C’mon Tom, come out of the closet

This has been one hell of a bad year for The Church of $cientology or CoS. Things kicked off in January when the internet hacker group known as Anonymous leaked the now all too famous video of Tom Cruise receiving his giant amulet or the $cientology “Freedom Metal of Valor” (whatever!) from the church and the even more famous propaganda video shown that night. If I’m not mistaken, I believe Anonymous leaked this video the same day as the release of Andrew Morton’s unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise, which offers a scathing account of $cientology. Then Anonymous went viral after declaring all-out war on $cientology, with massive web content exposing the truth about $cientology and regular protests outside $cientology centers in major cities around the world. Regardless of one’s opinion of Anonymous itself, they’ve managed to create the perfect weapon against a cult that has survived with the extreme intimidation tactics such as suing their critics, framing them for crimes, or canvasing their neighbors with false accusations as part of their Fair Game Policy. And make no mistake; $cientology is a cult. What makes Anonymous so effective is the fact that they’re, well, anonymous. Anonymous is a decentralized campaign with no clear leaders and where its members often wear Guy Fawkes masks shielding their identities. This makes it impossible for $cientology to cut off the head and allows Anonymous plausible deniability if any one or members behave irresponsibly or criminally. So after decades of intimidating critics, $cientology seems to have met their match, an army of anonymous young people with no clear leaders armed with picket signs and the internet.

But it got worse for $cientology. Two former upper-level members became more active and outspoken than ever before in exposing CoS for what it really is: Tory Christman and Mark Bunker. (I highly recommend checking out the playlists on this page, especially this one).

Then $cientology’s plans to torpedo John Sweeney’s investigation on The BBC’s program Panorama blew up in their face (as did Sweeney–which was likely their plan). Then $cientology’s leader David Miscavige‘s niece, Jenna, escaped the cult. She joined up with other recovering CoS kids and made an anti-$cientology website. They confirmed reports of the child slavery that happens when members join the CoS group called The Sea Org. Here’s a news report that discusses the cult’s penchant for child labor.

Then upper-level CoS member Jason Beghe, an actor, escaped. Beghe was the subject of a viral video interview, where he too exposes CoS as a cult.

Then Radar magazine published a lengthy expose on Cos. And finally, last month, a previously unpublished article from six years ago describing $cientology’s greatest legal defeat finally made its way on the pages of The Village Voice. Oh yeah, and their plans to have actor and new $cientolgist Wil Smith fund a school to indoctrinate children was exposed. Oh yeah, and Katie Holmes did not get to reprise her role in the much praised Batman sequel.

So this year has no doubt been an unmitigated disaster for The Cult of Scientology. Given that high ranking members have been dropping like flies, I suspect it won’t be long before even Tom Cruise comes out of the closet and leaves $cientology. If that happens, he will likely become their most public critic.

Fair Game?