Leah Remini: Scientology and the aftermath

Last nights episode is probably my favourite so far. I prefer it when they focused on one family-one story-and episode,otherwise it seems rather rushed and you dont really get into stuff.
Like last episode when they talked about David Miscavich wanting to remove the sidewalks to avoid people protesting there ,they really didnt spend enough time on the murder of Lisa McPherson-the reason people were protesting.

Im assuming its because its only an 8 part series so they want to atleast touch upon everything.Leah has said they have enough material for several seasons,and since this is one of the highest rating shows on that channel i hope they go ahead with a full on series.

I loved that they showed the part of people following them and then actually going up and exposing them!! i nearly jumped out my seat.Ive been wanting her to do something like that but didnt think she would. Again at times i feel like shes been going a bit soft on them,in regards to how herself has been treated-because scientology has tried to make her out to be this bitter ex member who hasnt had a career since king of queens and therefor using this opportunity to get herself in the media again.So i feel like shes glossed over alot of how SHEs been treated and only leaving little hints at it,but shes in a great position to show in real time how they act so im really glad she did that. Personally if anything,i feel like shes constantely working now as some sort of a safe guard-when shes constantly in the public eye,they cant touch her.i was really worried about her at first when she left and she said she was writing a book.

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Scientology call A&E hypocrites for cancelling KKK show



The Church of Scientology has sent a letter to A&E calling the network "hypocrites" for their decision to cancel their docu-series Generation KKK due to KKK members being paid to participate, while at the same time paying Leah Remini for her anti-Scientology series.

TMZ obtained a copy of the letter and published it on Wednesday. It reads in part:

"Church of Scientology understands that two on-air accusers/participants in Leah Remini's docuseries, "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath" (Mike Rinder and Leah Remini) received substantial cash payments for their participation, in violation of the same standards...A&E has applied its policies and practices in an invidious and discriminatory manner. We can think of no justification for A&E’s hypocrisy. It is hypocritical for A&E to proclaim its intent to 'expose and combat racism and hatred in all its forms' in cancelling the KKK show and at the same time promote Leah Remini's program which promotes hatred that A&E claims that it wants to stop."

Variety cites an unnamed "insider close to the network" as telling them: “We’re talking about payments made to hate group members versus payment to Leah, the EP of the show. It’s a different animal. It’s apples and oranges.”

I'm all caught up!

This was probably covered in "Going Clear" (I really need to watch that again), but I didn't remember anything about coerced abortions!!!
What "religion" mandates that their members have abortions? Wow!
That defies both the "pro-life" and "pro-choice" stances in one swoop (because they don't even offer a choice)!

This show has reinforced things I already knew, but it's also showed me that Scientology is far more evil than it is just a ridiculous cult that preys upon stupid, gullible & vulnerable people, created by a loony who wanted to get rich with a fake religion scheme. It is violent, hurtful, destructive, criminal, fraudulent, intimidating, vindictive and extremely nasty - it seems to engage in the most base sins that other religions preach against.

Watched "Going Clear" again. There was so much I either missed or forgot from the first time.
Caught the part about Miscavige grooming the girlfriend for Tom Cruise and then calling the relationship off.

My favorite part had to be the guy talking about how the secrets of Scientology were revealed to him when he reached OT level III ... how they showed him a hand written story by L. Ron Hubbard that was just a nonsensical, garbled, old sci-fi story, and the guy thought that this must be some sort of a sanity test: if he believes this, then he must be insane and need to be kicked out of the church. But then he came to find that was not the case... this story by Hubbard is what Scientologists actually believe and hold as gospel.

I know,the abortion part is crazy,insane.
Also glad they shed some light on what the religious status actually means,not only that they dont have to pay taxes but also that the FBI and police cant do anything about the abuse
it needs that to be removed asap!! Looks like Leah is working on something,she said so on twitter anyways and that she`d be back with more information.I think a major part of her goal has been to get the religious status revoked.


I need to to rewatch Going Clear aswell.Also apparantly theres a another great doc about scientology that ihavent seen (its mentioned in either going clear or scientology & me) where a guy pretends he wants to join but wears a hidden camera,its from back when scientology wasnt that well know-and there were barely any information about it out.

I cant believe they believe that stuff either,but im assuming you have to be veeeerry high on the chart to get that information?to the point that youve spent so many years and so much money that youre sort of stuck.

