Quote from OPTIONAL777:
...spiritually fallen nation, corrupt, and it is no wonder that the USA, which is also fallen, corrupt, hypocritical, and devoid of real spirituality amongst the people, is their biggest supporter...
Seems like a lot of that going on............
Defectors Say Church of Scientology Hides Abuse
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: March 6, 2010
CLEARWATER, Fla. â Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.
Chip Litherland for The New York Times
A portrait of the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, in a church retreat center in Clearwater, Fla.
They signed a contract for a billion years â in keeping with the churchâs belief that Scientologists are immortal. They worked seven days a week, often on little sleep, for sporadic paychecks of $50 a week, at most.
But after 13 years and growing disillusionment, the Collbrans decided to leave the Sea Org, setting off on a Kafkaesque journey that they said required them to sign false confessions about their personal lives and their work, pay the church thousands of dollars it said they owed for courses and counseling, and accept the consequences as their parents, siblings and friends who are church members cut off all communication with them.
âWhy did we work so hard for this organization,â Ms. Collbran said, âand why did it feel so wrong in the end? We just didnât understand.â
They soon discovered others who felt the same. Searching for Web sites about Scientology that are not sponsored by the church (an activity prohibited when they were in the Sea Org), they discovered that hundreds of other Scientologists were also defecting â including high-ranking executives who had served for decades.
Fifty-six years after its founding by the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, who died in 1986, the church is fighting off calls by former members for a Reformation. The defectors say Sea Org members were repeatedly beaten by the churchâs chairman, David Miscavige, often during planning meetings; pressured to have abortions; forced to work without sleep on little pay; and held incommunicado if they wanted to leave. The church says the defectors are lying.
The defectors say that the average Scientology member, known in the church as a public, is largely unaware of the abusive environment experienced by staff members. The church works hard to cultivate public members â especially celebrities like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Nancy Cartwright (the voice of the cartoon scoundrel Bart Simpson) â whose money keeps it running.
But recently even some celebrities have begun to abandon the church, the most prominent of whom is the director and screenwriter Paul Haggis, who won Oscars for âMillion Dollar Babyâ and âCrash.â Mr. Haggis had been a member for 35 years. His resignation letter, leaked to a defectorsâ Web site, recounted his indignation as he came to believe that the defectorsâ accusations must be true.
âThese were not the claims made by âoutsidersâ looking to dig up dirt against us,â Mr. Haggis wrote. âThese accusations were made by top international executives who had devoted most of their lives to the church.â
The church has responded to the bad publicity by denying the accusations and calling attention to a worldwide building campaign that showcases its wealth and industriousness. Last year, it built or renovated opulent Scientology churches, which it calls Ideal Orgs, in Rome; Malmo, Sweden; Dallas; Nashville; and Washington. And at its base here on the Gulf Coast of Florida, it continued buying hotels and office buildings (54 in all) and constructing a 380,000-square-foot mecca that looks like a convention center.
âThis is a representation of our success,â said the churchâs spokesman, Tommy Davis, showing off the buildingâs cavernous atrium, still to be clad in Italian marble, at the climax of a daylong tour of the churchâs Clearwater empire. âThis is a result of our expansion. Itâs pinch-yourself material.â
As for the defectors, Mr. Davis called them âapostatesâ and said that contrary to their claims of having left the church in protest, they were expelled.
âAnd since theyâre removed, the church is expanding like never before,â said Mr. Davis, a second-generation Scientologist whose mother is the actress Anne Archer. âAnd what we see here is evidence of the fact that weâre definitely better off without them.â
âBridge to Total Freedomâ
Scientology is an esoteric religion in which the faith is revealed gradually to those who invest their time and money to master Mr. Hubbardâs teachings. Scientologists believe that human beings are impeded by negative memories from past lives, and that by applying Mr. Hubbardâs âtechnology,â they can reach a state known as clear.
They may spend hundreds of hours in one-on-one âauditingâ sessions, holding the slim silver-colored handles of an e-meter while an auditor asks them questions and takes notes on what they say and on the e-meterâs readings.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/us/07scientology.html
Hey Zzzzz,
Been on any plane rides lately?
LOL
