All of them, those in power, and those who want the power, would pamper us, if we agreed to overlook their crookedness by wilfully restricting our activities.
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There have been rumors for months now that Mike Rinder "blew" the Church of Scientology. In Scientology jargon, "to blow" means he left without asking permission and without going through the complicated procedures required by the Church. Some of these procedures require that he writes down his "crimes," that he signs away his right to speak out against the Church of Scientology, etc.
Between July 17, 2008 and July 28, 2008, his bio page on the Church of Scientology's web site was removed. As of July 28, 2008, Google still has a cached version of the web page on its server. As of July 31, 2008, Yahoo still has a cached version of the web page on its server. His name is also no longer listed on the bios page as of August 11, 2008 (here is a cached version dated July 15, 2008.)
Below are selected excerpts, visit the library for more materials on Mike Rinder. Of interest, Mike Rinder's last interview on CNN with Anderson Cooper: “Scientology an me: The aftermath.” It has been said that he left the Church of Scientology following this interview.
Search the library for "Mike Rinder"...
St.
Petersburg Times (June 23, 2009): "Leaving the Church of Scientology: a huge
step"
[...]
Rinder picked up his briefcase and headed for the subway. He knew the route
well. Go to Victoria Station, catch a train to East Grinstead, in Sussex. He had
made the trip many times.
Radar (March 17, 2008): "Cult Friction" by John CookBut not this day. He exited the subway before reaching Victoria, walked up to street level and toured one of his favorite cities. A few days later he called Tom De Vocht, saying he was flying into Orlando. Could Tom pick him up? De Vocht hadn't seen his old friend since he left the church two years earlier. On the way to De Vocht's apartment, they stopped at Kohl's to get Rinder something to wear. Rinder stayed a few days, then went to Virginia. He wrote the church, saying he wanted to talk to his wife and also wanted his stuff, except his motorcycle and bicycle. Give them to his kids, he wrote. He did not talk to his wife. Soon a FedEx package arrived, including a check for $5,000, to cover the motorcycle "and everything else,'' Rinder said. The only items not sent were family photos. Rinder and his wife, Cathy, divorced after 35 years. A Sea Org member for 35 years, Cathy Rinder called her ex-husband's allegation that Miscavige struck him on some 50 occasions "outrageous.'' "I slept with Mike,'' she said, "and I would have seen it.'' The Rinders have two adult children, both Sea Org members. Since he left the church in 2007, Rinder has had no contact with them and didn't know their 24-year-old son battled cancer the past 18 months. [...]
[...]
One Scientologist who has apparently forsaken his
superpowers is Mike Rinder, formerly head of the
Office of Special Affairs and chief spokesman for
Scientology. In what many ex-members describe as a
significant black eye for the Church, Rinder blew last summer and now lives in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Rinder was one of the most powerful men in the
organization; it was his Australian baritone that
proclaimed on ABC's 20/20 in 1998: "Every
few thousand years a man comes along who is so
extraordinary he changes the course of history, and
L. Ron Hubbard is one of those men."
The Today Show (Nov. 2005): An inside look at Scientology, Katie Couric interview with Michael Rinder"Rinder leaving Scientology is like Goebbels leaving the Nazis," says Beatty, who speculates that Rinder couldn't put up with Miscavige any longer. Miscavige is notorious, former Scientologists say, for mistreating and screaming at underlings. [...] Michael Rinder wants people to believe that the Xenu story is not the point of Scientology, even though this is the story the long time members are taught at OT3 level, on their way to OT8, after having paid many hundreds of thousands to the "Church"... KATIE COURIC: I know that according to my
research, L. Ron Hubbard, the father of Scientology, claimed that humans
are immortal spiritual beings composed of body, mind and spirit. But he
also claimed that 75 million years ago, an evil galactic ruler named
Xenu killed billions of his people by sending them to Earth in space
planes. You can understand why some people might feel this is, at best,
pretty unconventional and I guess at worst just plain out there. Right?
MICHAEL RINDER: I can understand that certainly, Katie. That just has no, no basis in reality. This is one of those things that get spread around one of those old stories that-- KATIE COURIC: So he never-- MICHAEL RINDER: --is run around-- KATIE COURIC: He never wrote about that? MICHAEL RINDER: No. Not--not in those terms. There is an alteration and twisting of things; and the real point about Scientology is that you can find out what Scientology is by going into any church, by reading any one of these books, getting them. We try and make them as available as possible so that people can see what Scientology is. You won't find anything like that in any of these materials at all. Robert Vaughn Young (Feb. 2000): Open Letter to Mike Rinder from Robert Vaughn Young I do hope that when you hear about what I'm
doing that you think it is valuable. It will mean that you
have some shred of true decency, compassion and humanity
left in you.
