McAfee: Although L. Ron Hubbard was your great grandfather, you weren’t raised a Scientologist. Instead, you were brought up to be a Baptist Christian. Do you feel like religion was forced on you as a child?
Jamie DeWolf: Absolutely. I think that religion is forced on most people. If you’re a child and you’re not given a choice in the matter—and you’re basically just told this is how the world works, it isn’t voluntary. It was definitely forced upon me … I grew up with the anti-Christ as my boogeyman and I thought Armageddon would end the world. Christianity is an apocalyptic cult—it literally ends with death and destruction. The same death and destruction that David Koresh believed in, the same death and destruction that what they would deem a “crazy psychotic cult” would believe in. There is no real happy ending to the Bible—in Armageddon, the whole world becomes the devil’s fuck-toy and, after that, God comes down with a flaming sword out of his mouth and slays all his foes. Particularly as a young kid, this stuff absolutely terrified me—I thought it was going to happen at any moment and they constantly remind you that it can happen at any moment. I went to a Bible study camp where they told us that the Rapture was going to happen on Saturday. I had to go the whole week calculating and wrestling with the idea that I was going to be dead—that my entire life was basically over.
McAfee: You’ve been openly critical of many religions. How would you define your own religious beliefs?
Jamie DeWolf: My great grandfather was a cult leader and I grew up Baptist Christian … let’s just say that I have a healthy dose of skepticism toward any kind of theology that someone’s going to hand me on a plate. These days, I think I’m going to start believing in the Greek gods again—Zeus and Hades and all those old-school gods. Somebody has to be making those waves, there must be a man living in the ocean! Why not, you know? They have a better backstory. Plus, in Christianity they’ve removed all female power whatsoever. Even just the fact that you have a holy trinity that is a father, a son, and a ghost—that’s not a ménage à trois, that’s a NAMBLA [North American Man/Boy Love Association] pamphlet. People don’t think about the idea that they’ve removed any female presence. I find that to be fundamentally insulting and it’s used as a tool to instinctively encourage a misogynistic and patriarchal culture. They actually teach that Eve actually precipitated the fall of man—I think that’s reprehensible.
McAfee: The San Francisco Chronicle reported that in 2001 that your mother and girlfriend were visited by Scientology agents who asked about your comments on Scientology in your poetry. What did the agents want? Have you had any further interactions with them?
Jamie DeWolf: Yes, I did a performance about him in the year 2000. It was at a very early incarnation of Tourettes Without Regrets and I did a long piece about the beliefs of Scientology. It was recorded and someone put it up on www.mp3.com and it went to the top of the spoken word chart as a download. Within two or three days, Scientologists were at my house. My brother actually answered the door first and they gave him a cover story, saying that they were working with me on a performance. But my brother was confused because he was a part of a lot of my shows. My mother came to the door and she identified them right away—she said she could sense there was something off about the whole situation. She asked them what show it was and the name of the venue—they didn’t have any answers. They finally asked whether or not she knew that I was claiming to be the great grandson of L. Ron Hubbard. She said, “Of course, he is. And you’re talking to his granddaughter right now.” I’ve had no direct contact with them since then, but I’m sure they’ve kept tabs on me—I know how they operate.
McAfee: I recently visited an L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition Museum in Hollywood. The exhibit portrays Hubbard as a military hero, a world traveler, and a scholar. How accurate are those representations? Why aren’t your family members mentioned?
Jamie DeWolf: I’ve actually been there three times and I’ve always gone in secret, sometimes in minor disguise. I’ve been taken on the tour and it’s absolutely amazing that they believe it—it’s the most ridiculous and absurd narrative possible. It shows him as a little red-haired boy being a blood brother to Indians and then walking with a staff over the Himalayan mountains and studying at the feet of wise men and being a dogfighter pilot and a submarine commander and a nuclear physicist and on and on and on. Of course, if this were true, this would be—as they claim—the greatest human being that has ever walked the planet. Ever since he was at a young age, he was always bloating his sense of self-importance. He loved to tell stories—obviously that’s how he made his living in the early day. He was a prolific writer with a huge imagination. I think he wrote himself into being this heroic archetype and was able to convince this entire army that he created that he was the man that he always wanted to be—that he was an amazing war hero instead of being relieved of command, that he was machine-gunned twice in the back, and so on. He was a science fiction writer who ended up writing what he claimed to be a science; it’s like Stephen King attempting to convince you that werewolves are real and that he was in a fight with a vampire last weekend. He certainly was audacious and he certainly traveled a lot, but I’d say that 99 percent of that is at least outright exaggeration. It’s ridiculous the staggering amount of lies that he’s been able to pack into that narrative.
