MikeHickerson.com

In class, we briefly mentioned that the Church of Scientology bought the former Florence Baptist Church building at the corner of Main St. and US 42.  Here is WCPO’s story about the purchase.

I also mentioned this video, an internal Scientology training video featuring Tom Cruise. Cruise uses quite a bit of Scientology jargon in the video, so you’ll want to read the “More” section under the video for some translations, as well as my fact sheet below, in order to understand what he’s talking about. (For example, he refers to “KSW,” which is a document written by L. Ron Hubbard called “Keep Scientology Working.”)

Handout

Click here to download my Scientology Fact Sheet (PDF, 44KB). The presentation from class is below the jump. [Read more]

In class, I mentioned a recent feature about The Watchtower – the official magazine of Jehovah’s Witnesses and perhaps the most important element of their belief system – in The New York Review of Magazines. Joel Meares begins his article with a great image:

The day begins at the small, red-brick Kingdom Hall on Glendale’s Myrtle Avenue, where about 40 Witnesses gather in couples and families. Some thank Jehovah for the blessed day, others thank him for the coffee that got them here by 9 a.m. A few quick hellos in the Hall — a trapezoidal room with churchlike rows of chairs, a churchlike stage but no churchlike iconography — and the Witnesses head downstairs to arm themselves.

I found the article to offer great insight into the JW organization.

Handout

Click here to download my Jehovah’s Witnesses Fact Sheet (PDF, 55KB). As usual, my presentation is below the jump. [Read more]

Our World Religions class is drawing to a close, and I’m a bit behind on posting my materials. You’ll see several posts go up this week.

One of the best sources for information about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormonism) is from the church itself. The LDS church has an extensive Answers to Questions section, as well as an online library of Mormon scriptures. For comparisons between LDS and mainstream Christianity, two groups called Mormonism Research Ministry and  Utah Lighthouse Ministry have extensive libraries of articles.

Handouts

Click here to download my fact sheet about Mormonism (PDF, 55KB). My presentation can viewed below the jump. [Read more]