Scientology sees historic growth - Toledo Blade2 January 2010, 7:35 amScientology sees historic growth
New facilities, members added globally in 2009
Toledo Blade
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
In a tumultuous year in which most religious groups scraped by or tried to hold their own, the Church of Scientology reported its biggest expansion in history in 2009.
The church that was founded in 1954 by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard said it has expanded to more than 8,000 churches, missions, and affiliated groups in 165 nations.
Its in-house publication arm, Bridge Publications, Inc., opened a 274,000-square-foot digital printing and manufacturing facility in Los Angeles that has the capacity to print half a million books and 925,000 CDs every week.
It also opened a publishing facility in Copenhagen.
David Miscavige, Scientology's ecclesiastical leader and chairman of the board of its Religious Technology Center, announced the completion of a four-year project to produce 32 films of Mr. Hubbard's lectures.
The Church of Scientology also completed a $40 million renovation and restoration of the Fort Harrison Hotel, its spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, Fla.
New churches opened last year in Dallas, Nashville, Washington, Rome, and Malmo, Sweden.
The church's total assets and property holdings internationally have doubled since 2004.
Tommy Davis, a Scientology spokesman in Los Angeles, told The Blade that he credits the expansion to "a coalescing of different elements in that there's been a lot of work over the years to arrive to the point where we are now."
Having a publishing house that can distribute enormous amounts of Scientology materials is one of those factors, he said.
Mr. Hubbard's 1950 book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health has been released in video form using "state of the art production, modern technology, and digital effects," Mr. Davis said.
Also, the church corrected transcription or editing errors it discovered in some of Mr. Hubbard's books and lectures that make up the scriptures of the church.
Mr. Hubbard was a prolific writer and speaker, producing 500,000 written pages and more than 3,000 recorded lectures before his death in 1986 at age 74. Among his core teachings is that human beings are eternal spirits known as "thetans" who are temporarily inhabiting mortal bodies.
He dictated many of the books, and church leaders found that errors had been made in the process of turning them into printed words. Some chapters were deleted, compiled out of order, or included writings that were not by Mr. Hubbard, according to Mr. Davis.
The books and transcriptions were meticulously reviewed by the Church of Scientology and the errors corrected, Mr. Davis said.
The church said 67 million Scientology books have been published in the last two years alone, compared to 39 million in the first 50 years after Scientology's founding.
Mr. Davis said the church does not keep track of its membership numbers, but said only that "it's in the millions in the United States and millions more around the world."
In the midst of its historic expansion, the Church of Scientology continues generate controversy.
Hollywood director Paul Haggis quit the church this year over its stance against gay marriage.
Scientologists are still dealing with fallout from the Internal Revenue Service's decision to revoke its tax-exempt status in 1967, claiming that the church was actually a commercial enterprise and not a religion. Scientologists spent 26 years battling the government before winning its case in 1993.
A French court in October convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and ordered it to pay $900,000 in fines.
Mr. Davis said Scientology is a relatively new religion, and that ttmany of the criticisms are based on misinformation or ignorance.
"Unfortunately, I think people can have pretty strong opinions about things they don't understand, things they haven't bothered to find out themselves.
This is something the media hasn't taken responsibility for," he said.
People should investigate Scientology for themselves rather than rely on what they read or hear in the media before speaking out against it, Mr. Davis said.
The church is also known for some high-profile adherents such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta using their celebrity to promote Scientology. The church has openly recruited stars to Mr. Davis said Hollywood stars are free to talk about their religion however they wish.
"Well-known people talk about Scientology to the degree they want to talk about it, but the most frequent way in which people find out about Scientology is through a friend," he said.
Another source of controversy for Scientologists are the sections of Mr. Hubbard's teachings that Mr. Davis described as "classified scripture."
Mr. Davis walked off the set of a Nightline interview on ABC last October when the host, Martin Bashir, pressed him about Scientology texts that describe an intergalactic ruler named Xenu who brought individuals to Earth about 75 million years ago and then destroyed them in volcanoes.
"He started asking me a question that was very sensitive," Mr. Davis said. "I responded, 'Look, I'm familiar with what you're talking about but it's not something I'm going to discuss."
He said the questioning was insensitive and compared it to an interviewer showing an image of the Prophet Mohammed to a Muslim or asking an Orthodox Jew to eat pork, both of which go against their respective religions.
Mr. Davis said he told Mr. Bashir that "the things you're asking me to talk about, we don't confirm or deny. It's a matter of belief."
He added that these texts comprise 1 percent of Scientology's sacred texts.
Contact David Yonke at:
dyonke@theblade.com or 419-724-6154.
