Shelley Berkley, representing Nevada’s First District in Congress, speaking to Scientologists in Las Vegas
Three U.S. congressmen and a top-level government official attended the opening of the Church of Scientology's National Office in Washington, D.C., Thursday.
Their attendance marked a significant endorsement from members of a government that was once partially at war with the organization.
Lawmakers in attendance were Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Indiana Republican Rep. Dan Burton and Illinois Democratic Rep. Danny Davis. Liz Gibson, Senior Program Manager at the Federal Emergency Management Agency was also in attendance.
Jackson Lee
applauded the organization.
"I want to thank L. Ron Hubbard for recognizing that courage is not rewarded but it is valued," said the congresswoman. L. Ron Hubbard was the church's founder.
"And to be able to have the wonderment of people coming together and ensuring that people come together for peace. That's what I see in the Church, that you have come together for peace. I welcome and support that," she said.
Burton and Davis lauded the church's efforts in pushing Congress to pass legislation targeted toward child medication and the criminal justice system. Gibson praised the disaster relief the Church of Scientology has provided in times of crisis.
Church of Scientology spokesperson Karin Poux told TheDC, "None of the US government officials who spoke at the opening celebration are members of the Church of Scientology."
The office, located in Dupont Circle in Washington, was opened two blocks down the street from the L. Ron Hubbard House, once called the Founding Church of Scientology.
Hubbard purchased the house in 1955, just two years after the first Scientology church was incorporated in Camden, N.J. The building, raided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in January 1963, now serves as a museum for the organization.
The organization was later raided by the FBI in 1977 during the agency's investigation of Operation Snow White.
Launched in 1973, Operation Snow White, was the single largest penetration of federal agencies, and theft of government documents, by a non-state actor.
Set in motion by the church's Guardian's Office, now called the Office of Special Affairs, the Church of Scientology sought to purge the U.S. government of any negative information it held about the organization.
The organization has sought to combat its infamous reputation as a cult for the better part of its existence. Governments around the world primarily consider the Church of Scientology to be a business, not a religion. The Canadian government, however, considers the church a criminal organization.
The Church of Scientology later claimed a major victory against the U.S. government in 1993 when it was granted tax-exempt status. David Miscavige, chairman of the Religious Technology Center of the Church of Scientology, happily declared at the time, "The war is over."
When asked about the change in tone with the U.S. government, the Church of Scientology had a different interpretation of events.
"The Church of Scientology has never been at odds with the U.S. government, although the Church did have problems in the past with individuals in some government agencies, due mainly to the dissemination of false reports about Dianetics and Scientology," said Karin Pouw, spokesperson for the Church of Scientology.
"Those problems are long past. Over the years, as we have proven those reports to be false, relations have improved," said Pouw.
A 1997
New York Times piece about the matter labeled the decision by the U.S. government as "an invaluable public relations tool in Scientology's worldwide campaign for acceptance as a mainstream religion."
Pouw did acknowledge, however, the importance of receiving tax exempt status from the IRS.
"Certainly, the recognition by the Internal Revenue Service of our tax-exempt status in 1993 was an important milestone in the Church's relationship with the government as it enabled us to devote more of our resources to helping people," said Pouw.
At the event on Thursday, Miscavige said that the National Office was "designed to give back to a United States government that steadfastly guaranteed our religious rights - the very freedom that allows us to do what we are doing today."
This is Larry. I will reiterate my usual points and then comment on the above.
Scientology is a subject. Hubbard is the Founder and developer of that subject. This is why Scientologists call him "Founder."
The Church was established by Scientologists to help promulgate the subject. The Church asked LRH for advice on how best to operate its affairs, and he provided volumes of it. So the church and LRH are extremely closely connected.
But the church is a human group. And Scientology is a subject about the spirit, mind and life. Scientology would exist without the church. But without the church Scientologists would lose one of their strongest groups. So most Scientologists support the church and work hard to protect it.
I have no personal knowledge of the attacks that were made against Hubbard and his subject prior to the formation of the church in 1954. But stories have been told, and some documentation probably exists. I have been told that at least two attempts were made to either kidnap or kill him. So he had good reason to believe that something he had discovered or that he was talking about what upsetting somebody.
What he had discovered and what he was talking about was the beginnings of MK-ULTRA, or similar secret projects, which involved the use of hypnosis, drugs, and extreme duress (torture).
We KNOW that the government was really involved in such programs. We can only imagine who were the ultimate masterminds of these programs. And we could only imagine who were the ultimate masterminds of all the other anti-Scientology activity that was going on, mostly in countries where English was spoken. Until Hubbard recorded a talk in 1967 and told us.
I didn't hear this talk until 1981. But what he said was that he had hired a couple of PIs to look into the matter for him, and what they came up with pointed straight at the City of London (International Banking).
So, by 1967, you had a situation where LRH had called down psychiatry for murdering patients for profit, called down the secret mind-control programs, and called down international bankers, accusing them of having a plan to rule the world by making every country owe them more money than could ever be paid back.
And in this environment, you are going to ask me to trust these "ex-Scientologists" and other sources to tell me the straight story about my church? Sorry, I'm not buying it. And I don't know why anyone who bothered to look into the matter would buy it. From my common sense, as well as my personal experience, I would label over 99% of such reports as pure malicious story telling.
I got involved with the church just when the problems caused by certain persons in the Guardian's Office were being exposed. The story I was told was that certain persons, possibly at the urging of a provocateur, did something illegal and were caught, etc. These illegal actions destroyed the good name of the Guardian's Office, so it was disbanded. Its functions were taken over by OSA.
Hubbard's actual strategy, and the strategy used by OSA to this day, is to approach people in government who seem to be of good will, and introduce them to our materials, and ask them to try them out. And some of them do.
This has been happening, in its modern form, for about 15 years now, all over the world. And the church has made friends with many people of good will in many governments around the world, as well as in academia, and in small and corporate businesses.
If you assume that everyone in these institutions are tainted by the relatively few who take advantage of senior positions to commit crimes, then the fight for a better earth is lost before you even start. If you, instead, assume that people of good will exist in these institutions, and reach out to them, then meaningful reform becomes possible. From what I know, this is all the church is doing, and that is all it is trying to accomplish.