Leah Remini and lots of different former members and critics of the Church of Scientology have taken difficulty with long-time member Elisabeth Moss making an attempt to brush off criticism of the group and its “authoritarian techniques” in a brand new interview with the New Yorker.
Moss’ declare in a New Yorker profile that Scientology isn’t a “harmful cult” additionally seems at odds with a number of investigative reviews over time about alleged abuses and a brand new federal lawsuit filed final week by three defectors, who say they have been systematically trafficked into pressured labor as kids and grew up enduring inhumane and barbaric therapy, the Tampa Bay Instances reported.
In speaking to the New Yorker, Moss at first didn’t seem to need to say an excessive amount of about Scientology as a result of she mentioned she didn’t need viewers to be “distracted” once they watched her performances in “Mad Males,” ”The Handmaid’s Story” or in different TV sequence and movies.
Moss instructed author Michael Schulman: “Folks can clearly maintain of their thoughts no matter they need to, and I can’t management that.” Moss then mentioned that Scientology is “not likely a closed-off faith. It’s a spot that may be very open to, like, welcoming in someone who needs to study extra about it. I feel that’s the factor that's in all probability essentially the most misunderstood.”
When Schulman introduced up the group’s “authoritarian” techniques” and reported abuses, “which embrace thoughts management, making members of the family reduce ties with apostates and assigning troublesome members to onerous labor,” Moss responded by saying a number of instances: “I might simply encourage individuals to seek out out for themselves.”
Moss then appeared to immediately dispute such reviews, saying, “I’ve actually been responsible of studying an article or watching one thing and taking that as gospel.” She then mentioned: “Clearly one thing like spiritual freedom and resistance towards a theocracy is essential to me.”
Moss’ feedback didn’t sit nicely with Remini, who left Scientology in 2013 and has arguably grow to be one in every of its most high-profile, outspoken critics, producing and internet hosting the Emmy Award-winning TV sequence, “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.”
Remini tweeted out a clip from an episode of her sequence that focuses on allegations that Scientology “has an extended and merciless historical past of forcing girls in its workforce to have abortions.” She added: “A whole lot of former Scientologists have spoken out about this.”
1. Since there's speak right now a few present celeb Scientologist, I need to remind everybody that Scientology has an extended and merciless historical past of forcing girls in its workforce to have abortions.
A whole lot of former Scientologists have spoken out about this. pic.twitter.com/GLUIbup1Ob
— Leah Remini (@LeahRemini) April 30, 2022
Amongst different issues, Moss has grow to be “an approachably cool pop-culture feminist icon ” for her work in “The Handmaid’s Story,” the New Yorker mentioned. Within the sequence, she performs a girl imprisoned by a totalitarian theocracy generally known as Gilead, which exerts management over girls’s reproductive decisions by forcing them into sexual slavery and into bearing kids for elite members of the regime.
Remini emphasised Schulman’s perception that there’s a “cognitive dissonance” between Moss’ public persona and her involvement in a corporation that allegedly has pressured girls to have abortions in order that they might hold working. “If a girl in Scientology’s workforce, the Sea Group, doesn’t have an abortion, they are going to be kicked out and declared a suppressive particular person,” Remini tweeted. “In the event that they don’t abort, they may lose the whole lot they’ve ever identified of their life, together with their household.”
Remini’s opposition to Scientology got here up within the New Yorker profile as a result of it embroiled Moss in one of many church’s latest awkward Hollywood moments. In 2017, each Remini and Moss have been nominated for awards from the Tv Critics Affiliation. On the awards ceremony, Remini gained for “Scientology and the Aftermath.” It was reported that Moss left the room throughout her speech.
Moss instructed the New Yorker that she simply occurred to go to the lavatory when Remini’s award was introduced. “I want it was extra thrilling than that,” Moss mentioned.
Remini has claimed that Scientology forbids Moss to talk to her as a result of she’s a defector and due to this fact “a suppressive particular person,” in church parlance, who ought to due to this fact be averted.
