Don't you think that if you get caught in one lie after another and that people are looking to jump on you if you tell another lie that perhaps you would start telling the truth. Well, Tommy Davis must not have read that book because he lied again while responding to press inquiries on the Paul Haggis letter.
Tommy said the letter was supposed to be private and that he has no idea who leaked it like because it was supposed to be private that somehow makes his actions excusable. He goes on to say that "The San Diego group's name was included on a list of churches that supported Proposition 8, but it was an error that was corrected." Davis said.
If it was corrected than why did Haggis leave? Davis went on to claim that Haggis had demanded that Scientology go further and denounce the initiative, something it could not do due to its tax-exempt status as a church.
Here is the lie.
OK, first of all, I don't remember seeing that anywhere in Paul's letter. Second of all, no matter where you stood on Prop 8, I think it is very obvious that many churches that enjoy tax exempt status took sides and gave money to whichever side they were supporting. They didn't lose their tax exempt status as a church. I think Tommy is hoping the rest of the people in Scientology will drink the Kool Aid and buy his argument. Of course they probably also believe that a figment of L. Ron Hubbard's imagination is buried in the earth and going to lead them to some type of salvation so Tommy's lie is probably much easier to swallow.
Denouncing Proposition 8 would have NO effect on their tax-exempt status.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't the interviewer throw it back in his face?
Does he also deny that $cientology is homophobic?
I am going out to Nightline ABC and St Petersberg site and giving these Co$ stories as many hits as I can. If celebs can get popularity for nothing, this cult should get the same for something.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work, Tommy!
ReplyDeleteTax attorney here.
ReplyDeleteThe tax-exempt status issue is more complex that this glib description. In this case, the Scientologists are probably correct in part and dead wrong in part.
Tax-exempt organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly supporting individual candidates, and generally prohibited from supporting specific legislation. The exception to the latter is when the legislation directly affects the charity or its charitable purpose -- i.e. the SPCA can lobby for legislation increasing the penalty for animal abuse, because it directly affects its charitable purpose.
However -- that applies to expenditures of money to support candidates or legislation. A charity or church can SAY anything it wants about a particular candidate or piece of legislation -- that's protected speech. It just can't SPEND to support that position unless one of the exceptions applies.
So ultimately, although Scientology is correct in the sense that they almost certainly could not campaign against Prop 8, there was nothing preventing them from denouncing it, which is what Haggis wanted.
For those who want to say "but the Mormons spent a lot of money supporting Prop 8 -- doesn't that mean you're full of shit?" No. I haven't researched this, but I'd be willing to bet that the Mormon money came from separate entities set up specifically to fund the Prop 8 campaign -- entities which are not tax exempt charities. (They'd be political action committees, actually.) The LDS Church could have funded "educational" things -- nonpartisan voter info -- but anything specifically partisan probably came through separate PACs and individual Mormans, not through the church itself.
These people scare me.
ReplyDeleteThat guys is a DICK, plain and simple. Just look at him! He's got DICK practically engraved on his whole face.
ReplyDeleteQuick q, as I've been following up on all these COS stories for the past week I'm wondering...
ReplyDeleteIs our belief that Scientologists (who are high-up enough in the COS) believe in that dude Xeno based on any fact besides the testimonies of those former Scientology members (who COS has dismissed as "disgruntled" and therefore out to "get them")? If members are publicly laughing at/denying this belief in the weird volcano/Xenu stuff and this claim is based only on former members' testimonies, maybe it's not true....Anyone found documents about this, or any other factual info? Am I making sense here?
Cheers
DaveR thanks for the explanation.
ReplyDeleteLOL@DICK
@DaveR--I think some of the church organizations made the excuse of 'not wanting to be forced to perform marriage ceremonies' for same-sex couples as the excuse/direct effect.
ReplyDeleteNot that it's the least bit true. (Churches cannot be forced to perform same-sex ceremonies and never would have been.)
I'm sure you're correct that it was an 'external organization' (in name/tax status only) that recruited opposition and funds by the Mormon church membership.
DaveR, they can encourage their members to spend their money to kill Prop8, though, no?
ReplyDeleteDon't these people have a spaceship to catch, already? They need to start packing, imho.
@Figgy
ReplyDeleteYes, he also denies that $cientology is homophobic and likens their civil rights struggle to the "persecution" CO$ faces.
@Marissa: I have read that the Xenu story itself is not supposed to be read until the $cio has attained a certain level, because it supposedly would cause someone to get pneumonia if they read the story before fully prepared.
ReplyDeleteAt one time, the Co$ had an online glossary that defined some of their terms, but I think they removed the glossary from their site. Here is an archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20070202201239/http://www.scientology.org/gloss.htm#SPACEOPERA
The way I understand the whole Scientology genesis is thusly...if anyone knows differently, please feel free to correct:
ReplyDeleteL. Ron Hubbard wrote a science fiction novel. Then he created a church based on this science fiction novel.
People seem to forget the "fiction" part--really, it should be called the Church of Science Fictionology.
sickos!
ReplyDeleteMarisa, if you are asking a serious question it is extremely easy to prove the truth of this religion (and yes, it is the whole alien Xenu thing). Or check out this famous 1991 Times article -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/time-behar.html
If you are just another Scientology person whose job it is to go on sites and discredit naysayers of Scientology - well, I would guess you know what I think you can do.
@ littleoleme and @ selenakyle
ReplyDeleteditto!
Tommy Davis, Tom Cruise and David Miscavige all have the same wild look to their eyes and the same over-extended smile. The crazy overwhelms me.
ReplyDeleteTommy Davis actually looks a whole lot like William Mapother, Cruise's cousin. His paternal cousin that looks very much like Cruise's mom...Suri Cruise looks curiously similar to Mapother. What the hell kind of weird genetic crap went on in that family anyway? Did Cruise's dad marry a woman that looked just like him? Has the whole family just swapped partners or are all of the women routinely inseminated with random family members "stuff". Just too weird. I find this all endlessly fascinating. I'm not a well woman, obviously.