McAfee: I’ve never been to Clearwater, Florida, the headquarters of the Church of Scientology Corporation. What is it like there?
Jamie DeWolf: It is cult Disneyland—it’s absolutely, jaw-droppingly frightening. It’s a sleepy little town that they completely devoured in the seventies. It was basically the first town where L. Ron landed when he was tired of being on a ship and running from different governments. When they landed, they consumed the town … moved right in. When you go there now, they’ve completely made the city succumb to their will. They own the majority of the real estate in the downtown area, they have their own bus line, they have little cult clones walking around in pseudo-military uniforms, they have more than 300 security cameras, and if you’re a critic and you walk into a liquor store, they won’t sell you anything. They bought their way into Mecca.
McAfee: One of the attributes that makes Scientology so dangerous is that it portrays itself as a science. Why do you think people are sucked into a religion that fundamentally clashes with scientific findings?
Jamie DeWolf: I think it’s actually more dangerous that it calls itself a religion, because if it’s a science you can ask for case studies and evidence, which is what the psychiatric community did when Dianetics first came out. That’s why the loathing for psychiatry is so built-in to the DNA of Scientology that it’s even carried forth by Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley and a lot of the outspoken celebrity members. The psychiatric community was about to bankrupt L. Ron Hubbard because he was making fraudulent claims. That was how he turned it into a new religion almost overnight—so that it protected them; and it has protected them ever since.
McAfee: You once said, “Even amongst cults, they’re a singular breed,” referring to Scientology. What do you think separates Scientology from similar cults or religions?
Jamie DeWolf: I don’t know of any other cult that has its own secret police force. I don’t know of any cult that has such a history of brutal litigation, stalking, surveillance, and break-ins. There is no other cult that has infiltrated the IRS, CIA, FBI, and State Department. I can’t think of another cult that completely takes every last cent that you have, that will give you loans and figure out the mortgage and deed on your house—they literally look at you like meat with assets. There’s never been a cult like this.
After the interview, I reached out to DeWolf to see if he had any further interactions with the church or its representatives since our talk. While he said he hadn’t, DeWolf did announce in May 2014 that he had discovered—and authenticated—writings he attributed to his grandfather, L. Ron Hubbard Jr., the son of the founder of Scientology. DeWolf read passages from the unpublished manuscript aloud in Clearwat
er, Florida, the city that houses Scientology’s headquarters.
“I’m the son of God. I mislead you slightly. I’m the son of the man who creates gods. Again, I mislead you slightly. I’m a son of the man who created and founded Dianetics and Scientology, which creates gods,” DeWolf read. “I’m a son of L. Ron Hubbard. This book is my dying declaration. My last will and testament. My father will order my death.”
Ronald Edward DeWolf, who was born Lafayette Ronald Hubbard Jr. and was also called “Nibs” Hubbard, died of diabetes complications in 1991.
“Here’s an easy way to figure out if you’re in a cult: If you’re wondering whether you’re in a cult, the answer is yes.”
—Stephen Colbert
NOTES
1. John Bingham, “Cannibal Relatives Ate Boy Alive,” Telegraph, June 20, 2008, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/czechrepublic/2162250/Cannibal-relatives-ate-boy-alive.html.
2. Jim Kyle, “Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs Sentenced to Life in Prison,” CNN, August 10, 2011, www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/09/texas.polygamist.jeffs/.
