Leah Remini appeared on The Today Show recently to promote her new A&E documentary, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. Here's what she had to say, as reprinted by E! News:
"I was watching what was happening to former members and former high-ranking clergy of the Church, and I was watching what it was doing in response, and I felt I had a responsibility to help out where I could. I'm not a big fan of bullies, so it is part of who I am. I was a fighter in the Church. This is what they taught me, so I'm going to continue my fight, but I'm on the right side of that fight now. I just want to send the message that I'm not going to sit back and allow it to go on."
On her decision to do the documentary:
"It's for the victims. It's for the people who have spoken out, but it's also for people who just maybe don't have the strength to fight, feel they don't have a voice...I just want to give people strength and not just with this organization but with any bully. I just hope that that's what the message is."
On leaving Scientology:
"Well, it's difficult to leave. But again, I am on TV because I was an actress and I have a lot of support. So for me, it pales in comparison to what former high-ranking executives had to deal with and what parishioners had to deal with, just average, everyday Scientologists who dedicated their lives, money and families to this. Now they're suffering for speaking out...If you speak out, you're labeled an enemy to the Church and the Church has policies on how to deal with its enemies, and they go after them. It's in their own policies. So they don't know any different, as I did when I was if the Church. So I understand this. I have compassion for it. Because you do become a person who's very hateful and you're very judgmental towards anyone who isn't a Scientologist. And a critic of Scientology is dealt with in a very specific way. And that is unlike a real church."
Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath premieres tonight on A&E at 10/9 central.
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