One of the great things about Australian society is that unlike other countries, we aren’t afraid to drag topics kicking and screaming into the public sphere for open discussion.

In my view, this is a two-faced organisation, Scientology is not a religious organisation.

It is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs.

-Australian Senator Nick Xenophon


The above was part of a speech given by Xenophon to the Australian parliament recently. You can’t get much more public then the parliament of Australia and naturally the Church of Scientology isn’t happy about it.

Of course that doesn’t mean they’ve actually addressed any of the concerns raised…

Xenophon’s speech to parliament comes on the back of receiving letters from ex-Scientologists. He’s also previously questioned the tax exempt status offered to the organisation and presumably conducted his own research.

Of the letters received by Xenephon;

Perth man Aaron Saxton, admits to torture and blackmail while working for the Church of Scientology in Australia and at its US headquarters between 1989 and 1996.

Carmel Underwood, a former executive director of the church’s Sydney branch, alleges a child abuse cover-up in the 1980s in which the vicim was “coached” to lie to authorities.

Sydney man Dean Detheridge, part of the church for 17 years, says the church “culled … embarrassing revelations and confessions” from counselling sessions that could be used against members who turned against the church.He also says he witnesses and participated in “concerted efforts to extract as much money as possible” from parishioners with “absolutely no regard” for their financial situation.


I couldn’t help but notice that last sentence in particular. Extracting as much money from people with no regard for their financial situation has been a recurring theme raised by ex Polaris Media Group associates. Polaris Media Group being a MLM sales company operating in Australia and recently publicly linked to Scientology itself.

The letters Xenephon received paint a not so pretty picture and implicate Scientology in a range of crimes “including forced imprisonment, coerced abortions, embezzlement of church funds, physical violence, intimidation and blackmail.”

Additionally I recently wrote about the unanswered questions left over the death of Australian soldier Edward McBride. McBride was a recent convert to Scientology who after paying $25,000 for one of their courses and undergoing extensive auditing, was found dead just days later.

The case seemingly involved at the very least blackmail and intimidation but McBride’s audit files were sheepishly whisked off by the church to the US before any Australian authorities could examine them.

As of yet no investigation into the church’s conduct has been launched.

Given the public nature of Xenephon’s claims, naturally the church of Scientology has been forced to respond.

Did they address any of the issues raised by Xenephon? Of course not, instead all the Australian public got is a long winded diatribe detailing the legitimacy of the church as a religion.

Ironic somewhat considering Xenephon “accused the Church of Scientology of hiding behind religious beliefs to get rich.”

This is an outrageous abuse of Parliamentary privilege from a Senator who would not even meet with Church representatives several months ago to discuss his concerns.


In a nutshell parliamentary privilege (if I’m understanding it correctly) means the church cannot take legal action against Xenephon for his comments because his concerns were raised in parliament.

In other words the church of Scientology is pissed that they cannot challenge Xenephon on his own platform (or more importantly instigate massive legal action as they are known to do). Again, this is somewhat ironic given when asked why the church refused to hand over Edward McBride’s audit file, which is believed to contain crucial evidence into his suicide, the church cited “confessional privilege”.

Double standards much?

The church then goes on to attempt to discredit the information provided by its ex-members.

Senator Xenophon is obviously being pressured by disgruntled former members who use hate speech and distorted accounts of their experiences in the Church. They are about as reliable as former spouses are when talking about their ex-partner.

Senator Xenophon’s attempt to marginalise Scientologists by saying that they should not be believed, is fascistic and violates freedom of speech and the right to religious beliefs. It is former members or apostates that are notoriously unreliable as witnesses.


Note that the church explicitly does not deny any of the accusations made but instead the church claims that by Xenephon raising his concerns, he is thus violating Scientologists freedom of speech and religious beliefs.

Last I checked “forced imprisonment, coerced abortions, embezzlement of church funds, physical violence, intimidation and blackmail” were neither protected under freedom of speech nor religious beliefs.

Also there’s concern over the church’s request to easily dismiss it’s former member’s. Tommy Davis, public spokesperson for the church of Scientology gives his response to publicly discussing Scientology:


If asking currently practicing Scientologists is violating their religious beliefs and we have to dismiss ex-members testimony, how is any information beyond what the church itself chooses to release to the public ever going to be discussed?

I can’t think of why a religion would be so hell bent on controlling information in the public sphere but I can certainly understand a cult wanting to do so.

Scientology has fought for and upheld religious freedom around the world and is accepted as a religion throughout the world. In a few countries, the Church has been forced to litigate the issue of its religiosity, either affirmatively or in response to outrageous unfounded charges.

Inevitably, the Church has prevailed in these cases and its religious bona fides have been unequivocally recognised.


At the present time Scientology is not officially recognised as a religion in the UK, Russia, Israel, Ireland or Germany. And as for fighting for religious freedom, battling court case after court case around the world when governments accuse you of being a cult is hardly fighting for religious freedom now is it?

As for “outrageous and unfounded charges”, the church of Scientology has been convicted of fraud twice in France and it’s French leader once for involuntary homicide. In the US Hubbard’s wife and ten other Scientology executives served jail time for participating in ‘Operation Snow White’.

Operation Snow White involved the “infiltration, wiretapping and theft of documents in government offices, most notably those of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS).”

They don’t sound like outrageous unfounded charges to me.

The rest of the Scientology letter waffles on about how great Scientology but not surprisingly does not address any of Xenephon’s concerns.

This is similar to the response I received from Scientology church member Todd Ormond over my article publicly linking Scientology and Polaris Media Group;

Hi All

I’m a staff member at the Church of Scientology. A bona fide religion recognized by the High Court of Australia.

I find the above insults to be vilification of my religious beliefs. That is now a criminal act. Akin to racist abuse. We have nothing to hide, whether it’s WISE or Narconon or Criminon, or any community betterment program. We believe in making a world without insanity, crime and war.

I’ve got no affiliation to Polaris, but shouldn’t all you cynics read for yourselves the material in question before you form a judgement.

I want to help others do better in life. Do you?

Regards
Todd


Similarly none of the concerns raised by myself or readers were addressed.

I’m somewhat glad that publicly the church of Scientology is being challenged here in Australia. I’m not particularly well versed with everything they have done over the years but from what I have researched and seen the picture painted is not particularly good.

The biggest problem as I see it is the reluctance to ‘come clean’. In the information age that we live in today it is simply not feasible to run an organisation and demand such secrecy under the guise of religious freedom and hate speech. There’s a reason Scientology has come under fire from so many governments and it needs to be further examined.

My right to criticise any religion is just as valid as a religious person’s right to religious beliefs. Criticism of a religion is not personal discrimination and the attempt to intertwine the two is a ridiculously weak construct.

Here’s hoping Xenephon gets the ball rolling and finally we as a nation can have an open discussion about the moral and legal validity of Scientology in Australia.

Thanks to reader James for the story tipoff.

1. Russia’s Scientology book ban doesn’t go far enough
2. Scientology Soldier's Sizzling Suicide
3. Scientology showcases the viciousness of fair game
4. Xenophon’s Scientology Senate inquiry fails, what now?
5. Unanswered Questions: Scientology and Edward McBride