John Duignan is co-author of The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology (2008). He says he is a former high-ranking member of the church. Amazon’s United Kingdom branch stopped selling Duignan’s book after receiving a claim that it libeled a church member; the publisher, Merlin Publishing, has denied that.

Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi is a psychology professor emeritus at the University of Haifa in Israel. His areas of expertise include the psychology of religion. He wrote an article titled “Scientology: Religion or racket?” that was published in September 2003 by the Marburg Journal of Religion.

Karin Pouw is international spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International. Contact through the website.

The nonprofit Religious Technology Center was established in 1982 to “preserve, maintain and protect the Scientology religion.” The center guards against improper use of Scientology’s religious symbols and technologies and has final ecclesiastical authority regarding their application, but it is not involved in routine church matters. Its international headquarters are in Los Angeles. David Miscavige has been […]

The Rev. Jana Drakka is a senior Zen Buddhist priest, calligrapher and community activist. She provides meditation, memorials and harm reduction groups for marginally housed people and those who work with them in San Francisco. She also advocates for the rights of those living in poverty.

Karen Dudley is the founder and senior pastor of Dallas International Street Church, a nondenominational church of homeless people in Dallas.

Susan Grettenberger is social work program director at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich. She has done research for the Aspen Institute on the involvement of religious groups in providing social services. She also has done research for the for The Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy comparing secular and faith-based providers of […]

Diane Nilan of Naperville, Ill., is a former shelter director who founded the nonprofit group Hear Us, to allow the voices of homeless children and youth to be heard. In 2005, Nilan sold her home and set off across the country to interview more than 70 homeless children and teenagers in 16 states, mostly in […]

Herbert Kelman is Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Emeritus, in the psychology department at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and co-author of Crimes of Obedience: Toward a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility.