Persecution of Scientologists in America

Persecution of Scientologists in America

Scientology: religious persecution in USA?

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The Church of Scientology claims "human rights abuses against Scientologists in USA". The Church alleges that its American members

• are being systematically discriminated

• have been dismissed from jobs

• have been dismissed from schools

• have been dismissed from political parties

• have been dismissed from social, business and political organizations

• have been denied the right to professional licences

• have been denied the right to perform their art

• have been denied the right to open/maintain bank accounts and open loans

• have been denied the right to use public facilities and concert halls

• are regularly blacklisted, boycotted, vilified, ostracized and threatened simply due to their association with the religion of Scientology.

To sum it up, Scientology is a persecuted religion.

 

We have people like Leah Remini funded by the christian conservatives to hog up lies about the Church.

               

Mocking Religion, Promoting Lies and Spreading Hate:

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What Leah Remini and Guest Talking Head Lawrence Wright Have in Common

           

       

                                                                                                           

Both arrogantly disparage and mock religious faith

An avowed atheist, Lawrence Wright has a long history of disparaging in his books and magazine articles those who practice religion. He even refers to religious faith as a “prison of belief.” It’s not just Scientologists who incur his arrogant condescending wrath, but also Muslims, Christians and others.

In fact, Wright bashes religion at every opportunity. He once stated in an interview that “religion is always an irrational exercise.” In a 2012 article in The New Yorker, he went after the Mormon religion, stating that “Mormons now are overrepresented in Congress, with six senators (including Harry Reid, the majority leader) and ten House members.”

His attack on the Scientology religion reached a new low in religious bigotry. Even one of his primary sources later published a scathing review saying Wright had squandered an opportunity to take an honest look at the Church, instead “…regurgitating what several before him had already done…”

Wright bashes religion at every opportunity.

Since hitching her wagon to a religious hate movement, Leah Remini has repeatedly mocked and tried to shame others for their beliefs. Her reality TV show inspires unhinged individuals to threaten others for their beliefs.

Both promote fake news

Wright declined the Church’s repeated offers to assist him in making his book accurate. Instead of seeking information from the Church, he gravitated toward a small group of bitter individuals who have spent years spreading discredited, uncorroborated claims about the Church as revenge for being kicked out for malfeasance and dishonesty.

These are the same people who form Leah Remini’s small clique. The result: Larry’s story, like Leah’s, was utterly FAKE NEWS.

Wright’s initial batch of statements, assertions and questions submitted to the Church to fact check totaled 971; of these, 569 were entirely false. Even after a four-month rewrite period, Wright still got it wrong because of the 1,150 “fact-check” inquiries the Church addressed, 542 were so inaccurate, they were nowhere to be found in the final article.

Even after a four-month rewrite period, Wright still got it wrong because of the 1,150 “fact-check” inquiries the Church addressed, 542 were so inaccurate, they were nowhere to be found in the final article.

Wright’s laundry list of lies he promoted included a blatantly untrue accusation about the Church’s stance on gay rights. Wright ignored the fact that the Church never engages in any kind of political activities and cannot do so. Further, as a matter of policy, it rarely takes positions on legislation. Nor is it remotely a matter of faith, given that the Creed of the Church expresses that the religion is open to all. Wright ignored the facts even when they were in front of him in black and white.

Garry Scarff (center), one of the sources used by Wright for his book

One of the most outrageous claims from Wright was the false story that a Scientologist who was a bank teller was told to carry out a robbery to pay off his debt to the Church. Per his endnotes, Mr. Wright attributes this story to a thoroughly discredited individual named Garry Scarff, who as it turns out was never a Scientologist and is better known according to published accounts as the person who claimed to have survived the Jonestown tragedy of the Rev. Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple. Wright’s source, who claimed to have lost his father, his fiancée and his eight-month-old son, later admitted it was a hoax. As for the supposed bank robbery and money going to the Church, overwhelming evidence points to the fact that it was made up from whole cloth: there are no public records, no news accounts, no bank teller and no one in law enforcement who has ever heard of this incident.

