i fight for people. stick up for people. that has always been in my blood. >> tonight, new warfare in the battle over scientology. actress turned activist leah remini, the most famous ex-scientologist in the world. now helping others who've left the wildly controversial church. >> i went through much mental brutality. >> let's just stop. let's stop for a minute. >> but for the first time on camera, the church hitting back at her new show. >> she espouses she's doing this for the victims, which is of course just nonsense. >> and now stashgtsling new claims, from a younger generation.

>> you were an adult. what did you do to me? >> a former child in the church, saying he felt pressured to answer sexually explicit questions. >> did you ever raise your hand and say, this is making me really uncomfortable, i'm too young for this? >> broken families. and the latest developments. the church on one side. >> are you saying all these people are making this up? >> the stories are either false, completely exaggerated or made up. >> and those who've left it, facing off. >> what is your fondest hope? that you bring down the church? >> i'm hoping there'll be somebody with some balls who will do something about it. >> "scientology: a war without guns." >> good evening, i'm david muir. >> i'm elizabeth vargas. she might be called scientology's public enemy number one. leah remini. and now, she's taking her crew said to a new front, with a series on a and e. >> for the first time, the ch

show, and in a rare interview, in just the last 24 hours, counterattacking remini, and others who have left the church. abc's dan harris has led the reporting on this tonight, and he's back tonight. >> reporter: what if you spent most of your life, maybe all of it, devoted to a religion that demanded much of your time, your money and your mind? >> it is our responsibility to be scientologists no matter where we live or work, no matter our resources, or excuses. >> reporter: what if you then publicly broke from that religion, and the entire belief system that defined your world? >> if you're a scientologist, you see life, you see things the way they are, in all its glory. >> reporter: and what if that religion then publicly denounced you, your character, and your motives? well then, perhaps you'd find yourself talking like actress leah remini. >> no one ever wants to turn around and go, "okay, this thing

promoting and helping was a lie." >> reporter: remini's own story arc rivals that of any character she's ever played. born in brooklyn, raised in the church, she would rise to stardom on the hit sitcom "the king of queens." >> how about this, how about this? i go over there, punch him in the head, and come right back? >> carrie, no! >> reporter: like tom cruise and other celebrity scientologists, remini vocally supported the church. >> we are the most ethical group you're ever going to find, and actually, the only group that's really making change for mankind. i promoted the church. i defended the church. >> reporter: the church believes scientology can liberate the invididual mind and indeed the entire human race from its current state of enslavement, by studying the teachings of it's founder, the prolific 20th century science fiction writer l. ron hubbard. >> scientology means knowledge, or truth, study of. >> reporter: hubbard's elaborate belief system involvedn

alternate history of the universe, and an unique vocabulary to describe scientology's concepts and practices. >> he is a spirit, and he actually can exist independent of his body. this is one of the more interesting discoveries in scientology. >> reporter: the church's promotional videos highlight its international efforts to, quite literally, save the world. ♪ make a difference >> reporter: what does it do for you, the individual? why would i join? >> well, what you would be told is that you're working to be the better, your better self in all areas of your life. >> reporter: the way leah tells it, her disillusionment with the church traces back to this man. >> my name is david miscavige. >> reporter: david miscavige, who took over the church in 1986 after hubbard died. >> they would call me a word called disaffected, which was that i was showing signs of not being in line with the group. >> reporter:

has driven remini to join a group of former scientologists crusading against the church as passionately as they once defended it. >> the actual writings and teachings of scientology is harmful and dangerous to people. >> reporter: after leaving the church in 2013, then penning a sulfuric tell-all, leah has now taken off the gloves completely. >> who are you working for? >> reporter: escalating her battle with scientology as the paid executive producer and star of a new a&e series. so, how would you describe the show? >> i would describe the show as a documentary on the abuses of the church of scientology. >> reporter: each episode finds the former sitcom star crisscrossing the country harvesting tales of other disillusioned ex-church members. >> and i went through hell. >> unconditional love does not exist in si

