Sir, – In your issue of November 26, Brian Warren gives rein to Mr Atack's fantasy in an article about the Church of Scientology. The publication is a gross distortion of the truth deliberately designed to whip up antagonism against the Church. Why is Atack attacking a religious group which has freed over 100,000 people from the ravages of drugs and which puts more people on the road to total freedom than all other groups combined? Mr Atack fails to mention ...

Jesus is a fantasy Implanted in our minds millions of years ago, according to the Scientology cult. And L Ron Hubbard, who founded Dianetics and Scientology, dabbled in anti-Christian rituals with a disciple of black magician Aleister Crowley. Former Scientologists Jon Atack and Bonnie Woods spoke to a Chichester audience of head teachers and representatives from churches, Scouts, local councils and the police. Mr Atack, who thought the city was the cult's latest target, said Scientology has "200 front groups" including ...

[Parent document: Church of Scientology International (CSI): Form 1023 filing.]

The Church of Scientology is asking its members for $40-million in donations so it can pay for the new building it plans to put up in downtown Clearwater. The church has received at least $7.4-million, including three donations of more than $1-million each, according to a flier mailed recently by the church. But the flier asks members to contribute more, because the building would help expand Scientology worldwide. The Church of Scientology has its international spiritual headquarters in Clearwater. Some denounce ...

Religion: Judge says Cult Awareness Network must let church members attend L.A. convention. But conference organizers fear longtime foes will disrupt activities. Members of the Church of Scientology won a court victory over a longtime foe Friday, clearing the way for a group of Scientologists to attend the Cult Awareness Network's national convention in Los Angeles next week. The ruling in Los Angeles County Superior Court is the latest development in an escalating feud between the two organizations. The battle erupted ...

BOSTON — Scientologists, long a target of deprogrammers, have gone to court to try to turn the tables, claiming that they were illegally barred from joining an anti-cult group. In a flurry of lawsuits filed around the nation, dozens of members of the Church of Scientology said they tried to join the Cult Awareness Network but were rejected because of their church affiliation. Many of the lawsuits were filed last week after a federal grand jury indicted three alleged members of ...

Seven self-professed "parishioners" of the Church of Scientology have filed religious discrimination lawsuits against the Cult Awareness Network and five members of the group, including a Glendale resident, in Glendale Superior Court. In the lawsuits, filed Friday and Monday, the plaintiffs allege that they have been denied access to the Cult Awareness Network's national convention, to be held in November, on grounds of their religious beliefs. The seven lawsuits — practically identical except for the plaintiffs' names — claim that the ...

Members of a group led by a supporter of the Church of Scientology have alerted Glendale police to alleged "deprogramming" activities of a Glendale woman. Kevin Hulce, a member of the Church of Scientology, along with two members of the Deprogramming Survivor's Network, accused Priscilla Coates of conspiring with Hulce's parents to turn him away from the religious group formed by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. "Because Priscilla Coates lives in Glendale, Kevin thought the police might like ...

Shocking way Cheers gal shaped up for the [?] Star melts off 35 lb on bizarre sect's red-hot program She roasted 4 hours a day and fasted on water & vitamins KOOKY Kirstie Alley used her own special version of a bizarre diet concocted by the Scientology sect to slim down before hosting the Emmy Awards, says a source close to the Cheers star. For four weeks, hefty Kirstie drank gallons of water laced with vitamin B3 and spent four hours ...

A judge who yesterday fined the Church of Scientology of Toronto $250,000 for espionage activities carried out in the 1970s suggested the criminal acts might have gone undetected were it not for a Globe and Mail article published in 1980. Mr. Justice James Southey of the Ontario Court's General Division said the article triggered an investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police that included counterespionage activities and led to a massive raid in 1983 and the laying of charges in December of ...

The Toronto branch of the Church of Scientology has been fined $250,000 for spying on police and the government during the mid- 1970s. But despite almost a decade of court battles since the largest police raid in Ontario history in 1983, church leaders say they're not about to give up. The church's odyssey through the courts has spawned a legacy of ground-breaking legal decisions interpreting the ability of the state to prosecute the non-profit church. Along the way, the founder of ...

