I know this isn't the main story here, but I do feel blazingly angry that the biggest source of individual donations for this vile cult is money from the sale of pharmaceuticals. They tell people to throw vital medication in the bin in favour or their stupid 'postulating', yet accept money from the sale of drugs.

Incidentally, when Mike Rinder yesterday referred to 'the calm before the storm', was this the storm he was referring to? Sounds like a good story for the Daily Mail to be picking up and pursuing...

One of their biggest whales back in the early Clearwater days, was a very wealthy man from Columbia who was either the main man in a drug cartel family or connected in some way. Per Scientology.. anyone engaged in criminal acts won't get any case gain...until they of course mend their ways.. but hell man.. drugs is big moolah. Needless to say this guy was always a good reg cycle. No matter that SCN rants against drugs and the AMA - if there is money to be found.. any source is valid. There was/is no separation in their view between helpful drugs and mind altering drugs. All drugs are bad. But the $$ made from them is good..very good.

They're "flexible" that way! 😄

There is a long history of questionable characters who had money, that were allowed to slip through the Scientology "illegal PC / PTS screen" or who at least were "allowed" to fund friends or family who wanted to do church services.

Expediency is the hallmark of the application of Scientology "policy"...as long as it facilitates the obtainment of large sums of cash or the harming of "enemies." Those two activities occupy the bulk of church operations.

Well they let that fat fuck Hubbard hang around, so there's that.

That's hilarious.

yeah, it's all for "the greater good!" RIDICULOUS! it would be like telling catholics, "um, turns out jesus didn't really die on the cross, but hey keep on believing (i.e. paying big bucks) on the whole "he died for our sins" story...

And, of course, they are in business with NOI and Farrkhan, who are Malcom X murdering thugs.

If there is money to be made for the CofS, then it does not matter where it comes from. Scientology's ethics system is utilitarian to the extreme, so Registrars/fundraiser etc. WILL take the money even if they KNOW that it was illegally obtained in the first place (since its helps to expand Scientology, which is supposed to have a very high importance, overriding other considerations).

When Scientology in Hungary was still a registered religion, there was even a system set up to avoid implicating the whales (since they donated huge sums from income they officially did not make). According to Hungarian tax laws, the money put in donation boxes/or offering tables in Churches was tax free and the donations placed in them were anonymous. The CofS abused this system to protect the whales - so they routinely "found" huge sums in the donation boxes. :)

You know - "lookie here, someone dropped 10,000 USD in cash to the money-box" :)))))

"When Scientology in Hungary was still a registered religion"

Apologies for the off-topic curiosity but:
1) Is Scientology no longer a registered religion in Hungary?
2) How did it come to lose this status?
3) Did it lose tax concessions in the process?

1) It is no longer a registered Church - it is now a non-profit association.
2) A new law was enacted 2 years ago (the so-called Church Act of 2012) that essentially forced every registered Church to re-register and they had to meet new criteria. Scientology did not meet these so they were out of luck. This law was recently overturned by the ECHR, but it was not yet amended by the Hungarian government.
3) Yes, they lost all the tax breaks and they are required now to adhere to all labor regulations as well. They are now a simple non-profit corporation like a foundation.

Peter thanks for this info.

This is fascinating. What were the new criteria all churches had to meet? And do you know what is going to happen/ has been proposed now that this 2012 law has been overturned?

Thank you so much for the information.

Here is an English version of the law:
http://www.legirel.cnrs.fr/...

The criteria:

(2) An association shall be recognised as a church if
a) the association primarily performs religious activities ;
b) it has a confession of faith and rites containing the essence of its teachings ;
c) it has been operating internationally for at least 100 years or in an organised manner as an association in Hungary for at least 20 years, which extends to include operating as a church registered pursuant to Act IV of 1990 on the Freedom of Conscience and Religion and on Churches prior to the entry into force of this Act ;
d) it has adopted its statute, instrument of incorporation and internal ecclesiastical rules ;
e) it has elected or appointed its administrative and representative bodies ;
f) its representatives declare that the activities of the organisation established by them are not contrary to the Fundamental Law, do not conflict with any rule of law and do not violate the rights and freedoms of others ;
g) the association has not been considered a threat to national security during its course of operation ;
h) its teaching and activities do not violate the right to physical and psychological well-being, the protection of life and human dignity.

