Letter from Armstrong to Los Angeles City Council

October 7, 1996

Los Angeles City Council

Dear Council:

Today’s San Francisco Chronicle contains the following article: ” Separation Of Church And Street? ¹

The City Council of Los Angeles has voted to change the name of Berendo Street to L. Ron Hubbard Way.

Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology 40 years ago. Among his Hollywood believers are John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley.

The Council will vote on the renaming again this week; a second vote makes it official.”

I am submitting this letter to recommend that this vote not be taken until an independent study is done to determine who L. Ron Hubbard really was and what the organization that observes him as religious leader really is, and who are its present real leaders.

I ask for a public investigation and debate, because there exist real questions of widespread psychological abuse and civil rights violations. Los Angeles is a major center in the Scientology network, and Scientology is a major presence in Los Angeles, thus it is potentially a good place to ask and get answers to those real questions.

I was in Scientology from 1969 through 1981. Sketches of my Scientology history appear in the books published in the past decade. See, e.g., A Piece of Blue Sky by Jonathan Atack, L. Ron Hubbard – Madman or Messiah by Bent Corydon, and Bare-Faced Messiah by Russell Miller.

Following this letter is a decision after a thirty day trial in LA Superior Court in 1984 in the case of Scientology v. Armstrong, No. C 420153. This decision became a judgment which was affirmed after an appeal by the Scientology organization, Scientology v. Armstrong (1991) 232 Cal.App.3rd 1060, 283 Cal.Rptr.917. I ask that this decision be read and considered because it concerns the character and activities of the late Mr. Hubbard and his organization, and addresses some of the abuse and civil rights issues.

Since this decision Scientology has sued me four times in order to silence me about my knowledge of its antisocial practices and the fraud of Mr. Hubbard and break me financially. The organization has carried out what it calls a “black propaganda campaign” internationally to destroy my character and credibility. I am aware of similar attacks on other individuals whom the organization labels “enemies” and “fair game.” I am aware of Scientology’s use of the justice system to harass individuals and deny them their civil rights. I believe that Scientology’s use of the law to attack and destroy its targeted enemies is well known in the Los Angeles legal community, including among state and federal judges. I ask that the City Council make itself aware of Scientology’s actions, attitude and reputation in the city’s legal arena.

Although Scientology postures itself and L. Ron Hubbard as defenders of civil rights, they are not. Scientology does not allow freedom of speech, but suppresses it through coerced gag contracts, a well-financed and aggressive litigation machine, private investigators, threat, dirty tricks and black propaganda. Scientology’s overwhelming wealth in this age in which money buys injustice, and its policy and determination to use the justice system to make war on its labelled enemies, including its economic or psychological victims and the lawyers who might help them, has resulted in a cruel and nation-wide denial of due process.

Scientology does not in truth support freedom of religion, but uses the courts and the threat of prosecution to attack divergent practitioners and stifle religious dissent.

Although it claims to be “The Road to Total Freedom,” Scientology actually uses its power, its aggressive techniques and authority, and its misuse of the law to keep many people psychologically enslaved, in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment.

Importantly for me, and I believe for many others if they had this information, Scientology is not just another religion, but a consciously anti-Christian organization. In its public relations statements Scientology claims to be compatible with Christianity and to recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Yet what Hubbard actually wrote, and in the inner core what the organization teaches and adherents must believe, is that God, Heaven and Christ are “implants,” false ideas implanted by pain and electronics in mankind by implanters millions of years ago to control them.

Hubbard and now Scientology’s present leaders keep these core beliefs hidden, protecting them as “religious trade secrets” and attacking those who dare to expose these writings. Scientology will not let anyone be a Christian and still be a Scientologist, despite its public relations assertions to the contrary. And no Christian, if he knew that Scientology’s actual belief was that he was “psychotic, dramatizing an implant,” would consider putting his money or mind in the organization’s hands. I urge that this deceit be adequately confronted and responded to by Scientology’s leaders before the rest of their PR is believed by City Council.

I believe that the celebrities that Scientology uses in its public relations and marketing are deliberately kept in the dark about Scientology’s leaders’ use of the organization’s wealth and power to rob individuals of their civil rights. It seems fair to ask that if these celebrities are going to permit themselves to be used, they confront each allegation of abuse, and not just parrot or buy the organization’s public relations denials.

I ask that the City Council take this opportunity to itself ask questions and get answers, and not to act without becoming fully informed. In that there is considerable obfuscation and rewriting of history by Scientology, becoming fully informed is a considerable task. Therefore, I suggest that an independent and public study be done so that full information is obtained.

Thank you for this opportunity to communicate with each of you.

Yours sincerely

Gerry Armstrong
[former address]

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