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 ...

Minister Louis Farrakhan urged black people to take the future into their own hands during his keynote address Sunday at the Nation of Islam's annual day of atonement. "Ain't nobody going to do something for us; we're going to have to do it for ourselves," he said to more than 8,000 people at the Tampa Convention Center. The event marked 15 years since the Million Man March was held in Washington, D.C., which Farrakhan, a polarizing figure whose remarks on Jews ...

TAMPA — Leaders of the Nation of Islam are in Tampa to mark the 15th anniversary of the Million Man March. Minister Louis Farrakhan, organizer of that march, is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Tampa Convention Center's east hall, which holds up to 8,000 people. Farrakhan, 77, known as a fiery orator, has been a polarizing leader, alienating many with statements considered racist toward whites and Jews. His assistant, Minister Ishmael Muhammad, spoke about Farrakhan's message Thursday ...

By spring, restoration should be complete on the ornate auditorium of the German House, the 82-year-old Lafayette Square landmark where the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra recorded in the 1950s. The four-story brick and terra cotta building, at 2345 Lafayette Avenue, has been vacant most of this decade. Opened in 1928 as a German cultural center called Das Deutsche Haus, the building later carried the St. Louis House name and was home to two Christian schools before it was boarded up and ...

FORMER members of the Church of Scientology have told a Senate committee of the "ruthlessness" of the church and its judicial system, and argued it should not be eligible for tax-free status. "Australian taxpayers should not be funding systematic, organised abuse," said Janette Vonthehoff, who claimed her passport was taken from her and she was forcibly prevented from returning to Australia from the United States when she was eight weeks pregnant, because the church ordered she must finish "training". Sydney tax ...

A parliamentary inquiry has heard claims the Church of Scientology leaves members to fund local charitable activities out of their own pockets, as it siphons donations to church officials overseas. The Senate committee was formed after Independent Senator Nick Xenophon raised concerns about Scientology, and proposed changes to tax law that would require religions to pass a public benefit test in order to be exempt from income tax. The Church of Scientology says the bill is being used as a platform ...

Read the full program transcript from Quentin McDermott's report, Scientology - The Ex-Files, first broadcast 8th March 2010. Reporter: Quentin McDermott Date: 08/03/2010 (On screen: Cars passing big blue building with 'Scientology sign') QUENTIN MCDERMOTT, REPORTER: Many religions claim to hold the key to man’s salvation. Scientology is no exception. TOMMY DAVIS: The most fundamental explanation as regards Scientology’s basic beliefs is that man is basically good, and that the individual’s a spiritual being; that you’ve lived before and you’ll live ...

As well as medical neglect, Peta O’Brien’s letter told of a hostile working environment, an arbitrary internal justice system and a culture of bullying among senior executives. [...]

EVEN for a religion started by a science fiction writer, the allegations levelled against the Church of Scientology in federal parliament this week sound stranger than fiction. Blackmail, cover-ups of child abuse, labour camps, embezzlement and coerced abortions are spelled out among the 53 pages of allegations by seven former Scientologists - some of whom had climbed high in the church hierarchy - tabled in the Senate. In what the church has decried as "an outrageous abuse of parliamentary privilege", independent ...

The New Village Leadership Academy Allegedly Mimics Some Scientology Teaching Methods Like many modern celebrity power couples, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith are not satisfied with just being actors. The couple, who met on the set of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" in 1995, have had a lot of different roles over the years, most recently founding the New Village Leadership Academy (NVLA), a private elementary school in Calabasas, Calif., which opened its doors this week for the start of the ...

On a recent December Sunday, on a still street nestled against Camelback Mountain, a party is in full swing at the L. Ron Hubbard House. It's meant to be a holiday open house, to show off the stunning renovation of the simple brick dwelling where Hubbard founded Scientology a half-century ago, and to smooth relations with neighbors, some of whom have lately been up in arms about plans to turn the house into a Scientology museum. These concerned neighbors, none of ...

State Rep. Ted Hoskins backed out of an appearance this weekend at an anti-psychiatry exhibit linked to the Church of Scientology. Hoskins, a Democrat from Berkeley, was scheduled to speak at “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death” at the Jamestown Mall in Florissant on Saturday afternoon. The exhibit was organized by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a group founded by Scientologists that shares the same fervent opposition to psychiatry. Hoskins agreed to speak at the exhibit last week, when he saw ...

