Steward Lamont

English religious studies scholar, journalist and broadcaster.

Religion Inc.: the Church of Scientology

«Then on Monday night, 27 January 1986, Earle Cooley, Chief Counsel for the Church of Scientology, and Heber Jentzsch, President of the Church of Scientology International, made their fateful announcement. Hubbard was 'officially' dead. They explained that he had left the bulk of his multi-million dollar estate to the Church of Scientology. They revealed that his body had been cremated and its ashes scattered. No post mortem had been carried out, and although the coroner of San Luis Obispo County had received blood specimens and fingerprints, speculation inevitably arose that Hubbard did not die in January 1986 but had been dead for over two years. During the past six years since he had disappeared immense changes had taken place in the leadership of the organization he founded. During that time his followers were encouraged to believe that he was still keeping a watchful eye on matters from his secret retreat, now revealed to have been a ranch near San Luis Obispo, 150 miles north west of Los Angeles. His followers continued to act as if he were still alive. He was away studying for another book, they said. He was entitled to his privacy, they argued, when asked why he did not come out of seclusion to answer the charges made against him. He was no longer in charge of Scientology, they protested, and could not be brought to court to justify some of the malpractices of those who were.

His opponents took a different view. He was in hiding to avoid his crimes of tax avoidance, criminal conspiracy and fraud, they alleged. Far from his having retired from running Scientology, they produced documents which linked him to the burglary by his wife and nine others of Federal offices in 1977. He was laughing all the way to the bank, they said, as money continued to pour into the Scientology coffers in the early eighties. The banks were in Luxembourg and Switzerland.»

St. Andrew's Church of Scotland

«The current minister is Rev Stewart Lamont B.Sc, B.D.(Hons) who was educated at Grove Academy, Broughty Ferry and the University of St Andrews where he was a Hockey blue, Convener of Debates, and President of the Union(1969-70) and served on the University Court from 1970-82.

He was  Assistant minister at Greenbank Parish, Edinburgh 1971-2; then  Radio producer Religious Broadcasting with the BBC from 1972-80. He then embarked on a freelance career as a television & radio producer/presenter from 1980-91, and newspaper columnist and freelance journalist (1980-2002) with The Herald and Scotsman newspapers.

He also served as part-time minister at Abernyte, Perthshire 1980-82, and was Parish minister Kinning Park, Glasgow 1991-99. From 1999-2002 he was posted to Brussels as Executive Secretary (Brussels), of the Conference of European Churches (CEC)  before coming to Gibraltar as Locum minister in November 2002, and inducted as minister here on October 23^rd 2003.

Mr. Lamont’s publications include  In Good Faith (1987) , his weekly column in “The (Glasgow) Herald” published as a collection, and  ten other books, which include a thriller “The Third Angle”(1978); a study of the  paranormal(1980); an expose of Scientology :Religion Inc.(Harrap1985); Church & State: uneasy alliances (The Bodley Head 1989); The Swordbearer, a biography of John Knox(1991) and St Andrew(1995) [both Hodder] . A study of famous Scots  “When Scotland ruled the world” was published by HarperCollins in 2001 and is available in paperback.»

[ Up ] [ Page 1 ] [ Home ]