Scientology: The Marks of Religion Frank K. Flinn, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor in Religious Studies Washington University Saint Louis, Missouri U.S.A.        Aside from these discussions, it is abundantly clear that Scientology has both the typical forms of ceremonial and celebratory worship and its own unique form of spiritual life: auditing and training. By way of comparison and contrast, the Roman Catholic church considers all of its seven sacraments as forms of worship. That is why all the sacraments are administered principally in its churches by ordained clergy. Sacraments are administered outside church premises only under special circumstances such as ministering to the sick. The seven sacraments include baptism, confirmation, confession, reconciliation or confession, the Eucharist, marriage, holy orders and the anointing of the sick and infirm. But the “sacrament of all sacraments” for Roman Catholics is the Eucharist, commonly called the Mass, which celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and his presence in the believing community.      So also the Church of Scientology has, so-to-speak, its “sacrament of all sacraments,” namely, auditing and training. The chief religious aim of all practicing Scientologists is to become Clear and attain the status of being an Operating Thetan who has mastery over “life, thought, matter, energy, space and time.” The central religious means to these ends are the complex levels and grades of auditing and training. What the Eucharist is in religious importance to the Roman Catholic, auditing and training is to the Scientologist. As Roman Catholics consider the seven sacraments as the chief means for the salvation of the world, so also Scientologists consider auditing and training the central means of salvation, which they describe as optimum survival on all dynamics.      As a scholar of comparative religion, I would answer the question “Where do Roman Catholics have places of worship?” with the answer “Where the seven sacraments are ministered to adherents as a matter of course.” To the question “Where do Scientologists have places of worship?” I would answer “Where auditing and training in Scientology scripture are ministered to parishioners as a matter of course.” Hubbard’s works on Dianetics and Scientology constitute the sacred scriptures of the Church of Scientology. The vast majority of these works is devoted to what Scientologists call auditing technology and the management and delivery of auditing and training to the membership. The sheer preponderance of the emphasis on auditing in Hubbard’s works will convince any scholar of religion that auditing and training are the central religious practices and chief forms of worship of the Church of Scientology.      As a scholar of comparative religion I can assert without hesitation that auditing and training are central forms of worship in the belief system of the Scientologist. Secondly, the places where auditing and training are ministered to adherents are unequivocally Scientology houses of worship. Frank K. Flinn 22 September 1994 Scientology: The Marks of Religion

Back       Index       Next