When I saw the November 16 issue of People magazine on the stands at my local pharmacy, I looked at the cover and thought, “Hey, I might be able to get a blog post out of this.”

Sure enough, here I am.

Despite being a science fiction fan, I haven’t read any L. Ron Hubbard, but the idea that a science fiction writer could consider himself qualified to found a religion has always struck me as pretentious. Then I worked for a state psychological association and learned that Scientology is against psychology (an actual science), so that was another strike against it. I had also heard the word “cult” bandied about with mentions of Scientology, and after reading the article on Leah Remini, I have to say that descriptions of Scientology sound pretty cultish to me.

I can’t imagine growing up like that: cleaning hotel rooms for 12 hours a day, living in poverty (a poverty that could have been somewhat alleviated, presumably, if they hadn’t had Scientology courses to pay for)…all of it. I have occasionally used unkind words to describe my own Catholic upbringing, but it was never this bad. Not even close.

But the thing that resonated the most with me was where Remini said, “My mother made me who I am today, and Scientology was part of it,” and then saying, “It’s all part of a journey.” That’s the way I view my earlier life in Catholicism, because without that, I wouldn’t have been led to Kemeticism.

Without my parents putting me into Catholic schools growing up, I would never have been at Holy Cross School in Lewiston, Maine during third grade, when we saw a play about Hatshepsut. That event sparked my lifelong love of Egyptology, which played a role when I hit my crisis in January of 2006. Without that love, I would not have been open to Aset when She came to help me.

Hey, maybe everything does happen for a reason. (Nah.)