Is Scientology Self-Destructing?

Buzz Feed ^ | 01/16/2013 | Alex Klein

[SeekAndFind]

Scientology leader David Miscavige has been trumpeting his church's “milestone year,” but the mysterious religion is alienating scores of its most faithful followers with what they call a real estate scam. With anger mounting and defectors fleeing, this may be more than a fleeting crisis; it may be a symptom of an institution in decline.

It's cold in Buffalo, and signs of the housing recovery are hard to see. Take the long walk down Main Street and you'll pass foreclosed homes, a shuttered hospice, and more than a few yellowing FOR SALE signs.

But make it downtown, and you'll see something different: a pristine, ornate cathedral, glowing against the parking lot grey. As of this June, central Buffalo has been crowned by a newly opened Church of Scientology: a gleaming, 41,000-square-foot temple, rising from the ruins with "glazed white terra cotta," "limestone trim," and "elaborately sculpted crown moldings," as one lyric church press release described the newly-erected "Ideal Organization."

On January 14, a widely read (and now removed) sponsored post that appeared on TheAtlantic.com went further, extolling these churches, or Ideal Orgs, as proof of the religion's 2012 "renaissance" – a "milestone year" that saw 12 of these lavish buildings open around the world. "The driving force behind this unparalleled era of growth is David Miscavige, ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion," the advertorial read. "This new breed of Church is ideal in location, design, quality of religious services and social betterment programs."

The Ideal Orgs certainly look great, make headlines, and serve as flashy totems of Scientology's (literally) unspeakable wealth. The Church of Scientology International (CSI) headquarters in Los Angeles says that it has built 34 of these cathedrals worldwide since 2003, with 60 more underway. Almost all were paid for by local parishioners, who had been lobbied by roving teams of fundraisers.

But inside the church, the Ideal Orgs are sparking insurrection. Across the country, donors and high-ranking executives say that the aggressive fundraising and construction scheme is used to enrich the central church at the expense of the rank-and- file, helping to grow the Scientology war chest to over a billion dollars. Two former members, Mike Rinder and Mark Elliott, went so far as to call the project a "real-estate scam." To some of these defectors, the structures are metaphors for the religion itself: garish on the outside, empty on the inside. The irony is that the very expansion that Scientology lauds as its renaissance is actually a symbol of internal dissent and decline.

According to ex-executives, the Ideal Org money play is simple: Find beautiful buildings; get local parishioners to foot the bill; keep them closed; keep fundraising; open them; and finally, have the parishioners pay for renovations, buy supplies, and send money to the central church for the right to practice there.

When Bert Schippers forked over hundreds of thousands of dollars to help build an Ideal Org in downtown Seattle, he thought he was helping save the world. "I thought I was in the best religion on the planet," he says. But as he gave more and more from 2001 to 2008, the new cathedral's doors remained locked shut: to people, but not to money. Schippers, who had joined the church in 1986 and spent more than a million dollars on donations and courses, started asking questions about what, exactly, he was paying for; church leaders barred him, his wife, and his friends from setting foot inside.

"We gave that money because we wanted our local church to have its own building," says Schippers, who runs a circuit-board company with his wife. "But when I found out the church had changed the original teachings of L. Ron Hubbard to make so much money.... I felt absolute, complete, total betrayal." Non-profits often tell you that a donation can change your life, as well as its recipient's. For Schippers, losing so much for so little was a disturbing wake-up call. "It was around then I realized, I was in a f***g cult." He pauses, can't quite find the words. "It's… a mindf***. Just a total mindf***."

And he's not alone. With donors bled dry, and ex-executives staging new assaults on the church, Scientology is facing its biggest challenge since it won tax exemption in 1993. And, again, it's over money. "Scientology was always in it for cash," says Tony Ortega, the former editor of The Village Voice who has spent almost two decades reporting on the religion. "The difference is, before 10 years ago, the money you were being asked to spend was for your own case. Now, it's all fundraising for the central church. These people are exhausted."

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[Ransomed]

I have heard of the the ‘forever war’ by Joe Halderman, never had a chance to read it yet.

I think the first dianetics articles Hubbard wrote came out in Astounding Science Fiction Magazine in 1950. Wiki has the first mention of thetans in 1951. I can’t find any mention of the ‘Brains of Earth’ coming out in a magazine, but I would think if it did it would have been after 1950 for sure. I think it was probably just Vance poking fun at Hubbard, although I can’t find any mention that they knew eachother. It might have been strange had they not, I don’t know.

Jack Vance is 97 years old, probably my fav.

Freegards

[left that other site]

I like Roger Zelazhny too!

I remember when RZ passed away, Mr. LTOS was very sad, as he used to wait eagerly for his next book.

Although I am a Believer, my Faith goes back at least 3000 years, to the call of Abraham out of Ur.

I can’t imagine believing in something when the proof of its fictional origins has a copyright date and an ISBN number! LOL!

It sounds like Vance was having fun with LRH’s invention! hahaha