Tom Cruise is a very public and outspoken representative for Scientology who, sometimes, has been known to act in movies. Or perhaps being a spokesman for Scientology is his main acting role, who knows? In fact, few people know much about how Cruise came to be involved in Scientology - but some details are coming out.

Radar explains:

Cruise was introduced to the church “very gently” in the late ’80s through his then wife Mimi Rogers. Soon the actor’s handling was being personally overseen by the church’s supreme leader, David Miscavige. For some time, says the former insider, the star’s involvement with Scientology wasn’t well known even within the organization. His file was said to be kept under his real surname: Mapother.

[Jesse Prince, a onetime high-level Scientologist] remembered that Cruise was a fast riser. “I mean, I’ve never seen a guy progress so quickly through the Scientology ‘levels,’” he said. “I know because I personally sat down and did E-meter drills with him…. When I first met him he was nothing.” For years, according to former Scientologists, Cruise received the kind of special perks that one might expect any organization to lavish on a celebrity member.

When Cruise married Nicole Kidman in 1990, Tabayoyon said, the church leader accompanied the couple to Colorado for the wedding. Prince said Cruise had “a fantasy of just running through a field of tall grass” with his new wife. He remembers workers at Gold “staying up overnight, just extended schedules, de-rocking, plowing a field, planting tall wheat grass, and when Nicole Kidman came — here’s a field. Now they’re running through the damn field of grass. It took weeks.”

Boy, I’ll bet the pope doesn’t give that sort of treatment to celebrity Catholics. How can you say “no” to a religion that treats the rich and famous just like the rich and famous are always treated? How can you say “no” to a religion that treats people unequally, based upon what sort of publicity and money they can help bring the organization?

Read More:

• What is Scientology?
• Scientology News
• Scientology: Critiques
• Scientology: Spoofs & Books
• Scientology vs. the Internet
• Scientology: Court Cases
• Scientology: L. Ron Hubbard