going-clear-scientology-hollywood-and-the-prison-of-belief-by-lawrence-wright-2

assignment of being the administration’s “Scientology point person.”
None of this had any eect on Travolta’s character in the lm, as the movie had
already been shot, nor on Germany’s policy toward the church, which refused to
recognize Scientology as a religion or allow members to join political parties. However,
t h e US State Department began pressuring the German government on behalf of
Scientology. The Germans were puzzled that their American counterparts seemed not to
know or care about the church’s RPF camps, which the Germans called penal colonies,
and the reported practices of connement, forced confessions, and punishing physical
labor, which they said amounted to brainwashing. There was a belief within the German
cabinet that the church’s real goal was to inltrate the government and create a
Scientology superstate. “This is not a church or a religious organization,” the labor
minister, Norbert Blum, told Maclean’s magazine. “Scientology is a machine for
manipulating human beings.”
1 Behar says that a private investigator, posing as a distraught parent, called him and begged for help with a child who had
gone into Scientology. Behar had referred the caller to the Cult Awareness Network. He says he never advised kidnapping.
The private investigator taped the conversation, and Behar’s attorneys subpoenaed the tape for his defense in the lawsuit
brought by the church.
2 Cruise, through his attorney, denies that he ever retreated from his commitment to Scientology.
3 A spokesperson for Time categorically denied this charge.
4 According to a church spokesperson, “Mr. Miscavige was not involved in any aspect of Ms. McPherson’s spiritual
progress in Scientology.”
5 The church denies that Miscavige has abused any members of the church, saying that the abuse claims have been
propagated by a “group of vociferous anti-Scientologists.”