“His smile is one of the best,” gushes a caption on a Dec. 26 video of a younger man with the physique of a light-weight boxer, a sq. jaw, and close-cropped darkish hair. As he stands on Hollywood Boulevard, the person seems to be like nearly every other aspiring mannequin or actor making an attempt to eke out a residing in Los Angeles; the one distinction is his crisply starched white shirt, tie, and vest, which makes him appear like a forged member from the E book of Mormon.
The person within the video, recognized solely as Sebastian, is a member of the Church of Scientology, the extremely controversial spiritual group that many critics have accused of being a cult, an allegation they’ve routinely denied. Sources previously near the church say Sebastian is probably going what is understood locally as a “physique router,” usually a younger, engaging staffer who’s assigned to face exterior the Church of Scientology Info Heart, hand out literature, and invite passersby into the constructing to study extra concerning the church. (Karin Pouw, a world spokesperson for the Church, didn’t reply to questions asking whether or not that is correct.)
Over the previous month, Sebastian has achieved TikTok heartthrob standing. Mockingly, anti-Scientology protesters are partially guilty. For the previous few months, a grassroots motion of Los Angeles-based content material creators have been making an attempt to disrupt foot visitors from vacationers by protesting exterior the Heart. Although Sebastian usually ignores the individuals who have gathered there — as many as 50 at a time — his movie-star attractiveness have led to the creation of varied fan accounts (some ironic, some much less so) and the #FreeSebastian hashtag, primarily based round movies of protesters making an attempt to interact him and persuade him to depart the church. (Pouw denied our request to interview him.)
“Have a look at that smile, he has one of the best smile on the planet,” one protester might be heard saying to an uncomfortably grinning Sebastian in a compilation of footage from the protests, which has practically 18 million views. “We love you, Sebastian,” one other protester says as he’s seen strolling away. “We simply don’t love the cult that you just’re in.”
Based within the early Nineteen Fifties by science-fiction creator L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology — which boasts such high-profile proponents as Tom Cruise and John Travolta — has been scrutinized for many years, with critics accusing it of partaking in prison exercise similar to fraud and human trafficking, in addition to threats and intimidation for anybody who chooses to depart. Former members have accused the Church of committing egregious human rights violations, together with forcing minors to do onerous labor with out compensation and utilizing intense psychological manipulation to regulate its members. (The church has repeatedly denied such claims.)
Although Scientology has lengthy attracted critics, the TikTokers are taking protests towards the church to the subsequent degree, streaming dwell exterior the Hollywood Boulevard location and tussling with cops on a nightly foundation. But some former Scientologists and cult deprogramming consultants query their ways, and even the protesters themselves have expressed concern that their activism is being hijacked by their followers’ obsession with “saving” Sebastian. As a result of commenters are constructing a “parasocial relationship” with him — a time period used to explain intense emotional funding in social media influencers — they fear it might be distracting from the objective of disrupting church recruitment, and even be working towards the motion.
“Sebastian’s the most effective recruiters on the Boulevard,” says Jessica Palmadessa, a content material creator with greater than one million followers, who says she has been protesting the Heart nearly each evening for the previous two months. “He’s luring individuals into this cult each single day. So on the finish of the day, everyone knows Sebastian’s not going to be saved. We need to save others from Sebastian.”
The Hollywood Boulevard protests had been began by William Gude, an L.A.-based activist who runs the LAPD watchdog web page @FilmThePoliceLA. Gude tells Rolling Stone his curiosity within the church was sparked by an altercation he had with a safety guard exterior the Heart final April. “I stated, ‘I’m going to finish your faith,’” Gude remembers. “And he simply form of laughed at me.” He determined to begin TikTok and YouTube accounts that might dwell stream exterior the Heart, bringing consciousness to what he characterizes because the misleading ways Scientologists use to lure vacationers into the church.
Since then, Gude has been stationed exterior, taunting staffers and warning vacationers by yelling at them, “es una secta” (“it’s a cult” in Spanish). In a few of the movies, staffers retaliate by launching advert hominem assaults at Gude or the opposite protesters. In a single, a staffer is seen taunting him for the loss of life of his 22-year-old son, who was killed in a drive-by taking pictures in 2021, falsely alleging that he “died in a gang struggle” and saying that Gude “ought to have been a greater father.”
