No, Kelly Preston is Not Rebelling Against Scientology By Acknowledging Autism
Much is being made in the press that today, Kelly Preston will appear on television and for the first time acknowledge that her late son Jett Travolta was autistic.Jett died in 2009 after having a seizure in a bathtub while the family was in its Bahamian estate. At the time, a family spokesman confirmed that Jett had been prescribed anti-seizure medicine, but his parents — actors John Travolta and Preston, longtime Scientologists — had taken him off the medicine.
In the years since, the press has insisted that in Scientology, autism is a fiction of the evil psychiatry industry, which is why Travolta and Preston could never admit that their son suffered from it and instead promoted the idea that he had a rare condition called Kawasaki disease. Acknowledging publicly that their son was actually autistic, it was believed, would go against their religious beliefs.
And now that Preston is finally using the word “autism” in public, reporters are characterizing it as a “rebellion” against Scientology (just as they did when Travolta used the word a few years ago).
Here at The Underground Bunker, however, we noticed long ago that Preston is often trotted out to talk about her diet successes and other frippery whenever the church is in dire need of some positive publicity. Could she really now be speaking out in a way that challenges the church? Is Preston beginning to break away from her role as Scientology happy person?
Um, no.
Although reporters, after Jett’s death, took it as gospel that Scientology “doesn’t believe” in autism, Scientology itself denied that that was true.
In 2009, Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis was asked flat out if Scientology’s scriptures prevent its members from acknowledging the existence of autism. Here was his reply…
This [idea] that the church has some [position] about autism, that it doesn’t exist, is just not true. The church has never made any such statement. The bottom line here is the church does not involve itself in the diagnosis or classification of any medical condition. It’s just not something the church does.We’ve never stated any such thing, that autism doesn’t, you know, [we don't] recognize autism. It’s medicine. The church deals with the spirit. If people have a medical problem or a physical ailment, they go to a doctor. It’s church policy that they do so and they get that addressed.
Tommy’s response was generally ignored. Of course, Tommy could lie like a rug, so it was easy to disregard his insistence that Scientology has nothing to say about autism.
And it’s not like Scientology doesn’t have a long, wacky track record with medical treatments. More than a decade ago, we wrote about Tory Christman, who spent 30 years in the church and struggled with Scientology’s approach to her epilepsy.
Christman told us that it was Scientology doctrine that her medical condition was caused by “body thetans” — disembodied alien souls brought to Earth 75 million years ago — and that she was encouraged not to take medicine but to “handle” her epilepsy with Scientology auditing.
As mindblowing as that diagnosis is, however, it doesn’t deny that epilepsy exists.
Tommy Davis’s former boss, Mike Rinder, tells me Scientology feels the same way about autism.
“Your Tory example is exactly right. It’s the disagreement with the methods of treatment,” Rinder says. Scientology doesn’t deny that psychiatric ailments exist, but instead takes issue with how to deal with them. “[The church says] don’t take Prozac for depression — find the cause. It’s what started Tom Cruise in his idiotic PR disaster about Brooke Shields taking medication for post-partum depression. That was the ‘Matt, you’re glib, I know the history of psychiatry’ incident,” Rinder said to us in an e-mail.
“I haven’t really followed this, but I saw some blog headline about how she is rebelling against Scientology because she said Jett had autism. All I could think when I read it was WTF? I’ve never heard that autism ‘doesn’t exist’ in Scientology. Whatever their reasons for not acknowledging it in the past I don’t think has anything to do with any ‘Scientology dictate’ about psychiatry,” Rinder says.
Rinder characterized press assumptions about Preston rebelling against the church as “reading tea leaves.” He compared it to seeing Tom Cruise wearing Ray-Bans and then announcing that Cruise was leaving Scientology to revert to his Risky Business days.
“And frankly, I find the whole subject of their son’s death and whatever they have to say about it becoming gossip fodder rather unsavory. Whatever they think or don’t think, their son, who they loved, died. At least leave them in peace on that subject, god knows they don’t get much slack about anything in their life.”
Preston, in today’s show, “The Doctors,” talks about Kawasaki disease and other factors that she believes may have caused Jett’s autism. That should produce endless debate — just as any discussion about the causes of autism has a tendency to do.
We don’t think it’s worth much time debating whether Preston is right or wrong about what caused Jett’s autism. But we’re very certain the notion that she’s rebelling against Scientology for even using the word “autism” is just flat out wrong.
OK, now we’d like to hear what you think. Let us have it.
