6 Oct 2000

German_Scn_News <german_scn_news@hotmail.com>

"Scientology is accusing me of doing my job"

Psycho-sect attacks sect commissioner Gandow in glossy brochure

Berlin, Germany
October 2, 2000
Berliner Morgenpost
local advertising newspaper - regional information
for Steglitz, Zehlendorf, Potsdam and the
Potsdam-Mittelmark area (southwest)

by Frank Thadeusz

Zehlendorf/Steglitz - Thomas Gandow shakes his head again and again while paging through the document. The sect commissioner of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg has already paged through a Scientology sect paper entitled "How one handles Black Propaganda" a hundred times [translator's note: these are not literal quotes; they have been translated from English to German back to English.] The whole thing is a sort of a PR guideline from Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard for the members of the psycho-sect. It explains how a Scientologist can "break through hostile propaganda lines."

For instance there is the example of the fictitious company "Worm Biscuits". It managed to discredit the competition, "Chomp Biscuits", by staging an alleged outbreak of rabies there. "Chomp Biscuits" denies it, thereby engaging in "the enemy's" game. The message of the lesson, "Never conduct the enemy's campaign on your own lines! Come up with a better campaign." Never deny; instead counter-attack immediately. "Double-curve" is what the Scientologists call this procedure, explained Gandow.

These days the clergyman has found himself more than ever a target of the "Black Propaganda" of Scientology, an organization he has been telling people about for a good twenty years. The sect has recently mass-mailed copies of its "Freiheit" print organ to numerous households in Zehlendorf and Steglitz.

On the cover page is Thomas Gandow's portrait; the sub-text describes him as "Chief Inquisitor."

The Evangelical preacher came into the sights of the Scientologists as a cofounder of the "European-American Citizens Committee for Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the USA." With the other twelve founding members of the committee, Gandow initiated an "Alternative Charlemagne Award" to protest the "liberal attitude" of U.S. President Bill Clinton towards Scientology. Clinton received the Charlemagne Award in June in Aachen.

Gandow and his cosponsors awarded the alternative distinction to American businessman Robert S. Minton, who has financially supported opponents of Scientology in his own country. That was excuse enough for the sect to describe the organization and Gandow in "Freiheit" as a "cover organization directed by the state church to fight minority religions."

"They are accusing me of doing my job," said the minister. He said the words "cover organization" were also false, of course, "because everything about us is in the open." Nevertheless, the sect's assertions weigh heavily upon Gandow. "Naturally we don't want to behave like the Scientologists, so we will deny what they say. After all we have nothing to hide."

How much of an impression the Hubbard adherents' recent campaign has left upon people in Zehlendorf and Steglitz is difficult to judge, said Thomas Gandow. But he still has bits of encouragement. In his office there is a large bouquet of flowers given to him from a woman to express her appreciation for his involvement in Scientology. And recently a Zehlendorf mail carrier apologized to him for distributing the Scientology paper.

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