Summary: <p>Lawrence Wright is an author, screenwriter, playwright, and a staff writer for <em>The New Yorker</em> magazine. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2006 book <em>The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11</em>. Most recently, filmmaker Alex Gibney directed an HBO documentary based on Wright's reporting in <em>Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Unbelief.</em> </p> <p>Much of Wright's work is about how religious belief animates personal action and political conflict. He has documented the Jonestown massacre, explored allegations of Satan worship, profiled brimstone-tinged gospel preachers, and, of course, tracked the histories of al-Qaeda and the Church of Scientology. </p> <p>Regarding the latter, he isn't necessarily sympathetic to the Church's claims, but he understands its appeal. "People don't go into it because it's a cult, they go into it because they're looking for something," says Wright. "It's like going into therapy; people do benefit from it."</p> <p>"But it's one thing to get into it, it's another thing to get out of it." </p> <p> </p>