>> i thought he was going to kill somebody. >> nobody deserves to have their family torn apart because of a belief system. >> reporter: the church describes the show as "anti-religious hate speech," and has plenty more to say about remini and her confederates. they sent us this box, filled with documents, thumb drives with video. >> i've seen the most disgusting comments on things towards scientologists from people who have no idea what it is. >> look at it yourself and don't rely on some other third party to tell you about it. >> reporter: all those charges and countercharges, sometimes boying over into open confrontation. >> you're going to tell me that you're not a private investigator? >> reporter: dispatches from the front lines of a war without guns. you said on the show that you actually feel responsible, personally, given how much you did to promote the church. >> i do have a responsibility. what i'm saying is, "hey, you're abusing people. and then on top of that, you're victimizing your victims." >> reporter: the people remini

calls victims are former church members who now say the church is essentially a totalitarian organization. pressuring members to spend lots of money for courses and books, to submit without question to the church's ethics and disciplinary codes and indoctrinating them to believe that hubbard's writings are infallible gospel. the church characterizes everything you see, on that broadcast and on this one, as a shameless attempt to profit off the defamation of scientology. >> disgruntled people make better stories than happy people, so, unfortunately, that's the way our news seems to be these days. >> reporter: the church points out, correctly, that abc holds a 50% ownership stake in a&e, the network which airs remini's show. further, the church safes, aside from this project, remini hasn't done anything remotely successful in years. would you say that this, for lack of a better word, fight against the church, has taken over your career?

hit show in their lifetime. i don't have to work. i still love what i do. but a big part of leah, which the world doesn't know, is that i fight for people. >> leah remini seems to be making a career out of attacking scientology. >> reporter: just yesterday, "20/20" sat down with monique yingling, an attorney for the church of scientology, for this rare on-camera interview. >> let's stop, let's stop for a second. >> everything she's been doing on her show has been scripted, rehearsed, acted and then dramatized. >> reporter: so you think her motives here are to make money and keep herself in the public eye? >> absolutely. >> i've heard it before. i'm going to hear it again. >> reporter: but just to run this down, there is -- you do get paid. and you do get attention for doing this stuff. >> i don't work for free. this is a very demanding job. m not going to justify. they get paid. they got $3 billion in assets. i'm not saying, "hey, i'm the savior of your world. i have all the solutions to your life." >> my life is pretty freaking awesome and i am functioning at

a very high level. >> my life, in the last 12 years, has completely turned around. >> come and pay me. give me your life. give me your money. give me your children. >> reporter: do you think david miscavige is watching the show? >> yes. >> reporter: what would you say to him? >> nothing. i think it's always, like, cheesy, when you guys ask these kinds of questions, like, anybody would sit and go, "yes, i want to talk directly on the camera." like, do people actually bite on this one? >> reporter: all the time. >> really? >> reporter: yes. >> interesting. the only thing i hope that he hears is, i'm going to continue to tell these stories. >> reporter: lea remy may now be the world's most famous anti-scientologist, but she's certainly not first. >> kicked, choked, thrown to the ground. >> the church has become a vulture culture. >> reporter: coming up, two princes of the church who became its arch enemy. what price did they pay? >> why were you taking video of us? >> reporter: that's next. pain sufferers,

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"20/20" continues with "scientology: a war without guns." >> reporter: the year was 1990. ♪ words from a book showed me the way ♪ >> reporter: the church of scientology produced this publicity music video. ♪ take us from clear to eternity ♪ >> reporter: during the song's stirring chorus, the camera pans across a group o

singing along. ♪ hey la ♪ we stand tall >> reporter: that there is the church leader david miscavige, front and center. also in the frame, two high-ranking officials -- marty rathbun, and mike rinder. who would later become twin firebrands of the ant anti-scientology movement. >> it's fine that you leave, don't complain about it. >> reporter: mike rinder was head of the office of special affairs, dealing with public relations and legal affairs. he left in 2007 after what he calls a crisis of faith, fueled, he says, by multiple instances in which david miscavige himself punched or struck him. >> david miscavige has two personas. he has this public persona where he's all -- like a politician, glad-handing, shaking hands, smiling, happy. and then he becomes very cruel, very controlling, very vicious. >> i'll tell you, from my per speck ty,

