Will Smith's Scientology School

The LA Times is reporting on Will Smith's New Village Academy because of its admittedly close association with Scientology. While I'm happy to at least see a 'there's a controversy' article, the author seems unable to grasp precisely why there's a controversy, other than that the school claims to be secular yet will use L Ron Hubbard's "Study Tech." The reader has to wade through a sea of fluff (ooh, the school will have karate?) before the controversy is made clear by Dave Touretzky:

But critics contend that the school is not being honest about its links to Scientology. David S. Touretzky, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, created a website that dissects study technology and asserts that it is Scientology religion disguised as education. [link added]

Touretzky said many phrases and concepts on the school's website are specific to Scientology. For example, the school lists a "Director of Qualifications" and another teacher who is an assistant in the "Qual" department. The "Qual," said Touretzky, is where people who have completed a Scientology counseling, or "auditing," session or a course in the Church of Scientology are tested by a qualifications teacher.

"There is no reputable educator anywhere who endorses [study technology]," said Touretzky, a critic of Scientology. "What happens is that children are inculcated with Scientology jargon and are led to regard L.R. Hubbard as an authority figure. They are laying the groundwork for later bringing people into Scientology."

Dave Touretzky's point is that Study Tech, both in theory and as it will apply in the classroom, is indistinguishable from the religious content of Scientology. Scientology front groups often claim to be secular (largely so they can keep their hands out to receive public funding, or else such funding would violate the establishment clause), but even light scrutiny--which the LA Times appears unwilling to provide--reveals claims of secularity to be patently false. Side by side comparisons of Study Tech content and content which Scientology considers religious couldn't make the point more plain.

Scientology routinely gets away with this secular/religious distinction because the religious content of Scientology does not appear to resemble religion as most people think of it. And to this end, most people have a point: Scientology does not concern itself with a supreme being, it is uncharitable (indeed, charity violates the Scientology tenet of "exchange"--meaning that people who get something for nothing are "out-exchange"), and there's no praying or Sunday worship services (although on occasion they'll occasionally resort to Sunday worship services as a recruiting tool, when they sense that implying a kinship to Christianity might help it).

But regardless of where you fall on the Scientology is/isn't a religion question (I say it is, but that doesn't make it any less of a cult), the federal government considers it as such, at least in the sense that the basis upon which it receives a 501(c)(3) exemption is as a religion. Thus, when Scientology front groups begin touting secular programs that are indistinguishable from Scientology religious beliefs, such programs are violating the establishment clause (if they're receiving public funding, as is often the case), or they're just plain lying to the parents of potential students, as in the case of Will Smith's New Village Academy.