Kelly Preston Defies Scientology, Finally Acknowledges Son Jett Travolta Was Autistic
Kelly Preston and John Travolta have been slow to acknowledge that their son Jett was autistic, even after they came under scrutiny for the role his untreated autism may have played in his tragic 2009 death. But now, Preston has opened up about it for the first time in an episode of medical talk show “The Doctors” which will air November 21.
“[Jett] was autistic. He had seizures and when he was very young, he had Kawasaki Syndrome,” Preston said. “”I strongly believe as a mother, as does my husband, that there are certain contributing factors that lead to autism and some of it is very much the chemicals in our environment and in our food.” She believes a number of factors caused Jett’s autism, including having Kawasaki syndrome when he was little, her “hard and fast labor,” and a thrush infection caused by her use of antibiotics while breastfeeding. “He was coming out of the autism, he really was,” she said, seeming to echo Jenny McCarthy‘s belief that she had “cured” her son of autism.
While there has yet to be any proof that feeding your kid organic food can prevent and/or cure autism, the fact that she called it autism at all is pretty huge for “the beautiful wife of John Travolta,” as the intro calls her. You see, the Church of Scientology doesn’t believe mental disorders are real, and that psychologists and psychiatrists are just dirty shysters trying to keep people from discovering the true, spiritual cures for their autism and homosexuality and such. With that in mind, this is a pretty big break from the church for Preston and Travolta. And if they want to preach the ethos of organic food, that seems pretty harmless (and maybe even correct…we don’t really know yet). I just hope they don’t become anti-vaccine crusaders, because the C of S is pretty great at getting shady things done. But it would have to believe autism is real first, so I’m not worried.
Read more: http://crushable.com/entertainment/kelly-preston-john-travolta-church-of-scientology-beliefs-son-autistic-quote-503/#ixzz2CpgNY7wv
John Travolta, Kelly Preston Admit Son Jett was Autistic, Against Scientology Doctrine
John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston are in the news again. Kelly Preston appears on an episode of the Doctors, which airs tomorrow 11/21, and she opens up for the first time about the tragic accidental death of the couples oldest child, Jett Travolta.“Do not believe a lot of the things you read,” says Preston, Jett’s mother, “So absolutely he was autistic. He had seizures and when he was very young, he had Kawasaki Syndrome, which is not something that is very familiar, but is has to do with…they get very sick and high fever and rashes, I’m sure your very familiar with that.”
Jett Travolta died accidentally while having an epileptic seizure in the bathroom of the family’s opulent vacation home on Grand Bahama Island, falling and hitting his head on the bathtub, on Friday January 2, 2009.
Preston revealed to Dr. Travis Stork during her interview on The Doctors, that her son’s genetic disease, Kawasaki’s Syndrome, and several other factors, led to the child’s autism. Those other factors include her use of antibiotics while nursing the newborn and her “fast and hard” labor during child birth.
“I strongly believe as a mother, as does my husband, that there are certain contributing factors that lead to autism and some of it is very much the chemicals in our environment and in our food.”
This interview by Ms. Preston is only the second time that anyone from the family has stated out loud that Jett had been previously diagnosed as autistic, the first by John Travolta himself, during a blackmail lawsuit brought by the family over threats made by the ambulance driver the day of Jett’s death.
The Travolta’s changed to an organic lifestyle many years ago, and Kelly thought the healthy lifestyle was bringing Jett out of his autism, a theory also advanced by Jenny McCarthy.
But Preston pushed on as to the origins of her son’s health related problems. She indicated that she had had food poisoning when she was 5 months pregnant. Additionally, she was given antibiotics immediately after giving birth, a recuperative measure for the high fever she had while in labor. Her Doctor insisted that it was safe to breastfeed while on antibiotics, however Jett contracted a Candida yeast infection known as Thrush, a condition sometimes linked to autism.
All this talk about autism is against The Church of Scientology Doctrine, of which John Travolta and Kelly Preston are members. They are two of the high profile members, along with Tom Cruise, the actor.
The Church of Scientology refuses to believe that mental and emotional disorders are a real ailment, and that psychologists and psychiatrists are con men, and these types of problems can only be cured through the spiritual enlightenment and counseling that only the church offers.
John and Kelly’s defiance of Church teachings must be a real blow to Scientology Church leaders, coming on the heels of Tom Cruise’s much publicized quickie divorce from Katie Holmes, seemingly settled in a hurry to satisfy the Church.
Article by Jim Donahue
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