AFAIK, they did not meet g). According to some unnamed sources, this criteria was specifically added to prevent Scientology from re-registering as a Church. :)

Also, the application process is rather tricky, since in order to be recognized as a Church, a bill has to be drafted for that and the Parliamant has to enact it with a simple majority. The current governing party will NEVER vote to recognize Scientology as a religion. So seemingly as long as they are in power, Scientology will have to remain an association.

If this law get overturned, I am sure they will find another solution. They have two-thirds majority, so they can freely rewrite the constitution even.

That's fascinating. I'm surprised CoS wasn't found to be in violation of condition h as well. Thanks so much for the info.

I imagine it was primarily 2(c) which the ECHR objected to - which enacts a blanket ban on new religious movements (including those which are harmless).

Scientology is always desperate to receive both recognition as a religion and tax breaks (although, given a choice, they would probably take the money instead of the recognition). It seems that there is the political will in Hungary to deny them these things.

I upvote this for truth.

From your lips to God's ears...

. . .

Perfect!

Congratulations to Tony on nailing down this story with enough proof to be solid journalism instead of innuendo.

I first became aware of this story in March of this year, in talking to some current Scientologists and ex's; it was well known in the community of high-level long-time members. I didn't think it was appropriate for me to write anything about it since I didn't have appropriate documentation and I didn't think I had the connections to get an appropriate level of proof. I did mention obliquely in a comment or two here that I had some idea why the Duggans remained involved in the cult, and I was interested to see several replies that suggested other commenters had also long been aware of the story. So it's not all that closely guarded a secret after all -- the cult leaks sensitive information like a sieve, which ought to be plenty embarrassing for Miscavige.

I think the key takeaway is that the cult is sufficiently desperate to hang on to its "whale" donors that it is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to help them with difficult personal situations, even if it ultimately blows up and causes embarrassment either for the whale or for the cult itself. Prior to this story breaking, the most obvious examples are the cult's ludicrous attempts to find a wife for Tom Cruise and the extensive "help" that Travolta got in the form of a cult spy/minder/auditor to deal with the death of his autistic son Jett. In other words, if you've got money, the cult will find your ruin and will do whatever it takes to help you with it, but in such a way that it keeps you locked in forever.

I would have to believe that the Duggans are miserable after all their years in the cult -- for a family with their resources to have to turn to this evil organization for help with their kids, given that they have essentially infinite access to resources like nannies, medical specialists, and even evil "psychs," sounds like they are locked in forever. Little chance we'll see these pillars of the cult blowing any time soon.

Kudos on your restraint. You're right, the story holds so much more power when backed with legit facts, rather than tabloid-like hearsay. You are a strong man to resist blabbing.

I wish I could characterize it as strength of moral character.

Instead, I would simply say my reluctance to publish innuendo is a caution drilled into me by years of experience at Global Capitalism HQ. If you don't know what you don't know about a "story" (i.e., a potential investment), then you shouldn't pull the trigger. And if you're not sure of your facts, you should just pass something by; there will always be another opportunity where you can stand on solid ground. You may give up some of the upside but you'll eliminate needless risk, which is usually far more important over the long run.

That's the difference between investing and gambling in the stock market -- managing downside risk is really important. Not that I would have been worried about legal actions from the Duggans or harassment from the cult if I had said anything. I just selfishly want to maintain a high level of credibility in this forum.

mission accomplished :)

:) You'll never get a job in mainstream news media, John. :)

Because when one is that filthy rich, nothing else really matters.
They still have to live with themselves though.

Are you sure? It sounds like they may be auditing all their guilt and emotions away. Who knows, though. We aren't there seeing it firsthand, are we?

You are right JohnP. The story has been out there for a long time; a lot of people know about it. The secretive cult is just not very good at keeping secrets. Far to many UTRs for that :)

Not sure why Travolta's 'minder' would really go under the heading of 'Help' (though JT clearly describes it that way).

It seems to em the minder's job was to make sure Travolta didn't wander off the reservation whilst dealing with the fact that his son died from a diagnosable disorder that his crackpot 'religion' doesn't recognize, and the the meds his cult argues against, might have done a lot of good, even saved the boy's life.

When JT uttered the word 'autistic' to the press, I'm sure DM had a few 'minders' on their way to 'help' within seconds.

Perhaps I am dim, but even after a second reading, I am not quite clear on why this would be why the Duggans would remain involved with the cult. Aren't they quite capable of shuffling kids off anywhere they want and cutting a big check for it? Where is the causality?

