This is a person who has studied minority religions all her life, and who does not take any crap from anyone. She had ‘entheta’ books on her shelf and Church of Scientologists wanted her to take them down.
“No”, she told them. And while happy to have their books on her shelves, she runs her shop at INFORM so that all views are available. These are the kinds of values and ideals that are required to stay sane and non-hysterical when studying minority religions.
Tribal anti-Scientologists call Dr Eileen Barker a “cult apologist”, and even a “mercenary” and a “hired gun” for ‘cults’. They use these kinds of slurs because their own ideas and approaches are less legitimate ways of studying these groups, and they have a collective hysteria to generate, after all, so they’re not for calmly looking at things using science to find out the true nature of these groups, without all the hysteria.
Well done to Rod Keller, one of the few level-headed members of the tribal anti-Scientologists, for getting a GET with a true rock star of the study of religion!
A wise point to consider, among many, that Eileen Barker has made in her career:
