Educational Leverage

World Literacy Crusade

Entertainer Isaac Hayes  is the International Spokesperson for Scientology's World Literacy Crusade . The goal of the WLC is laudable and it is easy to see why it attracts celebrity endorsement: "to establish community-based educational centers, where the people of the community may gain the basic tools they need to become self-sufficient and employable". This sentiment is particularly appealing in minority neighborhoods where, historically, access to educational resources has been limited and illiteracy rates are often high.

Eliminating illiteracy and educating our children is a fundamental need—one which Mr. Hayes likens to an emergency rescue:

If a building is on fire and my child is on the second or third floor, do you care, do you think I care about who comes to save my child? We're just simply talking about saving lives, and some people try to confuse the issue.

-Isaac Hayes, in an interview on Arts and Entertainment's "Investigative Reports: INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY"  with Bill Kurtis, 14 December 1998

The comparison plays upon our emotions in order to distract us from the real issue. Who among us would not heap gratitude upon Charles Manson for rescuing our child from a burning building? Our appreciation is not so enthusiastic, however, if Mr. Manson is our child's school teacher.

Study Tech

The World Literacy Crusade employs Study Technology , an educational methodology that was developed by L. Ron Hubbard and is used in all Church of Scientology schools. It claims to address the "failures" of traditional school systems, most notably the failure to teach students how to learn. It is the foundation of Scientology's nonprofit educational organization, Applied Scholastics , whose purpose is to disseminate this technology. Scientology claims on the one hand that it is a nonreligious program based on common sense and is suitable for public schools. On the other hand, it employs exactly the same techniques as the Church's religious instruction. The Church recognizes education as a potent weapon for furthering its religious goals:

Why is education so important? The Jesuits (an order within the Roman Catholic Church well known for their activism) exported the policy of starting Church schools in areas where they wished to introduce their religion. The reasons are obvious. By educating a child into one's own beliefs, one gradually takes over a whole new generation of a country and can thus influence, in the long term, the development and growth of that country. The Jesuits were very successful at this strategy.

-Impact (an International Association of Scientologists' publication), "In Search of Truth", Issue 7, pg. 49, 1986 (as quoted by Stephen A. Kent in International Society Control by the Church of Scientology )

Impossible to Train

Isaac Hayes is undoubtedly sincere in his beliefs, both in Scientology and the efficacy of the World Literacy Crusade. We do suspect, however, that the Church is using his celebrity status to gain wider acceptance in the African American community. In his address at the NAACP awards ceremony, Mr. Hayes said:

My real concern is education. Our people have been held down too long. They have been given all kinds of tags, by those who want us to believe that we cannot achieve.

-Isaac Hayes, telephone address to the 1997 NAACP Western Regional Conference, Los Angeles, California. See Freedom Magazine .

Apparently Mr. Hayes is not aware that his people were "tagged" by L. Ron Hubbard as stupid and ineducable:

The London Daily Mail similarly reported that Rhodesians to whom [Hubbard] had spoken had quoted him saying that Africans wouldn't qualify for Scientology membership because their I.Q. was too low.

-Chris Owen, Scientology's Fight for Apartheid: The Secret History of Racism in Scientology .

Blacks were so stupid, [Hubbard] told John McMaster, that they did not give a reading on an E-meter .

-Russell Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah , 1987, pg. 259.

The South African native is probably the one impossible person to train in the entire world — he is probably impossible by any human standard.

-L. Ron Hubbard, Professional Auditors Bulletin No. 119, 1 September 1957, "The Big Auditing Problem"