Presenting
Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review

Volume 10, Issue 26 - July 1 2006


France Takes Political Action to Protect Minors

On June 28, 2006 Roger posted a report from the AFP France with translation:

Mineurs et sectes: unanimité des députés pour créer une commission d'enquête Minors and cults: deputies vote unanimously the creation of an Investigation Commission.

--
[google translation then french text]:

PARIS, June 28, 2006 (AFP) - the deputies decided Wednesday, unanimously, to create a board of inquiry on the influence of the sects on the minors, a "enrolment" which currently touches "nearly 20.000 children" in France, according to a parliamentary report/ratio.

The motion for a resolution, envisaging the creation of a board of inquiry of 30 members relating to "the influence of the movements in sectarian matter and to the effects of their practices on the physical and mental health of the minors", was adopted by the four political groups of the Parliament (UMP, UDF, PS, PCF).

The first meeting of this commission, whose presidency will be allotted to a deputy PS and the post of rapporteur in UMP, is envisaged as of Thursday, the political groups wishing to go quickly concerning this question.

"The endoctrination of the children is a major stake for the sectarian groups: it is indeed when the individuals are most malleable that the influence can be complete", underline the 129 deputies signatories of the text.

The sectarian organizations "try from now on to circumvent the law by alleged remote lesson, school remedial courses escaping controls", explain the signatories.

The board of inquiry aims "to put forward the dangerosity of some practise harmful with physical and mental health children, like with their blooming" and "to make specific proposals in order to fight more effectively against these unacceptable situations".

According to the rapporteur of the commission of the Laws, George Fenech (UMP), "drifts and ill treatments being able to result in death are proven" and "one estimates at nearly 20.000 the number of children present in the sects".

The whole of the speakers, like Philippe Vuilque (PS), Olivier Jardé (UDF), Jean-Pierre Brard (app. PCF) and Guy Geoffroy (UMP), underlined "the urgency" of the problem and called with the reinforcement of the fight against the proselytism of the sects near the children and the teenagers.

Two boards of inquiry into the sects had already constituted themselves under the two preceding legislatures and had returned reports/ratios in December 1995 and June 1999.

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PARIS, 28 juin 2006 (AFP) - Les députés ont décidé mercredi, à l'unanimité, de créer une commission d'enquête sur l'influence des sectes sur les mineurs, un "embrigadement" qui touche actuellement "près de 20.000 enfants" en France, selon un rapport parlementaire.

La proposition de résolution, prévoyant la création d'une commission d'enquête de 30 membres relative à "l'influence des mouvements à caractère sectaire et aux conséquences de leurs pratiques sur la santé physique et mentale des mineurs", a été adoptée par les quatre groupes politiques de l'Assemblée (UMP, UDF, PS, PCF).

La première réunion de cette commission, dont la présidence sera attribuée à un député PS et le poste de rapporteur à l'UMP, est prévue dès jeudi, les groupes politiques désirant aller vite concernant cette question.

"L'endoctrinement des enfants est un enjeu majeur pour les groupes sectaires: c'est en effet lorsque les individus sont les plus malléables que l'emprise peut être complète", soulignent les 129 députés signataires du texte.

Les organismes sectaires "tentent désormais de contourner la loi par de prétendus enseignements à distance, des cours de soutien scolaire échappant aux contrôles", expliquent les signataires.

La commission d'enquête a pour objectif de "mettre en exergue la dangerosité de certaines pratiques néfastes à la santé physique et mentale des enfants, ainsi qu'à leur épanouissement" et "faire des propositions concrètes afin de lutter plus efficacement contre ces situations inacceptables".

Selon le rapporteur de la commission des Lois, Georges Fenech (UMP), "des dérives et des mauvais traitements pouvant entraîner la mort sont avérés" et "on estime à près de 20.000 le nombre d'enfants présents dans les sectes".

L'ensemble des orateurs, à l'instar de Philippe Vuilque (PS), Olivier Jardé (UDF), Jean-Pierre Brard (app. PCF) et Guy Geoffroy (UMP), ont souligné "l'urgence" du problème et appelé au renforcement de la lutte contre le prosélytisme des sectes auprès des enfants et des adolescents.

Deux commissions d'enquête sur les sectes s'étaient déjà constituées sous les deux précédentes législatures et avaient rendu des rapports en décembre 1995 et en juin 1999.

sc/sm/db/def

Message ID: 44a2817b$0$9939$636a55ce@news.free.fr


Ireland Branch Going Broke Over Litigation

On June 28, 2006 a report was posted from the Religion News Blog about financial problems with the cult in Ireland:

[...]

The Scientology spokesman in Dublin, architect Gerard Ryan, said yesterday: "Obviously, if you get into a legal thing that lasts eight years, the legal bills are going to be simply staggering. There is no pressure on us to pay the money back. It has been donated by various Scientologists across the world. In the States, we are very large and some of the more affluent people have been able to help us out."

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/15072
Source: http://www.unison.ie/
Troubled Scientology Church in Ireland is now 1m in red
Irish Independent, Ireland
June 28, 2006

Interest-free loans from abroad are propping up the troubled Irish branch of the controversial Church of Scientology.

Financial documents seen by the Irish Independent reveal that the church is more than ?1m in the red after running up huge legal bills in an epic eight-year battle brought by a disgruntled former member.

As a result, members of the mega-rich Church of Scientology in the United States have had to cough up almost ?400,000 just to keep the Dublin arm afloat.

The celebrity endorsed group landed itself in a financial hole after a case was taken against it http://www.religionnewsblog.com/1383 by a former owner of a sports equipment shop, Mary Johnston.

