Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Chapter 13
Apostle of the Main Chance
'A historic milestone in the personal life of L. Ron Hubbard and in the history of Dianetics and
Scientology was passed in February 1954, with the founding of the first Church of Scientology. This
was in keeping with the religious nature of the tenets dating from the earliest days of research. It
was obvious that he had been exploring religious territory right along.' (Mission Into Time, 1973)
• • • • •
Hubbard had been quietly planning the conversion of Scientology into a religion for more than
twelve months, ever since his return from Europe in the autumn of 1953. It made sense financially,
for there were substantial tax concessions available to churches, and it made sense pragmatically,
for he was convinced that as a religion Scientology would be less vulnerable to attack by the
enemies he was convinced were constantly trying to encircle him.
Furthermore, religion was booming in post-war America. All the churches were increasing their
membership, there was a new interest in revivalism, epitomized by Billy Graham's spectacular
crusades, and even theologians were fostering the concept of the church as integral to
contemporary culture, reflected in the popularity of songs like 'I Believe' and epic films like The Ten
Commandments. Politicians, too, spoke of 'piety on the Potomac' and President-elect Dwight D.
Eisenhower declared in late 1952: 'Our government makes no sense unless it is founded on a
deeply felt religious faith - and I don't care what it is!' In 1954 Congress boosted the new piety by
adding the phrase 'under God' to the pledge of allegiance.
Hubbard was quick to recognize there was a religious bandwagon rolling and equally quick to leap
nimbly aboard. In December 1953, he incorporated three new churches - the Church of American
Science, the Church of Scientology and the Church of Spiritual Engineering - in Camden, New
Jersey. On 18 February 1954, the Church of Scientology of California was incorporated. Its objects,
inter alia, were to 'accept and adopt the aims, purposes, principles and creed of the Church of
American Science, as founded by L. Ron Hubbard'. Another Church of Scientology was
incorporated in Washington DC and throughout 1954 Hubbard urged franchise holders around the
United States to convert their operations into independent churches. Executives of the Hubbard
Association of Scientologists International henceforth described themselves as 'ministers', and
some of the more flamboyant even took to wearing clerical collars and pre-fixing their names with
'Reverend'.
At the beginning of 1955, Hubbard moved his headquarters from Phoenix to Washington DC,
declaring his belief that the church's constitutional rights were safer under the jurisdiction of
Federal, rather than State, courts. Travelling with him to Washington was a veritable family
entourage, including his heavily pregnant wife and their two small children, his son Nibs and his
wife, Henrietta, also pregnant. On Sunday, 13 February, Mary Sue gave birth to a daughter, Mary
Suzette Rochelle Hubbard, her third child in rather less than three years of marriage.
The Hubbards moved into a two-storey house in the leafy Maryland suburb of Silver Spring, just
outside the Washington DC metropolitan area, and it was from there that Ron resumed his
correspondence with the Communist Activities Division of the FBI. On 11 July 1955, he wrote a
maundering three-page letter, about Communists and wicked accountants conspiring with