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Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Sat Apr 30, 2005 at 12:28:33 PM EST
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In the U.S., Tom Cruise makes headlines because he's found a new girlfriend, a 26 year old actress named Katie Holmes. In Europe, at least in Germany, the headline is that Cruise has brought Scientology onto the movie set of the new Spielberg film, War of the Worlds, and brags about how many drug addicts he's cured with his religion - and, astonishingly, claims that his religion has the only successful drug treatment program in the world.

From a Der Speigel interview with Cruise and Spielberg:

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?

More from Tom the crusader:

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: 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.

For context, some might find it relevant that Scientology has been the subject of more than 50 lawsuits and government surveillance in Germany:

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 disagrees. You can read criticism of Narconon here and here. The Church puts out this version.

Back to the U.S. and Cruise's new love interest. Ms. Holmes has announced that at 26 she is a virgin, waiting until she's married to have sex, despite a long engagement to actor Chris Klein. She also dated Josh Hartnett.

That's not going to do much to squelch old rumors that the 42 year old Cruise joined Scientology to cure himself of gay urges. Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard reportedly was once very down on gays.

Update: Pharyngula weighs in.

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    Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader | 35 comments (35 topical)
    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#1)
    by Randinho on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    Once you spend all that money auditing Scientology "courses" you have no money left to spend on drugs.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    ...besides, everyone knows that Kabbalah is the new celebrity cul...errr, religion.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    The cat is hog tied by his dogma.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#4)
    by Dick Durata on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    It's a pity they don't have a cure for Tom's overwhelming urge to make bad movies. Turkeyanon or something.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    So, just to ask. What if it does work? Do we know it doesn't? Not "recognized by independent experts" may merely mean an effective treatment that has not benefitted from randomized trials. Weirder things have happened with stuff like this. No, I'm not a scientoloist. I can barely afford being a Baptist. I dont have a clue what "Narconon" is. Only saying that in this case--are we seeing the Der Speigel reporter throw around the word "pseudoscience" a bit too presumptuously?

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    I just want to know if Bennifer is back yet?

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#7)
    by DawesFred60 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    Was He at one time on Drugs? hope he is off drugs now?

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    I wish our news media bothered to learn more about Scientology's unvalidated treatment scams. Cruise says he's a "helper", but it's more like "recruiter". Would any American reporter do anything other than respectfully take down Cruise's ridiculous statements verbatim?

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    I LOVE how the reporter contradicted him. When you're in a cult, you really don't know you're in a cult. You're totally sincere in your mistaken belief. So it helps when people contradict the propaganda you've been fed (and that you, in turn, feed to others.) It gets you thinking, and once you start thinking about all the contradictions, you start to wake up. Not that I'm holding out any great hope for the guy. I just wish people had a better understanding of how emotional manipulation works in cults. I don't think anyone's mind is totally inviolable and immune to undue influence. Easy to mock a cultie, but not so funny, IMO.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    Why should the media do anything? They've tried, but Narconon refuses to give out any internal statistics. Are they required to? Even one of TL's links says that their cure rates are unknown - which is why they are unvalidated. The same anti-narconon site says they could be accurate for the same reason - no one knows. Why is this even important?

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    jch--I would agree--but I think the angle for how this might be 'interesting' (as opposed to important) is why do the Germans seem to get their undies in a more of a knot than anybody else about these guys?

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    Well done, blunt leftist German media!

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    Well one possibility is that East Germany has highest percentage of self-professed atheists in the world (88%) while West Germany is 9th with 12%. They do not like religion (bad or good) in that country methinks

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    Great interview D.S. ! Maybe you can come over here to interview the Preznit and tell him the same about his "fundie-Evangelism". It's all bunk.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#15)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    If religion is doing good and keeping people from killing themselves and others, then that's all well and good, but as evidenced here it's the brainwashing part that should cause some alarm. Man, did that interview turn ugly in a hurry. Living in the USA I had almost forgotten that the media in the rest of the world still has some balls. It's been so long since I have read anything but a puff piece coming out of Hollywood or Washington... :(

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#16)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    Isn't narconon the one where they lock you into a closet until you die?

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#17)
    by Andreas on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    The "government surveillance" in Germany is done by a secret federal agency named "Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz" which is mainly used against oppositional political organisations. In 1999 an article about the treatment of Scientology was published by the WSWS in German (an English translation is not available): Der deutsche Staat und Scientology Vom Umgang mit Sekten oder: Wer bedroht die Demokratie? Gastbeitrag von Alexander Boulerian, 6. Juli 1999

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#18)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    fleetguy wrote: Well one possibility is that East Germany has highest percentage of self-professed atheists in the world (88%) while West Germany is 9th with 12%. They do not like religion (bad or good) in that country methinks They had back luck when they voted avid Christian Adolph Hitler into power and they may know all too well about the downside of rabid religiousity. Might partially explain their concerns about scientology.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#19)
    by krazycory on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    NOBODY can cure ANYONE of drug addiction!! i was strung out on meth for several years and so i also know alot of others that were and most still are strung out. the ONLY way to get of drugs is to WANT to get off!! until someone wants to leave that lifestyle they wont change. you can go to or be sent to all the rehabs in the country but you have to make the decission to quit!! it's not easy and often times it takes help but it's still you decission