In the high-profile case, Ms Johnston alleged conspiracy, misrepresentation http://www.religionnewsblog.com/1442 and breach of constitutional rights, http://www.religionnewsblog.com/1448 as well as deliberate infliction of emotional harm, against the church and three of its members. The case was eventually settled out of court in 2002: http://www.religionnewsblog.com/2700

The Scientology spokesman in Dublin, architect Gerard Ryan, said yesterday: "Obviously, if you get into a legal thing that lasts eight years, the legal bills are going to be simply staggering. There is no pressure on us to pay the money back. It has been donated by various Scientologists across the world. In the States, we are very large and some of the more affluent people have been able to help us out."

Mr Ryan admitted that the growth of Scientology here had been "very, very small". Eighteen years after the Dublin office opened, it had managed to attract only a few hundred members. "We have a different point of view of things. We have teachings on past lives. From my point of view, I will be coming back next time," he said. "If someone isn't a Scientologist this time around, they may be next time."

Mr Ryan admitted, however, that the Church's ?1m deficit was making it "difficult" to achieve things in its current lifetime. The Church has also failed to achieve charitable status in Ireland, which would give it tax-free status.

The head of Scientology in Ireland is Kerryman Gerard Collins. Other prominent Scientologists here include members of Mr Ryan's family as well as a Swede, Anna-Lena Blance, who edits the church's infrequent magazine, called Freedom. Outside Ireland, Scientology - which was set up by the deceased US author L Ron Hubbard - has celebrity devotees including Tom Cruise.

"It is a double-edged sword having celebrity members," Mr Ryan said. "One the one hand, it promotes the fact that we exist, but on the other, it means we can be associated with fairy-fairy land."

[...]

Gerald Ryan (Scientology spokesman in Dublin) might be paying an unexpected visit to a 'Comm Ev' tailored for him concerning his (above) "fairy-fairy land" statement about 'Scientology Celebrities'. A phone call 'rebuke' from Mike Rinder at the very least...

Message ID: 43u4a2pg7ibj0ljigd9h8bna6bhia4fkhj@4ax.com


St. Petersburg Times on "Suppressive Persons"

On June 25, 2006 the St. Petersburg Times reported a series of articles on Suppressive Persons:

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/25/Tampabay/The_unperson.shtml

Special report

The unperson

Scientologists who cross their religion can be declared suppressive persons, shunned by peers and ostracized by family.

By ROBERT FARLEY, Times Staff Writer
Published June 25, 2006

"The only reason to declare someone a suppressive person is to give them a road map to their own salvation."- BEN SHAW, Scientology spokesman

"It's fun creating a new life. I just wish the ones I love more than anyone in the world could be part of it." - Caroline Brown, whose daughter no longer sees or speaks to her

"It's the ultimate weapon for them because no one can talk to you." - Randy Payne, on the threat of being declared a suppressive person

"The hardest thing for me is explaining to my daughter why she can't see her dad." - Astra Woodcraft, who left Scientology, and split with her family

Kathy Feshbach reversed an invitation when she learned her guest was labeled an SP.

Religions have always penalized those who betray the cause.

Catholics excommunicate, barring the wayward from church rites. The Amish, Jehovah's Witnesses and some orthodox Jewish sects shun their nonconformists.

In the Tampa Bay area's burgeoning Scientology community, members abide by a policy considered by some religious experts extreme: Scientologists declare their outcasts "suppressive persons."

Another Scientology policy - called "disconnection" - forbids Scientologists from interacting with a suppressive person. No calls, no letters, no contact.

An SP is a pariah. Anyone who communicates with an SP risks being branded an SP himself.

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote the policies four decades ago, church leaders say, not as a tool to oust members but to provide those going astray with a mechanism to return to the church's good graces. That aligns with Scientology's tenets of improving communication, strengthening relationships.

But SPs who have felt the sting and other church critics say the suppressive person policy is a sledgehammer to keep marginal members in line - and in the flock.

Whatever Scientology's motivation, its suppressive person policy results in wrenching pain, say a dozen SPs interviewed by the St. Petersburg Times.

Some have gone years without seeing or talking with sons, daughters, mothers, fathers - all of whom abide by Scientology's no-contact requirement.

For a Scientologist thinking of forsaking the church, the decision is grueling: stay in or risk being ostracized from loved ones and friends.

It left Caroline Brown in Cincinnati, weeping at the sight of a basketball court.

Like so many Scientologists, Caroline and her family came to Clearwater in 1991 to escape the "wog" non-Scientology world.

By 1998, she was divorced and living with her teenage daughter, Darby Zoccali. Her ex-husband and son lived together just a few miles away.

Caroline was unhappy, depressed. Her drinking strained her relationship with Darby.

Mother and daughter agreed Caroline could give her life new purpose by taking a Scientology job in Ohio. As a church staffer, her Scientology counseling would be free.

Darby, who just turned 18, stayed in Clearwater in her own apartment.

But the counseling in Cincinnati didn't help, Caroline said. Depressed and having anxiety attacks, she was flat broke and crying herself to sleep.

Walking past a basketball court one day, she burst into tears.

Her son played basketball. What was she doing in Cincinnati, working 14 hours a day, seven days a week, a thousand miles away from her son and daughter?

Caroline decided to bolt - from Cincinnati and from Scientology - even though she knew she almost certainly would be declared a suppressive person.

Hers was an "unauthorized departure," akin to going AWOL. To leave church service in good standing, Scientology staffers must complete "sec checks" - short for security checks.

They are like confessionals. Scientologists spell out transgressions to "feel better about them and take responsibility for them," Clearwater church spokesman Ben Shaw said. "It is one of the most invigorating experiences you can imagine."

The process can take months. Fellow church staffers pose questions to the outgoing member seeking to discover "crimes" deemed to be the source of suppressive acts.

