Tom Cruise: Taking Back His Image
Posted by Cory Tucholski on September 8, 2006
In a recent article from Religion News Blog about gossip columnists, bloggers, and website users discussing the recent first public appearence of Suri Cruise, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s daughter, Elaine Lui (of laineygossip.com) made a comment that really bothered me:
[T]here’s one absolute necessity if Cruise is to completely rehabilitate his image: he has to stop talking publicly about Scientology.
“We are all religious and we don’t push it on other people, and the way he did it was really offensive to other people. As long as he doesn’t talk about it, he’s going to be fine.”
Again, I have to state in no uncertain terms, that I disagree with Scientology very strongly. The beliefs of this so-called “religion” are completely at odds with a Christian understanding of the world around us. With that in mind, you would think that I am someone who would agree with Lui about what was said here. That is not the case.
I am categorically opposed to Elaine Lui’s above comment.
Although I disagree with Scientology and I pray that Tom Cruise sees God’s truth someday, to oppose him proselytizing his religion begs the question “Where will it end?” If I became a celebrity tomorrow, I wouldn’t be shy about declaring that my celebrity status is not for me, but for the glory of God. I would ask the faithful to pray for me to keep Him in my sight, and that I do His will through my newfound fame. Would Elaine Lui speak out against that?
I sincerely hope that I am reading too much into Lui’s comment. Somehow, I doubt it. No one seems to want to hear about the religious views of another; and I read this as an attack on not just Scientology, but on evangelism in general.
The United States gives its citizens “freedom of speech.” Not “freedom of speech so long as you don’t offend me.” Unfortunately, all too many people assume that the latter is implied by the Constitution. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next decade or so, and weather or not the Political Correctness movement is going to effectively end a lot of our free speech rights.
