Posted on 12/09/2004 5:51:41 AM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
As fire raged inside the LaSalle Bank building, a band of serious-looking young adults in yellow jackets hustled past the police tape toward the action.
Their coats bore the words "Volunteer Minister." But these weren't your standard chaplains -- like the five Catholic, Jewish and Protestant clerics already on the scene.
The volunteer ministers are members of the Church of Scientology, a religious group founded in 1954 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard and perhaps best known for celebrity followers such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise. Some critics -- including the German government, which views it not as a religion but a money-making scheme -- insist Scientology is a cult.
This was the first time the group's ministers responded in an organized fashion to a fire in Chicago -- and it probably won't be their last, even though their debut didn't go over too well with the Chicago Fire Department's chaplain corps.
"I threw 'em out," said one chaplain. "If they want to minister to the people on the sidelines, that's great . . . but they were standing in the triage and treatment area and they were making total chaos in there.
"We can't have untrained people at a time when things are very chaotic and you need a sense of order," he said. "Fire and police chaplains are trained in how to do this."
Mary Ann Ahmad, a spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology in Chicago, was told by her people that the volunteers were looking for someone in charge "to find out what was needed and wanted, and they were told, 'It's dangerous for people in here, so go outside.' "
If Scientology volunteers need special training, "they're totally willing," Ahmad said, adding Scientologists were at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks.
David Klarich, one of the Scientologists at Monday night's blaze, said the church is planning on regularly showing up at fires and other disasters in the region to offer an "assist" -- special techniques they use to aid the injured or traumatized.
A Chicago Fire Department spokesman was unaware of the situation but said he'd look into it.
bttt
Islam is not a cult it is a legitimate religion. Not one I care to practice but never the less a religion that predates Christianity by thousands of years. It has more in common with Judaism than Christianity, but any Christian has to acknowledge that Islam, Christianity and Judaism also worship a common God.
I'm talking about what's happening NOW.
A mistake, you confuse faith or spirituality with religion here. religion represents a membership and adoption of a common set of beliefs within the structure of a human community. A faith or spirituality is truly open, any religion has a set of rules and entry requirements
I never understood the comparison between things done in the name of Christianity 500 years ago, and things done by religions and/or cults today. If what you are saying is that Islam and Scientology represent the state of man 500 years ago, then I agree with you.
Open, as in not-concealed. Read the context of my post, not just one word.
Ditto.
As for confused, please explain how Islam predates Christianity.
Well, you are certainly correct about what's happening now, but that still isn't what distinguishes a cult from a religion.
You are entitled to your opinion.
Given the Mohammed lived around 700 A.D., how can you believe that the religion he founded predates Christianity by thousands of years?
NFP
Predates Christianity? Care to back that up with anything resembling a fact?
Sorry to be pedantic but even in the context of your entire comment concealment was not mentioned or implied. I do still postulate that NO religion is open or not guilty of concealing aspects of it's organisation for non-initiates or those in the lower levels of it's hierarchy
All I was saying was that violence directed toward heretics, heathens, and apostates is not what distinguishes a cult from a religion. The Christian inquisitions were the most obvious example that would be widely familiar, unless you believe that Christianity descended into cultdom with each episode..
Otherwise, yeah, I would say the current state of Islam is about 500 years out-of-whack, more like 700 if anything. As for Scientology, that's still in its primitive (and hopefully abortive) stages.
LOL OK thanks for the correction I have no real interest in Islam myself but a few hundred years is just as relevant
Huh? I think your message was scrambled in transmission since Islame began about 615 AD.
Nor is the "God" it worships the God of Christianity, the God of Love.
The clear, proper definition of the term is not a matter of my opinion, until such time as the term evolves to properly mean something else. My opinion is the current definition of the terms. You are certainly entitled to your idiosyncratic, euphemistic use of them. =)
Huh??
Howzat??
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