elevon hubbard died 27 years ago today. he was seceded by a young man named david who was 25 years old when hubbard died and he was not the designated successor he shoved aside competitors and resist lee took control of the church. when l. ron hubbard died he made a decision not to pay his taxes for the church of scientology. by 1993 the church owed $1 billion to the irs. it did not have $1 billion that was the existential moment. the church had to get the tax exemption and in order to do that it had to get the irs to recognize it as a religion. there is only one agency in the country that can determine if you are a religion and that is the irs. [laughter] an organization ill-equipped to make such distinctions. [laughter] how did the church of scientology acquire that exemption? they began by launching a series of lawsuits against the irs, to do for hundred and individual agents, they hired private detectives to follow them to conventions to see if you was drinking too much for fooling around and they would write about those