If it is anything Americans love it is watching a good dramatic celebrity break up. Although, if you are a DirectTV customer, it’s lights out for you if you want to watch all the drama of the Tom Cruise and Katie Homes divorce saga. It is really sad that more Americans tune into or log on to TMZ than reading the daily newspaper.
It is never a happy thing when a marriage fails, but if the reports are true it was wise of Katie Homes to get out of crazy Cruiseville. There is a lot of speculation swirling around why Katie Homes called it quits on Tom Cruise. Apparently, it totally took Maverick off guard as Katie used a disposable cell phone to plan the divorce while Tom was in Iceland (of all places) filming a movie.
No matter what the rumors say about why the marriage failed, we can learn three things from TomKat‘s divorce that give us a glimpse into some revealing trends and realities in our culture:
Religion still matters. Many social commentators bark about how religion or the interest in it is dead in the United States. It is pretty clear that Katie wanted to separate her daughter from Scientology. The Scientologists apparently think Tom Cruise has telepathic powers. If the Rock of Ages star can communicate with people with his mind, why didn’t he sense Katie was planning of this? All kidding aside, it is pretty public now that Holmes wanted to keep Suri out of the nutty sci-fy cult religion. Immediately following the divorce, Holmes registered as a parishioner at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in New York City. Katie grew up Catholic. It seems that brushing up against Scientology led Holmes to return to her faith. Why else would she join a Catholic church so quickly? In the end, religion or the direction of Suri’s faith was a huge factor in the divorce. Religion still matters in America.
Before you marry, seek premarital counseling. I’ve made the case before that premarital counseling is crucial to marriage. Often, couples like TomKat, jump into marriage without sitting down with someone to walk them through values, expectations, religious beliefs, roles, parenting, family issues, family history, and future goals. I don’t know if Tom and Katie went through premarital counseling but if they did, they didn’t have a very good counselor. A divorce or this whole mess could have been prevented if these two sat down to see if this marriage would work.
We are too fixated on voyeurism. Our voyeuristic culture pushes us to watch reality shows and read celebrity dirty where we see people ruin their lives as we laugh or high-five our friends in celebration of someone’s misery. We thrive on personal information, especially juicy information. Facebook has taught us how our culture is encouraging us to overload on information. Facebook and Twitter voyeurism tricks us into thinking that we need to know everything about everyone. The celebrity payout of the Cruise-Holmes divorce has spelled big bucks for celebrity newspapers. People can’t get enough of other people’s business. Especially, celebrity gossip.
As we begin to turn to the next juicy celebrity drama story, let us pay more attention to our own children and spouses. Maybe we can work on our marriages instead of spending time reading about the downfall of a celebrity marriage.
4 Comments
Hoping some non-judgemental Baptist will talk with Tom Cruise about his belief in Scientology. Maybe the Lord will send just the right person.
I personally like him, he is an excellent actor, seems to care about his fans, and I believe wants to do what is right.
Alan- Question. Thursday evening, watching Brian Williams program ‘Rock Center’ presented a special on members who left Scientology. I noticed when the TV people panned
the outside of the building, located on one side, there is a ‘huge Cross’. It gives the impression of believers in Jesus. They don’t seem to have a belief in the Bible, and it was said in the review they do not use it at all. Any thoughts on why that cross is there? Maybe
some of your readers might know.
Ethel, there’s no doubt that Scientology wants to confuse people into believing that their “religion” has some sort of commonality with Christianity.
Thanks for replying. Really sad. I wonder what’s really in the mind of these people who run Scientology . . . to fool people is my only guess into thinking it’s not occult!