An analysis of Mike Rinder: In retrospect of the last 38 years and Mike’s despicable actions of late, I realized that the Mike Rinder today is actually how Mike always has been. I may have been blind to it when it was all happening, but I, of anyone…
Mike Rinder’s mother, not long before she passed, arrived to Clearwater for a visit. Ben, our son, spent some time with her and was overjoyed. He told me after this visit that his grandmother had told him that she hadn’t heard from Mike in over a year either, just like Ben hadn’t.
I lived in Victoria, Australia, in the 1960s, during the time that openly practicing Scientology was prohibited by a repressive law. I know what it is like to experience the threat of possibly being sent to jail for using Scientology to help others.
I have had a lot of time to review the 38 years I knew and was married to Mike Rinder. Numerous instances certainly stand out in retrospect that made me realize that the devious individual that is Mike Rinder today is actually the way Mike always was—only now fully unrestrained.
Even though Mike never asked about me and my brother once after he deserted us, or cared if we were okay, the fact that he was gone made no difference in our lives because he was never there for us as kids.
In this age of alternative news, fake news and covfefe tweets, one might get the idea that truth-bending is something new. This is a misconception because I have seen this practice at work during the time when I worked with Mike Rinder, all the way up to the moment he left.
Mike: As your daughter I naturally would rather not be writing this. You belittled and harassed my brother and me both physically and emotionally, while abusing our mother.
I did my first Sea Org Mission—in this case a project to handle a public affairs matter—with Mike Rinder, way back in the mid 1980s. We went to Copenhagen, and it was a big deal for me and I was eager to go out and learn everything I could.
It has been said that Mike Rinder was often caught sound asleep at his desk in the middle of the day. But these were not the only times he was snoozing instead of working.
Every time I (unfortunately) worked with Mike Rinder, he acted as though he owned the place and as though he was the most learned of executives and as though he had a very senior post. He treated others as beneath him.
There was an elderly staff member Mike used to work with, one of the nicest people in the world. Mike purposefully picked on this gentleman and made less of him constantly. He didn’t even care about his own mother.
When I knew Mike Rinder, I observed him get so many chances and help despite his mess-ups, being a parasite, a liar and abusive with his staff. Had he worked in an outside job, he would have been kicked out many times over.
I can relate the following about Mike Rinder. It exposes another tragic flaw he had, a trait not uncommon in the loser type. To balance the sadness of it, I will try to find some humor in his pathetic behavior. Mike Rinder grew up in Australia, the natural habitat of the koala.
Working with Mike Rinder was not a pleasant experience. He would scream, he would shout, get very angry, and just was not pleasant to be around. He just didn’t seem to care about other people. He never acted like a Scientologist and that was the bottom line with Mike Rinder.
I was outraged to see Mike Rinder given a forum on a TV show, however small its audience might be. I'm writing this from firsthand knowledge, having worked with him for a long period. To say he is dishonest is a gross understatement.
Mike Rinder is easily the most evil person I have ever met. He never missed an opportunity to make other people feel small and useless, and he did this with great skill. He must truly hate people. This article tells it like it is: “I am afraid of my potential for destruction.
When Mike Rinder wants something, he’s as sweet as can be, smiling, sucking up and fluttering his eyelashes like a Southern belle. He did that to me once when I was driving somewhere and he wanted a lift.
Working with Mike Rinder was probably the least pleasant experience I have had in my staff career of 35 years. He was surly to the extreme, rarely smiled and when he did it was usually at someone else’s expense after he had said something particularly derogatory to or about them in their presence.
I presume that most people checking in on this site will have seen the video footage and the posts and sworn testimony of Mike Rinder viciously attacking and injuring his former wife. Don’t make the mistake of assuming this was a one-time occurrence.
Some people never change and Mike Rinder is one of those. He was a liar when I knew him, and is still a liar. I worked with him for several years and he was a disgrace. Not one honest bone, no pride, no integrity. It was embarrassing working for him as he would regularly get caught in a lie.
One night Mike Rinder was driving home from the office and I hitched a ride with him. He stopped at a gas station. A black man walked out to service us and he seemed to be limping. Mike made some derogatory racist remark about him. It was disgusting.
In 2007, just prior to his being expelled from the Church, I was violently assaulted by Mike Rinder without provocation. We were standing about 8 feet distant from one another when he became irritated and angry with me.
I saw on the web that many people are relating experiences and events that have the common tenor: that Mike Rinder is a self-centered bastard with a heart of stone and calloused soul. Well, I can't help but weigh in with my own. They support these reports.
I have a specific incident to relate which illustrates how Mike Rinder could lose his temper, way out of proportion to circumstances. This incident was at a meeting and Mike lost his temper yelling at me like a complete madman.
