Scientologists who are lawyers

Ron Newman

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Feb 21, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/21/98

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Here's a Washington Post article from December 1, 1985, in which
Earle Cooley claims to actually be a member of the Church of Scientology.

-------------------------------------
The Washington Post

December 1, 1985, Sunday, Final Edition

SECTION: First Section; A4

LENGTH: 1475 words

HEADLINE: Scientology Winning in Court;
Mainstream Groups Help Support Church's Fight for Legitimacy

BYLINE: By Jay Mathews, Washington Post Staff Writer

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES, Calif.

BODY:
After years of tumult in which many of its leaders have been jailed for
obstruction of justice and charged in large damage suits, the Church of
Scientology, with the support of mainstream religious groups, has begun to score
a string of legal victories advancing its cause.

What has been derided as a cult offering patent-medicine psychology at
sky-high prices now is being defended by some leading Christians and Jews as a
persecuted minority. A $39 million fraud judgment has been overturned in a
seven-year-old case that started the church's legal troubles, and a federal
judge has extended the protections of the U.S. Trade Secrets Act to confidential
church teachings.

At least 15 lawsuits filed around the country by former members still plague
the 31-year-old U.S.-born church. Summonses are still out for the reclusive
science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, 74, whose self-help writings form the
church's doctrine but who has not been seen in public since 1980. Some of the
church's tax exemptions have been revoked, and what it calls distorted versions
of its most sacred texts have been released.

But with support from mainstream religious groups that have also rallied
around the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Scientology has begun to score court victories
based on rules of court procedure and constitutional protections of freedom of
religion. The judgments mean Scientology "will be tested in the great
marketplace of ideas, and not in the courtroom," said trial counsel Earle C.
Cooley, 53, a prominent Boston attorney who joined the church.

"We have experienced growth in the last six months that is unprecedented in
our history," said the Rev. Ken Hoden, 38, president of the Church of
Scientology of Los Angeles.

The church says it has 3.1 million members in this country and more than 6
million in the world. Hoden said the church has files proving these numbers, but
outside experts are skeptical. "I've been unable to verify the figures," said J.
Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religions in
Santa Barbara, Calif. "Certainly there are nowhere near that many people who are
active Scientologists at present."

Hoden wears a clerical collar, and the church conducts Sunday services,
weddings and funerals. But Hoden said his is a nondenominational religion that
allows members to attend other churches.

The key turning point for the church came on July 16, when a circuit judge
declared a mistrial in a Portland, Ore., case after a jury recommended a $39
million fraud judgment against the church.

The plaintiff in the suit, former Scientologist Julie Christofferson
Titchbourne, 27, said the church had persuaded her to spend more than $3,000 on
Scientology courses when she was 17. She said she was told she could improve her
intelligence, eyesight and creativity. But she said she changed her mind after
being put through an intensive course in anti-Scientology material by a
professional "deprogrammer."

The jury recommendation in May led to daily demonstrations in front of the
courthouse by thousands of Scientologists from around the world, including actor
John Travolta, jazz musician Chick Corea and singer Al Jarreau.

When Multnomah County Judge Donald Londer ruled the case would have to be
retried because Titchbourne's attorney had made improper and prejudicial
arguments about the church, the demonstrators celebrated into the night and the
church produced a videotape, "The Battle of Portland."

This month, U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer gave the church further
control over confidential teachings being used by some of its critics. Pfaelzer
ruled that church teachings constitute trade secrets protected by federal law,
giving Scientology a legal victory potentially even more far-reaching than the
Portland case. She said that religious secrets are the same as a private
company's trade secrets, just as a secret chemical formula would be the property
of a chemical company.

Even attorneys representing church critics acknowledge that Scientology has
attracted many young Americans with a philosophy that emphasizes ethical
behavior.

"Like most cult groups, they feed on idealism," said Boston attorney Michael
Tabb, one of several lawyers handling anti-Scientology cases. "They're lonely,
they're looking for something to give their life meaning," but church leaders
"ultimately exploit them for the benefits of themselves."

Spokesmen for the mainstream religious groups that have supported the church,
such as the National Council of Churches and the Coalition for Religious
Freedom, emphasize they are not endorsing Scientological beliefs or methods,
only their right to compete for converts without interference from the courts.
Some defenders, such as National Council of Churches' Dean Kelley, also argue
that "some of the church's offenses are not nearly as bad as the government has
made them out to be."

In 1979 and 1980, eleven Scientologists, including Hubbard's third wife Mary
Sue, were convicted of obstruction of justice in the burglarizing, bugging and
planting of agents in government offices. Kelley said he thought the charge of
burglary was too harsh, since the Scientologists had only photocopied documents
inside the offices. Scientology minister Hoden said all the convicted members
have been removed from policy-making positions.

L. Ron Hubbard is said to be writing science fiction at some undisclosed
location in the United States. Courts have turned down efforts to have him
declared dead.

Melton, the Santa Barbara-based expert who has followed church developments
for years, agrees that there have been changes. "Ever since Church of
Scientology International president Heber Jentzsch took over, he has been trying
to undo some of the activities of his predecessors, especially in the guardians
office."

