Tom Cruise Speaks Up for His Beliefs

By Stephen M. Silverman

01/30/2002 at 01:20 PM EST

Tom Cruise briefly broke off from his European promotional tour of his critically lambasted latest movie, "Vanilla Sky," last week to promote another favorite cause of his, Scientology, reports Reuters. The actor, 39, an unabashed follower of the Church of Scientology, of which he is one of the group's highest-profile members, lobbied the U.S. ambassador in Berlin, Germany, to fight for the group's rights in that country, where it is not recognized, diplomats said on Wednesday, as reported by Reuters. Embassy officials said that Cruise held a meeting with Ambassador Dan Coats, a former U.S. senator. The purpose of the meeting, which lasted for more than an hour, was for Cruise to make a passionate appeal for Coats's support to improve the organization's status in Germany. Germany, denying that Scientology is a church, insists that it masquerades as a religion in order to make money. Furthermore, notes Reuters, Scientologists are barred from government jobs in some areas of the country. Opponents of the German position -- such as Cruise, John Travolta and others -- condemn Germany's refusal to recognize Scientology as a human-rights violation. Cruise has acknowledged that he has been a practitioner of Scientology for the past 13 years. Last January, in a cover story in Vanity Fair magazine, Cruise cited his devotion to Scientology as giving him strength to deal with personal problems ranging from dyslexia and his estrangement from his late father to the persistent rumors that he is gay. Last year, at the time of Cruise's widely reported split from his wife of 10 years, Nicole Kidman, 34, Cruise's spokeswoman, Pat Kingsley, denied that Scientology played a part in the dissolution of the marriage.