Scientology Lies

In the wake of recent protests, vocal opponents of the Church of Scientology find critical bulletins posted at their homes.

The Church of Scientology branded a Philadelphia man a religious bigot for participating in a protest that blamed the church for a member's death.

Rod Keller, 36, returned home from Clearwater last Sunday to find a flier had been posted in his apartment building declaring his "The Face of Religious Bigotry."

Below his photo, the flier read: "Your neighbor Rod Keller is not all that he seems. This weekend he is leading a KKK-style rally against peaceful members of a religion."

Keller, who said a neighbor removed the flier, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the church should be held responsible for the death of Lisa McPherson, a Dallas native who was a longtime Scientologist.

Others who participated in the Dec. 5 protest also were targeted with similar fliers in Boston, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, according to Keller, who said he started a crusade against Scientology in 1992 after finding information about it on the Internet and researching its beliefs.

John Carmichael, president of the church's New York office, acknowledged Friday that Scientologists had posted the flier in Keller's building.

"We are eager to get the message out," Carmichael said. He called Keller and the other protesters "a bunch of losers" whose "campaign of hate" has prompted violence against the church.

Keller, a Web site designer who publishes an anti-Scientology online newsletter, said he opposes the church "because of their medical quackery and the ways they abuse their people." He alleges the church forcibly confines members who show signs of mental illness.

Critics of the church speculate that McPherson died in a ritual isolation known as an "Introspection Rundown" that went awry. The church denies the allegation.

According to news accounts, McPherson, 36, started behaving strangely in late 1995. After a minor traffic accident in Florida, she took off her clothes and told paramedics she needed help.

She was admitted to a hospital psychiatric ward, but the church, which doesn't believe in psychiatry, removed her - with her permission - and placed her in isolation at its Clearwater hotel headquarters. Seventeen days later, on Dec. 5, 1995, an ill McPherson was taken to a hospital 24 miles away where a Scientologist physician was on duty. She was pronounced dead 20 minutes later.

The medical examiner ruled that McPherson died of starvation and dehydration, and said she had cockroach bites on her body. Authorities are wrapping up an investigation.

Scientologists have called the medical examiner a "hateful liar" and said McPherson died of pulmonary embolism.

"She would have died whether she was standing on top of Old Smokey or in the offices of The Philadelphia Inquirer," Carmichael said.

McPherson's family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the church and says she was held against her will because she wanted to leave the church.

Scientology was founded in the 1950s by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, who said people had gathered traumatic memories in past lives that hindered them in the present. Scientologists believe those memories can be cleared through church counseling.

Church leaders deny the claims of critics who label Scientology a cult. The IRS granted the church tax-exempt status in 1993, but authorities in Germany, France and Spain consider it a for-profit organization. Most major German political parties do not allow Scientologists as members.