Ex-Scientologists Say San Francisco Apostate's Graphs Are Legit

Experts say they look like the real deal.

​In a blog posted by our sister paper, the Village Voice, two former high-ranking Scientologists say the statistics that a self-professed San Francisco Church of Scientology member claimed to have smuggled out of the church's trash bin appear to be real.

The church's president, Jeff Quiros, told us they were fake. But Voice Editor-In-Chief Tony Ortega -- who's been chronicling the "Top 25 People Crippling Scientology" on the paper's blog -- interviewed Jefferson Hawkins, who formerly ran Scientology's marketing campaigns and oversaw such stats from Scientology churches across the country.

Hawkins said "the graphs are credible -- all of the names of statistics and the acronyms used are correct ... it would take a very knowledgeable insider many hours to even attempt such a fabrication ... What they show is a relatively small organization that is struggling to get by, with few staff, few public and little income."

Ortega also talked to Mike Rinder, the chief spokesman for the Church of Scientology before he defected in 2007. Rinder agreed that "those graphs look authentic." As to San Francisco org's president Quiros telling SF Weekly the graphs were cooked up, Rinder said, "Jeff Quiros has to say they are forged because they show such a dismal picture of the wondrous [Scientology leader David] Miscavige 'Ideal Org'...."

Rinder also hypothesized, "I bet there is a FRANTIC search ongoing in the S.F. Org to try and find out who is leaking this stuff. Jeff Quiros is in deep shit right about now. And there has probably been an order out to every org to shred copies of all graphs in case more of them escape."

Well, it seems to lend more credibility to ethicstrouble, the apostate who has talked with SF Weekly at length. This week on the blog, we'll be sharing more of what ethicstrouble has to say about the San Francisco church they still attend this week on our blog.

Follow us on Twitter at @SFWeekly and @TheSnitchSF