Saying the Internal Revenue Service harasses and discriminates against their members, Arizona followers of the Church of Scientology have gotten four of the state's congressmen and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to look into their allegations against the IRS. Scientologists have long waged a bitter battle with the IRS, which has challenged members' tax returns, saying they cannot claim charitable deductions on some money they pay for church-sponsored courses, materials and other costs associated with the 35-year-old organization founded by L Ron ...

"Never treat a war like a skirmish. Treat all skirmishes like wars." —L. Ron Hubbard The Church of Scientology does not turn the other cheek. Ministers mingle with private detectives. "Sacred scriptures" counsel the virtues of combativeness. Parishioners double as paralegals for litigious church attorneys. Consider the passage that a prominent Scientology minister selected from the religion's scriptures, authored by the late L. Ron Hubbard, to inspire the faithful during a gala church event. "People attack Scientology," the minister quoted Hubbard ...

Testimonials of the famous are prominent in the church's push for acceptability. John Travolta and Kirstie Alley are the current headliners. The Church of Scientology uses celebrity spokesmen to endorse L. Ron Hubbard's teachings and give Scientology greater acceptability in mainstream America. As far back as 1955, Hubbard recognized the value of famous people to his fledgling, off-beat church when he inaugurated "Project Celebrity." According to Hubbard, Scientologists should target prominent individuals as their "quarry" and bring them back like trophies ...

It was a triumph of galactic proportions: Science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard had discarded the body that bound him to the physical universe and was off to the next phase of his spiritual exploration — "on a planet a galaxy away." "Hip, hip, hurray!" thousands of Scientologists thundered inside the Hollywood Palladium, where they had just been told of this remarkable feat. "Hip, hip, hurray! Hip, hip, hurray!" they continued to chant, gazing at a large photograph of Hubbard, creator ...

Hubbard's image was crafted of truth, distorted by myth. To his followers, L. Ron Hubbard was bigger than life. But it was an image largely of his own making. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge put it bluntly while presiding over a Church of Scientology lawsuit in 1984. Scientology's founder, he said, was "virtually a pathological liar" about his past. Hubbard was an intelligent and well-read man, with diverse interests, experience and expertise. But that apparently was not enough to satisfy ...

After eight years at Headquarters, I am "moving on" to other work. My duties as Director of Public Affairs will be handled by Taj. Hamad and Linda Shapiro although I will try to continue to work, with many of the contacts I have made/over the years. For me, they are much more than professional contacts—they are my friends. Thus, my change in mission does not mean I will forget my friends. Those relationships will continue and hopefully flourish for many years ...

Pomona police said Friday they are investigating whether beliefs espoused by the Church of Scientology led a family to confine a mentally disabled woman in a cell-like bedroom at a Phillips Ranch house. While stressing that neither the church nor its beliefs are under investigation, police said they want to know if Scientology practices could explain why the woman was kept in confinement. Police and Los Angeles County mental health workers discovered Marianne Coenan, 31, locked in a sparsely furnished room ...

The storage facility on Sunset View Ranch, now owned by The Church of Spiritual Technology, will be used to preserve the religious and philosophic writings for generations to come of the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. Michel Ouelette, 40, formerly of Montreal in French-speaking Quebec, Canada, who said he is manager of the 3,000-acre ranch, explained the purpose of the Church of Spiritual Technology over coffee in the handsomely remodeled former Ben Walker residence, now called ...

The Church of Spiritual Technology began buying land in The Mattole in 1980 and is paying taxes on the more than 3,000 acres it owns there, according to reports in the County Assessor's office. The county apparently has given permission to the church to build its "quasi-public archival storage facility" for church documents and a new "primary residence" on the land on which two ranch houses already exist. One, the former Ben Walker home, has been remodeled for the present caretaker. ...

Lawsuit: State justices let stand an appellate ruling that a 'preposterous' $30 million in damages for a former church member be reduced to $2.5 million. SAN FRANCISCO — The state Supreme Court on Thursday rejected challenges to a ruling that dramatically reduced a jury award of $30 million against the Church of Scientology for coercive practices that drove a former member to the edge of insanity and bankruptcy. The high court let stand a decision by the state Court of Appeal ...

