Church of Scientology faces challenging times

China Daily | Updated: 2009-11-03 08:22

LOS ANGELES: The Church of Scientology is going through a difficult season.

Over the course of two days last week, a French court convicted the church of fraud and Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis' resignation from the church over a litany of concerns was aired publicly.

The embattled institution founded in 1953 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard and counts Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kristie Alley among its members.

But for former Scientologists and scholars of the movement, the setbacks pose a greater challenge coming on the heels of defections of top-level Scientologists who lifted a veil of secrecy on the organization and alleged a culture of violence and control under Hubbard's successor, David Miscavige.

The church has strenuously denied the allegations against Miscavige, portraying the accusers as lying disgruntled ex-employees.

Church spokesman Tommy Davis said Scientology is flourishing, with more than 8,000 Scientology churches, missions and groups in 160-plus nations. He said assets and property holdings have doubled over the past five years, including a new church in Rome and another opening this weekend in Washington, DC.

"From our perspective, things are going pretty great," Davis said. "In fact, that's downplaying it. Actually, what's happening with the church right now is frankly spectacular."

One major survey of American religion shows Scientology declining in the US, however. The estimated number of Americans who identify as Scientologists rose from 45,000 in 1990 to 55,000 in 2001, then plummeted to 25,000 in 2008, according to the American Religion Identification Survey.

Ex-members speak out

Scientology has long been controversial. United States tax authorities granted the church tax exemption in 1993 after a nearly four-decade battle over whether it should be considered a religion. Critics say Scientology is a business, preying on people by charging exorbitant sums for services.

Hubbard taught that the "thetan" - the equivalent of a spirit - can be cleared of negative energy from this and previous lives through a process called auditing. With the aid of auditors, Scientologists seek a state called "Clear" and then advance through various levels of "Operating Thetan".

The allegations of violence were leveled by four former high-ranking Scientology executives who told their stories to the St. Petersburg Times last summer. The executives said they witnessed Miscavige, chairman of the board that oversees the church, hit staff members dozens of times and urged others to do the same.

Davis called the allegations "absolutely, unquestionably false" and "sickening and outrageous".

To critics of Scientology and ex-members, it's a breakthrough - critical voices from former members of the inner circle, not the media or outsiders.

"When you have dozens of people speaking out, it's no longer too credible to say they're all malcontents and criminals," said Jeff Hawkins, a former Scientology marketing guru who defected in 2005. "(The church) is either going to reform or collapse, and I think it's going to be the latter because they're incapable of reform or admitting any wrongdoing."

Beginning of the end?

One defector, Marty Rathbun, who served on the church's board and was a top lieutenant of Miscavige's, said a growing movement of people hold to the tenets of Scientology, but reject the institutional church.

"I don't foresee another church," Rathbun said.

Haggis, the Oscar-winning director of Crash, was not a high-ranking Scientologist. But his defection is significant, said actor Jason Beghe, who left the church in 2007 and has become a critic.

"He was somebody the Scientology community was proud of, and therefore I'm sure he helped hold some of their base in place," said Beghe, who appeared in the film G.I. Jane.

It was Rathbun who obtained a copy of Haggis' critical letter to Davis and posted it on his blog. Haggis complained that Davis didn't do enough to distance Scientology from proponents of California's gay marriage ban. He criticized the church's "smearing" of the high-level defectors.

A day after Haggis' letter went public, a Paris court convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than $900,000, but stopped short of banning the group's activities in France. The organization's French branch said it would appeal.