For more information: 17 November 2009Vicki Dunstan(02) 9638 5200(02) 9638 4588STATEMENT FROM CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGYREGARDING SENATOR XENOPHON

’

“

XENOPHOBIA

”

This is an outrageous abuse of Parliamentary privilege from a Senator wouldnot even meet with Church representatives several months ago to discuss hisconcerns.Senator Xenophon is obviously being pressured by disgruntled formermembers who use hate speech and distorted accounts of their experiences inthe Church. They are about as reliable as former spouses are when talkingabout their ex-partner.Senator Xenophon

’

s attempt to marginalize Scientologists by saying that theyshould not be believed, is fascistic and violates freedom of speech and theright to religious beliefs. It is former members or apostates that arenotoriously unreliable as witnesses.The late Bryan Wilson, Ph.D. of Oxford University, one of the most renownedsociologists of modern times, put it this way:"The disaffected and the apostate are in particular informants whose evidencehas to be used with circumspection. The apostate is generally in need of self- justification. He seeks to reconstruct his own past, to excuse his formeraffiliations, and to blame those who were formerly his closest associates. . . .Apostates, sensationalized by the press, have sometimes sought to make aprofit from accounts of their experiences in stories sold to newspapers....""As various instances have indicated, he is likely to be suggestible and readyto enlarge or embellish his grievances to satisfy that species of journalistwhose interest is more in sensational copy than in an objective statement ofthe truth."