Topic: Religion and Government
Scientology - What are Volunteer Ministers? For anyone new to the subject of the ongoing Scientology debate, here is a more basic article on The Scientology Volunteer Ministers (VMs).by Louanne Lee
(centrist libertarian)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
In short, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers (VMs) are the help force of the Church of Scientology, founded by Scientology-founder L. Ron Hubbard in the 1970s:
"A Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others." L. Ron Hubbard
VMs are trained in disaster response techniques but also in general administration and to give help to others in all situations in life. They VMs exist since the 1970s but after a "Wake Up Call" triggered off by the 9/11 terror acts they now number more than 87,000 all over the world. VMs are regularly despatched to disaster zones to give help, hundreds of thousands of man hours since 2001. They proudly call themselves the biggest disaster relief force on earth and I believe they are. Every VM is a volunteer who quits his or her job for several days, weeks or even months to help others in need.
From VolunterMinisters.org: "When disaster strikes, the Volunteer Ministers are among the first to arrive. Trained to respond to emergency situations, they provide whatever is needed to immediately alleviate suffering and bring order quickly. And because the technology they apply is simple and effective, they quickly train others so they too can provide help.
In the last year alone the Volunteer Ministers have given real help to 1.6 million people from all walks of life and in 114 countries. That is why Scientology Volunteer Ministers live by the motto: Something Can Be Done About It."
More information about the Volunteer Ministers are on their website. I recommend to check the VM news section to get an idea in which areas they work and how.
The views expressed in this
article are those of Louanne Lee only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Louanne Lee is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
I don't respect people who get in the way of REAL help. This is only ethical by scientology standards (that is, doing what is good for scientology). It's utterly deplorable by the standards of normal society.
I don't doubt for a moment that the newly recruited Scientologists truly want to help by being Volunteer Ministers. However, the higher level ones who would lie in order to keep themselves upstat to their bosses are the ones who are scum, taking advantage of people in grieving by going to disaster sites. They did this for 9/11 and the Virginia Tech Massacres as well. But do they really care about helping, or recruiting? Ex-scientologist Tory Christman, as stated in one of her videos and public speeches, can attest to the fact that they did not care about helping people, but about the PR. That's right, the sole purpose of the Volunteer Ministers is to serve as a recruiting front. For the Scientologists who believe they are truly helping people being Volunteer Ministers ... they are, unfortunately, being deceived and being taken advantage of, just like the Scientologists who are being told to support this article.
The bad part is, the people that join the volunteer ministers to help could actually be helping if they were with a legitimate group that gave help. Food, water, shelter, money, etc, not a massage and a "way to happiness" booklet and a little bit of how scientology can help you with your problem thrown in to boot! At the London bombings they were accused of trying to sell Dianetics and thrown out of the area.
They give touch assists, kinda like a massage. I don't call that disaster response technique, do you? They can take direction though and that's what they usually end up doing with the Red Cross, then they try to pretend they are somehow connected to them.
Everyone thinks their main purpose is to keep victims away from the "evil psychs." Which evidence from 9/11, etc, has shown they do. However, I saw a scientology organizational chart that explained the role of all their front groups and on the volunteer minister's role it said plainly....get them in for services at the church.
This would not be that bad if it was a church that would help them. or had a free service! But all they want is money. Money for books, lecture tapes, and auditing, ideal org donations, super power building donations, volunteer min. donations, books in libraries donations, IAS fees, courses and more courses that never end, all of these are"donations" and tax exempt for the church of course. (And non-refundable! lol tru fax)
People go bankrupt, lose their homes, some have committed suicide after racking up huge debts paying for courses. And now scientology has a new flier I saw that basically says, bills getting you down? tired of living in a world with problems? You can join the sea org! where things always go right!! Of course you will be doing slave labor, 10-15 hrs a day/everyday for about $50 a week (on a good week) for the rest of your life. You also may lose your friends, family and maybe your sanity.
For reasons listed above, I believe it is very irresponsible to allow volunteer ministers near disaster victims who are extremely vulnerable and need to be surrounded with people who have only "their" best interest at heart. Not the interest of the "greatest good", which of course is the scientology organization.
Posted By: William Johnson
Date: 2008-11-13 12:46:49
A reply to another ofLouanne/Ingo/Glori's posts
Regarding the VM's presence at the scenes of disasters:
Ever heard of the Incident Command System? This is the system used by the Federal Government down to the Volunteer fire department, it is used to identify who is in charge, what facilities/services/manpower/etc are available at any given disaster.
With that in mind, 'paper exercises' are conducted, so that any governmental entity can know what resources, problems, solutions are available for any given disaster in their area. Training is ongoing, I daresay that there is at least one exercise going on as you are reading this.
When the VM's show up at a disaster, several things happen. Since they were not asked to be there, the Incident Commander has no idea what they can/do provide, what resources they need, etc. They set up as close as they can to a disaster site, requiring additional security personnel to keep track of them, assign them a place to set up, house themselves etc. This is a burden on the system. So instead of helping ANYONE they are actually hindering operations. Someone has to keep track of them, support them, keep them from harm as well. This is also a burden on the ICS system.
Compound that with the fact that all they are really offering is a massage, and are openly soliciting for money and recruiting scientologists, and it is no wonder THAT THEY ARE NOT WELCOME AT ANY DISASTER SITE IN THE US. Period. Ask your friends who are VM\'s about their experiences with hurricanes Gustav and Ike, for example.
For an organization that is supposedly set up to HELP, it is obvious that the VM,s do NOT help, they actually hinder operations, endangering themselves and sometimes others near them.
I have taken part in dozens of exercises, both on paper and real, and I can emphatically state that they are NOT wanted at any disaster site in the Midwest, at least.
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