harassed is myself and the church. >> reporter: rathbun, who served as miscavige's number two, worked extensively with top ranking celebrity scientologists during difficult times, such as tom cruise's divorce from nicole kidman. >> i did little else but work to recover tom to scientology, and help him get through the divorce. >> reporter: but rathbun told abc, he became concerned, as miscavige turned increasingly violent. >> there was two other top, top managers within the church that he regularly, you know, hit with his fist, kicked, choked, threw to the ground. >> reporter: the church has consistently denied that miscavige was ever physically abusive. >> he's very demanding of his subordinates, but i have never seen and nor do i believe that he would ever resort to physical violence. >> reporter: in videos like this, it denounces rathbun as an apostate and insists that he was the problem. you have admitted, though, haven't you, that you were physically aggressive when you were at the upper echelons of the ch

i mean, we all were. we had to be, it was part of the culture. >> miscavige pontificating on the other side -- >> lean back, arms up -- >> big bicep, muscle routine. >> reporter: the two left, but they didn't go quietly. rathbun launched a website attacking miscavige and the church. much more on him later. >> earlier, i spoke with mike rinder. >> it's explosive stuff. >> david miscavige choking you. >> absolutely. >> reporter: meanwhile, rinder became a familiar face on television, denouncing the church at every opportunity. >> this is an astonishingly wealthy organization that has managed to soak a hell of a lot of money out of a lot of people for a long time and accumulated it. >> have you made peace with all of it? like, all the stuff that you did? >> in general terms, yes. >> reporter: rinder is now a paid consultant on leah remini's show, providing a running commentary on th

alleged depredations. >> anybody who is an enemy or a critic of scientology may have anything done to them with the idea that the end justifies the means. those two are p.i.s, for sure. >> reporter: in a recent episode, rinder confronted some men he suspected were private investigators hired by the church to tail him. >> who are you? who are you? >> reporter: he's also spent ample airtime decrying a controversial church practice known as disconnection, in which members break all contact with people, including family members, who the church deems suppressive. church attorney monique yingling told us that when members disconnect, it's for good reason. >> when someone in the church communicates they no longer want to associate with someone who's left the church, it only happens if that person starts to attack the church and attack their beliefs. >> reporter: is that voluntary, though? >> okay, it's always voluntary. >> it's patently absurd. it's just ridiculous.

you want to disconnect or not. the rest of that sentence is, "and if you don't disconnect, then, we will then deem you, what is called a suppressive person, and everybody that you know that is a scientologist will disconnect from you." >> reporter: if you don't disconnect from a suppressive person, will you be kicked out of the church? >> no, you won't be kicked out. there may be specific services you won't be able to participate in, so long as you're connected to a suppressive person. >> reporter: right, so, it is voluntary, but there are consequences if you don't disconnect. >> well, there are con consequences in every choice we make in life. >> reporter: the church points out that mike rinder has been attacking his former religion for years, sometimes for money. that is in part why, according to the church, rinder's family has disconnected from him. >> my son is in that building. this is called the superpower building. >> reporter: we paid a visit with rinder to flag base, the church's spiritual headquarters in f

>> when's the last time you saw him? >> 2003, maybe. this is why i do what i do. >> reporter: this visit was considerably less eventful than this one back in 2010, when rinder went looking for his son benjamin with marty rathbun in tow. >> you just need to leave right now. you are not welcome here. sir, you're bumping up against me. >> watch it, watch it! watch it buddy. >> step out there. show me the line. >> reporter: the church has strenuously exerted itself to discredit rinder. >> he knows that what he's saying is false. >> reporter: it provided us with these interviews with hiss trapged children. >> he's just trying to create a fabricated story or something? and i said, i want nothing to do with him. >> i wouldn't really call him a dad. i don't remember my dad ever being there, ever, ever, ever. not once. i thought he hated me. >> reporter: there's something almost shakespearean about the fact that,

was one of the fiercest advocates for the church, w -- >> please welcome mr. mike rinder. >> reporter: -- who's now on the receiving end of the office he served. >> sure, he was believing that what he was doing was right. it's because of what the church tells you that they're doing for the world that you dedicate your life to something. >> we mark a new era, remember that. to lrh. >> reporter: coming up -- >> come on, marty. got anything to say? >> reporter: members of the church take on another arch-apostate. >> i told you, i put you on notice. >> reporter: cranium-cameras, a car door scuffle. and then, a turn nobody expected. >> about as much of a 180 as you're going to see. >> reporter: stay with us. i sure had a lot to think about. what about the people i care about? ...including this little girl. and what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i asked my doctor. and he recommended eliquis.

