Leah Remini has all the inside dirt on Scientology.
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She has a new book coming out Nov. 3, but in the meantime, she’s headed to 20/20 to discuss why she’s taking a break from the controversial religion after following its practices for more than 30 years. Hint: It has a lot to do with how the faith treats kids, and protecting her own young daughter from the kind of upbringing kids can have in Scientology.
“Because Scientologists view children as spiritual beings, you’re not treated as a kid,” she said in a clip from the upcoming interview. “So you’re given a lot of responsibility. Your ego becomes extremely inflated.”
She first revealed her decision to leave the church earlier this year on her reality show, Leah Remini: It’s All Relative.
“I decided I didn’t want to raise my daughter in the church because from what I’ve experienced and what I saw, the church becomes your everything,” she said on the show, adding that her daughter is now being raised Catholic.
Remini says her new book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, will dish all the details of her struggle to leave the church in 2013.
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“The decision to leave is your giving up everything you have ever known and everything you have worked for your whole life,” she tells host Dan Harris on the clip from 20/20. “I feel that people need to understand this has been my whole life. I want people to understand how it happens.”
But while many of us are clamoring for a glimpse inside the mysterious faith, the church’s international spokesperson, Karin Pouw, told People magazine that Remini can’t be taken seriously.
“It comes as no surprise that someone as self-absorbed as Leah Remini with an insatiable craving for attention would exploit her former faith as a publicity stunt by rewriting her history with it,” Pouw said, “including omitting that she was participating in a program to remain a Scientologist by her own choice, as she was on the verge of being expelled for her ethical lapses.”
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What do you think about Remini’s decision to leave Scientology? Do you think the controversial faith is as dangerous for kids as she makes it sound? Let us know down in the comments.
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