Scientology's Real Battle

The Church of Scientology's most important fight is not with Anonymous. While this is part of the fight, it isn't the main fight. The protests could go away, and the church's real battle would continue.

The Church of Scientology's key fight is not with any Scientology critic, either. Again, they are a factor, but they are only another aspect of the fight.

Even the church's battle with web sites such as Wikileaks, Wikipedia are not the real fight.

These web sites, people and groups are all factors in the church's ultimate fight, but the fight is much more basic than that.

The Church of Scientology is fighting Truth.

Hubbard always was a storyteller. From the beginning he wove a rather fantastic patchwork quilt with colorful patches of imagination stitched together with threads of truth. He included just enough truth to hold the whole thing together and carry it forward. It was exciting to some. It sold.

Perhaps this patchwork was as he intended, or perhaps he got carried away with his own vision and started believing his own stories. In any case, when he died, what he left the church to work with had become a bit tattered. What he had claimed for Clear and OT far outstripped what he had ever, actually been able to deliver.

In actual fact, this was true of most of Hubbard's claims. The incredible successes that he claimed for his life, his philosophy, his technology and his administrative practices were just not showing up. Anyone who could view the whole fabric of Hubbard's creation would see the great gaping holes. It wasn't holding together.

It is entirely possible that it is because of these gaps between promises and delivery that Hubbard instituted a considerable level of secrecy in the Church of Scientology. All the information about Clear and OT was "confidential". Even the "OT" information that Hubbard had written and spoken about openly in the earlier days became secret, now. In addition, the management and statistics of the church became hidden. Bit by bit, the church, its management, its practices, its results, went into hiding.

This trend continued and accelerated after Hubbard's death, with whole organizations for upper church management coming into existence whose location, staffing and purposes were very secret.

It became the rule, rather than the exception, to keep secrets—from the world, from Scientologists, even from staff. The church and its activities became shrouded in multiple veils of secrecy, confidentiality and misdirection.

And with this extensive secrecy, inevitably came lies and misinformation. And the veils of secrecy became perfect cover for crimes, abuses and fraud. Agents from the church operated "missions" that were unknown to all but a few individuals at the top. "Operation Snow White", an illegal and covert operation of infiltration of the U.S. Government was carried out by the church under Hubbard's direction. "Operation PC Freakout", the illegal and despicable operation against a journalist who only reported the truth, is another example of the many activities that could only be carried out because of the shrouds of secrecy that now constitute the very fiber of the Church of Scientology.

And for each covert operation that bent, or more often broke, the law, there was the need for more secrecy, more lies, more misdirection, more "cover stories".

And it became the way of life for the Church of Scientology. Even when there was no need to be covert, to lie, it was the way of the church. Even Scientology's outreach programs into society, which, in a normal church, would have been simple and open, were operated by front groups whose connections to the Church of Scientology were buried or concealed. And these front groups were then vulnerable to more abuses and lies.

And, because of all the secrecy, the abuses were easy to pull off. The crimes were simple to operate. No one could see. No one was looking. The little bits that were displayed to the world and to the general Scientology public were the carefully selected "clean" bits. "Everything is fine, everything is good. Look at this shiny bit."

But behind the curtain of secrecy, the activities of the Church of Scientology and its upper management became darker and darker. Without visibility, who would ever know?

But there is, and always was, one fatal flaw to all this. The victims of the church's abuse and crimes will talk. Some of the other people who knew about the discreditable secrets would decide to disclose them. The secrets were never, entirely, secret.

And so it has happened with the Church of Scientology. For many years, the church has used an army of lawyers, threats, lawsuits, "Fair Game" tactics, "disconnection", "Suppressive Declares" and other ploys in a frantic attempt to keep their secrets hidden. At times it almost seemed to work, but finally all the church's dodging and ducking has failed. Now these tricks can never work. As much as the church might fight against it, the truth about their activities is out. Very thoroughly and completely exposed. Every day another of the church's secrets is exposed, verified or elaborated on.

So, the Church of Scientology is not, actually, fighting any specific person or group. What the Church of Scientology is fighting is truth and the exposure of its lies. It has already lost—the truth is already out there—their lies are known. Even true believer Scientologists can no longer ignore the truth; they are learning and they are leaving.

Yet, somehow, the church still believes it can suppress the truth and convince the world of their lies. Lost in his own little world, David Miscavige, leader of the Church of Scientology, still pretends that his secrets are all safe and that, somehow, the world still believes the church's lies.
-