Having grown up in Clearwater, all I can say is the Church of Scientology is bad news.
They came into Clearwater with false front businesses who proceeded to buy up all of the prominent buildings and land on Cleveland Ave (Main street) and then turned them over to the Church of Scientology and from that point on, there were no taxes paid on those many parcels. Downtown went south very quickly. As the values of properties decreased, more was bought by the Church.
They bought the Jack Tar Harrison Hotel, the most beautiful structure in town, and made it their headquarters.
After the city officials realized what had happened in the proceeding few years, it was too late.
All the reputable businesses left town and you have the ghost town that is downtown Clearwater today.
We knew people who came to Clearwater to work for the "Church", thinking it was a real "Church" only to find that they were indentured to the organization.
They offer inexpensive "self knowledge and improvement classes" as the bait and then when the person is hooked into the ideas and concepts, the prices go up exponentially with the person's only option is to work for the church to pay for the "classes". It is a spiral that never ends.
Celebrities, on the other hand are wined and dined and shown the tip of the iceberg, in order to get the rich and famous to represent Scientology.
They hook they have into them, which prevents many from leaving, is the process called "auditing". The subject ends up telling the deepest darkest secrets of their soul to the "auditor" during a therapy/interview process which consists of questions and answers with electrical jolts thrown in to encourage more response.
I could go on and on..... I taped Lean Remini's episode on Good Morning America and will watch it with my hubby tonight. I am very surprised she stepped forward. It is a brutal organization. They once put a bounty on the mayor of Clearwater. It is organized crime at it's worst, with willing victims who comply rather than be blackmailed, or worse.
The St.Pete Times did a huge expose that took years of research. There are some good books out there too.
The Church of Scientology ruined Clearwater. Dunedin, Largo, St. Pete, Palm Harbor have all flourished and downtown Clearwater remains a ghost town occupied only by The Church of Scientology and the businesses owned by its higher members.
Oh, the stories I could tell........
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