Political dupe of the day: KC councilman helps Scientology front group with 'murder' signs - 2020-12-23
Political dupe of the day: KC councilman helps Scientology front group with 'murder' signs December 23, 2020,
In 1980, Scientology was in big trouble. A 1977 FBI raid had resulted in 11 top Scientology officials being convicted of conspiracy as documents and testimony proved that the church had engaged in a years-long infiltration of the US and other governments, and had broken into sensitive offices and stole documents by the yard.
News of the raid and the subsequent prosecutions had put Scientology on front pages for a couple of years, founder L. Ron Hubbard had been named an unindicted co-conspirator, and his wife was filing appeals in order to delay going to prison.
Scientology had a major public relations problem which was compounded by the fact that few people knew what Scientology was or what Scientologists believed. To address that issue, Hubbard that year put out a slim volume called "The Way to Happiness," a collection of anodyne moral precepts stolen from other religious traditions.