You know what's so difficult about the whole discussion? The word "cult." From the French "culte," cult at one time simply meant organized rituals or rites of a faith tradition. For example "le culte de Catholicisme" refers to Catholic worship practices with no negative connotations.

In English, the word cult was used the same way, mostly in intellectual circles, until several decades ago.

Interestingly enough, it changed mostly due to its use in Evangelical Christianity as a pejorative.

Starting an in about the 1950s, conservative Protestant Christians in the United States started labeling religions they disapproved of as cults. At the time, size and toxicity didn't seem to have anything to do with the label.

The Mormon Church was a cult, Seventh Day Adventists were cultists, and to many Baptists, the label fit very well on Pentecostals.

Cult was primarily a religious slur. The meaning began to change again when the popular press took it up to describe small, dangerous religious groups like Jim Jones's People's Temple.

Today we even see it used for potentially dangerous non-religious groups that are considered cults of personality.

Like you, I was raised in the same religious world this young woman was. I don't know anything about her or her life or how to evaluate any of the claims that she's made. I don't have any problem feeling a great deal of sympathy for her, however.

I'd feel sympathy for anyone who attended Bob Jones University, and if that was her escape from it even worse situation, wow.

What I don't think is important is trying to label some religious traditions as cults. We're probably all better off just citing the unhealthy elements of whatever traditions hurt people.

If we did that, we could all be talking about how Evangelical Christianity nurtured toxicity in this poor woman's parents. Instead of arguing about what's a cult and what's not a cult.