Scientology has been making headlines lately after it was reported that Katie Holmes split from husband Tom Cruise to get daughter Suri away from Tom’s religion of choice, Scientology. However, not everyone has such negative things to say about the religion. Some who have joined Scientology find that they’re encountered much enlightenment and enjoyment through the religion, while some weren’t comfortable with the level of intimacy required from the religion or believe it was actually the cause of their marital problems. These 5 stars all have very mixed views on the subject, here is a look at what they have to say.
Beck
Beck believes the religion can help many people, especially those who struggle with drug addiction or other problems: “There’s whole aspects (of Scientology) that you probably don’t see. They have the success rate of getting hardcore addicts off drugs, 90-something per cent maybe. This is something my father has been doing for coming on 40 years. It’s something that’s helped him a lot. There’s aspects of it that have helped me… If it’s something that helps you in your life it’s a positive thing, so all I have to say is that you can’t really make a judgement on something unless you know something about it first-hand.”
Kelly Preston
Kelly felt the religion helped her though her son’s death: ”In Scientology, we have what’s called ‘auditing,’ and that helps you to address things in your life and to strip them away and work through them. It’s a path of spiritual enlightenment. Also, it helps rid the mind of painful experience completely. Through that, the people at my church literally held my hand and got me through. . .I will forever be indebted. You never forget, but I feel like the weight of the world was lifted.”
Carmen Llywelyn
Carmen was married to actor Jason Lee but believes Scientology caused them to split:”Scientology broke my heart, almost more than Jason did. When you get married and you have that dynamic of family and children there is that entity, that other extra part, that is involved in so much of the intimate details that at this point in my life I couldn’t imagine being a mature woman so mature that I had children and actually allow it, literally, into my bedroom.”
Juliette Lewis
Juliette believes it has helped her to be herself: “Whatever the media writes about Scientology would go against what you would think of me. But I’m fiercely independent and defiant and its all the stuff that I’ve done in Scientology that has helped reinforce that and make me even more of an individual. And it’s a true non-conformist religion, its just the media makes it really negative.”
Jim Carrey
Jim says he would never join and thinks the leaders have too much influence: “I don’t think I’ll ever belong to an organisation, because organisations corrupt. It’s the natural course of things, when you have to protect the organisation from outside influences, or when you’re trying to change people’s minds. It’s tough when egos get involved and they’re trying to bend the will of another person, rather than allowing them to come to it if they see it. I know people who are Scientologists: good people, fine people. I don’t know how much of it is controlling, and how much of it is just being helpful for the sake of helping. I’ve heard things about the pressure that can be exerted, but that’s true of a lot of religions.”
