Scientologists cold-shouldered

The Evangelical Alliance and the Deo Gloria Trust are unlikely to accept an invitation from the Church of Scientology to meet to discuss their response to the cults. The invitation follows a controversial conference held two weeks ago by the alliance and the trust at which concern was expressed about the cults' methods of recruitment.
In a letter to the two groups last week, Mr Tom Shuster, the Scientologist Director of Public Affairs, said that "someone must act to end the cycle of accusation and counteraccusation between the new religions and those expressing concern about them."
Mr Shuster said that as the Scientologists were not among the cults discussed, they were in a good position to initiate such a dialogue.
However, on Friday, Mr Gordon Landreth, secretary of the alliance said that before accepting the invitation he wanted to know why Mr Shuster had publicised the original conference, which had been a private affair. "Passing round leaflets of a private conference seems to suggest some kind of deviousness," he said. "Indeed, my information is that nearly all the cults have acted and do act deviously."
He repeated his concern about the cults' "soft-sell techniques" and said the face they presented to the public was "totally false." Miss Caryl Williams, of the Deo Gloria Trust, said: "The Scientologists just seem to want to confuse people and stir things up. Our alms are more concerned with the positive thing of helping people to meet Christ.
"We know where we stand and we don't feel we ought to spend all our time justifying ourselves."
Both Mr Landreth and Miss Williams felt that if the Scientologists really wanted to mediate, they would not have sent copies of their invitation to the Press.