And I read the whole book about Paulette Cooper...that ***** is insaaaane..they continuesly broke into the homes of people who are anti scientology and stole personal items,like diaries and copied up to pages and spread them around,mailed to parents/spouses/work etc etc, tapped onto people phones,bugged houses,stalked them,spread rumours. They broke into and bugged the IRS,they broke into doctor offices and stole files on people and spread them around. its absolutely insane.i dont understand how they can justify what they have done when they claim they are in that cult because they want to make the world a better place.

They mentioned a former question from this thread in Going Clear - about the members in Sea Org. working for under minimum wage. They didn't go into detail, but mentioned that it was legal because the "church" is classified as a tax-exempt "religion" (somehow this enables them to employ members at whatever wages the church chooses to pay).

Also, law enforcement's hands are tied in several areas - such as the claim that members are imprisoned in "the hole."
But the members aren't forced to stay there (although they are extorted to stay due to all sorts of threats of harassment, disconnections by family, punishments and bills the church will levy toward them if they try to leave). Rinder even said that if the FBI raided the place they would be told that this "imprisonment" and the hard labor the members do while in the hole is a church program that the members willingly engage in to better themselves - and the prisoners themselves would confirm this.

I dont understand why a religious status would allow that,at least it should be confirmed by the government or whatever that the individual had a proper job and that such work for whatever church was just "charity". Its waay to easy to abuse that right.

Yeah thats how i understood it aswell,that they are there volentary. But If there is a fence...if there are guards there to watch them..is it really volentary?

BY THE WAY just saw Leah Remini and the attorney for scientology will be on 20/20 tonight

My guess is that upper level members of Scientology are well acquainted with the law as far as what they can and can't do. I'm sure they've instructed the "security guards" at their "prison" that they cannot physically stop members from leaving. Once a guard puts their hands on someone, tries to restrain them or tries to detain them, they could easily be charged with assault and false imprisonment. So it seems the church has come to rely on controlling its members mentally (and with all the aforementioned threats) than physically.

I was a security guard for a pharma company, and we were well instructed as to the level of authority we could wield - first and foremost was that we could not touch an employee (except in self-defense, defense of another or if the employee was in the process of committing a crime). We also could not detain anyone. We could try to ask them questions, stall them, call their supervisor or report them, but beyond that we could not do anything to physically stop or hold them if they were unwilling to comply with requests to remain on the site (say, if they were suspected of theft).

I also don't get the employment issue. If regular churches hire people like contractors they have to pay whatever the person charges. If churches have members as actual employees, I imagine they have to pay them above minimum wage?

My former church paid the minister (I don't know how much, but he got to live in a house provided by the church and received a wage). And as far as members working for them, the work is usually done for free as voluntary work - when I belonged to a church we had one day a week when members would volunteer to do work, like clean the church, maintain the church's surrounding lawn & gardens, do minor repair and maintenance on the church's surrounding buildings - but nothing was mandatory, the church just relied on members who had the time to volunteer to work.

Yeah I guess so..But at the same time,it falls under emotional/mentally abuse,or atleast it should..The guards are there for a reason even though they might not physically stop them. But if no one is reporting them then i guess that its nothing they can do.Or i dont know if thats enough still,since at the end of the day they are volentary there-but stuff like that is constantely brought up in cases like for example domestic violence.

Yes its very odd.Its the same with churches here,although ministers live in their own houses. But i assume its sort of the same,they dont report it. Im guessing the members dont pay taxes,are not given "official" paychecks and are not getting wellfare so they slip under that radar..although im sure they really know about it.
I know they owed 1 bill in taxes when the case between them and the IRS was going,but i dont know how it works for the individual members.

Im so excited to hear there might be a second season though,although i would have been surprised had it not gotten it seeing how well its done.

The whole 20/20




This woman is EXACTLY why i dont like lawyers. Make sure people get a fair trial-yes- or fair case. but dont downright lie to win a case,thats not actually your job.Money has turned this occupation into something different than its supposed to be.Shes not even a scientolog so she doesnt believe this crap,shes in it for the money.

I'm wondering if there is some barter system involved with member's wages because I think in one episode a woman said if she left the group she'd be billed $40,000 for the last course she took - she was originally told it would be free to her as long as she stayed with and worked for the church, but if she ever left then she'd be billed for all the courses she took.

