Scientology Embroiled In Internal Dispute Over The Amassing of Wealth Under Miscavige

The ultra-secret world of the Church of Scientology has been rocked by a rare internal dissent — gone public by an even more rare decision to leak internal communications to the media. The dispute focuses on an email by long-standing Scientologist Debbie Cook calling on 12,000 fellow members to withhold contributions to the church as violative of the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.

Cook is a member of the secret internal organization called Sea Org. Her email reveals that the Church as amassed an alleged $1 billion in foreign accounts and objects that the relentless drive to force contributions from members contradicts the teachings of Hubbard. She also alleges that David Miscavige, who has led the Church of Scientology for 26 years, has dismantled the structure left by Hubbard for the organization in amassing power. Miscavige is often mentioned by dissidents as an autocrat who showers celebrities like Tom Cruise with gifts and adoring servants on visits.

The alleged amassing of wealth stand in sharp contrast to claims of former members that they lived in virtual slave conditions.

Cook alleges that “[c]urrently, membership monies are held as Int reserves and have grown to well in excess of a billion dollars. Only a tiny fraction has ever been spent, in violation of the policy above. Only the interest earned from the holdings have been used very sparingly to fund projects through grants.” In response, the Church sent out a statement “Ms Cook’s opinions reflect a small, ignorant and unenlightened view of the world today. They are not shared by the thousands of Scientologists who are overjoyed by our 27 new churches and what they mean to the communities they serve.”

What is most striking about this dispute is that Cook remains part of the Church as opposed to the former members who have sued the Church or denounced it as a cult. It is also notable in the details since the Church continues to have problems in Europe with countries that view it as a commercial or even a criminal enterprise designed to extract fees from members who pay to go to higher and higher levels of consciousness or awareness as Scientologists.

Source: Guardian

36 thoughts on “Scientology Embroiled In Internal Dispute Over The Amassing of Wealth Under Miscavige”

  1. Metal fabrication processes such as welding, die-casting, tooling, and other such processes utilize chillers as well.
    elements in the system. The cooler keeps its control panels neat and
    protected with a knockout hole.

  2. AY,
    Even as a cult, I don’t know. What kind of ‘church’ copyrights everything in sight and goes after anyone who releases copies of their teachings? You have to buy stuff from them in increments. If they have a holy book, then put the damn thing out there and let it stand or fall. At least the Bible, Qur’an, Book of Mormon, Torah and teaching of the Buddha are all out there for free viewing.

    No one, no organization, has a lock on knowledge. If Scientology or anyone else has the secret to human happiness and well being, then they have a moral and ethical obligation to share it with everyone–for free. If anyone tells you they have “the truth” and wants you to pay for seeing it, hang on to your wallet and run like hell until they are no longer in sight.

  3. Anonymously yours if you wish to refer to the church of scientology using the word cult you should use the qualifier “dangerous” as in “dangerous cult”. 😉

    I feel the need to distinguish from scientology, scientologists and the church of scientology.

    Scientology is a belief system dreamt up by L Ron Hubbard; usual mix of common sense, dogma, false morality, woo’ist nonsense and mythology.

    Scientologists are believers in scientology, for the most part they’re well meaning people.

    The church of scientology is a corrupt, corrupting and dangerous organisation run by David Miscavige.

    There are now 3 perhaps 4 types of scientologists.

    Ex-scientologists, speaks for itself.

    Independent scientologists, believe in scientology but have correctly adentified the church of scientology as corrupt, corrupting and dangerous and so have disavowed themselves from it. They practice scientology in keeping with their own ideology, which is basically good.

    Fanatical scientologists, they believe in David Miscavige and follow his interpretation of scientology. They’re well meaning but their desperate need to belong to “something bigger” blinds them to the foul actions of the church of scientology7. They see their loyalty to David Miscavige as their strongest and best asset.

