Australian News Net reports:
John Travolta Fears Church of Scientology Would Retaliate If He Left
Melbourne, July 27 : Actor John Travolta has reportedly made private threats to leave the Church of Scientology, but he may not follow through on them because he fears the church may retaliate by revealing embarrassing details about his private life.Travolta, 55, who became a recluse after the sudden death of his son Jett, 16, in the Bahamas during a New Year family holiday, is so distraught that he is barely able to function and is seldom seen in public.
According to reports in Britain's Mail, Travolta is disillusioned with the secretive church, and bitterly regrets adhering to its teachings when treating his son's condition, which is believed to have been autism.
The report also quotes a neighbour of Travolta's as saying that he is rarely seen during daylight hours, but is often spotted driving around his property at night, alone in the golf buggy.
"We used to see him driving around on a buggy with his son. Now its just John by himself," News.com.au quoted the unnamed neighbour as saying.
The report also revealed that Travolta has cancelled all work commitments since Jett's death, and that he resents going along with Scientology's prescribed treatment for son's condition.
The church does not recognise autism as genuine, but instead believes it to be merely psychosomatic, and recommends treatment with vitamins and a detox program, not prescription medicines.
The report also said that the church's response to the teenager's death has been to conduct "intensive sessions" with so-called ethics officers, whose job is to question Travolta and other family members to determine if their "negative influences" caused the tragedy.
Rick Ross, an author who has watched the church for 30 years, said that Travolta's reported threat is a dangerous move, and that it was not only the actor but also any high-profile practitioner who wanted out.
"Scientology keeps files on its celebrity members containing embarrassing personal information about them," he said.
"And Scientology has proven in the past that it has a penchant for releasing that information to embarrass people who have left and who have said things it doesn't like," he added.
Scientology is one of those rare unifying factors that christians and atheists seem to agree on. Atheists tend to reject scientology as a more obvious ludicrous belief system than christianity, though typically it is stated that religions should be considered equally in that once something is not true, the level of how far from truth something sits is essentially unimportant. Christians are often found rejecting scientology as an insane cult which can in no way be compared to their own religious beliefs. In fact, I personally have often witnessed christians offering up scientology as a kind of example of what ridiculous religion looks like in defense of their own illogical beliefs.
Personally, I am more of the mind that no christian has the right to look at scientology and ridicule it as if anything found in scientology is any more outlandishly mythological than the fantastic stories outlined in the bible. Christians must find solace in the fact there there is a religion out there whose origin story includes aliens and volcanoes and the like. How did Adam and Eve's kids have kids you ask? I don't know, but look at these cr-a-zy scientologists over here!
The fact is there is little difference between telling people we're all H-bombed souls with implanted memories and telling people we all came from a single man and woman, that the earth was at one time entirely flooded, or that there are sometimes visible/mostly invisible angels that watch over us. The difference isn't severity of nonsense, the difference is familiarity.
To Travolta, I have to agree with what one commenter said on the Australian news story: When you're afraid to leave, LEAVE NOW.
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