Ailén said:
I am SO irritated by this!! How is it posssible that the PJ is authorized to do this, to put a fundie Christian in charge, to bug people like this??? GRRR...
As soon as I read your question, your siggy popped out at me as if to suggest at least a possible answer: "fundie Christian in charge" is "living" her religion, as pathological as it may be.
In case it's worth anything, I could also add a few thoughts:
Having been exposed to much emotional manipulation myself, I saw the conversation exchange as standard 2-part bullying, where 1st part was all that was necessary to use. First part has 2 parts, though, and in this case we have "Rumor" as vehicle and Accusation (Cult) as payload.
Normally, my response to "rumor" is to mention how my life experience shows that bullys, out of pure meanness, will use rumor as a way of attacking and hurting someone whether or not there is any evidence that the victim has done anything wrong. In fact, 'rumor' is the lazy man's way to bullying since Mr. or Mrs. Bully has to spend no effort at all proving anything.
As a general rule, anyone who asks me anything while using the word "cult" will be met with my observation that everyone I ask seems to have a different definition of what it means. I refuse to be drawn in to their yes/no dialectic, or logical argumentation based on legal definitions and such because I will not win. But neither do I avoid discussion.
For example, my next remark may ask a question like: "so what are some similarities between the EE group (or whoever) and the cults we know about?" Since I already know that there won't be anything destructive or self-destructive in common with "cults", anything they do mention will be under the heading of "Good" and can be handled pretty easily. For example, the "prayer" thing: "What's the big deal? Anyone who can see what shape the world is in today would probably admit that humanity could use a lot more spirituality right now, don't you agree?"
Besides, as long as our Work is backed by science, we have an advantage--even with fundies. Being questioned by a fundie, we might mention that "we who are 'religious' should think twice before disparaging science, for in many ways their work is a work of great faith."
As Albert Einstein once said, "the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people."
_http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Canons/Invention/TOPICS%20OF%20INVENTION/Testimony.htm#authorities
Other than that, according to Aristotle and Cicero, whenever one is in the spotlight, one needs to establish their "Ethos" asap. To do that, Aristotle claimed that one simply needs to be both knowledgeable about one's subject and benevolent.
And we are indeed all about that!