Spiegel Interviews Cruise and Spielberg about Scientology
Mike O'Connor
excerpt concerning Scientology. View the full article at:
<http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,353577,00.html>
[...]
SPIEGEL: We visited one of your locations near Los Angeles and were
amazed to find a fully staffed tent of the Scientology organization
right next to the food tents for the journalists and extras.
Cruise: What were you amazed about?
SPIEGEL: Why do you go so extremely public about your personal
convictions?
Cruise: I believe in freedom of speech. I felt honored to have
volunteer Scientology ministers on the set. They were helping the crew.
When I'm working on a movie, I do anything I can to help the people I'm
spending time with. I believe in communication.
SPIEGEL: The tent of a sect at someone's working place still seems
somewhat strange to us. Mr. Spielberg, did that tent strike you as
unusual?
Spielberg: I saw it as an information tent. No one was compelled to
frequent it, but it was available for anybody who had an open mind and
was curious about someone else's belief system.
Cruise:The volunteer Scientology ministers were there to help the sick
and injured. People on the set appreciated that. I have absolutely
nothing against talking about my beliefs. But I do so much more. We
live in a world where people are on drugs forever. Where even children
get drugged. Where crimes against humanity are so extreme that most
people turn away in horror and dismay. Those are the things that I care
about. I don't care what someone believes. I don't care what
nationality they are. But if someone wants to get off drugs, I can help
them. If someone wants to learn how to read, I can help them. If
someone doesn't want to be a criminal anymore, I can give them tools
that can better their life. You have no idea how many people want to
know what Scientology is.
SPIEGEL: Do you see it as your job to recruit new followers for
Scientology?
Cruise: I'm a helper. For instance, I myself have helped hundreds of
people get off drugs. In Scientology, we have the only successful drug
rehabilitation program in the world. It's called Narconon.
SPIEGEL: That's not correct. Yours is never mentioned among the
recognized detox programs. Independent experts warn against it because
it is rooted in pseudo science.
Cruise: You don't understand what I am saying. It's a statistically
proven fact that there is only one successful drug rehabilitation
program in the world. Period.
SPIEGEL: With all due respect, we doubt that. Mr. Cruise, you made
studio executives, for example from Paramount, tour Scientology's
"Celebrity Center" in Hollywood. Are you trying to extend Scientology's
influence in Hollywood?
Cruise: I just want to help people. I want everyone to do well.
Spielberg: I often get asked similar questions about my Shoa
Foundation. I get asked why I am trying to disseminate my deep belief
in creating more tolerance through my foundation's teaching the history
of the Holocaust in public schools. I believe that you shouldn't be
allowed to attend college without having taken a course in tolerance
education. That should be an important part of the social studies
curriculum.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Spielberg, are you comparing the educational work of the
Shoa Foundation with what Scientology does?
Spielberg: No, I'm not. Tom told you what he believes in, and after that
I told you what I believe in. This is not a comparison between the
Church of Scientology, the Shoa Foundation and the Holocaust. I was only
showing you that some of us in Hollywood have set out to do more than
just be actors or directors. Some of us have very personal missions. In
Tom's case, it's his church, and in my case, it's the Shoa Foundation,
where I'm trying to help other people learn about the mortal dangers of
pure hatred.
SPIEGEL: How do you set about doing that?
Spielberg: I think that the only way we're going to teach young people
not to kill each other is by showing them the reports by the survivors
of the Holocaust -- so that they can tell them in their own words man's
inhumanity to man. How they were hated. How they were displaced from
their homes. How their families were wiped out and how by some miracle
they themselves survived all that.
Cruise: How did the Holocaust start? People are not born to be
intolerant of others. People are not born bigots and racists. It is
educated into them.
Spiegel: Mr. Cruise, as you know, Scientology has been under federal
surveillance in Germany. Scientology is not considered a religion
there, but rather an exploitative cult with totalitarian tendencies.
Cruise: The surveillance is nothing like as strict anymore. Any you
know why? Because the intelligence authorities never found anything.
Because there was nothing to find. We've won over 50 court cases in
Germany. And it's not true that everyone in Germany supports that line
against us. Whenever I go to Germany, I have incredible experiences. I
always meet very generous and extraordinary people. A minority wants to
hate -- okay.
SPIEGEL: There is a difference between hate and having a critical
perspective.
Cruise: For me, it's connected with intolerance.
SPIEGEL: In the past, for example when "Mission: Impossible" (1996)
came out, German politicians called for a boycott of your movies. Are
you worried that your support for Scientology could hurt your career?
Cruise: Not at all. I've always been very outspoken. I've been a
Scientologist for 20 years. If someone is so intolerant that he doesn't
want to see a Scientologist in a movie, then he shouldn't go to the
movie theater. I don't care. Here in the United States, Scientology is
a religion. If some of the politicians in your country don't agree with
that, I couldn't care less.
[...]
--
LYING IS A SCIENTOLOGY SACRAMENT
ASK THEM ABOUT XENU
Remember Lisa McPherson
stevej...@yahoo.com
Spiegel would take such a hostile tone. I don't think an American
magazine would do the same.
hobbit...@yahoo.com
stevejduf...@yahoo.com wrote:
> Thanks for the post. I am surprised that a mainstream outlet like
Der
> Spiegel would take such a hostile tone. I don't think an American
> magazine would do the same.
