The upside to this situation is that Cruise is coming across badly. In promoting this sect of religion he is coming across as both incorrect and indeed removed from his proper mental state. That's a good thing. Cruise is a pretty famous guy and should he represent the case of Scientology well, you can be sure they would have even higher recruitment numbers.

Back in the 50's and 60's the Nation of Islam recruited the young Cassius Clay and converted him to Islam. Muhammad at the time was most interested in the preachings of Malcol X, who strived for equality and the peaceful achievement of justice. However, Elijah Muhammad used Ali to his favour and probably recruited more from the speculation of Ali's conversion than in any other recruitment ploy. Luckily the "Black Muslims" separated after the death of Elijah Muhammad (his son Herbert was very money motivated) and the more general muslim faith was then introduced to it's members who decided to stray from Herbert.

However, my point is, Imagine Cruise had the influence of Ali? Imagine how many would convert to the Religion The theory isn't that preposterous, the Black Muslims firmly believed that White people were "devils" and a great ring of fire would descend from space and irradiate all wicked white people, so what would stop Scientology from catching on It's not a coincidence that Cruise and other celebrities are very vocal members of this sect. They are pawns to the upper seated members of Scientology's hierarchy. We should be glad that Cruise has blundered this way and came across as a mere imbecile.