A recent interview with Alex Gibney in Rolling Stone where he was asked the following question, jogged my memory. I had the pleasure of seeing Going Clear at its Sundance premiere, which was pretty wild. Is Scientology still on your case? And I’ve done a lot of reporting on Scientology as well, so what’s it like to see Tom Cruise still be the king of Hollywood? It seems he hasn’t had to answer a single question about this stuff in the eight years since Going Clear. I agree. And I’m kind of surprised. I think he took a step away, so he’s not the kind of ambassador for Scientology … [Read more...]
Revoke Scientology’s Tax Exempt Status Immediately
This was originally posted under the title: Auditing Scientology: Reexamining Tax Exemption Eligibility which was the title of the article written by Taylor Holley. I believe the ongoing public policy violations alone should be the immediate end of scientology's tax exempt status. Taylor points out how "Public Policy" has been narrowly interpreted to mean discrimination, but this is not what the intent of this regulation is. Spending tax exempt money to spy on people, smear and destroy them is NOT in keeping with "public policy." Scientology violates this every single day. The IRS sits on … [Read more...]
The Flat Tax — Republicans Reviving the Scientology Campaign to Abolish the IRS
It's in the news that the Republicans in Congress are seeking to implement a flat sales tax and essentially do away with the need for the IRS. Just one recent article can be found here. This story includes the following paragraph: One thing that became clear very quickly: McCarthy’s desperation to have the title of House speaker meant more to him than having any convictions. An example of his clear powerlessness in whatever deals he agreed to were reports that he would bring a ludicrous tax proposal for a vote on the House floor. It’s the Fair Tax Act, a deal first … [Read more...]
“Successful Selling” by L. Ron Hubbard
Hubbard had a lot of his special wisdom to impart about the skills of selling. Scientology objects to the idea that it should be characterized as a business. Not because they are not proud of Hubbard's "administrative technology" which is the ONLY way for any business to succeed (somehow Amazon, Apple and Walmart have muddle their way to success), but because being a business is not compatible with being "religious" and thus the label threatens their tax exempt status. Scientology "administrative technology" is full of Hubbard talking about "prospects," "sales," "commissions" and … [Read more...]
Podcast with Jon Atack
Jon and I recorded a new episode of his excellent podcast. Enjoy. … [Read more...]
Scientology Refunds and Repayments: We Don’t Do That Any More
Recently, a letter from the "Claims Verification Board" came to my attention. In it they state: "It has always been church policy that anyone requesting a refund/repayment must do so within 3 months" -- so of course, they denied the request for return of funds (as they ALWAYS do). This is NOT in fact even what "church policy" says. Let's go through what L. Ron Hubbard said "church policy" is with respect to giving dissatisfied customers their money back (remember, the entire Victorian Inquiry came about because Hubbard refused to return a small amount of money to one … [Read more...]
Can Scientologists be Christians or Jews Too?
This is the eighth "vacation" post, revisiting some of the more important articles to have appeared on my blog over the years. The original post and comments is here. Scientology likes to tell the world that you can be a scientologist and also be a Christian, Jew, Buddhist or anything else. This is an "acceptable truth" (defined by Hubbard this way: Handling truth is a touchy business also. You don't have to tell everything you know-that would jam the comm line too. Tell an acceptable truth. Agreement with one's message is what PR is seeking to achieve. Thus the message … [Read more...]
Scientology: Government Against The Ungovernable
Two Castle Rock, Colorado High School students, Sally and Madelyn, made a short film about scientology. They entered it in a local competition and won first place in their category! They were required to submit a paper, describing their planned film and why it addressed a worthy topic before they began. You can read their submission here: Context Essay This is their description of their documentary: "Our submission was for the 2022 National History day senior division documentary category! The theme this year is debate and diplomacy, we chose to represent this with the conflict seen … [Read more...]
Episode 60: Clearwater City Council Candidate Aaron Smith-Levin
In this episode we talk to our old friend Aaron Smith-Levin about a wide variety of topics, including the status of Goliath the SP dog, but focus on his announcement that he is running to be elected to the Clearwater City Council and the activities of the Aftermath Foundation. Aaron appeared in the original season of The Aftermath, in one of the more memorable episodes: My recent post about Aaron running for City Council: Aaron Smith-Levin for City Council website: Leah Remini: Scientology and the … [Read more...]
Scientology, Christianity and the IRS
Reiterating something I have covered before on this Sunday morning. The idea that you can be a scientologist and a Christian is a lie, yet scientologists claim this all the time to try to appear "normal" or "non-threatening." You can see from the official IRS publication above listing the criteria the IRS uses to determine whether an organization qualifies for tax exempt status as a religious organization, that one of them is: Membership not associated with any other church or denomination During the quest to obtain exemption, scientology explained things to the IRS like … [Read more...]