Questions include whether an SP has made statements against Scientology to friends or to the media, but the sec checks can be extremely personal, according to church documents obtained by the Times. Questions can probe possible drug use, history of theft or nonpayment of taxes, or ask about masturbation or homosexuality.

A staffer who leaves without routing out through sec checks violates a signed church contract, Shaw said, and likely will be declared an SP.

That's what happened to Caroline. After she returned to Clearwater, the Scientology community turned its back.

She bumped into an old Scientology friend at a Dollar Store. Without so much as a hello, the woman said, "Go handle it. You go fix it. Handle it."

Darby wrote her mother a disconnection letter, and helped her brother, then 14, write one too. The letters are clear: Until you get back on good terms with Scientology, Mom, we're disconnecting.

Darby says her decision to disconnect from her mother had nothing to do with Scientology. She says her mother doesn't need to become a Scientologist again for them to have a relationship. But she needs to do the sec checks to remove the SP label.

Her message for her mother: "All you have to do is fix it. So do it. It's not that horrible."

Now 23, Darby is a Pilates instructor and a service broker for her boyfriend's telecom company. She took her first Scientology class when her mother was in Cincinnati.

"Every time I used it, my life got better," she said. "I'm not going to give that up for someone who created so much pain."

Her mother knew the consequences of walking away. "It's more like she disconnected from me," Darby said.

When Caroline got her son's disconnection letter, she called a lawyer. Her parental rights trumped Scientology's disconnection doctrine. She and the boy met at Cody's Roadhouse in Clearwater.

"I love you more than any other human being on the planet," she told her son.

He lit up, she said. She now sees him regularly. But not Darby.

"My heart is still broken about not having my family," Caroline said. "I'm the one who got her (Darby) in it, I'd like to be the one who gets her out."

Remarried now, Caroline attends St. Petersburg College, hoping to become an art teacher.

"It's fun creating a new life," she said. "I just wish the ones I love more than anyone in the world could be part of it."

The suppressive persons who spoke to the Times were declared SPs because they publicly and repeatedly challenged the church. They also faced the church's regimented internal justice system.

The process typically begins with a Scientologist writing a "knowledge report" about another church member, outlining alleged transgressions. The accused may be directed to undergo ethics counseling or ordered to face a "committee of evidence," a tribunal of church staff members who, acting as jurors, determine if the person has committed suppressive acts.

Suppressive acts must be renounced, and suppressive persons must atone. Failing to comply carries heavy consequences, as Randy Payne discovered.

For two decades, Payne, 53, was a dedicated Scientologist. He and his wife published a Scientology newspaper in Clearwater. He paid tens of thousands of dollars for Scientology training.

He expanded his Clearwater private school, Lighthouse, which incorporated L. Ron Hubbard's study techniques, and opened sister schools in Scientology's target markets of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Italy.

To use Hubbard's "tech" and materials, Payne agreed to pay 10 percent of his schools' revenues. He paid the fee initially, but stopped in 1997 because he said his curriculum had evolved to a point where Hubbard's techniques were used only marginally.

The church threatened to declare him an SP.

"It's the ultimate weapon for them because no one can talk to you," Payne said.

He pleaded his case through four committees of evidence - two held in Clearwater, two in Los Angeles. He formally was declared a suppressive person on May 11, 2003. The order said Payne "spread false and derogatory statements to others about Scientology and Church staff."

Scientology agents sought to cut off Payne's ties to the church community. A church ethics officer told an employee at Payne's school that he needed to quit, according to a note the employee wrote to Payne. Church staffers informed Payne's students who were Scientologists that Payne had been declared and that they should leave the school, he said.

The suppressive person policy was used against him as a form of extortion, Payne said, to get him to pay the fees.

He wrote legislators and met with law enforcement officials, asking they investigate his claim of extortion.

Last October, Payne made a more public protest that could happen only in Clearwater. During the opening moments of a Clearwater City Council meeting, when residents typically complain about parking problems and potholes, Payne stood and with TV cameras recording his every word, complained about the Church of Scientology:

"It is my belief that this church's leadership has created a corrupt internal justice system to enforce its money-making scheme on individuals and businesses."

Council members sat mute.

Extreme? Perhaps. Effective? Definitely.

That's the view of many religious scholars who say the motive behind Scientology's suppressive person doctrine is clear: keep members from breaking ranks.

"That's the way the church keeps discipline," said J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion, a think tank in Santa Barbara, Calif., that focuses on smaller groups. "For them, that's an internal control mechanism."

Scientology's disconnection requirement is far more extreme than the severing practices of most modern religions, Melton said.

"I just think it would be better for all concerned if they just let them go ahead and get out and everyone goes their own way, and not make such a big deal of it," said Melton. "The policy hurts everybody."

Church spokesman Shaw suggested the Times interview two other professors who have testified in Scientology's behalf in legal cases.

"It is rather strict," said the first, F.K. Flinn, adjunct professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis. It also is characteristic of a young religion, he said.

"It has to do with feeling threatened because you're not that big. You do everything you can to keep unity in the group."

Scientology is not as controlling as were the early Christians, Flinn said. Its SP practices are akin to the shunning of the Amish and Jehovah's Witnesses. Some Amish communities allow contact with close friends and families; Jehovah's Witnesses cut off all communication except in cases of family business or emergency.

The second expert Shaw suggested, Newton Maloney, a professor at the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., characterized Scientology's disconnection policy as "too extreme," particularly as it affects families.

"Some people I've talked to, they just wanted to go on with their lives and they wanted to be in touch with their daughter or son or parent. The shunning was just painful. And I don't know what it was accomplishing.

"And the very terms they use are scary, aren't they?"

