IT TAKES THE NUTTY CHRISTIAN POST TO COMPARE SCIENTOLOGY TO LANCE ARMSTRONG, .... LULZ

Connecting Scientology, Lance Armstrong and Gun Control

Besides for being in the news right now, what do Scientology, Lance Armstrong and gun control all have in common? All three of them reveal the downside of man's controlling nature. All three of them point the finger back at each of us….because each one of us can easily become a "control freak" if we are not careful.

There is a new book out by Lawrence Wright on Scientology entitled, Going Clear. As expected, it reveals more damaging facts about the controlling nature of this organization. Pretty scary stuff….and terribly detrimental to children, and their families. What do we think is going to happen when a religious group carries out a secret agenda at the expense of its followers? Power, control, and suffering….this is what a cult is all about.

Read the stories of those who have come out of the Jehovah's Witnesses….or Mormonism….or any religious group that carries out a secret and hidden agenda….and the stories will sound eerily similar. The false doctrines are varied….but the controlling nature of the leaders is almost identical. That's because man's nature is pointed in the direction of selfishness, and control.

Raymond Franz is a former member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses. He wrote a book years ago entitled, Crisis of Conscience. It is a clear warning of what can happen when someone turns his God-given right of decision making over to an organization. The problem with certain religious organizations is that they are run by leaders who are awfully experienced at controlling others….and these men are callous to the real spiritual needs of the people.

Lance Armstrong has gone through his own "crisis of conscience" recently. In his interview with Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong said, "It was impossible to live up to this. I'm a flawed character. All the fault and all the blame falls on me. Whether it's fans or the media, it just gets going and I lost myself in all of that. I certainly couldn't handle it, and I used to control everything in my life. I have controlled every outcome in my life." We can all probably relate to Lance's struggle in one way or another. We are all flawed....we are all sinners....and we all like to be in control.

And then there is gun control. There is that word again. It is amazing how often it tends to pop up in our lives. There are some people in our world, and perhaps even in our nation, who want to prevent people from even owning guns. These elite "control mongers" have their own agenda….and like the leaders of a cult, they feel they know what is best for everyone else. Control, control, control.

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Do we want evil men like Adam Lanza being given guns? Of course not. We want responsible people to own guns….and there are millions of responsible people in our country who meet that qualification. When evildoers like Adam Lanza viciously attack children, responsible adults need to have guns on hand to stop the attack instantly. This is what will help to protect the children from such modern day monsters.

At the end of the day, it is about the children. We don't want them to join a cult, and get controlled by power-hungry leaders. We don't want them to imitate Lance Armstrong, and cheat their way to "victory." And we don't want them to be vulnerable to vicious men who wish to hurt them.

God loves the children, and He wants to surround them with His protection and peace. Jesus suffered and died on the cross for the children, and for each of us. It is only when we accept His forgiveness for our sins….and place ourselves under His leadership….and the control of the Holy Spirit….that we find the power to stop trying to control others.

If you are out of control today, turn to Jesus….and ask Him to take control. He will change your heart….and He will change the way you treat others. Are you ready to hand over control of your chaotic life to Christ? No Jesus….no peace. Know Jesus….know peace. Pretty simple huh?

Dan Delzell is the pastor of Wellspring Lutheran Church in Papillion, Neb. He is a regular contributor to The Christian Post.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/connecting-scientology-lance-armstrong-and-gun-control-88552/#TvKdD3Qjo6G9TXJB.99 

