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It paved new ground for emboldening creatives, journalists, and watchdogs to speak freely in the public sphere about the evils of the church. TL DR: it is a good thing that much public awareness about the Church of Scientology in the culture of American media is born from South Park’s “Trapped in the Closet.” It bears a significant, material responsibility in humiliating the church, consecrating its status as a cult, and shedding light on the octopus of malice that is the hierarchal structure of scientology’s corporate body.
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Of Matt and Trey, it is an admirable quality they possess as public figures to have been warned of all the professional and personal risk they may be taking on to make a mockery of one specific, niche subject - at a time when South Park was a definite cultural phenom, but not quite yet the too-big-to-fail iconoclast staple of American media we know it as today - and to say fuck that, we’re doing it anyway. Countless others of comparable status to themselves have said, no, I don’t want to deal with all that - and this is not a condemnation it’s definitely not a wrath I would wish anyone to incur. It is the reason the church still maintains its tax-exempt status and its classification as a religion. Scientology is well-known to file suit at the drop of a hat and have skirted much legal repercussion by simply exhausting and discouraging all dissent and criticism by abusing the pay-to-play parameters of the American judicial system. He is essentially still a scientology attack dog, but acting independent of directives of the church that were previously required by his position.īut this entire debacle does demonstrate something specific about both the show and Matt and Trey themselves - that being, even when I disagree, I have a deep appreciation for Matt and Trey’s refusal to see any topic as off-limits or any bully too big. This would explain why Rathbun has in recent years set his sights more and more at discrediting fellow ex-scientologists speaking out against the church like Leah Remini and Mike Rinder, as well as reputable journalist Tony Ortega. What is more likely is, following a lawsuit filed jointly by himself and his wife against the church regarding their harassment of the couple, that there is a high likelihood of a generous, under-the-table cash settlement. Many believe he has rejoined, which is doubtful.
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But keep in mind, Rathbun is a controversial figure within the community of ex-scientologists and adulation as a hero should be avoided there is a lot of confusion regarding his status within the church. Rathbun is why much of this information about fair game directed at Stone and Parker in retaliation for “Trapped in the Closet” is corroborated public knowledge. Money talks, and quite loudly at that. The LA Times affectionately dubbed this controversy Closetgate. At this time in the mid 2000s it seems inarguable that Tom Cruise’s star power burned far brighter than that of Matt Stone and Trey Parker in the corporate consciousness. Comedy Central and Paramount are both properties of Viacom. Cruise, in true toddler fashion, threatened not to participate in any promotional publicity for the upcoming Mission Impossible: 3 (a Paramount production) unless Comedy Central pulled the episode out of cable syndication, which did happen. What is described are the ways in which Matt and Trey became targets caught in the cross-hairs of the church as well as corporate figureheads at Comedy central and Paramount who bent their knees first and foremost to none other than - you guessed it - Tom Cruise. A few years back, Tony Ortega - a remarkable journalist and the definitive authority on all things Scientology - wrote a brief article on his website in conversation with Ebner about the impact South Park's episode had within the world of scientology.