An archive of news items related to child abuse or neglect, or infringement of children's rights, in a religious context. Copyrighted materials appearing on this blog are provided under Fair Use provisions to facilitate education and further research into the issues documented in these news reports.
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26 Jan 2008
Niece of Scientology Leader Rebuts Claims of Family Values
The following was reported on the blog Xenu TV on January 25, 2008:
Just as Scientologist PR person Pat Harney appears on the radio to brag about Scientology bringing families together, we get news that David Miscavige’s own niece is saying otherwise.
Dear Karin [Pouw, spokesperson for official Scientology] ,
I could not resist the opportunity to write you this letter having read your official rebuttal regarding the Tom Cruise biography. I have been involved in the Church of Scientology since birth. David Miscavige as you well know is my father’s brother, making him my uncle. In fact you and I actually know each other although not very well.
I cannot comment on your responses regarding the personal life of Tom Cruise because I know nothing about this, but I am absolutely shocked at how vehemently you insist upon not only denying the truths that have been stated about the Church in that biography, but then take it a step further and tell outright lies.
You go so far as to state:
7. Does Scientology encourage their members not to speak to their family if they don’t support the religion?
This allegation is not only false, it is the opposite of what the Church believes and practices. -Karin Pouw
As you well know, my parents officially left the Church when I was 16 in 2000. I, having been separated from them at the age of 12 and thoroughly engulfed in the beliefs of the Church since birth decided not to go with them.
Not only was I not allowed to speak to them, I was not allowed to answer a phone for well over a year, in case it was them calling me.
To give exact specifics, this “law” was enforced ruthlessly by one Tracye Danilovoch - the local representative for the Religious Technology Center - who intercepted all letters from my parents (and my friends). She would then pass them on to Marc Rathbun (the then 2nd in command of the Church) and Mike Rinder - who happens to be the former head of YOUR office - “The Office of Special Affairs” (you can thank me later for not elaborating on this one). Only after they had seen the letters and decided it was ok for me to see them would I receive some of them while sitting in a board room while they watched me read them and asked me to comment on them.
I was allowed to visit my parents from the age of 16-22, once a year for a maximum of 3-4 days, but that was only after they (my parents) threatened legal action if the Church got in the way of this and even then only after I underwent a “Security Check Confessional” before I saw them and immediately after I came back. A security check is interrogation (usually about if I intend on leaving the Church, or finding out if my parents have said anything bad about the Church, etc.) while being attached to an electrophsychometer which is similar to a lie detector. This happened every single time I saw then (which was never more than 3 or 4 days a year).
For a more recent example of families being destroyed, My Aunt Jennifer Pantermeuhl has recently contacted my parents and let them know that she can no longer speak to them or be in contact with them because they speak to and live near, my other Aunt Sarah Mortland.
Sarah is my mom’s and Jennifer’s sister. This is because Sarah is not in favor with the Church. Jennifer also contacted my brother Sterling as well as the rest of the family for the same reason most of whom had to lie to her and said they weren’t talking to Sarah for fear of getting found out about.
Another good example would be when my other brother, Justin, was in Florida a few years ago and was on his way to visit our Aunt Denise Gentile (our father’s sister and David Miscavige’s twin) with his girlfriend. Denise abruptly canceled while they were on their way over because the Church would not approve - because he was an ex-member. Not to mention the fact that Kirsten Caetano (a member of the Church’s Office of Special Affairs - the very same organization you belong to) was contacting Justin several times when he was in Florida working, telling him that he needed to leave the state because he is an ex-member and his presence at the “mecca of Scientology” was disturbing to the church. Kristen has admitted to my face that she did this when I confronted her and even went so far as to admit that she lied to my brother after denying the incident. This is the least of what Kirsten Caetano has done!
You cite this quote from L.Ron Hubbard about what the Church believes with regards to families…. . yes we know what the Church claims to “believe” and has written in its policies! - BUT do they practice that? Absolutely not!
I can name at least 5 friends off the top of my head who’s family members are not allowed to speak to them without being themselves ousted from the Church and prevented from communicating with other members of their family and even their children still involved in the Church lest THEY too be ousted! They cant speak to their children because they have left the Church on their own determinism. This is a widespread practice and if you dare deny it I have a list of all of there names together-these people’s families are crying every day because they can’t speak to their children who did nothing but leave the Church of their own free will.
If I am in fact wrong and you want to prove me as such, then allow me and my family to be in contact with our family members that are still part of the Church such as my Grandpa, Ron Miscavige, and his wife, Becky. Allow the same of my friends. And don’t even start with the, “it’s their choice all along story…” -nobody is going to buy that, there are way too many destroyed families for that to be true.
