Word: religion
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Your 100 movers and shakers are left-field fixtures if you leave out organized religion. No room for Benedict XVI, the Dalai Lama or Ned Flanders? Joseph Kelly, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND...
Barack Obama's clumsiest misstep on the campaign trail--his infamous reference to "bitter" small-town voters clinging to guns and religion--would have gone unnoticed if not for the sharp ears and ready laptop of blogger Mayhill Fowler. Her scoop blindsided professional reporters and roiled the primary race--one of many instances in which Internet muckrakers made a difference in the campaign, argues Eric Boehlert. The former Salon and Rolling Stone writer calls this liberal "netroots" movement the strongest political force since the Christian right--one that, oddly, draws scant attention from the mainstream press. Boehlert finds engaging stories...
...found guilty, the defendants would face fines and possible prison time. But a conviction would also allow French authorities to designate Scientology as a criminal organization conceived to fleece its followers, which would lead to the banning of the religion in France. That exceptional measure would force Scientology out of the country - or underground, along with outlawed practices like Satanism. Given that Scientology has 8 million members worldwide, that strikes some observers are extreme...
...also point to what they say is a history of official French hostility to their movement - including its inclusion in a 1996 government list of dangerous cults. As contrast to the organization's ostracism in France, Scientology leaders note that their church has the same status as a legitimate religion in Spain, Slovenia and Hungary as it has in the U.S. and Canada. "This is a trial for heresy," said the Church of Scientology's spokeswoman in France, Danièle Gounord, who added that the organization has been relentlessly "hounded" by a French establishment intolerant of the unconventional beliefs...
...Though allegations that Scientology bleeds members dry is neither new nor limited to France, some outside observers may agree with Gounord's claims of French intolerance toward religion. France's 1996 list of dangerous cults, for example, contains 172 groups, including Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishnas, the Worldwide Church of God, the Unification Church and even transcendental meditationists - all of whom have largely shed their cult status...