In Reply to: Don Lattin on using the words "cults" and "fundamentalist" posted by Peabody on December 06, 2006 at 14:44:15:
Speaking of semantics, for two parties to communicate with each other both sides must understand the words being used. If all I want is to state my opinion, I might not invest to search for words that are meaningful to you, only to me. This is also true when arguing and the interest is in winning the argument at all costs.
This was and is a favorite tactic of The Family "sect" by using words with one meaning inside but another in the outside. We don't abuse children, for example. Any outside reasonable person would understand that as a statement where children are not "abused" until they see the conditions in which the children grow up. The classic example is when they say that they "don't sexually abuse children". What they do not explain is their warped definitions of "children" and of "sexual abuse".
I view Lattin’s work as very important to understand the various uses of the words and their meaning in the general population. I also agree with the idea of further defining groups like The Family as specific as possible and using as many descriptive words as necessary. Highly Destructive Cult sounds good to me and is accurate enough.