Rome, 4 January (TMNews) - The Church of Scientology is in no danger of schism after a former executive, Debbie Cook, sent an email to thousands of adherents denouncing the organization's current leader, David Miscavige, as a "tyrant who has embarked on a wrong policy”. "Ms. Debbie Cook has not been an executive of the Church of Scientology for several years and therefore does not hold any role in the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Church of Scientology", reads a statement, which underlines how it is "completely normal that a religious reality worldwide as the Church of Scientology finds itself dealing with the phenomenon of apostasy and attempts at schism".
“It is a phenomenon that has characterized any great religion in its natural process of growth and diffusion. However, only a small percentage of those who leave a religious group (or any other type of group) have bad relations with the abandoned group; the others, those who are in good faith, continue to have good relations with everyone", continues the press release, which concludes: "The affirmations of the few outsiders are refuted by the growth of Scientology in the world: from 2004 to today, the Church of Scientology has doubled in size.” As reported by the British newspaper The Times, Cook accused Miscavige of using unorthodox financing techniques, of having spent millions of dollars on the construction of luxurious buildings that then remained empty, and of having dismantled the control mechanisms that prevented the organization from transforming itself in an autocracy. Those who oppose, underlined Cook, risk "severe disciplinary actions": "We are a strong and powerful group and we can change: we have weathered many storms, and I am sorry to have to tell you this but a new storm threatens us", he concludes by launching a appeal to adherents and specifying that they continue to believe in the dogmas of Scientology.
The organization - which counts among its faithful actors such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta - had replied by underlining how Cook's opinions "reflect a petty, ignorant and conservative worldview: they are not shared by the thousands of enormously satisfied adherents of our 27 new churches and what they mean to the communities they serve.
