Scientology: Funny and scary
from msn.com
This is a little long, but it was all too good to cut.

The battle between Tom Cruise and Scientology and its foes is heating up.

Cruise and Scientology have been in the news lately because of an allegedly censored “South Park” parody of the religion— and now Scientology and the “Top Gun” star are being blamed for a woman’s death.

“Thanks, Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology, for your expert advice on mental health,” blasts an ad in LA Weekly. The ad goes on to say that a woman was killed “by the schizophrenic son she was told to treat with vitamins instead of psychiatric care.”

The ad refers readers to a Web site, which provides details on the case of Jeremy Perkins, a 28-year-old schizophrenic who stabbed his mother to death. Perkins was a staunch Scientologist and his mother was a counselor in the church — which opposes psychiatry and psychiatric drugs and “believes modern psychiatric medicine derives from an ancient alien civilization’s plot to drug and enslave humanity,” notes the site.

A spokesman for the Celebrity Center of the Church didn't respond to requests for comment by deadline.

So, I know this is tabloid crap and we shouldn't waste our time even thinking about the Hollywood rumor mill, but this religion is getting scary. Let's start with the rumor:

Unnamed "inside" sources have claimed that Tom Cruise threatened Viacom with refusing to participate in the publicity campaign for MI3 (let's pause for a minute and think about what a bad idea that is) if they re-aired the episode of South Park called "Trapped in the Closet." This episode apparently shows Nicole Kidman, John Travolta, and R. Kelly trying to talk Tom Cruise out of a closet (get it), as well as including other stuff that Ron post a few days ago. This episode was not re-aired, instead something about Chef's Salty Balls was re-aired.

This would be funny, if not for the allegation that one person's money can interfere with another person's freedom of speech. I mean, yes, this is kind of a trivial thing-- the episode has aired the first time, portions of it are on the internet (maybe the entire episode), the creators are not being told to stop saying anything, but something strikes me as really wrong. It seems to me Scientologists are starting to get REALLY out of hand. Maybe more than my favorite out of control religious group, the Southern Baptists. I couldn't (in a full two minute search) find the Southern Baptists trying to stop any episodes of South Park.

I hesitate to continue without saying that I think everyone has the right to believe (or not believe) whatever they want. And if Scientologists want to boycot South Park-- then more power to 'em, but when Scientologist (or Southern Baptists, or Catholics, or whomever) start to demand that the rest of the country live accoording to the belief structure held by that group, they have gone entirely too far.

This is why I get angry about Tom Cruise's constant public abuse of celebrities and their use of pharmaceutical and talk therapies. I know drugs aren't always the answer, but to tell others that using doctor prescribed anti-psycotic drugs makes them pawns in an ancient alien plot to enslave humanity is wrong! Does anyone else remember Oprah getting sued by the beef people for saying mad cow stopped her from eating burgers? Can't the pharmeceutical people sue Tom Cruise and Scientology for being public menaces? I am infuriated by this. And now it seems as though there could be some kind of suit for the death of the mother at the hands of her schizophrenic son. Ahhh... America. The land where you can sue a religion, but can't talk smack about it on an animated TV show. What will we think of next?