I am tempted to take up many of the other accusations you categorically deny in your novel, but for the purpose of keeping this letter readable and focused on the most important part (family) I will resist.
I will suggest however that maybe you should spend the manpower and time of drafting your masterpiece rebuttal - why don’t you take the high road for once and put that time towards repairing the families you have destroyed, starting with the family of David Miscavige himself - hell, if Scientology can’t keep his family together - then why on earth should anyone believe the Church helps bring families together!
Best,
Jenna Miscavige Hill
Just as L. Ron Hubbard’s family was rocked with turmoil, so it seems is Miscavige’s.
RELATED ARTICLES IN THIS ARCHIVE
Niece of Scientology leader describes how her own family was broken apart by the movement’s policies.
I want to state that it is my understanding that Jenna Miscavige Hill DOES wish for her letter to reach the public. Hopefully some legitimate media will pick up the story. Who better than to pull the curtains back, than the young people who are the sons and daughters of the leaders and former leaders of the Scientology movement! Good on Jenna. I detect a college educated voice in her, and boy, when I look back in hindsight, I regret my NOT completing college. I foolishly jumped into Scientology in my junior year, and 27 years later I finally left my staff position in Scientology and returned like Rip Van Winkle back to normal life! Thankyou for posting Jenna's letter! Chuck Beatty, Pittsburgh, USA
ReplyDeleteHi Perry, I came across your terrific blog because of the Jenna Miscavige Hill letter you posted.
ReplyDeleteShe's a brave girl and her speaking up is going to help many current and past children of scientology. Thank you for posting it.
If you want more infortmation on Scientology and child abuse, visit:
Scientology & Dianetics - Tax-exempt Child Abuse and Neglect
http://www.taxexemptchildabuse.net/
http://www.whyaretheydead.net/childabuse/
Involuntary lock up of Scientologist children
http://members.chello.nl/mgormez/childabuse/lock-ups.html
Cover up of pedophile child sexual abuse by Scientology
http://sexual.taxexemptchildabuse.net/
~ Mary McConnell
FormerlyFooled & Out_Of_The_Dark
Thanks Chuck. Your story sounds similar to mine. Nice way to put it: returning like Rip Van Winkle from a deep sleep back to normal life.
ReplyDeleteMary, thanks for the links. I haven't come across much news specifically related to children in Scientology so the links you provided are helpful. I'll check them out and add any relevant material to my blog.
Perry
INSIDE 'SCIENTOLOGY HIGH'
ReplyDeleteBy Benjamin Carlson The Daily September 27, 2011
Welcome to “Scientology High,” where students imagine they’re in a Harry Potter book, make lots of clay models, look up “the” in the dictionary and learn the ethical principles of L. Ron Hubbard — all while paying more than $42,000 a year in tuition and fees.
The administration of the secretive and secluded Delphian boarding school recruits students with the suggestion that it is a real-world Hogwarts — an enchanted place for teens, deep in the bucolic mountains of western Oregon.
“The school in itself, it’s different,” says one smiling teen in an official marketing video for Delphian School. “You know, it’s on a hill, and I’m a big Harry Potter fan … You’ve got the Forbidden Forest out there, it’s like, awesome.” A fresh-faced female student describes it as “kinda magical.” In the video, a swooping shot from a helicopter shows ethereal rays of sunlight illuminating the school’s centerpiece building, an old Jesuit monastery surrounded by towering pines.
But there may be reason to question whether all is magic and wonder on that 800-acre Oregon campus. The institution, which counts Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s daughter among its former students, charges more in tuition and fees than Phillips Exeter Academy. Yet it lacks academic accreditation, and relies on Hubbard-inspired teaching methods rejected by mainstream education experts.
Founded in the 1970s by Scientologists, Delphian has remained largely a mystery for decades. But with the unraveling of the church’s public face, alumni of the school have begun to speak out. For this exclusive two-part series, The Daily extensively interviewed numerous former students, obtaining a more detailed behind-the-scenes picture of life at the school than has ever before been reported.
The former students said their education at Delphian included a dizzying array of jargon, unorthodox notions of academic learning and an intensive and complex disciplinary system based partly on peer monitoring. Some spoke of feeling lost after leaving Delphian and attempting to adjust to the world outside of Scientology. The Daily also found that a steady stream of Delphian grads have gone on to join the Sea Org, a Church of Scientology religious order that some former participants have equated with human slavery.
