Church of Scientology Mocks the New Yorker In Its Own Glossy Magazine

The Church of Scientology has published a 52-page glossy magazine mocking The New Yorker. The impetus for the parody publication was "The Apostate," a February New Yorker article detailing Crash director Paul Haggis' disillusion and exit from the church.

Called Freedom, the Scientology mag has its own elaborate website and leads with the cover story titled "The New Yorker: What a Load of Balderdash." Employing a typeface similar to the New Yorker's signature font, the articles in the mock (but clearly expensive and thorough) publication take issue with "The Apostate" author Lawrence Wright, New Yorker editors and fact checkers, and Haggis himself in a piece titled "A Freedom Profile of Paul Haggis: The Hypocrite of Hollywood."

PHOTOS: Scientology's Historic Hollywood Holdings

On Wednesday, copies of the magazine and a companion DVD were handed out in front of the building that New Yorker parent company Conde Nast calls home, according to The New York Times.

Though Freedom is filled with pages refuting the New Yorker's claims, the litigation-ready church has not, however, filed any legal actions against the high-brow magazine or Conde Nast, notes the Times. Time magazine wasn't as lucky -- it was hit with a $416 million lawsuit about its 1991 article "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power."

THR's recent story about church's real estate holdings, "Scientology's Hollywood Real Estate Empire," has thus far has avoided the church's legal wrath. But a reader did take issue with the media's reference to Scientology as a religion: "Why does this article, like so many others, continually refer to this filthy CULT as a "religion" or a "church," and their brainwashed, zombie, tinfoil hat-wearer adherents as "parishoners" [sic]? Give us a break, PLEASE !"

STORY: Paul Haggis Received 'Troubling' Emails After New Yorker Scientology Expose

Haggis told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year that he was flooded with both supportive and "troubling" emails after the New Yorker article was published, "I’ve been getting a lot of very supportive emails and I’ve been getting some really troubling ones. Some break my heart and some are just really angry."