Tripping Scientology's Trigger
Local boy makes good Resident wins $20,000 prize for essay Shippensburg, Pa
February 2, 2000
Shippensburg Sentinel A Shippensburg man recently won $20,000 for an essay criticizing a popular self-help movement.

Joe Cisar wrote his 22-page winning essay for the "First Annual a.r.s Literati Challenge," a contest he discovered on the Internet at a website created by opponents of the Church of Scientology, a self-improvement religion based on the 20th century writings of L. Ron Hubbard.

Cisar, a computer expert for a private contractor on the Letterkenny Army Depot and a graduate student in the communications department at Shippensburg University, first won $10,000 for placing in the top seven entries in the competition.

He won another $10,000 when his work was awarded first place.

In his own press release announcing his win, Cisar says his theme was "recruitment by self-help groups who help mainly themselves."

Written in a light-hearted style, Cisar, who says he was influenced by the recent comedy film, "Bowfinger," the winning essay analyzes indoctrination into Scientology through the eyes of a new recruit.

Cisar says he came across the contest in August and had less than a month before deadline to complete his entry. But he says he found "plenty of material" about Scientology from an Internet news group to which he subscribes.

The contest was sponsored by Bob Minton, a retired Florida investment banker who claims Scientology is a cult and criticizes its tax-exempt status.

Minton is founder of The Lisa McPherson Trust, an organization he says exposes "the abusive and deceptive practices of the Church of Scientology" and helps "those who have been victimized by it." The group is named after a woman who died in 1995. Her family blames Scientology for her death.

Cisar said he didn't tell anyone about winning the contest at first because he hadn't decided what he was going to do with the money.

He has since donated "a couple thousand dollars" to the Lisa McPherson Trust and gave a computer to Corpus Christi parochial school in Chambersburg.

"The way I won the money was with a computer," he says, "so I wanted little kids to have computers."

Cisar's essay, titled "Doing Hard Time on Planet Earth" can be read at his website, http://cisar.org.

--- Comments from Joe Cisar These are some possible slight corrections to the above. Bob Minton, as far as I know, is not actually a "retired Florida investment banker." At least he's not retired in Florida, nor does he come from there. I remember now making out the paperwork to send money to the Lisa McPherson Trust, but cannot remember if I actually sent it to them. The Lisa McPherson Trust would better be able to answer the question of whether they received it than I would. Also, while the winning essay is linked from my web page, at this time one version of it is webbed at http://members.tripod.com/German_Scn_News/70007.htm If any contractors at Letterkenny Army Depot experience investigatory contact with regards to me, I would love to hear all about it. (Hi there all you happy Buckarettes and Buckaroos, remember me, the one who didn't do it, unless he was supposed to?) In regards to the above newspaper article, the interviewer was both respectful yet persistent, and maintained an enviable air of professionalism the entire time I was there.

A computer on-line with the Internet was right there on the desk, and we were able to verify what I was saying while I was saying it. However, I am also aware that the interviewer also contacted other people about me to further confirm my story.

Back to Tripping Scientology's Trigger, Happy Coincidence One --- Joe Cisar What tripped Scientology's trigger?
http://www.innernet.net/joecisar/trip0000.htm
also, Media, read http://www.xenu.net/archive/thesis/cisar-home.html

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