Is Tom Cruise Worthy of a Simon Wiesenthal Award? Also: Scientology's Building Spree

The Scientology staff member's I've met are totally awesome and comments about slave labor are total rubbish. Scientology staff members are there voluntarily and get satisfaction by helping improve people's lives and the community. They use awesome tools available in Scientology that get real results. They've been able to make serious impacts on Human Rights Violations, Drug Abuse, and more. Scientology staff member's receive a small stipend for their work but it's not the money they're working for, they are volunteering their time to make the world a better place. Mother Teresa never complained about her meager salary, my daughter (non Scientologist) who works for the United States Peace Corps in the Ukraine earns about $150/month, she's not complaining. These people are great humanitarians who get gratification by helping others. If more people did the same, our world would be a better place. I hope the new Scientology Television channel spreads the word, and lets more people understand that their is hope. If the number of Scientology volunteers and practitioners increase the world will be a better place.

Aims of Scientology: http://www.whatisscientology.o...

Louanne = Tommy Davis?

The 4th dynamic engram is the biggest engram in recent (it's only 75 million years old) history. The Wall of Fire incident plus the 36 !/2 days of the R6 mental implanting, is ALL Xenu's fault. Xenu caused it all. Scientology undoes the damage from this mega engram all earthlings are suffering from. Scientology is THE answer. Everyone needs to lose their "body thetans" and be "body thetan" free like Tom Cruise is now. Scientology handles that!

Whether Cruise is complicit due to ignorance or lack of due diligence, he is still complicit in promoting a cult with many recent human rights violations. Terrible choice for an award.

Scientology is a mean, vicious cult. The Wiesenthal Center should do its due diligence on them and withdraw their award to Cruise. Are they so hard up for publicity that they have to sink this low? Please reconsider.

How embarrassing......someone didn't do their homework!

After all, even the media in Israel recognizes Scientology as a very dangerous totalitarian cult......and has broadcasted several programs on television exposing their crimes.

Also, I wonder how the Simon Wiesenthal Center Trustees feel about the new alliance between Scientology and Nation of Islam leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan?

A recent article on Rantrave reported....."On Sunday morning (Aug. 22), the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan brought a message to over a thousand members of the Nation of Islam. In a move which surprised many outsiders, including scholars of religion, Farrakhan concluded his sermon with an ultimatum that any past, present, or future "laborers" (people holding any position) in the Nation would have to sign papers agreeing to take Dianetics training (entry-level Scientology dealing with the body..."

Doesn't Farrakhan have a record of being rabidly anti-semitic??? The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) certainly thinks so......apparently Farrakhan's anti-semitic speech caught their attention on Feb 27, 2011, as well as Farrakhan's announcement of a new anti-semitic book "The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews".

Maybe the SWC Trustees should call the Anti-Defamation League for their opinion of Scientology's new partner, Nation of Islam.

It seems that Germany is more interested in protecting against a fascist "religion"/ideology than an organization that's tasked with fighting against fascism. It's sad how easy Hollywood can sell out ideological integrity.

I'm kinda bummed because the St. Paul "Ideal" Org has yet to open, despite buying the property in 2007 and saying it would open in...2008? '2009?

C'mon Scientology! Give us a building to protest in front of instead of that tiny office building on the ass-end of the downtown St. Paul skyway!

I wonder how the Simon Wiesenthal Center Trustees feel about the new alliance between Scientology and Nation of Islam leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan? Here's a link:

"On Sunday morning (Aug. 22), the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan brought a message to over a thousand members of the Nation of Islam. In a move which surprised many outsiders, including scholars of religion, Farrakhan concluded his sermon with an ultimatum that any past, present, or future "laborers" (people holding any position) in the Nation would have to sign papers agreeing to take Dianetics training (entry-level Scientology dealing with the body..." Here's the link: http://www.rantrave.com/Rant/N...

