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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDavid Miscavige when warned dad might be having heart attack said don't intervene, let him die..
if it is his time.
There is a chilling article in the Tampa Bay Times this week about how the leader of Scientology was paying private detectives to tail his own father. They were to report back to their agency every hour during the day.
They were to follow him everywhere.
Police report: Scientology leader spied on his dad 'no matter where he went'
What Powell didn't tell police until they read him his rights and started asking questions about his guns: He had spent nine years working as a private investigator for the Church of Scientology, and for the previous 18 months he had run a full-time, Tampa-based spying operation on Ron Miscavige Sr., the father of church leader David Miscavige.
....Released Thursday by West Allis police, the 2013 reports detailing Powell's arrest and his spying operation provide an eye-popping new chapter in the long-running history of Scientology and its use of private investigators to control ex-members and other enemies.
.....In one of the more notable passages in the reports, Powell and his son, a U.S. Army veteran, said they were struck by one incident. Once, while tailing the elder Miscavige on a shopping trip, the two watched him grasp his chest and slump over while loading his car. Powell later told police he had thought Miscavige was having a heart attack and might die. He said he phoned his intermediary for instructions.
Two minutes later, a man identifying himself as David Miscavige called back, Powell told police.
"David told him that if it was Ron's time to die, to let him die and not intervene in any way," the police report states, noting the apparent emergency passed.
The article quotes Jenna Miscavige Hill, Ron's granddaughter. Her book about her leaving is quite powerful. She has reconciled with most of her family now and is close to her grandfather.
She said she would have to let her grandpa decide when and how to tell his story.
She said "her grandfather describes his departure from the church's desert headquarters as an escape and has come around to being "super supportive" of her anti-Scientology activities."
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David Miscavige when warned dad might be having heart attack said don't intervene, let him die.. (Original Post)
madfloridian
Apr 2015
OP
Dems to Win
(2,161 posts)1. Please sign White House petition to revoke Scientology's tax exemption
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/revoke-scientologys-tax-exempt-status
see article:
'Going Clear' filmmaker: Scientology abuses its tax-exempt status
When I made the film "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief," which aired on HBO on March 29, I assumed that the response from the Church of Scientology would be vitriolic. I was right; but I hold out hope that this reaction may lead to the reform of an organization that has harassed its critics and, in my view, abused its tax-exempt status.
By ALEX GIBNEY
In the past, critics of the church have called for its tax exemption to be revoked because it is not a "real religion." I agree that tax-exemption isn't merited, but not for that reason. The Church of Scientology has a distinct belief system which, despite its somewhat strange cosmology mocked by the TV show "South Park" and many others is not essentially more strange than, say, the idea of a virgin birth. Scientologists are entitled to believe what they want to believe. And the IRS website makes it clear that anyone is entitled to start a religion at any time without seeking IRS permission. To maintain the right to be tax-exempt, however, religions must fulfill certain requirements for charitable organizations. For example, they may not "serve the private interests of any individual" and/or "the organization's purposes and activities may not be illegal or violate fundamental public policy."
On these points alone, it is hard to see why Americans should subsidize Scientology through its tax-exemption.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0412-gibney-scientology-20150412-story.html#page=1
see article:
'Going Clear' filmmaker: Scientology abuses its tax-exempt status
When I made the film "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief," which aired on HBO on March 29, I assumed that the response from the Church of Scientology would be vitriolic. I was right; but I hold out hope that this reaction may lead to the reform of an organization that has harassed its critics and, in my view, abused its tax-exempt status.
By ALEX GIBNEY
In the past, critics of the church have called for its tax exemption to be revoked because it is not a "real religion." I agree that tax-exemption isn't merited, but not for that reason. The Church of Scientology has a distinct belief system which, despite its somewhat strange cosmology mocked by the TV show "South Park" and many others is not essentially more strange than, say, the idea of a virgin birth. Scientologists are entitled to believe what they want to believe. And the IRS website makes it clear that anyone is entitled to start a religion at any time without seeking IRS permission. To maintain the right to be tax-exempt, however, religions must fulfill certain requirements for charitable organizations. For example, they may not "serve the private interests of any individual" and/or "the organization's purposes and activities may not be illegal or violate fundamental public policy."
On these points alone, it is hard to see why Americans should subsidize Scientology through its tax-exemption.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0412-gibney-scientology-20150412-story.html#page=1
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)2. Thanks so much for the link.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)3. +1. n/t
Initech
(100,079 posts)4. He's truly one of the worst human beings alive.
Probably 4th after Dick Cheney and the Koch Bros. I'm surprised he hasn't been arrested multiple times by now.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)5. Agree, that is just plain cruel and heartless.