Should allegations of abuse made by active cult members be dismissed out of hand?

Some people seem to think so. I have been accused of being some kind of monster by people on alt.religion.scientology for believing that there was something to the allegation being made by Rosa Erlich that her ex-husband had physically abused her, even though her ex-husband freely admitted that he had. This is anti-cult fanaticism at its very worst. If someone fights a cult, they are automatically innocent and anyone who dares challenge them gets trashed.

Why is it that people who fight Scientology, in the eyes of certain anti-Scientologists, are automatically given a free pass of being exempt from being held accountable and anyone who does gets called "the lowest of the low".

Where does this leave people when they actually are being abused by anti-cultists and are not believed? If we look back at history, we can see that there were people who allege they were abused by deprogrammers, as Ginger Z reported in a presentation she was finally allowed to do at ICSA a few years ago. Before that, she reports, no one would listen to her and she was dismissed as a cultist. This kind of black and white thinking that cultists always lie and anti-cultists are always good and tell the truth is very dangerous and can give abusive personalities carte blanch to do whatever they please.

Even if an anti-cult star admits to spousal abuse, as Dennis has, they are given a pass that oh well, nobody's perfect and we all make mistakes. Yes, I would be the first to admit that we all make mistakes but we do not all batter our partners. Not even most Scientologists do that. The recent allegations of violence reported by Marty Rathbun involved men beating up on other men, not their spouses.

Monica