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Top lawyer, Ms Monique Yingling Esq, has this week given her stamp of legal approval to physical punishment of Scientologists.
Ms Yingling approved the throwing of underperforming staff Scientologists overboard from ships, or into pools and lakes, as practiced by the Church's leaders.
As the St Petersburg Times reported, “Church lawyer Monique Yingling said overboarding is part of ecclesiastical justice. "They're not backing away from it or ashamed of it,'' she said. It has been done hundreds of times, with precautions taken to make it safe.”
Ms Yingling was speaking out in support of the Church, which has unjustly been vilified by psychotics as promoting a culture of abuse of subordinates.
Most of the serious assaults on subordinates were performed by Inspector General of Religious Technology, Mr Mark 'Marty' Rathbun, and former spokesperson Mr Mike Rinder, said Church spokesperson, Mr Tommy Davis. While Mr Miscavige had ordered overboardings, he never criminally attacked anyone, and he never attacked any of the psychotics who claim to have been attacked by him, stated Mr Davis and several other Scientologists in good standing.
Physical punishment is emphasized in the Church's “Sea Org” recruiting. As the St Petersburg Times further reported -
“[Mr Norman] Starkey, the 66-year-old former captain of the Apollo, said plenty of people have been overboarded in his 50 years in Scientology.
If a Sea Org member messes up, "you throw him over the g-- d--- side of the ship," Starkey said.
"He falls into the water, he swims around, climbs up the ladder, gets off at the dock, walks back in again. He never does that again. He knows that that is the way we operate. That is what the Sea Organization is like."
Mr Davis volunteered that he, too, had ordered overboarding. "It was a guy who was blowing it and kept blowing it and kept blowing it — making mistakes, underperforming," he said. "It was my responsibility to uphold the ethical standards of the Sea Org. Yeah, absolutely, I tossed the guy in.''
Most workplaces and churches would benefit from similar ethical discipline. A little more of this type of discipline, and Scientology traitors Mr Mike Rinder and Mr Marty Rathbun might never have commenced to psychotically and unauthorizedly attack subordinates in non-standard ways not provided for in written L Ron Hubbard policies. Mr Rathbun and Mr Rinder had disgraced the Sea Org naval uniform, the braid on their caps, and the campaign ribbons they used to wear on their chests.
The St Petersberg Times reported that if the defectors could not hack such punishments, Davis said, they could have left years ago. "The g-- d--- front door wasn't locked. And if they had a problem with it they could have walked out."
As Mr Davis stated, the Sea Org is a "crew of tough sons of b----es,''
"The Sea Org is not a democracy. The members of it agree with a man named L. Ron Hubbard. They abide by his policies . . . and we follow it to the T, to the letter, to the punctuation marks. And if you disagree with that and you don't like it, you don't belong. Then you leave."
The Church has emphasized that the 5'5” Mr Miscavige is a physically slight man, and many of his alleged victims are larger than him. Accordingly, it beggars belief to suggest that Mr Miscavige had, except for overboarding, physically punished these subordinates without fear he would receive the same treatment in retaliation.
As Mr Miscavige said in response to similar allegations in 1998 “I’ve not only not been convicted of anything, I’ve never been indicted for anything. Now I think that’s where you finally have to look at the, quote, critics and say, “Hey. Put up or shut up. Let’s see some evidence.’”
The St Peterburg Times has reported that Mr Rinder has received legal advice that he is constrained in his criticism of the Church by the action of Attorney-Client privilege. This doctrine means that it is absolutely unethical for Mr Rinder to reveal any information detrimental to the Church without the Church's consent.
Monique Yingling
It is this same Attorney-Client privilege that governs the actions of long-time Church lawyer and spokesperson, Ms Monique Yingling Esq. Although she has been an employee of Mr Miscavige for many years, she is not yet a Scientologist, and is not subject to the strict Scientology ethics discipline. However, as a lawyer, her personal religious beliefs and opinions do not impinge upon her duty to faithfully serve the interests of her client.
Ms Yingling is revered in the legal community as a tax lawyer, and by rank and file Scientologists, among whom she has many, close friends. Ms Yingling was awarded a beautiful crystal ornament as a reward for her contribution to securing tax exemption for the Church's enterprises.
All the work that Ms Yingling does for the Church, paid or otherwise, is, in effect, Pro Bono work, because the Church is a charitable organization. Ms Yingling has been central to getting more and more other people to join Scientology over the years, and helped to keep the Church going more than the traitors who have left it.
Ms Yingling, though not a Scientologist, provides an example that psychopathic traitors like Mr Rinder and Mr Rathbun, who worked with Ms Yingling on many issues before their true natures revealed themselves, would have done well to follow.