But I’d like to address something else. Cult does not automatically mean Jim Jones and a bunch of lunatics. In this case, it means a group of people that share religious or spiritual views, sometimes unorthodox, or unmainstream. There are hundreds, if not thousands of groups like this in California. And most of them are much less harmful than, say, the Christian Church.

At least half of the vegetarian restaurants in the city are run by members of various spiritual groups. So what. If you like the food, who cares how blissed out the people serving you are?

I’m definitely not condoning the actions of the owners of Gratitude.

But I am saying, know the definitions of the words you’re crying bloody murder about.