Shastina Sandman is running in the GOP primary to nominate the Republican candidate for Congress in the 48th District of California. As part of her platform, Shastina opposes the widespread psychiatric drugging of children.
Upon learning of her position on psychiatric medications, Scientology sent in an operative from its notorious front group Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). The operative made it a point to attend a political event he knew Shastina would be attending. There, he gave her a CCHR package of materials.
The CCHR operative never disclosed to he that he was a Scientologist or that CCHR was a part of Scientology. Shastina thereafter discussed and supported CCHR on her podcast. Scientology’s goal is to surreptitiously infiltrate itself into various sectors of society through its front groups.
More information on Scientology’s nefarious front groups is contained in our articles:
How Scientology hooks public officials on its addictive anti-drug front
What Scientology “Social Betterment” Groups are Really All About
It was only when Shastina pressed the CCHR operative about the group’s sources of funding that she learned CCHR was a part of the Church of Scientology. Outraged that she had been misled and lied to by the Church of Scientology, she broke off relations with CCHR.
In the podcast, Shastina also discusses Scientologist Joy Villa and Joy’s foray into politics. Of note is Joy Villa’s insistence that she is a Christian and a Scientologist when, in fact, Scientology does not allow its members to engage in other practices and considers all other religions to be implants. Jeffrey and Shastina also discuss Dr. Sebastian Gorka’s very dim view of Joy Villa.
Shastina Sandman and Jeffrey Augustine at the IE event.
The CCHR agent who meddled in Shastina’s campaign efforts is a long-time Scientologist named Clay Bock. In his 2016 story, VIDEO: City council candidate exposed as Scientology spy in live public hearing, Tony Ortega described how former Scientologist Pauline Lombard outed Clay Bock as a Scientologist who stalked and harassed a Scientology critic. This occured during a Garden Grove City Council meeting. At the time Bock was running for Garden Grove City Council. In the video below we see Pauline describing the harassment she and Bock engaged in at the behest of the Church of Scientology:
In this next video we see Clay Bock stammering and stuttering in reply. Rather than admit he engaged in his harassment, Bock — in typical Scientology style — plays the martyr and claims that his “religion” is being attacked:
Categories: The Scientology Money Project
Jeff, great job in digging up a story that is small in the overall scheme of things when taken by itself, but worrisome if this is evidence of a larger trend of Scientology becoming more politically active. The more of the stories that you and everyone else are able to identify as they are happening , the better the odds that we will be able to ensure that Scientologists are held to account to being truthful when they’re running for office.
Of course, we know that Scientologists are incapable of being truthful when they venture into the political arena. The Inevitable lack of candor, coupled with the pre-existing suspicions of Scientologists based on all the bad press over the last few years, should be enough to keep them out of office … But it all starts with identifying them and holding them to account, as you’re doing here.
Of course, you are doing a great job in handling things properly: you are not criticizing the beliefs of Scientology as a religion. If Scientologists want to believe that the primary goal in life is to exorcise the ghosts of dead space cooties that invisibly cling to their skin, they are free to do that.
On the other hand, holding them to account for what their beliefs require them to do in the public sphere as far as psychiatry and all the rest, is fair and appropriate. When you do what you have done here , pointing out with impeccable logic and well-researched source documents, they will not be able to make their usual claims of discrimination and bigotry; these will fall flat and ultimately backfire.
Fav quote, that just about sums up his stance….
“…and deals with, for instance, 8 million children in America on psychiatric drugs, um, electric shock treatments still taking place, even at St. Joe’s, 450 volts of electricity through people’s heads, destroying their – their, their brain or their functions… actually, you know I had no idea Pauline would be here….”
Nice, Clay. Looking forward to seeing the backup to all of the comments before, “I had no idea Pauline would be here….”, which itself is comically obvious.
Great podcast, I’ve binge listened and I find it fascinating. For Shastina info, so she doesn’t lose her credibility… she may not care but I just want her to have the facts: https://www.lds.org/topics/christians?lang=eng
Hello Heidi. Interesting link and thank you for posting it.
Mormons know the criticism: The reason Catholics and Protestants consider LDS a cult is because LDS rejects the doctrine of the Trinity. LDS also asserts that Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon restored the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Not being a Christian, I don’t have any personal investment in this dispute. Having grown up as a Protestant, I am familiar with the dispute and had to memorize Exodus 3:16 and John 8:58 (and other scriptures) for use against marauding LDS and JW’s who might appear at my door. I never did this and instead took any literature they offered and had pleasant discussions. I have been to SLC many times and always visit the Temple when I’m there. It is a truly beautiful and interesting place to visit.
The link you posted argues that the Book of Mormon corrects errors made in the 1st century by the Church Fathers. I would change this to read that the infusion of Hellenistic philosophy into Christianity happened over the First to Fourth centuries.
The corpus of the New Testament and the Patrician Citations began to be written in the First century. For the LDS to limit their critique to the First century stands out as an error to those of us who know the history of the Christian Church. For example, the Apostle Paul was far more concerned with Judaizers and than with the influence of Greek philosophy. Having been a Pharisee prior to his conversion, this would be Paul’s chief concern. Moreover, Paul never once mentioned a Greek philosophizer by name. Paul’s famous oration on Mars Hill in Athens is where he addressed Greek philosophers in a general manner. The context for his oration is established in Acts 17:16-21:
The Areopagus sounds like the First century version of TED.
IMO, if the LDS wanted to precisely focus in on the weak link in Christianity it would zero in on the Council of Nicea in 325 AD where the “New Testament” was created by the Catholics. Why were certain gospels and books chosen over others? The answer is to assert the Catholic doctrines and to erase any traces of Gnosticism and other views the Catholics deemed heretical. We could even get into the Merovingian bloodline at this point, but this takes us far afield into The DaVinci Code territory and off the topic of this dedicated news site.
Hi Jeff! I am a new listener to your podcast. I love it and love all the work you and Karen, et al are doing to expose this cult. I am absolutely fascinated and disgusted with the stories that have been told on your episodes. I just finished listening to your episode with Shastina. While I do admire her tenacity in running for public office, I think she was a bit naive due to the fact she should have researched the “beautifully” packaged info(propaganda) she was given by Clay. Yes, running a campaign needs funding. However, a candidate should follow the money trail. She shouldn’t have jumped at the possibility of a donor w/a slick package. What I heard was she was only impressed by this fancy folder and that they obviously had a lot of money to donate and influence. Also, she should have done her due diligence in researching the org prior to talking about it on her social media. I think if she gives another go at running, she should become a bit more guarded when she’s approached by people posing as possible campaign supporters. I think she would be best served by a campaign manager like Robbie. I truly think she has nothing but good intentions. Additionally, as you were conducting the interview, I was quite put off by her constantly interrupting you and truly not listening to what you were saying and kept trying to put her thoughts out there. Like my dad always told me, listen and think before you speak. And, speak meaningfully and intelligently. She said she was a fan of Leah and Mike’s show, which is great. I’m a fan also. I’ve always asked the questions of how and why cults are able to brainwash innocent people. As someone who is a researcher and constantly uncovering more information, my opinion is that Shastina should have educated herself to an even greater extent after her exposure to Joy Villa and the front Citizens group. I wish nothing but the best for her and pray she arms herself with knowledge the next time. She does need to really listen to people, the public, and interviewers like yourself, and not be thinking of what she’s going to say next. Keep exposing the truth and keep the episodes coming. Ty.