Scientology issues stunning declaration of victory over global critics

You thought Scientology was going through a rough time? Think again, you doubter.

We nearly overlooked it, but in Scientology’s new issue of Impact magazine, which reported on the 40th Anniversary IAS gala which took place in October in East Grinstead, England, there was a really stunning statement about the history of the IAS, which is Scientology’s membership organization.

Over the years, we’ve told you that the IAS was set up initially as a defense fund as the church was threatened with some very troubling lawsuits in the mid 1980s, and that it then became a huge slush fund for church leader David Miscavige and his various initiatives, especially his “Ideal Org” program.

But it’s another thing to see Scientology itself state this as a fact: That the IAS was born as a reaction to litigation, and how it has operated as a defense fund for this embattled “religion.”

We’re very interested in your thoughts about this substantial and stunning recitation of Scientology history from the magazine as it describes an organization that has triumphed over its global critics.

What the piece doesn’t say is that while David Miscavige and the IAS were fighting these battles, there was a mass exodus as Scientology shrank from about 100,000 members in the early 1990s to maybe only about 20,000 active members around the world today, that its influence on Hollywood has seriously waned during that period, and that media exposes of Scientology’s controversies have been constant and brutal.

Here, however, is Scientology’s version of how, over the past 40 years, it has vanquished its foes around the world…

TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS

In 1984, Scientology was in a fight for survival when the IAS was formed. With the constant willingness to fight back, we lit the torch for freedom. Now we celebrate 40 years of victory.

On October 7, 1984, a few dozen dedicated Scientologists gathered at Saint Hill to sign a Pledge to Mankind. With that, the IAS was formed to unite, advance, support and protect Scientology and Scientologists. It was a time of peril. Our religion was under constant attack and its very survival hung in the balance. In those nascent days of the IAS, to fulfill one of our core missions — to protect Scientology — we had to battle on fronts all across the globe.

At that time, most governments refused to recognize Scientology as a religion. For example, in the UK, citing a law from 1855, the court defined religion in narrow Judeo-Christian terms, and authorities denied a request to register our Chapel, stating that Scientology was not a religion in accordance with the Places of Worship Registration Act.

In the US, the Church had to defend itself against over 60 cookie-cutter civil lawsuits. Each shared the same allegations and witnesses (and often a plaintiff in one case would be a witness in other cases).

In Portland, the mother of all those lawsuits, a psych who was an "expert" witness claimed that Scientology was brainwashing people. Her deductive reasoning went like this: "Scientology presumes one may start, change and stop things — ergo, Scientologists are brainwashed." The only thing more outrageous than her testimony was the fact that the trial ended with a $39 million judgment against the Church.

As the Church prepared for 62 more lawsuits, others were getting on the anti-Scientology bandwagon. Over 100 flak-jacket-wearing police armed with sledgehammers and fire axes raided our Church in Toronto, where they collected 854 boxes of "evidence."

In Italy, the government gave us the boot with synchronized raids, closing down every Church and Narconon in the country and jailing staff.

Meanwhile in Spain, the National Police swooped in to break up an IAS assembly, leaving with some 70 Scientologists in handcuffs — including the President of our International Church — and throwing them into the notorious Carabanchel Prison. Among the charges was a claim that Scientology was somehow responsible for the demise of Spain's fascist dictator Francisco Franco — who had died a dozen years earlier.

Throughout Germany, there was a public campaign to ban Scientology. In Munich, seminars were held to alert the public on how to recognize a Scientologist, and children of Scientologists were prohibited from attending some schools or even joining the Boy Scouts. The City of Hamburg convened a "Working Group on Scientology" with one purpose: to prohibit the practice of our religion. And, taking a page straight from the Stasi, police bulletins exhorted citizens to inform on Scientologists in their midst.

The wave of intolerance extended into France. There, power brokers orchestrated an antisect campaign to drive Scientology out of the country.

Across the border in Belgium, antisect hysteria sparked a series of police raids on our Church in an effort to declare our religion illegal. They found nothing, but still mounted a case to try to shut the Church down in Belgium.

And in the US, our war with the IRS was kicked into high gear with the Church's inclusion on Richard Nixon's infamous Enemies List. The agency intensified its invasive and punitive tactics, issuing summonses for every piece of paper from every Church. For decades, we waged battle after battle as thousands of Scientologists had their taxes audited and the personal bank accounts of Church executives were frozen. And the IRS figured we owed them about a billion dollars. Their aim: "the final halt and ultimate disintegration of the Church of Scientology."

