Assignment 1-4

The publicized passing of actor John Travolta’s son has brought back my interest in the religion of Scientology. I learned of Scientology in my early 20’s while attending college. My first encounter with the church was well before the much talked about interview between talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey and with well-known actor Tom Cruise. The members of the group that I met were ordinary people quietly handing out pamphlets to the passing students on campus. There was nothing in the news about the literature or the fact that the Scientologist even existed. However, Tom Cruise’s interview brought The Church of Scientology to the forefront of the mass media when he emphatically announced his religious belief that modern medicine’s use of drugs to fight mental illness was the cause and not the cure. This controversial statement, by a well-known celebrity brought Scientology from the college campus to the world.
The world is infatuated with the rich and famous. Ordinary people base the way they live their lives on the values and opinions of celebrities. People determine what they eat, drink, wear and even how they vote by what the famous do. Celebrities have so much influence over the masses they can bring something that no one knows about and make it huge. There is much talk in today’s society about celebrities and their influence over people and how, if any, they should be held accountable for their actions.