I know I have commented on this before, but it never ceases to amaze me how the Advanced Org for the CONTINENT of Africa serves exclusively the tiny minority of the citizenry who are white.
The photos of the graduates below are not cherry-picked. They are what is attached to the email of the “latest AOSH Africa completions.”
It is the same every time they send these out.
Of course, dianetics and scientology from the outset have been white-centric (probably not a word, but it seems appropriate). Just look at the earliest photos of dianeticists and scientologists gathered anywhere and they are virtually ALL white.
Why is this?
Partly due to the way scientology was sold: the fact that it necessitates available disposable income = middle class America.
But there can be no doubt that Hubbard himself was a racist and when he traveled to S. Africa in the early 60’s he sought to ingratiate himself with the apartheid government of Verwoerd, praising their efforts to “resettle” the black population into “townships” among other things.
Today, the tradition of excluding the vast majority of the population of the country — let alone the continent — continues. Of course they would claim this is all a vicious lie. But the pictures tell the story.
Black FSMs and Black Regs ought be asked their views.
The exorcism theory of Scientology sounds probably too big of a stretch also, for any culture that has some inkling of spirits in their cultural education.
Hubbard’s exorcism procedures are just too penalty laden and troublesome to learn and “master” if you ask me.
Scientology’s quackery is just too difficult to do, and so many pitfalls that blame you for being incapable of doing it “standardly”, always blaming you if it fails. Making practitioners of Scientology is arduous and most people fail to become competent Hubbard quackery experts.
And no matter who does the quackery, the results are so lackluster.
There are no and have never been any really convincing soul flying Scientologists who can perform supernatural miracles.
Why waste one dime of one’s expendable income money for quackery that doesn’t produce the promised supernatural results?
It’s a blessing not to be lured into Hubbard’s quackery and exorcism procedures crap.
The “money” ridge on the Bridge, is a good ridge and it stopped me, which is one reason in the back of my head I was happy I joined staff and Sea Org, since the costs of other even 10 Gs, back in the mid 1970s, was out of reach for me, realistically.
Scientology’s quackery is stretched out, just like a long con.
It’s like Hubbard was in the back of his mind, using psychiatry/psychologists’ therapy programs of long duration as his model.
Stretch it out, for long range. keep the supernatural powers and soul flying as long term carrots for the dupes wishing to pay for all that quackery pseudo-therapy and exorcism.
The Volunteer MInisters and coffeeshop auditing tiny spurts of bringing the prices of the quackery down to free level, was correct (nutty to expect anyone, paying or not, to do the durned pseudo-therapy and exorcism though when it’s all laid out to see in detail what this crap does and doesn’t do).
There’s just too much wrong in all directions with a quackery pseudo-therapy exorcism sales cult. No fixing it in all directions, really.
Chuck, are you sure there’s even a single Black FSM or Reg to ask?
Don’t they practice Black Dianetics in SA?
Mike, that is slander, and I will not allow it. Ron was no racist – quite the opposite. Hell, he even said “no one is a better friend to the black man than me!” If THOSE aren’t the words of a committed anti-racist, then I don’t know what is…
(I’m joking, by the way)
Mike, were there any black completions?
Maybe it’s because, as Hubbard says, the black people are to busy talking to inanimate objects!
Lmao.
I see this phenomenon as just another example of how IGNORANT Hubbard was, and scientology hasn’t gotten any better because it’s FORBIDDEN to change — except when the Dwarfenführer® decides to do or change whatever the heck he wants. Ron’s ‘tech’ (technique) wasn’t perfect, but Davey-Boy hasn’t done anything to improve ANYthing. — by design, IMO. He just wants whatever he can carve out for his own purposes. Courting NOI is an example of Dave seeing a few extra bucks. possibly a “woke” brownie point and not thinking things through and I continue to predict that it will backfire on him somehow. I see a couple of paths that can take, but the exact timeline of the demise of the organization now calling itself scientology isn’t important, but might be a source of debate to future academics studying the phenomena of “new religions” in the 20th Century and beyond, WHY they failed to gain traction.
Something else creeps me out about the old pictures. Does anyone else notice that when he ‘demonstrated’ auditing, he always picked young women? Yech! All anyone had to do was read Dianetics to see he HATED women. He kinda liked having sex with them, but nothing else. So those pictures are extra creepy.
That is a good point, a very good point.
What struck me was the in your face, self confidence of the man portrayed in those images. I must admit back in the day I was impressed and got swept along with that, that there truly must be something to this Scientology. Couple of “feel good” sessions, a solution for mankind’s woes and I was in.
