Stunning letter shows Scientology pitting devotion against family ties

[Derrick and Tammy Synovec]

Last year, Tammy Synovec started off 2024 for us with a wonderful story about how she had found herself on a flight sitting next to a Scientologist and had the opportunity to tell him what had driven her away from it after so many years as a member.

Part of the reason was the way Scientology had ripped apart her family, with her daughter “disconnecting” from her and her husband Derrick, who died in 2021.

Yesterday, Tammy posted an incredible 1998 letter that she said she had found while going through some of Derrick’s things. She encouraged us to repost it here. Even if you were never a Scientologist and are unfamiliar with some of the terms in the letter, we think you will find it to be a stunning look inside the way Scientology actually treats its employees and members.

I recently cleaned out my attic and came across this letter that Cathy Steiner wrote to my husband (who has since passed). I remember how we were both so upset about this. I'm posting it here to show what is expected from staff members.

A bit of background: My husband worked full time as a union journeyman electrician and went on post in the evening as a Class IV auditor.

Our kids were in daycare from 9 am to 10 pm on the weekdays. I was getting paid anywhere from nothing to $100 on a good week. Average pay for me was $50 a week. I was on post five days a week from 10am to 10pm, but usually there much later. I was supposed to be on training on Saturdays, but usually ended up on post. I was able to get away with only coming in on Sunday for half a day if my stats were up. Daycare was costing us $250.

I don't recall what illness I had except the time I went to see Dr. Denk because I was exhausted all the time after I had our second baby. He diagnosed me with some made up thyroid “syndrome” and put me on iodine. I don't recall the name of the syndrome, but one of the symptoms was that my temperature was lower than normal. In real life, I have no issues with my thyroid.

It’s proof that children are a nuisance in Scientology and being a parent is secondary to being a staff member.

Also, Derrick was asked to leave post so he could take care of our children, so I could be on post as the HAS at Buenaventura Mission (now closed because the staff were needed for the Ventura Org). It was presented to him as a solution, not that he was being kicked off post.

— Tammy Synovec

Apr 26, 1998

Dear Derrick,

Thank you for the comm and I understand that you have some upset on different situations here at the mission. I can also tell that you have been mis-informed and I will use this time to straighten things out.

First off, HCOPL 31 OCTOBER 1966 AKH SERIES 2 ACTIONS, EXECUTIVE FOR HANDLING DISASTROUS OCCURRENCES (Vol 7) applies and should have been issued but our admin is slower than the physical universe. An issue will come out shortly regarding your situation.

So that you don't sit in a mystery meanwhile the reason you were taken off post and told to remove the MEST from your desk is that you have been very enturbulative as a staff member. You have been hyper-critical and have blamed yours and Tammy's condition on everyone except yourself. You have openly violated the policy on LEAVING AND LEAVES with your wife and possibly others. You are at least an enemy of this organization.

You also produce little to nothing here and it has been this way for quite some time. You do not tackle your post and wear your hat and take pride in what you do. In fact, you do very little here.

You have originated many times that you don't plan to resign your contract. With the little to no production occurring from you I can only assume that you are waiting for your contract to end. This is probably because you don't want to be freeloaded.

Neither you nor Tammy checked with anybody here when you decided to have children. Both of you were contracted staff members at the time. I consider this a situation in itself as both of you now motivate on the group for not being more understanding about the scene with your kids. Have you ever considered the hardship you have added to the mission with the addition of 2 kids? You probably haven't looked at that.

And you may think that no one is listening to your needs and wants. Well, Derrick, you are a Grade 0 completion and I haven't heard any real sane attempt to sort out the problems you have. I generally stop listening when someone is making my group as wrong as you have been making it.

Your suppressive acts and entheta have helped to create a very deteriorated situation with HCO. She has the VFP of creating ethical and productive staff and public. If she were creating this do you think there would be a situation with having time off? And if both of you had created a sane environment for your children before you had kids and also got some agreement on how it wouldn't create dev-t for the group maybe you wouldn't be sitting in the position you are in now. Neither of you ever took into consideration what it would do to the group to have two kids in a row. Maybe this is one of the overts you need to confront.

Regarding your freeloader debt. Per policy, you are supposed to pay full rates for your processing. This would amount to $4000 an intensive. You have had 30 intensives delivered on your current contract. At $4000 per int that comes to $120,000. Even if we only charged you $2000 per int that would come to $60,000. You have paid $35,000 plus/minus since this contract began. These are figures we are working with and they don't include any training you may have had.

The Urgent Directive of getting you out of the building was to get the entheta off the lines. I couldn't have an enemy sitting here in my camp destroying the morale with a bunch of natter. My plan is to freeload you unless you want a Comm Ev and I am fine on doing one. Vicky said you didn't want a Comm Ev and that you just wanted to route out. She should have gotten this in writing from you. I told her to.

I am not open to having you remain on staff in PT. There would have to be some real major ethics change and probably you would have to sign a new contract for me to think that you were handled. If this doesn't seem fair to you my suggestion is for you to go ahead with the Comm Ev. Meanwhile, I will get the Urgent Directive issued.

I want to comment on one more thing that you brought up in your comm and that is regarding Tammy and her illness. You never one time that I know of used Scientology to handle her. I never knew you to give her or the kids assists, or to open an LRH book to find some answers. Tylenol and wog doctors and their evaluations became the solution. And the mission was targeted as the source of their illness. I ask you to look at what your actions and inactions did to create this scene.

Feel free to communicate to me. But please don't write a bunch of H,E&R in your comm.

ARC,

Cathy

Here is Cathy Steiner, from a 2019 post here at the Underground Bunker, where she and Rohit Adi were being celebrated by Scientology for becoming “Platinum Meritorious With Honors” donors, which means they had given a cumulative $3.75 million to the IAS, Scientology’s membership organization.

Here’s what Impact magazine said about them: “Rohit Adi and Cathy Steiner are a team that steer a top-flight Narconon and mission in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That’s just the latest chapter in an epic story, as Cathy and her late husband, Tom, have been helming missions and Narconons for decades, from Stevens Creek, California, to Stuttgart, Germany.”

She sure writes a hell of a letter though, doesn’t she?

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