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>> reporter: on the gulf coast of texas, far from the scientology's centers of power in florida and in california, marty rathbun thought he'd left it all behind. what was it like for you to separate from this church that you were in for 27 years? >> it was very difficult. i was seeing a good thing being turned into a bad thing. when i left, i didn't want to do any harm. >> reporter: he laid low here for years, but in 2009, rathbun started that scathing anti-scientology blog, attacking

his former boss, david miscavige. and perhaps most provocatively, he also started offering scientology services independent of the church. >> come on marty, got anything to say? >> reporter: that's when the so-called squirrel busters showed up, armed with cameras. their odd hats and t-shirts heralding the start of what rathbun says was a long campaign of harassment. much of which he documented and posted on youtube. >> marty, i'm with squirrel busters productions. doing an investigation on you and your squirrel technology that you're promoting. >> you guys going so stick around here? >> yeah, marty, we're here for weeks. weeks and weeks. >> as long as it takes. >> reporter: the term squirrel is a derogatory term for heretic, coined by l. ron hubbard himself. >> a squirrel group is considered a group that is abberrating the technology. delivering it in a messed up way. >> reporter: outside the normal channels. >> correct. >> reporter: rathbun chronicled the squirrel busters' ongoing

his home in golf carts. >> watch my dog! slow down! >> reporter: coming up from behind in a paddle boat. >> this is my home, my backyard. big brother in bermuda shorts. they rented a house 200 yards from my home. that's the kitchen to the surveillance house. and that's three slots in the blind pointing at my house. they sent down a group of, from four to eight people at any given time, and stayed there for 199 days. >> reporter: why the fuss? because the church says squirrels, like this woman, are stealing and perverting scientology techniques, like this work with clay, a practice established in l. ron hubbard's early teachings. >> if you want to study a subject and understand it better, you should be able to touch it and move it and change it and look at pictures of it. >> they are violating probably the copyrights and trademarks of the church, and whatever it is

scientology. >> i think the cynic would say that hubbard's biggest problem with squirrels is just lost income. >> reporter: reporter tony ortega, who has been covering scientology for more than 20 years, is considered by the church to be, quote, a big got and a paid anti-scientologist. he says scientology feels threatened by both critics and former members who still use the church's so-called tech. >> if people are doing scientology outside of the church itself, he's not getting their money. but also, i think it's just a way of controlling the people you have. >> i told you. i put you on notice. you heard me. do not point your cameras at my house or my neighbor's houses. >> their goal was to get me to say, life's too short, it's not worth this, and fold up my tent and go away. >> reporter: didn't happen. >> no, didn't happen. >> reporter: if the squirrel busters were trying to provoke marty rathbun, they sometimes succeeded. >> you can't do that. marty. that's my personal property, marty. >> reporter: they put together

best-of moments. >> i want -- oh, jesus. >> reporter: rathbun's wife monique finally had enough, and she sued the church. >> he's pretty upset -- >> is he? >> yeah, because he feels you are harassing his wife and his family. >> okay. >> reporter: in a legal filing, she alleged that the couple had been subjected to four years of "constant surveillance and harassment." >> what's going on? >> oh, we're just doing a documentary. >> a documentary on? >> oh, a former scientology deal. >> after awhile, when they keep up with it, you got to go, what kind of mind set is behind people doing this kind of thing? what else are they capable of? >> reporter: scientology called the lawsuit "nothing more than a pathetic get-rich scheme." and "an attempt to extort money from the church." but then, a surprise. >> marty began to isolate himself. you know, something happened. >> reporter: he says rathbun's blog suddenly changed direction. >> at one point, marty

challenge to david miscavige and the existence of the church of scientology. a year later, there's not a word criticizing david miscavikacavm. >> reporter: bathbun was now attacking the anti-scientology movement, calling it a cult of its own, more zealous and coercive than anything it accuses scientology of. he told abc news that his former compadres were cultivating a "vicious victim complex" and operating a "lucrative cottage industry" that he wants to avoid. and then last january, the rathbun lawsuit was dropped. >> it was stunning. i mean, you know, it's bizarre. >> the church was as surprised as anybody else when the -- when the lawsuit was dismissed. >> reporter: in court filings, rathbun's wife said the suit was dropped only because she lacked "the resources, the time and the motivation" to litigate against "scientology's army of lawyers." this week, marty rathbun declined our request for an interview.