Shaw says the church's policy is far from extreme. Doesn't everyone distance themselves from negative influences?

"Prisoners are disconnected from society," Shaw said. "Employees are fired, spouses scorned and divorced by their partner."

Unethical lawyers are disbarred. Discriminatory businesses are boycotted. Journalists who fabricate stories are fired, he said.

"All of these actions represent the practice of disconnection in cases where an antisocial person will not reform or restrain their destructive actions."

The suppressive person and disconnection policies are a last resort, Shaw said.

"The only reason to declare someone a suppressive person is to give them a road map to their own salvation."

And many SPs have returned.

Hubbard once wrote that SPs were "fair game," meaning that they could be "tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed." Hubbard canceled the "fair game" policy in 1976, saying it was never intended to authorize "illegal or harassment type acts against anyone." Church critics, however, remain wary.

Potential Trouble Source. No Scientologist wants to be called that. PTSs can't take classes or get the spiritual counseling called auditing. But if you maintain contact with a suppressive person, that's what you are.

Two recorded messages left last year on the answering machine of Creed Pearson illustrate just how serious this can be.

The caller: Scientologist Kathy Feshbach, a major contributor and founder of a Scientology mission in Belleair.

The first call was placed on March 2.

"Hi ... this is Kathy Feshbach. ... Ah, George Mariani is running for mayor again in Belleair, called us; wants us to have all our friends over on Sunday at our house at 4 for him to talk. It's really important because No.1, he is reaching for us, the Scientologists. So that's really a good indicator. So I really want to have a big showing for him. ... So, anyway, it's a big deal that the mayor called us so I really want you guys to come over."

What Feshbach did not know was that Pearson - a Scientologist for 25 years and big church donor - had been declared a suppressive person the previous month. Pearson, 50, said he was declared because he told his friends in Scientology that the religion was being altered by current management. He also said L. Ron Hubbard had lied while ticking off his accomplishments during a speech.

Four days later Feshbach called Pearson back and left a second message. It was clear she had learned he was a suppressive.

"Hi, Creed, this is Kathy Feshbach. Sunday morning ... I just heard that you were under some kind of ethics cycle. So, you are not invited to our house today. I am sure you understand. So, ah, thank you very much for understanding. Please do not attend the event. Thank you very much for understanding."

As the community of Scientologists has grown to an estimated 10,000 in the Tampa Bay area, so too has the number of declared SPs increased, according to church officials and former members.

Shaw said there are only about 40 SPs in the bay area. Former Scientologists say the number of suppressive people is much higher.

Thousands of SP declare files are kept at the church's administrative headquarters in California, said Astra Woodcraft, who worked there for three years ending in 1998.

Now, she is in those files herself.

The Woodcrafts are a family divided. The mother, a son and grandmother are Scientologists. The father and two daughters left.

The two sides do not speak.

Raised with her brother and sister in Scientology, Astra Woodcraft spent two years in Clearwater as a teen, living in a church-owned motel on U.S. 19 and serving as a Scientology cadet.

Her family later moved to Los Angeles and at 14 she joined the Sea Org, the legion of church staffers who dedicate their lives to church service. Woodcraft was assigned to the ethics security team, which tried to keep people from leaving Scientology.

One month after turning 15, she married a 22-year-old fellow Sea Org member. A few years later, she traveled to England to attend her grandmother's funeral. Enthralled with "the outside world," she stayed on for a time in England and decided to leave Scientology.

Her husband wrote her from Los Angeles: "What really will happen if you decide not to come back and get declared? I will have to disconnect from you, and so will the rest of your family - your Mom, your Dad, Grandma, Matt and Zoe. Or, you come back and standardly handle the situation, with whatever decision you have made."

Woodcraft, pregnant, filed for divorce. She was 20. She returned to the church in L.A. in April 1998 and did her sec checks. It took a month. She signed a document admitting to trying marijuana at age 13 and once stealing a pair of pantyhose.

Then she left. Scientology hit her with a "freeloader's bill" for $80,000. Sea Org staffers get Scientology courses and auditing for free. But leave, and you are billed retroactively. She refused to pay.

Later, Woodcraft's younger sister, then 15, also left Scientology. She was in the Cadet Org, living with her mother, then a church staffer in Clearwater. She called her father, who had been declared an SP years earlier. He picked her up at the Clearwater Library and spirited her away.

Shaw provided the Times a letter from Astra Woodcraft's mother, Leslie Woodcraft.

"While not happy about it, I could have accepted her (Astra's) decision to leave church staff," Leslie Woodcraft wrote. "But what is very, very upsetting is that she reverted to her old, dishonest ways."

Astra became a "puppet of vested interests and her 'story' - lies and false accusations really," Leslie stated, likely made as a way to seek attention.

The letter ended, "Still, I have not given up hope that one day Astra will realize that she made a decision that, as final as it may appear to her now, can be reverted."

Astra says she left "not hating Scientology," but the church's reaction left her wanting nothing to do with it.

"The hardest thing for me is explaining to my daughter why she can't see her dad," who did not contest Astra getting sole custody. "I don't want him to see her. I don't want Scientology to touch her in any form."

But she wishes she could speak to her brother and mother and grandmother, all of whom remain Scientologists.

"I really love my mom and I miss her a lot," Astra said. "I would love for her to see my daughter."

--

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/25/Tampabay/SP_profiles.shtml

SP profiles

Published June 25, 2006

Karen Pressley of Atlanta and her then-husband Peter Schless - a musician and composer who wrote the hit song On the Wings of Love - became Scientologists and later joined staff. Pressley mostly worked for the church's international organization in Los Angeles, but she spent six months in Clearwater. She said she designed the new uniforms still worn by staffers today.