Yet another outrageous falsehood was an apostate-corroborated fairy tale account of a pair of failed lawsuits instigated by a husband-and-wife apostate team. When a federal district court judge looked at the undisputed facts, including that both voluntarily joined the Scientology religious order knowing the commitment of dedicated ministerial work, in none-too-blunt terms the judge dismissed both cases. The Church was awarded over $40,000 in costs.

Wright claims that L. Ron Hubbard wrote his parents out of Mr. Hubbard’s biography. A review of the 16-volume biographical encyclopedia (with which Mr. Wright is familiar and claims to have read in part) shows photographs of Mr. Hubbard’s parents and Mr. Hubbard’s own words about them.

Then there was Wright’s reliance on a source who has had no contact with Scientology since 1959 and who publicly retracted his claims under oath in May and July 1987, including admitting that his allegations were flights of fantasy and the product of his own imagination. These statements concerned the years in which Dianetics and Scientology were under development and were critical underpinnings to Wright’s narrative about Mr. Hubbard. Wright claimed that the source recanted the recantations “five years later.” One small problem: the source passed away on September 16, 1991, and was obviously not issuing statements from the grave “five years later.” His 1987 recantations remain his final word on the matter.

Then there was Wright’s reliance on a source who has had no contact with Scientology since 1959 and who publicly retracted his claims under oath in May and July 1987.

Lawrence Wright’s publisher was forced to correct nearly a dozen inaccuracies in the paperback version.

In the final analysis, the outcome of the fact checking of Lawrence Wright's initial "journalistic" work tells a story of Wright’s negligence and tabloid approach. He is fake news.

As for Leah Remini, she continues her obnoxious efforts to harass the Church with made-up stories. This culminated in a scandalous report filed in 2013 with the LAPD that her book shows was a fraud from the outset. It was solely intended to get publicity and harass the leader of the religion and his wife, who had refused contact with Ms. Remini because of her disgraceful behavior that was both abusive and unethical. Ms. Remini also outrageously touts that the LAPD failed to do its job when it investigated her phony report and within hours unambiguously declared it “unfounded,” causing her stunt to blow up in her face. Anyone knowingly making a false report to law enforcement is a bald-faced liar who should be held accountable for diverting police from protecting the public.

Leah Remini conveniently rewrites her revisionist history. The real story is that she desperately tried to remain a Scientologist in 2013, knowing full well she was on the verge of being expelled for refusing to abide by the high level of ethics and decency Scientologists are expected to maintain. Her repeated ethical lapses and callous treatment of others led to an ecclesiastical review which resulted in her being expelled.

She now regurgitates the tired myths the Church has repeatedly debunked, circulated by the same tiny clique of expelled former staffers bitter at having lost the positions they enjoyed before their malfeasance and unethical conduct were uncovered. Ms. Remini is now joined at the hip with this collection of deadbeats, admitted liars, self-admitted perjurers, wife beaters and worse.

Amy Scobee, one of Leah Remini’s sources on her show

She is using her reality TV show to give a platform to these miscreants who continue to spread fake news that for years has been discredited, including in courts. In just one example, Remini didn’t seem to care that source Amy Scobee couldn’t keep her facts straight about an incident she alleged occurred three decades ago.

Both view Scientology a cottage industry where they can make a buck

With her career waning, Leah Remini has become a full-time professional anti-Scientologist, spreading hate for money. She disingenuously pretends with a phony self-righteousness that she is fighting for a cause, when it’s all just about making a buck. Seeking to salvage her career, she published a book about her “leaving” the Church of Scientology, to make money, then sold her anti-Scientology series to A&E. If that were not enough, Remini then attempted to extort the Church by first demanding $500,000, followed by an additional $1 million, because the Church invoked its First Amendment right to respond to her false claims with the truth. Remini’s indignant reply, when ABC’s Dan Harris asked about her being paid by A&E: “I don’t work for free.”