Scientology influences Cruise's love life, claims new book Press Trust of India / London January 19, 2013, 16:45 Ads by Google Citroën Business & Fleet : Award Winning Cars & Vans with 102 Models under 160g/km CO2 emissions  www.citroen.co.uk/business A new book has claimed that the Church of Scientology has gone to extraordinary lengths to influence superstar Tom Cruise's love life. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer Lawrence Wright the book, titled 'In Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood And The Prison Of Belief', claims that Scientology boss David Miscavige succeeded in cultivating Cruise as a spiritual leader of his movement after he became Hollywood's biggest star. The book alleges the church grew him a wild flower meadow in the desert where he and ex-wife Nicole Kidman could frolic hand-in-hand and when he needed a new woman in his life, they "auditioned" dozens of actresses for the role, reported Daily Mail. A young Cruise was introduced to Scientology by his first wife, actress Mimi Rogers, in 1986. Wright claims that Miscavige did not like Kidman as he feared she was supplanting the church in Cruise's affections and after their divorce in 2001, the church worked towards turning their adopted children against Kidman, a claim denied by the organisation Penelope Cruz was regarded as too independent-minded by church and when Cruise ended his relationship with the actress, the organisation worked on auditioning several actresses as potential girlfriends for the actor. Cruise finally went on to marry Katie Holmes, who surprised the actor last year by filing for divorce. The actor's latest divorce has brought intense media focus on his relationship with Scientology. Before 50-year-old Cruise, John Travolta was the church's biggest star name. According to Wright, the "Saturday Night Fever" actor was terrified that if he broke with the church, it might use against him confessions he made about his sexuality during his Scientology spiritual counselling sessions, called 'auditing'. The church has dismissed Wright's book as "an error-filled, unsubstantiated, bigoted, anti-Scientology book", which relied on the accounts of a "handful of angry, bitter individuals" who have left the church. From Sandy Hook Truthers to Scientology to Manti Te'o: How To Be Less Gullible  By Rob Enderle , President and Principal Analyst, Enderle Group digg You’ve got to feel sorry for Manti Te’o: the poor guy appears to have been caught up in a tragic yearlong hoax. What I found interesting was while I was watching coverage on the TODAY Show, Matt Lauer seemed to have trouble believing the guy could be tricked for a year, but then had no issues with his next guest who argued that Scientology had been tricking large numbers of folks into believing it was a religion for over a decade. In my mind, that is like not being able to understand a child’s belief in Santa Clause and then entering into a credible debate on the pro side of the world being flat. If you can believe Scientology is a scam, then believing that a young man could be tricked for a year isn’t that big a stretch. We are an incredibly gullible race: from the 9/11 and Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists to how well “Get rich quick” e-mails work, suggesting there is a ton of money that can be easily had out of Nigeria, suggests it is only a matter of time before someone scams you, either because they are a scam artist, or because they were scammed and want company. Let’s talk about how to avoid being scammed.  Scam Radar First, if you know how a scam works, you can develop a kind of scam radar that wakes up your brain to the chance that what you are reading, seeing or hearing may be a scam. A scam works typically by leading with something you want to be true or coming from someone you trust (sometimes both). You see you can’t be scammed unless you believe, and the easiest way to get you to believe is either by giving you information from what you believe is a trusted source or that relates to something you want to believe.  For instance, if you get an e-mail from your bank, a relative, or a friend, you think it is a trusted source.   If you get an e-mail that says you are entitled to something for nothing, or confirms a view you already have (there are too many guns in the world, the government is out to get you) you want to believe that is true and thus are more likely to trust the source. So the radar works like this, if you get an e-mail from someone who knows you (friend, relative, bank) but doesn’t seem to know you (addressed to sir, bud, my dear friend or doesn’t relate to you personally), it likely isn’t them, and if they are asking for something they should already have (address, account number or password) then they are likely not who they say they are either. However, I have received e-mails from a financial institution that began with, “Dear Sir,” so it could be legitimate.   If the correspondence appears to be from a company or person your trust (and you want to act on it), contact the person outside of the note. What I mean is use a known working contact method (phone or known Web address), not anything that is in the correspondence, to contact and confirm the request.   Never click on the link in a note, even if it is to a funny YouTube video. If you do and it tries to install anything, don’t let it.  