Will Smith IS a Scientologist.
He supports Tom Cruise. He defended the Scientology “thetan” concept in the media. He uses Scientology “tech” in his school and many of the teachers there JUST HAPPEN TO BE Scientologists, what a coincidence. He gave out Scientology coupons in gift bags to fellow actors at a party. He donated a fortune to Scientology-related organizations.
Scientology has a secular component and a religious component, and though Smith may or may not be telling the truth when he says it’s not his religion, he IS a de-facto Scientologist on a secular level and a business level, whether he strictly follows the religious part of it or not.

It is not anyone’s business if WS is a scientologist or not! It is only his and his alone. You guys have no idea regarding the religious affiliations of the school teachers either. Besides, religious affiliation is not an issue when it comes to teacher qualifications and that is by law!

A man says he believes in God, you tend to take his word for it. He says he doesn’t, well, you tend to accept that he doesn’t. Why worry about it?

Is it anybody’s business if he is? Yes, if he’s funding a school.
If he keeps it to himself and chooses to belive in dead space alien ghosts infesting his body, he’s free to do so. But if he starts promoting it, then it is a public concern: he has lots of money and influence. A school employing scientologist teachers SHOULD BE a concern for every citizen.
The “Church” practices harassment of citizens and tells many lies. That this school employs people who belong to an organisation whose *official policy* is harassment or innocent civilians IS a concern. As long as he donates ANY money to an organisation described as “evil” by a British Judge in a court of law, it’s EVERYONE’s concern: whether he is famous or not.
The fact that he hasn’t condemned the practices of the church means simply that either he doesn’t know about them (hey, Will! Use google!) or that he is complicit in trying to cover them up.
Like it of not, public figures have influence. A public figure promoting an organisation IS your concern. Like it or not.

Will Smith stated that he’s witnessed Scientology’s Study Tech “help” his own children. But what Study Tech’s DOES is to familiarize kids with Scientology jargon and the invented history of L Ron Hubbard as an educator.
_The first method in Study Tech is called “MASS” – It’s a form of brainwashing which uses imagery to teach concept. Such as Hubbard’s concept that material things (like a tractor) cannot be learned from reading definitions or listening to someone explain the subject. Any child that acknowledges an understanding without visualizations is interpreted by the teacher as having a “learning difficulty”.
_Bringing us to the next step called a “GRADIENT”. This is a consistent step by step approach in learning mundane issues, said to eventually make complex concepts easier to grasp. What it does is control the flow of information; especially criticisms.
It’s actually a Scientology doctrine in recruiting new members by discouraging beginners from looking too closely into Scientology’s claims. Anything one reads which contradicts what is taught is deemed a “skipped gradient” (a new fact).
Any skipped gradient creates “confusion” and must be ignored – Children are told to accept what is taught on trust and then forced to wait or return to a previous step until they are deemed ready for that skipped gradient.
_The last method called “MISUNDERSTOODS” (Hubbard invented the word), includes a mechanical routine for children to focus on an unfamiliar word. They open dictionaries and habitually go over definitions again & again – during the reading of a story it cause the children to ignore substance.
As in the “gradient” method it’s a brainwashing method which controls the flow of information. One ignores the full concept of a Scientology story so it’s substance is accepted and not questioned. Any child thought to be bored with this task is interpreted (again) with a learning deficiency and must repeat certain steps until they are ready to move forward.
If Will Smith states that THIS is helping his kids then he must a Scientologist.

Kris Rasmussen get a clue and think before you write.

I agree wholeheartedly with Katie Noelle. $cientology “study tech” is an excellent way of introducing children to the atmosphere of how $cientology works in real world. “Study tech” is basically $cientology-lite. There is no question that the techniques employed by this method of teaching totally ignores critical thinking skills, creativity (the child is redirected to the “right answer” which in itself is never questioned) and the ability to challenge conventional wisdom. If you are a parent considering educating your child at an institution using these techniques, I implore you to gain a second and third opinion.

I don’t get it. In the article you say you think Will “doth protest too much” about being a Scientologist. Well maybe that’s because you people keep saying that he IS one, as if that’s a fact. So what’s he supposed to do? If he doesn’t deny it, then you’ll say it must be true, but if does deny it you’ll just say he’s lying. He can’t win.

