Evidence · Case 13 · Scientology
Former members Leah Remini and Mike Rinder (public accounts)
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Former members have described the cost from the inside. In her series, Leah Remini, with former church executive Mike Rinder, estimated that reaching the top tiers could run in the area of half a million dollars over time. These are firsthand recollections, not audited totals, so they are best treated as broadly consistent with the scholarly range and not as precise accounting.
Sources
Objections & responses
- Remini and Rinder are the Church’s most prominent and litigious critics, and their television series was adversarial by design. Isn’t citing them for cost figures citing hostile witnesses whose numbers can’t be verified?
Their accounts are firsthand recollections, not audited totals, and they belong below the scholarly estimate for exactly that reason. Their hostility is a reason to weight them lightly. They are included only because their figures fall within the range Urban derived from the Church’s own price lists, which is corroboration rather than the basis of the claim. If you set them aside entirely, the claim stands on Urban.