Rupert Murdoch blasts Scientology
When Tom Cruise received divorce papers from his wife Katie Holmes last week, he must have known that media interest in the story and the part played in the breakdown of his marriage by the Church of Scientology, would be tremendous. Yet surely he couldn’t have expected his harshest critic to be the under-fire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who, thanks to a couple of tweets, has made his position on Cruise and Scientology very clear.
On Sunday, Mr Murdoch tweeted this to his 260,000 Twitter followers: “Scientology back in news. Very weird cult, but big, big money involved with Tom Cruise either number two or three in hiearchy". And yes, he did spell ‘hierarchy’ incorrectly.
As if that didn’t reveal his feelings, Murdoch followed up with “Watch Katie Holmes and Scientology story develop. Something creepy, maybe even evil, about these people”.
Should religion be sacrosanct?
Love them or loathe them, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are going through what is a very difficult time in a couple’s life. Choosing to divorce someone is never easy, but there is usually some catalyst which makes a person strong enough to take this step.
If news reports and gossip columns are to be believed, for Katie Holmes it was the wish to see her five-year-old daughter Suri have a normal upbringing, away from the clutches of the Church of Scientology. So great is Katie’s fear of what a life associated to the Church will mean for her daughter, that she is seeking sole custody of the child. This is not to punish Suri’s father, but simply to stop him having an influence on the child’s religious beliefs.
Now, I believe that a person’s religious beliefs are their own affair and that the god they worship should not define the person. Each religion offers its own idiosyncrasies, which, to those not following that particular faith, can seem strange, or even dangerous. In this regard, the Churchof Scientologyappears no different. L Ron Hubbard and his wife founded the Church in 1953, and to date, there has been no shortage of controversies surrounding the Church and its members. Again, no different to most religions. But perhaps what characterises people’s distrust of the Church, is the apparent lack of transparency about its founder, its members and its actual teachings. If you visit the Church of Scientology’s very slick website www.scientology.org.au, there is plenty of what I would call ‘textbook’ information, but very little insight into the soul of the Church.
Disgruntled ex-Scientologists seem to be the only people willing to speak out about what goes on behind the closed doors of the Church. And while perhaps this in itself is unsurprising, the Church seems unable, or unwilling, to offer any comprehensive or enlightening rebuttal to the rumours by which it is surrounded.
I listened yesterday on radio to Kate Ceberano’s mum Cherie talk about her devotion to Scientology, which spans 52 years. While I thought it was disappointing that she had to defend her religion and her choice of that religion, I didn’t learn anything new as to what Scientology actually offers.
When the Catholic church, or the Muslim faith come under fire, it is not left to those who simply follow such religions to go on the defensive. The church itself will provide a statement based on the facts at hand. Yet, with the Church of Scientology, this is rarely the case, contributing to the veil of secrecy which seems to surround the faith and its followers.
Do we have a right to pry into other people’s faith? Should we just accept people’s religious beliefs as their own? Or are we right to be suspicious of something we don’t understand?
I think it goes well beyond being "suspicious of something we dont understand". There are numerous and well documented instances of unorthodox, unethical and even illegal acts by members of this "church". They are secretive and often try to intimidate those who would criticise them. L.Ron Hubbard (its founder) was a hack sci-fi writer who didnt achieve much in that career. His "church" however went on to become a global corporation amassing huge wealth for its elite heirarchy.
Much of the world is quite rightly fearful and suspicious of this organisation and I wish Katie Holmes well in keeping her daughter out of their clutches.