MELBOURNE. - A Supreme Court judge in Melbourne ruled yesterday that the Church of the New Faith, practising scientology, was not a religious institution. The church had asked Mr Justice Crockett to rule that it was a religious institution and not liable to pay State payroll tax. The church had appealed against the refusal of the Commissioner of Payroll Tax to exempt it from paying payroll tax. Mr Justice Crockett said an institution did not become religious in character simply because ...

The Scientology organisation's claims to be a religion were a sham, a Supreme Court judge said yesterday. Some of its services were grotesque, a mockery of religion, he said. Mr Justice Crockett made the comments in dismissing an appeal by the organisation, calling itself the Church of the New Faith, against a decision of the Commissioner of Payroll Tax not to grant it exemption from the tax as a religious institution. The Guardian of the Melbourne Church of Scientology, the Reverend ...

On September 5, 1980, as U.S. District Court Judge Charles Richey was recuperating from two pulmonary embolisms and exhaustion, lawyers for the Church of Scientology and the Justice Department gathered before Judge Aubrey Robinson, Richey's successor in the two-year-old conspiracy case against 11 members of the Church of Scientology. Judge Richey had already convicted and sentenced nine of the original 11 defendants, but the remaining two, recently extradited from England, were about to go on trial. "Particularly from the standpoint of ...

An education group organizing in the Cupertino School District area may have tried to play down its affiliation with a controversial religious cult, the Church of Scientology. The non-profit Applied Scholastics Inc. (ASI) has also held unauthorized training courses for three district teachers at the district's Hoover School after a request to have the district sponsor ASI programs was turned down by Associate Superintendent for Instruction William Zachmeier. "We're not a front for Scientology," stressed ASI Executive Director Lisa Patella. "Our ...

The faithful inner core serve as thieves, decoys and spies. The shocking story behind one of the most dangerous “religious cults” operating today IN THE late 1940s, pulp writer L. Ron Hubbard declared, “Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million, the best way would be to start his own religion.” Hubbard did start his own religion, calling it the “Church of Scientology,” and it has grown into an enterprise today grossing ...

The Church of Scientology first moved into Riverside County when it opened a mission in Riverside in 1972. Later, it was revealed that the Church had a secret operation at La Quinta, near Indio. Now, from court records, it has been learned the church has established its worldwide command center at Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet. Here is the second of a two parts on the Gilman operation. ''[I do not have the first part of this special Gilman coverage. Of ...

LANSING — The Michigan Department of Corrections paid more than $100,000 during the last three years to a drug treatment program with veiled ties to the controversial Church of Scientology. Leaders of the drug program, known as Narconon, admit it is based on Scientology teachings, but they deny any affiliation with the church. A state corrections official said he was satisfied that Scientology does not run Narconon. Church records obtained by The Detroit News showed, however, that Scientology leaders created Narconon ...

Confidential documents from various Ontario Government offices including an attorney-general's communication about police intelligence operations have been found in U.S. Church of Scientology files. The documents were part of the evidence submitted by federal attorneys in the Washington prosecution of U.S. leaders of the cult on charges of conspiring to steal government documents and obstruct justice by cover-ups and by kidnapping an informer. Of 12 indicted, including two in Britain and the informer, nine have been tried, convicted and sentenced by ...

The Church of Scientology of Michigan opened its new state headquarters Monday in the former Burton Abstract & Title building in downtown Detroit. The church group, which claims 4,000 adherents in Michigan, bought the 50-year-old, four-story stone structure from Burton in October for $650,000 cash. The church headquarters had been at 3605 Rochester Road in Royal Oak. Citing a desire "to be more centrally located for our parishioners," Suzanne Lee, Scientology's local public relations director, said the church spent the last ...