Jada Pinkett Smith denies that she's a Scientologist

From Digital Spy

Jada Pinkett Smith is denying claims made by Leah Remini that she has secretly been a member of the Church of Scientology for years.

Prominent ex-Church member Remini brought up Pinkett Smith and her husband Will Smith in a recent interview with The Daily Beast about her Emmy-winning docu-series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.

"I know Jada's in. I know Jada's in," Remini alleged. "She's been in Scientology a long time. I never saw Will [Smith] there, but I saw Jada at the Celebrity Centre.

"They opened up a Scientology school, and have since closed it. But Jada, I had seen her at the Scientology Celebrity Centre all the time."

The school that Remini references is the now-shuttered New Village Leadership Academy in Calabasas, California, which was staffed by several members of the Church (among others from different religions).

In a series of tweets on Monday evening, Jada denied that the she is a Scientologist while still offering praise for the Church's methodology.

"I recently lit Shabbat candles with Rabbi Bentley at Temple Sinai... but I am not Jewish," she tweeted. "I have prayed in mosques all over the world... but I am not a Muslim.

"I have read the Bhagavad Gita... but I am not a Hindu. I have chanted and meditated in some of the most magnificent temples on earth… but I am not a Buddhist.

"I have studied Dianetics, and appreciate the merits of Study Tech… but I am not a Scientologist. practice human kindness, and I believe that we each have the right to determine what we are and what we are not. NO ONE ELSE can hold that power."

Since leaving the Church in 2013, Leah has chronicled her disagreements with its membership (including high-profile figures like Tom Cruise) and religious practices in a bestselling memoir and a hit A&E docu-series.

That TV series, called Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, just won a Best Informational Series or Special Emmy Award earlier this month.

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