Glen entered the trap willingly and, for a while, he didn't even realise that he'd been caught Glen McClelland has the look of hate in his eyes as he remembers what he's just been through. Now 28, Glen spent four years as a convert to the Church of Scientology. For him, this wasn't so much a religion as a way of life. And it nearly cost him his family and girlfriend, his sanity — and bank balance, too. The story starts ...

The tale of Jon and Stacy Roberts and the Church of Scientology is the story of a typical couple, in many ways, who were looking for answers. When the financial advice they sought turned into spiritual guidance, the couple began to regret the direction their search had taken. In the process, they gave more than $100,000 to the Church of Scientology and an organization connected with it. Now they want to warn others not to do the same. Jon Roberts filed ...

A federal judge in Los Angeles has ordered the Internal Revenue Service to pay the Church of Scientology $16,881 for legal fees it incurred during a two-year battle over records requested under the Freedom of Information Act. In 1989, the Scientologists filed a request for any government files indicating that the church had been designated a "tax protester." The IRS refused to turn over that information, and the Scientologists filed suit to force its release. Eventually, the IRS turned over a ...

A controversial drug and alcohol abuse center in north-central Oklahoma achieved a big victory Friday in its two-year battle for state approval. Less than a year after calling Narconon Chilocco New Life Center's treatment program unsafe and experimental, the Oklahoma Board of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services voted unanimously Friday to exempt the facility from a state requirement to be certified. The decision came after Narconon showed it had gained approval from a private organization, the Commission for Accreditation of ...

SANTA CLARA — Former employees of Applied Materials have filed suit alleging that the Silicon Valley manufacturing firm forced them to undergo Church of Scientology seminars. Trial proceedings began Tuesday as lawyers for both sides argued motions before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Frank Cliff. In their suit, former employees Steven Hunziker, Virginia Sanders and Kate Schuchmann allege that Applied Materials hired an outside firm to teach workers communication and time-management skills. But the seminar firm, Applied Scholastics of Fremont, ...

HOLLYWOOD (Special) — The U.S. National Dyslexia Foundation is unhappy with a recent statement by Tom Cruise that Scientology has cured the movie star of the reading impairment affliction, columnist Marilyn Beck reports. Joyce Bulifant, executive vice-president, says "Dyslexia is not a disease that can be cured. Research at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Hospital has shown that the dyslexic brain is shaped differently and perceives things differently. Building self- confidence is extraordinarily important for a dyslexic, and if Scientology ...

The Church of Scientology uses private detectives and bulldog litigators to pursue its numerous detractors. It also hires low-key establishment lawyers who work quietly within the system. So who is directing the $416 million libel suit against Time? On April 27, 1992, lawyers for the Church of Scientology International filed a $416 million libel action in federal court in New York against Time Warner, Inc., Time Inc. Magazine Company [Time Warner is a partner in American Lawyer Media, L.P.], and writer ...

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by two Scientologists who claimed former Pinellas Democratic Chairman Gabe Cazares violated Florida's hate crimes law by ejecting them from a meeting. Cazares said the outcome showed that "their tactic of trying to silence their critics and enemies by threats of suits under the hate crimes law is a tactic that will not work." However, Paul Johnson, the attorney who represented the two Scientologists, intends to file an amended version of the lawsuit next week, ...

An Ontario prosecution sparked by police raids in California during the 1970s has led to the conviction of the Church of Scientology of Toronto and three of its members on breach-of-trust charges. A jury that deliberated for two days after a two-month trial also acquitted the Toronto organization of three charges and found two other members not guilty. Despite the verdicts, which will lead to a sentencing hearing Aug. 12 and 13, the legal battle over espionage activities by Scientologists for ...

The Toronto chapter of the Church of Scientology and three of its members were found guilty last night of breach of trust. Earlier yesterday, the church and five members were acquitted on charges of theft. Both charges stem from a series of alleged dirty tricks conducted by the church's covert intelligence-gathering body, the Guardian Office Worldwide, between 1974 and 1976. The verdicts were delivered last night by a 12-member jury which had deliberated for two days. The trial began April 23. ...