Scientology is crowing about a Senate resolution it's helping to goose along

[Senators Chris Coons and James Lankford]

We’ve been bringing you some pretty alarming examples of how wealthy Scientologists have formed close ties with the second Trump administration in Washington.

Scientology itself has been pretty quiet about the new environment it finds itself in. Now, however, the church is crowing about something that’s happening in DC, and it’s a situation that pulls together some characters we’ve been watching for several years.

First, we want to thank the tipster who noticed the new article at Scientology’s zombie online version of Freedom magazine, which hasn’t put out an actual issue since 2018. And what really interested us was the byline on the article, which carries the title, “New Senate Resolution Reaffirms Commitment to America’s First Freedom.”

It was written by none other than John Blosser, the former National Enquirer reporter we told you about a couple of years ago. After an embarrassing disaster which had him quoting some salacious (and false) details about Philip Seymour Hoffman from someone Blosser apparently thought was a friend of Hoffman but wasn’t, he lost his job and the paper had to pay a whopping legal settlement.

[John Blosser]

With his career dead, Blosser then turned to an option that most wouldn’t consider, and that’s taking Scientology’s blood money. For a few years, he tried to keep it quiet that he was on Scientology’s payroll as he skulked around, spying first on your proprietor, then Leah Remini and Mike Rinder, and finally Graham Berry.

Mike told us that Blosser was calling former colleagues who had worked on the Scientology and the Aftermath television series. “He actually contacted the family members of people who worked on the show!” Mike said to us in 2023. “Scientology operatives are constantly trying to find people who will say what horrible, rotten people Leah and I were to work with. They might have found someone who didn't do their job and ended up leaving the production team who would say something negative, but they may have even struck out on that. The core team we worked with — producers, camera, lighting, research, editors and many others remain our friends and are very loyal and hate everything about Scientology.”

Blosser then tried the same trick with Berry, who put it into a court record, so at that point we decided to write about what we knew about the guy. And we gave him a call.

The Bunker: Is it true that you’re writing for Freedom magazine?

John Blosser: I have.

The Bunker: Are you working on an article for Freedom about Graham Berry?

Blosser: Yes.

The Bunker: How’s the pay at Scientology?

Blosser: I’m not going to answer that.

The Bunker: I guess you had a problem at the Enquirer?

Blosser: No, not really. Wasn’t my problem.

The Bunker: Working for the Church of Scientology. Isn’t that the bottom of the barrel?

Blosser: I decline to answer.

With his cover blown, Blosser apparently decided last year it was time to go public, and he started writing under his own byline at Freedom’s website in August. We almost never look at Freedom’s anti-psychiatry screeds and other Scientology propaganda, so we didn’t realize that Blosser was writing for it openly until our reader sent us the link to the new story yesterday.

In it, Blosser is heaping praise on Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma and Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware for a bipartisan resolution that would extol freedom of religion and condemn certain nations where religious people are being persecuted.

We’ve told you for years that Scientology loves to promote “interfaith” initiatives so it can be a signatory to letters about religious freedom with other churches. It’s one way that Scientology tries to pretend that it’s a mainstream religion, and not a tiny mafia-like racket that extorts people with ludicrous past-life therapy and claims that all other faiths are false. (“There was no Christ,” founder L. Ron Hubbard said in a 1968 lecture.)

Also, it’s nothing new for the US government to chastise other countries over religious freedom, and of course the State Department under Bill Clinton famously went to bat for Scientology in Germany in the 1990s.

But Senators Lankford and Coons, who have teamed up for several years on religious matters, believe that it’s time for a new resolution about religious freedom, which they’ve been working on since last year, at least. Senator Coons put out a celebratory statement last May that the resolution had been endorsed by an interfaith group of “113 religious and secular leaders, human rights advocates, scholars, and practitioners” that had sent a letter expressing their support, a list that included the Church of Scientology.

“I’m grateful for the hundreds of advocates who have joined our efforts to recognize religious freedom as a fundamental right necessary for protecting democracy and peace,” the senator said.

We were curious about this letter that impressed Coons, whom Politico has described as “the GOP’s favorite Democrat.”

The first thing we noticed was that the letter, from the “International Religious Freedom Roundtable,” was written by the IRFC’s CEO, a man named Greg Mitchell.

Greg Mitchell is also the Church of Scientology’s longtime lobbyist in Washington.

Mitchell is also a Scientologist who went “Clear” in 2020.

So, yet another Scientology “interfaith” scheme has hit paydirt, helping a couple of US Senators promote a resolution that would chide other nations for lacking sufficient religious freedom, and it’s being celebrated at Freedom magazine by John Blosser.

Even Blosser, in his article, admits that a proposed senate resolution is, well, just a resolution and won’t actually do anything.

But still, it’s interesting to see a US senator heaping so much praise on Scientology, even if only indirectly.

The resolution, S.Res.52, was formally proposed on February 4 and has been assigned to the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations.

Our tipster pointed out that the resolution singles out Russia as one country that is persecuting some religious people. But, in an oversight that must distress Blosser, Mitchell, and David Miscavige, Senators Coons and Lankford missed a golden opportunity to mention Scientology:

(11) Russia, where laws on terrorism and extremism are used to target religious minorities such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, and members of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church for their beliefs;

Maybe there’s still time for an amendment?

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