A Murfreesboro man has filed a $6 million lawsuit against the Church of Scientology's Nashville celebrity center claiming that guards hired by the church assaulted him while he was staging a protest. Thomas A. Parker and other members of an anti-Scientology group called Anonymous planned to protest the center's grand opening on April 25. Parker and others were walking down Eighth Avenue South, when two off-duty Spring Hill police officers, hired as security guards by the church, confronted them, the suit ...

A French court has convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud, but stopped short of banning the group from operating in France. Two branches of the group's operations and several of its leaders in France have been fined. The case came after complaints from two women, one of whom said she was manipulated into paying more than 20,000 euros (£18,100) in the 1990s. A Scientology spokesman told the BBC the verdict was "all bark and no bite". France regards Scientology as ...

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 ...

In his first detailed interview since walking off Nightline last week, church spokesman Tommy Davis talks to Kim Masters about Monday's startling public defection by Paul Haggis, addresses drug allegations—and explains his relationship with Tom Cruise. Plus, his former colleague speaks out. Tommy Davis has been busy lately. In the past week, the spokesman for the Church of Scientology tore off his lapel microphone and stormed out of an interview when Nightline correspondent Martin Bashir tried to question him about whether ...

"Crash" director Paul Haggis has severed his ties with the Church of Scientology, in part because of what he alleged as the organization's stance against gay marriage. Haggis wrote a letter addressed to Tommy Davis, the head of Scientology's Celebrity Centre. In it, Haggis said he was disappointed by the church's tacit denial of gay rights in the debate over California's gay marriage ban. The 56-year-old Haggis, who won an Oscar in 2005 for co-writing "Crash," said he was quitting the ...

Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction writer and fleeting Aleister Crowley subordinate L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) founded in 1952 as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics. Hubbard characterized Scientology as a religion, and in 1953 incorporated the Church of Scientology in New Jersey. Scientologists believe that anyone who disagrees with their teachings is infected, whether knowingly or not, by evil aliens known as Marcabians. This belief system or “tech” inspires a high ...

[Reproduced here with express permission of author Paul Krassner. Thank you!] What I really wanted to do was publish something that would top “The Parts Left Out of the Kennedy Book.” I had observed a disturbing element being imposed upon the counterculture — various groups all trying to rip off the search for consciousness — and I felt challenged to write a satirical piece about this phenomenon. Scientology was one of the scariest of these organizations, if only because its ...

The Church of Scientology was founded in the early 1950s by pulp science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, and it's been run by his successor, David Miscavige, since 1987. But for the past year or so the public face of Scientology has been a man named Tommy Davis. Son of Hollywood actress (and longtime Scientologist) Anne Archer, Davis has a stylish mop coif and boyish (not to say Tom Cruise-ish) good looks that have been put before the media's cameras every time ...

THE celebrity-studded Church of Scientology in Australia wants negative media reports about the controversial religion outlawed. Scientology, which boasts members including Tom Cruise, said it wanted a law "to prevent the dissemination of anti-religious propaganda in the media, which is based on unfounded hearsay and either known or reasonably known to be untruthful". Churches and individuals who have been "defamed" should be able to sue for damages, the religious organisation said in a submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission. Scientology ...

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 ...

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 ...

Day 4 (June 2): The court trying six Scientologists and two Scientology associations heard from one of the defendants responsible for managing the Paris centre’s Purification Rundown. [...]

Day 4 (June 2): Alain Rosenberg, "managing director" of Scientology’s Paris Celebrity Centre, presented a vigorous defence — to the point where he had to be called to order by his own lawyer. [...]

Amy Scobee Born: Washington state Age: 45 Joined Scientology: at age 14, 1978 Left Scientology: 2005 Family status: Married to former Sea Org member Matt Pesch. They left the church together in 2005. They have no children. Career highlights: Oversaw several operations sectors during 20 years as manager at the church's international base in California. Built the network of Scientology Celebrity Centres, assembling and training staff to match four-star service levels. Oversaw church's film and taping facilities. As teenager, managed kitchen, ...

The Church of Scientology is on trial in Paris for organised fraud. Six individuals and two organisations have been charged and if they are found guilty the Church may well have to wind up some or all of its activities in France. This trial had been talked about for months here as being a make-or-break affair for Scientology and it began last Monday. The two organisations being tried are the Spiritual Association of the Church of Scientology and the Scientology library, ...

Day 3 (May 27): a Paris court heard how a company director's massive spending on Scientology put his business at risk. [...]

Day 3 (May 27): the second plaintiff in the Paris trial of Scientology told the court how her employer put her under ever-increasing pressure to take the movement’s courses. [...]