TAMPA — In a forceful pronouncement of press and public rights, a federal magistrate has recommended that four sealed Church of Scientology case files be opened. Scientology lawyer Paul Johnson said the church "respectfully disagrees" with U.S. Magistrate Paul Game Jr.'s report, and will ask a federal judge to review the magistrate's findings. Until a federal judge rules, the files will be sealed, Johnson said. Game's ruling was released Aug. 15 and received by the St Petersburg Times on Tuesday. U.S. ...

CLEARWATER — Complaints about the Church at Scientology unexpectedly surfaced again before the City Commission on Thursday, and some commissioners think they've heard enough. The commissioners two weeks ago presided over a stormy session in which a group of people spoke against the Scientologists, claiming the organisation is a cult. Scientologists denied those claims, and said they were offended by what they called attacks on their religion. On Thursday, commissioners heard a dialogue that was shorter, but similar. A Tampa couple, ...

Newkirk's School Board, City Commission, and Chamber of Commerce have jointly sent a 67 page document to 16 State and National leaders asking them to support a special review of the Narconon-Chilocco drug rehabilitation program and it's connection with Scientology. The cover letter of the package of exhibits says in part, "Based on this information, it appears that Narconon's primary objective is Scientology recruitment and not drug abuse treatment. Our community is very concerned and we are requesting your help in ...

TAMPA — You shouldn't be reading this story. The tale of Margery Wakefield vs. the Church of Scientology is supposed to be a secret. Church officials say so. So does a federal judge. In fact, Wakefield could go to jail for talking about the 12 years she spent as a member of the cult, which has its spiritual headquarters in Clearwater. Wakefield, 41, is talking anyway, braving the threats of Scientology lawyers and testing the patience of a U.S. district judge. ...

CLEARWATER — A judge has decided to stop the auction of Church of Scientology property until a court can decide whether the church has to pay the taxes. The church and the Pinellas County property appraiser have disagreed for years about whether the church, which has its spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, must pay taxes on the property it owns in the county. The property appraiser's office has sent the church tax bills every year and the church has refused to pay ...

NEWKIRK, OK., (AP) Crews chip away old paint and hack at knee-high weeds at the abandoned Chilocco Indian School, seemingly unaffected by the tempest brewing in this remote comer of Oklahoma. When a California group received state permission for a 75-bed drug and alcohol treatment center, Newkirk thought the project on the reservation six miles away would solve local economic troubles brought on by oil and fanning slumps. But the initial euphoria, like the old paint, has chipped away, replaced by ...

Most local residents now realize that all those people in white uniforms scurrying along Clearwater's downtown streets are Scientologists, although some tourists still ask whether we have a U.S. Navy base in town. But even locals were mystified by the new outfit — black shorts with black T-shirt or tank top. So I called Bill Daugherty, a Scientology spokesman here, who said those black-attired people are part of the "estate crew." They do gardening chores and cleanup work at Scientology's many ...

Gary Smith, public relations representative for Narconon New Life Center at Chilocco said Tuesday that about 30 people attended an event in celebration of the next phase of the Narconon renovation project last Sunday afternoon. Highlights of the event, according to a press release issued by Smith, included a local band, STOC, from Redrock, rides for the children on the Chilocco red fire engine and a cooling run through the spray from the engine's hoses. The get-together concluded with a traditional ...

NEWKIRK — Crews chip away old paint and hack at knee-high weeds at the abandoned Chilocco Indian School, seemingly unaffected by the tempest brewing in this remote comer of Oklahoma. When a California group received state permission for a 75-bed drug and alcohol treatment center, Newkirk thought the project on the reservation six miles away would solve local economic troubles brought on by oil and fanning slumps. But the initial euphoria, like the old paint, has chipped away, replaced by distrust, ...

[...] Wakefield now repudiates the agreement, claiming she was pressured into signing it, and aggressively seeks forums — in the press, on radio shows, in churches — to denounce Scientology. "I don't care what the legal repercussions are at this point," she told the Tribune recently. "I want people in this area to know what Scientology is about. I want them to know it's a satanic cult." The church has been the center of controversy since it was founded by science ...

EVEN the strongest stomach at this summer's American Booksellers convention must have heaved in protest when comely goons hired by Bridge Publications, the publishing arm of the Church of Scientology, marched up and down the aisles of the auditorium literally setting ablaze a book by L. Ron Hubbard — a "hot" author, get it? — a man who is said to have improved the lives (If not the careers) of such celebrities as Sonny Bono and John Travolta. Judging from their ...