ELIZABETH JACKSON: The international vice president of the Church of Scientology has responded to allegations that his church is a criminal organisation. Senator Nick Xenophon used parliamentary privilege last month to declare that Scientology is not a religion but a criminal organisation which covers up offences and abuse by its members. The Church of Scientology's vice president says the allegations have already been investigated. Bronwyn Herbert reports. BRONWYN HERBERT: Its status as a religion is fiercely contested, but the Church of ...

THE Irish wing of the controversial Church of Scientology is making annual profits of over €270,000 but its director last night insisted all the money was going to pay off the company's "substantial debts". A favourite with celebrities such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, the local Scientology spin-off has been the subject of numerous protests at its Middle Abbey Street base in Dublin, with a Fine Gael TD branding the movement a "crackpot cult". New financial filings show the Irish ...

SCIENTOLOGISTS in Plymouth are planning to buy a £1million property in the city centre and convert it into a church. They say the "bold" and "prominent" building is being planned as the popularity of the religion grows in Plymouth and the South West. Two undisclosed buildings are currently being looked at in the centre of Plymouth. Marianne Rowell, spokeswomen for the Church of Scientology, said the plan was to buy the building by the end of the year, and open it ...

Five years after Tom Cruise called Nicolas Sarkozy a “wonderful guy,” a French court convicted his church of fraud. Eric Pape on Scientology’s latest crisis. Scientology isn’t a religion, it’s a dangerous sect overseen by convicted criminals—at least as far as France is concerned. There is no doubt that the last week has brought a flurry of bad news for Scientology. There was the vocal defection of respected film director Paul Haggis, as well as fresh indications that John Travolta, one ...

The Church of Scientology is going through a difficult season. Over the course of two days last week, a French court convicted the church of fraud and Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis' resignation from the church over a litany of concerns was aired publicly. On one hand, it was just another bad press week for the embattled institution founded in 1953 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. But for former Scientologists and scholars of the movement, the setbacks pose ...

Church spokesman Tommy Davis says the Times' sources admitted they left Scientology because they could not meet the church's strict ethical standards. Now they are lying, he says, and the Times is helping advance their agenda. Here is the Church of Scientology's response to their allegations, submitted as a 10-page letter: + + + CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 15 October 2009 VIA HAND DELIVERY Mr. Joe Childs Mr. Tom Tobin St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South St. Petersburg, Florida 33701 ...

Two flagship branches of the Church of Scientology in France have been sentenced to pay fines of over €600,000 (£550,000) after being convicted of "fraud in an organised gang" today by a court in Paris. The judgment against the Scientology Celebrity Centre and a related bookshop in Paris is one of the most important to involve the controversial organisation in recent years. The judges stopped short of the total ban the prosecution had called for, so the church will be allowed ...

Expect a showdown over Scientology Tuesday night in Sandy Springs. The City Council is scheduled to decide at its meeting whether to rezone an office building at Roswell Road and Glenridge Drive so the church can move from Dunwoody. More than 500 residents and 16 neighborhood associations have urged the city to deny the request, saying there isn’t enough parking and that the church will add to existing traffic woes. But there is a new twist that the church hopes will ...

La Mission interministérielle de lutte contre les dérives sectaires (Miviludes) a affirmé, lundi 14 septembre, qu'une modification de la loi, intervenue le 12 mai, ne permet plus à un magistrat de dissoudre une secte pour escroquerie, ce qui lèverait le risque de dissolution de la Scientologie, poursuivie pour de tels faits à Paris. Dans un communiqué diffusé à l'AFP, la Miviludes écrit avoir "découvert avec consternation la suppression de la peine de dissolution d'une personne morale en matière d'escroquerie, votée le ...

It claims to be one of the world's fastest-growing new religions but a battery of legal cases threaten its very existence in this secular country In a small Normandy village, surrounded by wheat fields, Gwen Le Berre keeps a Scientology "electrometer" machine in his bedroom. He opens the large green briefcase and peers at the machine inside. It looks like a lie-detector from an old TV cop show and Le Berre doesn't really understand how it works — he just knows ...

Visit any neighborhood in the Black community and you're bound to find a church on nearly every city block. When it comes to faith-based communities, African Americans are believed to be one of the most religious and spiritual especially those who practice Christianity, Islam, Catholicism, or Judaism. There are even some Buddhists, thanks in part to iconic celebrity, Tina Turner, who introduced Black folk to the religion in her autobiography, "What's Love Got to Do With It." But, when it comes ...

Scientology is getting big in the Las Vegas Valley, at least in terms of square footage. The controversial religion is renovating a former synagogue complex near the corner of Eastern and Emerson avenues so it can become Scientology’s focal point in Nevada, with 36,845 square feet of space and a “Celebrity Centre” to specially cater to high-profile artists, celebrities and community leaders. The Las Vegas celebrity center will be Scientology’s fourth such center in the U.S. The others are in Los ...