Letter To The Editor

Dear Editor:
When I was in college there was a way to get a free lunch and a vegetarian one at that. Those who served the lunch were marked by their flowing robes and long ponytails protruding from an otherwise shaven head. So there was no surprise if your free lunch was immediately followed by a meditation session.
The late L. Ron Hubbard and his organization, The Church of Scientology, are offering you a free lunch. But the difference – and it is a difference of grave moral import – is that you won’t be able to see them coming. They won’t be wearing orange robes and playing tambourines. If the Hare Krishna came offering a free seminar on test taking skills you would think twice about going and we faculty would be shocked by the SGA and Student Programs Office suggesting that we offer bonus points for our students attending. There are differences between the Hare Krishna and the L Ron Hubbard Foundation. The latter is more insidious.
In a Time magazine article of 1991 they said “Scientology has lately resorted to a wide array of front groups and financial scams. Among them … Applied Scholastics … which is attempting to install a Hubbard tutorial program in public schools, primarily those populated by minorities.”
In a 1998 Boston Herald article, “Inside the Church of Scientology: Church Keys Programs to Recruit Blacks,” they said that “The learn-to-read program – the World Literacy Crusade – is part of a nationwide effort by the church to entice blacks into Scientology and then convince them to take other, expensive programs.” Additionally, “The Roxbury Mass. YMCA Youth Works allowed World Literacy Crusade workers to tutor teenagers there.”
Roxbury Youth Works administrator, Dave Wideman said, ‘We as an organization were a little apprehensive. It seems like they were trying to recruit people. The target group was the particular population we serve, predominantly young black men and women.”
I was surprised when I read about an L Ron Hubbard exhibit visiting the campus in early February [“L. Ron Hubbard exhibit visits SU campus” Digest 02/07/03]. It was sponsored by the same L Ron Hubbard Foundation that is participating in the test taking skills seminar on campus on March 5th. The exhibit was a feeler. If we had raised concerns over the exhibit in February then they would not be here in person in March. Let’s raise concerns this time.
Gregg Lubritz
Instructor, Philosophy