Scientology Again on the Docket in the Court of Public Opinion

We are seeing an increase in the numbers of those who have chosen to speak out after leaving the organization.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - In the past few days the Church of Scientology has been given the spotlight in three major media venues - an article in the New York Times by the noted religion writer Laurie Goodstein, a television special by investigative journalist Quentin McDermott for the program 4 Corners of ABC Australia, and piece by Matt Lauer on NBC's Today Show.

Just three weeks ago the internet was buzzing with news of a new initiative from the organization. CoS had hired three prize-winning journalists to investigate the St. Petersburg Times, a newspaper that had been investigating them for over 30 years and won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage in 1980.

Some have posited that they were trying to intimidate the media. Instead, they may have inserted themselves even more prominently in the court of public opinion.

On February 21, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, wrote about this investigation in his column, Media Notes, saying "After decades of digging into the Church of Scientology, reporters and editors at the St. Petersburg Times are accustomed to being denounced by its leaders.

But they find it unsettling that three veteran journalists -- a Pulitzer Prize winner, a former "60 Minutes" producer, and the former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors -- are taking the church's money to examine the paper's conduct.

The three, Steve Weinberg, former executive with the Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., Russell Carollo, a 1998 Pulitzer Prize winner for the Dayton Daily News, and Christopher Szechenyi, an Emmy-winning former television producer with 60 Minutes.

The 20 page study, which has been delivered to the Church of Scientology, was written by Carollo and Szechenyi, and then edited by Weinberg. According to initial statements from CoS spokesman Tommy Davis, the study would not be made public.

This past weekend it wasn´t the St. Petersburg Times but the New York Times that wrote about the group.

On Sunday, Laurie Goodstein´s article, "Defectors Say Church of Scientology Hides Abuse," was published. As with most coverage on the subject, Goodstein´s piece highlighted statements by several ex-members concerning abuse issues within Scientology. These were denied by Davis, who stated that the defectors were apostates and that the church actually grew more since they had left.

Goodstein also provided readers with an overview of Scientology teaching as well as a description of some of their facilities.

By noon on Sunday, this article had become so popular that one ranking service reported that it was the eighth most popular page on the World Wide Web. To show how significant this is, two of the pages that ranked slightly higher were from Siber Systems, a company that had just released a new version of Roboform, which prompted every current user of the software to go to the page for an update.

On Monday, 4 Corners, a current affairs program from ABC Australia, broadcast "Scientology: The Ex-Files." Again, following the lives of Church of Scientology "defectors", investigative reporter Quentin McDermott, explored the issue of abuses within the organization. The program included historical footage of L. Ron Hubbard talking about his work, interviews and responses from Tommy Davis. 

On the 4 Corners website, they offer the program as well as extended versions of the interview with Davis and two of the ex-members, Liz Anderson and Hanna Eltringham Whitfield, who was an early member of Sea Org and a captain on two of their ships.

The Times article and the Australian television program both challenge the public to question whether there is credibility to the charges levied on the organization by these ex-members.

These two pieces have helped underscore that we are seeing an increase in the numbers of those who have chosen to speak out after leaving the organization.

On Tuesday, NBC's Today Show featured an interview by Matt Lauer with Christie King Collbran, a member of Sea Org that renounced the organization. The story also included some background on Scientology and a clip from Laurie Goodstein, author of Sunday's Times article. As with some who leave Scientology, Collbran maintains that she embraces the teachings but could not stay involved due to the abuses she experienced.

Last June, the St. Petersburg Times published a three-part series on Scientology that brought increased attention on life within Scientology - particularly with the Sea Organization - in addition to their beliefs.

By the fall of 2009 more books regarding Scientology had been published including "My Billion Year Contract" by Nancy Many, "Blown for Good" by Marc Headley and a second book by Maria Pia Gardini.

In October of 2009, Paul Haggis, an academy award winning writer-producer-director, declared his defection from the group.

Also in October, Martin Bashir provided an in-depth story on the Church of Scientology for ABC's Nightline over two nights. He looked into the declarations of violence and abuse by ex-members, which included allegations that Scientology's leader, David Miscavige, struck members of his staff. Bashir also investigated the group's secrecy as well as the way it attracts celebrities.

Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis denied all allegations brought up by ex-members. Bashir's interview became a YouTube phenomenon, as Davis walked off the set over questions regarding the group's beliefs about Xenu, an intergalactic leader who brought people to Earth 75 million years ago and placed in a volcano.

In January, 2010 mixed reports of the impact of the Church of Scientology during the Haiti earthquake disaster added a lot of contrasting information for public consumption. Some reports praised the work of the Volunteer Ministers while others portrayed a very different picture.

Then, on February 12, six ex-scientologists held a press conference in Los Angeles that brought new regional attention to these abuse issues as formers members described life inside Scientology. CoS spokesman Tommy Davis categorically denied all of their allegations.

Regarding our coverage of the event, Davis told Catholic Online, "To forward on a Catholic site the vicious and false allegations of disgruntled ex-members of any religion is the epitome of hypocrisy. No constructive purpose is served whatsoever, and you are in fact promoting religious hatred and violence. Your entire article is so un-Christian, it boggles the mind!"

Whatever happens with the accusations and law suits currently pending in the justice systems of several nations, the court of public opinion has been offered additional testimony. As Fr. John Coleman wrote in his article, "Scientology at the Dock," "I suspect with so much smoke, somewhere there must be a real fire."

A strong verdict in the court of public opinion may actually bring about further investigation. If only a small portion of the reported allegations are true, this is still a very serious situation.
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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online. He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church in 2006. His reporting on the Church of Scientology has received global attention as the group´s activities come under increasing scrutiny.

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