Mission: tyrannical — the secrets of Scientology, by Lawrence Wright in Sunday Times

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Mission: tyrannical — the secrets of Scientology, by Lawrence Wright in Sunday Times.

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Interesting that the word scientology is not capitalized in the body of the story.

Sunday Times -- Mission: tyrannical — the secrets of Scientology

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/newsreview/features/article1677092.ece

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Mission: tyrannical — the secrets of Scientology

Tom Cruise lends scientology an air of glamour, but an explosive book by Lawrence Wright only now being published in Britain claims that behind the facade is a church ruled by violence and intimidation, with beatings, ritual humiliation and enforced abortions

Lawrence Wright Published: 13 March 2016

GREAT FAME imposes a kind of cloister on those who join its ranks. When he was 25, Tom Cruise was the biggest star in Hollywood, on his way to becoming one of the most famous movie legends in history. At around the same time in the mid-1980s, when he too was 25, David Miscavige became the de facto leader of scientology.

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EDITED TO ADD:

Source: https://twitter.com/johnsweeneyroar/status/708940797295632384

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/scientology/comments/4a7p4i/front_page_of_the_sunday_times_news_review/

 

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Re: Mission: tyrannical — the secrets of Scientology, by Lawrence Wright in Sunday Ti

The story as tweeted by The Sunday Times.

https://twitter.com/thesundaytimes/status/708850068384837633

 

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Re: Mission: tyrannical — the secrets of Scientology, by Lawrence Wright in Sunday Ti

EDITED TO ADD:

Source: https://twitter.com/johnsweeneyroar/status/708940797295632384

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/scientology/comments/4a7p4i/front_page_of_the_sunday_times_news_review/

 

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Re: Mission: tyrannical — the secrets of Scientology, by Lawrence Wright in Sunday Ti

Humfrey Hunter - The one-man publisher taking on the Goliath of Scientology.

Tony Ortega has provided the following.

http://tonyortega.org/2016/03/13/jo...lebrate-scientologys-holiest-day-of-the-year/

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Today’s Sunday Times in London contains an excerpt of Lawrence Wright’s epic book, Going Clear, but also this interview of its UK publisher, Humfrey Hunter…

The one-man publisher taking on Goliath

Oliver Thring

Over the years the Church of Scientology has become known as an enthusiastic and tenacious litigant with expensive lawyers on speed-dial.

That reputation seems to have delayed the publication of Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief, Lawrence Wright’s devastating exposé of the organisation, by three years in this country.

The book had originally been slated for publication here in 2013 by Transworld, an offshoot of the then publishing giant Random House, whose Knopf division had printed it in America the same year. But shortly before the text was due to be released in Britain, Transworld abruptly pulled it from its schedules after taking “legal advice”.

However, a change in the libel laws later that year saw the introduction of a “publication on a matter of public interest”, a reinvigorated defence against an accusation of defamation.

“That change emboldened me to publish,” says Humfrey Hunter, the owner (and sole employee) of Silvertail Books, who has brought Going Clear to the British market along with several other books prepared to criticise scientology.

“I reasoned that in PR terms it would be counterproductive for a multibillion-dollar organisation like the Church of Scientology to pursue a small publisher like us.”

At least a decade of critical media coverage and multiple allegations of human rights abuses at its premises have, it is claimed, severely reduced the church’s ability to attract new adherents. (The organisation strenuously denies the claims of abuse.)

Hunter believes that today the church is in a “parlous” state. “Its membership is down to, at most, 40,000 people worldwide. I probably sell more books about scientology than there are scientologists in Britain. The conveyer belt of defectors — the No? 2, 3 and 4 in the organisation have all left in recent years — has done it serious damage,” he says.

Critics point out that the church has had only two leaders: its founder, L Ron Hubbard, and David Miscavige, who is said to have seized power from Hubbard’s anointed disciples in 1986. “The church is effectively his,” says Hunter. “It’s not democratic and he answers to no one.”

Some of scientology’s alleged disregard for human rights could still be occurring, he believes. “Scientologists believe that a baby possesses an adult soul, so no age is too young to separate children from their parents. That, to me, is inhuman and it is still going on today, including in Britain,” says Hunter.

However, the organisation’s colossal wealth — its property portfolio alone is estimated to be worth $1.5bn (£1bn) — gives it huge potential power. Those defectors wishing for its imminent collapse are likely to be disappointed.
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