'it sure seems odd to me how he never seemed to mind as long as the intolerance was being directed towards Xtians or Jews or Muslims'

I've given it some thought. (Really.) I think he feels obligated to object publicly, lest fellow 'Church' members (a notoriously vicious lot) make his life uncomfortable. Really, I have to wonder how many of Scientology's celebrity spokespeople are secretly quite through with it by now, but are too afraid to make a break with it. Trey and Matt said the same things you did, but the tone they took was almost saddeningly frustrated, as though they were trying to get through to their friend by some code — 'C'mon, Isaac, snap out of it. You're a pretty cool guy aside from this bullshit.'

A friend who's read up on Scientology says that a lot of followers eventually crack under the strain of cognitive dissonance — one can only believe in Xenu and all that other shit for so long before one simply snaps and comes back to reality. Occasionally this takes the form of a nervous breakdown. My friend was saying this in response to Tom Cruise's couch-jumping, Oprah-throttling, Brooke Shields-baiting series of embarrassments last summer. Then again, evidence suggests that celebrities are treated far better by the 'Church' than Joe Average would be — the 'Church' needs the imprimatur of high-profile icons. Fortunately, as I was saying to listeningowl tonight, America is backward and foolish in a lot of ways, but there does seem to be a widespread sense of skepticism bordering on disdain regarding Scientology in the country's massbrain.