Scientology sing-along stirs the Search box
By Mike Krumboltz
Scientology has suffered its share of PR gaffes over the years. Unfortunately for the controversial religious movement, another snafu has found its way onto the Web.
A propaganda video that appears to have been made in the 1990s has surfaced from who-knows-where and is exploding in Search. The clip, which we first saw at Gawker, shows various Scientologists singing along to a song called, we think, "We Stand Tall."
Lyrics include lines such as "Knowing the truth will set us free, Take us from clear to eternity, For a future we thought would never be, We stand tall." Interspersed in the video are images of Scientology centers around the world, book giveaways, founder L. Ron Hubbard and boats on a "Religious Freedom Crusade."
Over the past 24 hours, online lookups for "scientology song" and "we stand tall scientology" hit high notes in Search. Lookups on "scientology song" are up more than 200 percent. That probably comes as a blow to the faith, since the video was likely never intended to be seen by people outside the movement.
This doesn't mark the first high profile headache for the Church. Several years ago, an internal video of Tom Cruise discussing his experiences found its way on to the Web. And in 2009, Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis, a one-time member, wrote a scathing rebuke to the leaders of Scientology regarding the movement's support of California's Proposition 8. Again, the Cruise video and the Haggis memo were both supposed to be confidential, but quickly went viral once they were released online.
But back to "We Stand Tall." There's nothing particularly "wrong" about the song. It's not offensive or controversial. It's just that it's terribly corny and unintentionally hilarious. You can watch and wince with the video below:
