David Miscavige

After L. Ron Hubbard died in 1986, David Miscavige took over as leader of Scientology. How did he gain that position of power and how did this affect the church?

While looking deeper into Miscavige, an interesting thing that I found was that his father and former Scientologist for more than 40 years, Ron Miscavige, wrote a book about their relationship, titled “Ruthless”. Ron decided to leave after his son, David Miscavige, gifted him an Amazon Kindle, which was connected to the internet. Scientologists are not allowed unfiltered access to the internet, and are not allowed to read anything that the rest of the world has to say about them. Ron decided to google Scientology, and found horrible things that effected his choice to leave. According to the website about the book, it “tells the revealing story of David Miscavige’s childhood and his path to the head seat of the Church of Scientology told through the eyes of his father”. A short biography of Ron can be found here. The trigger that pushed him to write this book was being separated and communication being shut off from his daughters and grandchildren at the advice of his son after he left Scientology in 2012. He explains that the book’s purpose is “to stand up against the church’s practice of tearing families apart” according to his biography previously referenced. He also starred on Leah Remini’s show, “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” to talk about his son’s rise to power.

David Miscavige joined Scientology with his family in 1971, when he was 11 years old. He dropped out of high school at age 16 to join the Sea Org and devote himself further to Scientology. He gained a position as a cameraman for the church’s films, which allowed him close communication with Hubbard. He often used that advantage to express “everything in the framework that made him look good and anybody who he felt was a rival look bad” according to Scientology’s former international spokesperson Mike Rinder to Business Insider. Scientologists state that by 18, Miscavige “had become the individual L. Ron Hubbard called upon to carry out the most important assignments. No Church executive in history ever received more direct communication from L. Ron Hubbard”. Since he was Hubbard’s closest adviser, he naturally assumed the leadership role of the church. Technically, the church explains that he is the ecclesiastical leader of Scientology, and officially the Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center according to their page about Miscavige. The Relihious Technology Center was created “to hold the Scientology and Dianetics trademarks and to preserve, maintain and protect the Scientology religion”. Miscavige’s job is to continue the spread of Hubbard’s works and vision.

There is not much information on how this transition of power effected the church, according to Scientologists. They enforce his success as a leader by explaining how the true test of a religion is a leader’s passing, and that Miscavige kept the church powerful and connected during that “difficult” time. Miscavige is simply supposed to keep up Hubbard’s ideas and keep the church running as he did, so there shouldn’t really be any changes. However, other sources claim that he encourages forced separation of family members, harassment of critics, and violence against church members. These are all, of course, denied by the church.

Further Reading:

Some interesting allegations against David Miscavige can be found in this article by Business Insider.