Clearly, the Alex Gibney OpEd piece in the LA Times is still giving Miscavige heartburn.
And he has no response other than a lame letter to the editor by his spokespuppet Monique Yingling.
This is the latest appeared in the Razzline. Sent by a “public scientologist” from a “csi.com” (church of scientology international) email address….
All they can do is hope to generate “positive comments” — using a “screen name”? Good luck with that.
From: Xxxxx Xxxxx [mailto:xxxxx@csi.com]
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 3:04 PM
To: Subject: “Scientology deserves its tax exemption” – LA Times – link
to LA Times Letter to Editor
Good day, all!
The Church of Scientology’s tax attorney slams back—although very
professionally—at recent media coverage of a self-serving filmmaker
who suggests the Church should lose its tax exemption.
Link à Scientology deserves its tax exemption
See attorney Monique Yingling’s no-nonsense rebuttal at the link
above.
If you’d like to write a comment in the Time’s comments section,
please do. (I suggest using a screen name.) You can also give a
thumbs-up to comments you like, and a thumbs-down to those you
think unproductive.
Feel free to circulate this as you think helpful.
Very best!
Xxxxx Xxxxxx
Bottom line: A “Church” is not a “Religion”. A “Religion” is not a “Church”. For example there are many different churches which practice the Christian religion.
Regarding religion, the First Amendment says plainly and simply, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”
That’s all it says on the subject. It does not say anything about churches.
So, I would think positive. It is not “inevitable” that they will keep their tax exempt status.
Looking forward to pulling up that Ted Koppel interview. I so love watching ‘Mighty Mouse’ DM squirm
It is humorous that they feel the need to educate people on how to “do” social media. It really is a new world to them. Well, hopefully Scientologists will read what they are commenting on. Again, the negative publicity is drawing them in.
For whatever its worth, here’s some advice for Apple Box Boy David Miscavige:
In my experience, the Razzline arouses curiosity in the issues it is attempts to handle.
Ulitised as a tool for damage control, The Razzline effectively disseminates what you want contained
It does this is by directing attention to the defense of something without giving much data on what that something is.
The Razzline reader is advised to read, understand and disseminate the Church of Scientology’s handling of a problem, without being duly advised in sufficient detail about the actual problem.
All this does is arouse curiosity.
Cappice, ABB?
Whoops, edit: “Capisce”. I’m slipping on my mafioso slang. One of my many informal studies.
Where does the Monique Rathbun suit lie as of May 5, 2015? I read T Ortegas informative blog, but not altogether sure of the dates of the case.
When do you think the “church” will learn that the only way to change the downward spiral of the public’s opinion is to disinfect itself – admit “its” sins – clean up its act – truly be about doing good works – get rid of DISCONNECTION. I hope it’s soon, but I won’t hold my breath.
Why even bother sending such an e mail? Because the razz slime is concerned, very concerned.
Jeez, this is how the church “mobilizes” against the call to take away its tax exemption? With screen names? I assume that most of Kirstie Alley’s “ten million church members worldwide” left comments, right?
The internet “acid” is steadily eating away at the tax exemption of scio. Neither ChiefOfBoneheads nor Yngling can know who in government -especially the IRS – is taking a new look at that exemption. In one stroke, revoking it and demanding back taxes, could totally crush scio financially. If, along with that, they demanded back taxes from all who had claimed exemptions for contributions, especially the whales…ah, that is a scenario to be cherished.
“Feel free to circulate this as you think helpful”. Love how it was sent straight to Mike!
Wow. Curios-er and curious-er.
