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.

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.

Read an ABC transcript of a 1992 interview between Ted Koppel and David Miscavige. The interview was said to be the first ever granted by the Scientology leader.

Read a Nov. 1, 2007, CNN story about two Christian pastors embracing elements of Scientology for their congregations.

Read a June 21, 2009, article from the Tampa Bay Times on the Church of Scientology’s response to allegations made by some of its former members.

The Tampa Bay Times published a three-part series on the Church of Scientology in June 2009. Read the first installment, published June 21, 2009.

Scientology volunteer minister centers in specific regions can be located and contacted through this website.

Church locations worldwide, their contact information and links to their websites can be found on this map.

A Sept. 20, 2004, article in the Deseret News reported that the church claimed to have 4 million adherents in the U.S. and 8 million to 9 million worldwide.