Scientology Controversy Continues: Expose Underway

On Sunday the St. Petersburg (Fl) Times began a three-part special report on the Church of Scientology.

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - The St. Petersburg (Fl) Times began a three part series on the Church of Scientology on Sunday. Two of its most powerful figures, Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, are going on the record for the first time since leaving the group.

They were joined to two others who also defected and contributed to the article. Tom De Vocht oversaw the church's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, and Amy Scobee, who developed Scientology's celebrity network.

The Times attempted to interview David Miscavige, who succeeded L. Ron Hubbard as Scientology's leader following the founder's death in 1986.

For decades, the Rathbun and Rinder were a part of the group's inner circle along with Hubbard and then Miscavige. From that unique vantage point, they saw it all, participated in a lot of activities themselves and now they are telling the rest of us what really happened and happens.

The first installment of the report listed a lot of issues involving Scientology's highest leaders, including physical abuse of staff, mental abuse and cruelty, high pressure marketing tactics, character assignation, and threats. The article also describes on-going attacks by Scientology toward the IRS regarding their loss of 501.c.3 status in the 1960's, including some 200 lawsuits.

Much of the finger-pointing is toward the leader of the group, Miscavige, who, according to reports, ruthlessly took control of the organization after Hubbard's death and assumed chairmanship of the Religious Technology Center, the highest governing body in the Church of Scientology. He recently went on the attack regarding those who left when he found out they were being interviewed by the Times.

In mid-May, the Times had also contacted Miscavige for a meeting while preparing the report. They were told he would not be available until July. When he found out the report would be published this past weekend, Mascavige emailed the paper on Saturday in protest, saying they should have waited until he was available.

He went on to tell the Times that he would produce evidence "annihilating the credibility" of the defectors who were bitter apostates trying to gain control of the organization.

In describing Mascavige, Rathbun told the Times, "He is one of the most capable, intelligent individuals I've ever met, but L. Ron Hubbard says the intelligence scale doesn't necessarily line up with the sanity scale. Adolf Hitler was brilliant. Stalin was brilliant. They were geniuses. But they were also on a certain level stark, staring mad."

All four of the former Scientology executives talked about the climate of anger and abuse that permeated the upper echelon of the movement. They said that outbursts could never be anticipated, that those who received the wrath of the Chairman of the Board often didn't see it coming.

"If it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, he'd lose it," De Vocht told the Times. "If it was contrary to how he thought, he'd lose it. If he found it to be smart aleck, or it was a better answer than he had, he would lose it."

The article in the St. Petersburg Times can be found at: http://www.tampabay.com/news/article1012148.ece.

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and President of the Catholic Media Association. He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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