Consider that after the HBO Going Clear documentary then I guess that in total there were well in excess of 3 million Americans aware of the abuses of the Church. Maybe double that number not counting HBO subscribers. Add to that the fact that their tax exemption was highlighted as perhaps undeserving. If these 3-6 million Americans felt that this tax exemption were underserving they would have worked out that there was an epetition aimed at taking away that tax-exempt status. So there could have been 3-6 million signatures to that effect. Instead, there were close to 30,000 signatures to that effect. That means that for every American who was aware of the abuses of the Church and wanted their tax-exempt status to be taken away, there are at 100-200 Americans who are willing to have them continue their abuses and to subsidise them with their taxes to help them continue these abuses. So losing their tax-exempt status isn’t going to happen. And I know that religious organisations in the US lose their tax-exempt status on a regular basis but this is only for cases where they are an organisation and do not themselves claim they are a religion. There is a big difference. The Church of Scientology, in its Miscavige incarnation, claims it is a religion. It achieved tax-exemption. There is no way it is ever going to lose that tax-exempt status once granted. It would be a hugely unpopular move. People in the US should just accept that they will keep this tax exemption for their entire future.
” That means that for every American who was aware of the abuses of the Church and wanted their tax-exempt status to be taken away, there are at 100-200 Americans who are willing to have them continue their abuses and to subsidise them with their taxes to help them continue these abuses.”
Roland,
I understand your point of view however the ‘meaning’ you refer to is probably less that the Americans are willing to have them continue than it is in being complacent about taking action to cause change. The mood of the day is to simply ‘not get involved’ because their are other fish frying that are more important. Doesn’t make it right, just saying.
That the issue is being brought up at all after all the years of abuse is very telling and points to change that is in the air. The smell of it is cult roasting on an open fire and it is good that the heat is now at least turnned on. I recommend tossing another log on at every opportunity because that dish should be served very well done. Burnt to a crisp is good!
Yo Dave Miscavige,
Let it die good buddy. And don’t forget, last sociopath out should turn out the lights!
RolandRB,
Your mindset is well known as DEFEATISM. Not the way things get done. For example, who is your ‘obvious’ next President of the US, and why should all of the other candidates just-forget-about-it?
Perhaps the reason that DM is so upset about Gibney’s OP ED piece was because he actually made a distinction between the actions of Miscavige & the Cherch and he spiritual philosophy. Gibney actuallysaid that Scientologists had an unalienable right practice their RELIGION, but that DM’s abusive actions as the head of a religious tax exempt ORGANIZATION were not protected.
I don’t think that DM wants that distinction made. Why? Besides losing tax exemption for the COS, I think he is just as much afraid of people noticing the strangeness of that part of the IRS settlement in which the IRS basically delegated their power to determine which Scientologists could qualify for tax exemption.
If independents who Scientology in benign way had an opportunity to qualify for tax exempt status DM would find himself on an equal footing with independent practitioners who are not practicing abusively. He could not stand up to the competition and I think that he is aware of this.
Copyrighting the name of a church is one thing, but copyrighting the name of a religion is an infringement and a violation of the first amendment right to practice one’s own religion. …..Imagine the uproar if some “religious” organization tried to copyright the words “Christianity”, “Buddhism”, “Judaism”, “Islam”, or “Hinduism” and then tried to enforce those copyrights and say no one except the copyright owners could claim to practice their religion.
Yingling is alays sent as a protector of scn insanities… she was sent to the MILS/MIVILUDES govt office long ago, and got absolutely nothing from France.
Not even half as enterprising as the original plan to overwhelm the “entheta” on a.r.s. And, it exposes victims to information from outside the bubble.
Carry on 🙂
But here’s the best part: if you go to the comments on Yingling’s letter, the COS shills (2 or 3) were met head-on by fairly knowledgeable critics. The COS shills disappeared pretty quickly. Here is where you find the comments on the Yingling letter… http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-le-0426-sunday-scientology-tax-exemption-20150426-story.html#panel=comments
Thanks for the link, brendon! I went on and sparred with their lone poster. Strong is the Kool-Aid in that poster.
David thumbs-down Miscavige,
Please add a thumbs-down icon to each posting on Freedumb and Scientology sites.