Pressley left Scientology in 1998 and refused to come back for sec checks. She has publicly denounced "substandard" child care at church facilities around the world and criticized the church for the "condition of poverty" that staffers lived in. After she left the church, her husband "faithfully applied the rule (of disconnection)," she said.

She calls the suppressive person declare "a form of psychological terrorism. It obliterates families. ... People who leave are afraid to talk about Scientology."

In a letter to the Times, Peter Schless - who works for the church's Golden Era Productions - states that Pressley was unfaithful in their marriage, and that she came to resent his success. He said she walked out on him in 1998, took his BMW car, left him with $17,000 in credit card debt and "insisted on taking half (his) income." If someone did that to you, he wrote, "you probably wouldn't be too interested in speaking to your ex-wife either - and it would have nothing to do with whether you were a Christian, Buddhist, Jew or Scientologist."

Tom Smith, 49, of Clearwater, was declared an SP in August 2005 after he repeatedly challenged the validity of a "patter drill" in which he was instructed to read passages of a course to a wall. Smith insisted the drill was not based on Hubbard teachings.

A year and a half earlier, Smith attended a charter review committee meeting to express his opposition to the county plan to fluoridate the drinking water. Smith followed committee chairman Ed Armstrong to the parking lot and aggressively argued the issue should be put to voters.

Soon after, Smith was summoned to the Fort Harrison Hotel, the locus of Scientology operations. A church ethics officer confronted him with a report, written by Ben Shaw, criticizing Smith for being rude to Armstrong. It noted that Armstrong is an attorney for the church.

"You are going to be declared," Smith says the ethics officer warned him. The message was clear, to Smith: Back off.

Shaw said he wrote the report, but said it's ridiculous for Smith to contend he was threatened with a suppressive person declare over it.

Grace Aaron of Los Angeles was declared a suppressive person five years ago after she wrote several internal reports insisting that current church management had altered some of L. Ron Hubbard's directives. She said church officials tried to convince her husband of 28 years to divorce her and said he had to make a choice: his wife or his religion. He stayed with her and was declared a couple of months later.

Their son, Zachary, then 22, was on staff at the Beverly Hills mission and living with his parents. She said the church also gave him an ultimatum: move out within 24 hours and sever all ties with his parents or he would be kicked out of Scientology himself. He went with Scientology.

"I don't think that any religion has a right to disrupt a family," she said. "It may not be illegal. But when it comes to human rights and morality, I consider it immoral."

In a letter to the Times, Zachary Aaron wrote that he has no interest in speaking to his mother.

"Her actions were calculated to attack the Church, she knew exactly what she was doing, she was told multiple times exactly what would happen and she refused everybody's efforts to help her sort things out.

"So very simply, I've refused to speak to her until she becomes a member of the Church again. And she could do this very easily! ... All she has to do is apologize and make up for any damage that she's done. That's all! But she won't do it."

Aaron took her story to local cable TV two years ago and put out an appeal to Zachary: "Daddy and I really love you," she said. " ... We want to share in your life to some extent. We don't want to control you or to force our realities on you. We just want to see what you're doing."

--

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/25/Tampabay/Some_Scientology_terms.shtml

Special report
Some Scientology terms

By Times Staff
Published June 25, 2006

Here is how Scientology defines some of the terms used in this story:

Suppressive person: "Those who are destructively antisocial. A person who possesses a distinct set of characteristics and mental attitudes that cause him to suppress other people in his vicinity. Or one who actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist."

Disconnection: "A self-determined decision made by an individual that he is not going to be connected to another. It is a severing of a communication line."

Auditing: Scientology counseling "which helps an individual look at his existence and improves his ability to confront what he is and where he is."

Potential Trouble Source: "A person who is in some way connected to and being adversely affected by a suppressive person." So called because "he can be a lot of trouble to himself and to others."

Sources: "Introduction to Scientology Ethics" and "What Is Scientology?"

Message ID: 449f712e$0$27302$626a54ce@news.free.fr
Message ID: 1q7t92d9i5nc00c4v240cck1psb3vhg6qu@4ax.com
Message ID: 449f738e$0$9637$626a54ce@news.free.fr


Anti Psychiatry Celebrities, Money for Arizona Legislature

On June 26, 2006 the Arizona Republic reported:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0625lobbyists-spending0625.html

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0625lobbyists-spending0625.html

Arizona lobbyists spending more

Free meals, concert tickets among perks used to try to gain clout at state Capitol

The Arizona Republic
Jun. 25, 2006 12:00 AM

[...]

A group called the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, affiliated with the Church of Scientology, has spent thousands of dollars to take a dozen legislators to Hollywood over the past two years.

There, lawmakers hobnobbed with celebrities at Scientology functions, learned about the church's opposition to psychiatric drugs and were presented with legislation that they could introduce here. Commission lobbyists Leslie Koel and Richard Haworth said the trips, among the more than $12,000 worth of travel and lodging expenses paid by lobbyists and special-interest groups last year, were necessary to combat all the money spent by lobbyists for pharmaceutical companies. "

[...]

Commission lobbyists Leslie Koel and Richard Haworth...

[...]

Richard Haworth - Scientology Service Completions:
[long link]
Richard Haworth (myhomepage)Site:
http://scientologist.myhomepage.org/~richardhaworth/

Scientology group finds support in Legislature
Tinseltown trips linked to anti-psychiatry push
The Arizona Republic/March 11, 2006
[long link]
[Rick Ross]

Message ID: ftuv92l3nnl0hkn937t1r79db4cjt4bsic@4ax.com


Scientology vs. Keith Henson Update

On June 27, 2006 "Keith Henson" posted

In the previous Dezotell hearing the judge ordered them to send papers to me by email and "not" physically.

