Parenthood's Erika Christensen Opens Up About Her Relationship With Scientology

Actress also shares her thoughts on Going Clear with Dax Shepard

By Mike Vulpo Jun 04, 2018 9:50 PMTags

Erika Christensen is opening up to her TV brother about her faith.

While appearing on the new podcast episode of Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard, the Parenthood star spoke candidly about her personal relationship with the Church of Scientology that began when she was a child.

"It's hard to raise someone as a Scientologist because it's something that you do, it's not something that you believe. My parents definitely are Scientologists, approached parenting from a Scientology viewpoint," she explained to Dax Shepard. "I can see that in the way that they approached me as a kid and really tried to do what I'm doing now, which is trying to temper absolutely necessary discipline and rules and structure with fostering independent thought and freedom of personality. It has to be true for you."

Erika continued, "I want to consider that I'm always driving towards my best self."

During the conversation, the actress says her parents never acted like "you need to go" to church. Instead, they wanted to share what they believed in and ask that she checks it out.

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Celebs Outspoken About Their Religion

"I was a kid, I was like sounds cool to me, fine," Erika recalled. "When I was 12, I started doing a bunch of the little introductory courses that they still have now that are maybe a few hours each."

As pop culture fans know, the Church of Scientology has been put under the spotlight thanks to programs such as Leah Remini's Scientology and the Aftermath and Going Clear.

When asked why she doesn't watch the documentary or other programs critical of the church, Erika shared her point of view.

"It honestly doesn't have anything to do with…anything that I've ever learned about the group or organization. To be specific about [Going Clear], if somebody has read a book, read Dianetics or some Scientology book and wants to philosophically tell me what they disagree with, cool. That is a totally different thing. But specifically with that documentary, the documentary was based on a book. The book was not even published in some English-speaking countries because the libel laws are stricter than they are here," she shared. "There's so much that is actually…talking about sources. They have proved themselves to be irrelevant…There's no relevance in what they're saying."

The Church of Scientology has also been critical of Leah and her Emmy-winning series that is expected to return for a third season to A&E. "She needs to move on with her life instead of pathetically exploiting her former religion, her former friends and other celebrities for money and attention to appear relevant again," the church previously shared.

Listen to Erika's full interview with Dax online now.