Paul Haggis Renounces $cientology in Blistering Letter

[Equipoise]

GOOD FOR HIM! I’m so happy about this. It’s not that I was a big fan or anything, but he just seemed too smart and talented to be a part of the stupid cult. If only Tom Cruise and John Travolta would follow his lead.

What’s so amazing is that he obviously didn’t know very much about Scientology if he didn’t already know that Hubbard hated gays. But when he started getting dissatisfied, he actually did honest-to-goodness research! He’ll learn more now that his mind is open to what other former Scientologists have to say. He’ll find out more about the REAL Scientology than he learned in 35 years of actually being a Scientologist. I would imagine (hope) that he’s being surrounded by a group of supportive ex-Scientologists. Some big BIG names (in the cult, not the general public) have left Scientology and they’re probably all coming to his aid.

Here’s the story at Movieline: Paul Haggis Renounces Church of Scientology in Blistering Letter

Radar Online has the full text of the letter.

I can just imagine how much this has rocked the world of the cult. It makes me giddy with pleasure to think of the shock and long faces, and how it is probably going to make other people start thinking twice about the cult they’re in.

I like this part…

[QUOTE=Paul Haggis]
The great majority of Scientologists I know are good people who are genuinely interested in improving conditions on this planet and helping others. I have to believe that if they knew what I now know, they too would be horrified. But I know how easy it was for me to defend our organization and dismiss our critics, without ever truly looking at what was being said; I did it for thirty-five years. And so, after writing this letter, I am fully aware that some of my friends may choose to no longer associate with me, or in some cases work with me. I will always take their calls, as I always took yours. However, I have finally come to the conclusion that I can no longer be a part of this group. Frankly, I had to look no further than your refusal to denounce the church’s anti-gay stance, and the indefensible actions, and inactions, of those who condone this behavior within the organization. I am only ashamed that I waited this many months to act. I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Scientology.
[/QUOTE]

[Equipoise]

@Equipoise

I would imagine (hope) that he’s being surrounded by a group of supportive ex-Scientologists. Some big BIG names (in the cult, not the general public) have left Scientology and they’re probably all coming to his aid.

Reading closer, the Movieline article mentions Marty Rathbun’s blog. Yes, Haggis is in good hands. Rathbun was one of the biggest scumbags in the world of Scientology. If he came to his senses, then anyone can.

[Equipoise]

@Equipoise

Radar Online has the full text of the letter.

Scratch that. It isn’t the full text, there’s a lot missing.

The full text is here. It’s a lot more powerful.

[QUOTE=Paul Haggis…]
And that is when I read the recent articles in the St. Petersburg Times. They left me dumbstruck and horrified.

These were not the claims made by “outsiders” looking to dig up dirt against us. These accusations were made by top international executives who had devoted most of their lives to the church. Say what you will about them now, these were staunch defenders of the church, including Mike Rinder, the church’s official spokesman for 20 years!

Tommy, if only a fraction of these accusations are true, we are talking about serious, indefensible human and civil rights violations. It is still hard for me to believe. But given how many former top-level executives have said these things are true, it is hard to believe it is all lies.
And when I pictured you assuring me that it is all lies, that this is nothing but an unfounded and vicious attack by a group of disgruntled employees, I am afraid that I saw the same face that looked in the camera and denied the policy of disconnection. I heard the same voice that professed outrage at our support of Proposition 8, who promised to correct it, and did nothing.

I carefully read all of your rebuttals, I watched every video where you presented the church’s position, I listened to all your arguments – ever word. I wish I could tell you that they rang true. But they didn’t.

I was left feeling outraged, and frankly, more than a little stupid.

…
[/QUOTE]

[Equipoise]

It’s just mind-boggling how little Haggis knew about the organization he gave 35 years of his life to. Things that are SOP, always have been, that every critic knows about.

[QUOTE=Paul Haggis]
And though it may seem small by comparison, I was truly disturbed to see you provide private details from confessionals to the press in an attempt to embarrass and discredit the executives who spoke out. A priest would go to jail before revealing secrets from the confessional, no matter what the cost to himself or his church. That’s the kind of integrity I thought we had, but obviously the standard in this church is far lower – the public relations representative can reveal secrets to the press if the management feels justified. You even felt free to publish secrets from the confessional in Freedom Magazine – you just stopped short of labeling them as such, probably because you knew Scientologists would be horrified, knowing you so easily broke a sacred vow of trust with your parishioners.
[/QUOTE]

[Princhester]

@Equipoise

I can just imagine how much this has rocked the world of the cult. It makes me giddy with pleasure to think of the shock and long faces, and how it is probably going to make other people start thinking twice about the cult they’re in.

