VOLUME 7 |ISSUE 1 |2016 3945
Warren Jeffs’ son won’t pursue sex-abuse charges
against the FLDS leader
Roy Jeffs, the son of the FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, shared his
story with Fox 13 about the abuse that he endured at the hand
of his father. Roy Jeffs says he is not interested in pursuing
criminal charges against his father, but wanted to share his
story so that others who have been abused by the FLDS won’t
be afraid to come out. “I feel like my father’s got what he’s
deserved. As far as justice, he’s got a life sentence,” he said,
referring to Warren Jeffs’ conviction in Texas. “People need to
step up, the state needs to step up,” Tonia Tewell, the executive
director of Holding Out Help, a group that helps people leaving
polygamous communities, said. “We need to get some funding
in place to get some housing and counseling services that can
help all the people that want to leave and are waiting to leave.”
(Fox 13, 10/2/15)
Scientology detox program being tested by US
government on Gulf War veterans
A US government research team is testing L. Ron Hubbard’s
controversial “purification” theories on Gulf War veterans
suffering from Golf War Syndrome. An article in The Daily Beast
states that “Beyond Scientologists, for whom the Purification
Rundown is part of their religious practice, the Church credits
the program with helping ‘hundreds of thousands’ of others
over the past 30 years.”
The belief at the heart of the process is that toxins, “which can
be anything from LSD to meth fumes or biochemical weapons,
slow not only the body, but also weigh down the soul.” The Daily
Beast says, “Colored towels are just one of the interesting yet
controversial aspects of this study, to which the Department
of Defense awarded $633,677 in 2009. The project has faced
major delays, but now is finally reaching its home stretch—the
researchers say results are expected next year, and [Dr. Crystal]
Grant [coordinator of the project] says some 90 percent of the
Gulf War vets are reporting health gains. But critics say the
soldiers are merely reaping the benefits of plain old exercise
and perspiration, and that Scientologists plan to use the
skewed results to validate Hubbard’s quack theories—and even
push for a Nobel Prize.”
The article also says that “Just where the $633,677 from the
Department of Defense is going isn’t entirely clear. ‘Budget
information is not releasable due to the terms of confidentiality
provided in the federal acquisition regulations,’ Ellen Crown,
the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command’s deputy
of public affairs, wrote in an email. Severna Park Health and
Wellness Center, the Scientologist-led group that provides the
therapy, charges $2,000 per participant, a substantial discount
from the $3,000 price tag for regular folks that was quoted by
Grant, the project coordinator… The dosages of niacin and
other vitamins are determined by a non-medically trained
administrator—in this case, a man named Joe, whom Carpenter
describes as a ‘die-hard Scientologist.’ Joe decides, based on
the participant’s feedback, just how much of each vitamin and
mineral is needed to produce a physical reaction that indicates
the treatment is working.” (The Daily Beast, 8/12/15)
Florida theater drops Scientology film Going Clear
after pressure from church
In Clearwater, Florida a movie theater has decided not to show
Alex Gibney’s film, Going Clear, after being pressured by the
Church of Scientology. The film was released in only a few
theaters before being aired on HBO, which plans to rerelease
the film. Cobb Countryside 12 Theater didn’t release the film
either because, according to sources, it had allegedly received
threats from the church. “The Church of Scientology responded
vehemently to the film, complaining to film critics about their
reviews and denouncing the filmmakers and their interviewees.”
(The Hollywood Reporter, 09/18/15)
Leah Remini says Scientology is about “us against
them”
Former Scientology member Leah Remini says leaving the
Church of Scientology after more than 30 years wasn’t easy.
She tells interviewer Dan Harris, “The decision to leave is you’re
giving up everything you have worked for your whole life. I
feel that people need to understand this has been my whole
life and I want them to understand how it happens.” She said
that one loses touch with the real world as one advances in
Scientology. and that the “mindset becomes us against them.”
(New York Post, 10/26/15)
Court rejects Scientology motion
In November 2015, a Texas appeals court rejected an attempt
by the Church of Scientology to challenge a lawsuit made by
Monique Rathbun, wife of church dissident Marty Rathbun.
Ms. Rathbun had alleged that the Church relentlessly harassed
her. The Church claimed that what it did to Ms. Rathbun was an
exercise of its rights of free speech, association, and petition.
Marty Rathbun was Scientology’s second-highest ranking
official when he left the organization in 2004 and has been an
outspoken critic since then. Court documents indicate that Ms.