But now, looking back with the experience of extensively studying and living Scientology 6-7 days a week for a decade or more professionally, going up to its second highest level as a trained auditor and supervisor that that self confidence in Hubbard I realized was the flux upon which the scam of Scientology floated. His policies in particular when really looked at laid bare the true totalitarian system of his organisation and the sheer pursuit of money and domination over its followers. It introduced & nurtured an us verses them mentality very well and created a very strong do or die belief.
I guess, it only ever had a certain lifespan as the technology doesn’t go anywhere, the contradictions within it are extremely numerous and Hubbard ended up on the run from the law, died or was killed in some lonely travel trailer. Now, it’s just a money grab & laundering scam with branches across the globe with little to no scrutiny of its books due to religious rights murkiness and lawyers hovering around it like flies around manure. Sigh…
Ol’ Hubs LOVED to demonstrate his techniques on women, didn’t he?🤪
This reminds me of the Cult classic movie The Master.
It has described it explicitly in a song ….sung by Philip Seymour Hoffman .
I just ordered that DVD from ebay, you reminded me I wanted to see this movie with it’s parallels to Sci.
👌
Joseph Smith, Jr was himself a racist. Mormonism was designed to change as needed. Scientology appears to not be designed to be changed.
Actually, Joseph Smith gave the Melchizedek Priesthood to several black men, many of them former slaves. It was Brigham Young who instituted the priesthood ban on blacks and first taught the doctrines of blacks being the seed of Cain, the seed of Ham, sitting on the fence during the War in Heaven, etc. And before we label LRH a bigot, bear in mind that these pictures were from the 1950s when segregation was commonplace. Not saying I agree with it but as the saying goes, don’t judge the past by the standards of the present.
It’s not an “appearance”, it’s specifically dictated, starting with KSW. Until “Captain Miscavige” started throwing his (negligible) weight around, ANYONE who dared change ANYTHING was soundly castigated. Now, who KNOWS what the hefty one really had in mind?
Hmmm … I’m not at all convinced this has much to do with race as the CoS is happy to have the NOI join and will gladly take money from anyone of any race.
First of all , there is only a teeny tiny amount of people of ANY race involved in Scientology. Small small sample size. And a good percentage of them are in Taiwan and Japan.
But more to the point about black people in Africa, Scientology charges MONEY and a lot of it, which limits its public mostly to upper middle class and higher white people. Add to that that there is no tradition of black Africans getting involved in Western Alternative Religions, and along with the money issue, I think that largely explains the no black folks at the African orgs, rather than any racist outlook from Scientology itself.
Right, Joe. Several staff members at CCNashville were black during the time I was there including Mel Nelson(RIP), Bryant Goggins and Richard Alexander. I agree that the absence of blacks in South Africa Orgs is more economic than racial.
Alcoboy, the relatively more recent and more systemic racism in South Africa can’t directly be compared to the US, so I don’t think it can be used as a basis for ruling out the possibility that the almost complete lack of Blacks in Scientology in South Africa is at least partly due to racism or similar exclusion. Also, South Africa is overwhelmingly Black (81%) compared to the US (13%), so it’s a much more glaring discrepancy.
But I agree it’s hard to say for certain what the causes really are.
“Alcoboy, the relatively more recent and more systematic racism in South Africa can’t be directly compared to the US.”
Please don’t take this wrong but you must not live in Cleveland County, North Carolina.
I agree with you, Joe. Co$ is all about the money. If blacks as individuals and as demographics had more people and more money than whites Co$ would be courting them like mad.
The same principle I believe applies to the cult’s positioning themselves with Christianity. The crucifix on top of all of their new churches, the Christmas celebrations, the Easter Egg hunts – all PR, all window dressing to implant Scientology as a “safe” established religion, nothing more than a cynical marketing ploy to garner more converts and pass themselves off as respectable.
If Judaism were the dominant religion by numbers in America and in the world, every Scientology church would have a Star of David on it.
The cult would be holding Chanukkah Events, Passover Events and they’d be sucking up like crazy to the JDL. The cult would condemn as a Suppressive Group with their members all PTS, and no Scientologist in good standing would be permitted membership. The Anti-Semites Farrakhan and Tony Mohammad et al would be high on their SP list if Judaism were the dominant religion in America and in the world.
Its all money, the cult’s targeting of the most influential, money’d and populous demographics – all money, their positioning of themselves with same so as to make more money.
Yeah, Joe.
BUT how many Blacks do we see completing steps ANYwhere in Africa, where they SHOULD be a majority? There’s ONE org, AFAICT, in all of Africa, and that’s that lily-white one in South Africa.
Where are the ideal orgs in any other African countries? The closest one was Israel, which was tossed out of Davey’s little fiefdom.