You’re dreaming. They live in a closeted world. Most won’t even here of this, and the church will poison the well by blackening this guy’s name so that those that do hear what he has said won’t believe him.

[Equipoise]

@Princhester

You’re dreaming. They live in a closeted world. Most won’t even here of this,

Some are closeted, but most are regular people living regular lives. If they don’t hear about it it will be because they don’t follow Hollywood. But Scientologists highly HIGHLY value their celebrities, are very proud of them. Anyone who’s entrenched even a bit will know Paul Haggis. A Scientologist wrote a movie that won the Best Picture Oscar (Million Dollar Baby)! The next year, that same Scientologist directed a movie that won the Best Picture Oscar (Crash)! That same Scientologist just resigned from the church. The more publicity this gets, the more Scientologists will be likely to find out about it.

@Princhester

and the church will poison the well by blackening this guy’s name so that those that do hear what he has said won’t believe him.

No doubt the PTB are pouring over Haggis’s auditing history trying to find something, anything, to smear him with. It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with. Unless they find a live boy or a dead girl, I doubt anything will stick. Nothing they do or say will affect his career, that’s for sure.

[carlb]

I wonder if he’s bitter enough, or will eventually become disillusioned enough, to write or speak in detail about CoS practices and the internal workings of the church. There has been plenty of this already, but I don’t think there has been by anyone who would be familiar to the general public. Haggis isn’t as well-known as Tom Cruise or probably even Jason Lee, but he’s enough of a celebrity that he could shine a brighter light on the CoS than maybe others could before him.

Of course, that would only attract the Scientology lawyers like moths to a flame.

[gaffa]

@carlb

I wonder if he’s bitter enough, or will eventually become disillusioned enough, to write or speak in detail about CoS practices and the internal workings of the church.

It would matter if he was a significant member. From his letter, I’d say he has been involved for a long time, but not deeply. He sounds like the type of Hollywood celebrity who took courses at the “Celebrity Center”, was treated with kid gloves by the most attractive “auditors” and had his ass kissed pretty regularly. The “Celebritology” Haggis, Travolta, Cruise and others get is very different than that delivered to Jane Schmoe at the local org.

[cerberus]

1. I don’t have a cite, but it seems pretty clear that there is a Hollywood Track for $cientology and there is a Regular Meat Track for everyone else.

2. Haggis appears to disgruntled more about $cientology’s lack of accommodation of non-heteronormic culture then the rampant abuse, lies, bullshit, space opera et al. This could well be because:

3. The Famous People don’t get the pointy end of the $cientology $tick.

4. The Famous People are more susceptible to the crap peddled by $cientology, so long as serves their egos.

By the by, where are all those super duper OT’s and their magical powers? Where is all this alleged “good” done by the Good People of $cientology?

[Equipoise]

cerebus, you’re exactly right, celebrities are treated better and know less.

Haggis says he’s been a scientologist for 35 years, which means he wasn’t a celebrity when he became one, but he became a rising star very quickly. They probably routed him into the Celebrity track fairly soon after he started. According to his IMDB page, he was writing for One Day At A Time in 1975. If he has been in for 35 years, that means he became a scieno a year earlier. He directed unknown episodes of The Love Boat in 1977, and he produced series The Facts Of Life starting in 1979. They probably have a whole division of people who do nothing but keep an eye on raw talent and try to get to the most promising ones. It’s not really very successful though, when you consider how many producers, directors, writers, actors, agents and managers there are in Hollywood, and how few celebrity scientologists there are. There are only a few core high-profile members, like Cruise, Travolta, Anne Archer (whose son Tommy Davis was the guy Haggis was writing to, the same one who stormed out of an interview the other night), Jason Lee, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Nancy Cartwright, Giovani Ribisi, Juliette Lewis, Kirsty Alley and probably a few more I’m not remembering now. Haggis was a BIG name in a very small pond.

This guy’s not high-profile (Jason Beghe), but lurking on sites populated by ex-scn, it rocked a lot of people when he left, quite publicly. That interview is long, but boy is it fun. “They fucked me, and I paid them!”

