| 01 July 2009
Back in April I devoted an entry to four cult leaders with exceptional influence and barbarity. Among the profiles I did was one about David Miscavige, the de facto leader of the Church of Scientology. I believed then as I do now that Miscavige is probably the most successful
and powerful leader of any destructive organization out there. The man controls the intellectual licensing of the cult's "religious technology", brining in his church millions each year. He also has strong ties to entertainers, many of whom credit there success to this peculiar organization. Miscavige is very guarded, rarely speaking to the media at all. Instead, he has employed a series of spokespeople to carry water for him. For several years, Australian native Mike Rinder was the prime apologist for Scientology, appearing on television and in print defending everything from the church's teachings, to its tax exempt status as well as responding to allegations of brutality against members and ex-members alike.
Scientology sheds members quite a bit - often very bitter ex-adherents who have a lot to say. That's why it was strange when Rinder, Scientology's mouthpiece left the organization two years ago with very attention paid to it. He has largely been silent about his disillusion with the church until just recently. After all, Scientology has been known to extract a code of silence through fear. Forget the ACLU, It is the church is among the most litigious organizations out there.
Last week, Rinder, the long-time spin doctor for the movement begun by L. Ron Hubbard, went public with allegations against Miscavige. He said that the bizarre cult's head vicar routinely uses physical force against members of his staff, sometimes over very trivial matters. Rinder told the St. Petersburg Times says he endured as many as 50 beating himself while in Miscavige's employe.:
"It was random and whimsical. It could be the look on your face. Or not answering a question quickly. But it always was a punishment."
Rinder is not the only one claiming that Miscavige enforced church code through brutality. Several others have claimed so as well. Although these are allegations, they fit a general pattern in the cult's 60 year history, one of secrecy authoritarianism. Mike Rinder would of course not be the first person to allege abuse at the hands of Scientology. He was in fact the person the church paid for years to refute and discredit claims of financial coercion, psychological abuse and corporal punishment.
It's an interesting, although sad development. Since leaving Scientology, Rinder has lost more than just his faith in Xenu, but also his wife and contact with other family members who are in the church. It was certainly a dramatic reversal for a man who enthusiastically defended the church and its insanity, something perhaps akin to if Joseph Goebbels had suddenly in 1942 refuted the National Socialist Workers Party.
Perhaps with his admission that things weren't so lovely at the Church of Scientology and the revelation that the church is legally harassing him, Rinder will bring other disullusioned members with him. Until then, it's all in Xenu's hands.
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