Back in 2001, when I was younger and more naive, I showed fellow parishioners the policies you enumerate in your comment but it didn’t do any good. It took 8 more years to leave after that, as I really believed that writing KR’s would help straighten things out. HA! What a joke.

Oh my goodness! I don’t know how to respond to this other than to say you really don’t give yourself enough credit for turning your life around, taking back some control. Just like everyone else here who got out you don’t make excuses. And, if someone else had said those things about you I would have been furious. So, I’m just going to send you a big hug.

Peggy, my God, I don’t know how you can say all this; I’m very selfish, I think, actually; I never joined staff, I just wouldn’t…honestly, I don’t know how you would think I have these qualities, but thank you, its probably YOU who have them, by the way, and I don’t usually babble like this but thank you!

Text me Aqua when ever.
2138803661.
We have this world.
There just is nothing that tops truth.
Hugs 😘

Aquamarine, if and when those still in find the strength to get out I hope they find someone like you to help them work through it all. They couldn’t have a kinder, more compassionate, understanding, been there done that person by their side.

Richard, the problem is still that money comes from asset-stripping members, many of whom can’t afford it and even end up losing their own homes, being unable to fund college education for their children or retirement, going bankrupt, and so on. If it was just the rich whales, that would be one thing – though even those people are pushed by Scientology to get into cash-generating schemes, which often involving scamming the general public in one way or another if not outright fraud, and thus involve costs to society at large.

About that toilet paper…when I was at the NY Org in the late 60s, there was also generally no toilet paper. So most of us brought our own and kept it locked in our desks! We could leave just about anything else left out or unguarded, but toilet paper was Fair Game! I could never figure out why Estates did not acquire plenty of toilet paper! LOL And virtually every scio I ever met had the same complaint, no matter where they came from. What an odd thing.

The glass is half full.

“Donations To Local Communities” could be a VFP, Valuable Final Product.

Any normal non-profit or responsible church would provide audited financials. The CofS exploits its having attained the one tax status that is excluded from any accountability requirements, which in turn is a result of a politically influential strain of belief that religions should be virtually above the law – supported by a lot of relatively larger and influential churches and ministries that don’t want their own finances and leaders’ lifestyles scrutinized.

I think that all but the smallest churches should be required to have externally required financial statements, which if nothing else are an important check against internal fraud and theft, made available for public inspection in exchange for their having privileges including tax exemption. That alone would put an end to a lot of dubious financial practices by exposing them to the scrutiny of members and the public, but it seems as if we have a long way to go before such reasonable measures might be adopted.