“Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath”/A&E
Mike Rinder and Leah Remini on the second part of the Reddit AMA episodes of “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.”
After the success of its first season and its first Reddit AMA session, “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” ended its season-one run with more answers to Reddit users’ questions in Tuesday’s episode.
Leah Remini and former Scientology spokesperson Mike Rinder were joined by a few guests, including the author of the groundbreaking book on Scientology, “Going Clear,” Lawrence Wright. But before they got to answering questions, Remini wanted to address some unfinished business.
Last week’s episode concluded with Remini and Rinder seeking legal counsel and a note that the story would be continued. Remini gave viewers an update.
“We are taking action, trying to take action,” Remini said. “And we can’t really talk about what we’re trying to do, because we actually want to achieve something. So that’s what we’re doing. So know that there are things going on behind the scenes that we’re not talking about, but just know that it’s happening.”
With that out of the way, here are the four most shocking revelations about Scientology from the show’s second Reddit AMA episode:
Remini claims Scientology pressured her into recruiting “King of Queens” costar Kevin James to the church.
“Kevin was very loyal to his religion,” Remini explained. “There’s no in and I was asked that many times.”
In order to bring him into the organization, Remini was asked by other Scientologists if he had any weak places in his life, including a “failed purpose” and “relationship problems.”
Remini added, “He even said to me once, ‘Don’t try to get me in your Tom Cruise glare, man.’ There was no in and I didn’t feel right about doing it. I didn’t ever feel right about telling somebody that they were lost and they needed Scientology.”
Scientology allegedly believes homosexuality is a sexual perversion.
Publicly, the church says it has no position on homosexuality. According to Remini and Rinder, that’s not true internally.
Remini explained that the church has “a chart of human evaluation” from founder L. Ron Hubbard that helps Scientologists to discern who they should have in their life. A rank of 1.1 is the lowest on the scale and includes people who need a lot of help, but aren’t worth helping, Remini explained. That rank includes gay people.
“Internally and for Scientologists, the position is there is something very wrong with a deviant behavior that needs to be dealt with with Scientology,” Rinder said of the church’s internal stance on homosexuality.
Remini added, “Meaning as a person gets to the upper levels of Scientology, the ‘gayness’ will be audited out.”
L. Ron Hubbard based the efficacy of Scientology on his claim that he healed himself from war injuries — a claim that’s allegedly fabricated.
Lawrence Wright, the author of the best-selling book on Scientology “Going Clear,” says his research found Scientology’s documentation of Hubbard’s injuries and military service to be faked.
Wright’s research into the Navy documents found that Hubbard had no serious injuries, which Wright sees as a major fault in the church’s foundation.
Additionally, Scientology’s claims of Hubbard’s many military service awards and records were found to be false. In response, the church allegedly told Wright that the records were “sheep-dipped” — that the military created a whole set of fake documents to cover up Hubbard’s covert military duties.
“That’s the person that the church has to protect,” Wright said. “With encasing [Hubbard] in this myth, they try to cover the efforts of people like me and others to uncover the truth.”
There are at least two mansions in California that are allegedly maintained, staffed, and stocked with food in the event of L. Ron Hubbard’s return.
Scientologists believe that Hubbard chose to leave his body in order to continue his research into the higher levels of being. In actuality, he died in 1986 after having a stroke.
But in the case that he does return, there are at least two fully staffed and stocked mansions being maintained in California — in the cities of Hemet and Creston.
According to Wright, the houses contain Hubbard’s “favorite cigarettes, the Kool cigarettes are there for him; Tom McCann sandals by the shower door; Louis L’Amour novels by the bedside table; and a table setting for one.”
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