Leaders of the Church of Scientology last night
launched a vigorous defence of their organisation and their treatment of
the faith's adherents amid what they described as "sensationalist"
claims they have been under investigation by an FBI task force on human
trafficking.
The move came after Paul Haggis, an Oscar-winning
screenwriter who renounced Scientology in 2009 after 34 years as a
member, broke a long public silence to help the New Yorker magazine
compile a lengthy investigation into the Church's affairs.
Some
of the most extraordinary claims raised by the 25,000-word article,
published at midnight on Sunday, centre on the Church's chairman, David
Miscavige, who was best man at Tom Cruise's wedding.
He is accused of a
number of incidents of threatening behaviour towards followers.
Others revolve around "Sea Org", an order of
followers who work as full-time activists at its churches, celebrity
centres and missions around the world.
The apparent FBI investigation,
which the Church says it is unaware of, is believed to focus on Gold
Base, a Scientology headquarters near the desert town of Hemet, several
hours drive south-east of Los Angeles.
The
fenced property is home to about 800 members of Sea Org, as well as film
production facilities for the Church's PR wing. It is also where
Miscavige keeps an office.
According to the New Yorker, which has
interviewed several dozen former Scientologists as well as Haggis,
leaders there are encouraged "to instil aggressive, even violent,
discipline".
Quoting an estranged
ex-Scientologist called Mark Rathbun, the magazine claims punishments at
Gold Base include being sent to the "Hole", a pair of trailers.
"There
were between eighty and a hundred people sentenced to the Hole at that
time," Rathbun claimed. "We were required to do group confessions all
day and all night."
The magazine alleges that
Tricia Whitehill, an FBI agent stationed in Los Angeles – home to the
Church of Scientology's Hollywood "celebrity centre", where many of its
most famous members worship – flew to Florida in December 2009 to
interview former Scientologists about their experiences at Gold Base.
According to the article, the case remains open.
Church
leaders deny the existence of places of confinement at any of their
properties and say they told the New Yorker they had never been advised
of any government investigation.
"The article is little more than a
regurgitation of old allegations which have long been disproved," said a
statement from its spokesman, Tommy Davis.
"It
is disappointing that a magazine with the reputation of the New Yorker
chose to reprint these sensationalist claims from disaffected former
members hardly worthy of a tabloid," he said, further criticising the
publication for deciding to "use the claim of an 'investigation' to
garner headlines for an otherwise stale article containing nothing but
rehashed unfounded allegations."
It added that the claims had been
raised in a lawsuit dismissed by a US federal judge.
Mr
Davis, a son of the actress Anne Archer, who was once close to Paul
Haggis, tells the New Yorker how he became a Scientologist in the
Seventies after a street salesman persuaded him to buy a copy of a book
on "Dianetics" written by the Church's founder, the late science fiction
author L Ron Hubbard.
"There was a feeling of
camaraderie that was something I'd never experienced," says Haggis, who
wrote Crash, Million Dollar Baby, and the last two James Bond films. "I
was in a cult for 34 years. Everyone else could see it. I don't know why
I couldn't."
Haggis has a lesbian daughter, and
tells how he quit the Church in 2009 amid a row about its role in
supporting Proposition 8, the ballot measure which banned gay marriage
in California.
He estimated he gave several hundred thousand dollars to
Scientology during his years as a member.
Others
who contributed to the New Yorker piece included Hollywood actor Josh
Brolin.
He recalled once attending a dinner party at which John
Travolta, a prominent Scientologist, practiced a form of spiritual
healing on Marlon Brando, which involved laying hands on a flesh wound.
A
spokesman for Mr Travolta has called the claim "total fabrication".