The barrage of bogus charges and allegations against the Church were then propagated by Interpol, who forwarded the lies to its member governments around the globe, triggering yet more attacks, hampering our pursuit of religious recognition. In spite of multinational assaults being waged on multiple fronts, we remained resolute.

From its inception, the IAS purpose has been to unite, advance, support and protect the Scientology religion and Scientologists in all parts of the world. While protecting our religion could have been all-consuming, we didn't just play defense; we carried out a global offense, igniting a movement to unite Scientologists.

Turning the Tide

Within six months of its formation, the IAS galvanized Scientologists to protest injustice and bigotry in Portland at our first ever Religious Freedom Crusade. There, tens of thousands marched in the streets day after day — without a single incident. And 60 days after receiving the $39 million judgment, the Multnomah County Circuit Court in Oregon threw it out and declared it a mistrial. The court's ruling set a judicial precedent.

For good measure, those brainwashing theories put forth by the "expert witness" were disavowed by her peers at the American Psychological Association as lacking "scientific rigor." The courts concurred, and she was barred from acting as an expert witness ever again. Remarkably, within 18 months of the Oregon judgment being thrown out, the rest of those cookie-cutter civil suits across the US were also dismissed. All these years later, our crusade for religious freedom has left a lasting mark on Portland. In testimony of the ultimate victory, there is now an Ideal Org.

North of the border in Ontario, we were vindicated when the raid on our Toronto Org — the largest in Canadian history — was declared patently illegal, and the 250,000 documents that had been seized were returned.

In England, where once we were denied classification as a religion, Scientology issued its rejoinder by planting an IAS-sponsored Ideal Org in the heart of the city. This time, the request to register the Chapel made it all the way to UK's Supreme Court, where we achieved a landmark victory. The court ruled that Scientology is indeed a religion and ordered the registration of the Chapel.

As for the closing of all the Italian Churches, that ignited our Religious Freedom Crusade in Europe, and the case made its way to the Supreme Court of Italy. It ended with a ruling that set a precedent for all of Europe, reading in part, "The Scientology religion represents the characteristics of all religious movements." Today, our Italian movement is molto powerful, with Ideal Orgs in Milano, Padova and Rome.

After more than a decade of legal wranglings in Spain, the Church was totally absolved "without reservation." And in the capital city of Madrid, an IAS-sponsored Ideal Org opened at the seat of the country's government. That power move led to another court decision, this one granting full religious recognition in Spain.

Over the years, German courts have issued 56 landmark decisions supporting and protecting Scientologists. As for Hamburg's "Working Group on Scientology," it was dissolved by the government. In that city — as well as Berlin and Stuttgart — we cemented our staying power with a trio of Ideal Orgs.

After a seven-week trial, a court in Belgium came to the "inescapable conclusion that all defendants are innocent." The 173-page judgment was a sweeping condemnation of the proceedings. And today there stands an Ideal Org, front and center to the EU in Brussels.

Then there's the victory to end all victories — when we won the war against the IRS and gained full recognition of 150 Scientology Churches and related organizations. In the wake of peace with the IRS and by order of Interpol's Secretary-General, Interpol was prohibited from investigating Scientology ever again. To clear up their own false reports on Scientology, Interpol headquarters sent every one of its field offices a copy of the book What Is Scientology?

Our 40-year movement as the IAS has not only successfully fended off global attacks, it's also led to our obtaining religious recognition in scores of countries, from Argentina to Zimbabwe, and the opening of IAS-sponsored Ideal Orgs worldwide in cities of international importance. And that's what it means to say, "We are the IAS."

Perhaps the most stunning thing we saw in that recitation of Scientology history was the (unnamed) reference to Heber Jentzsch, the “president” of the Church of Scientology International (it was a figurehead position) who was jailed in Spain.

It’s true that Heber spent a short time in custody in that country. But what this piece doesn’t mention is that later, in 2004, Heber was thrown into “The Hole,” a notorious concentration camp for David Miscavige’s lieutenants that he suspected of disloyalty.

Heber spent years and years in that bizarre internal Scientology prison, and has rarely been seen in public since. Now 89 years old, Heber, we hear, has been farmed out to a nursing home somewhere after his years of punishment by Miscavige.

It’s really kind of shocking to see that reference to him in this article, even if he isn’t actually named in it.

What a strange declaration of victory, when all indications are that Scientology is inexorably dwindling into oblivion.

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