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    Krazycory--your post is a well intentioned sentiment that is heard from many recovering addicts. I hear it from prisoners all the time. However, there is almost always the social context side of recovery--and most drug treatment, to the extent that it is effective (note I am not saying it cures) seeks to alter the social context and thinking about social cues in a way that the person who wants to get sober has the best chance of seeing that through. Focusing solely on a "bootstraps" message of recovery from addiction undercuts social and political support for an effective drug treatment infrastructure that relies on things other than 'cult' influence.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#21)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    John Belushi and Chris Farley were just too irreverent and sacreligious for Scientology. You got to have recruits who are easily brainwashed. Like American school kids taking Prozac and Ritalin. They'll just shoot the Scientologists before they are 'Clear'. More bunkum and bosh from TC. Scientology is more like Eric Blair's '1984' than it is rehabilitative.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#22)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:36 PM EST
    Hey Cory, I agree with you about the need of the addict to quit. That's why my proposal on "drug wars" is that we decriminalize most use, possession, addiction and spend the money saved in prosecution and jailtime providing "on-demand" treatment at no cost to the addict. This should not be a dodge for some serious problem like prosecution or financial responsibility, it should be as simple as walking in and saying, hey I am addicted to _______ and I want to get clean. I think my idea is a mix of the social context and authentic desire of addicts to get free of an addiction. I would include nicotine, alcohol, marijuana (I am not convinced mj is anywhere as addictive as the others), cocaine, heroin, meth, hydrocodone, prescription speed and painkillers. I am not sure I want to extend my idea to overeaters or sex addicts since generally speaking we haven't criminalized and we don't necessarily jail for those addictions.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:37 PM EST
    Scientology as a successful anti-drug group? Perhaps, but I doubt it. I have a very hard time taking any group seriously who claims that all of humanities issues stem from an alien warlord named Xenu who slaughtered millions of people after imprisoning them near volcanos then setting off h-bombs in those volcanos. What do you expect from a writer of bad sci-fi (with the possible and somewhat notable exception of Final Blackout) Scientology charges over a quarter-million dollars to have this great "truth" revealed. Of course, I don't see much difference between the claims of these nuts and the claims of many "mainstream" religions. Same amount of proof for both, for the most part.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#24)
    by ding7777 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:37 PM EST
    I don't it was necessary to repeat the rumors of "Cruise join[ing] Scientology to cure himself of gay urges". That's the right-wing/tabloid type journalism.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#25)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:38 PM EST
    They had back luck when they voted avid Christian Adolph Hitler into power
    There's a myth - here and here seem to be the best objective attempts to look at this

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#26)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:38 PM EST
    I will let the man speak for himself: “No, it is not we that have deserted Christianity, it is those who came before us who deserted Christianity. We have only carried through a clear division between politics which have to do with terrestrial things, and religion, which must concern itself with the celestial sphere. There has been no interference with the doctrine (Lehre ) of the Confessions or with their religious freedom (Bekenntnisfreiheit ), nor will there be any such interference. On the contrary the State protects religion, though always on the one condition that religion will not be used as a cover for political ends... National Socialism neither opposes the Church nor is it anti-religious, but on the contrary it stands on the ground of a real Christianity.... For their interests cannot fail to coincide with ours alike in our fight against the symptoms of degeneracy in the world of to-day, in our fight against a Bolshevist culture, against atheistic movement, against criminality, and in our struggle for a consciousness of a community in our national life... These are not anti-Christian, these are Christian principles! And I believe that if we should fail to follow these principles then we should to be able to point to our successes, for the result of our political battle is surely not unblest by God. Adolf Hitler, in his speech at Koblenz, to the Germans of the Saar, 26 Aug. 1934

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#27)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:38 PM EST
    "Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith.... We need believing people." --Adolf Hitler, April 26, 1933 from his no german child left behind policy.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#28)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:38 PM EST
    Now, personally, I think Hitler was less Christian than political opportunist, but that could also be believed about some of our current gang in DC. There is no evidence or suggestion that Hitler was a Scientologist, but the German people may feel bit by opportunistic faith communities given Hitler's lip service to Christianity and as I said earlier, this may play a part in their rejection of Tom Cruise and his claim to be a helper of Scientology who has personally helped hundreds of people get off drugs. When people start thumping the Bible and professing the true faith, one should become concerned if the extension of the true faith then requires a ramped up military presence in the world. I fear that our current bunch of "Christians" has launched the newest Crusade. We may learn the lessons that the Germans learned about Crusades and Biblical rhetoric.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#29)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:38 PM EST
    Ill buy the opportunist - just not the "avid" thang. I put the two links in because they had a boatload of quotes from both sides in both sites - that is if anyone cares what the maniac called himself. And I actually agree with you that some of our current christian demagogues may be no less opportunistic than "der fuhrer". Of course, some of his anti-christian quotes sound like the anti-christian demagogues. As one of the articles points out, he was a vegetarian - everybody got their beef in today?

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#30)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:38 PM EST
    Hey JCH - What is your thing with "thang?"

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#31)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:38 PM EST
    Germans make up large parts of several world cults, Scientology not the least. Ibogaine treatment programs appear to work, as I suspect do religions like the Crossfire Way of the Native American Church (which uses the Grandfather cactus), or the cult that was in the news being attacked for using ayahuasca. This kind of intimate, community Blessing Way helps people of all sorts to feel more whole, and, physical affects of addiction aside, the psychological side of drug addiction I would venture to say includes tons of self-hatred, which these healing cults help cure. Note in passing that Scientology doesn't seem to save marriages.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#32)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    Sure...we can cure all that ails you, just make the check out to "Church of Scientology". Smells like snake oil.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#33)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    Just like the word, got some southern boy left in me.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#34)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    All Scientology has saved is L. Ron Hubbard. It saved him from having to work for a living.

    Re: Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader (none / 0) (#35)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:43 PM EST
    jchfleetguy wrote: "Well one possibility is that East Germany has highest percentage of self-professed atheists in the world (88%) while West Germany is 9th with 12%. They do not like religion (bad or good) in that country methinks" As an atheist myself, I resent that implication. I think it reveals nothing but bigotry on your part.

    Tom Cruise: Drug Crusader | 35 comments (35 topical)