest Protesters, Push Through Ban on Pickets at Cal. Base

  The Scientology protesters Mark Bunker, also known as "Wise Beard," and Mark Lowell were arrested yesterday for picketing outside the cult's lavish Gold Base complex in Hemet, California. The arrests are described as "citizen's arrests" instigated by Scientology management, though the two men were taken in by sheriff's deputies. As it happens, if the local Board of Supervisors gets its way, soon anyone protesting closer than 30 feet from the main gate of the complex will be subject to arrest: th

  February 25, 2009

• Queens Torah Thief Sentenced to 1 Year

  This just in: A man is going to jail for a year for stealing Torahs. Twenty-four-year old Eric Giraldo was a janitor at The Jewish Center at Kew Gardens Hills, a synagogue in Queens, when he got the idea that he could make some money by stealing the congregation's Torahs and selling them on the black market. He lifted the synagogues entire collection of eight Torahs last August, and stuffed them in his friend's closet, where they were recovered by the authorities. Kew Gardens Hills is a conserv

  March 6, 2009

• Scientology Gets Its Ass Kicked In the Desert

  [Tommy Davis on the hot seat, from KESQ]SEE UPDATE, after the jump.Wise Beard Man tipped us recently that KESQ, a local television station in Palm Springs, California, has put together a pretty terrific 5-part investigation of Scientology.Why Palm Springs? Well, one of Scientology's stranger facilities is located in the California desert, well away from the prying eyes of big-town journalists. For years, the Hubbard cabal in Hemet, California has been able to push around local politicians and la

  March 13, 2009

• Puzzling Struggle in A Jihad for Love

  May 20, 2008

• Craig Baldwin's Mock Up and Mu Unlocks and Mocks the Mysteries of Scientology

  January 14, 2009

• Jason Beghe Turned Away at NY Scientology Building

  May 27, 2008

• The Fall of the House of Rubashkin

  As the nation's largest kosher empire implodes, Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jews begin to break ranks

  December 3, 2008

• The Crown Heights Lubavitchers

  Ecstatic Jews, a messiah proclaimed, and the consequential divisions

  August 27, 2008

• A Ban On Mormon Marriage And Their "Religious Fascism"!

  This had to happen! The Universal Free Church is calling for a national petition drive to allow gay marriage and to ban Mormon marriage! (That should even things out. Otherwise, the chapels will be way overbooked.) Like so many people out there, they feel the Mormons have a right to say whatever they want about gay marriage, but it's absolutely fascistic and wrong for them to use their resources to force religious beliefs on everyone else while taking away existing rights. Lately, I've been

  March 27, 2009

• Scientology's Crushing Defeat

  June 24, 2008

• British Make Poking Fun at Stupid Scientologists A Crime

  Nat Hentoff called this one to our attention, knowing that his first amendment concerns and our obsession with Scientology nuttiness had come together in a piece published yesterday by Washington Post columnist Jonathan Turley. Turley points out that Westerners like to gasp at stories of civil rights abuses in places like the Middle East, where people can be put to death for insulting Islam.But increasingly, he says, the West is passing its own laws that make it a crime to criticize religion.The

  April 13, 2009

• Sikh Day Eats

  This is a PSA, calling your attention to Joey DiStefano's fantastic coverage of the Sikh Day parade and associated enormous buffet of free food to serve 50,000 in Madison Square Park. I really wish I could have been there myself to sample those roti and pakoras--although the heat and the large crowd do make it one of those events that you're glad you went to, but which call for a nap afterwards. The celebration was in honor of Vaisakhi, the day of a harvest festival in the Indian state of Punjab

  April 27, 2009

• Angels & Demons Has a Need for Speed

  May 13, 2009

• Battle of the Dishes--Hole-in-the-Wall Samosa Smackdown

  Left: Desi Deli Punjabi Dhaba, Right: Punjabi Deli and Grocery Battle of the Dishes: In which we pit the same dish from two different places against each other to see which one will emerge victorious. Ah, the samosa--beloved gut-bomb, starter Indian food, and perennial cheap eat. There are places where you can get a very fine samosa (Elettaria has a curried rabbit version), but the grab-and-go, pre-fried, humble, starchy dumpling has its charms, too. It's a meal in the palm of your hand, co

  June 16, 2009

• Jail Scandal Revelation: They Needed a Minyan!

