The Way to Happiness Association of Tennessee Calms Troubled Neighborhoods

The Way to Happiness Association of Tennessee has long helped people by spreading calm through The Way to Happiness booklet.

"True joy and happiness are valuable," begins the common sense guide, The Way to Happiness, written by humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1980s. Since then, the book has sparked a movement and has been reprinted and passed hand to hand to a wide variety of cultures and peoples.

In Tennessee, The Way to Happiness Association works with communities and neighborhoods to spread the booklet to as many people as possible. Organizers say that when the booklet is passed from hand to hand, it is like oil spread upon a raging sea, the calm flows outward and outward.

The Tennessee Association launched its campaign to distribute the booklet in 2009. Since that time, the group has visited local health fairs, festivals and community gatherings. It is currently planning for events throughout the summer. Recently, the organization has distributed hundreds of booklets at a neighborhood event hosted by the police at Midtown Hills in Nashville. Coming up this weekend is the Peace Festival hosted by Unity Church, where people of various races, ethnicities and religions will gather to form a human made peace symbol. This is the third year in a row that TWTH-TN has participated at this event.

"This book spreads a calmness that is unparalleled by anything else. It contains common sense moral messages that anyone can agree with and apply," says Rev. Brian Fesler, the regional coordinator for the program.

The Way to Happiness booklet details 21 precepts predicated on the fact that one's survival depends on the survival of others. According to thewaytohappiness.org, "This code of conduct can be followed by anyone, of any race, color or creed and works to restore the bonds that unite humankind." The Way to Happiness aims at giving people back a sense of what is right and wrong in a way that is easy to understand. In the three decades since it was authored, some 80 million copies of the book passed hand to hand.

For more information, visit thewaytohappiness.org.

2018 Year in Review - Religion Communicators Council, Nashville Chapter

The Religion Communicators Council is an interfaith communications organization working to promote peace and fellowship while spreading the good news.

The longest running interfaith communications organization in the United States, the Religion Communicators Council (RCC), has chapters across the country that meet regularly and promote “excellence in the communication of religious faith and values in the public arena and encourage understanding among religious and faith groups,” according to the RCC website.

In Nashville, the RCC Chapter meets every other month to promote its ideals through conversations about what is in the news and how to spread more religious messages – the good news—a tradition that began this year. “People of faith have influence,” says Board Member of the Nashville Chapter, Julie Brinker, who also does community relations with the Church of Scientology, “We all need to step out and speak up because the good news, of which there is an abundance, tends to be overshadowed.”

The chapter had a busy year, hearing from religion reporters to video producers. The first meeting was with Holly Meyer of the Tennessean, who gave the group tips on best practices for religious reporting. Next, RCC heard from Adovcate Market Research who showcased innovative ways to help know one’s audience so a message can truly get across.

The following month, the chapter heard from Sophia Agtarap of Vanderbilt Divinity School who specializes in storytelling in digital media. After that, members were treated to a discussion on video production and how this helps communicate a message in today’s world.

To round out the year, Lori Whitbey of Schneider Electric, gave a talk about strategic marketing to make it easy and an approachable subject.

Nashville’s RCC chapter is preparing for an even greater 2019 with engaging meeting topics and professional development presentations. RCC is open to members from all denominations, and the Nashville group includes Baha’is, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Scientologists, Hindus and more.  For further information about the RCC or their next meeting, visit www.religioncommunicators.org.

Spreading The Way to Happiness to the People of Honduras

Retired army veteran Jason Martin recently visited La Ceiba, Honduras, where he was able to distribute copies of The Way to Happiness to those in need.

Retired army veteran Jason Martin traveled from Nashville, Tenn., to Honduras as part of a missionary team. What started as a trip to complete construction on a house for missionaries, doctors and advisors soon turned into something even more meaningful. “I decided as part of that, I wanted to share The Way to Happiness with the locals who live in very poverty-stricken circumstances.”

Martin distributed sixty copies of The Way to Happiness booklet to those who could read, then took things a step further by setting up a small group for those who could not read to have the precepts read to them by others. The group would then discuss the precepts with one another so all would achieve full understanding of what was contained therein.

The Way to Happiness was written by humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1980s, and since then has sparked a global movement. It has been passed hand to hand to a wide variety of cultures and peoples.

According to thewaytohappiness.org, “This code of conduct can be followed by anyone, of any race, color or creed and works to restore the bonds that unite humankind.” In the three decades since it was authored, 100 million copies of the booklet have been passed hand to hand. For more information about The Way to Happiness, visit thewaytohappiness.org. 

