A possible scenario for Scientologist to emerge from the Tom Cruise fiasco better than ever:

Katherine McPhee is one of the final five contestants on American Idol. Last week she scored the most votes of all contestants. According to Vegas, McPhee has the second-best odds of winning the competition.

Katherine McPhee was a Scientologist. http://www.starmagazine.com/news/61961. She currently states that she is not an active current member...

But what if McPhee wins American Idol, then announces that she is a Scientologist and won the competition by relying on Scientology training? What if she encourages all of American Idol's fan base (way over 30 million per week) to explore Scientology? It would be the biggest PR coup Scientology scored since Tom Cruise converted. Millions of new, young members would enter Scientology churches for the first time. It would stem the losses Scientology has experienced over the last three years.

Scientologists must be aware of Katherine McPhee's status as a former Scientologist. They must be doing everything in their power to bring her back on board.

Could Katherine McPhee, an insipid American Idol finalist, be Scientology's salvation?

I would not be to quick to take that as a win.
Many of Katherine's fans are also the ones most likly to watch Southpark.
From what I have read of her involvement with Scientology it was basic at most. It does not look like she did more that just those couple of courses.

If she did make such a claim that Scientology go her to where she is, it would be quick to counter by asking those involved with the show. All of the other talent that she has had to deal with including her trainers and coaches.

Do you really think the people at Idol would let her say anything that would put CD sales at risk.

Atheist

It could happen, but one would think this is starting to wear thin. It would be one thing if the public at large still thought it was just some science-based harmless little philosophy that appealed to the Hollywood jet set. But Xenu and auditing away dead space alien souls and e-meters and all the wackiness and even some of the criminality is getting to be common knowledge.

How many times they can keep drawing water from the same well - a celebrity front-monkey (who is treated completely different than the public) sings their praises and the public comes flocking, remains to be seen. A con is a con is a con, and sooner or later the truth catches up to it.

The single worst thing that could happen to Scientology would be for a large influx of raw meat to come in.
With a huge group and their limited resources gaps and holes in their setup with appear. Their make it go right would become overwelmed. They would work their staff to exhaustion, promote people to possitions to handle the influx. Rules would become lax and information that had be structured and given out in a specific format would become jumbled, rush, confused and then a large group of people would see that their is no real value in Scentology and much of their staff will relise the same thing.

Atheist

http://www.religioustolerance.org/

http://bernie.cncfamily.com/ars.htm

http://dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Scientology/Free_Zone/

The problem with the scenario of any celebrity bringing any amount of people to anything these days is because they're too accessible. It's easy enough to get information about them that probably wouldn't have been gotten in years past and just as easy to move on once the tittilation has past.

"So Cruise is a Scientologist and Madonna loves her Kabbalah - so what?" is going to be the general reaction as the next 'big thing' comes up. Say for instance - Denise Richardson accusing Charlie Sheen of various perversions, or Britany Spears and K-Fed having more offspring. Hubbard overestimated (as per usual) the 'drawing power' of celebrity.

Certainly, in light of the mockery that the 'fruity little club' has become, the chances of the gates being beaten down with new members is very unlikely.

Why on earth would you assume that "millions of new young members would enter Scientology Churches"? This is a fallacy that I keep reading on critical sites. There is never one shred of proof offered of course.

Let me repeat what i have said before - there has never been any correlation between celebrity pronouncements/PR and new people getting into Scietology. None. I have worked the stats when I was in management. Celebrities are useful for a) reassuring members already in that they are, indeed, part of something mainstream b) getting positive coverage. People do not join Scientology because of Tom Cruise (well I won't say 'never' I guess there are always going to be one or two idiots).

Even if she screams out how much she loves Hubbard and how great Scientology is, all she would do is look like a weirdo.



Probably.



Nope. Scientology has, arguably, one of the biggest celebs in Hollywood in Tom Cruise - apart from getting millions of dollars out of him - it has not altered the basic problems they have facing them.

I'm not even sure about "b". Celebrities get Scientology "coverage". Most of it isn't "positive". Especially lately.

Of course, there's always the just-spell-my-name-right school of thought. "Any publicity is better than no publicity."

All the wrong moves: Cruise's antics drop him to B team

By Lucinda Hahn
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 5, 2006


Tom Cruise may be A-list in Hollywood, but in the hypercompetitive world
of celebrity magazines, he has slipped to the B team. "

snip>
Cruise's "Q Score," a widely used tool in the entertainment industry
that measures a performer's popularity, indicates Cruise hasn't endeared
himself to the public, and especially women, in recent months.

Generated by Marketing Evaluations Inc., Cruise's Q Score ranged from 27
to 30 percent in studies done in 2000, '02 and '04. His negative rating
-- the percentage of people who said their opinion of him was "fair" or
"poor" -- ranged from 12 to 14 percent.

But in 2006, his Q Score dropped to 19 percent, and his negative rating
soared to 31 percent. "

From: The Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... &cset=true

Miss McPhee has nothing on Hubbard himself; listen to him sing !!
(I especially like when he hits those really LOW notes)

http://www.ronthepoet.org/lenvoi.htm

Scientology has a 90+% dropout rate. The more people who join, the more people there will be in the world with bad experiences and negative opinions about Scientology based on personal experience. A stupidity of Scientology is that it thinks its problems will be solved by bringing in more new members, when in fact, that will just make its problems worse. The only thing that can save it is a MASSIVE overhaul of its policies and culture, including open and public disavowal of many Hubbard policies and social philosophies. The reason there is no groundswell of public support for Scientology against the unprecedented ridicule and criticism that it is now experiencing is that the world has become filled with people who have experienced Scientology, none of whom would think of lifting a finger to help after what they went through or saw others go through. They can try to recruit all the new members they want through celebrity endorsements and by going to countries where Scientology is little known, but it will do them no good.

What a great quote! And it is true that, "A stupidity of Scientology is that it thinks its problems will be solved by bringing in more new members, when in fact, that will just make its problems worse."

DM the Terrormidget talks about growth but the incredible shrinking stats say otherwise. The "Ideal Orgs" are the equivalent of putting lipstick on a hyena: It might look prettier but it is still a hyena that will rip people apart.

betcha you used the "gobbledygook generator" on that one, right ?

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/generator.html

Remember in Vietnam when the monks would pour gasoline on themselves an light themselves on fire to protest the inhumanity of the war?

What if some EX OTs did the same....perhaps what we need is an extreme act to force a national discussion regarding scientology?

Regards,

CB

WTF??? cobaltblu, are you sure pitbull didn't steal your avatar?