SCIENTOLOGY CANBERRA

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ABC News (Australia)
Elfman slams Scientology critics
Posted Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:15pm AEDT 

US actress and high-profile Scientologist Jenna Elfman has no time for people who criticise the controversial religion and urges people to get their facts straight before judging.

Elfman, best-known for her role in the sitcom Dharma And Greg, says people are too quick to judge the church, which boasts celebrity members including Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and John Travolta.

"If someone starts talking to me negatively about something they've never actually studied that actual text of, I don't really admire them very much because it shows they don't have much integrity, so I just kind of ignore them," Elfman told AAP in Sydney.

"I'm not going to listen to gossip and hearsay about something that's affected my life so tremendously in such a tremendously positive way."

Founded by American science-fiction author L Ron Hubbard in the 1950s, Scientology has received much criticism and been the butt of many jokes for its stance against modern psychiatry and belief in alien cosmologies.

Elfman compared its treatment to the way other religions had been persecuted through the ages.

"It's a new religion. Historically every new religion has been [dismissed]," she said.

"People were hanged, fed to the lions for their beliefs so this is just a modern day evolution of what happens when something new comes into our culture.

"It is not fully understood yet."

Elfman, who is in Australia with her husband Bodhi and 15-month-old son Story to help launch a new pay TV channel, urged people to find out for themselves about it.

"I've seen drug addicts completely rehabilitated, I've seen the illiterate become literate, I've seen people that were so depressed and hopeless completely rehabilitate their goals in life, become happier, find partners," she said.

"It's beautiful."