Mike’s mother and father (Ian and Barbara) used to travel from Australia to America, every six months, to visit. Mike never did anything to accommodate his parents’ visits.
I worked with or around Mike for many years. His manner was very unpleasant because he was arrogant and routinely talked down to others. Mike rarely smiled or laughed, unless it was at the expense of others with sarcastic, cutting remarks meant to degrade them.
In relation to Mike Rinder, I can say one thing: I’ve been working for the Church of Scientology for 24 years and in those 24 years I’ve worked in a lot of places. And he’s the only person in the last 24 years that I’ve been on Church staff who’s punched me.
Mike Rinder’s attitude to the staff was always really condescending, looking down at others. This would happen whether it’s a single person passing him in the hallway or in a meeting with him. Mike is the epitome of haughty. His view of other people is that they are lesser minds.
Mike Rinder was the best man at my wedding in 1997. Reason being is that he grew up with my husband in Adelaide in the early 70’s. Years after my wedding, I would see Mike and run into him and I was stunned that he was so cold. Never interested, never asked me how I was doing, never anything.
He treated me as his lackey. And not even a “thank you” to boot. I have never ever worked with someone like Mike Rinder. He is disgusting.
I was driving my bike and Mike Rinder had driven past me and he actually knocked me off my bike. I fell and was on the ground. Any normal human being with any form of care or compassion would feel bad, like “oh I just knocked her off her bike” and offer to help. But not Mike.
Mike Rinder had a terrible time dealing with women in a professional setting. It was 10 times worse for the women than it was for the men. It’s not that he was pleasant to the men or complimented them, but it was very, very mild compared to the treatment the women got.
I remember one time Mike Rinder came over to another staff member and he had a pencil in his hand and he said, “You do this one more time and I am going to stab you in the eyeball.” And he had it right close to Richard’s eye. It was just completely unbelievable, the intention was so violent.
Nothing would stop Mike from acting irresponsibly around our daughter. Mike would drive like a maniac with our kids in the car. One time, I had our infant daughter on my lap in a seat. Mike was speeding so fast he was swerving. The more upset I got the more he laughed at me.
One time we were driving down a dimly lit two-way, single lane country highway coming back from the movies when Mike decided to play “chicken” with another car. He starting driving into the oncoming lane to “beat” the other car.
Mike used to call me “chubby” to my face, or comment about me being chubby. I remember him seeing one of my friends and insensitively saying, “She’s pretty.” I can’t think of one time he complimented my looks or said something nice like that about me.
Mike Rinder made fun of anyone and everyone he could. It gave him a sick pleasure, whether it was calling someone I worked with named Lester “The Molester,” or taunting a friend of mine who had very curly hair about her looks. He never stopped. Mike Rinder made fun of anyone and everyone he could.
It was embarrassing having my friends around Mike Rinder. He would humiliate me. Once, Mike went after one of my friends and tied her up to a rail as a “joke.” I was shocked. I intervened and untied her.
I remember how Mike harassed me when I was trying to get over a fear of heights. Mike was smug and would tell me to quit being a “scaredy cat.” He forced me to climb a tall ladder and stood there and said he wasn’t leaving until I did it. I “froze” and he didn’t care.
He gave me the distinct feeling I had done something wrong, was a bad person, and that he did not love me.
One time I tried to visit my father, Mike Rinder, at work. He stuck me in a conference room to watch TV all day. He never came to talk to me the entire time I was there. His associates came to visit and talk to me but not Mike. Eventually, Mike had his assistant drive me back.
When I did see Mike Rinder, my father, he treated me like he did everyone else, with disdain. I felt inferior, and it felt like he saw me because he thought he had to do it, not because he wanted to talk to me. Our conversations were really awkward and had no warmth. But that is Mike Rinder.
Mike Rinder was emotionally abusive as a father. While at boarding school different parents would come each week and see their children. Mike never came. I really didn’t understand why my dad wouldn’t come see me. I felt traumatized by the consistent obvious absence of my father.
My son told me years ago that he was unable to handle the fact that Mike berated the way he looked. He would tell him that he was too small physically, that he should be a certain way. Benjamin from early on knew that Mike didn’t give a sh_t about him or actually care or show any affection.
Mike knew our son got car sick and didn’t care. Mike was “rushing” to get down a hill and driving too fast. The kids were freaking out and Benjamin asked Mike to stop because he had to throw up. Mike didn’t stop and Benjamin started to throw up and was sick. Mike then yelled at him for getting sick.
Benjamin had gotten upset at school (Kindergarten) and told us about it. Mike’s unbelievable response was to tell his 5 year old son that he was “not being man enough to take it.