Moss instructed the New Yorker that Remini by no means approached her to speak about Scientology. “I've by no means obtained any request to speak to her,” Moss mentioned. “So there hasn’t been a chance for her to say that. I don’t know her that nicely, so it’s not like we have been buddies.”
No matter occurred on the 2017 TCA awards, it’s been beforehand documented that Scientology likes having celeb members as a result of their success is a strong commercial for the group. The 2015 HBO documentary, “Going Clear: Scientology and the Jail of Perception,” additionally shames Tom Cruise, John Travolta and different celeb members for turning a blind eye on the alleged abuses inflicted on rank-and-file members.
Remini over the weekend additionally retweeted a put up from journalist Yashar Ali, who challenged Moss’ comment that “individuals ought to discover out for themselves” about Scientology. Ali, who has revealed investigative tales on Scientology, wrote that Moss “isn’t encouraging open-mindedness. She is strictly following Scientology coverage by not revealing what Scientology is about.”
Ali spotlighted 5 different well-known Scientologists, together with Cruise, Travolta and Kirstie Alley, who used related speaking factors in interviews.
1. When Elisabeth Moss says “individuals ought to discover out for themselves,” she isn’t encouraging open-mindedness.
She is strictly following Scientology coverage by not revealing what Scientology is about.
Listed below are 5 well-known Scientologists making use of the identical coverage and speaking factors. https://t.co/obLnyy7Cctpic.twitter.com/ARYJjGo3Z3
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) Could 2, 2022
Ali mentioned Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, by no means wished members making an attempt to elucidate an excessive amount of about Scientology to most of the people “as a result of that will get in the way in which of Scientology’s income stream.” In keeping with Ali, Scientology makes cash by having individuals pay to undergo step-by-step coaching to realize elite information and standing within the group — a course of that will get them “hooked in.”
“If individuals actually knew what Scientology’s practices really have been, they wouldn’t be a part of,” Ali mentioned.
The New Yorker story mentioned that Moss’ mother and father have been Scientologists and that she took Hubbard’s “Key to Life Course” when she was 8 and achieved the specified state of “Clear” when she was solely 11. She is “a part of a small set of second-generation Hollywood Scientologists, and her spiritual community has performed a job in her profession.”
Whereas Moss has appeared to hit again at award-winning investigative reviews about Scientology over time, Remini tweeted out information about new damning abuse allegations contained in a brand new federal lawsuit.
1. Thanks, Valeska, Gawain, and Laura, for combating on your youthful selves by submitting this lawsuit towards Scientology and its chief David Miscavige. pic.twitter.com/KzHesIJnQR
— Leah Remini (@LeahRemini) April 28, 2022
As reported by the Tampa Bay Instances, which has gained a Pulitzer for its reporting on Scientology, three former members allege that they have been “systematically” trafficked into pressured labor. They mentioned that Scientology indoctrinated them as kids and made it financially, bodily and psychologically inconceivable for them to go away as adults.
The three plaintiffs allege six counts of pressured labor and peonage in violation of the Trafficking Victims Safety Reauthorization Act, the Tampa Bay Instances mentioned.
One of many plaintiffs, Gawain Baxter, mentioned he was 6 years outdated when he signed a contract agreeing to work for the church for 1 billion years. He mentioned he spent his childhood doing guide labor at Scientology’s Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida, and getting no training past primary studying, writing and math.
When Baxter mentioned he tried to go away at age 15, by writing a letter to a superior about fixed abuse and insupportable dwelling situations, he was despatched to work on a Scientology ship within the Caribbean.
In an announcement to the Instances, Scientology spokesman Ben Shaw mentioned “the allegations are each scurrilous and ridiculous and the lawsuit is each a sham and a rip-off.”
Baxter instructed the Tampa Bay Instances: “The most effective factor I might actually hope for is to try to create consciousness and attempt to maintain him accountable for, for my part, the inhumane and barbaric therapy that individuals undergo, that we’ve gone via.”