Yesterday, a pretty minor political story — the appointment of a Republican township trustee to an open seat in the state House of of Representatives — blew up into something more, thanks to the Church of Scientology and a notorious alt-right figure.
Here’s the skinny: A man named George Lang is a trustee of the 60,000-population township of West Chester, north of Cincinnati, and he was selected on Monday to be the newest member of Ohio’s House to replace another legislator who resigned a few months into her third term.
Earlier, the Butler County Republican Party had recommended Lang as their choice to fill the seat because he had a track record as an effective fundraiser.
But then yesterday Lori Viars, a conservative Republican Party operative in Warren County, Ohio, raised an objection to Lang’s appointment on Facebook, linking to the 2012 grand opening of Scientology’s Cincinnati “Ideal Org,” which is actually located across the Ohio River in Florence, Kentucky. In the video, Lang had appeared as one of the local dignitaries congratulating Scientology on opening its new facility. But unlike other local pols who gladhand Scientologists, Lang had talked about engaging in some Scientology himself, and appeared to have a pretty good handle on church lingo. What was the Republican party thinking, Viars asked, appointing to the statehouse someone who appeared to be a Scientologist?
Here’s the video itself. Lang is the first speaker to appear…
Here’s what Lang says…
I have personally seen the amount of work you have done toward opening this new Church. I know your founder, L. Ron Hubbard, always said to reward the up-statistic producers of a group. Well, you have worked — you have worked tirelessly and I am so proud of your accomplishment. Today belongs to you! You guys truly are upstats. Now, I have been lucky enough to personally experience some of the technology of Dianetics and Scientology. It is powerful technology. It can change lives. It has enabled me to take the reins when addressing life. Through L. Ron Hubbard’s bestseller, Dianetics, I learned of the previously unknown source of nightmares, fears, upsets, and insecurities — I’m talking about the reactive mind. I’ve also experienced my own personal miracles. When doing the Purification Rundown, in addition to achieving everlasting spiritual gains and mental gains, I also experienced significant improvement in my hearing that had plagued me for years. And that was a massive achievement for me. My hope for you is that you will experience the success you desire and have a powerfully positive impact across the Tri-State region. Thank you for being here, and thank you very much.
We’ve seen a lot of these grand openings, and we have to say, Lang’s speech is pretty unusual for what tend to be cliche-ridden homilies by no-name politicians who barely sound like they know what group they’re addressing. (Although there have been some exceptions to the rule that only minor figures show up. In Sacramento, Scientology managed to snare mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson, and in Miami, the grand opening there scored Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado and former GOP Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart.)
Lang was the first of these politicians that we’ve seen actually talking about partaking of Scientology services himself.
One person who noted the Facebook posting by Viars was Mike Cernovich, an alt-right media figure who made a name for himself pushing the nutty “Pizzagate” conspiracy, and he tweeted the Viars post to his 341,000 followers.
That’s when notice of Lang’s appointment really started to pick up, and made its way to us thanks to @IndieSciNews, who alerted us.
We sent an email to Lang, to ask him about his Scientology involvement, and if we hear back from him we’ll add his comments to this story. But last week, when Lang appeared before the Butler County Republican Party’s Central Committee at a candidate forum, he reacted angrily to a question about whether he was a Scientologist.
“You know what really pisses me off about this question? What if I was?” Lang answered. “What if there was someone up here who was Hindu, Baptist or Buddhist. Liberals try to paint us as a party of hate. We have to stop this right now. If I was a Scientologist, so what? Whoever asked this question, you should be ashamed of yourself.”
On a hunch, we contacted our man in Cincinnati, former church staff member Andrei Organ, to ask him if he knew anything about George Lang and his involvement in Scientology there.
“I had him on the cans,” Andrei told us.
“I had him and his wife in for intro services. ‘Life Repair’ and Director of Processing interviews, that kind of stuff. And the Purification Rundown was part of it, too.”
During the D of P interviews, Andrei had Lang on the cans of the E-meter, asking him questions written by another staff member. “I was watching the E-meter reaction and writing down the answers,” he says. This occurred about 12 years ago, and he says it seemed to him that Lang was there mainly because of his wife’s interest.
He also remembers that Lang was a minority owner in “Jag’s” restaurant in Cincinnati. “It’s a Jaguar car-themed restaurant, with three actual Jaguar cars in front of it on the display, from what I remember,” he says.
“It felt like he was doing it mostly for his wife. She had a traumatic experience. He really likes good bourbon.”
Lang wasn’t involved long, and Andrei remembers going to his house with another staff member to do a “recovery cycle” — to try to talk the Langs into coming back.
“Nice house,” he says.
So, on the one hand, Lang’s involvement appears to have occurred around the year 2005, and if Andrei is right, he was mainly going along with his wife and soon dropped Scientology.
On the other hand, seven years later in 2012 when Scientology held its grand opening for a new Ideal Org, Lang stepped up with his congratulations, spoke as a fellow Scientologist, and claimed to have experienced a “miracle” thanks to Scientology’s sauna program, the Purification Rundown.
Should that disqualify him from a seat in the Ohio House? It’s going to be interesting to see Ohio’s Republican Party wrestle with that question.
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Chris Shelton has answers for your questions
Chris tackles some of the most common questions about Scientology…
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Posted by Tony Ortega on September 14, 2017 at 07:00
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Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts
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