Once Again The St. Petersburg Times Rips Scientology A New One In A Scathing Three Part Series - Page 3
So back to routing out. It can be a very horrific experience for ex members, and some of these members were interviewed by the SP Times. They were asked to sign affidavits before leaving Scientology, and were subjected to horrendous treatment, and it took years for them to finally leave for good.
Here is a short summary on Part One from the SP Times:
For years, the Church of Scientology chased down and brought back staff members who tried to leave.Ex-staffers describe being pursued by their church and detained, cut off from family and friends and subjected to months of interrogation, humiliation and manual labor.
One said he was locked in a room and guarded around the clock.
Some who did leave said the church spied on them for years.
Others said that, as a condition for leaving, the church cowed them into signing embellished affidavits that could be used to discredit them if they ever spoke out.
The St. Petersburg Times has interviewed former high-ranking Scientology officials who coordinated the intelligence gathering and supervised the retrieval of staff who left, or "blew."
They say the church, led by David Miscavige, wanted to contain the threat that those who left might reveal secrets of life inside Scientology.
Marty Rathbun, a former church official and confidant of Miscavige, said the leader especially targeted those he had edged aside during his rise to the top or anyone he feared might threaten his position or the church if left alone on the outside.
When the church founder L. Ron Hubbard was in charge, "there were no fences," Rathbun said. "If somebody blew, they blew. It wasn't until these purges started with Miscavige — where he was creating enemies and people … became a threat to him — that we went into this overdrive scenario."
Church spokesman Tommy Davis "categorically denied'' Miscavige knew about or was involved in the pursuit of runaways or spying on former members. He said Rathbun and other former staff are liars, taking their own misdeeds and blaming them on Miscavige and the religion they have forsaken. He said they are trying to undermine Miscavige's leadership even as he presides over unprecedented church growth.
Miscavige "redefines the term 'religious leader,' " Davis said, while some of the Timessources are on the "lunatic fringe'' of anti-Scientology. He said they are the real villains, who Miscavige dismissed for "suborning perjury, obstruction of justice and wasting millions of dollars of parishioner funds.''
He accused the Times of "naked bias" and engaging in tabloid journalism.
"You have a few petty allegations,'' Davis said.
"In fact, all you have is a few people who left a religion after committing destructive acts and are now complaining about what they did while in the church.''
Continued on the next page
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