Scientology Lies Responding to 60 Minutes Australia

If by chance you have not seen this piece on 60 Minutes Australia from last Sunday, I commend you to do so… The Australian media pull no punches, and this is one carries on the tradition. In the introduction alone they talk about scientology’s “mob-style operations” and how it is “bullying” and “belligerent.”

On their website (they don’t include any of the response in the televised piece), Channel 9 includes the scientology response. Literally a series of blatant lies:

Statement from The Church of Scientology 

“The Church does not prohibit or discourage members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone — Scientologists or not — to law enforcement.

“Quite the opposite. Church policy explicitly demands Scientologists abide by all laws of the land.

“All allegations to the contrary are TOTALLY FALSE.

“There is not a scintilla of evidence supporting the scandalous allegations that the Church harassed the accusers.

“Every single instance of supposed harassment by the Church has been debunked.

“This includes frivolous lawsuits which have been issued against the Church and which have been dismissed by the Courts, resulting in instances of complainants being ordered to pay costs to the Church.”

I am going to take this apart sentence by sentence:

 

The Church does not prohibit or discourage members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone — Scientologists or not — to law enforcement.

As always, it seems they have forgotten they sell Introduction to Scientology Ethics book, which lists the following High Crimes (Suppressive Acts):

Delivering up the person of a Scientologist without defense or protest to the demands of civil or criminal law.

Reporting or threatening to report Scientology or Scientologists to civil authorities in an effort to suppress Scientology or Scientologists from practicing or receiving standard Scientology.

Public statements against Scientology or Scientologists but not to Committees of Evidence duly convened.

And more generally, in the same book, Hubbard, in one of his last writings, expresses the attitude they have towards law enforcement, warning  scientologists not to participate in the “wog” (non-scientology) justice system:

As they themselves are contaminated by their criminal associates, the police and court systems are, in the main, composed of downstats who couldn’t make it in life any other way.

Societies traditionally cave in through their police and justice systems, since these provide a channel of contamination between the vicious and lawless, and decent people.

There is little thought of administering justice so that individuals can improve. There is every thought to punish and create misery.

Justice systems thereby become a sort of cancer which erode every splendid ambition and achievement of the decent citizen. 

“Justice” apparently cannot be trusted in the hands of Man.

You can see the full document here: NEW HOPE FOR JUSTICE 

To a scientologist, turning someone over to “wog” justice is cruelty.

Scientologists believe that someone who commits a crime can only be cured by scientology auditing. Hubbard admonishes scientologists:

All evil stems from aberration. And it can be pretty evil. And awfully aberrated. The only road out from evil is processing. 

Aberration here refers to non-optimum conditions or conduct. Processing is scientology auditing. Turning someone over to law enforcement prevents them from “receiving standard scientology.”

 

Quite the opposite. Church policy explicitly demands Scientologists abide by all laws of the land.

Ask a scientologist to show you this “policy” and they will refer to The Way to Happiness —specifically NOT “church policy” but a “secular moral code” which cannot be enforced.

This is also a sleazy word game. For the most part, not reporting a crime does not mean an individual has broken the law.

 

All allegations to the contrary are TOTALLY FALSE.

After reading their published policies above, this is complete bs. Scientology often asserts provably untrue things, relying on the fact that unsuspecting people will simply believe it on the basis that “nobody would be that stupid as to make a provably false statement.”

 

There is not a scintilla of evidence supporting the scandalous allegations that the Church harassed the accusers.

More lies. There is tons of evidence laid out in the civil case filed by the victims of Masterson. It has not yet been adjudicated by the court because it was on hold pending the criminal prosecution. This will now go forward and a jury will have the opportunity to determine whether this is the case or not. There is a lot more than a scintilla of evidence.

Let’s not forget that the harassment is pursuant to scientology policy. Policy that cannot change and has been in effect since the 1960’s. Here is what the US Department of Justice had to say about scientology harassment in the prosecution of 11 top scientology officials who ended up pleading guilty and going to prison for a massive harassment campaign in the 1970’s:

US Department of Justice Scathing Takedown of Scientology

Here are just two quotes from that document:

[They] considered themselves above the law. They believed that they had carte blanche to violate the rights of others, frame critics in order to destroy them, burglarize private and public offices and steal documents…

The defendants and their cohorts launched vicious smear campaigns, spreading falsehoods against those they perceived to be enemies of Scientology in order to discredit them and, in some instances, cause them to lose their employment.

That is a lot more than a “scintilla” of evidence.

 

Every single instance of supposed harassment by the Church has been debunked.

Erm, no it hasn’t. In fact, they cannot point to a single instance that HAS been debunked. The instances of harassment are ALL pending before the courts.

 

This includes frivolous lawsuits which have been issued against the Church and which have been dismissed by the Courts, resulting in instances of complainants being ordered to pay costs to the Church.

This is also blatantly false.

These so-called “frivolous lawsuits” have not been “dismissed by the courts.”

• Valerie Haney case was sent by the court to scientology’s fake arbitration procedure. It has not been dismissed.
• Masterson victims case was sent by the court to fake scientology arbitration, but overturned on appeal, and remains pending the completion of the criminal case (sentencing) of Masterson.
• Baxter/Guider case was also sent by the trial court to fake scientology arbitration, and is pending appeal of that order.
• Leah Remini case is very much alive and pending before the court in Los Angeles.

In fact, none of these “frivolous” lawsuits alleging harassment have been “dismissed by the Courts.”

The only case where the complainants were ordered to “pay costs to the Church” was the Headley case in 2012.

Subsequent to that, scientology filed a frivolous lawsuit against Debbie Cook and ended up paying to settle the case they filed, an amount dwarfing the $40,000 the court ordered the Headley’s to pay.

 

Once again, unless you are willing to spend the time and have the resources to research the scientology bs they send to the media, their lies piled on lies go unchecked.

Perhaps 60 Minutes could do a follow up piece concerning the “church” lying response….