Speaking of Scientology, Tommy Davis, one of Scientology’s most obnoxious spokespeople, was interviewed by Martin Bashir on Nightline in a segment about Scientology. Bashir asks him an entirely legitimate question about Xenu and Davis dances all around the question, feigning offense, and refuses to answer the question. When Bashir clarifies that he’s just doing his job and is asking the question in the context of his other questions, Davis threatens to walk out of the interview… and when Bashir asks again, Davis, in a perfect, childish hissy fit, does just that.
The Davis segment starts at 3:40 (video auto-starts at that point)…
I find it amusing that Davis has to say how offensive it is, but he’s not actually clear on why the question is offensive or how it offends… nor does he say that the whole Xenu story is untrue. He goes on with the “I’m offended” argument… over and over. My opinion is that he comes across as evasive, childish, and obnoxious.
It would have been quite easy to just say, “My religious beliefs prohibit me from speaking about that.” End of story. Davis does say that once, but he evidently felt the need to pile on the crap about how offensive the question is and how he’s not going to discuss perversions on the internet and how Bashir is intentionally trying to offend him.
It was a simple, direct, clear question about Xenu and it deserved a simple answer. Davis couldn’t provide one. He stuttered. He feigned offense. He threatened to walk out. He talked around the issue. …but he didn’t answer.
The general assumption is that Scientologists only learn about the Xenu story when they’ve reached a very high level in the church and are prohibited from talking about it to anyone who has not reached the appropriate level (ie… paid enough money). You can find out all about the story by searching “Xenu” at any search engine, but one of the most comprehensive sites is Operation Clambake, operated by Andreas Heldal-Lund from Norway.
So perhaps Davis was just following the tenants of the church’s dogma by not speaking about Xenu. If it wasn’t true, he could have simply said it wasn’t, but he didn’t do that. He avoided the question and refused to answer, throwing up smokescreens and running around in verbal circles. That indicates, to me, that the probability is pretty high that he actually does believe the Xenu story, but doesn’t want to (or can’t) talk about it.
…because that level of crazy is just bad press.
(hat top to Friendly Atheist)