From a distance, Delphian seems like any other pricey boarding school. It’s small, with roughly 250 students, and runs from the equivalent of kindergarten to the senior year of high school (known at Delphian as Form 8). The campus is gorgeous, encompassing an idyllic hilltop about 90 minutes southwest of Portland. There are stables, tennis courts and a track. The Delphian Dragons play sports against other independent schools.
Delphian rejected The Daily’s request to visit the campus, and the school headmistress and assistant headmaster declined to comment for this story. Although the word “Scientology” appears nowhere on the Delphian website, and the school is technically independent, its connections to the group are intimate and pervasive. “A good majority, if not all the staff, are Scientologists,” said Elaine Ke, 18, who graduated from the school this year. Other alums back that estimate. Both the headmistress and the assistant headmaster are listed as having completed various levels of Scientology programs in the group’s publications.
...
One of the religion’s most controversial institutions is the Sea Org, the poorly paid labor corps that staffs Scientology’s affiliated companies. The path from the boarding school to the Sea Org seems to be well-worn. “A lot of people who go to Delphian wind up in the Sea Org,” Jenna Miscavige Hill, the niece of current church leader David Miscavige, told The Daily.
read the full article at:
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/09/27/092711-news-scientology-day-one-1-7/
INSIDE 'SCIENTOLOGY HIGH' part 2 SCULPTING YOUNG MINDS
ReplyDeleteBy Benjamin Carlson September 28, 2011
excerpt
When and if [accreditation] happens, this secretive and secluded Scientology boarding school would take one big step closer to the mainstream. As the flagship school of Delphi Schools Inc. — which operates seven private schools under the same educational philosophy, including day academies in Los Angeles and Boston — the Delphian School in Oregon is arguably the most prestigious Scientology-affiliated school in the world.
Think of it as the Eton or Andover of the “Dianetics” set.
But the accounts given to The Daily by former students paint a picture very different than that of your average elite boarding school. From rules and discipline, to academics theory and practice, Delphian is a place apart.
Inside and outside of class, students are subject to a sprawling and intricate set of regulations derived from L. Ron Hubbard’s precepts. At Delphian, not only are sex and drugs verboten, so are casual Fridays, public kissing and facial hair. Elaine Ke, a 2011 graduate who is not a Scientologist, explained that “one of the most commonly broken rules is that you’re not allowed to show any PDA except holding hands. They’re pretty strict about that.”
Kids at Delphian tend to get caught misbehaving in one of three ways, alumni say: Student watchdogs called “rovers” catch them, schoolmates turn them in or students voluntarily report themselves.
“It was a very fear-oriented student life,” said Paul Csige, who attended Delphian in the late 1990s. Csige is not a Scientologist. “Students were encouraged to tell on other students.”
On the school’s “ethics and integrity” website, administrators quote one anonymous student praising this system: “My first year here was the total opposite of what I’d seen before, where the cool kids were breaking the rules, stealing, etc. Here the cool people are the ones who call you on doing that.”
Csige said this includes quizzing students who yawn or have blank looks on their faces — both giveaways, according to L. Ron Hubbard’s notions, of a dreaded “misunderstood word.”
The consequences of a “misunderstood” can be grueling, Csige said. Students suspected of not fully grasping every word that they’ve spoken, read or heard can be subjected to a “method 3” questioning, he said. When this happens, “you have to read aloud, and if you pause and hesitate, you have to look [the word] up. And if you pause or hesitate again, you have to look up every word in the definition. It once took me three days to go through two and a half pages. They ask you the definition of ‘the,’ and I didn’t know what the precise definition of ‘the’ was.”
If caught for a more serious breach, like making out in the woods or a broom closet, students can be sent to the ethics officer. Someone who misbehaves — a condition called “out ethics,” in Delphian’s lingo — might need to make “amends” by doing chores for whomever he wronged.
Rule-breakers’ names and violations are also listed on a sheet called the “Golden Rod” that hangs on the ethics officer’s door, alumni said.
“If you were a real joker kind of person, you probably would have had a tough time,” said Mac Stevens, who graduated in 1989 and went to 16 straight Delphian alumni weekends until 2009, when he was told he was a “bigot” and was no longer welcome. He said he suspects this is because he had repudiated Scientology in an open letter.
“I considered the staff there my family,” he said. “It was very, very difficult for me, and it’s still kind of tough.”
The account is consistent with stories of former Scientologists being cut off from friendships, marriages and family relationships after leaving the church.
read the full article at:
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/09/28/092811-news-scientology-school-part2-1-6/