Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Preface
The Revelation of Ron
It was a scene that could have been ripped from the yellowing pages of the pulp science fiction that
L. Ron Hubbard wrote in the Thirties . . .
A strangely alien group of young people who believe they are immortal set up a secret base in an
abandoned health spa in the desert in southern California. Fearful of outsiders, they suspect they
have been discovered by the FBI. In a panic, they begin to destroy any documents that might
incriminate their leader. It is essential they protect him, for they believe he alone can save the world.
Searching through the top floor of a derelict hotel, one of their number discovers a stack of battered
cardboard boxes and begins pulling out faded photographs, dog-eared manuscripts, diaries
written in a childish scrawl and school reports. There are twenty-one boxes in all, each stuffed with
memorabilia, even baby clothes.
The young man rummaging through the boxes is ecstatic. He is certain he has made a discovery of
profound significance, for all the material documents the early life of his leader At last, he thinks, it
will be possible to refute all the lies spread by their enemies. At last it will be possible to prove to
the world, beyond doubt, that his leader really is a genius and miracle worker . . .
Thus was the stage set for the inexorable unmasking of L. Ron Hubbard, the saviour who never
was.
• • • • •
Gerry Armstrong, the man kneeling in the dust on the top floor of the old Del Sol Hotel at Gilman Hot
Springs that afternoon in January 1980, had been a dedicated member of the Church of
Scientology for more than a decade. He was logging in Canada when a friend introduced him to
Scientology in 1969 and he was immediately swept away by its heady promise of superhuman
powers and immortality. During his years as a Scientologist, he had twice been sentenced to long
periods in the Rehabilitation Project Force, the cult's own Orwellian prison; he had been constantly
humiliated and his marriage had been destroyed, yet he remained totally convinced that L. Ron
Hubbard was the greatest man who ever lived.
The dauntless loyalty Hubbard inspired among his followers was tantamount to a form of mind
control. Scientology flourished in the post-war era of protest and uncertainty when young people
were searching for a sense of belonging or meaning to their lives. Hubbard offered both, promised
answers and nurtured an inner-group feeling of exclusiveness which separated Scientologists
from the real world. Comforted by a sense of esoteric knowledge, of exaltation and self-absorption,
they were ready to follow Ron through the very gates of Hell if need be.
At the time Armstrong discovered the treasure trove of memorabilia at Gilman Hot Springs,
Hubbard had been in hiding for years. His location was known only as 'X', but Armstrong knew that
it was possible to get a message to him and he petitioned for permission to begin researching an
official biography, forcefully arguing that it would prepare the ground for 'universal acceptance' of
Scientology. He saw it as the forerunner of a major motion picture based on Hubbard's life and the
eventual establishment of an archive in an L. Ron Hubbard Museum.