3. “ Michael Ryan, Man Convicted in 1985 Cult Killings, Dies in Nebraska Prison,” CBS News, May 25, 2015, .cbsnews.com/news/michael-ryan-man-convicted-in-1985-cult-killings-dies-in-nebraska-prison/.
4. “The Global Religious Landscape,” Pew Research Center, December 18, 2012, www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/.
5. Frederick Fyvie Bruce, New Testament History (Galilee Trade, 1971).
6. Shaye J. D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishna, Library of Early Christianity, ed. Wayne Meeks. (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1987).
7. Paul Chapman, “Why a Tribe in Vanuatu Believes Their God Prince Philip Is Set to Visit,” Telegraph, April 25, 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/vanuatu/11563091/Why-a-tribe-in-Vanuatu-believes-their-god-Prince-Philip-is-set-to-visit.html.
8. David Chidester, Salvation and Suicide: An Interpretation of Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and Jonestown (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991).
9. “FBI Announces New Top Tenner,” FBI, May 6, 2006, www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2006/may/jeffs050606.
10. Kirk Johnson, “Leader of Polygamist Mormon Sect Is Arrested in Nevada,” New York Times, August 30, 2006, query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E4D8113EF933A0575BC0A9609C8B63.
11. “Polygamous Church Leaders Indicted Over Allegations of Food Stamp Fraud,” NPR, February 24, 2016, www.npr.org/sections/thetwoway/2016/02/24/467958518/polygamous-church-leaders-indicted-over-allegations-of-food-stamp-fraud.
12. B. Drummond Ayres, Jr., “Families Learning of 39 Cultists Who Died Willingly,” New York Times, March 28, 1997, www.nytimes.com/1997/03/29/us/families-learning-of-39-cultists-who-died-willingly.html.
13. Edward A. Lottick, “Prevalence of Cults: A Review of Empirical Research in the USA,” paper presented at the International Cultic Studies Association, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, July 14, 2005, www.culteducation.com/brainwashing45.html
14. Nellie Bowles, “Nicole Daedone’s Mission of Orgasmic Meditation,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 12, 2011, www.sfgate.com/style/article/Nicole-Daedone-s-mission-of-orgasmic-meditation-2368554.php.
15. Margaret M. Poloma and John C. Green, The Assemblies of God: Godly Love and the Revitalization of American Pentecostalism (New York: NYU Press, 2010).
16. Kurt Bayer, “Gloriavale Religious Commune: Hard Road Out of Commune,” New Zealand Herald, March 13, 2015, www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11416412.
17. Paul Smart, “The Sterling Men of Woodstock: A Series (Part III)–The Psychology of Cults and Secret Societies,” Woodstock Times, August 15, 2002, www.culteducation.com/group/1261-sterling-institute-of-relationship/10328-the-sterling-men-of-woodstock-a-series-part-iii.html
18. Mark 6:7
19. George D. Chryssides, The A to Z of New Religious Movements (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006).
20. Arnold Parr and Christine Wilson, “Leaving the Cooneyites: Analysis of the Leaving Process for Long-term Members of a Sect,” Australian Religion Studies Review 11, no. 1 (1998).
21. This figure of speech derives from the Jonestown deaths, where many of Jim Jones’ followers were forced or manipulated into drinking a powdered beverage mixed with cyanide.
22. Proverbs 22:6
23. Daniel Burke, “Westboro Church Founder Fred Phelps Dies,” CNN, March 25, 2014, www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/us/westboro-church-founder-dead/.
24. In the end, instead of shouting “God hates fags,” the Westboro Baptist Church may as well be holding signs that say, “Santa hates poor kids.” It’s the same thing because, while each statement may be (arguably) accurate, neither is relevant to society as a whole.
25. “Home Page,” Westboro Baptist Church, www.godhatesfags.com.
26. “Church Members Enter Canada, Aiming to Picket Bus Victim’s Funeral,” CBC/Radio Canada, August 8, 2008, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/church-members-enter-canada-aiming-to-picket-bus-victim-s-funeral-1.703285.
27. “Anti-Gay Preachers Banned from UK,” BBC News, February 19, 2009, bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/7898972.stm.
28. “Groups,” Southern Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/groups.
