5 Messed Up Things About Scientology

Scientology has become a bit of a punching bag over the last decade, thanks largely to lampooners like the South Park guys and numerous damning accounts of defectors from the church, including Academy Award-winning writer-director Paul Haggis. It has become one of those eccentric communities people assume Hollywood is full of, with some high-profile celebrity involvement and the assumption that most movie stars have at least dabbled in the self-help religion Scientology promotes itself as. It’s understandable that in a world plagued by epistemic closure like Hollywood is, it’s as if there’s a bubble around Los Angeles that surprisingly few celebrities venture outside of, something that seems bizarre to the rest of us would seem normal and enticing. Even hearing stars in interviews talk about Scientology, a sizeable number will treat it as if it was something they considered but ultimately had no use for, rather than speaking of it as a harmful cult.

Darren Ruecker Jun 2, 2013 9:52 pm2014-05-11T22:22:29-05:00

[h2]1) Tom Cruise is literally one of its highest ranking members[/h2]

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Yeah, Tom Cruise. It would seem to the casual observer that Cruise is just a movie star who is merely more open than probably any other celebrity about belonging to the Church of Scientology. We see him jumping on couches and flaunting presumed sham relationships and even being featured in secret promotional videos, and the assumption is that he’s just an ardent devotee, more fervent as a follower of the religion than most.

But in fact, he’s much more than that. First of all, that promotional video that was circulated starting back in 2008 was more than just a promotional video. You know those videos they show of people before they give them a lifetime achievement trophy at big awards shows? Or the clips they showed of Hansel before he won model of the year in Zoolander? This was one of those, with the Church of Scientology bestowing upon Cruise their first ever Freedom Medal of Valor which I assume is an award for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence. He’s also said to literally be the third most important figure in the entire religion, behind founder L. Ron Hubbard and current leader David Miscavige. Then again, Ronald Reagan went from movies to being the President of the United States so perhaps an actor becoming the figurehead of a church isn’t that much of a stretch. It certainly brings new meaning to “star worship.”

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