Very well written. It all sounds very hopeful. Perhaps finally, Mike will no longer be bound and gagged by yet another NDA deal--that he was most likely one of the architects of.
Forgive me for being skeptical, but for 20+ years inside and outside the church the carrot of "Something Can Be Done About It!" has been dangled in front of me.
The MO of "trust us and continue supporting and donating to the cause" is wearing thin.
Except for a handful of a chosen few, nothing has been done for the hundreds if not thousands of people who suffered the aftermath of leaving Scientology decades ago.
I guess they still adhere to the
motto, "Many are called a few are chosen."
I will admit, that Leah Remini, Scientology and the Aftermath show provided a huge platform for high-level former Scientology executives and members to tell their shocking stories of abuse and harassment alleged by ex-practitioners who claim their lives have been affected even well after they left the organization.
IMO, the benifit of the show is two-fold:
1. Prevention of people being conned into joining Scientology.
2. A warning for people currently in, that if they leave and speak out the church will go after them and they will suffer the consequences.
Not to minimize any value of benefit #1, but let's face it, the church has had extremely bad PR for decades thanks to many critics and law suits that came before LRSA. Otherwise the legal and OSA posts held and managed by Rinder during his 35 year SO career, wouldn't have required such dark ops as detailed on the show. The public consensus of the church being a cult existed long before Mike left the church.
And, as a side note, it appears to me from watching the fan pages on Facebook, Leah's show has generated a genuine curiosity about the philosophy of Scientology that perhaps never existed before.
As I see it, benefit #2 possibly serves as precautionary advice to stay under the radar or suffer the aftermath. That is if a Scientologist even dares to watch the show or if a SO members can get access to it.
Yet overall,
I feel the fear of the consequences of leaving or speaking out, benefits the church the most, in keeping parishioners in line.
When the Aftermath Foundation first came on the scene, I had hoped they would help the former members who had been
fair gamed and caught up in the aftermath, hence sending a message to the church that "Something IS Being Done About It!". However, as Aaron Smith-Levin so haughtily put it in one his early YouTube videos, AMF, is not "Social Security for Ex-Scientologists." It appears their main focus is to help people leave the SO, which is fine. Yet the thing that's rarely brought up, is that if you route out of the SO you are given a severance check. FACT. Some more than others. Debbie and Wayne were given $50,000. Karen's son per what she said on Marty's blog was given $3500. Several former SO members I once employed we're given $700 each.
Perhaps calling it the Aftermath Foundation is simply a misnomer.
I truly hope I'm wrong and Mike pulls it off and can finally make right the abuses that were dealt to previous survivors of the aftermath of leaving Scientology.
I guess, we'll have to wait and see what happens.
