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In 2011 we spent the month of August counting down a list of the “Top 25 People Crippling Scientology.” Nine years later, Scientology is still hurting, but church leader David Miscavige learned long ago that paid membership was only one resource that kept him in business. He also relies on a small army of enablers, some paid, some not, who help him stay in business even though they aren’t Scientologists themselves. So we thought we’d recognize them with this countdown. As Leah Remini revealed here at the Underground Bunker on July 27, there really is a lot to ask Tom Cruise about his involvement in Scientology, from the way his marriages have been broken up by David Miscavige, to the disappearance of Dave’s wife Shelly, to the way Tom has cut his daughter Suri out of his life to protect Scientology. Continue reading The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 22: Graham Norton and other celebrity strokers
Wednesday was Sea Org Day in Scientology. Each August 12, those hardy souls who have signed billion-year contracts, promising to work for Scientology lifetime after lifetime, are briefly celebrated before they have to go right back to their around-the-clock jobs, working 365 days a year for pennies an hour, when they’re paid at all. Continue reading Faces of the Sea Org: Rare look at Scientology workers indentured for a billion years
In 2011 we spent the month of August counting down a list of the “Top 25 People Crippling Scientology.” Nine years later, Scientology is still hurting, but church leader David Miscavige learned long ago that paid membership was only one resource that kept him in business. He also relies on a small army of enablers, some paid, some not, who help him stay in business even though they aren’t Scientologists themselves. So we thought we’d recognize them with this countdown. It’s true that religious studies academics struggle to get anyone to pay attention to what they have to say. And for the most part, the professor types who insist on helping out Scientology by claiming it’s a bona fide “religion” that has been unfairly treated by the media rarely get much traction with the public or press. Continue reading The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 23: The apologist academics
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Burdge denied Valerie Haney’s attempt at a do-over in her lawsuit against the Church of Scientology yesterday, leaving her back where she was in January with a couple of bad choices to make. Continue reading Valerie Haney’s suit against Scientology back to square one after court setback
What a treat for us this week as Leah Remini and Mike Rinder spoke with journalist Rich Behar for their podcast. Rich, of course, wrote perhaps the single most important investigation of Scientology of all time with his May 1991 Time magazine article that called Scientology the “Thriving cult of greed and power,” and which proved to be a watershed in church history: Scientology has been shrinking ever since. Continue reading Leah Remini’s podcast: Forbes and Time writer Richard Behar on being a target of Fair Game
[Rebecca Dobkin]In 2011 we spent the month of August counting down a list of the “Top 25 People Crippling Scientology.” Nine years later, Scientology is still hurting, but church leader David Miscavige learned long ago that paid membership was only one resource that kept him in business. He also relies on a small army of enablers, some paid, some not, who help him stay in business even though they aren’t Scientologists themselves. So we thought we’d recognize them with this countdown. We’re very glad that Leah Remini and Mike Rinder last week finally got to tell the story of Tammy Clark, who tried, in the summer of 2018, to check on the welfare of her uncle, “retired” Scientology president Heber Jentzsch. Continue reading The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 24: Rebecca Dobkin and other low-level PI grunts
Meet one of Scientology’s long time allies in their war against psychiatry, Lisa Cain, who talks with the church’s anti-psych front group, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, in a new leaked video. Internet outages caused our source to lose part of this CCHR briefing with staff members Eitan Celender, Fred Shaw, and Cain, a Professor of Psychology in the Los Angeles Community College District, but we have most of it. We’re accustomed to CCHR’s allegations of abuse by mental health professionals but the involvement of Cain is something we haven’t seen before. Continue reading Leaked Video: Scientology’s anti-psychiatry front talks strategy with psych professor
[Dave kicks off Scientology TV]Nine years ago we spent the month of August counting down a list of the “Top 25 People Crippling Scientology” and it was a very popular feature. So we thought, with August upon us again, we might have some fun with another countdown, but with a slightly different focus. Continue reading The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 25: DirecTV and filmmakers buffing Dave’s channel
The Clearwater Police department has released its investigative reports about the “Jane Doe” allegations of sexual abuse as a kindergartner at Clearwater Academy and later, as an employee of the church, and it provides a depressing look into how difficult it can be for a law enforcement agency to probe the Church of Scientology. Continue reading Clearwater Police release reports from closed Scientology child sex abuse investigation
[Nazanin Boniadi and Karen Bass]Of all the reactions to the controversy over possible VP choice Karen Bass’s 2010 appearance at a Scientology event, we sure didn’t see this one coming: Nazanin Boniadi, the actress who was auditioned and chosen by Scientology to date Tom Cruise in 2004, has for the first time spoken out publicly in any way about the organization she was once a part of. Continue reading Nazanin Boniadi chides Karen Bass for ‘insufficient’ statement on Scientology speech
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