In an e-mail alternate with Rolling Stone, Pouw referred to Gude as “a harmful particular person who has a prison file.” Gude has been arrested quite a few instances, together with a 2021 arrest for allegedly threatening a homeless man (prosecutors later declined to file costs), and was convicted for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine when he was 19 years outdated. He confirmed all of those costs to Rolling Stone, laughing off Pouw’s description of him. “I like the truth that they’re that determined,” he says.
Palmadessa characterizes the motion as an effort to unfold consciousness about Scientology and forestall vacationers, who she says are largely non-native English audio system, from getting into the constructing. “We’re telling them about it earlier than they hear from the recruiters the lies that they inform,” she says.
However whereas Palmadessa and Gude say the motion is meant to construct consciousness of the church’s alleged transgressions, even a few of Scientology’s critics argue it runs the danger of getting out of hand. They’ve expressed concern about a few of the ways utilized by the protesters, in addition to some commenters’ deal with “saving” Sebastian.
“The thought of residents wanting to assist somebody in a cult is nice. I’m fearful on TikTok it’s form of clickbait-y,” says Steven Hassan, PhD, a licensed psychological well being counselor specializing in cults and the creator of Combatting Cult Thoughts Management. “I’m fearful about individuals utilizing this poor one that shouldn’t be asking to be an web movie star and invading his life.” He refers to a few of the ways utilized by road protesters as “disrespectful and counterproductive.”
Pouw has categorised the marketing campaign as “selling harassing spiritual employees who’re making an attempt to do their jobs.” (Scientology was granted tax-exempt spiritual group standing by the IRS in 1993.) She characterizes it as a part of a latest wave of “anti-religious bigotry,” claiming the Heart has needed to ramp up safety and has known as the police quite a few instances on protesters for trespassing and harassment.
Gude and Palmadessa deny that any of the protesters have resorted to bodily intimidation or damaged any legal guidelines throughout altercations with Scientology employees members, and that they keep exterior of the constructing. “The cops have just about been there each single evening for weeks,” says Palmadessa. “They arrive, they actually say, ‘they’re doing nothing flawed,’ we are able to peacefully protest all we wish, and so they go away. We’re not doing something unlawful.” Gude additionally alleges that members of the church have adopted him and used intimidation ways, alleging in a single police report filed in December {that a} safety guard had knocked his cellphone out of his hand whereas he was filming.
The church denies that it has harassed or threatened anybody, saying it has made practically a dozen police experiences towards the protesters, accusing them of constructing a number of violent threats, together with a bomb risk on Jan. 8. (Gude and Palmadessa strongly deny this; the LAPD didn’t instantly reply to a number of requests for remark.) Staffers have additionally taken to taking part in fashionable music on the radio, which Gude believes is a manner for the church to forestall them from posting movies that includes potential copyright violations. “They’re so used to individuals being afraid of talking out towards them, that now after we communicate out towards them, they go to extremes,” he says.
On TikTok, the main target has largely been on one particular person Scientologist, Sebastian, making some uncomfortable. Liz Gale, a former third-generation Scientologist and creator of the memoir Confessions of an Ex-Scientologist Pothead, says that whereas she appreciates that it’s drawing consideration to the allegations towards the Church, Sebastian’s newfound fame is probably going placing him in “a really robust place” throughout the Church.
“No matter he does, goes to replicate on Scientology,” she says. “So that they’re going to place as a lot management on him as doable.” She is worried that senior officers might topic Sebastian to in depth “auditing” (a means of rigorous questioning that’s on the heart of Scientology) on account of the eye, she says. (Pouw didn’t handle particular questions on whether or not staffers similar to Sebastian have been retaliated towards internally as the results of their TikTok fame.)
Gude additionally has attracted some criticism for mocking or harassing the recruiters of their content material, giving staffers varied nicknames primarily based on their bodily attributes similar to “R2D2” or “Lurch.” Hassan says such ways could result in Church members turning into much more dedicated to the church than earlier than. “The extra individuals assault you, the extra it confirms your programming that the skin world is ignorant and evil,” he says. “Individuals is not going to go away a thoughts management cult as a result of they’re ridiculed or attacked.”
However Palmadessa says that argument is lacking the purpose. The protests aren’t about “saving the recruiters,” she says. “That is about spreading consciousness to most people and stopping individuals on the road from being in the identical place.”
Certainly, although Sebastian’s unlikely stardom has undeniably drawn consideration to the protests, each Palmadessa and Gude expressed discomfort with the truth that there was a lot deal with him and the supposed particulars of his life. As commenters commerce rumors about Sebastian, Gude is worried that the depth of the narratives swirling round Sebastian might detract from the motion.
