- 1 FBI investigation into the Church of Scientology’s Sea Org labor rules source
- » That new-time religion: The Church of Scientology, in addition to dealing with last year’s high-profile defector, high-profile director Paul Haggis, now must survive the fruit of Haggis’ labor with New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright; a 26-page tale of his ascent and subsequent rejection of the church. Amongst the familiar charges the article makes (secrecy, strident and at times brutally violent discipline by church leader David Miscavige, disconnected families, and an inscrutable origin story that Scientologists are forbidden to admit exists), it also reveals that the FBI has been investigating Scientology for almost a year regarding potential rights abuses in their elite “Sea Organization,” or “Sea Org.” They’re looking into defector allegations of forced manual labor, shockingly low pay, and “re-education” through rehabilitation camps, which it goes without saying are at best creepy ideas, at worst wicked ones.