Thank you Kate Noelle and wil thompson. It may be that Scientology finally woke up and realized the damage Cruise causd. The eyes of the world are squarely on the Church. Reports of unthinkable abuse, including misapplying alternative medicine to fit a questionable agenda are surfacing rapidly.
A basic tenant of the church is to aggressively fight critics by ANY means necessary. INCLUDING LYING.
Which makes me think Smith is an anointed Church soldier sent out to spread their methods and beliefs, while lying about his involvement.
BTW NOT all religions are the same. For starters, is there another religion that hides it’s basic premise, only to reveal it after HUGE amounts of money have been paid for the privilege of knowing what it was exactly that you bought into?

“Which makes me think Smith is an anointed Church soldier sent out to spread their methods and beliefs, while lying about his involvement.”
*****
Based in WHAT? That makes no sense. And that’s the same argument I keeping seeing about Will. He denies being a Scientologist, but you think he’s lying, because Scientologists are liars. It’s circular logic.
I don’t know, it’s as if some people WANT Will to be a Scientologist, just so they can consider him an enemy & criticize him. If you just don’t like Will Smith, fine, just say it. If you think he can’t act, or makes crappy movies, then don’t go see his movies. But there’s no need to try & lump him together with Scientology just because he’s friends with some of them, or says he sees some good in it.
I’ve got Dianetics in my house. As well as The Bible, The Qu’ran, a collection of the sayings of the Buddha. And I’ve got a few Wiccan friends that I’ve talked to. And I see some good principles in all of them. But I’m an atheist.
http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2008/09/16/will-smith-actor-clears-up-scientology-rumors-again/

J.R. LeMar:
Scientology is a dangerous cult. Nobody wants Will Smith to be involved with it. And don’t act like Dianetics is some holy book — it’s a self-help scam book that says homosexuality is a disease.

@ Dave2: Well, some people clearly will NOT accept his denials that he’s a Scientologists, no matter how often he says it. That’s clear from the tone of this article, and many others I’ve read about him.
I didn’t even finish Dianetics, just read the first few chapters and got bored with it. I was just making the point that the fact that I happen to own the book, or the fact that I have one Scientologist friend (on Facebook), doesn’t mean I’m a Scientologist. Just like Will being friends with Tom Cruise and using Study Tech doesn’t necessarily make him one, either.
And The Bible & Qu’ran say that homosexuality is a sin against God, with the Bible saying that they should be KILLED. Personally, I think they’re both “scam books” too, but billions of people insist on believing in them. Go figure.

Kris, pk, Dave2,
Will is denying it based on questions asked of him which were directly related to it. So of course he is going to deny it. The alternative would be to ignore the question, or admit to being involved, and obviously you (I am guessing from the tone here) would assume that either of those responses would mean that he was involved. So given your response to his answer to a direct question, there is no answer (or lack of an answer) which he could have given which would have led you to believe that he isn’t involved in scientology.
Now I am not saying he is or he isn’t. I don’t don’t know, but to assume that he is involved because he said he wasn’t, and those scientologists lie, you know, is a little foolish. Because that would be that same answer an honest person who wasn’t involved would give.
And from an outside of religion perspective (atheist/agnostic) all religions really do look VERY similar.

The following is the sacred document in Scientology known as OTIII. Scientologists deny it exists as part of their Operating Thetan literature. It was written by L. Ron Hubbard in 1967. Hubbard wrote that if you read this document before you have achieved a level of scholarship, you will get pneumonia and die. The cost to get to that level: $360,000.
“The head of the Galactic Confederation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 95,000,000 yrs ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet — 178 billion on average) by mass implanting. He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H Bomb on the principal volcanoes (Incident 2) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic Area ones to Las Palmas and there “packaged.” His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants. When through with his crime (R/)Loyal Officers (to the people) captured him after 6 years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap where he still is. “They” are gone. The place (Confed.)has since been a desert.” – Hubbard
See it in his original handwriting at xenu.net. Learn more about the fight against the criminal cult of Scientology on whyweprotest.net. Make a difference by copy-pasting this and posting it somewhere else as part of International Post OTIII Day and in honor of Lisa McPherson, who died on Dec 5 1995 after being starved to death by Scientologists.