November 23, 2016 Alex Weresow Executive Producer Slauson Productions, LLC C/O UPS Store 10736 Jefferson Blvd. Culver City, CA 9
C H U R C H O F S CIENTOLOGY I NTERNATIONAL November 23, 2016 Alex Weresow Executive Producer Slauson Productions, LLC c/o UPS Store 10736 Jefferson Blvd. Culver City, CA 90230 Re: The Practice of “Disconnection” Dear Mr. Weresow: Enclosed is a statement for use on your program explaining the Church of Scientology’s view on disconnection. It is a voluntary decision by the individual that is consistent with many other faiths. It has been part of Church policy, laid down by Founder L. Ron Hubbard, since the 1960s. To put this all in perspective, the overriding policy of the Church is to encourage family relationships. To promote your sources’ line that families and friends were forced to disconnect from them when they left the Church, whether or not they attacked Scientology, is false and misleading. Your sources are using family conflicts they generated as a forum to manufacture publicity in support of their anti-religious agenda. Slauson Productions is giving its sources a forum to mislead viewers. Many religions today such as the Amish, the Mennonites, the Bahá’í and Jehovah Witnesses practice a form of shunning, a formal decision to cease interaction with an individual or a group. Orthodox and Hasidic Jews practice Herem, the total exclusion of a person from the Jewish community. Considered more broadly, virtually every religion practices some form of social exclusion, whether or not it has a formal ecclesiastical penalty, is in response to an attack, or merely an admonition that one is to avoid the company of evil. Like Scientology, most religions do not forbid contact with people who ___________________________________________________________ 6331 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 1200, Los Angeles, CA, 90028-6329 Slauson Productions 2 November 23, 2016 merely have different beliefs.
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