Robert Vaughn Young (Feb. 2000): Open Letter #2 to Mike Rinder re Cancer from Robert Vaughn Young So get that message, Rinder. Attack a
cancer patient for having cancer or their supporters for
supporting them or blame anyone for that condition and you
will hear from me on behalf of a very large and growing
population.
Mike Rinder: Executive Director, Office of Special Affairs International Mike Rinder is the Executive Director of the Church of
Scientology International’s
Office of Special Affairs. This division of the Church
oversees corporate, legal and public relations matters and
coordinates these for all Churches of Scientology around the
world.
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Scientology cult: "Scientology's Dictator"
[...]
The four assaults I witnessed were against Mike Rinder,
Mark Yager, Guillaume Leserve and Ray Mithhoff (four of
the highest-ranking officers of the Church of
Scientology). In the case of Mike Rinder, he and I were
standing shoulder to shoulder when Mike was attacked.
Miscavige didn't like a
minor edit that Mike had made to a video we were working
on. Suddenly Miscavige just went off: he lunged, grabbed Mike's head with both hands
and bashed his head into solid cherry-wood paneling three times putting his
whole body into the effort. Mike has since departed from the Church.
Violent physical abuse is just the tip of a dark
iceberg.
[...]
Rolling Stone (Feb. 2006): "Inside Scientology" by Janet ReitmanRinder has fielded questions on Scientology's
beliefs for years. When I ask him whether there is any
validity to the Xenu story, he gets red-faced, almost
going into a tirade. "It is not a story,
it is an auditing level," he says, neither confirming nor
denying that this theology exists.
Marc Headley (February 2006): "Int Base horror stories"
[...] Well I have personally seen
[David Miscavige] beat the living shit out
of [Mike Rinder] at least 10 times over the course of a year. That was
only the times I saw it. I can tell you that there were
probably another 10X that behind closed doors. Other people
that I have seen him punch/slap and or throw to the ground:
Marc Yager, Mark Ingber, Ray Mitoff, Rick Cruzen, Jeff
Hawkins, Jason Bennick, G. Lesevre. One time a girl from the
Film Area was told to run Yager down in her car — and she
complied — she drove after him and to get out of the way he
jumped over a wall and broke his friggin ankle!!! I kid you
not. This actually happened. [...]
The Lisa McPherson Clause: Scientology Moving to Secure Its 'Right' to Kill Again JEANNETTE-MEYERS: Rest and relaxation sounds
like a wonderful idea. But the records say that two days into
her stay she was spitting out food and vomiting, four days into
her stay she was ashen faced and feverish, and then she became
violent, striking the attendants, hallucinating, thinking that
she's L. Ron Hubbard, being too weak to stand, soiling herself,
crying, babbling, breaking things. At that point, isn't it clear
that it's not working?
RINDER: What's not working? St. Petersburg Times (Jul. 2002): "How Scientology turned its biggest critic" by Deborah O'Neil In the middle of 2001, Scientology changed its
strategy, Minton said, and came after him through the legal
system.
This spring, Minton decided it was time to settle his differences with Scientology. At noon on Saturday, March 16, Minton picked up the phone and called Mike Rinder at the Church of Scientology International in Los Angeles. "There was a gun aimed at me," Minton said. "Mr. Rinder is the man who had his finger on the trigger." Affidavit of Vicki Aznaran (7 March 1994) 18. Mike Rinder, a member of the CMO International and his
wife, Kathy, had a newborn baby in Clearwater, Florida in the
early eighties. Mike Rinder was in Gilman Hot Springs,
California at the time. This baby died when only a few days old.
The baby had received Hubbard's baby care technology. After the
baby died, Rinder asked to receive some time off to go to be
with his wife and family.
When Miscavige was told of this, he responded that time off was "bullshit" and Rinder did not need time off, he just needed to work as his stats ("statistics") were down. Besides the baby would get another body and there was nothing to be so upset about. Scientology's Secret Service: The Office of Special Affairs (1983 to present) Its head is Mike Rinder (right), a longtime
Scientologist and ally of David Miscavige. In the early 1980s he
helped to push through the dismemberment of the GO (coyly
described as "a series of projects designed to reorganize the
legal and public affairs representation of the Church"). He was
rewarded in 1985 with the job of looking after all Church legal
and public affairs in the United States, a role extended in 1987
to cover external Church affairs internationally as head of OSA
International (OSA Int. for short).
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