A couple of days ago I put up a commentary post on how outraged I was by a story about government officials in Germany saying they were banning the new film “Valkyrie” from shooting on German bases STRICTLY because the star of the movie (Tom Cruise) is a Scientologist. I mentioned I thought Scientology is a crackpot pile of bullshit… but that restricting people from things just because of the beliefs they hold is totalitarianism and Hitler all over again.
Now however, it looks like the German government is backing away from that stance and contradicting what it’s own member of government said. The following is an excerpt from Yahoo News:
The ministry now says that, while it hasn’t received an official request from “Valkyrie” producers United Artists to shoot in the country, it would “look agreeably” upon any such application.
The source of the “Valkyrie” controversy seems to have stemmed from a posting on the Web site of conservative German member of parliament Antje Blumenthal. Blumenthal posted a statement Friday claiming that Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung had pledged to her that Cruise would not get permission to shoot because of the purported danger posed by his Scientology.
I’m very relieved to hear all that. I’m all for (and encourage) exposing Scientology and the bashing of the idea of it… however… attacking ideas is different from attacking people just because they hold the idea. As a society we have to judge people on their actions, not on what they think or believe. We can think what they believe is retarded. We can think they’re idiots for believing it. But we MUST draw the line at TREATING them differently because of what they believe. Just my two cents worth.
