While Tom Cruise prepares for his next closeup on the Oprah Winfrey show, Jenna Miscavage (the niece of Scientology world leader, David Miscavage) gave an interview to “Nightline” about what it’s like to grow up as a member of the COS. In particular, Jenna was recruited into the Sea Org by means of a 1 billion year contract to express her devotion to the cult. In return, Jenna and other Sea Org children received work weeks that regularly exceeded 100 hours per week.
The interview also briefly touched upon the Cruise as the “Face of Scientology” (crikey!), and this leads to questions of willful blindness on the part of Cruise and other high profile celebrity members of Scientology. Do these celebs know what occurs in the Sea Org? Obviously, they’ve heard the stories but choose to dismiss them for a greater good, as John Travolta alluded in a 1983 Rolling Stone interview:
RS: “Then despite all the negative publicity about Scientology, you still believe?”
Travolta: “Yes. I think it’s pretty brilliant. I try to separate the material and the organization, because I don’t agree with the way the organization is being run. I believe that the material is more worthy than the individuals who are handling it.”
RS: “Scientology uses your name a lot in promoting its cause. Do you feel it has used your celebrity for its own purposes?”
Travolta: “I’ve been something of an ostrich about how it’s used me, because I haven’t investigated exactly what the organization’s done. One part of me says that if somebody gets some good out of it, maybe it’s all right. The other part of me says that I hope it uses some taste and discretion. I wish I could defend Scientology better, but I don’t think it even deserves to be defended, in a sense.”
So, in the instances where Scientology has been implicated in certain homicides, these celeb members probably overlook that as well. Nice work!
Video clips of Jenna Miscavage’s “Nightline” interview are below:
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Celebrities are treated differently than any other customer or member because of both the $ and the PR they can generate. Within the Church only members who have achieved a certain level may speak to them, and they are shielded from the day-to-day workings of orgs and missions because they are funneled to the “Celebrity Center” which in no way replicates what goes on elsewhere.
It should also be noted that in a person’s “sessions” (auditing) you are in what amounts to a confessional. The main difference being in Scientology the things you are relating are written and recorded. It has been suspected by ex-members that silence and cooperation has been demanded of people for whom released details about their personal life would embarrass. That may ot may not be tinfoil hattery.
But, like all active members, it is strict indoctrination that anyone who is a critic or questions the church is an enemy capable of doing or saying anything – so best to ignore them. That’s the mechanism of control.
Some readers may want to know how Scientology tried to stop this show from airing:
http://www.exscientologykids.com/eskforums/viewtopic.php?t=384
It probably is not tinfoil hattery — I was for a time a member of a 12 step based group that required people (as all 12 step groups do) to make an accounting of their wrongdoings. The trouble was, the guy who ran it (and still does) is a psychopath and, as I later found out, a convicted felon. He told me that if I criticized him, he would make public things that I had said to the group.
I was grateful just to get the hell away from it at that point.
What Beghe is doing is braver than people realize. I believe they will do their best to discredit him and destroy his reputation now.
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I’m very glad they finally aired this. The abuses of this ‘church’ need to be brought into the light, and this report didn’t even touch upon more than a fraction of them. I hope that the media will gain confidence in reporting critically on Scientology and that we will see more reports soon.
“Scientology – it’s worse than you think.”
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Finally watched the interview with the niece — interesting piece. She came across as pretty credible as well.
I think if reports like this keep up, we’ll see a decrease in the number of high-profile people who are willing to allow themselves to be identified with the church. The implosion of Tom Cruise’s career is just the beginning, I think. Travolta was a bit of a has-been to begin with, but what’s he done lately?