Criminon Tennessee Creating a Safe Community

Just over a year ago, Criminon Tennessee graduated its first class from the Criminal Justice Center (CJC) Correctional Facility in the heart of downtown Nashville. The Director of Criminon Tennessee, Tracy Fesler, was extremely proud to talk about the progress her students make during their time in the program.

“Some of these guys get in trouble because of a momentary upset—one thing sets them off and they make a mistake that puts them on the course for years of self invalidation and degradation,” says Fesler.

The Criminon program is an evidence-based intervention that creates safer communities through its education curricula for offenders.  Criminon means “without crime,” and Criminon Tennessee is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. According to criminontn.org, “[Criminon International] is the management body for the network of Criminon chapters and offices in over 20 countries that services over 11,000 offenders weekly.”

Fesler says most offenders begin a life of crime after they lose their own self-respect. “I worked with an inmate who told me the exact moment in her life when she lost her self-respect. She had stolen candy from a shop at a young age, and she was met with a group of adults all coming down hard on her for this—her parents, teachers—all people she looked up to were telling her she wasn’t going to make anything of herself, so she didn’t.”

The fundamental principle that underlies the Criminon approach in methodology is the restoration of the individual’s self-respect and common sense values to avoid relapse into antisocial patterns of behavior.

Fesler says another aspect is that many offenders learn by example. “They learned this lifestyle from the culture that surrounds them. They see being a drug dealer as ‘cool,’ because their role models do that. They are missing so many good opportunities because they can’t even imagine having another lifestyle,” she says.   

The Criminon curricula utilize the principles and methods of author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard – who also had personal experience in law enforcement, walking the “beat” as a Special Officer in the Los Angeles Police Department in 1948. Hubbard wrote in detail about the rehabilitation of the criminal, once noting, “[Man] becomes a menace only when he has to compensate with dangerousness for his own loss of prestige.”

Criminon Tennessee works with inmates at every level. Fesler is excited to move the program even further in the coming year. “All that I do is help people restore their respect in themselves and others. This is incredible work, and I’m passionate about helping more and more people,” she says. For more information on Criminon Tennessee, visit criminontn.org. 

2015 Year in Review - Religion Communicators Council Promotes Good News

The Religion Communicators Council is an interfaith communications organization working to promote peace and fellowship while spreading the good news.

The longest running interfaith communications organization in the United States, the Religion Communicators Council (RCC), has chapters across the country that meet regularly and promote “excellence in the communication of religious faith and values in the public arena and encourage understanding among religious and faith groups,” according to the RCC website.

In Nashville, the RCC Chapter meets every other month to promote its ideals through conversations about what is in the news and how to spread more religious messages – the good news—a tradition that began this year. “People of faith have influence,” says president of the Nashville Chapter, Rev. Brian Fesler, who pastors the Church of Scientology, “We all need to step out and speak up because the good news, of which there is an abundance, tends to be overshadowed.”

The chapter began the year hearing from Mohamed Shukri-Hassan, the Program Director for the American Muslim Advisory Council and member of the Mayor's New Americans Advisory Council, who described programs both organizations are doing to help promote understanding and tolerance, a timely message.  Next RCC members visited Ibis Communications where they met and heard from MaryAnne Howland, its president and founder. Howland described how the name Ibis comes from the bird of wisdom, as she described her commitment to serving organizations of goodwill.

The next visit for the chapter was to the American Center for Outreach where members had a chance to talk with and learn from Paul Galloway, the organizations new director. The American Center for Outreach is a non-profit organization formed to address bigoted legislation at the State Capitol, mainly against the Muslim population.

RCC members were glad to learn about ways to care for the environment on World Environment Day at the Church of Scientology, where guest speakers discussed neighborhood community gardens and best practices for planting trees.  Following this meeting, the RCC co-hosted an event for International Friendship Day, also at the Church of Scientology, where a diverse crowd discussed stereotypes and ways to overcome them. 

Following Friendship Day, the RCC executive board met and decided to change the focus of meetings to be more interactive for members. Thus the group introduced a new bi-monthly breakfast meeting where the RCC could take up hot topics in the news, fellowship, and discuss promoting tolerance and peace among all peoples. They were able to hold two such meetings this year, first at United Methodist Communications, then at the Islamic Center of Nashville.

Nashville’s RCC chapter is preparing for an even greater 2016 with its new style of meetings taking center stage to help members learn new ways to promote the good word. RCC is open to members from all denominations, and the Nashville group includes Baha’is, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Scientologists, Hindus and more.  For further information about the RCC or their next meeting, visit www.religioncommunicators.org.