Karen de la Carriere, formerly the wife of Scientology president (in name only at present) Heber Jentzsch, has formally left the church. (She is still a Scientologist.)
She was trained to the highest level of counseling and case supervision by Hubbard, one of six people ever. So for a great many Scientologists, this is the greatest technical defection ever, as she was in good standing when she left.
What prompted it is more interesting. After being forcibly divorced, abused, then pushed out on her own with no spousal support for her young child, she managed to make it. Her son went into the Sea Org, got married, and his wife got pregnant.
They got coerced into having an abortion, and the wife had a hard time with it. (Yes, Heber, who is from a polygamous fundamentalist Mormon family and has 42 siblings, his own eldest grandchild was aborted against the parents' wishes.)
Because of recent media pressure (especially fallout from the Human Trafficking press conference I went to in February), when the the daughter-in-law got pregnant again, she and her husband were ejected, with minimal support, from the Sea Org. The fallout from that, as well as the control of communication between father and son, is what got Karen out.
Longer Scientologese-laden story here.
She was trained to the highest level of counseling and case supervision by Hubbard, one of six people ever. So for a great many Scientologists, this is the greatest technical defection ever, as she was in good standing when she left.
What prompted it is more interesting. After being forcibly divorced, abused, then pushed out on her own with no spousal support for her young child, she managed to make it. Her son went into the Sea Org, got married, and his wife got pregnant.
They got coerced into having an abortion, and the wife had a hard time with it. (Yes, Heber, who is from a polygamous fundamentalist Mormon family and has 42 siblings, his own eldest grandchild was aborted against the parents' wishes.)
Because of recent media pressure (especially fallout from the Human Trafficking press conference I went to in February), when the the daughter-in-law got pregnant again, she and her husband were ejected, with minimal support, from the Sea Org. The fallout from that, as well as the control of communication between father and son, is what got Karen out.
Longer Scientologese-laden story here.