[QUOTE=cerberus]
2. Haggis appears to disgruntled more about $cientology’s lack of accommodation of non-heteronormic culture then the rampant abuse, lies, bullshit, space opera et al.
[/QUOTE]
He talks about being duped and feeling stupid in his letter, but yeah, it is funny that disconnection with his in-laws didn’t trip his bullshit meter. He was more sensitive to the treatment of gays than he was to the treatment of his wife, her parents and the grandkids. At least he was sensitive about the treatment of gays, but it’s surprising he didn’t get a whiff of that homophobic stench before Prop 8. It’s that celebrity bubble at work.

[QUOTE=cerberus]
By the by, where are all those super duper OT’s and their magical powers? Where is all this alleged “good” done by the Good People of $cientology?
[/QUOTE]
No kidding. I have to admit to some private glee when I see tabloids with a ginormous Kirsty Alley on the cover (“Kirsty tipping the scales at 300 lbs!!”) and think “Hey, scientology can help you with that!” I have no problems with her weight, just the fact that she and others tout scn as a cure-all for anything that ails you.

[ralph124c]

The hardest thing to swallow (about $cientology “theology”) is the crap about Xenu. Allegedly, he last showed up 75,000,000 years ago, when he blew up the volcanos on teegeack (earth).
Where has he been all these years?

[Justin_Bailey]

@Equipoise

There are only a few core high-profile members, like… Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith…

While both are friends with Tom Cruise, neither is a Scientologist.

[MPB_in_Salt_Lake]

@Equipoise

cerebus, you’re exactly right, celebrities are treated better and know less.

Haggis says he’s been a scientologist for 35 years, which means he wasn’t a celebrity when he became one, but he became a rising star very quickly. They probably routed him into the Celebrity track fairly soon after he started. According to his IMDB page, he was writing for One Day At A Time in 1975. If he has been in for 35 years, that means he became a scieno a year earlier. He directed unknown episodes of The Love Boat in 1977, and he produced series The Facts Of Life starting in 1979. They probably have a whole division of people who do nothing but keep an eye on raw talent and try to get to the most promising ones. It’s not really very successful though, when you consider how many producers, directors, writers, actors, agents and managers there are in Hollywood, and how few celebrity scientologists there are. There are only a few core high-profile members, like Cruise, Travolta, Anne Archer (whose son Tommy Davis was the guy Haggis was writing to, the same one who stormed out of an interview the other night), Jason Lee, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Nancy Cartwright, Giovani Ribisi, Juliette Lewis, Kirsty Alley and probably a few more I’m not remembering now. Haggis was a BIG name in a very small pond.

This guy’s not high-profile (Jason Beghe), but lurking on sites populated by ex-scn, it rocked a lot of people when he left, quite publicly. That interview is long, but boy is it fun. “They fucked me, and I paid them!”

He talks about being duped and feeling stupid in his letter, but yeah, it is funny that disconnection with his in-laws didn’t trip his bullshit meter. He was more sensitive to the treatment of gays than he was to the treatment of his wife, her parents and the grandkids. At least he was sensitive about the treatment of gays, but it’s surprising he didn’t get a whiff of that homophobic stench before Prop 8. It’s that celebrity bubble at work.
No kidding. I have to admit to some private glee when I see tabloids with a ginormous Kirsty Alley on the cover (“Kirsty tipping the scales at 300 lbs!!”) and think “Hey, scientology can help you with that!” I have no problems with her weight, just the fact that she and others tout scn as a cure-all for anything that ails you.

I know almost nothing about Scientology, (growing up in Salt Lake, there was another wierdo religion that I came to know far too much about though) and next to nothing about 99% of big Hollywood stars, but I have never heard that Will Smith was a Scientologist, though I do remember hearing that he was close friends with Tom Cruise…

Now the last movie (actually I think the only movie) that I ever saw Will Smith in was “Independence Day” so its not like I keep close tabs on the guy, but are you certain that he is a Scientologist and not just buddies with some of them?

[Equipoise]

@MPB_in_Salt_Lake

…but are you certain that he is a Scientologist and not just buddies with some of them?

He’s probably not as entrenched as some of the others, but he and Jada are bosom enough to give lots of money.

Will Smith Donates $70,000 To Scientology Groups (in 2008)

Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, donated $70,000 to Scientology groups in 2008, according to a tax filing just obtained by this column.

