20/20 Scientology: A Father's Story | Ron Miscavige Interview [2020 FULL DOCUMENTARY]

tonight on 20/20 if you were a Scientology usually when you leave something you are one of the relative few that hold the answers you don't have an organization attacking you that all humankind depend upon following you you mean something like this having a stranger lurk around a quiet residential street in West Allis Wisconsin the people down here called the cops and said listen there's a guy out here looking in a house and we think he might be a drug dealer the police are called in only to make an eye-popping discovery the mystery man's rented SUV looks like an arsenal on wheels loaded with handguns rifles ammo a stun gun a high zoom camera and a satellite computer that sounds like this guy's going to war it sounds like that man Duane Powell swears he's not a hit man instead he says he's a $10,000 a week Private Eye with a very famous client the company I work for a huge so why are they spying on this 80 year old man who plays the horn for a living super dark secret world is this you interested I have never met a more competent a more intelligent a more tolerant to a more compassionate being the story that affects every Scientologist Scientology Howell says the church is his client and his target the estranged father of David Miscavige the church's all-powerful wildly controversial leader when somebody enrolls consider he's joined for the duration tonight the explosive new book that's causing a he said they said between one man and the church he left behind it was an escape do you think you can just walk out no it's not just that he decided to write a book he decided to tell a false story a deafening crack in Scientology's royal family David who's backstage literally tearing me apart verbally cursing yelling screaming at me what he's screaming at you do you ever think I changed this guy's diapers how ex-members now depict gold base the church's mountainside paradise Scientology style gated with tight security they say your mail is checked that your phone calls are monitored is any of this true well something like that is true but that doesn't make it a prison tonight the story the church doesn't want you to hear I raised them and to come to this what the hell is this this is nuts a father story good evening I'm Elizabeth Vargas not david muir right here tonight the ABC News exclusive as a father now faces off against his very own son and not just any son but the powerful leader of the Church of Scientology David Miscavige revered by some reviled by others and now the subject of a blockbuster new book titled ruthless which comes out next Tuesday the publishers tell us that lawyers from the church asked them not to release it so what's in it that has the church on high alert dan harris finds out you have written a whole book about your son and you've called the book ruthless yeah it's a pretty damning charge to level against your own child he wasn't always that way when he was a kid I am Telling You he was a lovable kid Ron Miscavige says long before his son became the almighty leader of one of the most controversial new religions on the planet how much must one do to call themselves a Scientologist before all those speeches - cheering crowds of believers before all that elbow rubbing with celebrity Scientologists such as John Travolta and Kirstie Alley David was just a regular kid growing up in this middle-class neighborhood in Willingboro New Jersey they had four kids over there Phyllis and Gil had two girls aluminum siding public swimming pools children bicycling in the street Ron a Salesman and aspiring musician is raising four kids with his wife Loretta the oldest Ronnie David and his twin sister Denise and their younger sister Laurie so you spent 12 years right here on this tree 12 years right here yeah Ron says young David was a strong student with an even stronger will dave is not a big kid not at all and yet he was getting into fights he was a tough kid I mean for his size he's like a stick of dynamite you know in your book you describe to him having a habit of saying not so kind things about other people even as a boy yeah it seems to me from reading your book to you in hindsight that's a bit of a red flag it was a bit of a red flag in hindsight but at home it's not as if Ron himself is receiving World's Greatest Dad coffee mugs on Father's Day marriage wise we didn't have a great marriage at all we had strife and there was some domestic abuse which I don't ever feel good about I don't think you can make excuses for that no matter what how much time goes by when you when you say domestic abuse what alleged I used to strike her I'd hit her in the arm or something like that in front of the kids and in front of the kids yeah Ron's Mayacamas notwithstanding the church says his acts of domestic violence are much more serious and more frequent than he admits in fact the church says the book co-written by another former church member who's now a fierce critic of church management is filled with half true and outright lies it's in my view a literary forgery the church rarely grants on-camera interviews but it's taking Ron's book so seriously that it dispatched attorney mony Yingling to discredit the author what has David Miscavige's response been to this book well I think he's on a personal level I think he's he's probably very very sad that his father would do this this seems to be no explanation except that his father is trying to make a buck off of his name this unusual family history and subsequent family feud was set in motion in 1968 when Ron first hears the word Scientology at a business meeting what was it about the word Scientology that got you so interested I don't know but it did all I heard was Scientology and at that what is that Ron soon learned that Scientology is a new religion founded by the science fiction writer l ron Hubbard there are certain evils in society which definitely should cease and we're taking some responsibility for them so I went to a place where there was a guy who was deechi Scientology he would do drills to teach you better communication so it was useful for you I would imagine as a salesman and also as a guy who was in a marriage that had a lot of arguments oh yeah involved yeah and he says Scientology works wonders for him soon he starts paying for one of the central practices of the faith a sort of counseling called auditing that uses a Scientology device called an e meter look I don't know what I was looking for I knew I was looking for something and when I got in Scientology I felt that I found that I was looking for it which did have a lot of answers to life on the basic level so many answers so many life-changing benefits Ron feels a duty as a parent to introduce his son David to Scientology as well he hopes that somehow the auditing can help with his son's biggest problem a nasty and recurring case of asthma he would get severe attacks these must have been terrifying episodes for you as a dad that's putting it mildly and so it comes to pass that in 1969 the tender age of nine david miscavige