Manipulation concerns arise in 'TomKat' divorce

Does Scientology threaten members with 'policy of disconnection.'

The great grandson of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard believes actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are both victims of Hubbard's multi-billion empire.

"Tom Cruise is another victim of the mirage that my great grandfather created around himself," says Jamie DeWolf in a recent CBS interview. Regarding Katie Holmes, he speculates, The more (she) saw behind the curtain the more horrified that she probably was."

DeWolf further believes Holmes was lucky to be able to get out of the church, but Tom Cruise, her ex-husband, is what DeWolf calls Scientologys golden mascot.

In a New
Yorker article, film director and screenwriter Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2004, and Crash, which won Best Picture 2005) reveals that for months he tried to contact Tommy Davis, chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International.

In a resignation letter, Haggis says he had explained to Davis that, in exploring outside perspectives on Scientology, he was "dumbstruck and horrified" to learn of accusations that senior executives in the church had been subjecting other Scientologists to physical violence. In his online research, Haggis found a CNN interview from May, 2008 wherein anchorman John Roberts asked Davis about the churchs policy of disconnection, where members are encouraged to separate themselves from friends or family members who criticize Scientology. Davis responded, Theres no such thing as disconnection as youre characterizing it. And certainly we have to understand

Haggis, as a long-time member, knew otherwise.

We all know this policy exists. I didnt have to search for
verificationI didnt ! have to look any further than my own home. His wife had been ordered to disconnect from her parents because of something absolutely trivial they supposedly did twenty-five years ago when they resigned from the church. . . . Although it caused her terrible personal pain, my wife broke off all contact with them. Haggis told Davis: To see you lie so easily, I am afraid I had to ask myself: what else are you lying about?

Interestingly, it was Tom Cruise's first wife, Mimi Rogers, who introduced him to the Church of Scientology, states the Religion facts website, which also says: "Cruise is clearly a man interested in spiritual things: he considered a career as a Catholic priest before pursuing an acting career and is now perhaps the most outspoken celebrity on his religion. He joined the Church of Scientology in 1986 after a class helped him overcome dyslexia, and his three sisters followed him one by one. His mother, a Catholic, was the lone hold out in the family until she turned to it in 2003 after going through 'some things.'"

Cruise has been married three times now. First in 1987 to Mimi Rogers (m. 1987, div. 1990), second to Nicole Kidman (m. 1990, div. 2001) and most recently in 2005 to Katie Holmes, also raised Catholic, says the Huffington Post.

Curiously, Cruise once studied for the priesthood, reports the Daily Beast. Father Ric Schneider recently sent the former teen he knew as Tom Mapother a picture of a happier moment: he and another boy had built a boat in the hobby shop at St. Francis Seminary just outside Cincinnati in Mt. Healthy, Ohio.