Ronald Miscavige Sr., the father of Scientology leader David Miscavige, has agreed to write an expected scathing tell-all chronicle about his son and his Church of Scientology beliefs and practices created by American author L. Ron Hubbard.
The book, to be published by St. Martin’s Press, will be titled If He Dies, He Dies – an alleged snarky comment made by David when he was advised his father may be suffering from a heart ailment.
Writes the Hollywood Reporter: “The title refers to a story in an April 8 Los Angeles Times article that revealed David Miscavige had put his father under surveillance because he had grown estranged from the church and his son. When one investigator saw Ron grab his chest in an apparent heart attack, he called his Scientology employers to see if he should intervene. David personally called him back and said, ‘If he dies, he dies.’”
The 79-year-old Miscavige formally disassociated himself from the Church of Scientology back in 2012, and has since been reportedly estranged from his son David, 55.
Miscavige Sr. introduced his son to Scientology when he was a boy. In 1971 the family formally joined the church and eventually moved to the world headquarters in Saint Hill Manor, England.
Since Hubbard’s death in 1986, David Miscavige has been the ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion.
The Los Angeles Times article revealed that Miscavige Jr. hired two investigators and paid them $10,000 per week to “spy” on his father for over a year. That will most certainly be discussed in the book, which is expected to touch on some of the same deconstructions as revealed in the 2015 HBO documentary film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.
Since word of the book deal broke, the notoriously litigious Church of Scientology released a statement, denying the incident that led to the book’s official title, and stating that David has always cared for his father.
“Mr. Miscavige has always taken care of his father and continues to do so. Beyond that, as a matter of policy, neither the Church nor Mr. Miscavige comments on members of his family. The Church knows nothing beyond media reports about any purported book,” Scientology spokesman Karen Pouw wrote.
As for the book title, Pouw wrote:
“As for the purported emergency incident involving an investigator and the second-hand account of an alleged conversation containing a despicably false quote, Mr. Miscavige’s attorney, Michael Lee Hertzberg, is on record stating that Mr. Miscavige does not know the investigator, has never heard of the investigator, has never met the investigator, has never spoken to the investigator, never hired the investigator and never directed any investigations by him. So let me be clear: No such conversation with Mr. Miscavige ever took place and any claim that one did is provable bull***t.”
Since assuming a leadership role in the peculiar religion, David Miscavige successfully lobbied to make the Church of Scientology an exempt entity and a recognized religion – resulting in an enormous amassing of wealth.
Adds the Daily Mail: “This isn’t the first time that Miscavige has been hit with a damning tell-all. In 2013, his niece Jenna Miscavige Hill wrote her own memoir of her time in the secretive religion called Beyond Belief. Miscavige’s family life has been a source of great mystery for those outside the church. David’s own wife, Shelly Miscavige, hasn’t been seen in public since August 2007, with fears that she could be somewhere held against her will.”
The tell-all book is set to be released sometime next spring.
This article is reposted with the author’s permission from examiner.com.
“David Miscavige – Portrait” by Scientology Media – Flickr: David Miscavige – Portrait. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
