The Money Machine, Basically Obsessed | Nov. 13 and 14

Look at church's powerful allies

I commend the St. Petersburg Times for the excellent investigative reporting you have done on Scientology. My first exposure to this cult was back in the 1980s when attractive young men and women passed out free copies of Dianetics on 5th Avenue in New York City. If you accepted a copy, they tried to obtain information on you and suggest you attend a meeting to learn more.

I am amazed after reading all the disturbing information and accusations that they are still going strong and are recognized as a religion with tax-exempt status.I am sure that with all the money they scam from people that they have a powerful lobby supporting them. Only this would explain, in my opinion, why they continue to thrive in spite of the evidence published against them. It would be interesting to determine which politicians have been protecting them and why the IRS has not canceled their tax-exempt status.

Peter Brock, Sun City Center

The curtain shielding the Church of Scientology's high-pressure fundraising in Clearwater and elsewhere has been raised, and the view is not pretty. In a revealing St. Petersburg Times series, former Scientology fundraisers detail the coercive methods they used in their desperate efforts to meet weekly quotas. Former church members describe how they were repeatedly harassed into making contributions and buying Scientology materials they could not reasonably afford. The revelations warrant a review by the Internal Revenue Service of Scientology's practices and a debate in Congress about requiring more openness from religious institutions about their finances.

[...]

Despite the church's claims to the contrary, Scientology does not appear to be the organization it claimed to be when the IRS granted it the coveted tax-exempt status in the 1990s. Former members describe a much more difficult process for obtaining refunds. Many more church staffers appear to be involved in fundraising than officials claimed at the time. The money raised also has increased substantially. The Church of Scientology never should have been granted tax-exempt status, and the IRS should revisit that decision. Short of that, there is more than enough public information available to justify an IRS audit to determine if a reasonable amount of proceeds are spent for tax-exempt purposes.


[...Full article in link...]

9. IRS should review Scientology tax-exempt status (St Petersburg Times)
The Church of Scientology's coercive funding methods warrant investigation by the Internal Revenue Service according to this editorial.

[...]

But Tobin and Childs don't just count the money. They also suggest (in a slightly oblique way), that the building served a cynical purpose in more than one way.

They note that Scientology leader David Miscavige first broke ground for the project in 2000 and right at the time when the church was embroiled in controversy over the death of Lisa McPherson.

Tobin and Childs all but suggest that the building -- long a dream after L. Ron Hubbard had come up with the "super power" rundowns in 1978 -- was started at that time as a way to divert bad publicity for the church.

Three years later, in 2003, construction on the project halted (and by then, the state had dropped its criminal prosecution of Scientology in the McPherson matter). But fundraising kept going full time as the project sat dormant for six years. Not surprisingly, the church "reacted strongly to any suggestion that it delayed construction to extend fundraising."


[...full article in link...]

The Church of Scientology's response, needless to say, is that all the ex members are just making stuff up.

Over the past couple of weeks, the St. Petersburg Times has been publishing their latest blockbuster series on the Church of Scientology, that ever-mockable collection of has-been movie stars and good people being driven to donate more and more money just to realize an intergalatic overlord name Xenu is the problem behind it all. Two of those good people are Luis and Rocio Garcia, who gave more than $1.3 million to Scientology since 1982--but left the church last year because they feel the current hierarchy is corrupt beyond belief. Ya think?
The St. Pete profile is here, but Luis penned a fascinating post of his own on the blog of leading Scientology dissenter Marty Rathburn that has a lot of juicy details about how Scientology operates. You should read the entire post, because there is a lot of juicy gossip regarding Scientology's 2006 purchase of a building in downtown SanTana, historically the Masonic Lodge, and restored to its original splendor by evil landlord Mike Harrah before selling it to the Xenu zoo. It's been virtually empty ever since, to the point where the Co$ couldn't even pay their water bill, but Garcia also claims that church volunteers have been forced to sleep in the building every night since 2007 as impromptu security guards, since the area where it stands, as Garcia puts it, "is not precisely Beverly Hills."

Garcia continues to believe in the tenets of Scientology--just not in the Church. Let's hope he reveals more juicy gossip soon...

Scientology's Sales Pitch: "Pure and Simple Blackmail" (UPDATED)
by Tony Ortega, Village Voice. 14th Nov 2011
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninsca ... gys_sa.php

also...

The isolated instances of fundraising problems you raise, even if accepted at face value, must be viewed in perspective: in just the last six years, tens of millions of Mr. Hubbard's books and lectures have been distributed. The 16 complaints you allege amount to approximately 0.00000021% of the total, almost 80 million. The remaining 99.99999979% represent the hundreds of thousands of Scientologists thrilled with their contributions to their church.