A church spokeswoman, Virginia Stewart, said the [Scientology] church ”shares none of the characteristics of a cult”.
– Scientology says ‘cult’ tag defames the church, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 July 2011
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A cult is a group or a movement that, to a significant degree, (a) exhibits great or excessive devotion or dedication to some idea or thing, (b) uses a thought reform program to persuade, control and socialize members (i.e. to integrate them into the group’s unique pattern of relationships, beliefs, values and practices), (c) systematically induces states of psychological dependency in members, (d) exploits members to advance the leadership’s goals, and (e) causes psychological harm to members, their families and the community.
– Michael Langone (1993) Recovery from Cults
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Hubbard believed that Scientology was being infiltrated by saboteurs and spies and introduced “security checking” to identify those he termed “potential trouble sources” and “suppressive persons”. Members of the Church of Scientology were interrogated with the aid of E-meters and were asked questions such as “Have you ever practiced homosexuality?” and “Have you ever had unkind thoughts about L. Ron Hubbard?” For a time, Scientologists were even interrogated about crimes committed in past lives: “Have you ever destroyed a culture?” “Did you come to Earth for evil purposes?” “Have you ever zapped anyone?”
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In 1958, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service withdrew the Washington, D.C. Church of Scientology’s tax exemption after it found that Hubbard and his family were profiting unreasonably from Scientology’s ostensibly non-profit income. The Food and Drug Administration took action against Scientology’s medical claims, seizing thousands of pills being marketed as “radiation cures” as well as publications and E-meters. The Church of Scientology was required to label them as being “ineffective in the diagnosis or treatment of disease.”
“Ethics Technology” was introduced to tighten internal discipline within Scientology. It required Scientologists to “disconnect” from any organization or individual— including family members— deemed to be disruptive or “suppressive”. Scientologists were also required to write “Knowledge Reports” on each other, reporting transgressions or misapplications of Scientology methods. Hubbard promulgated a long list of punishable “Misdemeanors,” “Crimes” and “High Crimes”. The “Fair Game” policy was introduced, which was applicable to anyone deemed an “enemy” of Scientology: “May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”
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As Scientology faced increasingly negative media attention, the GO [Guardian's Office, created in 1966] retaliated with hundreds of writs for libel and slander; it issued more than forty on a single day. Hubbard ordered his staff to find “lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence [sic] on [Scientology's] attackers.”
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According to [Danish historian of religions Mikael] Rothstein’s assessment of Hubbard’s legacy, Scientology consciously aims to transfer the charismatic authority of Hubbard to institutionalize his authority over the organization, even after his death. Hubbard is presented as a virtually superhuman religious ideal just as Scientology itself is presented as the most important development in human history. As Rothstein puts it, “reverence for Scientology’s scripture is reverence for Hubbard, the man who in the Scientological perspective single-handedly brought salvation to all human beings.” David G. Bromley of the University of Virginia comments that the real Hubbard has been transformed into a “prophetic persona”, “LRH”, which acts as the basis for his prophetic authority within Scientology and transcends his biographical history.
In the late 1970s two men began to assemble a very different picture of Hubbard’s life. Michael Linn Shannon, a resident of Portland, Oregon, became interested in Hubbard’s life story after an encounter with a Scientology recruiter. Over the next four years he collected previously undisclosed records and documents. He intended to write an exposé of Hubbard and sent a copy of his findings and key records to a number of contacts but was unable to find a publisher.
Shannon’s findings were acquired by Gerry Armstrong, a Scientologist who had been appointed Hubbard’s official archivist.He had been given the job of assembling documents relating to Hubbard’s life for the purpose of helping Omar V. Garrison, a non-Scientologist who had written two books sympathetic to Scientology, to write an official biography. However, the documents that he uncovered convinced both Armstrong and Garrison that Hubbard had systematically misrepresented his life. Garrison refused to write a “puff piece” and declared that he would not “repeat all the falsehoods they [the Church of Scientology] had perpetuated over the years.” He wrote a “warts and all” biography while Armstrong quit Scientology, taking five boxes of papers with him. The Church of Scientology and Mary Sue Hubbard sued for the return of the documents while settling out of court with Garrison, requiring him to turn over the nearly completed manuscript of the biography.In October 1984 Judge Paul G. Breckenridge ruled in Armstrong’s favor, saying:
[source]
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