has his first auditing session about 45 minutes later David walks out smiling bright and in that moment the future is born a future of Fame and power as David Miscavige rises to the highest levels of Scientology and a future of turmoil and pain as his family life erupts into a civil war do you think that was the key turning point in his whole life I know it miracles as commonly understood in the judeo-christian tradition are not a big part of Scientology theology a modern doctrine which draws naught from ancient scripture but instead from the mind of its founder the science fiction writer l ron Hubbard this is the critically panned movie version of Hubbard's novel Battlefield Earth it starred noted Scientologist John Travolta but back in New Jersey Ron Miscavige says something close to what Christians might call faith healing occurs in 1969 that's when he takes his under sized asthmatic nine-year-old son David for his first session of auditing a kind of Scientology counseling about 45 minutes later David walks out smiling right it's what happened he's his dad it's handled so your view at the time was that his asthma was cured by by Scientology let's put it this way it mitigated it considerably I think it was at that moment that he decided he's gonna do something with this so you think that was the key turning point in his whole life I know it I know it according to Ron this moment is a sort of conversion experience for the entire family now everybody starts studying Scientology with David setting himself apart as something of a prodigy what do you think it was getting out of it satisfaction that he was helping somebody by the year 1975 Ron's music career hits a high note he even puts out this rather groovy album while David's Scientology career is really taking off he's now a young Auditor and he decides to join the church's priestly order the C organization or C or the group's distinctive look metals gold ribbons and dressed White's were modeled in part on Hubbard's own time in the US Navy he's I want to go and help l ron Hubbard and I thought myself ain't I'd be pretty proud of him says okay I'll help you whatever I can David heads to Scientology's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater Florida which involves signing a billion-year contract meaning you agree to work for the Sea Org in your future lives while in Clearwater he meets Lois restore who says she recruits David to join the Commodores messenger organization l ron Hubbard's personal elite unit within the Sea Org he was very if I could say gungho had a lot of spark when he was 16 he was a climber he wanted to be at the top and he gained a reputation of being really tough like you didn't mess with him pretty soon David finds himself in the orbit of the founder l ron Hubbard who has gone from writing science fiction to writing volumes of sacred Scientology texts teenage David moves west without his family where Hubbard sometimes known by his initials LRH is building secret new bases and shooting scientology training films Dave ended up being a cameraman but in the beginning we used to call him the kid and LRH would call him the kid well Ron Miscavige is back east selling cookware and cutlery what his son is doing during this period of time is a matter of intense dispute the church is adamant that Hubbard decided early that David Miscavige would eventually succeed him then never ever was any doubt whatsoever that mr. Hubbard intended mr. David Miscavige to be the leader of religion after he departed his life that's not how Louis Restore remembers it she says Hubbard wanted the church to be run by a committee after he died not one person but Rees Dorf says after Hubbard goes into seclusion in 1980 Miscavige's influence and power grow unchecked as he evolves from the Commodores messenger into a gatekeeper he started to get power and started to pull in people onto his side and it ended up being like a coup where you had half of the management took over and kicked out the other half Rees Dorf says she is part of that other half and that she's relieved of her executive duties it was a betrayal in the book you say that your son really developed a taste for power in the Sea Org there were no checks and balances on him at a certain point where he could just go ahead he just assumed that power the church says neither louis ruiz Dorf who they say was expelled in 1982 by hubbard person nor Ron have first-hand knowledge of these events instead they point out that during this time period Ron is dealing with his own serious issues in 1985 Ron is arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with attempted rape which Ron says is a case of mistaken identity David arranges for his father's defense he said listen you're not on your own they're gonna take on the old Church of Scientology the charges are dropped after a pre-trial hearing and after it's all over Ron says he owes it to the church to join the Sea Org himself I could have possibly been convicted of something that I didn't do and end up going to jail I feel I have to help him David told him that his father needed to turn his life around despite the fact that in a 2012 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer the church called Ron the victim in this case Scientology officials are now playing a different tune accusing Ron of deliberately playing down the seriousness of the charges the church has gone from calling rawness gavage a victim in the words of the church to now raising questions about whether he's whitewashing the whole thing so the only thing that's changed between now and then that I'm aware of is that Ron decided to write a book well it's not just that he decided to write a book he decided to tell a false story what is not in dispute is that in 1985 Ron moves to California divorces his wife and Don's the uniform of the Sea Org and Ron says shortly after coming aboard he sees that his son has changed and I saw him I his hey Dave and he turned him in he looked at me like who are you talking to no words were said but that glance told me those days were over I would never I could never do that as a father to a son in 1986 David Miscavige announces a seismic event for the church l ron Hubbard has died too being we knew as l ron Hubbard still exists however the body he had could no longer serve his purposes the next year David officially becomes the head of the church taking the title chairman of the board he is now alone at the top from now on he will be the star of the church's olympic-sized celebration he will lead the church to some of its greatest triumphs like winning its tax-exempt status the IRS issued letters recognizing Scientology and every one of its organizations has fully and he will spearhead the charge to bring celebrities into the fold were you around when Tom was joining the church and was it a high priority for your son it was taught by Artie

Channel: 20/20 - Official Channel

Views: 81,725

Rating: 4.7202072 out of 5

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Id: asr15FAF0X4

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Fri May 13 2016