Mike wouldn’t just put down adults. He put down our son Benjamin as a kid. This was a constant thing, like one time I took the kids shopping with Mike. Benjamin didn’t want the clothes Mike picked for him.
Mike Rinder was the most uncaring and nasty person I ever encountered. One staff member happened to be with Mike Rinder and tripped and fell and smashed his face and broke his glasses which then cut his nose. Worse yet, he also broke his wrist.
Mike Rinder’s bullying was not one isolated instance. He eventually was removed for it. One morning after I had come into the office, Mike Rinder charged at me from one end of the room yelling and being outraged while holding his fist and swung it up at me about an inch away from my face.
While working for him in a secretarial capacity he was routinely abusive to myself and others either just straight out verbally as well as physically threatening and abusive regardless of whether you were a woman or man.
I knew Mike Rinder and worked with him for 30 years, and this was probably 20, 25 years into our being colleagues. And what happened was that he was told that a TV show was airing and when it was airing and we went back to look at it because o ne of my staff members was in charge of taping the show.
At one point, Mike Rinder and I had gone out of town on a work trip. On returning, I had one bag of Mike’s that I hadn’t had time to put away for him before getting back to work and it was still in my apartment.
What I experienced while working as Mike’s secretary was an ever-increasing anxiety, because he was such a volatile person. I was always on my guard and often in fear of him because I just never knew when something was going to tip him over the edge. It was like working for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
I had the terribly upsetting and humiliating experience of Mike trapping me under his desk, being lewd and physically restraining me. He was having trouble with his phone (so he said) and told me to go under the desk and see if it was something with the connection to the box.
I had been Mike Rinder’s Secretary for several months when I witnessed Mike, yelling at a junior and bullying him. Mike violently grabbed this person by the shirt collar, lifted him off his feet and slammed him into the walls in the corner of the room.
I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and the doctor told my husband that I had only a number of months to live. After surgery I underwent extensive treatment in San Diego and Mexico, both medical and alternative medicine, living in San Diego full time. This daily treatment was exhausting and heavy.
I have known Mike Rinder since he was a teenager and we were both young. Later Mike Rinder and I shared an office so I spent many years knowing him. Mike Rinder is a sexist. At first I thought Mike’s snide remarks and bad jokes about girls was just a teenage boy being stupid and trying to be witty.
In 1982 our second daughter passed away from kidney failure. I was extremely upset and a complete wreck. Mike acted demeaning toward me and as if I was weird for being so upset. He did not shed a tear and had no emotion about the entire matter.
Mike Rinder accused me of “doting” on our son. Mike “explained” to our son that my behavior of caring for him and wanting to spend time with him was not normal and that he should not let me “dote” on him (meaning show him love and affection) or else our son would turn out like me and be a pussy.
A few months after Mike left us, our son, at the age of 24, was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. Mike never responded to the letters I wrote to inform him of this. Benjamin needed all the help and attention I could give him.
The only time Mike seemed to show interest in our daughter was when he thought he could use it to flirt with girls. I went to get our daughter from the nursery one night and I was told Mike took her. I went to the Lounge/Bar where I found Mike.
One night our infant daughter Taryn cried in the middle of the night and I didn’t get up fast enough. She was really loud. As I got up Mike jumped out of the bed. He picked up Taryn and started to shake her hard, yelling at her to shut up. I ran over and grabbed Taryn away from him.
When I went into labor I called Mike who said he was too busy. I was about to give birth to our first child, and he showed no interest or emotion. I actually walked to the hospital by myself in labor and checked myself in.
Mike Rinder barely spoke to me when I was pregnant with our daughter. He was always upset, never supportive or asking how I was doing. I kept asking him about this. Once he told me to quit asking him questions and ordered me out of the room and to leave him alone.
When I finally saw Mike Rinder, he violently grabbed my left wrist, my lower forearm and my right forearm near the elbow. My husband of 35 years was physically assaulting me. I tried to get away from him. He would not let go, and the intense pressure was so severe the pain was killing me.
Child abuse takes many forms. It can be violence, neglect or years of abusive comments from a loveless parent who believes his children can do nothing right. That’s Mike Rinder. He’s a cold-hearted man, especially to his own children.
Like countless abused women, I stayed way too long with my now ex-husband. In fact, it was 35 years. You’ve heard similar stories before. I thought he would change. I worried about my kids. I believed in the institution of marriage.
Like his BFF Leah Remini, wife beater Mike Rinder has been after the money in the aftermath. Nearly a decade ago, the Church expelled him for gross malfeasance and has had nothing to do with him since. Good riddance.