Hands off Katie Holmes' Hands

If she did not do the "Purif" she might consider doing it. As you say "it is hard to understand why someone would be consistently covering their hands in sunny California unless you have ever suffered from a circulatory issue such as Raynaud's."

The link you provided on Raynaud's says:

* Niacin. Niacin, also known as vitamin B-3, causes blood vessels to dilate, increasing blood flow to skin. This has led scientists to believe that niacin supplements may be useful in treating Raynaud's.

She is an adult...if she has gone through the "Purif", then she is just following her religion. Even though she and Tom are movie stars, they are entitled to their privacy.

I don't care about the religious elements, but the fact that the scientology has policies that involve abandoning relationships with your family deserves criticism.

That's not even mentioning their constant harassment of critics (called "fair game"), and high ranking members committing crimes like operation freak out, and getting arrested for spying on the government.

Don't believe me? Google fair game, operation freak out, and operation snow white.

Also, what kind of religion charges people hundreds of thousands of dollars just to read their sacred texts?

Consider the fact that she was photographed the day before wearing black gloves. Was this for her part in ES? Were they leather gloves? How hot would your hands be in LA wearing black leather? Possibly hot enough to sweat? Black leather gloves stain hands. Ask any weighlifter.

Please use logic when making silly assumptions instead of immediately putting on the tin foil hats.

Is Scientology any more of a cult than say the JW's or the Mormons or the RCC or any other organized religion? There are many strange stories involved in religions...virgin births,crucified man returning from the dead, a male parent watching from above (that must be worshipped),babies waiting in heaven for their trip to earth (to be born) etc.

"Is Scientology any more of a cult than say the JW's or the Mormons or the RCC or any other organized religion?"

I believe it's certainly more ambitious with regards to politics and infiltration:

"Somebody some day will say 'this is illegal'.
By then be sure the orgs say what is legal or not."

(L. Ron Hubbard, HCOPL 4 January 1966)

Organized Scientology also has OSA, which is a mixture of intelligence agency (OSA invest) and PR department.

IMHO, Scientology is more a business than a religion anyway. The religion is an aspect of cloaking to gain tax exempt status, which succeeded in the US in the year 1993 after a massive campaign of pressure, PIs and lawsuits against the IRS over the course of more than a decade, which resulted in the IRS reversing there long holding stance that Scientology certainly is NOT worthy tax-exempt. It appears like the IRS was succesfully intimidated by the Scientology organization. This deserves a complete investigation in my opinion.

Here's a link to a NYT article on this topic:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/nytimes.html

Another example of infiltration is "Operation Snow White".

I believe if there is any comparable organization in the US it may be the Moonies, but I can't really asses this.

Why do we care? I mean, really, why does this matter to anyone other than Katie and her fruit basket of a husband?

kem: Have read about Mormons...and that is why I have come to the conclusion that the LDS church is a lot like a cult. Also happen to have 2 LDS members in my immediate family. And FYI, I have read many books about many religions. Sorry to burst your bubble.