Mike Rinder, a former spokesman for the Church of Scientology who became one of its fiercest critics and who gained prominence as a host of the Emmy Award-winning television series “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath,” died on Sunday in Palm Harbor, Fla. He was 69.
His death, at a hospice center, was confirmed by his wife, Christie Collbran Rinder, who said the cause was esophageal cancer that had metastasized.
Mr. Rinder was raised in the Church of Scientology and rose to become an international spokesman, the head of its Office of Special Affairs and a member of the board of directors of Church of Scientology International from 1983 until 2007, according to his 2022 memoir, “A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology.”
Shortly after Mr. Rinder graduated from high school in 1973, he joined the Sea Organization, or Sea Org, an elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, and met the church’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, for the first time.
He remained at the Sea Org until 2007, he wrote in his blog, when he “finally decided there was no way I could change the culture of violence and abuse that had become endemic under the ‘leadership’ of David Miscavige,” Mr. Hubbard’s successor.
After leaving, Mr. Rinder spoke out about the abuses he said he had witnessed. The church responded by denying accusations of abuse and by attacking Mr. Rinder’s credibility, saying he had been expelled for malfeasance and had become a “professional anti-Scientologist” who “spews religious hatred.”
Mr. Rinder said he felt a duty to speak out because of the decades he had spent as a high-ranking church aide and one of its chief defenders in the news media.
“I don’t want people to continue to be hurt and tricked and lied to,” Mr. Rinder told The St. Petersburg Times in 2009, when he served as a crucial source for a three-part series on Scientology. “I was unsuccessful in changing anything through my own lack of courage when I was inside the church. But I believe these abuses need to end.”
Mr. Rinder was perhaps best known as a host, with the actress Leah Remini, of the documentary series “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath,” which ran for three seasons on A&E starting in 2016. The series, based on the accounts of former church members who said their lives had been harmed by Scientology, won Emmy Awards in 2017 and 2020.
Ms. Remini, who left the church in 2013, has also been an outspoken critic of Scientology. Her 2015 book, “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology,” helped inspire the series.
Mr. Rinder was also featured in the 2015 HBO documentary film “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” based on a 2013 nonfiction book of the same name by the journalist Lawrence Wright.
“I hope this movie increases public pressure for the church to change its abusive practices,” Mr. Rinder told The New York Times in 2015.
Michael John Rinder was born on April 10, 1955, in Adelaide, Australia. His father, Ian, was a “serial entrepreneur,” he wrote in his book, and his mother, Barbara, was “a homemaker who sometimes helped out in my father’s various business ventures.” The family, he wrote, was introduced to Scientology by a neighbor who attended lectures by Mr. Hubbard.
“So, really, my life was preordained into Scientology,” Mr. Rinder wrote in his book.
As a church official, he wrote that his days were “crammed with keeping track of Scientology’s enemies, conducting programs to neutralize them, putting out fires on the internet and dealing with the constant celebrity issues.”
He decided to leave in 2007, he wrote in his book, after a BBC reporter asked him if he had ever been struck by Mr. Miscavige. Mr. Rinder wrote that he told the reporter that Mr. Miscavige had not hit him, even though he said that was not true.
When he left, “it began a metamorphosis, slowly transitioning me from a fanatical follower of the cult I had been raised in to a dedicated whistle-blower about the abuses I experienced, witnessed and committed,” Mr. Rinder wrote in his book.
The church has denied that Mr. Miscavige ever struck staff members and has accused Mr. Rinder of lying.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Rinder is survived by their son, Jack Rinder; a stepson, Shane Collbran; and two children from a previous marriage, Benjamin Rinder and Taryn Teutsch.
In a final post on his blog, published on Sunday, Mr. Rinder wrote that he had been “lucky — living two lives in one lifetime.”
He said he remained deeply concerned about the practice of “disconnection,” under which members of the church break contact with friends, family members or associates who are deemed to have become hostile toward Scientology. Mr. Rinder had been estranged from his two oldest children since his departure from the church.
“My only real regret is not having achieved what I said I wanted to — ending the abuses of Scientology, especially disconnection and seeing Jack into adulthood,” he wrote. “If you are in any way fighting to end those abuses please keep the flag flying — never give up.”