Now, if the correspondence isn’t from someone you trust but it is something you want to be true, you are safer just to ignore it. Often if you engage that will validate the address/contact method and that alone can make you more vulnerable. While there is often the temptation to give the folks a piece of your mind or to see if it is real, it either leads you into increasingly unsafe waters and you are better off just hitting delete and moving on.   Snopes is Your Friend    Snopes was set up to address Internet scams like conspiracy theories and stories that appear too good to be true that folks are tricked into circulating. Some are harmless, some are designed to harm others and many are designed to get you to believe something that isn’t true. Before acting or forwarding a story, even from a trusted source, that seems incredible, go to Snopes and look up whether it is a known hoax.   With Sandy Hook there is a ton of false information circulating about the victims, about celebrities and what they said and about what actually happened. Much of it I think is intended to forward either a pro-gun or anti-gun agenda, but being tricked by either side is still being tricked and while we are more likely to believe arguments that we agree with, allowing ourselves to be tricked by either side can lead to a false conclusion, and have people who find out we’ve been tricked thinking less of us.   Once you are tricked your mind will tend to lock in and believe the spam is true because you don’t want to believe you have been tricked (Confirmation Bias). That’s why folks continue to believe the Sandy Hook conspiracy stuff even though it has been debunked. Often in a scam we are our own worst enemy because we want to believe and if that lock in takes place, we are pretty much screwed. This isn’t new to the Internet -- the moon landing hoax and 9/11 had a lot of them associated with it (it is kind of fun to read up on these so you can mumble “BS” when someone repeats one at a party). Wrapping Up: Scam Radar As we get older, we become more vulnerable to being scammed and the tools people are using to scam us are getting more sophisticated. There are likely two kinds of people today: those that know they have been scammed and those that haven’t figured it out yet. I’m fortunate now to be in the former group, but I’d like to make sure we are all in a group that doesn’t get scammed once or again. I have little doubt that we, and I include myself, will fall for a scam. If we develop the skills needed to see these things coming, they should help prevent us from doing incredibly stupid things at some future date.   One final warning, one of the common tricks in negotiations or scams is to get you to think you must act quickly. While it may be true, it is also likely a ploy to get you to act first and think later, and that is generally how a scam works. Good luck! Creating a New Parallel Religion SATURDAY IN A BIOGRAPHY of L. Ron Hubbard entitled, Bare-Faced Messiah, the author wrote, "On 25 July 1968, while Hubbard was still in Bizerte, the government in Britain finally decided to take action against Scientology. Kenneth Robinson, the Health Minister, stood up in the House of Commons and announced a ban on Scientology students entering the UK. 'The Government is satisfied,' he said, 'having reviewed all the available evidence, that Scientology is socially harmful. It alienates members of families from each other and attributes squalid and disgraceful motives to all who oppose it. Its authoritarian principles and practices are a potential menace to the personality and well-being of those so deluded as to become its followers; above all, its methods can be a serious danger to the health of those who submit to them.'" When I read that, I was thinking to myself, "Why couldn't they investigate Islam and reject it as socially harmful, attributing disgraceful motives to all who oppose it, and its authoritarian practices a potential menace to its followers? The answer is obvious: Because Islam is an "established" religion. It has been around awhile and has lots of followers. The British government could get away with banning incoming Scientology students because Scientology is new and has relatively few followers. And this got me to thinking about something someone suggested to me awhile ago: What if we started a new religion? I don't mean sincerely starting a religion, but creating what looks like a real religion, but with the same basic principles as Islam, but with different names. A website could be created that looks like the central headquarters of the new religion, outlining all the tenets of the religion. Then we could write and speak about this new religion without getting any flak at all. Europeans who find it increasingly difficult to criticize Islam could switch to criticizing the same things about this new religion. They couldn't get into trouble because there are no adherents to this new religion, so nobody would be offended. And nobody else cares if you criticize a new religion. I think if you criticized an unknown or new religion — if you criticized the exact same teachings as Islam, but didn't call it Islam — it would help people see the teachings for what they are. It would get outside the cultural immune system that makes the whole subject of Islam taboo. To give you an idea of what this might be like, someone has invented a religion to make fun of Scientology. The new religion is called "Tarvu." Check out their web site. Its purpose is different — it just makes fun of Scientology. But we could create a web site that seriously parallels the core principles of Islam, but without any reference whatsoever to Islam itself. Let us know what you think of this idea. Email us or leave a comment.