Cult

===Reactions to the anti-cult movements===
Because of the increasingly pejorative use of the word ''cult'' since the 1970s, some academics argue that its use is prejudicial and should be avoided, particularly, according to Richardson, in scholarly literature and legal proceedings involving an issue related to an unconventional religious movement.<ref name="Richardson" />{{Rp|348–356}} [[Catherine Wessinger]] ([[Loyola University New Orleans]]) has stated that the word ''cult'' represents just as much [[prejudice]] and antagonism as [[racial slurs]] or derogatory words for women and [[Lgbt slur|homosexuals]].<ref name="Wessinger" /> She has argued that it is important for people to become aware of the [[bigotry]] conveyed by the word, drawing attention to the way it dehumanizes the group's members and their children.<ref name="Wessinger">{{cite book| last = Wessinger| first = Catherine Lowman| author-link = Catherine Wessinger| title = How the Millennium Comes Violently| publisher = Seven Bridges Press| year = 2000| location = New York/London
| isbn = 1889119245 |ol=8712028M | page = 4}}</ref> Labelling a group as [[Dehumanization|subhuman]], she says, becomes a justification for violence against it.<ref name="Wessinger" /> She also says that labelling a group a "cult" makes people feel safe, because the "violence associated with religion is split off from conventional religions, projected onto others, and imagined to involve only aberrant groups."<ref name="Wessinger" /> According to her, this fails to take into account that child abuse, sexual abuse, financial extortion and warfare have also been committed by believers of mainstream religions, but the pejorative "cult" stereotype makes it easier to avoid confronting this uncomfortable fact.<ref name="Wessinger" />