tom cruise insane???

[daybreaker2]

I'm a big Cruise fan.... unfortunately the man has lost has is damn mind!

He has. Look what he did to Oprah!!!



But hey, if joining Scientology can make me a Sith Master who can shoot Force Lightning, SIGN ME UP!

[sik-m-boi]

db2-

that is great

[DallasDog]

Must say that is one of the funniest clips I have seen of Oprah ever. Many props to the creator of that!!!!

[Dawgpix]

It is supposed to be very hard to get out of once you get in deep. It's kind of like this ages Templars or Masons to a degree. Although it falls inbetween the realms of religion and craft.

I am a Knights Templar (York Rite Mason), and a fez-wearing, fun-loving Shriner). I'm as active as I want to be . . . or not be.
The only thing that keeps you in the organization is paying your dues each year. Therefore is it NOT that hard to get out. You just don't pay your dues.
Do you have any other questions? From your post, I would venture to say you're out in left field with your analogy.
The only thing Tom Cruise is doing is getting excellent publicity for his current movie (up until the Today Show interview, which, IMHO, borders on negative vibes for him)
tm

[DallasDog]

First, the statement about being hard to get out of without being harassed was directed solely at Scientology, not Freemasonary or any ties that a particular lodge may claim to the Templars. So I wasn't saying it was hard to get out of the Masons.

Second the analogy to Masons or Templars was that there are specific degrees within Scientology which you can obtain. Kind of like Earned Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason which come under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England.

The higher degrees of Freemasonery come from under the jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Supreme Council, or the Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch which are descended from the Grand Lodge of Ireland. The GLI handed down the higher degrees before the purge of Jacobite influences. The Grand Lodge of England during the Hanoverian Reign around the time of 1745 wanted nothing to do with anything associated to the Stuart line and claim to the throne, therefore didn't recognize the higher degrees.

Of course the Mason influence in America is different, but all decended from basically either the Grand Lodge of England which owed loyalty to King George, or the Grand Lodge of Ireland who for a time still supported the Stuarts claim to the throne and the form where higher degree were obtainable.

That being said and my differentiating my original post into two seperate statements the analogy should become more understandable.

And in the spirit of Independence Day a little American Mason history:

The first documented Freemason in America is in 1682, a guy named John Skene who was a Mason from the Aberdeen lodge since 1670. There aren't any written records of American lodges until the late 1720's and specifically when Benjamin Franklin printed an article in "The Pennsylvania Gazette" on Dec 8th 1730 claiming there were several lodges in his province alone. He became a Mason 2 months later in Feb 1731 and Grand Master of Pennsylvania in 1734.

There were 9 confirmed Masons who signed the Declaration of Independence and a possible 10th.

[daybreaker2]

http://mirror.randomfoo.net/memes/20...ills_Oprah.mov

For an ever better sense of what happened.

[Dawgpix]

There were 9 confirmed Masons who signed the Declaration of Independence and a possible 10th.

And our first president, George Washington.
(BTW, much of the Patriot side of the Revolutionary War was planned in those masonic lodges).

[DallasDog]

Yep,

Most all of the military leaders in early America were Masons. A lot of regiments and military units even had field lodges. Freemasonary had a very strong impact on the formation of the country.

[Bigdog13]

I've recently hired a few of them to brick my house.

[DallasDog]

Scientologist????? Why would you want them to brick your house? I don't think that was a great choice, but I guess it beats getting fried by their sith lightening!!!!

[Bigdog13]

Scientologist????? Why would you want them to brick your house? I don't think that was a great choice, but I guess it beats getting fried by their sith lightening!!!!

I know........ Tom Cruise was a crappy bricker. But you should have seen what Katie Holmes was wearing!

[champion110]

I know........ Tom Cruise was a crappy bricker. But you should have seen what Katie Holmes was wearing!

[CARTEK]

BTW, L. Ron Hubbard has been dead for almost a decade...and Travolta spent over $1 million to get to be enlightened!

[TechDawgMc]

Hubbard said one time that writing books was lucrative, but if you wanted to get rich you needed to start your own religion. Then he started Scientology. It has always amazed me that people followed him given the cynical starting point of it.

[Beaz17]

The basic problem I have with Scientology is that it is based on the visions or teachings of one individual (Hubbard) and only one individual. By contrast, the Bible was written by multiple authors over a long period of time in history and with many different instances of God.