So two weeks ago Barbz who has been dealing with my hard copy mail gets this 20 pound package from David Cook.

So I complain to Cook with a cc to the court and a week later, just before filing a motion to compel I got the files in email. 6.3M bytes of PDF.

Here is the first one. You might notice that they are still asking for an "injunction" to be made non-dischargeable. An illegal injunction at that, but a bankruptcy court simply does not have authority over anything except money and last time Judge Weissbrodt told them so. Amazing.

Keith Henson

DAVID .1. COOK, ESQ. (State Bar # 060859) ROBERT ,J. PERKISS, ESQ
(State Bar # 62386) DEBRA D. LEW, ESQ. (State Bar # 114537) COOK,
PERKISS & LEW
A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORPORATION 333 Pine Street. Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94104-3381
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 270
San Francisco. CA 94104-0270
Tel: (415) 989-4730 Fax: (415) 989-0491 File No. 45.658

Attorneys for Creditors HILARY DEZOTELL, KEN HODEN. AND BRUCE WAGONER

UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
SAN JOSE DIVISION
CASE NO. 98-51326 AS W-7 ADV. NO. 035136

In re:

KEITH HENSON, Debtor.

HILARY DEZOTELL. an individual: KEN HODEN, an individual; and BRUCE WAGONER, an individual.

Plaintiffs, vs.

H. KEITH HENSON. an individual, Debtor,

Defendant.

MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT PURSUANT TO F.R.C.P. § 56 AND BKRTCY.C. § 7056<
Date: TO BE SET
Time: TO BE SET
Courtroom: 3099
Judge: Arthur S. Weissbrodt
Plaintiffs HILARY DEZOTELL, an individual. KEN HODEN. an individual, and BRUCE WAGONER, an individual. hereby move this court for a summary judgment on the basis that there is no triable issue of material fact:
that these Plaintiffs are entitled to an order and judgment declaring that the underlying state court indebtedness is subject to the exemption from the discharge under Bkrtcy.C. § 523(a)(6), that the injunctive relief in the Judgment of October 7. 2002 and the injunctive relief in the permanent injunction against H. KEITH HENSON of October 8, 2002, be exempted from the discharge; finding that the underlying state court judgments are based upon the willful and malicious conduct of the Defendant, leading to a pecuniary injury therein. that these Plaintiffs are entitled to a judgment declaring that the subject judgment. including but not limited to. the judgment entered in the Superior Court. County of Riverside, Hemet Branch, entitled Hilary Dezotell, Ken Hoden, and Bruce Wagoner v. H. Keith Henson, Case No. HEC 009 673. be and the same is declared nondischargeable under Bkrtcy.C. § 523(a)(6), and that the indebtedness in the amount of $25,000 for statutory civil penalties for each Plaintiff, thus for a total f $75.000. and Attorney's fees in the amount of $23,666.65, be and the same is hereby declared nondischargeable thereunder. and all injunctive relief in the Judgment of October 7. 2002 and permanent injunction of October 8, 2002 likewise be declared exempt from the discharge.

This motion is based upon the grounds that Plaintiffs have obtained a state court Judgment against Defendant, and that Plaintiffs are entitled to an order declaring that the indebtedness set forth therein be and the same be declared nondischargeable under Bkrtcy.C. 523(a)(6).

This motion is based upon this Motion, the attached Notice, the attached Memorandum of Points and Authorities, the Declaration of Elliot Abelson, upon all matters by which this court may take judicial notice thereof, and upon all pleadings, papers. and other matters on file herein, and upon all oral evidence and argument which may be presented at the hearing hereof.

DATED: June 12. 2006
COOK, PERKISS & LEW, P.L.C.

By: /s/ David J. Cook, Esq.
DAVID J. COOK, ESQ. (SB# 060859) Attorneys for Creditors HILARY DEZOTELL. KEN HODEN, AND BRUCE WAGONER

Message ID: 44a83c36.994516398@news2.lightlink.com


In Memory of Lyle Stuart

On June 27, 2006 the Washington Post reported the death of author and free speech advocate, Lyle Stuart:

[long link]

Controversial Publisher Lyle Stuart, 83

By Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Lyle Stuart, a maverick publisher who built his career on best-selling books on sex, scandal and radical politics that others thought too hot to handle, died June 24 at a New Jersey hospital after a heart attack. He was 83 and lived in Fort Lee, N.J.

Mr. Stuart, who proudly called himself a "First Amendment fanatic," developed his reputation by snapping up controversial titles that most publishing houses refused to touch. A cheerful iconoclast often pilloried as a purveyor of sleaze, he published books that revealed government secrets, exposed the private lives of celebrities and became how-to guides for the radical left and the radical right.

As the owner of Lyle Stuart Inc. and later Barricade Books, Mr. Stuart had an eclectic portfolio that defied all categories except his own interests. Gambling guides -- which Mr. Stuart wrote -- appeared alongside biographies, sex manuals and books about the FBI and CIA.

One of his most notorious titles, 1970's "The Anarchist Cookbook" by William Powell, was essentially a field manual for radicals.

"I liked it, but nobody else did -- and of course no other publisher would touch it," he told The Washington Post in 1978. "You know, it tells you how to make Molotov cocktails and blow up police stations."

In 1996, he republished William L. Pierce's "The Turner Diaries," a white supremacist fantasy written in 1978 about bombing federal buildings and killing blacks and Jews. Mr. Stuart agreed to publish the "Diaries" -- which Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh once sold at gun shows -- only if he could write an introduction, in which he pronounced it "ignorant" and "a dreadful book."

[...]

--

"Dilbert Perkins" wrote:

What a great piece on an original, principled and courageous human being.

