Church of Scientology

Latest Articles

Interview: Glenn Danzig

The horror-punk legend on Deth Red Sabaoth , comics, and vast global conspiracies
There was a moment, while I was on hold on the phone as Glenn Danzig was being summoned by his publicist, where I was a tad intimidated. And not just because I was about to talk about one of the more legendary and divisive figures in the history of punk and metal.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | June 21, 2010

Apple loses its cool

Once the underdog cult darling battling the evil empire, Apple is fighting an image problem — and critics, who say it’s betrayed the digital revolution
Sheez, they’re getting awfully touchy out in Cupertino.
By WEN STEPHENSON | May 14, 2010

The Phoenix cleans up at NENPA

Tooting Our Own Horn Dept.
Was 2009 a good year for newspapers?
By LANCE GOULD | February 10, 2010

Dane Cook does suck

Letters to the Boston editor, January 22, 2010
In "Dane Cook Is Funny," the author says that to say “ 'Dane Cook is not funny' is an extreme oversimplification.” Not really.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | January 20, 2010

Scientology defector tells all

Many's Rivers to Cross Dept.
If every last allegation that Church of Scientology (CoS) defector Nancy Many charges in My Billion Year Contract is true, then her book should inspire several FBI raids and a Lifetime mini-series to rival any Charles Manson documentary.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 13, 2010

What's the scam?

Trying to bilk the Scientologists
Back on the morning of June 7, 1982, a man walked into the New York branch of the Middle East Bank on the 25th floor of a Madison Avenue office building and tried to deposit a $2 million check. The man, a native of the United Arab Emirates, left without completing the transaction.
By JIM SCHUH | September 28, 2009

Gloom merchants

The Warlocks’ psych is far from psyched
It would’ve been nice if Bobby Hecksher, songsmith and ringleader of the Warlocks, had spoon-fed me some anecdotes from back when he used to trip out with Timothy Leary.
By BARRY THOMPSON | August 05, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Year in pictures

Imagery 2008
Imagery 2008
By PHOENIX STAFF | January 28, 2010

Beyond a joke

Letters to the Boston editor, October 31, 2008
Your recent “Chick Schtick” article contained a very interesting and revealing line.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | October 29, 2008

Choosing my religion

Letters to the Boston editor, October 24, 2008
There’s nothing that strikes me as heroic or important about Gregg Housh’s farcical jihad against Scientology.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | October 22, 2008

Battling Scientology

Anonymous's Gregg Housh is committed to bringing down the Church of Scientology. Is he a gadfly or a goon?
In a world wracked with uncertainty, there is at least one thing you can bet on: pick a fight with the Church of Scientology, and its leaders will fight back — always with vigor, often with a vengeance, and sometimes with litigation that can be long and costly.
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 23, 2008

Photos: Guy Fawkes Day

Anonymous protest against Church of Scientology, Boston, MA, October 11, 2008
Anonymous protest against Church of Scientology, Boston, MA, October 11, 2008
By MATT TEUTEN | October 15, 2008

Real to reel

The exquisite artifice and lasting weirdoid-ness of Roxy Music
Even now, after Greil Marcus’s Lipstick Traces and Simon Reynolds’s Rip It Up and Start Again , the rock-star-as-vector-of-ideas is still something of a challenge for us.
By JAMES PARKER | April 01, 2008

Crunch time for Obama and Hillary

Advertising time slots offers a preview of the results
If you are a believer in omens — you no doubt picked up on the portent of Billary and Barack’s recent prime time TV buys in the Biggest Little .
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | February 27, 2008

Traveling music

Boston techno hits the road with Zero G
I imagine many Bostonians have a woeful tale or two of a nighttime bus trip to New York for a show that’s gone wrong.
By SUSANNA BOLLE | January 07, 2008

Untrue north

This Compass doesn't point to Pullman
Just as there are many universes in the world of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass (published in Great Britain as Northern Lights ), so there are many movies in this New Line adaptation.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 05, 2007

Californians show impressive grace under pressure

Golden state
Many of us haven’t felt a hell of a lot of national pride over the last six or so years.
By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | October 31, 2007

Difficult people

Tom Perrotta keeps his characters company through the bumps and bumbles of American life
As a reader of fiction, at this point in life I’m sort of in my late Imperial phase — a sensationalist, easily distracted, with a vulgar appetite for brilliance.
By JAMES PARKER | October 03, 2007

The Invasion

Another soulless copy
This latest incarnation from Oliver Hirschbiegel also has a lot of anxiety to work with.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 22, 2007

The cult of the Mooninites

Letters to the Boston editor: February 16, 2007
Regarding Harvey Silverglate’s Web post “ The Artists Are Innocent ”: this was not performance art.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | February 14, 2007

JC > TC

Mounting a sermon
"Tom Cruise is the new “Christ” of Scientology, according to leaders of the cult-like religion."
By JOHN SMITH | January 31, 2007

Cheap cheer

The Scrooge – lovers guide to seasonal fun
Why bother caroling when you can spike your eggnog and sing karaoke? Heck, why venture into the windy streets when you can snuggle next to the radiator with a six-pack of cheep beer?
By VANESSA CZARNECKI | December 12, 2006

Is Iraq in a civil war or something indefinably worse?

The debate, although good for America, is irrelevant to Iraq
The Today Show ’s Matt Lauer, as easy going a news guy as exists on television, nonetheless finds himself a catalyst of controversy for the second time in 18 months.
By EDITORIAL | November 29, 2006

Kids’ stuff

A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant ; Exceptions to Gravity
As the world’s most famous Scientologist honeymoons in the Maldives, junior-bird-man havoc is being wreaked on Tom Cruise’s ideology of choice.
By CAROLYN CLAY | November 28, 2006

Life, examined

Delving deeper with Mike Daisey
Solo performer Mike Daisey has been described as a cross between Noam Chomsky and Jack Black, Spalding Gray and Robin Williams and — my favorite — “Jackie Gleason meets Franz Kafka.”
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 26, 2006

Learning the hard way

Politics and other mistakes
Barbara Merrill spent the summer demonstrating she’s not qualified to be governor.
By AL DIAMON | September 13, 2006

True Dick?

Looking for fidelity to the cyber-punk master
Philip K. Dick saw into the future, man, the FUTURE. Scanner brained: Richard Linklater animates Philip K. Dick’s Darkly . By Peter Keough A slacker darkly: Why Dick likes Dick. By Peter Keough
By JAMES PARKER | July 05, 2006

Flashbacks: June 2, 2006

The Boston Phoenix has been covering the trends and events that shape our times since 1966.
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Jessica Coughlin and Sam MacLaughlin.
By EDITORIAL | May 31, 2006

Alchemical ascendancy

Into the heart of Tool’s darkness
Maynard James Keenan, to borrow an observation made about the young William Burroughs, has the face of a sheep-killing dog — taut, starved, bleakly symmetrical, with an underhang of menace.
By JAMES PARKER | May 17, 2006