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Leah Remini Won't Stop Questioning Church Of Scientology
Actress Leah Remini at the 'Family Tools' panel during the 2012 Summer TCA Tour on July 27, 2012 in Beverly Hills. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Earlier this month, actress Leah Remini announced that she was leaving the Church of Scientology because she had misgivings about the organization's practice of excommunicating people.
She also said that she had been subject to interrogation and thought modification for years after questioning the church's leader, David Miscavige, and suggested that the church made followers disconnect with family members who have left the church.
In a move that surprised no one, a spokesperson for the church called accusations of interrogation and thought modification "absurd" and "pure nonsense."
But Remini is sticking to her guns—she recently told People magazine that she refused to be silenced on this issue:
"I believe that people should be able to question things. I believe that people should value family, and value friendships, and hold those things sacrosanct. That for me, that's what I'm about. It wouldn't matter what it was, simply because no one is going to tell me how I need to think, no one is going to tell me who I can, and cannot, talk to."
Remini is hardly the first person to break ties with Scientology and speak out against the church's practices. Jenna Miscavige Hill, a former church member, accused the church of forcing children to do hard labor. And former Australian rugby player Joe Reaiche has been outspoken against the church since being excommunicated in 2005, saying that he gave them tens of thousands of dollars and was nevertheless kicked out.