Scientology critics cite 2007 prediction of Jett Travolta's death

Los Angeles Times Blogs

The Dish Rag by Elizabeth Snead


Avid critics of John Travolta's church, the Church of Scientology, are now linking to a website that eerily predicted his son Jett’s death in 2007.

The critics claim that Jett was autistic and was not given the proper diagnosis and/or treatments because Scientology disapproves of psychiatric and drug treatment of autism, also rejecting psychiatry as a pseudo-science.

A 2007 post on Hollywood Interrupted told of a meeting between a Florida restaurant manager named Tim Kenny, the father of an autistic child, and Travolta. Kenny is said to have asked Travolta what special treatment Jett was getting.


"I don’t think it’s a stretch to call their treatment of Jett child abuse,” Ocala, Florida restaurant manager Tim Kenny tells Hollywood, Interrupted. Kenny claims he met Travolta at his restaurant in February, and, after “comping” the movie star and his daughter a meal per restaurant policy for celebrities, he asked him, “as one autistic child’s father to another,” if he “was doing anything special in terms of therapy” for Jett. Aghast, Travolta responded, “Well, we involve him in the arts.” Then, he offered to send Kenny a book, and high-tailed it out of the restaurant.

“If I ever received a Scientology book from him [Travolta], I’d find him, and throw it back at him,” says Kenny. “Scientology is keeping him from acknowledging his son’s autism. They see it as a weakness. That’s what the space aliens are telling him I guess.”

In an article in the Telegraph, the couple's lawyer, Marty Singer, said claims that the Travoltas were negligent in their care of Jett were outrageous.

"The Travoltas are wonderful, loving parents, and their priority is their children," he said. "They have [taken] and they continue to take the best possible care of their children. To suggest anything to the contrary is very hurtful to a loving family and also would be false and defamatory."

A posting on the Anonymous forum at Why We Protest, details how the church will handle Jett's death. Here's another posting from former Scientologist Michael Pattinson on Jett's death and the church's reaction.

What do you think?


This article was found at:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/01/avid-critics-of.html