The “Seven Pounds” actor contributed $60,000 to the World Literacy Crusade and $10,000 to ABLE International via his Will Smith Foundation. Each is a Scientology organization. In the past, he’s denied being a member of the group.

…

In 2007…

He also gave a combined $122,500 to the Church of Scientology, broken into these donations: $67,500 to the New York Rescue Workers Detoxication Fund, $50,000 to the group’s Celebrity Center in Hollywood and $5,000 to ABLE, another Scientology offshoot. Smith and his wife have also supported a private school called New Village Academy they opened this fall in suburban Los Angeles that uses Scientology learning concepts.

More about the school, from that first link:

The $70,000 is relatively small amount in relation to a total of $1,275,699 in his total charitable donations for 2008. But it’s significant considering the criticism the Smiths have come under for the private school they’ve started in Calabasas, Calif. The New Village Leadership Academy has come under scrutiny for using Scientology teaching methods.

Over the summer, the Smiths dismissed Jacqueline Olivier, the school’s headmaster, and replaced her with Piano Foster, an educator who has completed Scientology classes.

Here’s a quote from Smith regarding scientology. I love him as an actor, and he seems like a really nice guy, but he’s dumber than a box of rocks who knows NOTHING about the true teachings of scientology and is just taking what Cruise says at face value. If he’d do some research, like Haggis did, he’d know that he’s 100% wrong.

“I’ve studied Buddhism and Hinduism and I’ve studied Scientology through Tom. And nobody’s saying anything different! Look, I use the Bible to explain the ideas of God, and life, and love, and relationships, and the life of Jesus Christ to teach my children how to defend their spirit. But in all of the experiences I’ve had with Tom [Cruise] and Scientology, like, 98 percent of the principles are identical to the principles of the Bible. The Bible says, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And you know, there’s a Scientology principle: Do not create experiences for others that they cannot comfortably perceive.”

Smith would rather stroll many paths to enlightenment than commit to one high road. “The Bible talks about your spirit being immortal, that you were created for existence beyond your physical body. Well, that’s no different from Scientology! I don’t think that because the word someone uses for spirit is thetan that the definition becomes any different.”

[Equipoise]

@Equipoise

Scratch that. It isn’t the full text, there’s a lot missing.

The full text is here. It’s a lot more powerful.

Ok, that link’s been taken down now.

The full text can be found at Marty Rathbun’s blog.

Paul Haggis

[MPB_in_Salt_Lake]

Thanks for the info—BTW, if anyone cares, I was wrong; besides Independence Day, I remember seeing Men In Black years ago, but I think it must have been on TV.

I always thought Smith seemed like a pretty good guy (and for all I know he actually is) but I will be gotohell if I will support HIS support of the Scientologists.

Almost everything I know about Scientology has been learned here on SDMB, but if only a fraction of it is true, they are indeed a group to be steered clear of…

[Tom_Tildrum]

I’ve never actually sampled haggis, but from what I’ve heard, even scientology sounds preferable.

[Contrapuntal]

@Equipoise

There are only a few core high-profile members, like Cruise, Travolta, Anne Archer (whose son Tommy Davis was the guy Haggis was writing to, the same one who stormed out of an interview the other night), Jason Lee, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Nancy Cartwright, Giovani Ribisi, Juliette Lewis, Kirsty Alley and probably a few more I’m not remembering now.

I watched all nine minutes of that video. Unfortunately, it does not show him walking out. I’m sure he did, but not on the video.

[Argent_Towers]

Wrong; haggis is no more “disgusting” than meatloaf and ground beef. It is, in fact, delicious.

Paul Haggis, on the other hand, is a hack director who is responsible for three dogshit movies: Quantum of Solace, Casino Royale, and Crash.

[Equipoise]

Casino Royale isn’t dogshit. It’s pretty damned good. Quantum of Solace was just ok, it didn’t live up to one of the best movie names in history, and Crash had some good acting in it. Million Dollar Baby was very good, In The Valley of Elah was very good, Flags Of Our Fathers was pretty good, Letters from Iwo Jima was excellent. My favorite thing by him though is still Due South. I was crushed when I found out he was a scieno, because I loved Due South so much. Now I’m not crushed anymore.

Contrapuntal, I have to admit that I hadn’t watched the video. I just saw the headline and knew it was the same person. I didn’t mean to mislead.