Posted by
Defend America on Saturday, March 06, 2010 9:13:43 PM
Breaking With Scientology
Published: March 6, 2010
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Raised as Scientologists,
Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as
teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the
Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.
They signed a contract for a billion years — in keeping with the
church’s belief that Scientologists are immortal. They worked seven
days a week, often on little sleep, for sporadic paychecks of $50 a
week, at most.
But after 13 years and growing disillusionment, the Collbrans decided
to leave the Sea Org, setting off on a Kafkaesque journey that they
said required them to sign false confessions about their personal lives
and their work, pay the church thousands of dollars it said they owed
for courses and counseling, and accept the consequences as their
parents, siblings and friends who are church members cut off all
communication with them.
“Why did we work so hard for this organization,” Ms. Collbran said,
“and why did it feel so wrong in the end? We just didn’t understand.”
They soon discovered others who felt the same. Searching for Web sites
about Scientology that are not sponsored by the church (an activity
prohibited when they were in the Sea Org), they discovered that
hundreds of other Scientologists were also defecting — including
high-ranking executives who had served for decades.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/us/07scientology.html