A tip of the hat to Rod Dreher/”Crunchy Con”, where I found this.
Here was my exact reply to Rod, starting with a quote Cruise gave in the video:
**We are the authorities on the mind**
Given my medical condition, one can imagine I consider Tom Cruise to be the Antichrist. The Devil Incarnate. Hitler. Stalin. Bin Laden.
(Maybe combined.)
PS — My cousin lives near Clearwater, Florida, so she gets exposed to Scientologists trying to convert her all the time. She just laughs it off.
With palpable irony, she just married a man who, like Rod, is Eastern Orthodox

PPS — Therese, the headline takes the cake!!!

Clearly the man has a messianic complex, coupled with a huge ego, and some fascist ideas. Those things make him a threatening character, indeed. He may seem to be a whack-job to some people, but he certainly isn’t to everyone. It is pretty clear why the Scientologists choose Hollyweird people like this to represent them. The are attractive, have fan bases, and get in the press all the time. The latest celebrity to join is Will Smith, I heard.

Three things…
1st when people are born into a specific religion then “conversion” is a hard nut to crack; but when (as seems to be so previlent today) you have grown up with little if any religious teaching/training then you can fall prey to anything.
2nd, “‘When you’re a Scientologist, and you drive by an accident, you know you have to do something about it, because you know you’re the only one who can really help… We are the way to happiness.’”
Haven’t all the major religions said this in one way or another??
3rd anyone who fluffed Tom’s ego could probably have his “wide eyed fervor” for at least a limited time.
Cully

I can’t stand organized religion of any kind but the Tom Cruise bit on Scientology didn’t bother me that much. He grew up without a father and I think L. Ron Hubbard became a father figure for him and showed him a good path. I see a guy who could be going off the deep end like so many other stars (Owen Wilson, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte) but instead has found something powerful that helps him hold things together. How can we fault someone who really is trying to help others? I liked the part about there being too many spectators and not enough doers. It could be a worse. At least he’s trying to do good.

I think the issue those of us on this particular blog have with Cruise is his “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” beliefs about mental illness … and how fanatic he is about proselytizing them (see Shields, Brooke).
He is a good actor (in most of his movies, anyway), I’ll give him that.

Their views on psychology and the snake oil product it truly is, is the one thing the scientologists got right.

Typical that Bnet’s favorite killjoy would come in and try to tear down the fragile self-esteem of those in its main depression support group. (And how “Christian” is that, anyway?)
Ain’t gonna happen on my watch, pardner.

I agree that Tom Cruise could be doing much worse. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have said that we deserved 911. I saw Mr. Cruise talking a lot about helping folks.
I didn’t see him condemning others on moral grounds like many religious fundamentalists. Maybe that’s a part of Scientology I don’t know about as I’m not a member.
What I do know about Scientology is that their electronic device, the E-meter, was one of the first forms of bio-feedback to be applied in personal counseling. William S. Burroughs noted this in a report back in the 70s in Rolling Stone.
I think different religions help different people. Some people may give up alcohol and become Mormon. The latter (even though possibly misguided) is better than the former.
If you don’t like somebody’s religion maybe you can peacefully promote your own through love.
Tom does appear to be a zealot of sorts but I don’t think I’m half as worried about him as Bush & Cheney.

Scientology is the only religion that charges people thousands of dollars just to study it. Combined with it’s history of criminal activity and it’s raging against all forms of therapy, psychiatry and a lot of drugs, I’m hard pressed to find a worse path he could have picked.

Annonymous,
Sadly, if you examine the history of MOST religions(iNCLUDING Christianity,) objectively and thoroughly, you will uncovercriminal activity and raging against therapy or at the VERY LEAST the attitude that “real” followers are not so afflicted because of their “faith” How many of us have sunk even deeper into the quagmire because of THOSE kinds ofassertations ( i.e.”I’m only depressed because i don’t have enough faith, how depressing!”

I did some work on cults and scientology was way up at the top. It’s really disgusting that people are seduced into this sham. And you know, I’m pretty accepting about most things, especially religions.

So thankful my Higher Power (God) finally was able to teach me the differences between “religion” and “spirituality”.
Religion is the “requirements” to be of a certain faith but spirituality’s only “requirement” is my own personal contact with God.
So though I respond that I am of the Baptist religion…the bottom line is I am a person that believes in God and has daily contact with him.
Nancy aka sixlittlekitties

I AM OUT OF THE ARENA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not an advocate of Scientology and I agree it sounds scarey. I guess my question or observation is: Tom Cruise is the only one who acts as a fanatic when it comes to his belief in Scientology. There are other stars, such as, Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley, and John Travolta (plus others, I don’t recall) that are very quiet and unobtrusive about their memebership. Is Tom using his belief as a means of getting more publicity? What is his problem? His whole behavior has become quite objectionable and I don’t care to see him in his movies let alone on the boob tube. He is total and pure ego as far as I am concerned. Ego always heads for a fall, sooner or later.

To see a clip of Tom Cruise going up to the stage and presented with a medal of high honor within Scientology, along with saluting the picture of Ron L. Hubbard gave me the creeps.
When Tom spoke at the podium, and his demeanor is not what we see on some of his movies; that nice, likeable guy, it was downright scary.
His facial expression and stance reminded me of the Matt Lauer interview he had and he spoke of the Psychiatric field. It was the intensity that had me thinking – this man, Tom Cruise, needs some psychiatric help, severely.
I have been so extremely turned off by him from the Oprah couch scenario, but particularly the most recent clip of him within the confines of the Hall in the Scientology Church.
I wanted to believe it was a bad movie; not a real event. I said to my husband, “Do you see that? Do you feel his intensity through the screen?” To me it wasn’t passion.
Nancy L.

**To me it wasn’t passion; it felt evil.**
Could not be more succinctly stated, Nancy L. from N.J. (who’s not nuts, unlike a certain actor married to Katie Holmes …)
Could not have been better stated, either.

A self-plug — hey, if Cruise can do thousands of ads for his movies, I can do one for my blog entry about Mr. “Top Gun” (HTTP://)
community.beliefnet.com/blogs/6891

I was introduced to Scientology in the early 70s. It is, in a nutshell, learning to control your thoughts and achieving powerful results. Our minds are powerful, that’s a given, but we’ve heard this truth through the ages. That’s nothing new, is it?
Whether or not Tom Cruise is a fanatic or scary or evil is not the question here. Why does he seem scary to us? What is fueling our fear? Why do we have fear?
I am a Christian because I decided to follow in Jesus the Christ’s footsteps. Scientology had nothing new to offer me, except to make me aware how unaware I had been until then.
I say, just realize that just because something has been given a different name – mindfulness, presence, intent, believing, enlightenment, whatever – the reality continues to be that we are created in the image of God and as that creation, we have access to all the attributes of that creator and that creation. We decide to be aware of our own power and we decide to put that power to good use though our own actions. Whether we admit or not that God exists doesn’t change the fact that we do what we do and are what we are because of the “godness” in us. We wouldn’t be, we would not be, or even be aware that we are, without the creator. Our words are powerful, our thoughts are powerful, our beliefs are powerful.
“Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” Mat18:19
I say, Live and let live. Be at peace, let not your heart be troubled. Walk in the certainty of who you are – a beloved child of God.
Sunshine