--

"Ida J. Camburn" wrote:

I was the mother who Lyle referenced in his letter to the New York Times. I can't remember my first contact with Lyle tho I never met him we became friends. My heart goes out to his wife and family . His children can be proud of their fathers stamina and will to publish where others were afraid to go.

Message ID: 6jj5a2tloanojhger5u3o6vr0cg0j6k9se@4ax.com
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Message ID: 1151542599.492129.296420@b68g2000cwa.googlegroups.com


A Threatening Introduction to Scientology

On June 26, 2006 "Charon" posted:

Download of video file not required:
http://jayinvt.blogspot.com/2006/06/scientology-video-released.html

Someone has leaked an orientation video from Scientology. It is about 3 mins long, but hang in there. At one point the host says:

"If you leave today and never think about Scientology again, you are welcome to do that. You can also jump off a bridge, or blow your brains out. It is your choice. "

[...]

Opening Narrative(Video):

[...]

"Right this instant, you are at the threshold of your next trillion years. You will live it, with shivering agonized darkness, or you will live it triumphantly in the light. The choice is yours. Not ours! "

This 3 minute spot of the Orientation film is terrifying, as cult induced insanity 'wearing a tie'. Enjoy the 'restimulative' whole-track 'ruin find' that the film tries to instill, because, if you don't get the message, you just might spend the next trillion years in TOTAL Darkness!!! Muahahaha!!!!

shock corridor straight_jacket. 50mg of Haldol straight into the jugular

Found also at YouTube:

[long link]

[...]

--

On June 26, 2006 the Post Chronicle reported:

[long link]

Tom Cruise, Dianetics & Scientology's Orientation Video
by Mike Baron

Thanx to a tip from our friend Jossip this morning, we got to watch the Scientology's orientation video. So like Jossip, we threw some Orville Redenbacher into the microwave, dimmed the lights, and tuned in for some really cheesy canned interviews.

Like our friend Jossip, Our biggest problem wasn't with the film's peddling L. Ron Hubbard's medicine-man-like wares, but rather with the poor production value. One would think with all of Scientology's cash and the fact that they boast some serious star power the least they could have done was whip-up a little special effects besides those awful meteorites in the beginning of the film.

IMDB has this summary:

"okay, this was bad. Unspeakably bad, but to the person informed about the truth about Scientology, kind of funny in a very sad way (think "Battlefield Earth," only worse, and with a lot of the same people involved). The audience won't be getting an unbiased view of this cult, but that's to be expected in a feature produced by the Church. What's unexpected is the degree to which it is pure, unadulterated propaganda, at a level that would make Leni Riefenstahl blush with envy. For example, Kirstie Alley, with a look of seriousness that is unsettling, declares, "Without Scientology, I would be dead today." The viewer is paraded with a number of Scientology suits, each with their own title. (One person, introduced as the "Director of Processing," acts as Orwellian as his job title implies. A sinister, b-movie villian chuckle, and the exacerbated sigh, (paraphrased) "The world out there is such a corrupting influence. We really have our work cut out for us in breaking our new recruits of that influence." Ick.

Nevertheless, the propaganda of this film is produced in such a cheesy way that the film approaches self-parody. When actors like John Travolta are tapped as intellectual spokesmen (no offense to Travolta, but he isn't exactly Stephen Hawking), when L. Ron Hubbard is portrayed as the ultimate renaissance man/prophet/saint with utter sincerity, it's difficult to take any of the film's claims seriously. And as self-parody, you almost don't even need the MST3K crew to heckle the show; one would have to have the intelligence of peanut brittle to be unable to do it oneself.

Despite a rating of 1, I will recommend people see this movie at their local Scientology centers (the only place this movie can be seen), if anything else, for a good laugh, and a view at how intellectually bankrupt this excuse for a film really is. A word of caution though: after this film, I and the group of friends I saw it with were split up and separately "interviewed" by members of the church. They were reluctant to allow us to leave, and were eager to have us confess personal shortcomings that caused us distress and difficulty in life, which of course they alone could solve. How you choose to handle this is up to you, but I ultimately found any attempt at a dialogue futile. I recommend that you treat this situation like you would a telemarketer, politely thank them for their movie and their time, but state you aren't interested and leave. Certainly don't give them personal info like your address and phone number.

See the film for the sheer hilarity of it, but don't expect to see Tom Cruise like we did.

--

"Roger Gonnet" posted:

[Orientation film: they have tricked the OCA results!]

Looking at the Orientation film on the web

Une mauvaise copie de "Orientation", le film d'introduction à la scientologie, est disponible sur le web en ce moment:

http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/share_view_player?p=a80507d771dc11c0d19a8

i was hit by the OCA results they show: I've seen perhaps ONCE on the ca 1000 persons to whom I interpreted or corrected the OCA, who had such lowe low lines to begin with.

Almost everybody has at least two lines in the grey part or over the grey part when starting; This is intentional, since these lines are "Active" and "efficient".

This is "interpreted" by the tester as meaning that since the person is active plus efficient, she is more dangerous since all the other points are so low.

So, my opinion is that these liars are not even able to take real testings and show them during their orientation film.

Message ID: qlnv925atv71p6l1kjk0rv24gsgh6apptg@4ax.com
Message ID: 4gd5uqF1mhcvnU1@individual.net
Message ID: 44a15636$0$29787$626a54ce@news.free.fr


Questioning Another Cult Suicide

On June 25, 2006 "Out of the Dark" posted:

[DALE BOGEN Jan 06,1952 - Nov 11,1984]

I've not seen anything mentioned at whyaretheydead or anywhere on the internet about Dale Bogen's suicide while she was on services at ASHO back in Nov 1984. Does anyone remember her or the situation?