>> it's about as much of a 180 degree as you're can -- you're going to see. >> reporter: but if one older ant anti-scientology crusader has now declared a truce, a new generation is declaring war. one man tells us what he says he went through in the church as a child. >> you were an adult. what did you do to me? >> reporter: that's next.

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"20/20" continues with "scientology: a war without guns." >> i want them to know that i'm here. i want them to know that i know. >> reporter: serge gil is not a celebrity. not a battle-hardened, book-publishing, semi-professional scientology critic. he is someone who spent his entire childhood in the church, and tonight, he's talking about it for the first time. >> this is why it's so important that i come forward, because i feel like, you know, we lived it. we lived the hell. >> reporter: serge was born into a large scientology family. his parents were devout parishioners who, serge says, he didn't see so much, because they were so busy doing the work of the church. >> my first memories of my childhood were already inside this organization.

says his parents enrolled him in a course which involved an introduction to auditing techniques. auditing is one of the central practices of the church. it's a kind of therapy using a device, invented by l. ron hubbard, called an e-meter, which is supposed to help liberate you from negative feelings and the trauma of past experiences. >> this is just a flow of energy that's coming from the meter through you, back to the meter. but once a thought comes in, that thought, that picture that you have, that is registering on the meter. >> reporter: leah remini gave me a small taste of what she says an auditing session is like. you'd be asking me questions? >> i would ask you questions. and based on what's happening here, would i let you get away with it or not? you see what i'm saying? >> reporter: serge says as part of his auditing training, he had to talk adults through traumatic experiences in their lives, including a fatal car crash and a sexual assault. why wo

>> because l. ron hubbard doesn't consider that children are children. you are an ageless spirit. so, your body is catching up to your spiritual age. >> reporter: do you think that kind of material is age appropriate? >> well, i don't think that that kind of material is necessarily age appropriate, but i also don't think that that necessarily happened. i can't say that it's never the case, but the church has very, very strict protocols in place, as to how children are raised in scientology. so, it would not fit within those standards for that kind of a thing to happen. >> reporter: serge says that was not his experience. he says by age 12, as he continued his scientology indoctrination, he was put through a training routine known as bull baiting. >> where i'm sitting in front of someone in the same setting we are right now, but i'm 12 years old. and your job is to find what kind of thing

>> reporter: leah says she also remembers bull baiting vividly from her childhood. >> you have to sit here like this. and you cannot move. so, i say, okay, start. so dan, you think you're [ bleep ] smart and bright? do you know that -- whatever. i'd get some [ bleep ] on you and say it and hope that you didn't react. and if you reacted, they'd go, "flunk. start." they'd do it again. they'd keep doing it, until you were no longer -- had a reaction to that. >> reporter: leah says bull baiting could sometimes include sexual language, something serge says he experienced as a minor. >> you know, do you -- just profane. >> reporter: we've spoken to a number of former scientologists who say, in the process of participating in bull baiting, they encountered provocative sexual language from adults. what's the church's reaction to that? >> i can't say that never happens or that it has never happened

would be dealt with very strictly and very firmly. and the church does not put children in the situation where those kinds of things could happen because they normally would be in training classes whatever with people of the same age group. >> reporter: monique yingling says that bull baiting has an important purpose, to prepare a scientologist for the intensity of auditing. and, in fact, serge says that when he began auditing, it did indeed get intense. >> they ask you questions, dan, where, if you don't have a sexual past, "have you ever raped someone," if it read on the machine, i would be told to look into a past life. so, i have to fan that size about raping somebody, in order to answer the therapy question. >> reporter: did you ever raise your hand and say, this is really making me uncomfortable, i'm too young for this? >> the problem with this, dan, is that the adults are praising every single one of your moves. they considered me a superstar.