Rathbun alleged the following: (a) Scientologists appeared at
Rathbun’s Comal County home after dark to “interrograte her
aggressively” and fled when she called police (b) Scientology
operatives approached Rathbun and her husband in a golf
cart with up to six cameras, “filming them and shout(ing)
insults and rude questions” (c) the church sent a sex toy to
Rathbun at her workplace and published claims on websites
that she was a transgender male and a “sexual pervert” (d)
a Scientology private investigator leased a residence across
from the Rathbuns’ Ingleside on the Bay home and “installed
high-powered still and video cameras pointed at and into” their
home and (e) after the Rathbuns moved to a wooded lot in
Comal County, a Scientologist leased undeveloped property
next to their home and installed a surveillance camera directed
at their property. (San Antonio Express-News, 11/9/15)
Warren Jeffs’ son won’t pursue sex-abuse charges
against the FLDS leader
Roy Jeffs, the son of the FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, shared his
story with Fox 13 about the abuse that he endured at the hand
of his father. Roy Jeffs says he is not interested in pursuing
criminal charges against his father, but wanted to share his
story so that others who have been abused by the FLDS won’t
be afraid to come out. “I feel like my father’s got what he’s
deserved. As far as justice, he’s got a life sentence,” he said,
referring to Warren Jeffs’ conviction in Texas. “People need to
step up, the state needs to step up,” Tonia Tewell, the executive
director of Holding Out Help, a group that helps people leaving
polygamous communities, said. “We need to get some funding
in place to get some housing and counseling services that can
help all the people that want to leave and are waiting to leave.”
(Fox 13, 10/2/15)
Scientology detox program being tested by US
government on Gulf War veterans
A US government research team is testing L. Ron Hubbard’s
controversial “purification” theories on Gulf War veterans
suffering from Golf War Syndrome. An article in The Daily Beast
states that “Beyond Scientologists, for whom the Purification
Rundown is part of their religious practice, the Church credits
the program with helping ‘hundreds of thousands’ of others
over the past 30 years.”
The belief at the heart of the process is that toxins, “which can
be anything from LSD to meth fumes or biochemical weapons,
slow not only the body, but also weigh down the soul.” The Daily
Beast says, “Colored towels are just one of the interesting yet
controversial aspects of this study, to which the Department
of Defense awarded $633,677 in 2009. The project has faced
major delays, but now is finally reaching its home stretch—the
researchers say results are expected next year, and [Dr. Crystal]
Grant [coordinator of the project] says some 90 percent of the
Gulf War vets are reporting health gains. But critics say the
soldiers are merely reaping the benefits of plain old exercise
and perspiration, and that Scientologists plan to use the
skewed results to validate Hubbard’s quack theories—and even
push for a Nobel Prize.”
The article also says that “Just where the $633,677 from the
Department of Defense is going isn’t entirely clear. ‘Budget
information is not releasable due to the terms of confidentiality
provided in the federal acquisition regulations,’ Ellen Crown,
the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command’s deputy
of public affairs, wrote in an email. Severna Park Health and
Wellness Center, the Scientologist-led group that provides the
therapy, charges $2,000 per participant, a substantial discount
from the $3,000 price tag for regular folks that was quoted by
Grant, the project coordinator… The dosages of niacin and
other vitamins are determined by a non-medically trained
administrator—in this case, a man named Joe, whom Carpenter
describes as a ‘die-hard Scientologist.’ Joe decides, based on
the participant’s feedback, just how much of each vitamin and
mineral is needed to produce a physical reaction that indicates
the treatment is working.” (The Daily Beast, 8/12/15)
Florida theater drops Scientology film Going Clear
after pressure from church
In Clearwater, Florida a movie theater has decided not to show
Alex Gibney’s film, Going Clear, after being pressured by the
Church of Scientology. The film was released in only a few
theaters before being aired on HBO, which plans to rerelease
the film. Cobb Countryside 12 Theater didn’t release the film
either because, according to sources, it had allegedly received
threats from the church. “The Church of Scientology responded
vehemently to the film, complaining to film critics about their
reviews and denouncing the filmmakers and their interviewees.”
(The Hollywood Reporter, 09/18/15)
Leah Remini says Scientology is about “us against
them”
Former Scientology member Leah Remini says leaving the
Church of Scientology after more than 30 years wasn’t easy.
She tells interviewer Dan Harris, “The decision to leave is you’re
giving up everything you have worked for your whole life. I
feel that people need to understand this has been my whole
life and I want them to understand how it happens.” She said
that one loses touch with the real world as one advances in
Scientology. and that the “mindset becomes us against them.”
(New York Post, 10/26/15)
Court rejects Scientology motion
In November 2015, a Texas appeals court rejected an attempt
by the Church of Scientology to challenge a lawsuit made by
Monique Rathbun, wife of church dissident Marty Rathbun.
Ms. Rathbun had alleged that the Church relentlessly harassed
her. The Church claimed that what it did to Ms. Rathbun was an
exercise of its rights of free speech, association, and petition.
Marty Rathbun was Scientology’s second-highest ranking
official when he left the organization in 2004 and has been an
outspoken critic since then. Court documents indicate that Ms.
Rathbun alleged the following: (a) Scientologists appeared at
Rathbun’s Comal County home after dark to “interrograte her
aggressively” and fled when she called police (b) Scientology
operatives approached Rathbun and her husband in a golf
cart with up to six cameras, “filming them and shout(ing)
insults and rude questions” (c) the church sent a sex toy to
Rathbun at her workplace and published claims on websites
that she was a transgender male and a “sexual pervert” (d)
a Scientology private investigator leased a residence across
from the Rathbuns’ Ingleside on the Bay home and “installed
high-powered still and video cameras pointed at and into” their
home and (e) after the Rathbuns moved to a wooded lot in
Comal County, a Scientologist leased undeveloped property
next to their home and installed a surveillance camera directed
at their property. (San Antonio Express-News, 11/9/15)
