One of our tipsters forwarded to us an e-mail the Church of Scientology has sent out asking its members to consider sending their kids to a convention on the church’s private cruise ship, the Freewinds.
We immediately thought of the Freewinds experience of Ramana Dienes-Browning. Last year, we told her story of the hard sell she got as a 15-year-old when her mother took her for a visit to the ship. Ramana was hounded by Sea Org members until they broke down her objections and pressured her to sign the Sea Org’s billion-year contract.
On Sundays, we reveal the latest Scientology fundraising mailers that get sent to us during the week. And we have some good ones to show you this time. But first, we wondered if you had noticed, like we did, that Connor Cruise’s big action-movie debut is coming up!
Tom’s son appears in the remake of Red Dawn which opens on Thanksgiving. (Connor’s only other film credit was his appearance as Will Smith’s younger self in 2008’s Seven Pounds, which New York Times reviewer A.O. Scott called “Among the most transcendently…crazily awful motion pictures ever made.”) Take a gander at the Red Dawn trailer in all of its survivalist-porn goodness, and keep your eye out for Connor aiming a really big gun.
Gary Douglas has a bridge to total…something…to sell you
Our old Village Voice Media colleagues at the Houston Press asked us to help get the word out about their cover story this week, and we’re happy to oblige.
Press veteran Craig Malisow has a barnburner of a story about a 70-year-old man named Gary Douglas who is doing something of an L. Ron Hubbard impression while running “Access Consciousness,” which Malisow characterizes as a “Scientology knockoff.”
After reading Craig’s article, we had to agree that Access is pretty much a bizarre imitation of Hubbard. We also wondered why this doesn’t happen more often.
There’s a reason Scientology earned a reputation as one of the most litigious organizations on earth, and one that turns any court fight into a bruising slugfest.
People who have found themselves in litigation with the church often complain that Scientology plays dirty, and gets away with murder in America’s courts.
What’s unusual is not hearing that Scientology is up to its old tricks in a lawsuit currently going on in the Atlanta area that involves Scientology’s drug rehab program Narconon, but that the judge in that case has called out Scientologist executives in the case for reprehensible behavior.
Yes, that’s right: for once, a judge is calling a Scientologist’s lies what they are — lies.
We want to thank Robert Berrington, a South African reader, who sent us some rare documents — records of his own Scientology excommunication.
Berrington learned that at the end of last year he was “declared a suppressive person” by the church — in other words, he’d been kicked out, and all church members who want to remain in good standing will be forced to now “disconnect” from him or risk being declared themselves.
We have copies of Berrington’s “declare,” his responses to its charges, and also a letter from the church he recently received when he asked for a refund of money that he had on account for services that he cannot now use.
Lots going on here at the underground bunker this morning, and we didn’t have time for a regular Monday post. While we check up on other developing stories, we’ll share with you this entertaining homage to L. Ron Hubbard’s masterpiece, Dianetics.
We have to hand it to our tipsters. Not only have they come through yet again, but we’ve heard from our Australia sources after things had gone quiet Down Under for some time.
On Sundays, we like to share with you the Scientology fliers and mailers that have been forwarded to us during the week. It gives us a good idea of what’s happening up to the minute for church members, who are constantly being hit up for cash.
Let’s take a look at the come-ons that arrived this week!
We’ve written about Lori Hodgson a few times previously. In the photo here at the right, you see her in happier times with her two children, Jessica and Jeremy Leake.
Since that photo was taken, however, Lori did the unforgivable in the eyes of her kids: she left the Church of Scientology and spoke publicly about it. Declared a “suppressive person” by the church (Scientology’s equivalent of excommunication), Lori became someone her kids had to avoid at all costs or risk being declared “SP” themselves.
But Lori never gives up. She sent us an open letter she wants to get to her children, and asked us to post it. We agreed.
One of our tipsters forwarded to us an e-mail the Church of Scientology has sent out asking its members to consider sending their kids to a convention on the church’s private cruise ship, the Freewinds.
