Scientology's story
1970s: Operation Snow White
In the 1970s Scientology's Guardian's Office infiltrated US government agencies. Eleven Church officials, including Mary Sue Hubbard, were convicted or pleaded guilty.
What happened
In the 1970s, the Church's Guardian's Office ran a programme its records called Snow White, placing agents in US government offices, including the IRS and the Justice Department, to find and remove files about Scientology. The FBI raided Church offices in 1977.
Eleven Church officials, including L. Ron Hubbard's wife Mary Sue Hubbard, pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes including obstruction of justice and theft of government documents. Hubbard himself was named an unindicted co-conspirator. The Church later disbanded the Guardian's Office.
A Bible lens
The apostles refused hidden and deceitful ways. Everyone stumbles; what matters is honest repentance.
2But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
2 Corinthians 4:2 (WEB) · context
25Therefore, putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
Ephesians 4:25 (WEB) · context
13He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
Proverbs 28:13 (WEB) · context
Sources
- United States v. Mary Sue Hubbard, 493 F. Supp. 209 (D.D.C. 1979).
- Lawrence Wright, Going Clear (2013).