14 DAY TRIAL // HBO aired Alex Gibney’s documentary on the Church of Scientology, “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” last month and the entire organization is still reeling from the revelations made in it. While higher-ups have stressed that there is exactly zero truth to the allegations, the Church’s already tarnished image has had a lot to suffer.
Tom Cruise, the most high-profile Scientologist, is yet to address in any way the documentary. Considering how well his career has been going as of late, he probably never will - so John Travolta must feel like it’s up to him to do it.
“I’ve been so happy with my experience”
Rumor has it that John has been eyeing Cruise’s position as the number 1 celebrity spokesperson for the Church for years, but leader David Miscavige will simply not give in because he is more or less infatuated with the Hollywood superstar.
One of the claims made in “Going Clear” regarding Travolta is that the Church has been recording his confessions during the auditing sessions (illegally so), using this sensitive material as leverage against him. This plays into a very old rumor of how Travolta is gay and very desperate to stay in the closet for the rest of his life.
Admittedly, Scientology has his admission on tape and they’ve been threatening to out and disgrace him, should he ever decide to leave their ranks.
Since his name comes up a lot in the documentary, you’d think that John would be interested in finding out at least what Gibney has to say about him. He isn’t, he says in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times: he has not seen the movie and has no intention of doing so.
However, he knows it’s a negative depiction of a religious organization he’s more than happy to be a part of, so since he never experienced first-hand anything even remotely close to negative, he has no desire to comment on the allegations. It would be out of place for him to do so, he says. The same goes for Cruise, he adds.
“[It] has been nothing but brilliant for me,” Travolta continues. “I’ve been so happy with my [Scientology] experience in the last 40 years that I really don’t have anything to say that would shed light on [a documentary] so decidedly negative. I’ve been brought through storms that were insurmountable, and [Scientology has] been so beautiful for me, that I can’t even imagine attacking it.”
Scientology is about helping others too
However, it wasn’t just him that found comfort in the teachings of Scientology, the actor continues. Because of what he’s learned in these 4 decades, he has been able to help others, counseling them through their grief and pain, offering assistance where it was needed, guiding them to light and better days.
As Cruise said in one of his older interviews, back in the day when he was still talking openly about his work within the Church, Scientologists are brought to believe they can and will change the world, imposing their will onto it and making it a better place by getting involved whenever they see a problem they believe they can fix.
This is far from a bad thing, as you’ll probably agree. Unfortunately, there’s more to Scientology than this: there’s strict control over their members’ lives and finances, intimidation tactics and character assassination for those who defect and speak against it, and forced slave labor for the “lesser” members whose careers, like Tom and John’s, can’t make a difference in the organization’s bank account. Allegedly, of course.
