Austin, Chicago & Mexico City: Here’s why you’re getting new Scientology churches now
The situation has been shifting and changing, but it’s now looking more realistic that Scientology leader David Miscavige will open the new “Ideal Orgs” he promised in Austin (Feb 24), Mexico City (March 1), and Chicago (March 3), with another opening in Paris also imminent.
The word has started getting out to the public in general, and we’ve been seeing some pretty quizzical responses on social media.
Scientology is opening new churches? Where? Why? And what’s an “Ideal Org” anyway?
The Ideal Org project is a story we’ve been covering for many years, and so we’re hoping we can provide some answers for the people and media in those towns.
Scientology is a very hierarchical organization, with one man, David Miscavige, perched on the very top. At the local level, however, Scientology for decades has operated what it calls “Class V orgs” — the word “org” is short for “organization” — that are intended to be mainstays in major cities around the world. Each big city is supposed to have one.
People new to Scientology might first be introduced to its ideas in something even more local, like a “mission” or by a “field staff member,” but eventually they are expected to go to the big local org on their way later to even higher-level places like the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida.
Back in around 2002, however, and about 15 years into Miscavige’s tenure, after he had taken over following the 1986 death of founder L. Ron Hubbard, the church had a problem in Buffalo, New York.
The city there was using eminent domain to take away the land under the city’s Scientology org for a new parking garage. Scientology would be paid for the trouble, but Miscavige and Scientology needed to find a new place for its org there.
Meanwhile, Mike Rinder has told us he heard at the time, Tom Cruise was supposedly disappointed when he took someone down to the org in Tampa, Florida, which was something of a dump.
And third, the org in Johannesburg was in such a bad neighborhood, a staffer had been killed in random violence.
At least, those were the stories that Scientologists were told when Miscavige then revealed that he intended to replace all three of these orgs — in Buffalo, Tampa, and Johannesburg — with new, larger, and more updated facilities he called “Ideal Orgs.”
Many former Scientologists have pointed out to us that this was not something that L. Ron Hubbard had ever called for. In fact, Hubbard was against an obsession with what is called “MEST” in Scientology, “matter, energy, space, and time” — in other words, things. What was more important than property or things to Hubbard was people doing Scientology. So Miscavige’s sudden emphasis on more expensive and more attractive buildings seemed like it went against the spirit of Hubbard’s teachings.
But Miscavige and Scientology went all-in on the idea, and in the 20 years since then they have pursued the goal of replacing every run-of-the-mill org with an “Ideal Org,” whether the city it inhabited needs it or not.
Each project costs something like $25 million, according to a former top executive named Paul Burkhart who worked on the projects and told this to Leah Remini and Mike Rinder on Scientology and the Aftermath.
Since the start in 2003, this has been the building schedule…
2003: Johannesburg, San Francisco
2004: Madrid, New York
2006: London
2007: Berlin
2009: Dallas, Malmö, Nashville, Rome, Washington DC
2010: Brussels, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Pasadena, Québec, Seattle
2011: Inglewood (California), Melbourne, Moscow, Tampa, Twin Cities
2012: Buffalo (a do-over), Cincinnati, Denver, Hamburg, Los Gatos, Padua, Phoenix, Sacramento, Santa Ana, Stevens Creek, Tel Aviv
2013: Cambridge (Ontario), Kaohsiung, Portland, Pretoria
2014: Sydney
2015: Basel, Bogotá, Milan, Tokyo
2016: Atlanta, Budapest, Harlem, San Diego
2017: Amsterdam, Auckland, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Dublin, Johannesburg North, Miami, San Fernando Valley
2018: Detroit, Orlando, Perth, Salt Lake City, Silicon Valley, Stuttgart
2019: Columbus, Kansas City
2020: Ventura
That’s a total of 64 Ideal Orgs around the world. (Scientology boasts a larger number, but it also counts some Ideal Advanced Orgs, which is something different.)
Miscavige has attended every grand opening ceremony except the one in Berlin. Tom Cruise has only attended the 2004 grand opening in Madrid (and gave a speech in Spanish).
