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This is a short guide on how to contact your government officials.

[edit] Advice On Writing Your Letter

• It's best to send it in a physical copy, rather than an email
• It's a good idea to personalize it a bit. Say something positive or compliment them on a position they took, a bill they passed, or something they did that you agreed with. They eat that shit up.

Find your senator at this link:http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

Find your state's representatives here: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml

Click on your senator or representative's name to learn more about recent bills they have sponsored and be sure and mention them by name in your letter.

• When you say that you feel a certain way, also state that you know many people who you work with and/or are friends with that feel the same way
• Keep them relatively short and to the point - if they drag on for several pages, chances are their interns and assistants will get bored.

Here area few form letters that I got from the previous thread - I can't take credit for them, but I did give some of them a tweak here and there. If you send in one of these form letters, please personalize it a bit, like I said above. Here they are:

[edit] Form Letter 1 (Long)

Dear Senator or Representative,

I'm writing you today to ask that you revoke the Church of Scientology's tax exempt status. As a concerned voter, I am troubled by the Church of Scientology. Their activities and operating procedures are not in line with what the United States historically considers to be a religion.

- They require payment before allowing members to view their religious texts and participate in church-mandated "auditing," rather than soliciting voluntary donations as most mainstream churches. Those who do not have the money to pay for this participation are required to work for the church in exchange for its services, paid at a rate far below that of even undocumented laborers. Former members have reported that members as young as twelve years old are taken out of school and required to work long hours to pay for their own and their parents' religious education. This is against child labor laws, not to mention our society’s morals and ethics.

- They legally prosecute anyone who speaks out against them or reveals their religious materials. Their founder, L. Ron Hubbard, said that he considers the purpose of the courts not to seek justice, but to destroy people financially, mentally, and emotionally. L. Ron Hubbard said that the object of a lawsuit is not to win but to bring about ruin.

- Under their policy of “Fair Game,” any person declared a “Suppressive Person” (anyone that doesn’t believe in Scientology) “may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.” Critics of the church and former members are subjected to stalking, harassment, physical attacks, libel and slander. These tactics are official church policy, well documented, and continue to this day despite what CoS spokespeople claim.

- Members are required to cut all ties with non-Scientologist friends and family members. This is their well-documented policy of “disconnection.” Likewise, members who leave the religion are ostracized by former friends, family members, even spouses and children.

- Information gained by the church from its members during "auditing," which is similar to the Catholic practice of confession, is used to blackmail members into remaining in the church and keeping quiet about its practices.

- Many high-ranking members of the church participated in "Operation Snow White," the largest infiltration of the United States government in our history. Their aim was to suppress unfavorable information about the church in official records, obtain tax-exempt status for the church, and gain confidential information about their enemies. In 1977, an FBI raid of the church revealed information about other conspiracies inside the church to influence the government and persecute the church's detractors.

This is just a short list of the many activities in which Scientology has been proven or suspected to engage in. Their legal status as a church in the United States allows them to operate in a tax-exempt manner, when they operate at best in the manner of a corporation and at worst as a dangerous cult.

Please take action by looking further into the actions of Scientology and its leadership. This group should not be allowed to continue operating in the United States as a church, and should perhaps not be allowed to operate at all.

Sincerely,

Your Name

[edit] Form Letter 2 (Short and Sweet)

[Representative] ___________,

I'm writing you today to ask that you revoke the Church of Scientology's tax exempt status.

In the 1990s, the Church of Scientology (CoS) used blackmail to cow the IRS into recognizing it as a non-profit charitable organization. In truth, the Church of Scientology is a money-making machine -- and a particularly dangerous one at that, with a documented pattern of deception, harassment, spurious litigation and bringing irreparable mental and physical harm upon an unknown number of American men, women, and children.

As evidence of Scientology's threats to democracy, free speech, and the freedom of American citizens continue to come to light, I feel compelled to ask you, as my representative, to treat Scientology as it deserves to be treated: as an increasingly wealthy and dangerous organization that should, at the very least, be required to pay taxes.

Scientology, just like any cult, exists for the simple ends of making money and recruiting new members. It should not get a free pass from the government when it comes to paying taxes on its enormous earnings.

As your constituent, I will be eagerly monitoring the outcome of this letter-writing campaign.

Lastly, I ask that you take extra precautions to keep my name confidential. Scientology has a long history and a written policy of harassing its critics. Under their policy of “Fair Game,” any person declared a “Suppressive Person” (anyone that doesn’t believe in Scientology), “may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.” Critics of the church and former members are routinely subjected to stalking, harassment, physical attacks, libel and slander. These tactics are official church policy, well documented, and continue to this day despite what CoS spokespeople claim.

Sincerely, [name] [city, state]

[edit] Form Letter 3 (Very good, specific version)

To the honorable *name*:

I write you today to ask that you revoke the Church of Scientology's tax-exempt status.

In the 1990's, the organization that calls itself the Church of Scientology intimidated the IRS into declaring it a non-profit charitable organization, through blackmail and a barrage of frivolous lawsuits- 2,200, in fact, until the organization was granted tax-exempt status. Despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision that found that the mandatory, fixed-price fees that the organization charges for training in its own tenets were not tax-deductible for Scientology's followers, the organization itself continues to enjoy tax exempt status. Court documents provide evidence that Scientology is set up more like a multi-level marketing scheme than a religion, with an organizational hierarchy based on how many courses one has paid for and how many recruits one has converted. Furthermore, the profits of this Church are spent in kickbacks for high-level members; to purchase the services of private investigators or fund intelligence operations, including the largest known infiltration of the U.S. Government in history- "Operation Snow White," United States vs. Mary Sue Hubbard et al., 493 F. Supp. 209 (D.D.C. 1979); to fund streams of baseless civil lawsuits against outspoken critics; and to harass and blackmail those who might choose to leave the organization. The actions of the Church of Scientology have already been denounced by the governments of numerous foreign countries, who have recognized it as a not a valid religion, but a manipulative and greedy cult.

As evidence of Scientology's threats to democracy, free speech, and the freedom of American citizens continues to come to light, I feel compelled to ask you, as my representative, to treat Scientology as it deserves to be treated: as an increasingly wealthy and dangerous "self-help" organization that should, at the very least, be required to pay taxes. Media attention to this issue will only continue to grow in the coming weeks and months, and I would be proud to hear your name on a newscast calling for the revocation of the Church of Scientology's tax-exempt status, forcing them to pay back taxes from this period of ill-gotten protection, and perhaps even an investigation into their business practices under the RICO act.

I will be eagerly following your response to this letter and others like it.

Sincerely,

constituent