I came across this on the STAND website. As with everything they ever utter, it is laced with falsehoods.
What is the Scientology position regarding litigation?
During the history of the Church, some individuals sought to make money from unfounded allegations, but the Church successfully defended against those claims.
Well, not exactly. Julie Christofferson won a massive judgment, so did Larry Wollersheim. The family of Lisa McPherson extracted a lrge settlement, so did many victims of Narconon.
Litigation involving Churches of Scientology in America is virtually nonexistent today.
Only if you pretend the following lawsuits don’t exist:
Masterson victims
Baxters and Valeska Paris
Valerie Haney
Leah Remini
Whitney Mills
Litigation is not and never was a purpose of Scientology. The practice and expansion of the Scientology religion is the Church’s purpose.
Unless you ignore what Hubbard said (this is just one quote — there are plenty of others):
The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease.
And you also ignore the numerous lawsuits filed by scientology against the media (the last of which was the catastrophic loss after suing Time magazine), the many suits filed against people who posted material on the internet, or the last civil lawsuit they filed — against Debbie Cook — resulting in them paying a significant settlement to extricate themselves from the suit they filed.
The last piece of the true litigation picture is HOW they conduct it. Hubbard said to make litigation punishing for the opposition. Scientology brings in many more lawyers than are needed, Private Investigators and tactics that border on vexatious. They have rightly earned a reputation for extremely aggressive tactics — not what the benign sounding statements on their website convey
Scooter says
Ah the Debbie Cook example. After THAT famous email (that sent shockwaves thro’ Kultland like nothing ever had before), the kult takes her to court where her testimony becomes an international news story. And media around the planet are queueing up to try to get her to talk on screen to them.
I watched it all as more than an interested observer and loved how Debbie and Wayne went off and publicly started a wonderful life while they decompressed. Blogging about living in an island paradise painting pictures and putting them up for us all to admire. Perfect.
Showed anybody who went looking that one could take on the cancerous little gnome and truly win. Bet Demented Maggot still has nightmares over that one. Of course, His decisions were the reason it failed soooo badly but He’d never ever contemplate that – not when there’s minions around He can blame.
Thanks for the reminder of a very telling turning point, Mike. It’s a great way to start a sunny Sunday.