  In case you were wondering why all the Orthodox Jewish inmates ended up in the city jail in Manhattan known as the Tombs, where they could enjoy special treatment, we think we have an answer. Supposedly, an inmate is an inmate is an inmate, barring medical and security issues, and the rules say they should be placed without regard to religion. If you got picked up in Bed-Stuy, the South Bronx or Harlem, that's how it would go, whether you're Baptist or Pentecostal or Lutheran. Correction sourc

  June 17, 2009

• Scientology's Leader a Sadistic Slapper, Say Top-Level Defectors: St. Pete Times

  From the special series at the St. Petersburg TimesOver the past few months, actor and Scientology-defector Jason Beghe has been hinting to us that two absolutely top-level officials who had recently escaped the church's clutches were about to unload on their former supreme leader, David Miscavige.This morning, the first installment on that project was unveiled, and it is stunning.For decades, Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder were two of the highest-ranking members of Scientology, with plenty of ac

  June 21, 2009

• Pope Makes It Official: Dolan Consecrated as Archbishop

  When we saw the headline at Catholic New York, "New Yorkers Can Watch Archbishop Dolan Receive Pallium on EWTN," we thought the poor man was sick and receiving some sort of chemotherapy. Happily, it actually meant that in a ceremony in Rome Pope Benedict XVI put a circular woolen band around the neck of Timothy Dolan, making him Archbishop of New York for real. Seven other new ABs also received the pallium. At the service the Pope compared the Archbishops' new mantles to "lost sheep around thei

  June 29, 2009

• Tom Cruise and Scientology: A Very French Kiss

  One Day One Destiny - Tom Cruise (FR English subs) from Sic Transit on Vimeo.A tip of the hat to Wise Beard Man, Mark Bunker, for bringing this French television documentary to our attention. "One Day One Destiny" is a fascinating look at Tom Cruise and his history in Scientology.Remember that video of a crazed-looking Cruise explaining how only Scientologists can help at a car accident? Well, here's some eye-opening context for that video, and plenty of other background on the star that few oth

  August 5, 2009

• Scientology Escapee Tells Skeptics' Group How It's Done

  ​ Photos by Candice M. Giove. Gathered in a room at the New York Public Library Jefferson Market Branch at the Avenue of the Americas and West 10th Street a group listening to an ex-Scientologist evaluated their traits. Bright? Of course. Curious about the world around me? Sure. Idealistic? Sometimes. Like being the recipient of a compliment? Who doesn't? Take risks? From time to time. So when Paul Grosswald, a former Scientologist-turned-anti-cult-lecturer, instructed those who check

  August 17, 2009

• 'Crash' Director Paul Haggis Ditches Scientology

  "I am only ashamed that I waited this many months to act. I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Scientology." ​Over the past few days, a remarkable letter was published in four parts at the blog of Marty Rathbun, a former high-level Scientology official who has left the church and now criticizes Scientology's leader, David Miscavige. In the letter, written to Scientology's current national spokesman, Tommy Davis, 'Crash' director Paul Haggis explains why he is leaving Scientolog

  October 25, 2009

• GRAND OL' PAGAN: What Does the Republican 'Heathen' Running for New York's City Council Actually Believe?

  In a photograph from New Normandy's website, Dan Halloran leads a heathen ritual.​Conservative. Republican. Pagan? It was an odd news story that briefly upended what should have been a sleepy City Council race in Bayside: the Queens Tribune reported that a conservative Republican was running a strong race in the 19th district and had a chance to win in the overwhelmingly Democratic city. But this was a conservative Republican with a difference: Dan Halloran is the spiritual leader of a lo

  October 26, 2009

• In France Scientology is a Fraud - in the U.S., it's a Tax-Exempt Paragon of Religious Freedom

  Scientology's diminutive leader, David Miscavige.​Oh look, a court in France has called Scientology a fraud. What does this mean? To Scientology, probably very little. The ruling doesn't prevent L. Ron Hubbard's cash cabal from continuing to charge newbies thousands of dollars to find out that ancient space alien souls are trapped in their bodies, causing all of their problems (and only Elron can help you get rid of them, Pierre, for the low cost of hundreds of dollars an hour! Sacre bleu

  October 27, 2009

• Proof that Scientology Works!

  Here she is, folks. The product of L. Ron Hubbard's planet-clearing technology! The sparkling, superhuman Tammy Gardner, newly minted OT VIII! OK, for you doubters out there, Tammy is the promised "clear" that Hubbard talked about way back when he introduced his idea of Dianetics in 1950. See, the human mind is cluttered with all kinds of junk that keeps us from realizing our potential, but one man, L. Ron Hubbard, discovered a science (oops, "religion") to take away that clutter, leaving a h

  November 2, 2009

• 'Tom Cruise Told Me to Talk to a Bottle': Life at Scientology's Secret Headquarters

  The author of a new book on Scientology reveals to the Village Voice details of his experience being "audited" by Tom Cruise, who asked him to talk to a book, a bottle, and an ashtray for hours at a time in order to perfect his "upper indoctrination."​ Marc Headley's remarkable account of his 15 years as an employee at Scientology's formerly secret international headquarters east of Los Angeles, Blown for Good, officially goes on sale Thursday. He sent the Voice a review copy, and then in

  November 4, 2009