A HIGH Court judge yesterday delivered a damning indictment of the Church of Scientology. Mr Justice Latey described the Californian-based sect as 'corrupt, immoral, sinister and dangerous'. And of its methods, he declared: 'For those of us old enough to remember, it is grimly reminiscent of the ranting and bullying of Hitler and his henchmen.' He was giving judgment in the High Court Family Division at the end of a six-month 'tug of love' battle over two children whose father is ...

A HIGH Court Judge rescued two children from the clutches of the mind-bending Scientology cult yesterday. And in a damning indictment he branded the sect and its founder as "corrupt, immoral, sinister and dangerous." Its activities were "grimly reminiscent of the ranting and bullying of Hitler and his henchmen," said Mr Justice Latey. A six-month tug-of-love battle ended when he ordered the children's father to hand them over to their mother. She was divorced in 1979 and has since left the ...

WHAT THE JUDGE SAID * THE CHURCH USED SEX TO SEDUCE PEOPLE HIGH IN GOVERNMENT * RAN A CAMPAIGN OF LIES AND PERSECUTION AGAINST OPPONENTS * AND USED SINISTER TRAINING METHODS AND IRON DISCIPLINE —– THE "sinister" Church of Scientology was dammed by its own undisputed evidence in yesterday's High Court case. Evidence from memos, letters, directives and bulletins presented to the court by a young mother desperate to win her children back from its clutches. The church, according to Mr ...

THE Church of Scientology was condemned as "corrupt, sinister and dangerous" by a High Court Family Division judge today. Mr Justice Latey, in a damning indictment of the Californian-based sect founded by L. Ron Hubbard, said "Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious. "It Is corrupt because it is based on lies and deceit and has as its real objective money and power for its founder, his wife, and those close to him at the top. "It is sinister because it ...

LAFAYETTE Ron Hubbard's face stares down from practically every wall in the Church of Scientology's headquarters in East Grinstead, Surrey. It is not especially prepossessing. It is the face of a foxy charlatan and begs the question: would you buy a used cult from this man? In previous years an insult like this to the great Hubbard would have been enough to guarantee perpetual harassment and investigation by his Scientology sect whose code of honour states: "Never fear to hurt another ...

Editor: I have been a reader of your newspaper for the past 2½ years during my semi-annual visits to your city. I like the paper as well as the people. However, I take strong exception to your consistently biased reports concerning the Church of Scientology; particularly, the recent period of May 28–June 13. I have been a member of the Church of Scientology since 1970. I have had the distinct pleasure of reading the more than 40 books by the founder, ...

Is it the beginning of the end for the Church of Scientology? In the past senior church officials have refused to discuss the inner workings of L. Ron Hubbard's empire, but according to a recent story in the New York Times, disillusionment with Hubbard and a power struggle within the organization have prompted several church officials to meet with police investigators and testify against Scientology in a number of court cases. At a trial that just ended in Los Angeles County ...

How much evidence do area law enforcement agencies need before launching a full-scale investigation of the Church of Scientology? Apparently the agencies hereabouts are a lot less responsive than they are in Ontario, Canada. The same sworn statements alleging criminal activity on the part of the locally-headquartered sect given to authorities in the Tampa Bay area have prompted action by the Ontario Provincial Police and resulted in the dismissal in California of a civil suit against former Scientology archivist Gerald Armstrong. ...

TAMPA — In a major victory for the city of Clearwater, a federal judge Friday ruled that the city's revised charitable solicitation ordinance is constitutional. But U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich tied some strings to her decision, and Clearwater may still be months from enforcing the law that was aimed at the Church of Scientology but will affect nonprofit groups of all types. The law seeks to regulate the way religious organizations and other nonprofit groups raise money. Predicting that the ...

Several former high-ranking Church of Scientology officials have provided state, federal and municipal law enforcement investigators with detailed information regarding the Clearwater-based sect's alleged criminal activities in the Tampa Bay area, the Clearwater Sun has learned. Although the same testimony provided to investigators in Clearwater has furthered large-scale criminal investigations in Canada and resulted in court rulings against the sect in California, no similar action has been implemented in the Clearwater area, a seven-month Sun inquiry has determined. And Gerald Armstrong, ...

L. Ron Hubbard, the controversial and elusive founder of the Church of Scientology, is nothing if not a prophet. In 1949, while still known principally as an author of science fiction, he was reported to have told a lecture audience, "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion." Conventional clerics may dispute Hubbard's theology but they can't refute his economics. By ...

Charges by church defectors that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard diverted more than $100 million in church funds to foreign bank accounts was described Wednesday as "garbage" by the sect's president. "I call it hyperspace junk writing," said Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International. The former senior church officials, who have testified about the church's inner workings in Los Angeles court, told the New York Times that Hubbard directed them to establish shell corporations to channel much of ...

Former officials of the Church of Scientology say they helped L. Ron Hubbard, the reclusive founder of the cult-like organization, to secretly divert more than $100 million from the church into foreign bank accounts he controlled. The organization, long a subject of investigations in this country, Britain, France, Australia, South Africa, Spain and elsewhere, has maintained that Mr. Hubbard cut his ties to it in the mid-1970's, that he has received only a token consulting fee of $35,000 annually since then ...

