As we drop the first of our King of Queens episodes into the lap of a presumably unsuspecting public, we can’t do so without talking about some of the cast members and their actual lives. How about that Kevin James? Did you know he had a standup career prior to hitting it big? That Jerry Stiller, what a comedic icon. Everyone loves Patton Oswalt. Oh, and Leah Remini used to be a Scientologist. Let’s unpack that one briefly. Check out our latest episode on your podcast platform immediately!
Things may have worked out in the end for Doug and Carrie Heffernan in the show we’re covering this week, but it sure didn’t work out for real-life Carrie and the dubious religion she was forced into as a child. This whole story is batshit. Like, completely and totally batshit. Being someone who considers myself somewhat rational, at least on the good days, I never bothered looking that deeply into Scientology. I wish I still hadn’t. If I could put everything my brain just absorbed from this admittedly minimal-effort research session back into the internet, I would. Since that’s impossible, let’s press on.
The rift between Remini and her Scientologist, uh, church, apparently started forming many years before the full-on parting of ways took place. As the story goes, Scientology leader — yes, they have a leader — David Miscavige attended Tom Cruise’s wedding with Katie Holmes in 2006, but his wife was nowhere to be found. Remini thought this odd and asked of her whereabouts only to be shot down in a stern, know-your-place-peasant manner.
The gap only widened in the ensuing years, and Remini officially left the church in 2013 under somewhat nasty circumstances. The subsequent fallout is truly astounding. The church posted a public response on its self-described “official media resource center” with scathing commentary decrying Remini’s nature and hurling vicious personal attacks at her.
Some especially memorable language gets used in this clearly church-approved response, including a few lines I wanted to include:
“She needs to move on with her life instead of pathetically exploiting her former religion, her former friends and other celebrities for money and attention to appear relevant again.”
“The real story is that she desperately tried to remain a Scientologist in 2013, knowing full well she was on the verge of being expelled for refusing to abide by the high level of ethics and decency Scientologists are expected to maintain.”
“Ms. Remini is now joined at the hip with this collection of deadbeats, admitted liars, self-admitted perjurers, wife beaters and worse.”
Let’s pause for a moment. Leah Remini did in fact make her experiences with Scientology very public, and her celebrity status ensured what she said would not go unheard. She published a book (Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology) in 2015 in addition to launching a revealing documentary (Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath) that ran on A&E for three seasons before ending in 2019.
It’s safe to say Remini did turn her assuredly horrible experiences with Scientology into a decent amount of money, but the church’s need to call that out and smear her is nothing short of despicable. It reeks of defensiveness and is simply not something a religious institution should be doing. Furthermore, how the fuck can someone get “expelled” from a church? Isn’t that line alone a significant indicator that what we’re talking about here isn’t a church at all, but something sinister and twisted? I’d make a joke here about how actual churches have this issue at times too, but this is obviously something much worse and far more troubling.
Let’s consider some of the evidence against Scientology. The church could obviously refute any of these claims or it wouldn’t still be here, officially sanctioned by the IRS as a tax-exempt religious organization since 1993. But the evidence is damning nonetheless.
For instance, the prominent former member who speaks of child labor, homophobic tendencies, and physical abuse. Or the widespread reports of incredibly backwards views on modern medicine, mental health, and bizarre reliance on a supposedly scientific device called an E-meter. And if you really want a sad read, take a look at what life is like for the children who were born into Scientology and what the experience did to them even after escaping.
All of these sources are independent of anything Leah Remini spoke out against. Her insider stories may have made some of the biggest waves and created sensational headlines, but this boat needed more than a gentle rocking. We can’t truly know what Remini’s primary motivation was here. The church wants you to think it was to keep her career going and “stay relevant,” or to simply cash in. But just maybe it stemmed from the fact she finds this entire religion revolting and knew she was famous enough to possibly make a difference.
I’m leaning heavily toward the latter.
