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No Kids Allowed: Scientology’s Anti-Birthing Tactics

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(Scientology’s main man, David Miscavige, front and center)
 
Today’s Broadsheet tips us off to some Scientology news that’s as disturbing as it is, perhaps, unsurprising.  According to a two-part investigation by the St. Petersburg Times, Scientology’s maritime-y power base, Sea Org, has been treating its pregnant members to campaigns of intimidation, isolation and, in some cases, forced manual labor.

In exchange for signing “billion-year contracts,” Sea Org women are given food, housing, and medical care, but being a member of Scientology’s spiritual elite apparently leaves no time for mothering.

Or so believes Church spokesman Tommy Davis (son of actress and Church grande dame, Anne Archer), who says that a no-children policy was created because babies were “viewed as interfering with the productivity of Sea Org members,” and “the long and demanding working hours required of Sea Org members…were obstacles to parents properly raising their children.”

But former Scientology security chief Gary Morehead goes several (more ominous) steps further, saying that the organization considered pregnancies “a slap in the face,” and that “special councils formulated strategies to convince women to abort.”  Interviews with some of these “convinced” women follow below:

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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06.14.2010
11:00 pm
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Take That, Xenu!  Martin Bashir Vs. Scientology’s Tommy Davis

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So much Church of Scientology news to catch up on from the weekend, and it all seems to revolve around its Celebrity Centre head, Tommy Davis (see above).

First, writer-director Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby) with his blistering “open letter” to Davis attacking him for: A.) backing the sponsorship of the gay-rights-denying Proposition 8, and B.) downplaying the existence of the Church’s “disconnection” policy, which (strongly!) encourages its current members to severe all ties to those who dare flee resign from Scientology.

Next comes Nightline’s equally harrowing Scientology “expose.”  In the clip below (Part III of V), Martin “Ambush” Bashir, familiar to—and beloved by—many for his role as Michael Jackson’s “Grand Inquisitor,” tangles with Davis over how to best reconcile mainstreamy Church doctrine with galactic emperor, Xenu.  The fallout begins at the clip’s end, with links below to the entire Nightline special. 

Random factoid: Tommy Davis is the son of actress Anne Archer, Scientology grande dame, and co-star of that excellent ‘70s film, Lifeguard.

 
On ABC’s Nightline: Scientology Exposed Part I, II, IV, V

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Scientology But Were Afraid To Ask

(via NY Mag)

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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10.26.2009
02:45 pm
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