Monday, April 28, 2008
Nuts, all of 'em ...
I visited a local bookstore this afternoon 'cause I needed to pick up a birthday gift for a friend. Since I knew what I was gonna purchase when I entered the store, I said to myself, with some confidence, "In and out ... I won't be here five minutes."
As I walking past the periodicals, I seen out of the corner of my eye a magazine with a picture of Tom Cruise - sporting a pointy beard and mustache - and the words "Scientology" and "cult" on its cover. I read the article, portions of which I re-read several times, and then I left.
Well, so much for five in-and-out minutes ... I spent a half-hour in that frappin' bookstore. You can read the article that interested me so right here.
Here's a sample:
"It's been a bad couple of months for the Church of Scientology. In December, German authorities took a significant step toward outlawing the group, announcing that they "do not consider Scientology an organization that is compatible with the constitution." In January, St. Martin's Press published Andrew Morton's Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography, which painted a scathing portrait of the actor's chosen religion as a money-mad, fascist mind-control sect led by Cruise's closest friend, David Miscavige, a gun-loving high-school dropout with a Napoleon complex who runs his religion like a paramilitary group. Morton's book kicked off yet another blistering round of bad PR for the image-obsessed Church, with headlines about its efforts to draw in Katie Holmes, allegations that Cruise functions as the Church's second-in-command, and the far-fetched belief among some Scientology 'fanatics' that Suri Cruise was actually sired using Hubbard's frozen sperm. It debuted at number one on the New York Times best-seller list.
"Then came the video. You've probably seen it by now—leaked footage of Tom Cruise accepting the Church's Freedom Medal of Valor award at a 2004 gathering of the International Association of Scientologists. Slickly produced, with the theme from Mission: Impossible pumping along in the background, the clip features a manic Cruise exhorting his co-religionists to commit themselves to the cause. 'Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident, it's not like anyone else,' he says. 'As you drive past, you know you have to do something about it. Because you're the only one who can help.'"
As I walking past the periodicals, I seen out of the corner of my eye a magazine with a picture of Tom Cruise - sporting a pointy beard and mustache - and the words "Scientology" and "cult" on its cover. I read the article, portions of which I re-read several times, and then I left.
Well, so much for five in-and-out minutes ... I spent a half-hour in that frappin' bookstore. You can read the article that interested me so right here.
Here's a sample:
"It's been a bad couple of months for the Church of Scientology. In December, German authorities took a significant step toward outlawing the group, announcing that they "do not consider Scientology an organization that is compatible with the constitution." In January, St. Martin's Press published Andrew Morton's Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography, which painted a scathing portrait of the actor's chosen religion as a money-mad, fascist mind-control sect led by Cruise's closest friend, David Miscavige, a gun-loving high-school dropout with a Napoleon complex who runs his religion like a paramilitary group. Morton's book kicked off yet another blistering round of bad PR for the image-obsessed Church, with headlines about its efforts to draw in Katie Holmes, allegations that Cruise functions as the Church's second-in-command, and the far-fetched belief among some Scientology 'fanatics' that Suri Cruise was actually sired using Hubbard's frozen sperm. It debuted at number one on the New York Times best-seller list.
"Then came the video. You've probably seen it by now—leaked footage of Tom Cruise accepting the Church's Freedom Medal of Valor award at a 2004 gathering of the International Association of Scientologists. Slickly produced, with the theme from Mission: Impossible pumping along in the background, the clip features a manic Cruise exhorting his co-religionists to commit themselves to the cause. 'Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident, it's not like anyone else,' he says. 'As you drive past, you know you have to do something about it. Because you're the only one who can help.'"
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Monday, April 28, 2008 
