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Black Scientology

CommunicatorIC

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Very good article by Skip Press. For its length, a nice, concise, comprehensive history.

Black Scientology
http://www.themortonreport.com/celebrity/hollywood/black-scientology/

Excerpts:
When I first read of Scientology's most recent incursion into the black community in the U.S., I laughed, but that quickly turned to horror the more I learned. A small storefront on East 116th Street in Harlem had been closed, but a newer, flashier Scientology organization had been opened at 220 E. 125th Street. The New York Daily News noted it would be the Church of Scientology and Community Center of Harlem, a multimillion-dollar facility between Second and Third Aves. "Pray for East Harlem," said the article. "Tom Cruise’s celebrity-centric church has anointed the gentrifying neighborhood as its next holy land."

With a 200-seat prayer space, a cafe and a dozen classrooms, that meant quite a place, and the News pointed out Scientology had "opened a similar site in gang-heavy Inglewood, Calif., in 2011. Centers in rough-and-tumble areas of Chicago and Philadelphia are also being built."

Meanwhile, Tony Ortega, former editor of the Voice, on his excellent Underground Bunker blog, pointed out that "there’s already a Scientology outpost in Harlem, on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, between 141st and 142nd Streets" and that the Chicago plans weren't going very well for Scientology, to put it mildly.

That was good news, but I wondered why in the world would they focus on the African-American community, when any veteran Scientologist was well aware that Hubbard had been at least a closet racist, if not an open one? Then I quickly checked myself. Of course, it was the same old reason, the only one that ever mattered to Hubbard, or his dictatorial acolyte who took over Scientology, David Miscavige. There was money in them thar urban territories, and the Scientologists wanted it.
When I got into Scientology in Austin, Texas in September 1973, there weren't any black faces around.
Hey, maybe Beyonce's mom, Tina Knowles, is dating Scientologist actor Richard Lawson and getting interested in the "religion," but don't expect the singer and husband Jay-Z to go pumping millions into Scientology. It's too easy to learn from the Smith's experience.
 
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