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September 9, 2010
ARD TV drama sparks Scientology's ire
Published: 8 Mar 10 11:34 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100308-25733.html
Trouble is brewing between the Church of Scientology and German public broadcaster ARD ahead of the TV premiere of a drama portraying the controversial faith as dangerous and unethical.
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Scientology spokesperson Jürg Stettler told the paper that members of the church were not invited to a supposedly secretive press screening of the film last week, and ARD has tried “everything so that we don’t see the film before broadcast.”
“It is a violation of ARD’s programming guidelines, what they’re planning to spread,” he said. “The station is required to support religious tolerance, not the opposite.”
Until now, no German television station has directly addressed Scientology in such a fashion, which is designated as an anti-constitutional organisation in the country.
The film’s message is clear, the paper reported, portraying Scientology as a dangerous totalitarian organisation in direct conflict with democratic society.
Now the group is making its own documentary and plans to show it within the next two weeks in Hamburg or Munich.
“We will show that the so-called expert engaged by ARD Ursula Caberta is feeding the media false information,” Stettler said, adding that the film’s reportedly true story is fabricated.
“Exactly the opposite of what ARD shows is the truth,” he said.
But ARD subsidiary SWR, which filmed the drama along with Teamworx, rejected the organisations claims.
“We intentionally made a feature film and not a political analysis of Scientology, because we wanted to reach as many people as possible,” SWR film department head Carl Bergengruen told the paper, though he did add that the story was indeed a “true story.”
The Local (news@thelocal.de)
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Your comments about this article:
Why's one sky-borne deity better than another?
What Would the Flying Spaghetti Monster Do?
Bang on. That's what it is. Good for ARD!!
It all seems ridiculous to me...
Fredfeldman: Christianity today takes the Bible (it makes no distinction between old and new testaments) to be the word of God. Of course now it's easy to pass the bad stuff off as "not meant to be taken literally".
The god of the Old testament was the most vindictive mashocistic deity you could hope to find. Even in the New Testament it's do as I say or you'll burn forever. Thank God (pun intended) it's all nonsense....
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/us/07scientology.html?scp=2&sq=scientology&st=cse
L Ron Hubbard, crafty old tax dodger that he was, was right..."If a man really wants to make a million dollars he should start his own religion."
Why do seemingly intelligent people believe any of it? At least Hubbard was for real, a bona fide conman. Now that I can understand. He was in it for the money. Don't tell me. he believed any of it! You guys are right. I think I will get a theology degree from a correspondence school, giving me official sanction to tell fairy tales, and I would not have to pay any more taxes. I'll found a new religion based on an alien abduction's experience. Hey, not a bad deal, right?
..rather perverted sick Girl Scouts.
Then again, during the apparent popularity of the abuse period, some 20 or more years ago, it was taboo to be openly gay. Hopefully with the higher tolerance of today, the need for expressing ones orientation in secrecy and with victims too young to object has diminished. If the two are related, merely my thoughts, certainly not the result of a study. Time will tell.
Anyways, the catholic church still considers homosexuality a sin.
Spoken like Jim Jones of Jonestown fame. How quick we forget these religious nuts and the trouble they bring.
Islam, Scientology, Mormonism-when we penalize apostacy, we know we have fraud. In the case Christianity, I'm sure that we are returning to its basic tenets, after half a century of "turning left" at every opportunity. As a former "hippie", I'll have to admit, that there are some things that work for human society, that have always worked, and everything else doesn't. At least, not in the long run.
I think that if someone wants to believe in aliens and hardware store modified e.V. meters, that's fine. Australians are even allowed to write 'Jedi' for their religion for the Census. However the organisation of the scientology is inherently flawed
You can watch it here: Australian investigation into Scientology