Elisabeth Moss Defends Being A Scientologist And Shares What It’s Taught Her
Topics: News, US News, Celebrity, Film and TV
Shola Lee
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: News, US News, Celebrity, Film and TV
As many already know, Elisabeth Moss is a Scientologist. But in a recent interview, she has shared a rare insight into what she learned from her religious upbringing.
Moss typically avoids interviews about Scientology and who can blame her? The religion has been shrouded in mystery, controversy, and cult claims for decades.
Now, however, Moss has offered an insight into what she learned from the religion in an interview with The New Yorker.
The Invisible Man star was raised a Scientologist, with her parents having joined the church before she was born.
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Records made public by the church show Moss completed the Hubbard Key to Life Course when she was eight, achieving the status 'Clear' at 11.
For anyone not clued in on Scientology speak and, honestly, why would you be, the Key to Life course is a communication course designed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
And it's this lesson in communication Moss says she's carried forward into her everyday life.
"Communication is something that I obviously use so much, not only in my job but in my interpersonal relationships as well," she explained.
"That is probably one of the No. 1 basic things that I grew up learning and grew up using and use every day: the power of just being able to listen to somebody, of making somebody feel heard, of not belittling them for what they think or believe, even if you think it’s wrong."
However, others paint a far murkier picture of the church, with several cases of abuse being reported, including mind control, making people 'disconnect' with their families, and assigning members hard labour - the church has strongly denied these claims.
While it's unclear how Moss reconciles the communication she's learned with cult accusations, she does 'encourage people to find out for themselves' in defense of her religion.
"I’ve certainly been guilty of reading an article or watching something and taking that as gospel," she said, before adding that 'religious freedom' and 'resistance against a theocracy' were 'very important to her.'
For many, though, it seems eery that Moss stars in The Handmaid's Tale, a dystopian series that explores mind-control, hard labour, and power abuse while being a follower of a religion accused of the same.
But this is something that Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel and consulting producer of the series, drew a line between when speaking to The New Yorker.
"I don’t think it’s a question of a religion as such. I think it’s a question of who’s running it, and what are they using it for. What kind of power are they exerting over other people, benign or not? As far as I can tell, there’s a Hollywood version of Scientology.
"I mean, the origins are just batty, but compared to what?"
Season 5 of The Handmaid's Tale is expected to be released early 2023, although no dates have yet been confirmed.
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