When did Tom Cruise first join the “church” of Scientology?
Contrary to popular belief, Tom Cruise’s involvement in Scientology did not begin as recently as the last decade or so. Tom Cruise was, in actual fact, inducted into the “church” as far back as the 1980’s.
It was during his marriage to his ex-wife, Mimi Rogers, that Cruise was first introduced to Scientology. There are several theories on how Tom Cruise was pulled into the “church”, some claim that Rogers’ father was responsible for Tom’s introduction, but as far as I have been able to find out, Mimi’s father was Jewish and it was, in fact, Mimi herself who led Cruise into Scientology.
Mimi was also responsible for the absorption of Sonny Bono and football player John Brodie into the ranks of celebrity Scientologists.
Tom Cruise publicises his beliefs as a Scientologist
For many years Tom pursued Scientology in private, his beliefs not leaking into the light of the public eye. This was at the behest of his long time publicist, Pat Kingsley, who feared that the “church” of Scientology’s controversial past would reflect badly on the public image he had worked hard with Tom Cruise to build.
This isn’t to say that Tom’s beliefs were a complete secret.
In 1990, Tom Cruise Married Nicole Kidman in a Scientology ceremony (A fact which allowed Kidman the freedom to remarry later, as Scientology weddings are not recognised by the Catholic church). Two public figures could not possibly keep their weeding a secret from the media and Tom Cruise’s religious beliefs become public knowledge. However, still worreid about the damage this could do to his image his publicist downplayed the Scientology angle and the fact went largely unheeded by the public at large.
It was only in 2004, when Tom fired Kingley and hired his sister, an fellow Scientologist, to take over the role of PR person that Tom had finally dropped the veil and revealed, in full glory, his adherence to the practices promoted by Scientology founder, L Ron Hubbard.
Scientology and criticism of Tom Cruise
He’s a nutter. Let’s face it. Ever since he has gone all-out public with his confession of Scientology practice, Cruise’s behaviour has gone from bad to worse. We all know about the Oprah couch jumping incident, and his argument with host of the “today show” Matt Lauer not to mention the action taken against the channel 4 News team for this water pistol incident.
He even has a “Tom Cruise is Nuts” website dedicated to his rather unconventional behaviour.
His image has suffered, but his weathering of the storm, no doubt, does him credit. The question is, how long can Tom Last? And, did the “church” of Scientology’s plan of using a high-profile star like Cruise to promote them backfire? Are his antics doing the organisation’s, already questionable, reputation more ham than good?