He even lied to the Associated Press by claiming he was “thinking about” writing a book when he already had arrangements to do so.

Wright wrote his first anti-Scientology piece as a magazine article. When asked by the Daily Beast about his magazine contract, Lawrence Wright replied, “I get paid by the word, like most writers. That’s one reason why the Scientology article was 25,000 words long.”

Both are publicity seekers who promote hate to gain attention

Mug shot of Erin McMurtry

Leah Remini now makes a career of disparaging her former religion. Her sensationalized anti-Scientology statements have inflamed acts of religious hate, such as in the case of Erin McMurtry, who on December 14, 2015, drove her car through the front of the Church of Scientology of Austin, Texas. McMurtry plowed across the lobby before coming to a stop in front of the nursery, which only hours before had been filled with children. Before McMurtry committed her crime, she had posted on her Facebook page praises for Remini and Remini’s anti-Scientology rhetoric. Since the series began, hundreds of hate posts and tweets parroting hate speech from Remini’s show have been directed against members of the Church.

Her sensationalized anti-Scientology statements have inflamed acts of religious hate.

Floundering in her career when she made her highly-publicized “exit” from the Church of Scientology in 2013, Leah Remini was desperate for a new show. She had been fired after a brief stint on “The Talk.” A sitcom in early 2013, “Family Tools,” was scorched by critics, with just two of the 10 shows shot actually airing before it was canceled for the season. Her last reality series, “It’s All Relative,” was described by one Variety critic as “just another celebrity-sitcom-on-the-cheap.” Her A&E anti-Scientology series was described by the Los Angeles Times as having “the look and feel of a Real Housewives confessional.” Her most recent work unrelated to spreading religious hate involved acting in a web-streamed movie.

Wright’s ambition to make it in Hollywood goes back years. His 2006 one-man play made into a documentary film in 2010 was described by one film critic as “A Little too Much of Lawrence Wright, A Little too Little of His Subjects.” New York Times reviewer Dexter Filkins wrote of his 2006 book which the play was based on: “Wright has drawn up verbatim reconstructions of entire conversations, some of which took place more than a decade ago. Many of these conversations are riveting. Still, in some cases, it’s hard to believe that memories are that good.”

“Wright has drawn up verbatim reconstructions of entire conversations, some of which took place more than a decade ago. Many of these conversations are riveting. Still, in some cases, it’s hard to believe that memories are that good.”

It is no surprise that the only people Leah Remini could find as sources for her scripted, rehearsed and acted “reality” show are the exact same handful of crazed, embittered zealots Wright relied upon. All are disreputable characters who have long-established histories of corroborating each other’s lies. Moreoever, they have changed their stories numerous times, told increasingly outrageous tales, and covered up their own sordid history of domestic abuse, violence, financial malfeasance and theft. That describes Leah Remini and Lawrence Wright’s sources and how they manufacture fake news.

                   

Statement of the Church of Scientology International

           

Leah Remini continues to profit by harassing her former religion and its parishioners, spreading provable lies which generate hate, bigotry and violence.

           

As everyone knows from recent tragic events, including those in Charlottesville, Virginia, we live in a volatile time of accelerating hate and intolerance. As the Human Rights Campaign President said of this weekend’s event, “Hate and bigotry must never be met with silence or half-hearted rebukes.”

           

Remini’s brand of hate and bigotry is funded by A&E. To date, Remini’s reality show has led to some 500 documented threats of violence, death threats, acts of vandalism and hate targeting the Church, its parishioners and its leaders. One came from a 13-year-old boy who posted a death threat against a Church leader after binge watching Remini’s show. Meanwhile, A&E executives Nancy Dubuc, Paul Buccerri and Rob Sharenow ignore the incendiary climate of religious hatred they are responsible for generating.

