Michael John Rinder (; April 10, 1955 – January 5, 2025) was an Australian and American former senior executive of the Church of Scientology International (CSI) and Sea Org based in the United States. From 1982 to 2007, Rinder was on the board of directors of CSI and also held the post of executive director of its Office of Special Affairs, overseeing the corporate, legal and public relations matters of Scientology at the international level.
Rinder left Scientology in 2007. Since then he talked about the physical and mental abuse inflicted upon staff members by the leader of Scientology, David Miscavige, and by Rinder himself before his departure from the organization. He also stated that abuse was embedded into the culture of Scientology. From 2016 to 2019, he co-hosted the Emmy Award-winning A&E documentary series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. In 2020, he and Remini reunited to launch the podcast Scientology: Fair Game. In September 2022, he published a memoir titled A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology.
Rinder was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on April 10, 1955, to Ian and Barbara Rinder. When he was 5 years old, his parents became interested in Scientology and the family began attending the Church of Scientology International center in Australia.
In a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone, Rinder said he had experienced discrimination in Australia during the period when the state of Victoria had banned Scientology: "You couldn't own Scientology books ... If you did, you had to hide them because if the police came and found them, they'd take them away."
After finishing high school, at age 18 Rinder joined Sea Org on the ship Apollo, then headquarters for Sea Org and for Scientology. He became an early member of the Commodore's Messenger Organization and rapidly rose in rank to head of the Office of Special Affairs.
As executive director of the Office of Special Affairs (OSA), Rinder was the chief spokesperson and representative of Scientology to the media for 25 years until he was replaced by Tommy Davis as spokesperson in 2005 under orders from David Miscavige. This office is responsible for overseeing public relations and legal issues for the church, as well as handling "internal investigations into members' behavior."
In a 2016 Rolling Stone recap of the second episode of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, Rinder said of his position:
If the Church decided someone was an enemy and needed to be silenced or destroyed, it was my job and I did it ... Everything from following them 24 hours a day to having people camped outside their door, to being vilified on the internet, to following them wherever they traveled, I was the guy [that did it].
Rinder cited specific examples of this duty, saying that he personally traveled to London to prevent journalist John Sweeney, presenter of the film Scientology and Me, from attending a movie premiere and to attempt to "discredit Sweeney in any way that he could".
After years of abuse, including beatings from Miscavige and his enforcers, and being put in The Hole for over two years, Rinder "was suddenly pulled from his prison and sent on [a] mission to London to defend the Church against John Sweeney's film", Scientology and Me, in March 2007. He defended Scientology leader David Miscavige, but Miscavige was unhappy that Rinder was unable to stop the documentary from being shown. As a result, Rinder "was to report to the church's facility in Sussex, and dig ditches" and then was to be allowed to return to the United States.
Rinder stated that his moment of clarity came in a confrontation with the filmmaker, which was recorded on video. In the exchange, he denied Sweeney's allegation that he had been abused by Miscavige and was instructed by him to deny it happened. Rinder realized afterwards that Sweeney's allegation about him was true and he was unable to rationalize why he was denying it. Afterwards, instead of reporting to Sussex, he decided to leave Scientology.
Rinder went to Virginia and told Scientology officials that he wanted to speak to his wife and also wanted his possessions. He did not speak to his wife, but was sent a FedEx package with a check for $5,000. His family photos were not sent. Rinder's official biography has since been removed from the official Scientology website.
After leaving Scientology, Rinder relocated to Denver, Colorado, and initially did not intend to speak out against the organization; in 2009, when the St. Petersburg Times first asked him for an interview, he declined. However, a month later, two Washington-based Scientology lawyers went to his home unannounced, informed Rinder that they knew about the newspaper's visit and asked what he had revealed. According to Rinder, this incident was another moment of clarity, because he realized he was now being subjected to Scientology's practice of fair game intimidation and harassment despite declining to speak out. He decided to do the interview with the St. Petersburg Times, and said he was speaking out because "I don't want people to continue to be hurt and tricked and lied to." He spoke about Scientology's management and the repeated abuse that he gave as well as received, and the interviews became part of the paper's "The Truth Rundown" special issue.
From then on, Rinder gave numerous interviews to journalists and participated in several documentaries about Scientology. In March 2010, he again confirmed allegations of abuse within Scientology to CNN's Anderson Cooper on Anderson Cooper 360°. On September 28, 2010, he appeared on The Secrets of Scientology broadcast by the BBC series Panorama. In 2015, he appeared in the HBO documentary entitled Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief by Alex Gibney which is based on the book by Lawrence Wright. Along with Leah Remini, Rinder co-hosted the A&E documentary series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. He published a memoir in September 2022 titled A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology.
His intimate knowledge about the organization, both as a Sea Org member for 46 years and as head of OSA for 25 years, was a revelation about the organization to the world. Rinder discussed how OSA responds to critics of Scientology and stated that several events in the history of Scientology rocked the organization: the death of L. Ron Hubbard in 1986, the discovery of Operation Snow White, the rise of the Internet in the 1990s, the mobile revolution of the 2000s and the rise of social media in the 2010s. These events made it difficult for Scientology to attract new followers and retain current adherents and resulted in the Church of Scientology taking increasingly more draconian measures to ensure its survival.
According to Rinder, Scientology's two principal weapons against critics within the organization are Auditing and Disconnection. Initially, auditing was meant to be a form of counseling (for which members pay over $500 per hour) to obtain the spiritual benefits of Scientology but by the time of his departure, he stated the practice had degenerated into a tool for interrogation and mind control. Non-compliant members are labelled "suppressive persons" and disconnected from by other members of Scientology, including family members.
The device used during auditing, called an E-meter, has a disclaimer on it that says "it does nothing by itself" but members are told that it functions like a lie detector. Mike Rinder, Mark Rathbun, Marc and Claire Headley state that auditing sessions are secretly recorded, including ones with secrets about Tom Cruise and initially were forms of spiritual counseling. That changed due to the reaction by many early Scientologists to the Xenu origin of man story found in OT III. They balked at it and began leaving Scientology and encouraged others to do so as well. According to Rinder, this is where the term "suppressive person" originated from.
Rinder also stated that the prophecy of Hubbard's messiah-like return after death to prevent an apocalyptic alien invasion in OT VIII (released in 1988, two years after his death) garnered a similar response, prompting many high-ranking Scientologists to leave the organization as a result. According to Rinder, virtually all of the executives, himself included, had rejected both of the above-mentioned Scientological tenets, however they nevertheless continued to train parishioners to accept them as true.