Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

He claimed that after an innocent reference to Nixon in a Scientology magazine, two armed secret
service agents, acting on Nixon's orders, had threatened staff on duty at the founding church in
Washington: 'Hulking over desks, shouting violently, they stated that they daily had to make such
calls on "lots of people" to prevent Nixon's name from being used in ways Nixon disliked . . . They
said Nixon believed in nothing the Founding Church of Scientology stood for . . .
'We want clean hands in public office in the United States. Let's begin by doggedly denying Nixon
the presidency no matter what his Secret Service tries to do to us now . . . He hates us and has
used what police force was available to him to say so. So please get busy on it . . .'
Nixon was indeed denied the presidency, although it was possible that the famous televised
debates with John F. Kennedy had more to do with it than the HCO Bulletin. But it was becoming
evident that the owner of Saint Hill Manor considered he had an important role to play in political
and international affairs and it was a responsibility he had no intention of shirking.
An HCO Bulletin in June promulgated the 'Special Zone Plan - The Scientologists Role in Life', in
which Hubbard explained how Scientologists could exert influence in politics. 'Don't bother to get
elected,' he wrote. 'Get a job on the secretarial staff or the bodyguard.' In this way positioned close
to the seat of power, he argued, Scientology would be advantageously situated to transform an
organization. 'If we were revolutionaries,' he added, 'this HCO Bulletin would be a very dangerous
document.'
In August, the 'Special Zone Plan' was absorbed into a new 'Department of Government Affairs'
made necessary, Hubbard gravely explained, because of the amount of time senior Scientology
executives were having to devote to governmental affairs, as governments around the world
disintegrated under the threat of atomic war and Communism. 'The goal of the Department', he
wrote 'is to bring government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete
compliance with the goals of Scientology. This is done by high-level ability to control and in its
absence by a low-level ability to overwhelm. Introvert such agencies. Control such agencies.'
Returning to a familiar theme, Hubbard urged his followers to defend Scientology by attacking its
opponents: 'If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always
find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace . . . Don't ever
defend, always attack. Don't ever do nothing. Unexpected attacks in the rear of the enemy's front
ranks work best .'
The Department of Government Affairs never existed other than as a 'policy letter',[8] but then much
of Hubbard's private world only existed on paper. In HCO Bulletins and Policy Letters replete with
the trappings of bureaucratic red tape - colour-coded distribution lists, elaborate references,
innumerable abbreviations, etc - Scientology flourished as an international organization of
enormous influence waiting in the wings to save the universe from the combined perils of
Communism, nuclear weapons and its own folly.
Sitting at an electric typewriter in his study at Saint Hill Manor, often clicking away all night just as in
the days when he was writing science fiction, Hubbard demonstrated his extraordinary range as a
writer by effortlessly producing sheaves of documents that appeared to have been drafted by
committees of bureaucrats and lawyers. Laid out and printed like official government papers, they
conferred dry authority on content which, frequently, would not have withstood too close scrutiny. But
of course no Scientologist would question the literal truth of anything Hubbard wrote, no matter how
improbable - if Ron said it was so, it was so.