           

Like the other fixated anti-Scientologists she conspires with, Remini was expelled from the Church years ago for unethical conduct. She begged to remain a parishioner, and has admitted the Church helped and supported her during most of her life. Instead of moving on with her life, Remini has chosen to put lives at risk. Her reliance on paid sources exposes as a fraud the network’s “policy” of “zero tolerance” for remunerating sources in documentary programs. Just as the production of Generation KKK blew up after it leaked that Klan members were on its payroll, the same has been found to be the case for “Aftermath” and other A&E shows.

           

Click here to see a list of hate crimes, threats and violence spawned by Leah Remini.

           

Leah Remini’s slanderous fabrications about the Church of Scientology, in an effort to drum up publicity for her made-up “docuseries,” are despicable. Her reality show “Aftermath” is really “Leah Remini: After Money.” It is nothing more than a scripted, rehearsed, acted and dramatized work of fiction.

           

The production company has been forced to admit it pays Remini and her sidekick, Mike Rinder—someone the Church expelled a decade ago for severe malfeasance and a self-admitted propensity to lie. There were more, including in-kind payments, made all the worse when those sources spread religious hate and bigotry. When A&E cancelled Generation KKK after it leaked that sources were paid, the network claimed that network policy against paying sources was violated. Apparently, Leah Remini’s hate and bigotry deserves payments, however, at least according to her production company partners Eli Holzman and Aaron Saidman. Hey, they even hired Myles Reiff as showrunner, plucking him from This Is Just a Test—the production company that produced Generation KKK.

           

Sadly, Remini has continuously harassed and maligned her former religion, which she herself admits provided her help and support for most of her             life. She has become what she once vowed she would never be: “This bitter ex-Scientologist.” Leah Remini needs to move on with her life and career. She needs to stop blaming the Church and others for her unhappiness and setbacks in life. More importantly, she needs to stop promoting alarming hatred and religious intolerance as a means to line her pockets.

               

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Hate in Her Heart $$$ on Her Mind

           

Leah Remini proclaimed in a 2014 BuzzFeed interview that “I don’t want to be known as this bitter, ex-Scientologist.”

           

Not only has she become exactly that by failing to move on with her life, Remini’s anti-Scientology shtick is the dead horse she keeps beating in a desperate attempt to stay relevant.

           

Remini made her highly publicized “exit” from the Church of Scientology in July 2013 via a story leaked to the supermarket tabloids. Her career at the time was already in free-fall, plunging at an increasingly faster pace.

           

Now she exploits her former religion to further her career since even as a chair on Match Game, she failed and was voted not to return because of her “disruption” and “terrible answers.”

           

How Remini Recruits Bullies to Join her Harassment Campaign

           

It hardly seems a coincidence that Remini’s troubles were mounting as she drifted from and eventually was kicked out of the Church. She began cozying up to the usual handful of crazed anti-Scientology zealots lurking on the Internet fringe. She also was on the verge of being expelled from the Church for refusing to abide by its high ethical standards and began spying for these bullies.

           

After her tabloid-orchestrated departure announcement, Remini’s first move was to file a false “missing persons” report in August 2013 to harass the wife of the leader of the religion. It was part of a harassment campaign cooked up with bullies Mike Rinder, Marc and Claire Headley and Tony Ortega. Remini used an acquaintance of hers in the LAPD to personally file the report, which she quickly leaked to the media. But it all blew up in her face when the LAPD took the extraordinary step of thoroughly debunking to the media Remini’s absurd claim within hours, calling it “unfounded.” Remini wasted valuable public resources in an attempt to viciously harass the Church leader’s wife, whom Ms. Remini has obsessively stalked.

           

Within hours, what had been a gloating Remini turned red-faced with embarrassment when the LAPD closed the case. Unable to admit or accept she was wrong, Remini continues unsuccessfully to try to spread her myth. There is no goodwill in her actions. Her false reports have nothing to do with a big heart. They have to do with the burning resentment usually only found in a cast aside, vindictive and bitter ex-wife.