Rep. Ted Hoskins, a Democrat from Berkeley, will speak at an anti-psychiatry exhibit sponsored by a group affiliated with the Church of Scientology. Hoskins will introduce “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death” at the Jamestown Mall in Florissant on Saturday afternoon. The touring exhibit, which made an appearance earlier this week in the Capitol rotunda in Jefferson City, has been put together by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which was founded by Scientologists to further the group’s views on psychiatry. Like ...

L. Ron Hubbard had a restlessness that led to a lifetime of traversing the globe. So it was scarcely three years that the eclectic writer and adventurer lived at his "House on Camelback." That modest home in Phoenix, recently restored to how it looked in 1952, is regarded as a religious historic site _ the birthplace of Scientology. "For it was here that he developed the first exteriorization process and advanced fully into the realm of the human spirit, and here ...

[Professor David Touretzky appears on the Glenn Beck show to discuss Scientology's increased encroachment into public classrooms. They are attempting to "Safepoint" Scientology which means to get the cult better accepted into society. Let's try to stop that until they reform.]

BATON ROUGE, La. — Inside the industrial looking brick walls of one of Louisiana's poorest performing middle schools, Scientologists finally have achieved a longtime goal. A study skills curriculum written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is being taught as mainstream public education. All the eighth-graders at Prescott Middle School are being taught learning techniques Hubbard devised four decades ago when he set out to remedy what he viewed as barriers to learning. The curriculum and textbooks used by Prescott's 156 ...

Hilliker Corp. and Hagen Properties represented Vernon Holliday, Richard Maheu and Neal Josehart in the sale of a 60,000-square-foot institutional building at 2345 Lafayette Avenue, St. Louis, to Church of Scientology of Missouri, represented by St. Louis Premier Realtors Inc. Solon Gershman Inc. represented parties in these leases: 18,311 square feet of office space at 1350 Timberlake Manor Parkway, Timberlake Corporate Center III, Chesterfield, from Franklin Street Properties Corp. to AB Mauri Food Inc. d/b/a Fleischmann's Yeast, represented by Grubb & ...

Odenwald Critical Of Campisi's 3 Absences Claims Campisi's missed votes on Lambert smoking ban has essentially killed the bill by Kevin Murphy December 15, 2006 St. Louis County Councilman Kurt Odenwald claims that Councilman John Campisi's recent absences from three consecutive council meetings are more than just coincidences. As a result of Campisi's no-show, Odenwald said his bill to ban smoking at Lambert Field, legislation co-sponsored by Campisi, is essentially dead. The Shrewsbury councilman said he had the four votes necessary ...

2TheAdvocate.com, USA - February 8, 2006 - www.2theadvocate.com - Narconon Louisiana-New Life Retreat plans to open a drug rehabilitation center on a 12-acre site in Denham Springs. Narconon paid $750,000 to Claude and Janice Penn Jr. at 35059 Bend Road, according to Livingston Parish Clerk of Court records. The rehabilitation center is expected to open at the beginning of March, said Cathy Davis, a spokeswoman for the center. Narconon is a nonprofit that tries to eliminate drug abuse and addiction through ...

Every year in St. Louis County, on the fourth Monday in August, more than one thousand properties are placed on the auction block. County revenue officials and eager bidders converge on council chambers to divvy up land on which owners have not paid property taxes for three years. The tax-delinquent citizenry are warned in advance that their real estate will go to the highest bidder if they haven't paid at least one year's worth of back taxes. The deadline is auction ...

In 1989, Fielding McGehee and I published The Need for a Second Look at Jonestown, a collection of essays written by those who had been involved with Peoples Temple. In this retrospective volume, people reflected on their experiences of the previous decade, as well as on their understanding of the Temple. Contributors included former members, relatives, and others who had had connections with the Temple, such as news reporters and social activists. Shortly after the book appeared, Chris Hatcher, the psychologist ...

In July 2003, a nonprofit called Applied Scholastics International opened a spanking-new headquarters on 55 acres in Spanish Lake. Among those who attended the festivities were U.S. Congressman William "Lacy" Clay and actors Tom Cruise and Anne Archer. Newspapers from coast to coast published stories heralding the group's move from LA to the great Midwest. After the initial fanfare, Applied Scholastics quietly went about its business: pitching tutoring services to local groups with after-school programs and looking to ally with prominent ...

The church is buying property, increasing staff and raising its profile with TV ads and special offers. TAMPA — A group of high-ranking Scientologists, concerned the church's Tampa facilities aren't up to snuff, is investing more than $2.5-million to buy a second cigar factory in West Tampa and to lease and renovate a two-story building on one of the hottest corners in Ybor City. The church's three properties, staffed by nearly 100 people, will be the base for Scientology's most aggressive ...