Ahh…Scientology. Nutty cult of the stars. Look, I can’t claim to understand why anyone needs this stuff but this Scientology certainly has to be one of the wackiest available to waste your time (and money) with. So this letter that “Crash” director Paul Haggis wrote is a real doozy, a real insight into the cult mentality, and it’s a lot of fun too.
In Scientology, I guess, you have to “disconnect” with people who leave the church, or something. It’s like, fine, go ahead and leave, but your parents can never talk to you again or vice versa. They deny this, of course, but it seems to be quite true. So… Haggis’ wife disconnected from her own parents because of Scientology and…sorry, this is just so wacky and confusing, I don’t really understand it. But it appears to be like Catholic guilt, except with added vindictiveness or something.
The craziest thing though, is that Haggis was a member for 35 years and it wasn’t his wife’s traumatic situation with her parents that got him to thinking, it was the church’s lack of support for gay rights. Good reason to leave the church, no doubt, but…what about all that other shit that came before?
“I was left feeling outraged, and frankly, more than a little stupid,” says Haggis in the letter. Um, yeah? They say that cults prey on the weak of mind and the weak of soul, but man, I think Haggis is dead on. You gotta be just plain dumb to fall for this stuff.