Editor: I am writing in response to the article on the Church of Scientology's E-Meter, by George-Wayne Shelor in your paper on June 13. There are several "quotes" from Ron DeWolf in the article expressing his view of the history of the confessional device that have been publicly repudiated by Mr. DeWolf himself in sworn statements. DeWolf testified under oath and later retracted those statements in a public repudiation of his testimony. Had Mr. Shelor bothered to check on DeWolf's ...

Pinellas County plans to offer for sale next week $257,267.71 in tax sales certificates on 10 parcels of Scientology-owned property to cover unpaid real estate and tangible personal property taxes, Tax-Collector O. Sanford Jasper said Thursday. The certificates, which concern 10 parcels of sect property—including the former Fort Harrison Hotel—will be offered for sale July 10, barring a court-ordered injunction to stop the sale of some of the certificates, Jasper said. Jasper noted that the sect has been granted a hearing ...

Editor: Reports appearing in the Sun about the religious status of the Church of Scientology in Germany are incorrect. The current clumsy attempt by the German government is to DEecertify a fully certified religious group, the Church of Scientology. The world has seen a similar attempt before. Reynhard Heinrich of the German SS wrote a letter in 1937 instituting a decertification campaign against Catholic sects, evangelical ministers and Baptists in Germany. It was a prelude to the genocide that was to ...

The Church of Scientology has lost thousands of adherents in recent years due to an internal revolt by members who embrace the teachings of founder L. Ron Hubbard but question many policies of the mother organization. Disillusioned Scientologists—still practicing the tenets of Dianetics and Scientology—have splintered from the Church of Scientology to form their own organizations such as the Clear Center, the Council for Spiritual Intregrity, Advanced Abilities Center and the Revitalization Center. Such assemblages offer Scientology and Dianetics-related courses to ...

The ink had hardly cooled on my "ombudsman" title Monday when I received phone calls in quick succession from two persons who objected to a reference in a Sunday (June 24) story about Scientology. In the story, staff writer George-Wayne Shelor wrote that the Scientology procedure known as auditing is "somewhat similar to Catholic confession." My two callers took exception to that. One pointed out that Roman Catholic confession makes no use of electronic devices such as Scientology's "E-meter." The other ...

Editor: You have received letters from persons identifying themselves as Scientologists by stating so or by the content of the letters. The Scientologists would have us believe that they offer courses designed to improve their students' thinking processes and self-images. Apparently they try to do this as well as expand intellectual horizons and establish positive thinking. They also claim to be a "church," but do not seem to publicize exactly what their practice does. Their letters to you are in reaction ...

A California court state Monday granted an emergency stay and resealed about 500 documents that had been unsealed last week by a Superior Court Judge. The papers, tapes and historical documents were unsealed last week in a case brought by the sect against former Scientology archivist Gerald Armstrong. The sect and its founder's wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, sued Armstrong to recover about 10,000 pages of documents he took when he fled the Clearwater-based sect in late 1981. Many of the contested ...

The Church of Scientology faces mounting legal pressure in courts worldwide to explain its actions, policies, beliefs and inner workings. In the United States, Canada and Europe, Scientology is under ever-increasing scrutiny by law enforcement agencies, courts and even governments. And a ruling handed down last week by it Los Angeles Superior Court judge may complicate the legal proceedings involving the Clearwater-based sect. Judge Paul G. Breckenridge stated in an intended ruling Thursday that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is the ...

[...] The Church of Scientology won a stay from the 2nd District Court of Appeal resealing exhibits from the trial of its civil suit against former church archivist Gerald Armstrong pending appeal of the case. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul G. Breckenridge Jr., in absolving Armstrong of any liability for taking documents concerning church founder L. Ron Hubbard, had ruled last week that some 500 of those documents which became exhibits in the five-week trial would be open for public ...

Editor: Judge Breckenridge's decision in Los Angeles was based on psychiatric principles of a godless mankind and is just like the Australian decision of 1967; so biased and filled with animosity, that the High Court of Australia responded by granting full religious recognition to all the Churches of Scientology in Australia and 500 other religions by the year 1983. To have quoted reports disseminated by an agency headed by a former SS officer and have them endorsed by Mr. Armstrong, Mr. ...

"We told you so." That's the first reaction any longstanding anti-Scientologist will probably have when reading the brilliant and thundering decision announced Thursday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul G. Breckenridge. In terms that will surely widen the existing cracks in Scientology's foundations, Judge Breckenridge said, "The organization (Scientology) clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid, and this bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of its founder ...." Breckenridge ruled that a former sect archivist, Gerald Armstrong was justified in taking ...

Although Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is credited with patenting the sect's E-meter, it is arguable whether the renowned author and adventurer actually invented the electronic device. Over the past 34 years, Scientology literature has referred to the E-meter as the "Hubbard Professional Electrometer," and many people have assumed the 73-year-old science-fiction writer actually invented it. However, Hubbard's estranged son—his father's disciple until a family falling out in 1953—recalls that a man named Volney G. Mathison actually invented the elaborate galvonometer ...

It's called the Hubbard Electrometer and is used as a spiritual guide during "auditing," a Church of Scientology practice somewhat similar to Catholic confession. The E-meter, as it is known, is said to be capable of measuring a person's "mental state and change of state" and can pinpoint deeply rooted, previously undetected problems in the brain. The small, simple electronic device, patented by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, may be the most visible of the "religious artifacts" associated with the Clearwater-based ...