14 DAY TRIAL // Since Katie Holmes filed for divorce from Tom Cruise, despite his best efforts to conclude the matter as quickly as possible to prevent further speculation in the press, there has been a lot of talk about the degree of involvement of the Church of Scientology in the divorce.
In fact, there has been so much talk that the Church itself is getting fed up with it – and would like at least some of the major outlets, like NBC, to give it a break.
Below, embedded at the end of the article, are two videos, two parts of the same expose NBC aired the other day on Scientology, “What Is Scientology?” and “Breaking Away.”
Both videos aim to present objective insight into what must surely be one of the most controversial religions of our times.
Even though producers aimed to be objective by including both testimonies from former Scientologists and the official stance of the Church, the Church still had a lot to object to the expose, as Kate Snow and Brian Williams say at the end of the first clip.
In other words, Tom Cruise's attorneys put in some major overtime to make sure the network did not air the expose, even if aimed to present both sides of the story.
“They made it very difficult for us to do this story tonight,” Kate Snow says.
“They were not thrilled to know this was coming,” Brian Williams adds.
“That’s an understatement,” Kate explains. “In the past 24 hours we have received letter after letter from attorneys from the church, attorneys for Tom Cruise, family members. Within the past hour I got two more letters from family members of Mike Rinder saying that he’s a liar.”
“And they asked us not to run this story tonight,” Snow further says.
It only makes sense for Cruise's legal representatives to go out of their way to block such a segment from airing on TV because, if anything, it will only bring more attention on the Church – attention it does not need nor want.
“Of course because of this divorce case they are squarely in the spotlight,” Williams says.
The second video includes footage with Marty Rathbun, the former second in command in the Church of Scientology, and Mike Rinder, former spokesperson for the Church.
Both defected but still believe in the philosophy of Scientology, just not under its current organization. Both paint quite terrible pictures of the kind of abuse, harassment and terrorism employed on a constant basis to keep members from leaving.