A MELBOURNE school linked to the controversial Church of Scientology received $300,000 in funding from the federal stimulus package. Yarralinda, in Mooroolbark, is one of two schools in Australia that uses the teaching methods of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently expressed concerns about the Church of Scientology after independent senator Nick Xenophon made serious claims against the organisation under parliamentary privilege. Last week, the State Government told its schools not to distribute materials by a Scientology-funded ...

The Church of Scientology's musical endeavours might be laughable yet the current storm of accusations against them is deadly serious. Edward McBride, 30, electrocuted himself at a substation near Brisbane in February 2007. Calls for Scientology inquiry The Queensland Coroner requested the Church of Scientology hand over its files as Edward had been doing intensive Scientology courses before taking his life. His brother Steve McBride is searching for answers. "I just feel my brother's life has been taken for the ...

A former Scientology leader says bullying is widespread in the church, writes investigations reporter Nick O'Malley. Coerced abortion, violence, intimidation and demands for ever greater "donations" have become unofficial Church of Scientology policy, beginning at its Florida head office and leaching around the world, the church's most senior defector has said. Marty Rathbun, who until 2004 was the church's second-most powerful man, answering only to the present leader, David Miscavige, said the church leadership was obsessed with destroying dissent and increasing ...

NSW police are investigating allegations of abuse and bullying in the Church of Scientology made in a series of letters from former members tabled in Federal Parliament by independent senator Nick Xenophon. The most senior executive to defect from the church, US-based Marty Rathbun, has said the allegations, including coercion to have abortions and donate money, were unwritten church policy, dictated from its head office, according to a speech by Greens MP John Kaye in the NSW upper house. "My office ...

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has concerns about Scientology but says the government will exercise caution in examining allegations of abuse levelled against the church. Mr Rudd says the government will consider the need for a formal inquiry into the church - and its tax-free status. South Australian senator Nick Xenophon used parliamentary privilege on Tuesday to castigate the church, labelling it a criminal organisation hiding behind so-called religious beliefs. Advertisement: Story continues below Tabling letters from eight former followers, he said ...

I knew Scientology was in trouble when the media moved on from the usual silly gossip about its celebrity members to much darker, disturbing issues at the heart of the movement. After a Paris court last month convicted several Scientologists and two organisations associated with the movement in France of organised fraud, and amid other investigations in France looking at a suicide and an alleged abduction, Oscar-winning film-maker Paul Haggis, a long-time member, quit Scientology. Haggis, who wrote and directed Crash, ...

In February this year, the infamous cult of Scientology set up a school in Ghana. Untoma Oxford International School was established by the Milan branch of the Scientology movement. This is a serious cause for concern. Scientology is steadily targeting Africa and indoctrinating children is one of its aims to further the building its movement. Scientology has been defined as a dangerous money-making cult that uses hypnotic techniques to control its members. It was set up by the science fiction writer ...

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 ...

For years, the Church of Scientology chased down and brought back staff members who tried to leave. Ex-staffers describe being pursued by their church and detained, cut off from family and friends and subjected to months of interrogation, humiliation and manual labor. One said he was locked in a room and guarded around the clock. Some who did leave said the church spied on them for years. Others said that, as a condition for leaving, the church cowed them into signing ...

Most religious organisations can weather a high-profile defection or two. Many might successfully explain away a fraud conviction in a foreign criminal court, or deal with the spectacular suicide of a member, or muddle through a less than stellar public performance by a prominent spokesman. Rarely, though, does a religion have to face up to all these challenges in the same week. The past few days have been little short of a nightmare for Scientology, the strange, secretive religion that thrives ...

Scientology’s recent travails, splattered like so much bad scrambled eggs in the mainstream press, has me thinking about that day way back when the Reverend Al Buttnor, the Church’s high priest of PR, took me on a personal tour of Scientology’s Yonge Street headquarters. Freaky, mostly. And surprisingly empty. A few curiosity seekers on one floor hooked up to Scientology’s famous E-meter, getting stress tested, presumably. But clearly searching for something else. Themselves? Salvation? On another floor, a shrine to late ...

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 ...