Doesn't Farrakhan have a record of being rabidly anti-semitic??? The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) certainly thinks so......apparently Farrakhan's anti-semitic speech caught their attention on Feb 27, 2011, as well as Farrakhan's announcement of a new anti-semitic book "The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews". Here's a link:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/sto...

Maybe the SWC Trustees should call the Anti-Defamation League for their opinion of Scientology's new partner, Nation of Islam.

So what's the going price for a Simon Wiesenthal Center Humanitarian Award?

I can't think of any more fitting and poetically just embrace than a prominent Scientologist and the Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance.

One point that exhibitions at SWC make piercingly is that persecution of minority religions begins in media. SWC gives example after example of small religions or ethnic minorities--to their everlasting credit, not just their own--being pilloried in mass media, then massacred in the streets.

No, I don't think that's in store for Scientologists, and let us pray no group ever suffers as did those in the Holocaust.

But if we neglect the PRINCIPLE that media sales rise when they sell hate and controversy, then we RISK smaller-scale repetitions of gangs vandalizing churches, temples and mosques after the religion has been unfairly slurred by media.

Evidence is Anonymous' cyber-attacks on Scientology's Web sites, the envelopes of white fake anthrax powder sent to Scientology churches and synchronized with their hacking attacks, death threats against Church executives, and Church fax and phone lines jammed so 911 calls couldn't be made.

Those are today's attacks. They've happened.

And the intellectual community is opening its eyes to the fact that modern ruffians are no less vicious than those in the past. They hate just as much. They're simply more closely watched and more afraid of the law than those of the past.

For that, every minority should be grateful.

I've read Wiesenthal's A LIFE IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE, and saw documentaries on him also. He was not a loon. If he were alive, he would be well informed about the totalitarian nature of the cult of Scientology, and wouldn't want to have any association with their Homo Novi culture, including Homo Novus Operating Thetan Cruise.

As Tony suggested, this is using Cruise as an honoree, to get the attention of other rich people, and I can't help but think Cruise may have dumped some money on them already. With his minuscule conception of history, Cruise conflates persecution of the Jews during WWII, with criticism of his cult. Maybe Cruise and Miscavige fantasize about an "apostate-hunter," (like Wiesenthal hunted Nazis), who will go after all the ex-members of Scientology for their crimes, like Marty, with his uncalibrated e-meter.

Amazing to me that the "church" of $cientology has weaseled into the Simon Wiesenthal group. They ((OSA)) had sent me there, years ago, to "See if they say Scientology is a CULT".It so happened they weren't speaking of cults that day, they were talking about the Net. They had taken a bunch of kids and taught them how to evaluate a Net Web site, to decide IF it was safe/good to go onto, or not. I thought it was brilliant, and returned to suggest Scientology do the same. They had *no* interest in it, and instead came up with their Covert "NET NANNY" which they covertly put on all Member's Computers. And the SW group---who lived through similar covert ops in Germany, is going to hail Tommy Cruise, the floor mat for C of $, who supports these very covert ops I speak of? Please. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE OPS. Thank you. Tory Christman---not "just an apostate"--I'm an X-Scientologist, exposing the very abuses they try to hide with words.

If the Simon Wiesenthal does end up giving the award to Tom Cruise despite being alerted to Tom Cruise's knowledge of human trafficking inside the "church" of Scientology (what? Mr. Cruise with all his infamy and fortune doesn't have any power to stop the cult abuses?) the SWC will have forever besmirched this award, if indeed the award still holds any value at all.

Better that the Oscar award was given to "Battlefield Earth" for Best Picture.

Note to Scientologists: When the FBI begins to investigate your church, "rumors" of human rights abuse have morphed into "charges."

Thank you for staying on the case, Tony. Always interesting to read about the media spin-doctors casting $cientology as a paragon of virtue and failing.

The latest manipulation of media, using the Simon Wiesenthal Center and its Museum of Tolerance, is clearly an act of desperation on the part of the $cientology cult.

