"A lot of these kids are in it for the power, I don't think they are in it for the religion" Bill Franks

Scientology church Wracked by Dissention - 22 Jan 1983 LA Times ( Bill Franks )

By Evan Maxwell
and Russell Chandler
Los Angeles Times

The Church of Scientology, one of the wealthiest and most controversial religious organizations to be founded in the last 30 years, is being ripped by a power struggle between a small inner circle of youthful leaders And a large and growing number of disaffected former leaders and members.

Center to the dispute iIs the question of whether Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is alive or dead. Hubbard has not been seen in public since 1980. The multimillionaire's oldest son, Ron DeWolf, believes his father is either dead or mentally ill. DeWolf has turned to the courts for help in clearing up the situation.

Meanwhile, the issue divides the church.

The church's new leaders, for the most part, are young acolytes who once served Hubbard aboard his 300- foot yacht and later at his retreats near Indio and Hemet in California. Most of these leaders are in their early 20s. They say Hubbard, 71, is alive and well and that they are in contact with him. They claim that DeWolf is being used as a tool by other "enemies of the church" who are intent on obtaining money from the church through lawsuits. '

Interviews with a number of former members of the church, some of them longtime leaders of Scientology missions indicate that they believe Hubbard is no longer alive.

Scientology's disaffected leaders. including the man who was once the church's highest officer, say the new readers, are perpetuating a myth.

Disaffected members also accuse the new leadership of ruthlessly expelling any 'members who pose a challenge to their power.

Bill Franks, former executive director of the church, said the new leaders need to maintain a fiction that Hubbard is alive in order to legitimatize their control of the church and their hold on its vast wealth, he said.

Franks said that a year ago, before be was forced out of the church, he bad personal control of $150 million lodged in Scientology accounts in two Luxembourg banks. He estimated the total worth of the church at more than $300 million:

"A lot of these kids are in it for the power and the money; I don't think they are in it for the religion," Franks said in a telephone interview from Clearwater, Fla.

He said he thinks, the church is going to burn itself out because of the struggle over power and money.

In addition to the internal struggle the church faces forthcoming legal action. Hubbard's son is asking the Riverside County court to make him trustee of his father's , estate. In his petition, DeWolf charges that his father is either dead or mentally incapable of handling his huge fortune. A trial is set for April 18.

Scientology is based on Hubbard's concepts or mental health first propounded in a 1948 book called Dianetics. Adherents working to., achieve what Scientologists call the "clear" state may spend as much as $100,000 at "auditing" sessions offered at Scientology facilities around the world. Revenues from such sessions, as well as from Hubbard's writing, form the foundation of the Scientology financial empire.

Disaffected members also accuse the young church leaders of demanding larger percentages of revenue from local Scientology missions.

"It just isn't being run the way be. (Hubbard) used to run it There seems to be no judgment Involved," Bent Croydon said.

Corydon headed the Riverside branch of the church until recently, , when he and some of the members broke away to found a new organization. It has been joined by other dissident Scientologists in Kansas City, Mo., and Omaha, Neb.

Probably the most intriguing picture of the inner workings of Scientology comes from from Franks, 36, who was ousted as executive director by David Miscavige, 22, the "commander" and top manager of the new ruling body of Scientology.

Franks said that he believes that Hubbard, the eccentric science-fiction writer and founder of Scientology, was probably dead In August 1981, when Miscavige gave him a "dispatch" purportedly written by Hubbard.

"I'm sure that it Wasn't, (Hubbard)," Franks said. "I worked with him enough to know that.* "

Miscavige could not be reached for comment on Frank's allegations. Franks said the church at that time had, been spending a much as 1 million a month on legal fees to fight countless court battles around the world. One case involved "federal" charges that Mary Sue Hubbard, the writer's, third wife, and 10 other Scientology leaders had conspired to infiltrate various government agencies including the Internal Revenue Service.

Franks said $8 million was raised from church members on the basis of what he called total lies about the nature of the federal charges.

The money was spent on high living and flying all over the world and not on legitimate legal fees, he said. Franks said he was privy to what has ban called a tax-washing scheme in 1981. He said the purpose of that plan was to save tax dollars by shifting money from profit-making Scientology corporations to non-profit and tax-exempt institutions.

Franks said he became executive director in an effort toreform the movement after Mary Sue Hubbard and the 10 other Scientology leaders were convicted in 1979 of burglarizing bugging and infilitrating the government agencies which Scientology claimed had systematically harassed church for decades.

Franks left the church after sharp disagreements with David Miscavuige and other members of the "Sea Org" cadre, a term drawn from the years when Hubbard lived aboard his yacht, the Apollo, and referred to himself as "The Commodore" . Franks, who says that he still believes in the religious technology Hubbard taught, has joined a large number of former Scientologists, some of whom have been ousted by the church and others of who left of their own volition.

He estimated that at one time there were 2 million members of the church. But he says the number has dwindled to perhaps 100,000 active Scientologists throughout the world. The Rev. Heber Jentzsch, president the Church of Scientology International, disagreed with those figures, saying in a recent letter to the Los Angeles Times that the church is "enjoying a period of expansion with more than 6.5 million persons... .. making it the largest and perhaps the fastest-growing new religion in the world."

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