David Miscavige's Father Exposes Scientology's Cruelest Policy [View all]

[HuckleB]

http://www.laweekly.com/arts/david-miscaviges-father-exposes-scientologys-cruelest-policy-6957079

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In Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me, (Ron Miscavige) paints his son — the leader of the Church of Scientology and the successor to founder L. Ron Hubbard — as an abusive tyrant who has transformed a once-useful religion into a cult devoted to worshipping him, squeezing every possible cent out of church members and treating those who devote their lives to the church like sharecroppers whose measly wages will never get them out of debt at the company store — or off the church’s palatial plantation.

And if they do try to leave, the elder Miscavige says, they are typically tracked down and brought back by a combination of force, coercion and psychological intimidation. For the very few who do manage to escape and forge a new life outside the church, there awaits a special form of punishment: disconnection. That’s the church’s policy of requiring its members to shun family members who dare to leave the church or even criticize it.

“I wrote this book specifically to expose the disconnection policy,” the 80-year-old Miscavige said in a recent interview. “Four years after I escaped, my two daughters, their children and my great-grandchildren are still not talking to me and won’t allow me to see them. And it’s not just my family that’s been shattered — it’s happened to a lot of people.”

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This is a more subtle approach to Scientology and its flaws. It’s a painful-to-read attempt to answer a fundamental question: How the hell did a young boy who was an affectionate, happy, bright kid with a great sense of humor and a genuine desire to help others grow into a selfish, abusive monster who surrounds himself only with people who suck up to him? Someone who lives a lavish lifestyle while those who work for him live no better than medieval serfs?

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