CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL

FOR PUBLICATION

March 29, 2011

Maer Roshan
Editor-in-Chief
The Fix

Via email: maer@thefix.com

Dear Mr. Roshan:

This letter responds to remarks about the Church of Scientology posted on your website (“Narconon’s Big Con,” 28 March 2011). My purpose is to address the false allegations about the Church of Scientology – Narconon may separately decide to contact you concerning the falsehoods you posted about them.

You claim that the Church’s name has become “toxic” as a result of disclosures in the recent article in The New Yorker. This is untrue. The Church of Scientology is experiencing its greatest period of expansion. In just the past few years, 24 new Scientology Churches have been acquired, restored and opened in the world cultural capitals including Rome, Madrid, New York, London, Berlin and Washington, D.C.. In just the past two months, new Churches were opened in Melbourne, Australia; Moscow, Russia; and Tampa, Florida. The Church has approximately 60 additional properties in various stages of design and construction, with many new Churches moving toward completion in the next 24 months. These new Churches represent a tenfold expansion of the facilities to minister to our parishioners and their communities. I invite you to see these new Churches here: www < dot > scientologynews < dot > org.

Scientologists reach into the community through its Church-supported social betterment and humanitarian programs that have touched the lives of more than one and a half billion people:

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers program has been active in more than 175 disaster relief efforts around the world, partnering with more than 800 agencies and organizations. See www < dot > volunteerministers < dot > org.

The Church sponsors the world’s largest nongovernmental anti-drug campaign. It features public service announcements, a documentary about real people and the destructive influence of the most commonly abused drugs, and an educator's guide.
See www < dot > drugfreeworld < dot > org.

The Church sponsors an international human rights public information campaign, broadly publicizing the 30 articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights with public service announcements for every article, a film providing the history of human rights, and booklets serving to fill the gap in human rights education. See www < dot > humanrights < dot > com.

Secular social betterment programs based on L. Ron Hubbard’s discoveries also exist in the fields of drug abuse rehabilitation (www < dot > narconon < dot > org), literacy (www < dot > appliedscholastics < dot > org) and morals (www < dot > thewaytohappiness < dot > org).

All of this is possible as a result of the discoveries of L. Ron Hubbard (www < dot > lronhubbard < dot > org) and the dedicated leadership of Mr. David Miscavige, the ecclesiastical leader of the religion.

The second area in which your article misstates facts about the Church and Scientology is in connection with an alleged FBI investigation. Your article falsely claims the Church and Mr. David Miscavige are “sweating” revelations contained in the New Yorker article, specifically:

“Reports that the F.B.I. opened an investigation into the church in 2009, after a group of top-level defectors began telling the press - and, in some cases, filing lawsuits - alleging that the church runs a series of brutal re­education camps, where members are imprisoned, sometimes for years at a time, and even tortured.”

Every allegation contained in this statement is false. There is no ongoing FBI investigation, there are no so-called “re-education camps” and both lawsuits mentioned were both dismissed with prejudice, with $40,000 in litigation costs awarded to the Church.

Had the author of this lengthy regurgitation of false reports going back 25 years contacted the Church, we could have set him straight. However, given that the only times we hear from Mark Ebner are when he is picketing our Church in Hollywood with other masked members of the hate group Anonymous, it is not at all surprising that he did not even so much as send an email asking us to respond to his allegations.

The facts are: Scientology and Scientologists work with hundreds of thousands of like-minded individuals of goodwill to create a world free of the damaging effects of drugs. That is what we stand for and work toward. Where does that place you and Ebner?

Sincerely,

Karin Pouw

In a field in which the meetings and prayers of 12-step treatment are among the most accepted ways to help people with drug addiction, consumers have little way of knowing which rehabs are genuinely evidence-based and which simply offer faith healing masquerading as medicine.

Consequently, even Scientology-based treatment centers have been used in the criminal justice system and licensed as legitimate rehab in some states. The Narconon detox program, which is based on the beliefs of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, has dozens of facilities in the U.S. and abroad. It has managed for years to get its factually inaccurate drug-education program widely adopted in California's public schools (sample "fact:" During detox, drugs come out of the body in "colored ooze").

Now, a new publication focusing on addiction, The Fix, takes a scathing look at Narconon and debunks its claims of efficacy. (Full disclosure: I write a column for The Fix.) As Mark Ebner and Walter Armstrong write, it's hard to validate Narconon's treatment methods or confirm its claimed success rate; it's even difficult to determine the number of facilities Narconon runs:

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(sample "fact:" During detox, drugs come out of the body in "colored ooze").

The Fix marks the first anniversary of its launch today with a sense of gratitude and slight disbelief—has a whole year really gone by? Well, judging by all that's happened since we debuted last March with a juicy investigation of Scientology's Narconon rehabs, it really has. Not only have we produced a steady stream of features (here are your favorites from 2011), addiction news and Sober Living articles—we've also garnered widespread media coverage, expanded our Rehab Review and set up a free helpline, dedicated to finding addicts the best treatment out there.

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