It’s also interesting to see which local dignitaries Scientology convinces to show up and say a few words, which have included US Congressmen and mayors. For a complete rundown of all the ceremonies, including photos of the celebrations and the dignitaries who gave speeches, see the Ideal Org section of our dot org website.
The last grand opening was held on February 22, 2020 in Ventura, California, just days before the Covid pandemic began causing national shutdowns.
In each case, Scientology claims that it is replacing an existing org with an Ideal Org because of greater demand, and to serve a growing membership.
But there has never been any evidence of this. In fact, actual evidence suggests that Scientology’s overall membership has dwindled, from a total of about 100,000 active members around the year 1990, to around 20,000 members today. (Scientology has never had the “millions” of active members that it always claims.)
So why are Austin (Feb 24) and Chicago (March 3) getting Ideal Orgs now, and Mexico City getting a second Ideal Org on March 1, and Paris sometime soon?
Because they fit David Miscavige’s schedule and for no other reason. There is no demand for new facilities in those cities, there is hardly any membership at all especially in Austin and Chicago, and these buildings have been ready to be opened literally for years.
They are opening now simply because David Miscavige, after the pandemic and after dodging process servers in numerous lawsuits, is ready to have his grand openings.
None of the cities that have existing Ideal Orgs have experienced the booms in membership that Miscavige promises his followers will happen. Most of them are virtually empty after an initial year when they work hard to win the “Birthday Game” and claim to be busy.
It’s just about Dave, holding a party to impress his wealthy donors, and to convince them that Scientology is still expanding. It isn’t actually expanding, but if you live in Austin or Chicago or Paris or Mexico City, a small party will soon happen in your town that you and the local media are not invited to, and that will be filmed extensively to show other Scientologists that all is well.
It’s a dog and pony show, and nothing more.
Now, as for the openings which appear to be imminent, Pan and others at our dot org site have been keeping an eye on the webcam in Austin which shows a stage being prepared in the side street next to the Ideal Org (the front of which is located at 2200 Guadalupe St), and that’s consistent with an event taking place this Saturday, February 24.
But Chicago is still a bit of a mystery. Mike Rinder posted a flier suggesting that it will open the following weekend, on Sunday, March 3. But yesterday, our helper took a photo which showed that the building at 650 S. Clark Street remains unchanged.
If they’re going to open it next week, they sure are leaving a lot of work to the very last minute.
Mike also posted a flier which claimed that the new Mexico City org will open on Friday, March 1. We’ve been hoping to get some photos of the new Del Valle org, but nothing yet has come in. If you see something, please let us know.
And what about Paris? Miscavige claimed that it would be the first of the four to open. Alex Barnes-Ross has been keeping an eye on it, we hope to have some indication of its opening date soon.
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As someone who joined Scientology in 1968, 56 years ago, the class V orgs(cherchs) were pretty run down. At the time, Hubbard because of attacks on Scientology wanted a low key profile for orgs.
What was important was the quality of the staff members and the service they delivered.
The MEST was not important.
Miscavige who is definitely NOT a people person and drove away most of the talent that built up the organizations, had the simplistic solution that building shiny edifices would expand Scientology.
Yes, clean, organized spaces are necessary to run a business. However, it’s the experienced, skilled and caring people who create expansion and success.
What Miscavige has now, are shiny renovated buildings populated by Sciebots and Seaborgs.(brainwashed automatons)
That guarantees the continued contraction of his toxic cherchs.
Interesting that Dave talks about the staff member who died in JoBurg as an excuse for Ideal Orgs. I was there in South Africa when that death occurred, a month or two after the opening of JoBurg Ideal Org.
We held a little sort-of memorial for him in the newly renovated JoBurg Chapel.
He was not staff at the Ideal Org, he was part of the Sea Org installation that was still down-town. There is a 15-passenger van we called the Dooly that goes around to pick up the Sea Org crew and take them home to berthing after work hours. This guy missed the last pick-up time and decided to walk home, right through the dangerous part of town.
Of course, all I know about it is the official statements of the Scientology executives, known liars, and the rumors that were buzzing around. But it is ironic that Dave would use it as an example when it happened after the Ideal Org was opened.