When I was living in Chicago, I remember reading about a government organization there which monitors Cult activity in the US. The agency lists the Church of Scientology as a (non-dangerous)cult because you have to pay money to go up the ranks of enlightenment (There is a separate category for dangerous cults)
The person who runs the organization was the subject of the article. She mentioned that many 'Stealth' Scientologist member tried to apply for a job in that office- Perhaps these people want to sabotage some of the records in the office.
Now this was several years ago I read this article so I don't know if this government agency still exists.
EDIT: Here is something interesting!!
Apparently it was called the CAN (Cult Awareness Network).
The CAN filed for bankruptcy and the Scientologist took over the organzation (that is if this Wikipedia entry is valid)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_Awareness_Network
Here is the entry for the CAN when I rememebered it:
The CAN predecessor, CFF, was founded in the wake of the 1978
Jonestown mass suicides, and was run for a time by
Patricia Ryan, the daughter of US Congressman
Leo J. Ryan (D-
Millbrae, California), who died from gunfire while investigating conditions at the
Jonestown cult compound in
Guyana. CAN evolved out of the Citizens Freedom Foundation, of which
Ted Patrick was "the prime force in organizing."
[5] The organization was originally headquartered in
Chicago, Illinois. The "Old CAN" collected information on many controversial organizations and religious movements. Actor
Mike Farrell was one of the members of the board of advisors of the "Old CAN", and Dr.
Edward Lottick served as president.
[6][7] In 1990, the Cult Awareness Network established the "John Gordon Clark Fund", in honor of
psychiatrist John G. Clark, who had given testimony about Scientology and other groups.
[8][9] The fund was established to assist former members of
destructive cults.
[9] By 1991, the Cult Awareness Network had twenty-three chapters dedicated to monitoring two hundred groups that it referred to as: "mind control cults."
[10]
The "Old CAN" also became the subject of controversy.
Galen Kelly and Donald Moore, both of whom were convicted in the course of carrying out '
deprogramming', are linked to the "Old CAN" by detractors
Anson Shupe and Susan E. Darnell.
[11] Opponents of the "Old CAN" charge that it deliberately provided a distorted picture of the groups it tracked. They claimed it was "a Chicago-based national anticult organization claiming to be purely a tax-exempt informational clearinghouse on new religions."
[11] In 1991,
Time magazine quoted then CAN director Cynthia Kisser in its article "
The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power." Kisser stated: "Scientology is quite likely the most ruthless, the most classically terroristic, the most litigious and the most lucrative cult the country has ever seen. No cult extracts more money from its members."
[10] This quote has since been referenced verbatim in other secondary sources discussing Scientology.
[12][13]
After that, Apparently Scientology took over the organization
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