The dust has not yet settled from the massacre at Virginia Tech, but already the Church of Scientology has begun sending ministers to the Blacksburg campus, offering an array of Scientology-based help services including counseling for the bereaved. Naturally, the church is going to be accused by the cynical of taking advantage of the tragedy for its own purposes. But, says church representative Sylvia Stannard, all Scientologists want to do is help:
We're doing a lot of emotional counseling, which is kind of our speciality. We prohibit our people from proselytizing.
Well, sort of. Stannard admits that the ministers will all gladly identify themselves as belonging to the church, and will happily answer any questions the grief-stricken students may have about Scientology. But this isn't proselytizing. It's not about winning converts for the church. Just like with their 9/11 detox therapy, and their post-Katrina efforts in New Orleans. Scientology is a caring organization, that has no agenda of its own.
No, Scientology is not interested in spreading its beliefs. They just want to help us better understand how tragedies like the Virginia Tech massacre can happen. They've got ideas that they want to share with us. About anti-depressants, like the kind Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui may or may not have been on. According to Ms. Stannard, "mind-altering drugs" like these make their users "numb to other people's suffering," adding, "You really have to be drugged-up to coldly kill people like that." But Ms. Stannard isn't proselytizing, of course. Scientology's grief counseling efforts are like those of any other faith-based organization - it's not about shoving opinions down people's throats, or garnering positive publicity by showing up vulture-like in horror's wake.
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