Plans to turn a former sailors’ refuge in Plymouth, UK, into a Church of Scientology headquarters have caused uproar. A local ex-church member, who did not want to be named, said: “All it will do is fleece the gullible.” [But how else will they keep buying up historic buildings?]

A St. Petersburg Times investigation found that more than a dozen women said the culture in Scientology‘s Sea Org pushed them or women they knew to have abortions, in many cases, abortions they did not want.

Some said colleagues and supervisors pressured them to abort their pregnancies and remain productive workers without the distraction of raising children. Terminating a pregnancy and staying on the job affirmed one’s commitment to the all-important work of saving the planet.

A number of former employees of the church have told ABC’s Lateline they were only paid a few thousand dollars per year for full-time work and had to resort to welfare payments to survive.

The Church of Scientology claims people who sign up to work do so as volunteers. But the former Scientologists Lateline spoke to deny that all staff are volunteers.

Australia’s industrial inspectorate has confirmed it is investigating the employment practices of the Church of Scientology.

The inspectorate has interviewed Scientology members along the east coast of Australia to establish whether they are being properly remunerated for their church work.

A former member of The Church of Scientology has accused the organisation of attempting to cover up a case of child sexual abuse.

The ex member who says she was abused as a child has told the ABC’s Lateline program that she was coached to lie to police and community services about what had happened.

Police raided a local Scientology chapter here and discovered a hidden archive which contained not only information on the group’s members but also on the sect’s ‘enemies’, the Turin daily La Stampa reported on Thursday.

Note: Religion News Blog often files news about the Church of Scientology under the subject of ‘hate groups’ because Scientology has a lengthy history of hate- and harassment activities.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon has called for a judicial inquiry into the Church of Scientology following further claims of systematic abuse of members.

“We have allegations of child abuse, coerced abortions, false imprisonment, bullying and extortion. Surely the victims of Scientology deserve a proper inquiry,” he said.

The daughter of the president of the Church of Scientology in Australia has spoken out against the organisation, describing it as toxic and accusing the church of tearing some families apart.

She claims children of Sea Org members rarely had contact with their parents, lived in separate homes and were granted only 20 minutes each night with their parents.

Senator Nick Xenophon has vowed not to give up on his quest to bring the controversial Church of Scientology to task over tax exemptions.

Scientology had been variously accused of criminal behaviour, coercing abortions, stalking, transcending child labour laws and unconscionable treatment of members who were charged hundreds of thousands of dollars for their courses, he said.

With two recent public confrontations, a year-long, highly publicized drama in the world of Scientology has spilled into the streets of Clearwater.

The latest incident occurred Friday afternoon as seven members of the Church of Scientology — including five senior members of its California-based international management team — surrounded and screamed at a former church executive, then loudly carried the dispute into the office of an unsuspecting and startled doctor.

[Note: it is our policy to post news about acts of hatred on the part of 'religious' organizations in the 'hate groups' file.]

Russian prosecutors said Wednesday that dozens of texts and recordings by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had been ruled “extremist” and would be banned in Russia.

The ruling was the latest blow to the Church of Scientology, an organisation that some countries treat as a legitimate faith but that others consider a cult designed to trick members out of large sums of money.

A lawyer suing the Church of Scientology has filed a motion asking to withdraw from the wrongful death case – but he doesn’t really mean it.

Kennan Dandar says the state judge who ordered him to withdraw doesn’t have jurisdiction in federal court. He also says he doesn’t want to abandon his client, who blames the church for her son’s death.

Next week CNN’s Anderson Cooper begins a four-part investigation into allegations made by a number of former high ranking members of the Church of Scientology.

It is the latest in a long list of exposes on violence, hate- and harassment activities and other unethical behavior involving the cult.

South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon will keep pressing for an inquiry into the Church of Scientology, despite the major political parties joining to defeat his second attempt to refer allegations of abuse to a Senate committee.

The cult refers to the allegations as “”rumour and outright lies.”

A former Scientologist who says she was a “child slave” and alleges she saw a six-year-old boy chained up in a ship’s hold is disappointed the Senate has blocked a full inquiry into the religious organisation.

Keryn’s decision to speak openly about her experiences comes after ABC1′s Four Corners program, The Ex-Files, in which former members told of forced abortions, pressure to work extreme hours and being forced to hand over large sums of money.

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