Faking Religion in The 1970s

Back When We Knew Scientology Was Not a Church

This post is in response to the August 7, 2025 post. I have been having server issues this week. The poll has been extended a week. Be sure to get your votes in on the new poll. And for my very patient paid subscribers, I have been working with tech support on the finishing touches. I hope to have the last technical glitch fixed any day now. I promise it will be worth the wait. But on to this post.

The 1960s and the early 1970s were a tumultuous time in America. I remember my high school graduation in 1972. There were at least 50 mothers and fathers who walked for their sons who had been drafted to go fight in the war that was never declared a war. Seven of those mothers were walking for their dead sons. Anyone who was part of that generation has the JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations burned in their psyche.

Not only were anti-war protests prolific nationwide, they were sometimes violent, and they also turned deadly. In May 1970 alone, deaths occurred at the Kent State shootings followed less than two weeks later by the Jackson State Killings. With the teen and young adult society in upheaval, people were looking for ways to escape being drafted. The people who came home from the war were treated with derision. Even though it was not their choice to go fight there in the first place.

Some people ran away across the border and hid rather than be drafted. So Hubbard found a really easy solution for the draft problem. He invited them into Scientology. Until then it had been a study of the mind, or when forced to call it any sort of religion, the definition was stretched to an applied religious philosophy. The draft gave Hubbard a good excuse to recruit people under the aegis of religion and he created the Scientology Minister’s Course.

In 1969, the official minister’s course came into being. It was created so people could become bona fide ministers in the eyes of the law. This was advertised in an underground manner as a bonus for joining Scientology. It was whispered that although you didn’t have to do all the worshipping stuff, in a week you could become a Scientology minister. This would make you ineligible for the draft. And the ministers Scientology created actually had legal standing to perform marriages, christenings, funerals, etc. The part that wasn’t pointed out to the poor dupes who took the minister’s course was that they were stuck behind the doors of Scientology until they could find a way to escape.

So the people flocked to the Scientology centers offering the course. It was offered at all the centers, even the Missions, so it was easy to take the course. After taking the course, the newly minted ministers were required to purchase their own vestments, clerical collar, Scientology Cross, and of course, the Ceremonies of the Founding Church book with the specific Hubbard ceremonies listed in it. They were then required to pay the fee to file their own ministerial registration with the State in which they resided. This, however, was a small price to pay to avoid getting drafted.

Below is the table of contents for the book that the ministers used to perform their ceremonies. Hubbard discouraged the ministers from going off script and using their own ceremonies.

Even in the 1970’s when I joined, we were rushed through this course almost immediately. Then we were officially part of the *wink wink nudge nudge* religion. Most staff members were also ministers. That’s a whole lot of people able to perform these services. But in the 1970s there were a lot more people coming in the doors of Scientology.

It was an odd sensation wearing the fake clerical vestments. Especially when we had to wear the fake cross as well. We didn’t generally have to wear them. But when there were inspections by officials to ensure we were legal, even the course supervisors were required to dress in the ministerial garb. The students on the Briefing Course were encouraged to wear their ministerial garb as well if they had been ordained. It was such a good costume party day.

The photo that is the feature in this article is a press photo from the FBI raid. Apparently it was a staged photo. I was not present for this photo. I was across the street at the Shangri-Lodge shooting photos from the third floor balcony as the agents exited the manor with boxes. The photo makes me laugh because it shows a priest holding a book with a giant cross on the front of it standing amid FBI agents carrying boxes of documents (that we had stolen from them) out of the Manor.

But here’s the most important thing to remember. In the 1970s, there was no question that the word “church” was simply a name that was spoken. It meant absolutely nothing. The people who were part of Scientology were under no illusion that Scientology and religion had anything to do with each other. We were just putting on a show. For draft dodgers, it was a legal, convenient way to avoid having to hide out in a foreign country.

But apparently, somewhere along the way, the people behind those closed doors have lost track of the fact that what they are doing in that bubble is not a religion. At best, they are learning some arcane knowledge on the mind that is not even researched. At worst, they are being trapped and brainwashed. Anyone who has read my blog knows which way I believe.

But it is not a religion. Scientology is all about word definitions. Websters defines religion as:

re·li·gion

/rəˈlij(ə)n/

noun

1. the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods.

The only way Scientology could possibly squeeze religion into that definition is if they believe and worship the alleged OTs and the supposed powers that OTs have. That is really pushing it. They are not benevolent, they are not kind. They are not a religion. I was there. I escaped with my life (barely). Pretending to be a religion does not automatically make you a religion. It is a shame that those still stuck behind the bubble somehow have convinced themselves that they are, in fact, a religion now.