Mission SOOOOOOOO Impossible: My Converting to Scientology

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 :-)

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.

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.

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

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.

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!"

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 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 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.

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