asked that question about rape when he was 14, and being administered something called the johannesburg confessional. some of the questions on there include, "have you ever raped anyone? have you ever had intercourse with a member of your family? and have you ever practiced sodomy?" and there are many more. do you think this is age appropriate? >> so, those questions might be appropriate to a 14-year-old like sergio gil. i don't know. i do happen to know, because i've been told, that he was not asked those questions. and that was because whoever was administering the confessional had decided that those questions should not be asked. >> reporter: but you conceive of occasions where it would be appropriate to ask a 14-year-old questions like that? >> it depends on the 14-year-old. what i can tell you is that it would never be used in an inappropriate manner by the church. that normally, it would not be asked of a

it were, it was because, under the church's very strict protocols, it was decided that it was an appropriate question. >> reporter: while the church insists the johannesburg confessional is rarely used on any parishioner, including adults, they did provide us with this confessional, written by l. ron hubbard, specifically for children as young as 6. the first question is, "what has somebody told you not to tell?" another question is, "have you ever done something to your body you shouldn't have?" and another question after that is, "have you ever done something to somebody else's body that you shouldn't have?" >> you can do lots of things to your body. you know, you can cut your body, you can hit your body, you can, you know, cut your hair, you can do whatever. >> reporter: yeah, but this is a question for somebody as young as 6 years old. don't you see how that could pretty easily lead to something sexual? >> it possibly could, but that doesn't mean that whoever is ministering the confessional would take it down a sexual route. >> reporter: but you're a parent and a grandparent.

circumstances under which it would be appropriate for somebody who is 6, 7 years old, to be alone with a grownup, asking a question where there are some odds that it could turn into a discussion of sexual content? >> i happen to raise my children catholic, and they went to sunday school and they were alone with priests. and certainly something sexual could have come up. >> reporter: there's no form like this where there are questions that, i think we can all agree, might lead to sexual content, in the catholic church that i'm aware of. >> if i put my child in the in the care of my church or my minister, i have faith that that's going to be handled properly. and i think that's the same thing that scientology parents do with their children. >> reporter: the church says that, as with other religions, its indoctrination of children is constitutionally protected, when done with parental consent. and they sent us these video testimonies of parishioners who were raised in the church. >> i'm very grateful to have

>> i took my own first steps in scientology when i was about 9. >> i realized that when i was going scientology, i was doing better in life. >> reporter: however, "20/20" spoke to a number of former scientologists who, like serge gil, say that sexually explicit subjects were a part of their scientology indoctrination as children. >> i really question the credibility of those individuals, and i think you should, too. >> reporter: are you saying all these people are making this up? >> it's not to say that one person might not have had one incident, but the stories that you're being told are either false, completely exaggerated, or made up. yes. >> reporter: but serge says his story and his trauma are real. coming up, how serge left the church, and why he turned for help to the very people scientology deems most dangerous. >> finally, i had someone -- who had a clinical

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>> reporter: in clearwater, florida, in 1993, serge gil committed his life to the sea org, the church of scientology's nautical-themed priestly order. he was 15-years-old and he was moving up the ranks. >> i was made in charge of a course room that had to do with learning how to use the e-meter machine. >> reporter: but then, at age 17, serge's scientology career hit the rocks. he was sent to a remedial work program called the "rehabilitation project force," or rpf, for sea org members who run afoul of authorities. his offense, according to the church -- misapplication of technical procedures. >> they come down very hard on things. like, they run their own internal justice ethics department. >> you have to wear black, you have to run everywhere you go. you have to call everyone sir.

