Leah Remini leaves the fold

The Scientology fold, that is. Of course, to hear it from some of the celebrities who actually broke away from the cult, it wasn’t exactly a welcoming fold to begin with. More like a welcoming fold if you agree to be “reprogrammed” and only think thoughts that are approved by church’s leaders.

Leah Remini is the latest celeb to fly the coop. Here are some comments she made during her appearance on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show (via the Los Angeles Times):

DeGeneres asked her why she chose to leave too.

“My mother got involved when we were very young, so it’s all we ever really knew,” Remini said. “But over time, my eyes opened and I could just no longer be affiliated with the organization and my family felt the same, so we left.”

“How are you?” DeGeneres asked. “I hear it’s different than leaving another religion, so are you OK?”

“I’m OK,” she said. “It’s hard. We lost friends that can no longer talk to us who are still in the organization.”

“Now, that is a thing? When you leave the church they can’t talk to you and you can’t talk to them?” DeGeneres asked.

“Correct. And these are friends that we’ve had for dozens of years,” Remini continued. “But I have great friends, other friends that are not in the church, that have stood by us. Our family is stronger, we’re together and that’s all I can ask for.”

“You have me. I’m you’re friend! We’re your friends!” DeGeneres said.

The 43-year-old actress spoke slowly about the topic and didn’t give many in-depth answers, but when she left the faith she told People: “No one is going to tell me how I need to think, no one is going to tell me who I can, and cannot, talk to.”

Kudos to Remini for breaking herself from that nonsense, but one must ask: We can possibly excuse her for just following along with the church and its practices as a teenager and even possibly as a 20-something, since, as she said, Scientology was all that she knew, but why on earth would it take a reasonable adult that long — Remini is 43 now — to loose herself from a cult that so obviously pedals sophistry as truth? Add to this yet another reason Hitchens was dead on about religion.

Classification Thetan Level 5. Seriously? What about Idiot Level 10?

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