Scientology has been reeling from a growing number of defections where often high-ranking former members have accused the organization of everything from beating members to reducing members to virtual captive slaves. However, Scientology is most vulnerable to defection of celebrities. The organization caters to celebrities and has special programs for their care and treatment. That is why the recent departure of Leah Remini has been a big blow for the organization which touts such big name followers as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Catherine Bell, Nancy Cartwright, and Fox anchor Greta Van Susteren. Now Remini has gone on the offensive and filed a missing person’s report with the police department. The missing person? Scientology leader David Miscavige’s wife, Shelly Miscavige, who has not been seen in public in six years. However, it is now being reported that Shelly has been found, like some Scientology Big Foot, and had a sit down with the LAPD (which has closed the investigation).
Account indicate that Remini was disciplined for asking about the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige who she considered a friend. When the Scientology leader showed up at the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in November 2006 without her, she asked where Shelley was. She says that church spokesman Tommy Davis told her, “You don’t have the fucking rank to ask about Shelly.”
Usually these reports do not entail substantial police work outside of the jurisdiction, though Shelley is believed to have been sent to a compound near Lake Arrowhead in the mountains above Los Angeles, which is the headquarters of the Church of Spiritual Technology. It appears that the Church moved quickly to snuff out the investigation with a face-to-face meeting with the LAPD. The LAPD has reportedly decided that Remini’s allegation was “unfounded.” Remini is not vulnerable legally for the report since it does not constitute a false report under the criminal conduct. An “unfounded” report is viewed differently from a “false” report and indicates a lack of knowledge by the reporting citizen.
It is fascinating to see the effort launched to counter Remini. With a church that seems built around celebrities, such defections can be a blow. However, celebrities like Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson) appear ready to make up the difference. She reportedly has given $10 million to the church.
Lets get one thing straight: Scientology literally means study of wisdom or knowledge, and in particular, study of knowing how to know. While a lot of you are out there looking for dirt, you could and are missing a lot of potential knowledge & how to know. No, forget the BS, read the guy himself, not someone else’s BS opinion. If you can’t do that, what are you doing on these blogs that are suposed to have a modicum of common sense & lead to greater freedoms. Part of it comes from the blog operator himself, of course, who is sane on most things but a biased nutcase when it comes to Scientology. Too bad, you’re missing a lot.
I was about to post something about Magistrate Ballew, when I saw the above go up. Let me just flesh it out a bit with two different stories about this judge from bloggers on Daily Kos. Both stories have more details. As long as Tennessee is in the running, Florida and Texas have competition in the race to the bottom.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/11/1230576/-Fundie-Judge-Throws-Popular-Baby-Name-Out-With-The-Bathwater
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/11/1230572/-Tennessee-Magistrate-Orders-Baby-s-Name-Changed-Based-on-Magistrate-s-Biblical-Beliefs
news.yahoo.com/tenn-judge-changes-infants-name-messiah
NEWPORT, Tenn. (AP) — A judge in Tennessee changed a 7-month-old boy’s name to Martin from Messiah, saying the religious name was earned by one person and “that one person is Jesus Christ.”
Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew ordered the name change last week, according to WBIR-TV (http://on.wbir.com/1cDOeTY). The boy’s parents were in court because they could not agree on the child’s last name, but when the judge heard the boy’s first name, she ordered it changed, too.
“It could put him at odds with a lot of people and at this point he has had no choice in what his name is,” Ballew said.
It was the first time she ordered a first name change, the judge said.
Messiah was No. 4 among the fastest-rising baby names in 2012, according to the Social Security Administration’s annual list of popular baby names.
The problems with the church of scientology are not with the basic beliefs nor even the more esoteric beliefs at the higher levels, whacky though they are, nor are they with the sincerity of those who follow it in wanting to do good things. The problems are with the emotional, financial and physical abuses perpetrated by the church of scientology against its members, public funded organisations (by extension tax payers) and those it perceives as its enemies.
I get the arguments that the church of scientology has much in common with other religions. Many religions demand (ask) that members tithe a portion of their salary. Many religions have beliefs that require more than a pinch of faith; virgin births, ascent to heaven on a horse, elephant headed god and many assorted miracles. Many religions dictate codes of dress or dietary restrictions. Pretty much all religions proclaim to be the one true religion, although more recently they claim to have things in common (Interfaith). Most religions say you must understand them (agree with them).
There isn’t much in the church of scientology one cannot find parallels to in other religions. That isn’t the issue though. It’s a question of degree especially with respect to donations and not questioning the doctrines.
The church of scientology has a concept known as “fixed donation”, a price tag to everyone else. Donations are directly linked to how much you want to learn; the more you wish to learn the more you have to pay. The further along in the church of scientology teachings you get the more expensive the next level becomes. The church of scientology is constantly running multiple funding drives in which members pay to attain status from donor to “honorable meritorious global humanitarian” and beyond. In short there is a continual demand for more money and when you say you don’t have any more they will arrange a line of credit with you, not with the church of scientology though, with a credit card.
