I’ve never understood how they scammed their way into being called a church. They are a financially predatory cult at best.
I know, and I’ve never understood where they get all their money. I guess there are some very well-heeled members of this “church.”
They are worldwide. I was taking a taxi in Bogota when we passed a very large building marked CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY
I’ve watched a number of videos on them and how they got tax exempt status.
Basically the IRS accused them of not paying their taxes to the tune of millions and millions of dollars.
they basically broke the will of the IRS by filing hundreds of lawsuits all over the country which required the IRS to defend each one, costing the IRS millions.
After years and years of fighting a new President and IRS commissioner took office and the new IRS commissioner just wanted to end it all and gave in to what they wanted.
They appear to be (like the Jim Jones cult) some type of offspring of intelligence community mind control experiments.
They are a highly dangerous cult—and should have been banned decades ago.
There was a case (don't recall when...80s?) that the government had filed to have that status revoked. But Scientology was able to effectively blackmail prosecutors and some government agents and higher ups. The suit was dropped.