29. “Bible Verses about the Hatred of God,” Westboro Baptist Church, www.godhatesfags.com/bible/God-hates.html.
30. Ed Payne and Tiffany Ap, “Paul Walker Death: Actor’s Fatal Accident His Own Fault, Porsche Says,” CNN, November 17, 2015, www.cnn.com/2015/11/17/entertainment/paul-walker-death-lawsuit/.
31. “David G. McAfee interviews a member of Westboro Baptist Church,” YouTube video, uploaded by David G. McAfee, January 12, 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc6KQUYRlOE.
32. He is referring here to Nathan “Nate” Phelps, who will be featured later in this chapter.
33. 2 Timothy 3–4: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
34. Claire Hoffman and Kim Christensen, Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2005, www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-scientology18dec18-story.html.
35. “Famous Scientologists,” Los Angeles Times, n.d., www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-famous-scientologists-pictures-photogallery.html.
36. Daniel Sieberg, “Leah Remini: Working Hard as a Queen among Kings,” CNN, April 20, 2001, edition.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/jobenvy/04/20/leah/.
37. Leah Remini and Rebecca Paley, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology (New York: Ballantine Books, 2015).
38. Stephen Kent, “The Creation of ‘Religious’ Scientology,” Religious Studies and Theology 18, no. 2 (1999): 97.
39. “Jamie DeWolf: The God or The Man,” Snap Judgment podcast, March 5, 2016, snapjudgment.org/jamie-dewolf-god-or-man.
CONCLUSION: MY CRYSTAL BALL
“That’s how you get to the truth, folks. Open inquiry, honest investigation, and acceptance of the line of evidence no matter where it leads.”
—Phil Plait
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably had a belief or two challenged by this book. For those of you who did, you should know that my intention wasn’t to make you feel dumb, nor has my writing ever been motivated by hate. My goal is to encourage everyone to think critically and to be skeptical. I want to help people dispose of their false beliefs and rethink the ideas with which they may have been indoctrinated as children. At very least, I want to further popularize the scientific method, spur discussion on important ideas, and make individuals think about things they would otherwise ignore, such as potential inaccuracies within their religious texts or belief systems in general. Although it may seem like it at times because of the stagnancy of religious texts and the “unconfirmed”
nature of other supernatural assertions, promoting scientific skepticism isn’t the same as mocking anyone’s beliefs; it’s about a search for the facts.
I don’t want to ridicule those who believe differently, and I definitely don’t want to take away anyone’s rights. I write about rational, scientific inquiry because I want to help demystify the world. My goal is to help everyone question the things around them, especially those they once took for granted as being true, and never end the search for evidence. I want every person to at least have the chance to rid themselves of false beliefs, and I’m not exempt from this. I’m on my own lifelong journey to shed flawed ideas (and much more). In fact, I think part of my interest in studying religious traditions and other supernatural concepts stems from my own innate and lifelong tendency toward irrational, ritualistic thoughts and behaviors.1 I have been able to use this experience as a tool to better understand the nature of illogical beliefs.
I’ve never been one to preach hate. If I “preach” anything, it’s logical thinking. How many people can honestly say they disagree with that? My decision to look for the truth in everything is a personal one, but I try to promote evidence-reliant thinking for all—partly because I have a vested interest in others’ behavior. I recognize that, if you think better, you are more likely to act better. I would argue that, by looking at the historical harms of false beliefs and bad thinking in general, we can conclude that scientific skepticism is actually a prudent way to ensure human progress and therefore a necessary endeavor.
Holding a false belief doesn’t make you dumb or worthy of ridicule; it just makes you wrong. And being wrong isn’t always a bad thing. Being unable to admit it and alter that perspective, however, is bad. We may not like the feeling we get when we are wrong, but when we are, it’s best to be grateful that we’ve learned something and move on. What makes this process difficult for many in their daily lives is the fact that, when ideas turn to beliefs, people tend to shut themselves off to the possibility that they could be wrong. So, when you begin a discussion with, “I have no doubt …” it’s possible that you’ve already committed the first error.
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