That’s what I was looking for when i went on the site…
But there is a good reason they don’t have a “thumbs down” icon. Planet Earth hates this cult with a passion.
Consciousness of guilt is observable as church silence to the recent shit storms. A truly honorable church would be in a public uproar about the documentary and the Gibney OpEd. An honorable church would want televised debate and interviews. But no. The church writes an indignant letter to the editor. It’s carefully written so TECHNICALLY it’s not a bunch of lies. This only happened because David Miscavige started boiling over in the pot he is currently cooking in. Artificially induced favorable comments in support of that letter aren’t going to pull David Miscavige out of that stew pot and back into an auditorium packed with thousands of cheering people and a choked-up, saluting Tom Cruise at stage left. There won’t be any more of that even with lots of favorable letters to the editor. I think a fair amount of remaining scientologists are aware of this. I wonder how many of them fear for their “eternity”.
Example of how to administer cognitive dissonance: Preach “communication is the single most powerful item or object in this or any other universe”, while simultaneously declaring criticism should be avoided at all costs.
Instead of the the eight-point cross, the Church of Scientology’s emblem should be a picture of the see, speak, and hear-no-evil monkeys.
Church of the Double Cross…
I’m trying to imagine how weird it must be to be David “Let Him Die” Miscavige.
He knows that he’s guilty of inurement, his legion of lawyers know he’s guilty of inurement, many of the people around him know he’s guilty. So just how does one go about ensuring that particular withhold stays in the “missed” category. Is the scotch still keeping the screaming demons away at night?
Alex Gibney stated his case with certainty and class in a very public forum. A lot of people listen to Gibney.
Miscavige isn’t talking. Silent. Sock-puppet city. Wonder if his lawyers advised him to plead the 5th well in advance of any indictment?
Because he is, and always has been and always will be, a COWARD. Once Ted Koppel on Nightline ripped him a new one, he’s decided to stay holed up forever sending out missives with someone else’s name attached. He’s nothing but a scared little piss ant. Oh…and did I mentioned he’s a COWARD? He even wants his dad to die so he can’t spill the beans about what he experienced under the thumb of his son, David “Let Him Die” Miscavige. The world hates you now, Little Davy Boy.
There is almost no one left to defend this cult. I hope the IRS pulls the plug. At least divert some of the whale cash…
Not true, John Locke! Why there’s Jim Jones and his People’s Temple in Jonestown in Guyana! He’ll defend this cult. Why just the other day he…wait…what? Oh yeah, I forgot. He forced all of his members to commit suicide. My bad! Well, the cult continues to be F.U.B.A.R.
I can’t tell you how happy I am at the impact that Going Clear has made so far!
Oh and love this part – especially the unsaid subtext in parenthesis.
“The Church of Scientology’s tax attorney slams back—although very
professionally (as opposed to our church’s usual responses which sound like the rantings of a very guilty lunatic).
This is so pathetic on the Cos’s part. They are trying to generate the same “flow” that happens here on the blogs. I wish them the Very Best of Luck with that. The people who post will get responses that will contradict everything that the church tells them. Probably more people will get the idea to do internet research and end up leaving. This is a little risky to tell the parishioners to get online.
It’s so interesting and telling how there is no one who will step up publicly and defend the CoS. No one, except a paid attorney who’s been working for David Miscavige=Church of Scientology for decades. The other person is John Travolta, but even then he was asked the question at a movie premier (the same film is available right now for rent on Dish). It wasn’t like JT contacted the media to defend his “beautiful church”. Also, JT mainly stated that the Cos is so wonderful because HE was consoled by it following the death of his son. He made that his main point and didn’t elaborate on much else.
they never know when to leave something alone.
Yes they are quite bothered lately.
I recently received emails with links to Freedom mag from a hushmail account with artcles about Mike Rinder and now Alex Gibney. How silly they are to not care who they send to, just pile them up as stats, I reckon.
Pathetic!