Is scientology homophobic? There has been considerable discussion about this. In today's world, where it is no longer socially acceptable to be anti-gay, scientology has taken steps to attempt to portray itself as tolerant and welcoming of the LGBT community. But similar to scientology's claims that disconnection "doesn't exist" or is simply a "personal choice," the PR smokescreen hides an ugly and unpleasant reality. At its heart, scientology IS very homophobic. Here is the truth as I experienced it, growing up in scientology and then being a senior official in the church for many y … [Read more...]
Mike Rinder: “Lady Killer”
While the "church" of scientology has kindly nicknamed me "Lady Killer," the strange reason for this deserves some context. This post also serves to demonstrate the twisted and false nature of the statements, videos, tweets, ads and emails that scientology is sending out to try and "dead agent" everyone involved in the Going Clear film. I am no special case -- all participants are getting the same treatment. I happen to have details and specifics concerning the things they say about me. You can be certain the statements about the others are no less false. It is of course interesting that … [Read more...]
Is Scientology A “Terrorist Group”?
Scientology has for many years made outrageous claims about "Anonymous" -- calling it a "group of terrorists." They inflate everything that is ever said or done by anyone with even the remotest connection to Anonymous and by association, attempt to paint anyone they think is criticizing them with the "terrorist" brush. There are NUMEROUS examples of this -- perhaps the earliest was Keith Henson who joked about shooting a "Tom Cru9ise Missile" in Miscavige's window. This was then used to have him prosecuted under the Hate Crimes statute. Miscavige complained bitterly about "death threats" … [Read more...]
On David Miscavige’s Behavior
Another in what will be an ongoing, if sporadic, series of reposting earlier important posts. I originally wrote this for Marty's blog way back in January 2010 and then republished on my blog on April 6, 2013. My perspective on things has changed a lot since then, and I would add that today, I consider David Miscavige to be even more accurately described in Martha Stout's book The Sociopath Next Door. However, this was originally written against the criteria described by L. Ron Hubbard in 1953. I still find the analysis useful, and for those who like to use the words of L. Ron Hubbard to g … [Read more...]
The Black Bag Department first published March 17, 2014
Marty has been doing a good job of exposing the unalterable policies of the church concerning dealing with perceived enemies. One aspect not much discussed is who are the "outside professionals" hired to do the dirty work. And while there is a lot that is done by Sea Org OSA staff, Class V (local DSAs like Mark Warburg and John Carmichael) and public Scientologists (John Allender, Ed Bryan and Co) there is work that requires specific skills, including licenses to carry and/or needs more distance from "the church" to afford a measure of plausible deniability. There are quite a number … [Read more...]