Crash Director Leaves Scientology

After 35 years as a member of the Church of Scientology, Crash director Paul Haggis has left the institution. Haggis, known for his support of civil rights and his humanitarian efforts, was shocked when the San Diego branch of Scientology publicly defended California's Proposition 8 referendum. Though he says Scientology’s current national spokesman, Tommy Davis, said he would do something about San Diego’s support of Prop 8, ultimately, Haggis says he took no action. “Despite all the church's words about promoting freedom and human rights,” Haggis wrote in his resignation letter to Davis, “its name is now in the public record alongside those who promote bigotry and intolerance, homophobia and fear.” Haggis says Davis also lied when he claimed in an interview that he did not support the practice of “disconnection.” Haggis himself was reportedly asked to disconnect from his in-laws, who had left Scientology years earlier. The Oscar-winning director also became wary of the church after reading a St. Petersburg Times series, which quoted high-level defectors who claimed current Scientology leader David Miscavige physically abused church members.