15 Oct 2000

Garry <garry@newsguy.com>

CAUTION TO READERS: The following article appears in the current issue of the bi-weekly gay & lesbian publication, Fab!, published in Los Angeles. Their website (yet to be updated) is http://www.gayfab.com.

When I first saw the paper with it's bold mention of Scientology on its front cover, I was pleased to see a publication willing to risk wholesale harassment and threats of litigation to write about the dseceptive practices of Scientology, that is, until I read the article....

It appears that the author of this poor excuse for an article, Patrick Tsakuda, chose to engage in wholesale plagarism of other articles and used years-old facts which he represents to the reader as current fact. Those of us who have been watching Scientology for years will recognize the obvious failure of this author in doing any credible homework in substantiating his article, particularly in using references to Cynthia Kisser and the original CAN, the Pattison lawsuit, and Graham Berry's law firm, none of which exist anymore and have not done so for over 2 years.

Mr. Tsakuda also takes alot of license to misrepresent facts to prove his point in several instances, which I intend to address here and in a letter to the Fab! editor in the next 1-2 days.

Mr. Tsakuda should be ashamed and owes us all an apology for submitting this trash for publication.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Fab! Magazine
October 17, 2000

FRONT COVER EXCLUSIVE: HOMOPHOBIC CULT INVADES WEST HOLLYWOOD by Patrick Tsakuda

SCARY SCIENTOLOGY SAGA: Posing as members of a group called "The Way To Happiness" homophobic Scientologists try to recruit gays in West Hollywood. Everything you need to know about one of the most dangerous cults in America.

-----------------------------

When it comes to the likes of, let's say, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, or any other of those right wing religious loonies - at least you know where you stand. Jesus is your saviour, my child, follow me and you shall be redeemed, praise the Lord.

However, it turns out that there are a few other non-traditional "churches" out there - way more cunning, deceptive and misleading.

Residents of West Hollywood had a chance to witness one of America's more illusive and underhanded cults in action last weekend at Pavillions supermarket in the heart of the city.

Claiming that their purpose was to promote non-violence in schools, a group calling themselves "The Way to Happiness Foundation" managed to convince the supermarket to allow them to set up a booth to distribute literature and sell paintings for the charitable cause.

At first glance, it seemed a virtuous endeavor, however, in the words of a recent movie promo - look closer.

It turns out that the supposedly noble enterprise had little to do with protecting children. Some supermarket goers, bombarded with pamphlets promoting "a common sense guide to better living," were shocked to discover that the group wasn't a non-profit organization and that, upon closer inspection, were a division of the notorious, homophobic "Church" of Scientology.

The Church of Scientology, started by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard to "clear" people of unhappiness, portrays itself as a religion. In reality, according to an extensive TIME magazine article published on the cult in 1991, the church is a hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating its members and critics in a Mafia-like manner.

In recent years, reports TIME, hundreds of longtime Scientology adherents - many charging that they were mentally or physically abused - have quit the church and criticized it at their own risk. Some have sued the church and won; others have settled for amounts in excess of $500,000 in various cases judges have labeled the church "schizophrenic and paranoid" and "corrupt, sinister and dangerous."

Yet the outrage and litigation have failed to squelch Scientology. The group, which boasts 700 centers in 65 countries, has been trying over the past few years to go mainstream, attracting the unwary through a wide array of front groups in such businesses as publishing, consulting, health care and even remedial education - such as the "Way to Happiness Foundation."

In Hollywood, Scientology has assembled a star-studded roster of followers by aggressively recruiting and regally pampering them at the church's "Celebrity Centers," a chain of clubhouses that offer expensive counseling and career guidance. Adherents include screen idols Tom Cruise and John Travolta, actresses Kirstie Alley, Mimi Rogers and others.

Rank-and-file members, however, reported TIME, are dealt a less glamorous Scientology.

According to the Cult Awareness Network, whose 23 chapters monitor more than 200 "mind control" cults, no group prompts more telephone pleas for help than does Scientology. Cynthia Kisser, the network's Chicago-based executive director said that: "Scientology is quite likely the most ruthless, the most classically terroristic, the most litigious and the most lucrative cult the country has ever seen. No cult extracts more money from its members."