That's exactly the point: the whales are probably very closely monitored, and the cult is going to "find their ruin" and deliver a "solution" in real time. That solution will be carefully crafted to deal with the problem while extracting something that the cult wants in return. And given how hard the cult works to keep its select few whales in a significant information bubble, it probably works better than you'd expect. Undoubtedly, the cult will use both a carrot and stick approach to each situation, so the chances that any of the whales will look outside the cult to a solution to their personal problems is likely to be small.

OK, I see what you're saying... Boy, you'd have to be pretty far gone to have all that dosh at your disposal and be asking DM for Scilon Brand (tm) help!

would be interested in what their 'ruin" is and what's in the audits? are they being blackmailed too?!

It would be an interesting exercise to compare the demographics and income / wealth distribution of the membership to 1st-2nd-3rd world countries. Is this a structure with a few rich oligarchs, many who are impoverished, and not much of a middle class? I think of Russia. (No offense intended to Russia.)

They adopted a bunch of kids (potentially on a whim in the wake of losing their child to cancer) and, despite essentially infinite resources to get help raising them at home, are instead farming them out on the other side of the world to be raised by (yet another crew of) strangers.

Why would that take place unless the kids are either a) inconvenient to the Duggans' lifestyle or b) have individual issues that make them significantly more work to care for properly than the average kid?

By moving the kids to another home on the Duggan's behalf, the cult is able to spare the parents a) bad press (after today's story, not so much), b) the consequences of problem behavior from the kids, if that's what's going on and c) can give the kids lots of Scientology "training," which as we all know is way better for them than the meds and therapy that the evil "psychs" dish out.

In return, the cult gets the South Africa real estate network done, which was a huge embarrassment for Miscavige personally and which was stalling even further with lawsuits and with the purge of lots of longtime members earlier this year (see the backincomm.wordpress.com blog for excellent coverage of the South African scene).

Problem behavior is what I saw, especially after the snarky tweet posted by the caregiver. Maybe the kid did have problems because he was a "spoiled rich kid." But maybe there are other issues going on that won't be addressed because the parents and caregivers are CoS. Some kinda love, huh?

Right Stacy - I saw the same thing.

I also noticed in that tweet that they took all the credit for themselves for the kid getting better. Not LRH and certainly no credit went to the boy. All THEM. And in that last picture you can see that the kid is also having to deal with seeing a old lady's tatas hanging out. That could be part of the problem for the poor kid. Yuck

So very bizarre, if true. And I thought I've seen it all.

This brings to mind the Bunker's saying.' Scientology, it's always worse than you think'.

We say this when picketing: "Find out about $cientology, it's worse than you think".
Here in LA, a LOT of people will say "oh, we KNOW how bad it is". I hand them a business card with critical web sites on them, including this one, and ask them to "Plz put this in your wallet. IF anyone u know is getting suckered "in", plz give them this card". EVERY single person takes it and usually 3-4 more ask if they can get one, too. :) Excellent story, Tony! Man...you *really* nailed the research on this one! Love to ALL :) Tory/Magoo

Tory, when you see kids being whisked away (as in this case) or forced abortions (as in Laura's case), it ceases being "a silly little cult you can ignore".

Jgg2012: HUH? Where did I ever say $cientology is "a silly little cult you can ignore"? ANSWER: NEVER. Stop putting words in my mouth and GET that by giving people business cards with CRITICAL INFO LINKS on it, I am helping educate people. What do you do to help?

I didn't say you said that. Others have said that or something similar. Bill O'Reilly of Fox news keeps saying "why does everyone keep picking on Scientology?" Many bloggers keep saying "it's no worse than other religions" as if other religions could have a Sea Org, and RPF, fair game, etc. When they hurt people and are being funded by our tax dollars, they shouldn't be ignored.

Keep an eye on http://backincomm.wordpress... There should be more on this story soon, as well as other exciting happenings.

Mrs Robinson, are you trying to tease us?

Is that you Dustin?

John, it seems that they are hiding something. I mean, why not consult a family lawyer ("look, we don't want the kids anymore...")? Have them put up for adoption. I'm thinking that (a) there was something they did wrong in adopting them in the first place (i.e. they did it secretly, without court permission), or (b) feared that the behavioral problems were their fault and they could be accused of neglect or abuse, or (c) Scientology threatened to spread rumors as to (a) and (b), thus forcing them to secretly give them to Scientologists halfway around the world. Anyway, there is something fishy going on.

So, it's another story of hush money, like the (supposedly gay) celebs who don't want their secrets out, so they keep giving Co$ a million a year?