“They’ve created their very own fantasies about why he’s there and why he doesn’t need to be there, and the way they’ve to assist him. It’s actually unhealthy,” he says. “I’ve seen individuals actually seize him and say, ‘I’m going to avoid wasting you.’ That’s bizarre stuff. Lots of people are kind of uncontrolled to the purpose the place they appear to be cult members.” Palmadessa agrees, noting that many individuals in her feedback obsessively decode his physique language or unfold conspiracy theories about him, a degree of curiosity she finds each disturbing and detrimental to the activists’ trigger.
This dynamic is made all of the more odd by the truth that Sebastian has no direct involvement on this narrative. Although he does, at varied factors, interact immediately with content material creators on digicam, he’s extra continuously seen turning his again to the protesters or ignoring them. Certainly, in lots of the movies, church staffers argue that the protesters haven’t obtained their consent to movie them, although legally talking such consent shouldn’t be required whereas filming in public, a problem that has come up repeatedly when discussing viral movies involving unwitting contributors on TikTok.
When requested how Sebastian feels about random TikTokers’ affection for him, Pouw bristled towards the concept that the TikTok movies constituted something however harassment. “What you name ‘affection’ is the hate speech of a member of a hate group who professes to need to ‘cease individuals from Sebastian’ and ‘cancel him out,’” she says. “Don’t faux in any other case.” (Hassan refutes the concept that Scientology is a respectable faith and that criticism of it or protests of any sort represent a “hate” marketing campaign. “They use spiritual freedom as a cloak, when in reality they’re violating their members’ human rights,” he says.)
What’s plain is that, because the protest motion has grown and the Heart has turn out to be a de facto vacation spot for TikTokers, it has turn out to be considerably extra chaotic. On Jan. 4, Palmadessa made a TikTok calling out children who joined her on her Stay exterior the constructing: “99 p.c of them had been nice however there have been a number of that needed to behave like clowns,” she stated, exhibiting footage of a child banging on the wall repeatedly or ripping fliers off the wall regardless of warnings to not contact the constructing.
“For the youngsters working after Sebastian hugging him and making an attempt to take photographs with him, you guys want to comprehend he’s a cult member, not a star, and he is not going to hesitate to name the cops on you,” she stated, concluding, “Respectfully, don’t come again.”
Regardless of this, Gude says the motion has largely confirmed efficient. Although the Heart was beforehand a bustling locus of exercise, it’s now principally empty, he says, with staffers repeatedly closing up early as a result of chaos brought on by protesters. In accordance with Gale, that is doubtless having a robust unfavourable impact on the Scientology staffers themselves, who she says are tasked with fulfilling “quotas” for individuals they bring about into the constructing. “All of them look depressing. That’s actually the objective,” Gude says. “We’re all glad that they give the impression of being depressing. We take nice delight in the truth that all of them look depressing.”
In some ways, the TikTok anti-Scientology motion is remarkably well-timed: within the midst of a high-profile lawsuit filed by former member Leah Remini, in addition to allegations of harassing girls who accused former That 70s Present star and Scientologist Danny Masterson of rape, the Church is presently present process one of the vital tumultuous intervals in its historical past. (Masterson was convicted on two rape costs in Might and sentenced to 30 years to life in jail; the Church has strongly denied harassing his accusers, calling such claims “completely false.”)
“They’re actually hurting for recruits, desperately, as a result of the general public has been taught about this group with books, former members and lawsuits,” says Hassan. (Pouw refuted this characterization, saying that the church “has been experiencing a renaissance during the last decade with better enlargement than within the earlier 60 years mixed.”)
Now, the target of the TikTok protests is to harm the Church much more. Palmadessa needs to proceed the motion at facilities throughout Los Angeles, advocating to native and nationwide politicians for the church’s tax-exempt standing to be revoked; the protesters additionally need to increase the motion to different Facilities throughout the nation, as a manner of completely disabling the church’s capability to draw new members.
As for the destiny of members like Sebastian, Gude and Palmadessa say that’s finally secondary to the better objective. “These are grown individuals. All of them make selections,” Gude says. “My objective is to not have assured salespeople. My objective is to have demoralized salespeople. I would like them to turn out to be much less efficient. And I’m not prepared to sacrifice the subsequent household [that may come into the Center], simply because I’m fearful about Sebastian and what could or could not occur to him.”
Palmadessa agrees: “They’re positively victims,” she says. “However they’ll’t simply preserve making extra individuals victims.”