Vicki Aznaran, who was one of Scientology's six key leaders until she bolted from the church in 1987, agrees: This is a criminal organization, day in and out. It makes Jim and Tammy (Bakker) look like kindergarten," she said.

The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, was, according to TIME Magazine, part storyteller, part flimflam man. Born in Nebraska in 1911, Hubbard served in the Navy during World War II and soon afterward complained to the Veterans Administration about his "suicidal inclinations" and his "seriously affected" mind. Nevertheless, Hubbard was a moderately successful writer of pulp science fiction. Years later, church brochures described him falsely as an "extensively decorated" World War II hero who was crippled and blinded in action, twice pronounced dead and miraculously cured through Scientology.

Hubbard's "doctorate" from "Sequoia University" was a fake mail-order degree. In a 1984 case in which the church sued a Hubbard biographical researcher, a California judge concluded that its founder was "a pathological liar."

Hubbard wrote one of Scientology's sacred texts, 'Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health', in 1950. In it he introduced a crude pyschotherapeutic technique called "auditing." He also created a simplified lie detector (called an E-meter) that was designed to measure electrical changes in the skin while subjects discussed intimate details of their past. Hubbard argeued that unhappiness sprang from mental aberrations (or "engrams") caused by early traumas.

Counseling sessions with the E-meter, he claimed, could knoock out the engrams, cure blindness and even improve a person's intelligence and appearance.

Hubbard kept adding steps, each more costly, for his followers to climb. In the 1960's the guru decreed that humans are made of clusters of spirits (or "thetans") who were banished to earth some 75 million years ago by a cruel galactic ruler named Xenu. Naturally, those thetans had to be audited.

The cult's notorious homophobic beliefs came to light once again last year when a lawsuit involving a former gay6 member and John Travolta was made public.

Travolta was named in a lawsuit that charged the actor helped the Church of Scientology deceive a gay member into believing he could turn straight. Michael Pattinson, a Newport Beach artist, alleged that the sect used John Travolta as an example of a homosexual "cured" by the Church of Scientology.

Pattinson's 166-page complaint, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, charged that he "reasonably relied upon" Travolta's marriage to fellow Scientologist Kelly Preston as proof that "Scientology processing and courses would 'handle' my own homosexuality."

Pattinson, who is suing the church, Travolta and 21 other members for fraud, charged that he spent 25 years and $500,000 trying to become heterosexual - but that he's still gay.

Pattinson's lawyer, Graham E. Berry - a longtime foe of the churchg who has often battled it in court - told Star Magazine that "Michael was in a Clearwater, Florida, Scientology Center with Travolta and they used him as an example of someone who could be cured of his 'ruin."

In his book, "Ethics, Justice and the Dynamics", Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard summed up his liberal views on homosexuality:

"It must be noted.... that promiscuity, perversion, sadism, free love, homosexuality and other irregular practices fall far below an acceptable level of ethics. A society which falls into this category can be expected to abuse sex, to misuse and maltreat children and to act, in short, much in the way that current cultures are acting... People who are at this level on the second dynamic (that's Scientology mumbo-jumbo) are intensely dangerous in the society since aberration is contagious..."

Of course that doesn't stop Scientology from financially exploiting the gay community. According to Pattinson's lawsuit, the Church of Scientology coerces gay celebrity members to remain in the Scientology "closet."

According to the article in TIME, the church's former head of security, Richard Aznaran, said that Scientology ringleader David Miscavige repeatedly joked to staffers about Travolta's alleged promiscuous homosexual behavior. According to Pattinson's lawyer, Graham E. Berry, of the Los Angeles law firm of Berry, Lewis, Scali & Stojkovich, the harrassment doesn't stop with celebrities.

Berry, who is gay, claims that the Church of Scientology employs a slew of private investigators and attorneys who have tried to dig up as much dirt about him as possible. "As an openly gay man. Scientology couldn't use my homosexuality as leverage. However, they used my sexual orientation to accuse me of white slavery, pedophilia and drug dealing. They're quite a vicious group of people."

Berry has denied the allegations and has filed lawsuits for defamation.