Molly's Musings is for the random thoughts in life--some really deep, others very. . . Molly's Musings are meant to get you thinking, laughing or, preferably, both. If you leave this page feeling offended. . .well, you need to open up your mind a little and work on your sense of humor now, don't you? :-)

One of the big things this past week in the media was the leaked video of Tom Cruise and his views on Scientology. If you haven't seen the video, you can see it here--one of the few sites that the Church of Scientology haven't had pulled off the 'net. I usually don't follow the Hollywood stories, other than what I hear on the radio, but this one, I did make a point of finding the video after hearing clips of it on the radio, read a few newspaper articles and watched the segment on "20/20" last night about it. My interest is the religious aspect.

One of the many things that disturbed me is that in the video, Tom says that when a Scientologist comes upon a car accident, that they're not like anyone else, that they know that they have to do something about it because *they know* that they're the only ones who can really help. What kind of crap is that? Have we ever heard of Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley, and John Travolta stopping at the scene of a car accident to help? You know they've come across one at some time or another.

In looking at the official church web site and under the volunteering section, church members supposedly helped during Hurricane Rita--an issue that was raised on a newspaper comments board. You often hear of churches helping out during times of crisis and as much as I don't like the Southern Baptist church in terms of promoting intolerance in the name of Jesus, one thing that church does is jump immediately to the task of helping out when there's a crisis. They were supposedly here in OKC during the bombing in 1995--they have it listed on their web site but no links like the *few* other diasters that they responded to. You would think that if, as Tom Cruise said, that a Scientologist *knows* that it's up to them because *they're* the only ones who can really help, we'd be hearing more of how they help during a crisis. Oddly enough, there was nothing listed for 2007 and we had 2 major ice storms here in Oklahoma last year. . .where were they?

I also found it odd that the Scientology logo contains the cross but yet there's no mention of Jesus. The web site mentions that Scientology literally means "the study of truth" but it doesn't say, whose truth. There's all this talk about man and the parts of man, which Scientology focuses on (spirit, mind, and body) Scientology is anti-drugs and chemicals because they affect mental alertness. Scientology doesn't believe in psychology but I found it interesting that they prmote the use an electropsychometer that measures the mental state or change of state of a person. Like I said, no mention of a "higher being" but yet they're using the cross, which is world-wide known symbol of Christianity?

People have often said that the Church of Scientology is a cult and I tend to agree, given what I've read about members trying to leave, being intimidated, harrassed, etc. I've always had a problem with someone who just starts a church because "God spoke to me." I've always had a problem when churches are headed by one person and that are not part of a larger denomination--there are no checks and balances and when we're dealing with people's souls (I'm speaking about the emotional aspect, not the "going to heaven or hell" aspect), I think a person needs to have a good background, i.e. have gone to divinity school (which is what is typically required to be a pastor in a church belong to one of the large demoninations). To me, it's like if someone goes to work as a computer programmer without any kind of education--sure they can feel their way around for awhile and try to figure things out and screw things up along the way--screwing up data is one thing, messing with a person's well being is another thing (Tom says that Scientologists are the "authorities on the mind"). In the case of the founder of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, he was a science fiction writer, who has been quoted as saying that one can become a millionaire by starting a church. I'm surprised that there are people like Tom Cruise, etc. who would turn to a person like that to guide them on life's journey.

In my opinion, and this is just my opinion, people who are drawn to the cult-like churches, where the one leader has all the say, where there is no room for any sort of disagreement obviously don't feel emotionally secure. The danger is that they are heading down a path that will further damage their emtional well being.

Until next time.