We’re finally getting a chance to go through our backlog of email that piled up during the Danny Masterson trial, and we were glad to see that we’d been sent a message from our old friend Mark Bunker, the Clearwater, Florida city councilman.
He wanted us to know that he’s been targeted with what appears to be a small campaign by local Scientology members.
“There seems to be a push to have Scientologists complain about my behavior on the council as a handful of emails have come trickling in,” he told us, and he thought we’d like to see a couple of them.
If you’re not familiar with the situation, Bunker has been working to expose Scientology abuses for many, many years, and always in the most friendly manner possible. As he has said many times, he never complains about a Scientologist’s involvement in the church, but about the policies and practices of the organization under leader David Miscavige. And in particular, the way those practices keep Clearwater from becoming a more lively place downtown, where Miscavige has control of so many properties. In 2020, Bunker was elected to the city council after running on his record of opposing Scientology.
And since then Bunker has repeatedly brought up Scientology’s controversies in city council meetings, something that has not exactly endeared him to Mayor Frank Hibbard.
On October 21, the mayor received a complaint about Bunker’s “discriminatory” comments on the council.
Mayor Frank Hibbard
City of ClearwaterDear Mayor Hibbard,
I have been operating a business in downtown for the past 20 years I have owned other businesses in Clearwater for over 30 years. I pay taxes and have volunteered many many hours in this community.
I attended law school at Boston University and graduated from Morehouse College. I grew up in Mississippi where I suffered from and fought against violations of civil rights as an African American.
As you might imagine, I am shocked to see, in this day and age, a City Councilman being so disgustingly discriminatory. I am talking about Mark Bunker who continuously operates as a hate monger against my church, including at the past city council meeting.
Mark Bunker is similar to the bigots in Mississippi who did everything they could to put people like me down.
No government, nor its individual members in official capacities, should be discriminating against their own constituents based on race or religion.
Sincerely,
[Redacted]
(We’re going to leave the name off since we didn’t get a chance to reach out to the business owner.)
Bunker tells us he figures the comments that had angered the letter writer occurred the night before, when he’d urged local voters to approve a referendum that would result in the sale of some downtown land to developers in a major improvement that Scientology leader David Miscavige opposed.
“I was making a closing pitch why people should vote yes to allow new development on our downtown bluff. These are points the business community wanted me to make because I was the person who could allay the fears of those avoiding downtown because of Scientology. I would hardly consider these comments harsh,” Mark says.
He also showed us another fun letter that came in on November 4…
Dear Mr. Hibbard,
As a Resident of Clearwater, I am shocked that Mark Bunker is allowed to continually discriminate at the City Council Meetings.
I am a licensed Real Estate Broker, and I would be fined and possibly lose my license if I demonstrated Religious Discrimination like Mark Bunker does.
Mark Bunker continues to display this behavior freely in the City Council meetings, without objections from anyone else at the meeting.
Voting is a personal decision. I personally make my decisions by researching issues and making my own determination about how I choose to vote.
As the Executive Director of the Clearwater Community Volunteers, I have personally built, decorated, and manned Winter Wonderland for more than 20 years. Each year we bring tens of thousands of people into downtown Clearwater. The Church of Scientology sponsors this wonderful event, giving an incredible experience to thousands and thousands of Clearwater residents.
I personally have met people that came as children and now bring their children because Winter Wonderland is such a special place to visit. In addition, Winter Wonderland is a food and toy drive, so we provide Christmas to many, many families that cannot afford Christmas. This is possible because of the support from the Church of Scientology.
I sincerely hope that Mark Bunker is not allowed to continue spreading hate and lies to our residents at the meeting and wasting the valuable time of our other City Councilmembers.
Very Sincerely,
[Redacted]
“I guess I won’t be invited to officiate the opening of Winter Wonderland this year,” Bunker told us last night.
In fact, according to a report in the local Patch, the Clearwater version of Scientology’s Winter Wonderland opened last week.
For those unfamiliar with Winter Wonderland, here’s what we said about Scientology’s interesting relationship to Christmas last year at this time…
Scientology has a long and complex relationship with the R6 Christianity implant that each of us thetans struggles with thanks to the galactic warlord Xenu.
According to Scientology scripture, the story of Christianity (including the birth of Jesus) never actually occurred, it’s all an “implant” in our heads that Xenu put there when he committed a massive genocide on this planet 75 million years ago.
However, even though Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard belittled Christianity in his lectures, he knew a good thing when he saw it, and so in the early 1970s his Los Angeles followers began co-opting Christmas by putting a big tree up in Hollywood.
“Winter Wonderland” they called it, and it became a staple of Scientology’s outreach.
So even though Scientology scripture has it that the story of Christianity was just something made up by the galactic overlord Xenu 75 million years ago, a Scientologist business owner can claim today that with its Winter Wonderland setup, “we provide Christmas to many, many families that cannot afford Christmas.”
Slick.
Bunker pointed out to us that he’s written each of the letter writers, offering to meet with them and discuss their issues about his comments.
Also, he’s put up a couple of new videos at his channel in response to the letter writers.
“The first one is my report on the court hearing on coercion and the second one is about Miscavige not supporting the bluff property vote but happy to tell people not to vote for me.”
Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. 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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Pretty telling that neither letter offers a specific example of Mark’s “discriminatory” behavior. Especially from someone who attended law school.
It’s like they weren’t even there.
Well that article fired me up!!
Let’s point out the obvious, Hibbard/Hubbard wtf 😳 moving on...
How dare that person use their race to further his/her “religious” agenda.
Scientology scumbag bullshit. Guaranteed they were coerced into sending those email(s). Hubbard and Miscavige monopolized the downtown Clearwater area for decades. From someone who has frequented it several times in the 90’s, It’s gross what’s been allowed to happen. It’s not a “religion” it’s a business! Winter Wonderland... this load of crap. Smoke and mirrors folks! Lights food and toys, probably the only thing that they hand out something useful rather than the Happiness pamphlet. People in the area stop going! If they feed poor/homeless once a year, let them do it. They won’t bring the poor/homeless into their cult. They can’t afford it. They want whales. After December 25th they can go back go Thetans and Zenu. Thanks for the rant