It’s time for Sunday Funnies and another round of Scientology’s latest mailers and fliers sent in to us by our great tipsters.
We love these weekly snapshots of Scientology’s fundraising fever. They give us a real sense of how leader David Miscavige is trying to get more and more money from fewer and fewer people. The desperation is palpable.
Let’s start with another annual event for the church. Each summer, Scientology holds a celebration it calls ‘Maiden Voyage,’ when it invites its ‘whales’ — big donors — to fly to the Caribbean and celebrate the anniversary of the cruise ship Freewinds, and learn about upcoming church initiatives. In this flier for Australian and New Zealand Scientologists, however, the celebration is spread out over several Saturdays. Perhaps some oldtimers could explain that one to us.
Now this is a seminar we hate to miss…
Bruce re-signed his contract! Sacramento will never be the same.
We love the application that comes with Justin’s testimonial. No Angel Dusters need apply!
The gauntlet has been thrown down! Silicon Valley Ideal Org has to be fully funded by Maiden Voyage!
Miami gets ambitious!
Scientology public relations. The irony, it burns.
We are so digging these mailers for the Valley rock ‘n roll party. This thing has to rock!
Mike Rinder made mention of this one the other day. He points out that it’s interesting to see Miscavige being worshiped like this. It does seem to cross a line for Scientology. For the final folks hanging on in the church, is COB replacing Hubbard?
We’re sorry we have such a low-resolution version of this item, but we thought it was important to post. Some were asking about a facility in Santa Barbara closing, and we had suggested it might be part of a new project.
Oh look, the Sackville-Bagginses have made their donation to the Ideal Org!
Another report from rockin’ Sydney, including Virginia Stewart, one of our favorite Scientologists.
Thanks again to our great tipsters!
UPDATE: In order to tamp down some misunderstanding going on over at WWP, we’ll place this here and hope it clears up some misconceptions…
Marty and Monique Rathbun endured the Squirrel Busters at their home in Ingleside on the Bay in South Texas, and then learned that a nearby house had been rented by Scientology so that remote-controlled cameras could be aimed at their living room. Although they were fed up with the surveillance, moving away from the house was extremely difficult for them: They were in a rent-to-own deal, and had amassed about $30,000 in equity. They walked away from that, feeling that they could no longer live in such an exposed location.
They then moved to Bulverde, Texas, to a rental property with much more privacy. Although they detected some Scientology private investigator activity, they enjoyed a much better quality of life, and may have been able to ignore the church’s hamfisted attempts to keep them under watch. But then, two things changed that situation. First, the Rathbuns had been trying to adopt a child, and that reality was drawing near. In the meantime, they discovered a camera pointed at their property on a parcel that was supposed to be uninhabited. Marty sniffed out the church private eye who had been hired to surveil them from that parcel.
With a child on the way, Monique could no longer handle the idea of Scientology keeping her under surveillance. She wanted it to end. And that’s why she approached Ray Jeffrey about filing a lawsuit on her behalf. When they filed the lawsuit in August, we didn’t know about the adoption, which was still a few months away. But now, we know what motivated her to file a lawsuit that has quickly become one of the most dramatic legal battles the church has ever experienced. Scientology has fought ferociously to keep its leader, David Miscavige, from being deposed.
The current situation is that the lawsuit is on hold as we’re waiting for an appellate court to decide whether Comal County Judge Dib Waldrip abused his discretion by granting Monique the right to depose Miscavige. Scientology is also appealing Waldrip’s decision to deny Scientology’s ‘anti-SLAPP’ motion. Scientology’s detailed brief on that appeal is due June 11. As soon as we hear what the appeals court has decided on the deposition issue, we’ll let you know.
We hope that helps folks put this lawsuit in some perspective.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 25, 2014 at 07:00
E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS (We read Scientology’s founding text) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
UP THE BRIDGE (Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN (Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING (Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