That special branch of the church was set up as an intelligence-gathering arm
to counter what Melton said was a U.S. government effort to discredit
Scientology abroad.

Melton said he thought the church would eventually recover from the blow to
its reputation, "but it will take at least a decade to get out from under that."

Tabb said the church still harasses former members and their supporters. He
charged the church spent at least $25,000 to fabricate a check-forgery
accusation against Boston attorney Michael Flynn, one of the church's leading
critics. Hoden said the charge against Flynn is being investigated by a Boston
grand jury.

The church has also been denied the right to let members deduct the money
they spend for church services called "auditing," a form of counseling using a
device designed to measure small amounts of electric current in the skin. The
church says auditing helps members uncover disabling personal habits. It says
the money paid by the individual being audited is a donation, but the courts,
while still recognizing the church as a tax-exempt body, have disallowed these
deductions.

Attorneys representing church defectors say Scientology's recent legal
victories are temporary. In the Oregon case, "our feeling was that we made the
mistake of asking for too much money," one attorney said. The Oregon case is
expected to be tried again.

The recent victories in Los Angeles have also been tainted by publication in
The Los Angeles Times of a summary of secret church documents held under seal in
Superior Court. When the ban on public viewing of the documents was lifted
briefly, 1,500 Scientologists crammed three floors of the courthouse to block
public access.

The Times, however, said its reporters obtained the documents from the court
file. It said the documents trace destructive human behavior back to a
tyrannical ruler named Xemu who, to cure overpopulation on Earth 75 million
years ago, herded people and extraterrestial beings into volcanoes and dropped
H-bombs on them. Their spirits, called thetans, carried the seeds of aberrant
behavior and still attach themselves to humans today, although Scientology says
it can help eradicate them.

Hoden called the Times version of the documents "purposely distorted" and
said they were designed only "to hold the church up to ridicule and contempt."
He said church doctrine forbade any Scientologist from commenting on sacred
writings.

Cooley, the church's principal litigator, likened Scientology to the early
days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This too was a young
American-born religion persecuted for diverging from mainstream doctrine, but
drawing members through its commitment to strict moral values, he said.

He said he was not a member when he was first retained to defend the church.
He said he joined because, in studying the church as part of his legal
preparations, "I found it to be exactly what they had said it was, an applied
religious philosophy that works in day-to-day life."

Warrior

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Feb 21, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/21/98

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In article <rnewman-ya0240800...@enews.newsguy.com>,
rne...@thecia.net says...

>
> The Washington Post
>
> December 1, 1985, Sunday, Final Edition
>

[big snip]

>The church says it has 3.1 million members in this country and more than
>6 million in the world.

And I say this is a bald-faced LIE. Scientologists define "LIE" as "an
alteration of time, place, form or event". Hoden is telling a LIE.

I have seen the actual inside numbers; I used to be Address Officer for
the cult. I am aware or many others who have knowledge from the inside
too. And I have personal knowledge of what I am about to say.

>Hoden said the church has files proving these numbers, but outside experts
>are skeptical.

As they well should be. I guess the "wogs" are more perceptive than
Scientology wishes to admit!

>"I've been unable to verify the figures," said J. Gordon Melton, director of
>the Institute for the Study of American Religions in Santa Barbara, Calif.
>"Certainly there are nowhere near that many people who are active
>Scientologists at present."

J. Gordon Melton is correct in his observation. In fact, what he says is
an understatement. At best, Hoden has a "CRASHING MU" (misunderstood, in
Scienospeak).

What the cult has is what Hubbard defined as "Central Files". These files
are not all members. "Central files" hold names of all individuals who have
ever *purchased* something from Scientology. (Please see my earlier posts
at http://www.entheta.net/entheta/1stpersn/warrior/ for the reference from
Hubbard's policy on what a "CF folder" is).

Hoden said, "the church [sic] has files proving these numbers". The ONLY
possible files Hoden could be referring to are the "CF" folders. Perhaps
there are 6 million "CF folders" around the world (as of 1985 when Hoden
spoke the above words).

But let me illustrate the absurdity of Hoden's LIE. In order for the cult
to have grown to 6 million members, it would had to have averaged 136,000
new members every year for the last 44 years. That's 2600 new members per
week!

The cult would had to have sustained this *continuously* for over 590
months! *AND* there would had to have been no one *ever* leave Scientology
after becoming a member!!

>Hoden wears a clerical collar, and the church conducts Sunday services,
>weddings and funerals.

And little bo peep has lost her sheep.

>But Hoden said his is a nondenominational religion that allows members to
>attend other churches.

Yeah... like when a family member gets married or dies. Scientologists
actually do *attend* other churches. Mafia members attend services
when a family members dies too.

What is important to note is what is NOT said. Hoden did NOT say that
Scientologists who "mix practices" are "declared PTS Type H" and
even "declared SP". A friend of mine named Jim Bird (husband of Sherry)
was declared SP for being a Christian. I wish I still had the goldenrod
on that!

Warrior - that which gives light must endure burning
see http://www.xenu.net
ans http://www.factnet.org