TOM CRUISE CELEBRATES 50 TODAY WITH THE NEWS THAT HE IS THE HIGHEST PAID ACTOR IN HOLLYWOOD

3rd July 2012

And let's face it: he looks great. Shame about the divorce announcement, could she not have at least waited until his birthday was over? "When you gotta go, you gotta go" and that goes for divorce too, or at least separation, but perhaps they have already been through that bit. Anyway, there you have it: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are divorcing after five years of marriage and Katie wants sole custody of their six-year-old girl: Suri.

So much to gossip about and yet all the papers seem to be obsessed with is Tom Cruise's religion. Even Rupert Murdoch Tweeted that followers of Scientology were "creepy" and maybe even "evil". Was that the Rupert Murdoch? Oh well, he ought to consider it.

Surely Scientology is not that much stranger than any other religion? Look at the Abrahamic faiths: they believe in some pretty heavy stuff. Religions speak to us in many ways, and often they use symbolism and allegory, a bit like modern art. If it can speak to our souls in ways that make us better human beings, let it. At the end of the day, as Jesus said: "A tree will be judged by its fruits." Scientology has a long way to go before it get even close to the atrocities inflicted in the names of so many other religions.