It has been board policy since the day the Founding Church was established in Washington, D.C., that certain persons are ineligible for processing.
According to the long standing policy of the Founding Church:
No person who is insane or who has an institutional background, nor any person who is chronically ill may be accepted for processing by the H.G.C.
There is no restriction on whom we can train. We can train anyone so long as we do not teach academic subjects or issue academic degrees, by Board Minutes of the 15th October 1955.
We can train anyone in non-academic subjects.
However, we must not, even inadvertently, withhold a child from his legal schooling by reason of religious counseling or for any other reason without express permission from the authorities and we must not substitute our ministerial training for academic schooling.
Even a student cannot be entered into H.G.C. processing if he in any way violates our standards of eligibility for processing at the H.G.C.
The Registrar may not sign and neither the Director of Processing nor an H.G.C. auditor may accept for processing any person who is insane or who has an institutional background. The purpose of the Guidance Center is to improve ability and intelligence and is not a psychiatric clinic and should not act as one. This is without regard to law since there is no law on the subject and we can legally give spiritual guidance to the insane by District law. This regulation is our own law. We are not in the business of psychotherapy. Further, we will not accept for processing the chronically ill. Even though we may by law treat the ill by spiritual means it is still policy that we send the chronically ill to medical care and confine ourselves to increasing ability and intelligence.
In short:
1. WE MAY NOT AND MUST NOT ACCEPT PSYCHOTIC PERSONS FOR PROCESSING by long standing policy, even if the person is a student.
2. WE MAY NOT AND MUST NOT ISSUE DEGREES OF AN ACADEMIC NATURE.
3. WE MAY NOT WITHHOLD A PUPIL FROM SCHOOL FOR OUR TRAINING OR PROCESSING WITHOUT A LETTER FROM THAT SCHOOL SO AUTHORIZING HIS ABSENCE AND STATING HE IS TO COME TO US, NOT AN UN-NAMED AGENCY.
4. WE MAY NOT DISBAR A PERSON FROM TRAINING BUT WE MAY NOT PROCESS IN THE H.G.C. ANY STUDENT WITH PSYCHOTIC OR INSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND.
You must understand that these stable data are not arrived at lightly. There are many good reasons behind them.
It is not illegal to give spiritual guidance to the insane: it is against our board policy. It is forbidden.
It is illegal to issue academic degrees.
It is probably illegal by reason of Supreme Court decisions (anti-segregation) to bar people from training.
If we have trouble, remember:
We make our own trouble. Only we can make our own trouble.
The Registrar, the Director of Processing and any assigned staff auditor are personally responsible to the board for any action taken which contravenes board resolutions or the broader law of the land.
Definitions:
INSANE: Having been pronounced insane by a psychiatrist or being incapable of any responsibility for social conduct.
INSTITUTIONALIZED: Having been committed to a public or private institution for the insane.
ILL: Being medically diagnosed as suffering from a known, well defined physical illness susceptible to medical care and relief.
For your information and guidance.