Scientology Falsifies Mayoral Endorsements

A recent series of articles reveals that Scientology phonied up some nice endorsements for its "The Way to Happiness" booklet from San Francisco and Dallas mayors in a weird burst of self-promotion that has people wondering, "What the heck are they smoking?"

There have been two articles lately, from Dallas and San Francisco,
featuring identical stories involving Scientology's 'The Way to Happiness Foundation.'

It seems that some rocket Scientologist thought it was a good idea to print out the little booklet they hand out at disasters, with the official city seal and a picture of the respective mayors, suggesting endorsement of 'The Way to Happiness.'

It seems that Mayors Newsom and Leppert are less than pleased with their inadvertant endorsements. Indeed, Mayor Leppert has been provided with a statement on the Dallas booklet which might lead residents to wonder if their mayor is turning Scientologist, "I am happy to be able to offer this book as a helpful guide for every member of this community," the booklet states below the mayor's picture.

Mayor Newsom is also provided with a letter of endorsement, since he also hasn't bothered to write one of his own.

Lance Miller, President of The Way to Happiness Foundation, claims it was all "just a big misunderstanding." Amusingly enough, Miller states, "I want to keep it on the high ground." If faked endorsements are the high ground, I wouldn't want to see what Scientology considers low ground. Alas, I have, but that's another story.

What is 'The Way to Happiness?'
According to TWTH Foundation, "The Way to Happiness is the first moral code based wholly on common sense. First published in 1981, its purpose is to arrest the current moral decline in society and restore integrity and trust to Man."

They go on to hyperbolate further, "Written by L. Ron Hubbard, the booklet fills the moral vacuum of an increasingly materialistic society."

Isn't that grand? It's almost like they never heard of the Ten Commandments, of which these precepts are a pale and cheesy shadow.

For instance, precepts 19 and 20 are namby pamby suggestions:
#19.  Try Not to Do Things to Others that You Would Not Like Them to Do to You.

#20. Try to Treat Others As You Would Want Them to Treat You.

Try real hard, m'kay?

Elronically, the very issuing of these booklets featuring fraudulent endorsements violates a number of their own suggestions.

Like, f'rinstance, Precepts # 6, 7, 9, and 14, all of which relate to honesty, trustworthiness and truthiness.

Set a good example.
Seek to live with the truth.
Don't do anything illegal.
Be worthy of trust.

This booklet is, of course, not Scientology, according to Miller.
Like Narconon, Applied Scholastics, and the Purification Rundown, these are merely "based on the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard." But a guy who would phony up fake endorsements surely can't be depended upon to tell the truth about its connection.  

Although these booklets are given away, they still manage to earn Scientology some shekels. Members are urged to donate funds for specific events. For example, the Virginia Tech shooting resulted in the following message sent to Scientologists, "Please help us get The Way to Happiness books to the students, faculty, and members of the community of Blacksburg, VA following the tragic school shooting yesterday at Virginia Tech...Please donate to our campaign for Blacksburg, VA. We plan to distribute 25,000 books in this community. The first books are on their way now!!"

The Way to Happiness Foundation requested donations to print these up at a dollar a booklet. But, here's the kicker. According to TWTH's own documents, they can get the printing cost per booklet down to 14 cents or less if they print offshore.  Added to that, 7 cents per booklet goes to Author Services Inc (aka Galaxy Press aka Church
of Spiritual Technology), for a total cost per booklet of $0.21.

That's over a 400% markup! At 25,000 copies, what a tidy sum Scientology is making off its own members while parasitically riding the wake of disaster and human tragedy!

This isn't an isolated incident. After 911, the call went out to all hands. Scientology wanted leatherbound copies of 'The Way to Happiness' printed up for rescue workers and photo ops with officials. They were only charging members $5.00 a copy. It isn't known if any of these "special editions" were actually produced.

There was obviously some sort of "push" to print up these custom copies for city officials recently. So far, we've only heard from San Francisco and Dallas, but I have no doubt there are other mayoral offices on their list. A letter that came with the booklets asked the cities to purchase bundles for distribution around town.

Miller said "...just a dozen of the booklets bearing Newsom's photo were printed, and all were sent to Newsom's office as a sort of pitch to the mayor in hopes of recruiting him to participate in a campaign to promote Hubbard's writings."

Faking endorsements from city leaders is a strange way to gain support to promote Hubbard's material. But if it ain't strange and weird and repugnant, it ain't Scientology!

I suspect the reason this story made the news at all is a mayoral concern that constituents might think their mayors are becoming followers of L. Ron Hubbard.

I expect there would be the same response had the booklet been produced by the KKK. Or NAMBLA. It suggests that Scientology is becoming known as political poison, and an endorsement of any tentacle of it, political suicide.

And that's all right with me.