           

Within hours, what had been a gloating Remini turned red-faced with embarrassment when the LAPD closed the case.

           

How Leah Remini Viciously Breaks Up a Family

           

Remini’s dishonesty and disregard for others is a matter of public record. In 1997, she launched a secretive extramarital affair with a married man (and father of a 4-year-old son), Angelo Pagan. When Pagan’s wife at the time, Raquel, found out, she took her story to the Star, claiming that Remini had “coldheartedly wooed her husband” and “didn’t care about destroying a family.”

           

Article in Star magazine, December 1997

           

           

Raquel Pagan also had real concerns about her son living with Angelo and Remini (who were eventually married in 2003). In a declaration she filed in the divorce case, Raquel stated that her son got in trouble at school for talking about “naked girls and sex.” When Raquel asked him where he got the information, he said he got it from TV “at Daddy’s house.” Raquel found out from the other kids that after a certain hour, “porn comes on the TV at Dad’s house.”

           

Leah tried to destroy Angelo’s ex-wife as she always does with her imagined “opponents”.

           

           

Raquel was not the only ex-wife Leah tried to destroy. Elaine Aviles, the mother of two of Pagan’s sons, found herself cut off from her sons by Pagan and Remini. An affidavit filed in the Angelo-Raquel divorce case reveals the unethical behavior Remini exhibited in private. Elaine stated that Remini had shouted profanity and insults against her, and went so far as to tell Elaine she was going to make sure she did not see her older son again.

           

           

“…it was used by Angelo and Ms. Remini as a revenge, for taking Angelo to court… They begun to prevent me from any contact with my son. Ms. Remini even interrupted a private conversation I had with my son Alex by phone. She began to shout out profanity and insults against not only me but also against Angelo’s ex-wife, Raquel. She went as far as to tell me that she was going to make sure that I did not speak with my son Alex and that she would make sure I would not see him again.”

           

The Remini-caused splintering of Pagan’s family, along with her threats and efforts to keep the mother of Pagan’s children from seeing them, exposes Remini as a phony. This callous attitude is typical of Remini’s treatment of family members.

           

How Leah Remini Callously Treats Her Own Family

           

           

In January 2014, National Enquirer ran a story about Leah Remini snubbing another of her sisters, who was dying. Remini’s stepmother, Donna Fiore was quoted in the article as stating, “Leah turned her back on Stephanie while she was dying, and I am furious about it!” It adds that Remini “ignored Stephanie’s pleas for help” before Stephanie died on New Year’s Eve.

           

“Leah turned her back on Stephanie while she was dying…”

           

Years earlier, her own father wrote that Remini had refused to loan him $1,200 to pay for a CAT scan during a cancer scare. He also stated that he called her three times to wish her happy Thanksgiving, and that each time she was too busy to take the call.

           

As her estranged father stated, “You are still the same person you were in Brooklyn. Except you have money and a home, you’re still a self-centered bitch. Everyone around you knows that but because their survival depends on you they really don’t say what’s really on their mind.”

           

“You’re still a self-centered bitch.”

           

Likewise, Remini’s stepfather, George Marshall, has discussed at length problems Remini has with family members. In July 2012 he wrote, “Leah’s sister (younger) Shannon was in tears 3 weeks ago … she was talking about how hard it was working for Leah lately. How critical she was about her work in the house office … In the last 3 months she has fired her mother at least twice. Vicki has quit her post 2 or 3 times because of her critical argument over house things… Shannon has been fired a few times.”

           

In the same report Marshall states, “Angelo has said a few times [in] the past 4 months she doesn’t want to be married anymore to him.”

           

How Leah Remini’s difficulties in getting along with others extends to her professional life

           

           

In March 1999, Remini was sued by her then-managers, Handprint Entertainment, because she refused to pay them their 10 percent commission. Handprint claimed it played a critical role in landing her the six-season deal to star in King of Queens. The case was settled in September 2000.

