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| Dear [name], I am writing in order to express my concern over the so-called ‘Church’ of Scientology’s acquisition of the Grade II listed Pitmaston House in Moseley. Perhaps of great interest to your society will be the Church of Scientology’s overbearing desire to appear to be expanding at an exponential rate; a desire that they try to fulfil by purchasing lavish buildings across the world and converting them into regional headquarters. This alone would not be quite so problematic if it were not for the fact that in order to make these acquisitions they rely almost if not entirely on coercing their members into paying exorbitant donations towards both the purchase and renovation of these properties. As you may be aware due to recent press coverage of worldwide protests against this organisation, Scientology operates in a way similar to that of a pyramid scheme (L. Ron Hubbard, the cult’s founder, once infamously remarked, "I'd like to start a religion. That's where the money is!"). In order to maximise their profit margins they have been known to limit refurbishment and maintenance mainly to the exterior of their buildings whilst allowing much of the rest to lie empty and neglected. Examples of this occurring may be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Power_B...Project_history - of particular note is the quote from the mayor of Clearwater stating that “the building had become an eyesore, surrounded by dirt and a chain-link fence” – as well as in the image attached to this e-mail which was taken of the rear of the Church of Scientology’s headquarters in London and shows much of the inside to be nothing more than an empty shell. As I am sure you will agree, it would be an absolute travesty if this were to also happen to Pitmaston House. To further illustrate the Church of Scientology’s fixation with minimising their expenditure, please view this American news report concerning a builder who the Church deliberately withheld payment from, and note how he and the reporter are quickly harassed by a Scientologist: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q7738aoaPQ0 This sort of behaviour unfortunately brings us onto the other downside of their acquisition of Pitmaston House, namely the negative impact that it will have on the local community as the Church of Scientology has an ongoing history of harassing people who they deem to be SPs or “Suppressive Persons”, which is a catchall term for anybody who opposes them. In a 1967 policy memo L. Ron Hubbard declared that any such person “May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.” Scientology also practices what is referred to as the “disconnection policy”, which puts pressure on members to sever all family ties if family members are considered to be SPs. The impact on families of any future recruits from Moseley and the surrounding areas could therefore be enormous. Furthermore, the organisation operates many front groups that masquerade as charities as a means of recruiting people into Scientology. A prime example is the ‘Citizens Commission on Human Rights’, which rabidly attacks the psychiatric profession via it’s frankly sickening “Industry of Death” exhibitions, which among other asinine claims asserts that psychiatrists were responsible for the Holocaust. Incidentally, this exhibition was very recently staged in West Bromwich. Also there is ‘Narconon’, which claims to help drug addicts by persuading them to ignore psychiatric and medical help in favour of pseudo-scientific and expensive treatment. Perhaps most worrying of all is ‘Applied Scholastics’, which aims to insidiously get Scientology based learning techniques into classrooms. As you can see, the pattern that emerges demonstrates that the Church of Scientology tries to indoctrinate the more vulnerable members of the community. Residents of Moseley are already displeased about the acquisition of Pitmaston House (see http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-sto...97319-20713379/ ), perhaps most telling of all is the quote from a member of the Moseley Society who says, "With the reputation of Scientology we would all be very worried that we have got them in our midst." From the very same article, a Council spokesman states that if the Church of Scientology hopes to use Pitmaston House “as a place of worship they will have to apply for change of use. However, if they are going to use it as a headquarters, no application would be necessary”, so it would seem that it may be worthwhile keeping your eyes out for any future applications regarding Pitmaston House. If you share my concerns then I humbly implore you to raise the issue with Birmingham City Council, for both the good of the listed building itself and for the good of the community in Moseley and the surrounding area. Thank you very much for taking the time to read and consider this matter. |