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

have been shocked on too many occasions to hear Scientologists make derogatory
remarks about gay people, and then quote LRH in their defense.” He said that the
church’s decision not to denounce the bigots who supported Proposition 8 was cowardly.
“Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent.”
He referenced Davis’s interview on CNN. “I saw you deny the church’s policy of
disconnection. You said straight-out there was no such policy, that it did not exist,” he
wrote. “I was shocked. We all know this policy exists. I didn’t have to search for
verication. I didn’t have to look any further than my own home.” He reminded Davis
of Deborah’s experience with her parents. “Although it caused her terrible personal pain,
my wife broke o all contact with them.… That’s not ancient history, Tommy. It was a
year ago.” He added: “To see you lie so easily, I am afraid to ask myself: what else are
you lying about?”
Then, he said, he had read the series of articles in the St. Petersburg Times. “They left
me dumbstruck and horried. These were not the claims made by ‘outsiders’ looking to
dig up dirt against us. These accusations were made by top international executives who
had devoted most of their lives to the church. Say what you will about them now, these
were staunch defenders of the church, including Mike Rinder, the church’s ocial
spokesman for 20 years!
“Tommy, if only a fraction of these accusations are true, we are talking about serious,
indefensible human and civil rights violations.”
He continued:
And when I pictured you assuring me that it is all lies, that this is nothing but an unfounded and vicious attack by a
group of disgruntled employees, I am afraid that I saw the same face that looked in the camera and denied the policy
of disconnection. I heard the same voice that professed outrage at our support of Proposition 8, who promised to
correct it, and did nothing.
I was left feeling outraged, and frankly, more than a little stupid.
Haggis was especially disturbed by the way the church’s Freedom magazine had
responded to the newspaper’s revelations. It included a lengthy annotated transcript of
conversations that had taken place prior to the publication of the series between the
Times reporters, Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin, and representatives of the church,
including Tommy Davis and Jessica Feshbach, the two international spokespersons for
the church. In the Freedom account, the names of the defectors were never actually
stated, perhaps to shield Scientologists from the shock of seeing familiar gures such as
Marty Rathbun and Amy Scobee publicly denouncing the organization and its leader.
Rathbun was called “Kingpin” and Amy Scobee “The Adulteress.” At one point in the
conversation, Davis had told reporters that Scobee had been expelled from the church
because she had had an aair. The reporters responded that she had denied any sexual
contact outside her marriage. “That’s a lie,” Davis told them. Feshbach, who carried a
stack of documents, then said, “She has a written admission [of] each one of her
instances of extramarital indiscretions.… I believe there were five.”