This was a great podcast episode.
In Episode 3 of Leah Remini and Mike Rinder’s Scientology Fair Game Podcast, they interview Richard Behar, the investigative journalist who wrote “Scientology The Cult of Greed and Power” for TIME magazine back in the early 90’s.
Why was this such a great podcast? Because in this podcast, for the first time, Mike Rinder switched his pronouns.
Mike Rinder’s Use of Pronouns When Talking About Scientology Fair Game
When talking to his victims on his TV Show, Rinder always said, ‘THEY did this to you’, or ‘SCIENTOLOGY did that to you’. This has allowed Mike Rinder to distance himself from his victims and to hide in silence while his victims continued to suffer. It allowed him to play the whistleblower hero while not getting himself dirty. But it also allowed him to say nothing to his victims that would give them the truth of what was done to them.
Mike, in this podcast, finally switched his pronouns and said “I did this to you.” “And WE did this to you.”
That is a huge difference. It’s something that I think Mike is not going to be able to avoid in upcoming podcasts, and I applaud him for making this shift in his pronouns.
Mike Rinder’s Bean Theory of Truth and Reconciliation With His Victims
Watching Mike Rinder very closely for the last 13 years since he supposedly left the Church of Scientology, it is clear that he has applied a policy that can be expressed as: You only spend your beans where you get more beans back.
This comes from a policy in the Finance Series by L. Ron Hubbard advising Scientologists where they should spend their money. If your dollars are like beans, then if you spend your beans in areas where you get fewer beans back, you go broke. But if you only spend your beans where you get more beans back, you profit.
For 13 years, I’ve witnessed Mike Rinder applying this Scientology bean theory of finance to the bean theory of Truth and Reconciliation for his victims of Scientology Fair Game: He only spends his beans telling victims what was done to them where he will get more beans back.
Having someone with Richard Behar’s stature on his podcast got him much more beans back for any truth and reconciliation he had to spend. So it was worth switching pronouns for Richard Behar.
For Miriam Francis and Saina Kamula and others of less stature or importance?
Not so much.
The overwhelming majority of Mike Rinder’s Scientology Fair Game victims are going to be a net loss for Mike Rinder. They’re just not important enough, and they have very little to return to him in exchange for his telling them the truth. So he’s not going to do anything about those. This means there will be no truth and reconciliation for the majority of Mike Scientology fair game victims.
That’s what I’ve observed from Mike Rinder for 13 years. The truth and reconciliation of Mike Rinder’s Scientology Fair Game did not require a TV show. It did not even require a blog. It required Mike Rinder to do what he needed to do for his victims, and to come clean about he did to them.
Mike Rinder as the Redemptive Hero
A lot of people believe that Mike Rinder is a hero for what he is doing. They love the whole idea of the redemption story. They love the lost little lamb that has now been found. They love the prodigal son who has now returned. They love the whole repentance thing, and they believe that Mike Rinder has repented from the error of his old Scientology ways.
They look at anybody like me who has watched him for 13 years since he’s been out, and who has a lot of criticism for him for what I’ve seen while watching closely. They believe I’m a ‘Scientologist’, or “doing the work of Scientology” or some kind of a paid OSA agent.
No.
The vast majority of Mike Rinder’s victims still don’t know what Marty, Mike and Dave did to them. Mike has been out for 13 years and now made a lot of money now telling fair game stories that HE CAUSED. There are still 100s of victims of Scientology Fair Game – Mike’s personal victims of Fair Game – who not only is Mike not telling them what was done to them, but in some cases, he is still fair gaming them to this day.
So sorry. I know that Mike Rinder’s not a hero. And to call him one while his victims still suffer, still don’t know what was done to them is not right, nor just.
Maybe Mike Rinder can become a hero. But he’s certainly not one yet.
Maybe Mike and Leah can do a podcast on all the victims for whom it is not advantageous for Mike Rinder to provide them the truth of what was done to them.
Who are the victims of Scientology fair game that Mike has not reached out to and told them what was done to them?
You don’t need to apologize, Mike. You just need to tell them the truth of what was done to them, like a cult truth and reconciliation commission.
Richard Behar was a great start. Good on switching your pronouns.
Now, do the rest.
After 13 years and three seasons of a TV Show?
It’s time.