For that matter, no where near the expected numbers of blacks are shown in the rest of the world, other than a couple of token NOI bigwigs occasionally.
Joe, you’re definitely on to something in noting that Blacks tend not to participate in very Western-oriented traditions. That’s particularly notable in a number of liberal and progressive Christian churches in the US that have gone out of their way to try to be welcoming and exclusive, but struggle to attract Blacks (and often other ethnic, and socioeconomic, groups as well).
There are cultural factors at work (scientology also hasn’t done well among South Asians, for example) that aren’t necessarily good or bad, they’re just differences between people of different backgrounds.
But that also doesn’t exclude racism being at play, in some cases and perhaps in some particular locations.
I feel that in both cases(SA and US), institutionalized racism has caused blacks to adopt a ‘stick to your own kind’ approach to joining things like churches and such. This could be why blacks tend to avoid predominantly white organizations.
Alcoboy, Western spiritual traditions can be rather dryly intellectual — and I can’t blame Blacks (and others) for not being very attracted to them. It’s one of the reasons that mainstream Protestant churches are having trouble attracting even white members any more, compared to other churches that have more engaging and moving services including the use of more dynamic music, and even the incorporation of movement.
I’ve been involved in church and ecumenical work, and I can say there are definitely cultural factors at work, along with some of the sort of systemic things you mention as well. I can point out as an example that if you go to an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church the service has a completely different feel compared to either a traditional Methodist or Episcopal service, even though it has origins in mainline protestantism (and in anti bellum divisions over whether to oppose slavery).
And again, that’s not necessarily good or bad (though some things about culture, can be), just different. Just as a day starting out with English scones and tea, and ending up with a good roast beef and side of Yorkshire pudding can be great; but if I want to do a real tour of highly developed culinary variety, I’m going to go to someplace like Spain or Italy (where I’m also apt to get hugs rather than handshakes), not Britain.
A true sign that they are only after the money. Really, it is. They don’t seem to go after those who don’t have/can’t borrow money.
It’s all about the Benjamins. If you don’t have the money or won’t give them your money they don’t want you.
Pretty plain isn’t it? To me it is.
The first thought that came to mind about this was, “what doesn’t stink about Scientology?”
But, Mike. Can you conclusively prove that black people are being turned away from the doors by Scientology staff members? There could be other reasons why the public in South Africa are primarily white.
The article didn’t say they were being turned away. It basically said they weren’t targeted because they are mostly lower income. No money? No Scientology! Oh, and all you need to do is read some of L.Ron’s “scripture” to see he (and therefore his followers) was a blatant racist.
Mike said that was PARTLY the reason why. He then goes on to say that the ‘tradition’ of excluding the majority of the people of the continent continues which, from the way I read it, is an accusation of racism.
Ron’s policy was, “free service, free fall.”
Alco,
Black people are not being turned away from Scientology churches. They are simply not showing up. They don’t have the money, most of them, to afford Scientology services,
In fact, MOST people, of ALL races, colors, religions, nationalities, ethnicities, etc., don’t have the money to do Scientology!
In the cult, there’s only one color and that’s green. (Or whatever the color of some country’s money happens to be.)
At least for now, black South Africans however diverse they may be as to profession and ethnic origins are not for the most part money’d demographics. If any Black South African showed up with money they’d be snapped up by the cult.
Forgot to add: The cult’s focus on money alone does manifest as racism but its de facto racism.
@Alco
Also forgot to add: In LRH’s time in SA there WAS discrimination. Apartheid was the law. Doesn’t apply now. De facto discrimination exists because blacks in SA are mostly poor although they out-number whites population-wise. I almost always agree with Mike Rinder’s take on cult issues but on this one I disagree. Its all about the money. I’m sure the cult would LOVE to have plenty of wealthy SA blacks in their orgs getting services. It would be very good PR for the cult and hey, Black African money is just as green as any one elses’, as the saying goes.
Right. Like I pointed out in another comment many of my friends on staff at CCNashville were black including the late and most beloved Mel Nelson. I just feel that, at the end of today’s blog that Mike is making a slight insinuation that Scientology in South Africa is still practicing racism. I could be wrong in this but that’s how I read it.
I would love to hear Mike’s take on it.
Alcoboy, physically turning Blacks away isn’t necessary when they are confronted by an all-white crew demanding their MONEY right up front.
True that. But that turns away even white people. Not to mention Latinos and Asians.
“So you want me to take out a second mortgage on my house and give it to the, what was it called, the eye ay ess?”
“Yes!”
“Um, in return for what?”
“Why, STATUS, of course!”
That would send ALL ethnicities running for the door!