David Miscavige

David Miscavige’s Extraordinary Work

Just as Scientology is a truly unique, contemporary religion, David Miscavige is a truly unique, contemporary religious leader.

In fact, Mr. Miscavige has redefined the term religious leader to fit the tasks necessary to direct the only major religion to emerge in the 20th century, one which has achieved an unprecedented level of expansion in the 21st century and today includes some 11,000 Churches, Missions and affiliated groups across 167 nations.

Under Mr. Miscavige’s stewardship, Scientology has touched millions of lives through Church-supported Social Betterment and humanitarian programs and the religion’s multilingual, multigenerational message of peace, hope and goodwill.

As history demonstrates, the true test of any religion is to survive the passing of its Founder. Following Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard’s passing in 1986, it was Mr. Miscavige who steered the religion through many challenging times and secured its survival by obtaining full religious recognition in the United States and ushering Scientology onto the global stage.

David Miscavige’s Work to Obtain Full Religious Recognition in the United States

In October 1993, the Church of Scientology International—the Mother Church of the Scientology religion—and more than 150 affiliated Churches, Missions and Social Reform Organizations in the United States were recognized as fully tax-exempt religious organizations by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

For nearly half a century, the Church of Scientology had battled the IRS to be free from IRS harassment and to attain exemption from taxation—a privilege afforded all religions in America. It was finally David Miscavige who bypassed all bureaucracy and personally met with the Commissioner of the IRS to initiate an objective tax-exemption procedure in 1991.

Dealing with the IRS and enabling them to finally see the true picture after relying on false reports for over 40 years was nothing short of astonishing. But with Mr. Miscavige passionately and forthrightly presenting the truth about the Scientology religion and its operation to IRS officials, it was accomplished.

Any and all pending lawsuits and litigation were resolved as part of the process that resulted in the exemption rulings.

David Miscavige’s Work to End Religious Persecution and Champion Freedom of Religion

Thanks to David Miscavige’s leadership, the Church has not only achieved an unprecedented level of expansion, but has secured victory after victory in terms of recognition of the Scientology religion—every one of them a victory for religious freedom itself.

By way of example, David Miscavige has secured official recognition of the religion by governments and courts in the United Kingdom, Colombia and Mexico, as well as in Panama, the Netherlands and Greece.

Reflecting on that fight for freedom of religion worldwide at the Ruby Anniversary Celebration of the International Association of Scientologists (IAS), Mr. Miscavige shared L. Ron Hubbard’s famous words: “Constant and continual alertness is the price of freedom. Constant willingness to fight back is the price of freedom. There is no other price, actually.”

And as one member of STAND, the Scientology anti-discrimination league, put it: “I don’t know of anyone who has fought harder for religious freedom than David Miscavige.”

David Miscavige’s Spearheading of Scientology’s Global Humanitarian Initiatives

L. Ron Hubbard long held that spiritual freedom both contributes to and stems from a belief in the brotherhood of Man. From precisely this vantage point, David Miscavige has spearheaded global humanitarian programs including the Truth About Drugs, one of the world’s largest nongovernmental drug education and prevention campaigns; the Church-sponsored worldwide human rights education campaign, promoting the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and Scientology Volunteer Ministers, who provide disaster relief in every corner of the globe.

To fulfill the overwhelming demand for these programs, Mr. Miscavige oversaw the establishment of the Scientology Dissemination and Distribution Center. It provides informational and educational materials for Church-sponsored humanitarian initiatives, all of which are made freely available in over a dozen languages.

In these, and a myriad of other ways, Mr. Miscavige is realizing L. Ron Hubbard’s intention to provide the broad-scale help Mankind so urgently needs. In the process, he has provided worldwide humanitarian programs that Scientologists are immensely proud to support.

Accordingly, at the annual Anniversary Weekend of the International Association of Scientologists, Mr. Miscavige presents the accomplishments of these IAS-sponsored humanitarian initiatives across the globe.

Mr. Miscavige continues working on a daily basis to achieve the religion’s humanitarian objectives of a drug-free, crime-free world where human rights are a reality, as envisioned by L. Ron Hubbard.

David Miscavige’s Plans for the Coming Year and the Future of Scientology

As a leader who turns vision into decisive action every day, David Miscavige continues to carry forth L. Ron Hubbard’s legacy into the future.

Mr. Miscavige does this through his work to guarantee the growth and expansion of Scientology internationally; ensure that the Scripture of Scientology is true to the Founder’s original writings; make Scientology broadly available to people of all walks of life the world over; create Ideal Scientology Church Organizations on six continents; spearhead the religion’s global humanitarian programs; and secure official recognitions of the religion by governments and courts around the world.