    Scientlogists with doubts, they recognise the church of scientology is not perfect but they believe it can be changed from the inside. They are also loyal to the group and are desperate not to loose their community but they do question it within the confines of the church of scientology; they excuse, justify or ignore some of the worst aspects of the church of scientology; they will say all those the church of scientology encouraged to get in to debt were totally at fault, excusing the psychological pressure the organisation uses to pursued members to donate more than they can afford. Debbie Cook is one of these scientologists but is being pushed in to the independent camp.

  4. Anonymous has a history of going after the Scientologists (Sorry, I refuse to call it a ‘church.’) and launching attacks on their online infrastructure. Anonymous released their first video on the subject about four years ago, and here is the latest follow-up.

    1. OS,

      Would Cult be more appropriate….

      Definition of CULT

      1: formal religious veneration : worship
      b : the object of such devotion
      c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion

  5. Has Cruise and the other celeb Scientolgists ever commented on the charges against their Church? Or are they so pampered they wouldn’t want the truth.

    Tom, you can’t handle the truth!! (Sorry, couldn’t resist)

  6. For a recent scholarly treatment of this subject, read Professor Hugh Urban’s history “The Church of Scientology” (2011). I am both a Scientology insider and outsider. Urban’s conclusion is accurate imo: “We can, I think, respect Scientology’s claims to religious status and its members’ rights to privacy and freedom of religious expression while at the same time looking critically at its long history of problematic, unethical and illegal activities. But the same attitude of respectful suspicion also needs to be applied to government agencies and law enforcement, particularly in a new age of terrorism, as governments are endowed with ever greater powers of surveillance and ever more invasive ways to monitor their citizens. in sum, I would argue, the critical historian of religions today needs to remain at once respectful and suspicious of both religious movements and the governmental powers that would monitor and control them.” -Hugh B. Urban

    I respect Scientologists’ right to practice their religion, I do not respect their religious status affording them the luxury of being above the law, destroying lives and harming innocent people. Law enforcement has little to no training when it comes to dealing with movements let alone those that are religious in nature. Addressing the Scientology problem requires a whole new paradigm for legal and law. I hope more experts will get involved in this important subject.

    P.S. Jon Turley- I’m a huge fan and so happy to hear you are following this story!!!

  7. Gene H. pretty well dissected L. Ron Hubbard on this site a couple of years ago. The persistence of this sect is additional proof, if we needed any, that everything Jonathan Swift ever wrote is true.

  8. the fact “other religions are like that” doesn’t make what the church of scientology does right, nor should it detract the spotlight in currently enjoys.

    as an atheist i don’t view churches as respectible, i find them all to some degree self serving; the church of scientology being at the extreme end and so worthy of more scrutiny.

    i distinguish between churches, which or organisations formed around religious beliefs, an religious beliefs which are the philosophical musings of humans. My issues are with churches and what they do not with the beliefs.

  9. Have you checked out the Vatican Bank and their nifty art collection? Politicians, ugly buildings, whores, and I would argue religions all become respectible if they last long enough.

  10. Lottakatz,

    Yes… it’s unconscionable. And how many more are being radicalized as a result?

  11. Anon Nurse. You’re right. The kid was not collateral damage, he was targeted and he was born in the U.S.

    It was a despicable act IMO, the target was just a kid.

  12. William,

    I think that Jill is referring to the death of al-Awlaki’s son, but I might be wrong…

    “In the days before a CIA drone strike killed al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki last month, his 16-year-old son ran away from the family home in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa to try to find him, relatives say. When he, too, was killed in a U.S. airstrike Friday, the Awlaki family decided to speak out for the first time since the attacks.

    “To kill a teenager is just unbelievable, really, and they claim that he is an al-Qaeda militant. It’s nonsense,” said Nasser al-Awlaki, a former Yemeni agriculture minister who was Anwar al-Awlaki’s father and the boy’s grandfather, speaking in a phone interview from Sanaa on Monday. “They want to justify his killing, that’s all.””

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