people not to do -- he consulted a psychiatrist. psychotherapy can be viewed as a natural rival to hubbard's approach to mental health. >> don't associate scientology with such people. >> psychiatry cannot point to a single cure. >> reporter: scientology has described psychiatry as an industry of death. why is that? >> well, i think that's a catch phrase, but what scientology has worked hard against are abusive practices of psychiatry in general. >> reporter: you say not psychiatry in general, but an industry of death sounds pretty general. >> well, because, unfortunately, there have been a lot of abuses and psychiatry has caused a lot of deaths. >> reporter: therapist rachel bernstein says those are scare tactics, and she says she sees the impact on former scientologists she treats. >> they've been made to feel so scared of therapists, in general, because they've been told that they're going to be

electrodes on their heads. and it's keeping the blame on the victim. >> reporter: the church denounces bernstein specifically as biased an unethical, but surge gil says his psychiatrist was nothing but helpful. >> it was the best thing to happen to me, because finally, i had someone that had a clinical understanding of what was done to me and what was sold to me. the therapy with my doctor was everything i wish i would have had, just someone that would listen to me and understand me and not judge me. >> reporter: he says psychotherapy finally allowed him to deal with his experiences and also to see that it was actually healthy for him to cut ties with anyone in the church, including his family. >> he is capable of manipulating, lying and saying things that are not true. >> reporter: the church sent us these video statements from serge's father and sister, attacking his character and cred

>> one thing that should be known about sergio is that he is a really, really amazing liar. >> there's people out there saying, stop the disconnection, i say, bring on the disconnection. disconnect yourself from toxicity, because it's not okay. this is insanity. there's nothing that is socially intelligent about this equation whatsoever. >> reporter: serge says he's now regaining his mental health and rebuilding his strength to take on the church, possibly in civil court. >> what happened to us as children cannot be happening to any one more child, because it's just unconscionable. >> reporter: with this interview, serge has now officially joined the ranks of the anti-scientology movement. when we come back, the movement's most famous face talks about her new line of attack, one that might hit the church where it hurts the most. >> what do you think about that,

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♪ >> reporter: in the history of scientology, there may be no more triumphant moment than this. >> welcome! >> reporter: the day in 1993 when, after years of nasty battles, david miscavige declared victory over the irs. >> it was a war out of control. >> reporter: with the help of attorney monique yingling, the church was granted tax exempt status as a religious organization. >> there will be no more discrimination. the irs issued letters recognizing scientology and every one of its organizations as fully tax exempt. the war is

>> reporter: it is precisely that status and its attendant financial and legal privileges that the church's most committed enemies now want to strip away. why is that so important? >> because by the irs saying, this is a religious organization, they're hiding behind now, freedom of religion. and they should take a look. i'm hoping there'll be somebody with some balls who will do something about it. i mean, i'm just a crappy has-been actress, who is trying to make a dollar off my church. how much can i do? >> no, the church is not concerned at all that this is a real possibility, certainly not something that leah remini could ever pull off. so, there's no bases at all which the irs would attempt to revoke the exempt status. >> reporter: scientology claims people like leah are coordinating the fabrication of false allegations. and that all of these lies have

the church sent us this video of a man who threw a hammer and broke a window at a scientology building in los angeles. and they also say death threats have been against church leader david miscavige. but leah remini has no plans to slow down. she says she's hoping more ex scientologists come forward to her and ultimately to law enforcement. what is your fondest hope? that you bring down the church? >> that somebody's willing to be honest enough to say, "what these people are saying is true and i'm ready to prosecute." we need that person. >> reporter: prosecution. >> damn right. what do you think about that, dan? >> reporter: it's not my job to -- >> you're an [ bleep ]. >> reporter: the church insists it will continue to stand tall. at a new year's event, david miscavige said scientology would continue to open new facilities around the world. it will also be expanding its gleaming television production facilities.

>> here's what the church has to say about their disconnection policy. >> reporter: and meanwhile, with leah remini in talks for a second season of her show, it seems certain that the scientology wars will continue. neither side is running short of ammunition. so, you're not going away. >> oh, i'm not going away. that's for sure. that's for sure. >> you're sure to have thoughts about tonight's program. so, continue the conversation with us on facebook and twitter, use #abc2020. >> later tonight, right here on a special edition of "nightline" tonight, the very latest on the shooting at ft. lauderdale airport, the terror in terminal two. i'm david muir. >> i'm elizabeth vargas. for all of us here at "20/20" and abc news, have a good night and a great weekend. gunfire: five dead in at a florida airport.

>> everybody just scattered. >> they said run, run, run, so we ran. >> it is like a war zone. jonathan: a terrifying afternoon, running for cover at the fort lauderdale airport. new information about the shooting that left five people dead and eight people with gunshot wounds. the police say the