Our way of remembering those who exposed Scientology, each in their way

Four weeks ago today, we lost a great friend and a man whose life touched so many other lives in our community.

We’ve been fortunate that so many people sent us their remembrances of Mike Rinder, and we’re still getting used to the idea that we can’t just call him up and ask for his thoughts on the latest Scientology news.

But there’s another way that we wanted to remember Mike, and that’s with the help of our friend, the talented Lynette Waggoner, a/k/a Observer.

At our request, she has revised her original illustration and added Mike to the sylvan glen where our heroes relax under the shade of two stately oaks.

Here’s our original introduction to this image, to help our newer readers understand what we’re talking about…

In 2013, the Church of Scientology slaughtered a couple of innocent live oak trees that had been standing in the way of a party the church wanted to throw itself.

Our longtime readers no doubt remember it. It was a classic example of Scientology’s disregard for local laws when they get in the way of what the church wants. In this case Scientology wanted to put up a giant tent for the grand opening of their “Flag Building” (also known as the Super Power Building) in downtown Clearwater, Florida, where healthy old live oak trees are a rare and precious commodity. The city told Scientology not to cut down the trees and were working on a plan to relocate them, but the church defied that recommendation and cut the trees down anyway, and paid a $2,000 fine.

It was so characteristic of this smug, superior organization and it struck a chord with us. We decided that those two majestic trees should not be forgotten, and an idea came to us. We asked Observer, with her wonderful skills, if she would help us put together a scene we had in mind.

We imagined those two lovely trees now giving shade to several people who had faced the Scientology buzzsaw in one way or another. We loved the result, which Observer titled, “Not Forgotten.”

And today, we have a new version of Observer’s touching tribute.

[Click on the image to expand it.]

Do you recognize them all? On the left, Denise Brennan, who helped us understand the byzantine early-1980s reorganization of Scientology, is walking with Lisa McPherson, who was killed by Scientology’s quack mental health ideas after being held for 17 days at the Fort Harrison Hotel in 1995. Joining them is Ida Camburn, a wonderful woman who lost a son to Scientology, and who used to send us emails early in our career, encouraging us to expose the church.

Sitting next to them in the foreground is Quentin Hubbard, who just wanted to be a pilot but happened to be the son of the Great Thetan, who hated him for being gay. Quentin took his own life in 1976.

Sitting on the bench there is our good friend Mike Rinder, Leah Remini’s Scientology and the Aftermath co-star who went on to pen A Billion Years, a great expose of Scientology’s inner workings. Next to him on the bench is Gabe Cazares, the brave Clearwater mayor who first revealed that it was Scientology that had secretly infiltrated the town, and paid for it with elaborate operations run against him by Scientology’s spy wing. Also on the bench is Ron Miscavige, father of Scientology’s leader who was the subject of so much harassment for writing his tell-all, Ruthless. And next to him is Bob Minton, the wealthy businessman who financed the Lisa McPherson Trust and was caught up in vicious attacks by the church.

Behind them, with his guitar, is Mark “Warrior” Plummer, a generous, caring man who we spent long hours talking with on the phone about his Scientology experiences and so many other things. And he’s joined by Nan McLean, who was still sharp as a tack and fighting against Scientology into her 90s.

Robert Vaughn Young, who at one time was Scientology’s spokesman but then became one of its biggest critics, is reclining in a chair.

And hanging out in the oak tree is Andreas Heldal-Lund, the Norwegian man who created Operation Clambake (xenu.net), an unusually kind and intelligent man whose calm strength against years of attacks by Scientology only made him more resolute. With him is Alexander Jentzsch, who died of a simple ailment while he was denied by Scientology any contact with his mother, Karen de la Carriere, because she had dared to criticize the church.

We give thanks that each of these people exposed Scientology’s true nature, each in their own way.

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Bonus items from our tipsters

We’re sorry we missed this awesome event yesterday. Did anyone catch it? We’d love a breakdown of how it went.

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A special treat for our subscribers

Today subscribers will receive Episode 103 of our special podcast series, “Group Therapy.”

We discuss the week’s revelations with our gang of jokers and degraders, including our transoceanic friend Pete Griffiths and in Colorado the genial Bruce Hines!

It’s all the enturbulation you could want!

We’re offering this series as thanks to our subscribers for helping to support the work we do here at the Underground Bunker.

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For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain

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