And if he thought it wasn't proper to be "go so extremely public about
your personal convictions" then maybe he shouldn't have asked about
that at all.
hobbit...@yahoo.com
hobbitfan...@yahoo.com wrote:
> stevejduf...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > Thanks for the post. I am surprised that a mainstream outlet like
> Der
> > Spiegel would take such a hostile tone. I don't think an American
> > magazine would do the same.
>
> And if he thought it wasn't proper to be "go so extremely public
about
> your personal convictions" then maybe he shouldn't have asked about
> that at all.
Maybe I should reconsider what Barbara said about the Germans, but no
this was just one person.
Zinj
stevej...@yahoo.com says...
> Thanks for the post. I am surprised that a mainstream outlet like Der
> Spiegel would take such a hostile tone. I don't think an American
> magazine would do the same.
You call *that* hostile? :)
Considering that Cruise is operating as a full-blown Scientology
spokesman, up to and including promoting the 'Church' by installing a
'Volunteer Minister' tent at a secular worksite, and publicly making
easily controvertible claims for the medical value of Scientology
'treatments', including Narconon, a far deeper line of questioning would
have been completely appropriate. Of course, most 'entertainment'
reporters in the US avoid such 'hard issues' when writing entertainment
puff pieces, but Der Spiegel is a *news* magazine, that has covered the
'Church' of Scientology, which is a *political* issue. They could have
asked far more embarassing questions about the 'Church', its
'teachings' and its relationship to the society it wants to 'help'.
As is, it was almost embarassingly 'softball', and it's a shame to see
Steven Spielberg playing shield.
Zinj
ewsnead
<snip>
Here Cruise illustrates the nub:
"SPIEGEL: There is a difference between hate and having a critical
perspective.
Cruise: For me, it's connected with intolerance."
As a cult, Scientology inculcates among its membership the inability to
distinguish between critical vision, the ability to discern differences and
form personal opinions, and hatred, the inability to tolerate differences
between oneself and others. Obfuscation and clarification, hatred and
critical acumen are conveniently confused and conflated in the interests of
maintaining the status quo. In this instance, the status quo concerns
maintaining the deferred idyllic illusions with which the Scientology cult
has breast fed Tom Cruise for the past twenty years.
I say "deferred" because, as most critics are aware, the therapeutic
promises of Scientology remain perpetually out of reach. I'm gradually
coming to the understanding that many of the long-time adherents prefer
their rewards postponed indefinitely because then the pleasant reverie that
comes from the idealization of "what is to be" may be maintained. Indeed,
actually reaching the promised land or heaven or OTVIII no longer becomes
the point. Because then someone must face the oftentimes unpleasant reality
of "what is" as opposed to the blissful fantasy of "what is eventually to
be." And any sort of critical perspective implicitly casts an unpleasant
light upon the directness of "what is," chasing away the romantically
elusive shadows of "the way things should be." The harshest and most
extraordinary aspect of reality is its obtrusiveness. Whereas a life of
fantasy mires a person into reiterative recycled sameness, reality is
jarring and (harshly) transformative. In fact, it is downright
revolutionary. And I think critical vision provides unique access to this
obtrusive reality that is always there and yet hardly ever seen.
Hatred distorts, and in so doing occludes reality. When Cruise reduces
criticism to intolerance, he inadvertently admits his failure of faith in
the real. This urge to take flight from reality is probably the greatest
source of intolerance and evil in human affairs. The oftentimes jarring
discomfort afforded by criticism remains our only protection against such
evil.
<snip>
ewsnead
--
"Scientology: boldly challenging the MEST universe since 1953, with
decidedly mixed results."
moontaco
Yeah, U.S. reporters (even those ostensibly reporting "news") are
amazingly "soft" with their questions about Scientology. They might say
something like "Why do you think Scientology's gotten such a bad rap?"
but all that really does is give the interviewee a chance to say more
positive stuff about Scientology and put down the critics without
addressing any specific charges. You're not likely to see a reporter
here asking Tom Cruise about the RPF or disconnection, that's for sure.
> As is, it was almost embarassingly 'softball', and it's a shame to
see
> Steven Spielberg playing shield.
>
I suppose Spielberg has a keen interest in keeping relations with
Cruise friendly, but I agree, that was disappointing.
mt
Captain!
<stevej...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1114873866.8...@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks for the post. I am surprised that a mainstream outlet like Der
> Spiegel would take such a hostile tone. I don't think an American
> magazine would do the same.
spiegel really cut to the heart of the matter with this one.
it's funny that there was a call in germany by some to boycott "mission
impossible".
stevej...@yahoo.com
> it's funny that there was a call in germany by some to boycott
"mission
> impossible".
I'm sure there were some Germans who boycotted "Schindler's List" too.
RichA
So you have to be in the same frame of mind to oppose scientologists
as opposing nazis?
-Rich
hobbit...@yahoo.com
The interviewer starts out by saying that in Germany religion was a
private matter. If that's the case he shouldn't have asked Tom any
questions about his.
hobbit...@yahoo.com
> >> it's funny that there was a call in germany by some to boycott
> >"mission
> >> impossible".
> >
> >I'm sure there were some Germans who boycotted "Schindler's List"
too.
>
> So you have to be in the same frame of mind to oppose scientologists
> as opposing nazis?
> -Rich
I think it took more courage for Mr. Schindler to oppose the Nazis then
for the Spiegel reporter to oppose Scientology.