Independent Sources would like to commend the Los Angeles Times for its Column One story on Scientology and the church’s use of Tom Cruise and his celebrity status. The mainstream media has always had a difficult time with Scientology. On one hand, the Times wants nothing more than expose the “religion” as nothing more than a money-making cult based on nonsensical scienficiton writings of a tax cheat. Conversely the Times wants to show that it is open-minded to all religions, cultures, etc., no matter how absurd. The latter usually wins out and Scientology and other cults can usually operate without the interference or scrutiny of mainstream media. Scientology’s trigger happy lawyers make this choice that much easier. It should be noted that that Times did not touch upon Cruise’s rumored sexual orientation nor the church’s un-natural hold on him because of said orientation–for that you need to turn to Defamer.

Despite all of this, it was particularly surprising and pleasing to read the detailed Los Angeles Times expose on Scientology’s relationship with the actor. While much of what was written has been gossiped and blogged about for years, it was nice to see a paper of the Times stature covering it. The Times even discussed the $50m+ Scientology compund in Riverside County (Google Maps image below)

Article highlights include:

Hollywood has long recruited Hollywood luminaries but the assiduous courting of Cruise by church leader David Miscavige has been noteworthy.

Cruise has been awarded the church’s first Freedom Medal of Valor.

Hubbard announced to followers that he was going to come back and make himself visible in 13 years. (Note: He died in 1986 so he’s already six years late!).

Miscavige has been successful at building the church, gaining tax exempt status (think about that as you make your AMT payments) and (though unsaid in the LAT piece) silencing critics.

Miscavige is 5′7″ and accordingly has had everything in the Scientology compound built in proportion to his diminutive body size.

Despite the non-profit status, Miscavige enjoys the trappings of extreme wealth. He enjoys custom-made Beverly Hills suits and custom-made shoes from London.

Cruise is just one of many celebrities who have fallen into Scientology. Others include: John Travolta, Kirsite Alley, Juliette Lewis, Issac Hayes, Anne Archer, Jenna Elfman(!), Beck (!!), and Chick Corea.

Cruise has worked his way up the Scientology hierarchy and is now training to be “Operating Thetan VII”!

It was nice that the LAT carefully worked in the underlying Scientology beliefs into the story without appearing to be attacking them. Namely, Human suffering can be traced back to a galactic battle wage 75 million years ago by an evil tyrant named Xenu. Xenu captured souls (theatans) of enemies and electronically planted false concepts in them to keep them confused about his dirty work.

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Note to our Scientologist reader(s): While we consider ourselves rather open-minded, we really aren’t interested in hearing about how we and everyone else is attacking the church, we are wrong, blah, blah, blah…Xenu…blah, blah, blah. It’s bad enough that I get accosted by church wackos every time I go to Hollywood. Tell you what, eliminate your tax exempt status and I don’t give two hoots what you do without of the lost Hollywood souls that are so desparate to latch on to something. If self-indulgent actors like Cruise want to give you all his money that’s his and your business. For it to count as a charity makes it our business. Now I’ve got to get this Thetan out of my brain…

LA Observed also felt the story was worthy of special mention and reminds us of some of the cult’s dirty tricks against the Times the last time around (oh yeah, alleged, now please don’t kill my dog). On a related note, Patterico calls Cruise a “loony-toons” (must be a legal term), I assume he’s watching his back.

technorati: scientology tom cruise los angeles times

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 18th, 2005 at 7:46 pm by Insider and is filed under Big Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.