The church of scientology discourages all forms of questioning with a few simple rules. 1. L Ron Hubbard’s text is correct any problems are with your understanding. 2. If you have any persistent problems it is because you have a problem such as being associated with someone who is critical of the church of scientology or harbors bad feelings towards it, you must find that person and either handle them (stop them being a problem) or get them out of your social circle (disconnect from them.) 3. If you cannot find a person according to rule 2 then you must be harboring latent bad feelings towards the church of scientology to which you must confess in order to progress. Naturally the church of scientology will help you with all your problems with it, for a price… (they really do charge for auditing to find out what is wrong with you that you have doubts with respect to the church of scientology.)
If one is reading a church of scientology text and finds something that doesn’t make any sense one must find the words one doesn’t understand in the text, known as misunderstoods. This is also a big part of the church of scientology educational process known as “study tech”. When one finds a misunderstood word one must look up its meaning in the dictionary and for each meaning of the word one must write a sentence using the word with that meaning. If the text still doesn’t make sense then one has another misunderstood word, which could be in the original text or in the definitions of the word you have just looked up. Rince and repeat ad nauseum. If you really cannot handle the text then you can try making a clay model representative of the concept being presented in the text; this is said to give the concept mass so one can better understand it. Failing that one might have started the subject too soon and so needs to go back to earlier texts and understand those first. One learns early on that questioning things not only gives one a headache it also dents the bank balance because when you’re on courses you’re usually on the clock.
The church of scientology is on the far end of a spectrum of religions; one can argue most religions are somewhere on a spectrum of means for a few to control many for the good of the few. The church of scientology appears to control many for the good of one and anyone he views in a favourable light to the detriment of many.
Gene, thank you!
James,
There you go, buddy. The spam filter had ya.
I think my comment was eaten… such an instigator am I…
” Spindell can come up with some bright ideas sometimes, but he’s a basket case…”
If this is your rebuttal, you have failed, and I do not have to be a defender of Mike Spindell for this to be true.
I personally know someone who was in the hierarchy of the church before the internet revealed it for the mean-spirited cult it is. No amount of “level-headed” church members in Tampa or elsewhere can make up for this person’s experiences. They mirror what has been reported here and elsewhere. It’s the level-header’s money that keeps it going, just as the tithe keeps the catholic church lurching ever forward, despite the fact that most of that money now pays to defend against pedophiles.
I’d say it’s 50-50 either make it past 2050. They are both thoroughly sick and corrupt organizations.
I read “Battlefield Earth”.
L. Ron Hubbard wasn’t a writer. He was a typist. I apologize. That is a truly terrible thing to say about typists. Even if you’d removed his head and stored it in a glass jar, forcing his body to work by sending electrical impulses directly into the muscle tissue, his fingers fluttering and twitching over the keyboard like some twisted literary frog in a high school experiment gone horribly astray, Frederik Pohl could have written more compelling literate literary science fiction than Hubbard.
“Battlefield Earth” had prose as beautiful as the instructions on laundry detergent, characters flatter than the paper they were printed on and a plot that makes “Plan 9 From Outer Space” seem like it was written by Shakespeare in comparison. Or maybe Gene Wolfe or Harlan Ellison.
To borrow a phrase from my friend Oro, “Battlefield Earth” made me want to Oedipus my eyes.
Trite. Contrived. Long winded. Crap.
roflmao@ having something positive to say about scientellinglies this is a cult who hates science yet its the beginning of their name . its a religion who hates anyone who says something negative so they go after them i guess all the hundreds of sites ex operation clambake , moving on up a lil higher, xenu.net and all the others are pure liars. lets talk about the members besides shelly who have disappeared? let’s talk about the fact that they demand you excommunicate from your family if they feel scientellinglies is bs. how about the many hundreds who have lost their businesses,jobs, and families due to scientellinglies? oh yea and germany definitely had it all wrong. give it a break.
how about this. even if we were dropped off by aliens thousands of years ago. why exactly must they be ;poor and worked to death in order to get to thetan? and then you have to read books, and get elevated by 2 soup cans and a string. yep. should we discuss the hundreds of buildings that lay empty ? and will never be of any use? throwing so called fund raisers where they lock the doors and refuse to let the people out until they max out a bank account, credit card, the equity in their home? yea scientellinglies is a perfect reality show for idiots.
and why exactly did miscavige go with tom cruise on his honeymoon with katie holmes?
scientellinglies is owned and operated by the elites it was a experiment. miscavige is the only one who doesnt have to live in poverty.
his own niece wrote a book about his bs. so limey and sinclair go back and tell miscavige that.
even those who still believe in scientellinglies have left because they want to follow the cult L. ron hubbard started not the one miscavige has corrupted.