The public image of the $cientology cult is currently so bad, it indicates that the cult is in a steady-state of crisis management.

You are making excellent contributions that are providing people with opportunities to understand that $cientology is a leaning tower of fraud, malfeasance & corruption, and soon to topple over.

Most of The New Yorker article profiling Paul Haggis was printed in the UK and San Francisco over the recent weekend.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl...

http://www.sanfranciscosentine...

Your article here underscores the fact that Mr. Cruise is a probably a beneficiary of slave labour controlled by the $cientology cult.

Humanitarian? Preposterous. It would be funny if it wasn't all so tragic.

Apparently Scientology's connection to Louis Farrahkan isn't a problem either. The SWC award is clearly available to the highest bidder. What's next, the Albert Einstein award for intellect being presented to George Bush?

Just like Scientology, the SWC is all about money and power. A real humanitarian would be speaking up about Scientology's slave labor camps and it's exploitation of its own members.

I am totally sickened by the thought of a man that has taken full personal advantage of slave labor (Google Tom Cruise/slave labor) is being bestowed with an Humanitarian Award. I'm left wondering how much money a person needs to contribute to have those egregious crimes overlooked!! It also baffles me that the SWC has chosen to honour a man that believes and promotes the belief that the Holocaust was totally perpetrated by psychiatrists.

Lots of OSA bots and the same old copypasta.What has Tom done to merit this award.Has he fed the starvingGiven shelter to the homelessComforted the sick.Try as hard as i could i found nothing on google.We know that charity is unknown in the cult and is out exchange,everything is bought and paid for.Has anyone ever seen a scientology soup kitchen.

Nice Tony...your pro-anon agenda couldn't be more clear. Disgusting.

I don't see why Tom's religion should get in the way of him receiving a humanitarian award - this goes for all other religions. I've read a lot about the various things Tom has done and supported all in the name of simply helping people out. Doing good and helping out is not exclusive to any religion, so we shouldn't judge anybody on the basis of what they believe in. The blatant religious discrimination in this article is unfathomable to me in 2011.

I am glad that KCET sold their facilities to Scientology, at least they will utilize it to its full potential and the buildings won't be turned into a parking lot.

Tom Cruise is effectively a spokesperson for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a Scientology front-group dedicated to attacks on Psychiatry.

CCHR has a "museum" on Hollywood, where Tom Cruise has personally taken Larry King, called "Psychiatry: an Industry of Death." The exhibits in this museum make the claim that psychiatrists were behind the Nazi death camps.

Look at the CCHR website yourself if you want to confirm this.

Tom's endorsement of this distorted, politically-minded exploitation of the holocaust is a pretty good reason for the Simon Wiesenthal Center not to give him an award.

This article seems to exist solely to A) continue your ongoing hateful and biased holy war against Scientology and it's adherents, and B) fill page space you can sell advertising around. 1. Who are you to criticize from a distance, a man who is charitable in private ways you know nothing of? Where is the rational basis for that critique? Let's be honest, there is none. 2. You're clearly upset that the Church you attack on a regular basis continues to grow. I have an idea for your next article: "Tony Ortega Visits The Church of Scientology". Why don't you go learn, see, touch, do, investigate for yourself. Why don't you talk to parishioners who's lives are enhanced and improved by the teachings of Scientology and offer a balanced perspective as a journalist rather than regurgitate the the message of bitter apostates who have been thrown out of the church for aberrant behavior? How about some balanced reporting for a change?

Thankfully the KCET building didn't wind up in the hands of out-of-town speculators who have a taste for knocking down the stately buildings from L.A.'s history and replacing them with poorly designed, soulless high rises or parking lots. At least the Scientologists have an enormous respect for the original building's heritage and rehab them beautifully from all accounts I've been able to gather. You could do much, much worse for neighbors other than a non-profit group restoring a classic building like this and continuing the tradition of broadcasting.