           

In 2003-2004, Remini also was involved in a lengthy dispute with her former business manager, with whom Remini had broken her contract. The two battled for months in arbitration until it was finally resolved in April 2004, with the arbitrator concluding that the former manager had not violated any rules and that he should be compensated by Remini for 13 of the 26 episodes of the 2001 season of King of Queens. Remini also paid him a settlement amount for breaking the contract.

           

In February 2002, this former manager wrote about Remini hurting her career through her self-destructive behavior: “While working through a long renegotiation of Leah’s television deal, the producer of her show … stated that her overall negative attitude and general negative manner was one of the reasons he felt she did not deserve a certain compensation package… Leah is on her fourth publicist in a year and is having problems with her current publicist after only three months of working together. Leah has been very antagonistic and fault-finding with all of them in turn.”

           

“Leah is on her fourth publicist in a year and is having problems with her current publicist after only three months of working together. Leah has been very antagonistic and fault-finding with all of them in turn.”

           

Remini’s brief job as one of the hosts of The Talk ended in acrimony in 2010, with co-host Sharon Osbourne publicly complaining about Remini’s “negative, unprofessional and childish behavior.”

           

Hate and anger are embedded in her personality, which is always seeking to be at “war” with someone or something. This attitude is something the Church was continually trying to help Leah with.

           

How Leah Remini Doesn’t get Along with Others

           

The wild allegations that Remini now serves up to the media about Scientology to get attention come as no surprise to Scientologists who knew her.

           

“Since she was 14, this was a person that always had to be involved in wars,” said one former friend who has known her since childhood. “There was never a period of time when Leah was having a calm life. It was always huge dramatic outbursts against people.”

           

Prior to her official announcement that she was no longer a Scientologist, Remini desperately tried to handle her inability to get along with others. “I don’t get along with others…” was a common Remini refrain.

           

“I don’t get along with others” was a common Remini refrain.

           

When Remini was unwilling to reform, mend her behavior and become a better person, she began to spread discontent and malicious rumors and lies about individuals in the Church who tried to help her, while refusing to raise her own ethical standards.

           

Still, Church of Scientology staff continued to work with Remini to help her sort things out. They saw firsthand how demeaning and arrogantly she treated others. In describing what it was like to work with her, one person said:

           

“In working with Leah, what struck me as most difficult is how she treated her subordinates. Her description of them or their lack of efficiency in serving her needs was followed with a vulgar description of their ability or inabilities or their shortcomings… Her mother also worked for her and she would constantly complain how she was not doing her job adequately. This was a common threat to those that worked under her charge, and she was quite vocal about this and speaking in vulgar, degrading statements how they are incompetent…”

           

They saw firsthand how demeaning and arrogantly she treated others.

           

One former friend who has known her since childhood said, “This is really nothing more than bullying.” The former friend went on to say, “Haters hate. And they always feel justified in their hate and they always fabricate stories to justify their hate. Hate is hate. Leah is a hater. She’s been a hater since she was 14.”

           

While the self-absorbed Remini treats her break with the Church as one of the most significant historical events of the last 500 years, her former friends can barely even greet it with a yawn.

           

“Nobody cared,” said one former friend. “Leah was never a headline story. She was never an international superstar. She didn’t make the headlines of anything until she started attacking a social betterment group, which was the Church that she was once a part of. It’s getting old.”

           

“People were like, ‘Good riddance. You’re kind of mean.’ Done. Great. Finished. Goodbye.”            

           

Added another former friend who has known Remini since childhood: “She wanted to be the Church of Leah and she wanted everything about her. And if it didn’t go her way, she would lose her mind. No one cared that Leah left the Church. People were like, ‘Good riddance. You’re kind of mean.’ Done. Great. Finished. Goodbye. There was no ‘escaping the Church.’ It’s like, ‘You don’t want to be a Scientologist? Goodbye.’”