I was out of town for 2 months and when I came back I asked around ASHO if any one had seen her. The D of P told me to speak to the Dir I & R, Bobby Schaffner, who I knew pretty well. I said," Bob, What's going on with Dale Bogen? The D of P told me to ask you." He asked me to step in and close the door, which I did.

Now, my 1st thought was this: I knew that she was getting auditing but I also knew she was a petition-approved pc so I thought maybe something changed on that and asked him. I knew he'd be straight with me. "No, she was a pc" on a rundown that is sometimes given to people who are overwhelmed and unable to proceed in processing but she'd committed suicide after leaving the org one night back in November (1984).

I was shocked. Here it was over a month later I did not know how to respond. This was, for me, the 3rd unexpected death of a scientologist in over 1 year. It was so unreal. I could not imagine Dale doing something like that but then again, I did not know every personal thing about her. I asked how she died and how did he find out. He said the police contacted ASHO when they found her because she had receipts and some books in the car. He said she took her car way up the main road in the Los Angeles Mountains, parked and plugged up the exhaust line with a rag or something and then got back in the car and went to sleep with the engine on. He knew nothing else.

I put my 'KSW hat' on and I asked him if he made sure her folders got to Qual for rev and correction. He said "yes", but we both knew at that time that nothing was predictable and 'what was supposed to be and what actually happened were often 2 different things' . We just looked at each other and I could tell he was not the happy Bob I'd all come to know in the past. He looked so tired. We chatted for a few minutes about other things and I left.

I finished up my cycles in Los Angeles and returned home shortly thereafter, seemingly blocking the whole thing out until I got news that Bobby had died after he'd struck a truck with his motorcycle on June 05,1987.

I never got the courage to follow up, after that, until now. This is the first time I have talked about Dale's suicide to anyone. Thank you to all those who are making it easier for ex-members to come out and speak up but most thanks to Mr. Creed Pearson, for writing the truth in your letter to ED INT. You see, I've stepped out of the shadows because it inspired and strengthened me to hold firm my faith in God and speak up today to show my support in getting the truth out.

I have no animosity against anyone in or out of scientology. Some of the most wonderful and intelligent people have fallen prey to it's trap. I will be writing more in the future, and I will be asking about these people and hoping that what I say can reach them or be of help to someone else.

--

"Android Cat" wrote:

There is a section about Creed in Robert Farley's article "The unperson" in yesterday's SPT:

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/24/Tampabay/The_unperson.shtml

"Hi, Creed, this is Kathy Feshbach. Sunday morning . I just heard that you were under some kind of ethics cycle. So, you are not invited to our house today. I am sure you understand. So, ah, thank you very much for understanding. Please do not attend the event. Thank you very much for understanding."

Hrphm. Well, she said understanding three times, and I guess that makes it true for her.

--

"Roger Gonnet" wrote:

This adds to the three [undisclosed in critics websites ] italian suicides i added this week.

5 more suicides -- or at least 4 plus the story of the guy killed on his motorcycle -- linked to the crime cult, in one week. I'm quasi certain that scientology has something like 500 suicides linked to it, but that we ignore 80 percent of those. Not to speak of other causes of death (bad cures for letal illnesses like cancer, accidents caused by overwhelmed scientologists, sauna overdosages of niacin, etc etc.)

Message ID: 1151230153.991283.159360@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com
Message ID: 66286$449e88bd$cf703783$15402@PRIMUS.CA
Message ID: 449f7a14$0$11581$626a54ce@news.free.fr


Follow and Participate in Clearwater City Council

On June 26, 2006 "Maggie" posted:

Now you can get all CW City Council documents, agendas, everything the council has, and participate in meetings online:

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/26/Northpinellas/Feel_like_a_council_m.shtml

Message ID: 1151319939.472102.51100@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com


Scientology Unable to Handle Xenu

On June 25, 2006 "bc" posted a report of a radio show in San Francisco, featuring Scientolgist Bob Adams:

Friday june 23 2006 interview by Ronn Owens on KGO, San Francisco

Ronn Owens: It is 10:54, Ronn Owens, Bob Adams, Scientology, KGO, Jason in San Jose, good morning.

Caller: Yes, good morning Ronn, hi...

BA: Hi Jason

Caller: I just wanted to go ahead, I wanted to reel this off real quick and then just have your guest comment on it. I know you're running short on time ... so my understanding is, and I lived in Los Angeles for a while, seen the big complex and all that, and have been exposed to Dianetics and Scientology a bit, my understanding is, in Scientology doctrine Xenu is the alien ruler of the galactic confederacy, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to earth in a DC spacecraft, DC-8 spacecraft..

Ronn: Well, let me stop it there only because you're nodding your head and saying it's absolutely not true?

BA: Well, you know this has been passed around the internet on and on and on, just, it's just an effort to try to minimize the church and it's religion, its theology...

Ronn: but what's the spacecraft thing, didn't, didn't Hubbard have something?

BA: I don't know what he's talking about..

Ronn: Hubbard never mentioned anything about spacecraft, rocketships, things like that?

BA: Nothing I've ever read...

Ronn: ok, never?

BA: I don't know what he's really talking about...

Ronn: Ok, alright..

BA: Let's move on to the real important things, Scientology is really about you and me and ability and confidence and awareness and helping people overcome their difficulties in life and providing answers. I don't know what this other stuff is. It has nothing to do with anything.

--

"David Touretzky" posted:

Bob Adams was never the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. Here's a page about his dubious career as a Scientology spokesdroid:

http://Stop-Narconon.org/Bob-Adams

-- Dave

Message ID: 1151216634.769428.202620@y41g2000cwy.googlegroups.com
Message ID: 449eadb3$1@news2.lightlink.com


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