France has this one right

From the UK Independent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/scientologists-in-france-go-on-trial-for-fraud-1690579.html
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Scientologists in France go on trial for fraud
By Thierry Leveque
Monday, 25 May 2009

The Church of Scientology in France went on trial today on charges of organised fraud.

Registered as a religion in the United States, with celebrity members such as actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, Scientology enjoys no such legal protection in France and has faced repeated accusations of being a money-making cult.
The group's Paris headquarters and bookshop are defendants in the case. If found guilty, they could be fined €5 million ($7 million) and ordered to halt their activities in France.
Seven leading French Scientology members are also in the dock. Some are charged with illegally practising as pharmacists and face up to 10 years in prison and hefty fines.
The case centres on a complaint made in 1998 by a woman who said she was enrolled into Scientology after members approached her in the street and persuaded her to do a personality test.
In the following months, she paid more than €21,000 for books, "purification packs" of vitamins, sauna sessions and an "e-meter" to measure her spiritual progress, she said.
Other complaints then surfaced. The five original plaintiffs - three of whom withdrew after reaching a financial settlement with the Church of Scientology - said they spent up to hundreds of thousands of euros on similar tests and cures.
They told investigators that Scientology members harassed them with phone calls and nightly visits to cajole them into paying their bills or taking out bank loans. The plaintiffs were described as "vulnerable" by psychological experts in the case.
Scientology, founded in 1954 by science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, describes the "e-meter" as a religious artefact that helps the user and supervisor locate spiritual distress.
Investigators have described the machine as useless and said vitamin cures handed out by Church members were medication that should not have been freely sold.
Judge Jean-Christophe Hullin ruled last year that the offices and members, including the group's 60-year-old French head, Alain Rosenberg, should be tried. The public prosecutor had recommended the case be shelved.
In a trial that has revived a debate about religious freedom in secular France, the defence is expected to argue the court should not intervene in religious affairs.
Scientology has faced numerous setbacks in France, with members convicted of fraud in Lyon in 1997 and Marseille in 1999. In 2002, a court fined it for violating privacy laws and said it could be dissolved if involved in similar cases.
The headquarters and bookshop account for most of the group's activities in France and a guilty verdict would in practice mean its dissolution, although it is unclear whether it could still open other branches in the future.

News about one of my favorite American Heresies

Seems this guy never made it to be a 'clear' (CofS talk for those who are at the top of their food chain), and they also forbid the use of psychiatry - which might have been a help in this case as well. Tragic.
And remember - this cult bought the Raymond James building on Jefferson and should be setting up shop some time soon!
You can click on the Labels: Scientology at the end of this post for more information on their purchase in Detroit.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) - An Oregon man who was fatally shot as he wielded samurai swords and tried to attack guests at a landmark Scientology building had been involved in "prior incidents" with the church, police said Monday.
Mario Majorski, 48, was shot once by a security guard as he tried to use the swords to attack guests at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood on Sunday, Detective Wendi Berndt said.
Berndt said that the Scientology church and security guards were already familiar with Majorski, and that he had been associated with the church in the "distant past." She did not elaborate on the earlier dealings.
"The security people were aware of him through some prior incidents," Berndt said.
"The security guard had to take action to prevent the deceased from killing or maiming people on the premises," Berndt said.
Security surveillance tape showed Majorski arrived around noon in a red convertible, then approached the guards with a sword in each hand before he was shot, Berndt said. She said the tape would not be released to the public because it was too graphic. No other weapons were found in the car, which Berndt said she thought was a rental.
Majorski was pronounced dead at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
Public records show he had been associated with a string of addresses in Los Angeles County and in Oregon over the last two decades. He filed for bankruptcy in 2000.
Messages left at a Scientology media line were not returned Monday.
The Celebrity Centre is a turreted, castle-like landmark in Hollywood that serves as "a home for the artist, a place where he can come and learn, attend seminars, meet other artists and even perform at our many showcases and events," according to the Centre's Web site.
The Church of Scientology was established in 1945 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard and claims 10 million members around the world. It likes to cultivate celebrity followers, and among its more famed acolytes are Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

Another cult moving into the neighborhood

Further down the service drive near the old Cass Tech HS, we have a group called the Temple of I AM, a cult affliated with this group http://www.templeofthepresence.com/ . It failings include the works righteousness of earning your way up levels of enlightenment, mixed with magic and other strange doctrines.

Across the service drive from St. John's we have the American Heresy of the Jehovah's Witnesses. For a list of their strange beliefs and practices you can go here http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2919/printerfriendly.html

Now the Detroit News is reporting that another demonically inspired American Heresy, invented by the sci fi writer L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, is purchasing a major building in Detroit - The Raymond James Building on the corner of Woodward and Jefferson, across from City Hall. The Detroit News article can be read at http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080105/METRO/801050347
More a movement against real religion and against psychology, it has the clout of massive amounts of money and celebrity endorsement. Once again there is a works righteousness component as you pay massive amounts of money to earn levels of enlightenment, or in the case of Scientology, becoming a "clear". Here is a website about its strange doctrines
http://www.holysmoke.org/cos/scientology-lies-and-deceives.htm

Interesting enough, St. John's founder, Henry Porter Baldwin's house before moving up to the country neighborhood in which he would found St. John's was on one of those corners. He left it in his will to one of his daughters (we have a copy of the will in our Archives).

Pray that God will turn folks from false doctrines and to the doctrine of Jesus Christ as uniquely Lord.