On August 19, 2009, Tommy Davis, the chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International, received a letter from the film director and screenwriter Paul Haggis. “For ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego,” Haggis wrote. Before the 2008 elections, a staff member at Scientology’s San Diego church had signed its name to an online petition supporting Proposition 8, which asserted that ...

Did you read that New Yorker piece on the Church of Scientology? You really have to. I know it's long, but it's worth it. If you're short on time, there are a lot of summaries. Along with some incredible new details, there are the previously reported stories of rampant physical abuse of underlings by church head David Miscavige, the church's "Sea Org" full of underage workers signed to "billion-year contracts" performing manual labor for little to no money, and the tales ...

[Excellent compendium regarding this Panorama Special: http://ocmb.xenu.net/ocmb/viewtopic.php?t=32865.]

[The Secrets of Scientology: A Panorama Special, BBC One, Tuesday, 28 September at 2100BST and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.] In 2007, while investigating the Church of Scientology for Panorama, reporter John Sweeney had a dramatic on-camera confrontation with a church spokesman named Tommy Davis. The church was accusing the reporter of bias and it attempted to stop the documentary from being broadcast - a campaign backed by Scientology A-lister John Travolta. Sweeney has returned to investigate ...

With two recent public confrontations, a year-long, highly publicized drama in the world of Scientology has spilled into the streets of Clearwater. The latest incident occurred Friday afternoon as seven members of the Church of Scientology — including five senior members of its California-based international management team — surrounded and screamed at a former church executive, then loudly carried the dispute into the office of an unsuspecting and startled doctor. The former executive was Mike Rinder, 55, Scientology's longtime spokesman, whose ...

If you believe Marty Rathbun, people in the top ranks of the Church of Scientology have used physical intimidation and outright beatings as a means of discipline. Scientology's current leaders, including Rathbun's ex-wife, call him a liar and an "apostate." They say the only beatings were those inflicted by Rathbun and a small number of others, all of whom have left Scientology. But both sides appear to agree that periodic beatings occurred among the highest echelons of the church for some ...

Los Angeles, California (CNN) – Marty Rathbun used to beat people. He admits it. But he says he was pressured to do it by his boss. Rathbun was once a senior official of the Church of Scientology, reporting directly to church leader David Miscavige. He says that Scientology's leadership fostered a culture of violence among its top ranks and that Miscavige "constantly pushed me to get physical with people" during his time among its top ranks. "And I've got to tell ...

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When allegations emerged that shonky insulation installers operating under the Federal Government's home insulation program had exposed householders to the risk of fires and workers to injury or death, the Liberal and National Parties promptly referred the matter to a Senate inquiry. And when trade unions claimed that Australia Post was cutting its workers compensation costs by using company doctors to force injured employees back to work prematurely, the Labor Party was more than willing to ask a Senate committee to ...

The blogs are alive with speculation that Kirstie Alley’s new diet scheme, called Organic Liaison, is a front for Scientology. It sure seems that way. Let’s not forget that Alley is a devoted member of the sect. She fronted a PR pamphlet for them in 2007 called “Keep Scientology Working.” You can see it at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/Kirstie/ Organic Liaison’s advisory board includes a prominent Scientologist named Michelle Seward. Seward is also the CEO of Protege Financial, a Scientology-based company. The two other ...

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org. They signed a contract for a billion years — in keeping with the church’s belief that Scientologists are immortal. They worked seven days a week, often on little sleep, for sporadic paychecks of $50 a week, at most. But after ...

Hollywood figures quit 'rip-off' church as Australian prime minister threatens parliamentary inquiry into its activities The security at the red-brick and glass-walled horseshoe of the John Joseph Moakley courthouse on Boston's waterfront was unusually tight. Anybody who was not a member of the city's bar association was swept with a search wand. Photo IDs were checked. Mobile phones were taken from guests, who included the Hollywood star Tom Cruise. The occasion was a memorial service for Scientology's top legal adviser for ...

Marty Rathbun said he participated in a criminal act to protect the church against a possible security breach. Longtime executive Terri Gamboa and her husband, Fernando, abandoned their posts in January 1990, setting off what Rathbun called a "seven-alert fire.'' Terri Gamboa was executive director of Author Services Inc., the independent corporation set up by founder L. Ron Hubbard to control rights to his intellectual properties. David Miscavige, the leader of the church, wanted to know if she had access to ...

Robert S. Minton seemed to surface out of nowhere in late 1997. • A retired investment banker and millionaire from New England, he began to show up at anti-Scientology demonstrations in Boston and Clearwater. He gave millions to groups critical of the church. • He became the money man behind a wrongful death lawsuit by the family of Lisa McPherson, whose unexplained death at Scientology's Clearwater mecca threw the church into crisis. • Minton quickly became the Church of Scientology's No. ...

The church said its leader, David Miscavige, and other church officials did not hire private investigators, church attorneys did. The church directs that its attorneys and their agents follow all laws and regulations and adhere to the highest ethical standards. "If Rathbun and Rinder used PIs to 'abuse poor innocent people,' they are the only ones to blame," spokesman Tommy Davis said. The Times submitted written questions to the church about David Lubow and Ferris Khan's involvement with former church staff ...

They squeezed into a two bedroom apartment, all they could afford. Two couples and a single guy had left the Church of Scientology and joined up in Las Vegas, starting a mortgage business near the Palace Station Casino. They were faces in the crowd. Except that the two wives were important in Scientology history, sisters Terri and Janis Gillham. They were two of the original four "messengers" for L. Ron Hubbard. The founder ran his church from his ship, the Apollo, ...

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 ...

[Picture / Caption: Responding to written questions, church spokesman Tommy Davis sent a binder addressing issues with individual sources.] The church said the Times is relying on sources who, before they left Scientology, admitted in sworn declarations, affidavits and confessions that all responsibility was theirs and they held the church blameless. For every person but one (Sinar Parman), Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis provided documents from church files, including confessions, ethics orders and Suppressive Person declarations. SINAR PARMAN AND JACKIE WOLFF ====FROM ...

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 ...

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 ...

Despite the upbeat tones of its advertising campaign, it's been a tough week for the Church of Scientology. First, Canadian movie director Paul Haggis — one of the church's oldest and most respected members — quit over what he says is the church's refusal to denounce an anti-gay marriage bill in California. He outlined his reasons in a letter to the Church's spokesperson, Tommy Davis. Despite the upbeat tones of its advertising campaign, it's been a tough week for the Church ...

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 ...

Oscar-winner Paul Haggis breaks with the church. Leader Tommy Davis storms off "Nightline." Whither Tom Cruise? When Paul Haggis, the writer of "Million Dollar Baby" and "Crash," kicked his faith to the curb after 35 years, he did so as only an Oscar-winning scribe could: with a badass screed. His resignation letter, dated Aug. 19, emerged on ex-Scientologist Mark Rathburn's blog yesterday and promptly went viral. In his letter, Haggis explains, "for ten months now I have been writing to ask ...