Danny Jorgensen is a professor in the department of religious studies at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He co-authored a chapter on Scientology in World Religions in America: An Introduction.

Mathew N. Schmalz is a professor of religious studies at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He specializes in global Catholicism, the papacy and Catholicism/culture issues in the U.S. He is the founder of the Journal of Global Catholicism and author of Mercy Matters (2015).

David S. Touretzky is a research professor in the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and a longtime Scientology critic. He maintains an extensive collection of Scientology-related websites on his home page. He has given many radio interviews and appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann (twice) and CNN Headline News with Glenn Beck to discuss Scientology.

Courtney Bender is a professor of religious studies at Columbia University and sociologist. She studies new religious movements, religious pluralism and is currently writing about the religion of the future.

Janet Reitman is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, where she wrote an article on Scientology that was a finalist for a 2007 National Magazine Award. Reitman is also the author of Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion.

Frank Flinn is an adjunct professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He has served as a forensic expert on the legal definition of religion, religious organizations, religious finances and various religious controversies, and he has testified concerning Scientology and many other New Religious Movements. Flinn wrote “Scientology: The Marks of Religion,” which examines the […]

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.

Read a May 1991 Time magazine cover story about Scientology. The church took great exception to the article, which went on to receive the Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism, the Worth Bingham Prize and the Conscience in Media Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Article requires log-in and payment to access.