Holding financial debt over members' heads (who usually are broke because they've already given all their money to Scientology to move up its "bridge") is another means of control they use to keep people from just leaving.

Another thing to think about - what other religions charge their followers to learn their beliefs?

Sure, all religions ask members for tithes, donations and offerings - but the request is usually on a voluntary basis and based on the idea of supporting the upkeep of the church and contributing toward the charitable works it does. Most religions have a community aspect or function as a sub-community within larger secular one and therefore request that members voluntarily contribute what they reasonably can toward helping that sub-community maintain itself and / or grow via financial support, interaction with new members, voluntary work, outreach work, proselytizing for recruitment, etc.

I know there are stories of how the Catholic Church used to threaten members with excommunication who couldn't or wouldn't keep up with regular offerings, but I think those days (and even the very social stigma of excommunication) are in the past.

No other major religion in modern times charges its members to learn what the religion believes - that knowledge can be obtained through that religion's scriptures (which can usually be found for free on line, at a public library or just talking to followers) or by attending a religion's services (most of which do not have an admission charge at the door).

So again, how is Scientology a "religion" if it charges people to find out what it believes? Those are the behaviors of a business rather than a religion or religious philosophy.

You`re absolutely right,she did say that. Several has stated thats a big part of why they couldnt leave sooner. and when on top of that debt,you have no job,education,home or family to go stay with..where are you going to go?

It does sound like Leah has some sort of plan to revoke the religious status,during the time after she left and even after this show started,shes always been asking people to get involved to find out HOW or what she can do,but lately shes been saying shes working on it.

i dont know either! and to add to everything you said,how can it be a religion when they dont know what they believe in? .Leah was 3 DECADES in and she was still trying to move up the bridge and get information about scientology-34 years and she still didnt know everything.She just recently was told that God was a lie,and when scientology and Me was filmed she had no idea about xenu ( i believe thats from 08 or round there?)
Also you dont have to look much further than quotes for Ron himself to see its all bogus-¨he repeatedly said he wanted to start a "religion" to make money.

That makes me think there is absolutely no reason Scientology should have religious tax-exempt status. They are selling a product and profiting enormously directly off the people they claim they are trying to "help." No other religion profits off its members by selling them its doctrine for money (all followers of a "religion" should need to do to learn doctrine is to show up and listen or read scriptures).

Religions are not supposed to profit, especially not off their own congregations! They are only supposed to sustain themselves financially while engaging in charitable works and benefiting the lives of their members and community through goodwill & spiritual support. If they are profiting financially, then they legally cease being a "religion" and become a "business" and therefore should be taxed.

And to add insult to injury, the product Scientology is selling, (for the investment of dozens of years and hundreds of thousands of dollars per person) is a rambling sci-fi story, poorly hand-written on a piece of scrap paper by a loony who admitted he wanted to make money by making up a fake religion!!! And this same guy's multitude of similarly bad sci-fi stories could've been purchased for 10 cents in the pulp magazines he once worked for!

There's no way this crack-pot fraud of a cult should have tax-exempt status as a religion!

yeah I couldnt agree more!! and I genuinely cannot believe the IRS caved in to a group who broken into their offices,stole their files and bugged their building.

I see no other reasons than the continuing lawsuits from the scientology members to be the reason why they got it. and that is NOT a valid reason for a cult to get religious status.surely it should easily be overturned? i have no idea how one would even go about it though.
But something i never understood about those lawsuits..from what i gather the head of the IRS gave in because 3000 or so members of scientology had sued the IRS and the personelle working there,and even though they had no case it ment that the people from IRS had to hire lawyers and show up to court-and scientology promised to stop suing if the tax was stopped.isnt that harrassment? couldnt they have filed a complaint and have them all thrown out of court together? i mean it really shouldnt be that easy to bully the IRS

Also i cant remember if i said this already,but Leah said that one of her major problems with scientology,without the obvious,was that when she left she found out that all the stuff they had been told about charity wasnt true. so she had been working and giving money to things that werent real. she didnt really go into detail though unfortunatly. but if so,then surely thats fraud aswell!

So the LAPD refused to answer any of her questions
http://tonyortega.org/2017/01/12/lap...sh/#more-36903

Leah on Adam Carrols podcast/radioshow