Our thanks to the tipster who sent us pages from the newest copy of Impact magazine, the publication of the International Association of Scientologists.
There are a few things of note in this issue, but one that really jumped out at us was a report from this year’s Maiden Voyage celebration aboard the cruise ship Freewinds that took place in the Caribbean.
A bit of controversy was kicked up about that celebration recently when it turned out that Scientology leader David Miscavige accepted a medal from a retired Colombian police general who wasn’t authorized to give it to him. But something else pretty distasteful took place during the celebration. Here, take a look…
Broadway superstar James Barbour belted out show tunes and captivated guests with his charismatic style.
As Mike Rinder explained to us in the past, James Barbour was once a regular performer during Maiden Voyage weeks on the Freewinds. But then he got himself into a little trouble. Here’s how we explained it three years ago…
In 2008, Barbour pleaded guilty to something that happened in 2001 backstage of the show Jane Eyre, when he seduced a 15-year-old girl. The girl, a high school student and aspiring actress, had been sent to the show to learn something about the business, and she ended up not only being fondled backstage but, the New York Times reported, “he had oral sex with the girl in his apartment the next month.” Barbour managed to work out a deal that had him plead to a misdemeanor so he wouldn’t have to register as a sex offender, and gradually, he got his career back on track.
The Maiden Voyage celebration is one of the most important on the Scientology calendar — it’s when wealthy Scientologists flock to the Freewinds to get close to Miscavige and learn about upcoming church initiatives. Is that the best place for a convicted child molester?
Well, keep in mind, this is a church that celebrates the ideas of founder L. Ron Hubbard, who made it pretty clear that anyone who complains about child molestation is motivated by the fact that in their own trillion-years-old history, they would have victimized children in sex-killings.
Seriously. We’re not making that up.
Last year Sunny Pereira helped us out by going through a disturbing 1952 lecture given by Hubbard, making us understand that Hubbard was essentially giving child molesters an out: “He’s saying that anyone who reacts negatively to people molesting children today is going to have all of this stuff in their track [their long distant past lives] that you can find. That’s what makes them feel that way.” The result, she tells us, is that molesters in the church find that they are protected — no Scientologist is going to report them to police, for example, even if they discover evidence of wrongdoing. And why not? In part because of Hubbard’s philosophy, which is layered into the Scientologist mind through repetition, that reacting negatively to a child molester is just a reflection of your own culpability from billions or trillions of years ago.
So smile, smile, and applaud your way through James Barbour’s performance, happy wealthy Scientologists, because the alternative is to convict yourselves.
Our tipster also wanted us to see that B.B. King’s grandson, Christopher King, is pretty deep into his involvement with a Scientology front group, United for Human Rights…
And also that Miscavige continues to press his strategy of recruiting African-Americans with the idea that they have been targeted for abuse by the psychiatric profession. In particular, an article boasts that Scientology’s most unhinged front group, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, has had some influence on the NAACP through Los Angeles clergyman Rev. Fred Shaw…
We don’t doubt that there are issues about over-representation of African-American children in California’s foster care population, and there are legitimate questions about children and medication.
But it never makes sense to get into bed with Scientology or its crazy front groups like CCHR. If you want to solve a problem in your community, why align yourself with an organization that actively protects and even celebrates child molesters?
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MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…
Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
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Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 5,200 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 1,803 days
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 346 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 234 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 1,409 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,183 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 2,957 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 2,303 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 10,869 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 2,537 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,797 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,837 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 1,549 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,075 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,164 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 2,304 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,624 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 7,480 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,599 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 955 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 5,257 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 1,363 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 1,766 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,638 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,220 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 1,725 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 1,969 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,078 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 8, 2018 at 07:00
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Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts
Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news
