Lee Elder

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Posts by Lee Elder

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  55

  Cults in our Midst

  by Lee Elder in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is related to a comment i made in a previous thread.

  cults exist in many diverse parts of society.

  this includes politics.

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  Lee Elder

  Some of you are so far over the edge, you can't recognize a moderate when you see one. There are a very moderates left in the Republican party like John McCain, John Kasich, Jeff Flake, and Bob Corker. Most are fleeing because the party is being taken over my right wing extremists who don't have a clue what it means to be a fiscal conservative.

  When you see someone like Steve Schmidt, a longtime Republican strategist and adviser to Bush and McCain renounce his membership calling the party "corrupt, indecent and immoral", there is a very serious problem in my view.

  Incidentally, I have many Republican friends. My next door neighbor is one of my closest friends and is Republican. We are fiscally conservative, and socially liberal. We also enjoy Scotch! We're both quite concerned about what is happening. Oh, and he voted for Trump, but now regrets it, though he would not have voted for Hillary.

  There is a level of dysfunction with Trump and his administration that is unprecedented, and rivals the Cretans on the Governing Body of JW's.

  https://www.msnbc.com/stephanie-ruhle/watch/gop-strategist-this-is-the-most-shambolic-administration-in-u-s-history-1223391299745

  Good article in the NY Times on Steve Schmidt:

  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/us/politics/party-of-trump-steve-schmidt.html
  
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  55

  Cults in our Midst

  by Lee Elder in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is related to a comment i made in a previous thread.

  cults exist in many diverse parts of society.

  this includes politics.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Lee Elder

  I am a non-partisan independent. Yes, there is cultish behavior in both parties, but there is something unique here in my view, and that of many cult experts. There is a little room for moderates in the Democratic party, and almost no room for moderates in the Republican party. This relates to Gerrymandering in my view, and leaves the large majority of Americans without acceptable political options. It also fuels the inability to reach bipartisan solutions to serious problems, and exacerbates extreme partisan behavior. In some ways this is taxation without representation for middle America. Not dissimilar from life in the Watchtower where the Governing Body fails to reflect the views and needs of most members who have few acceptable choices. I have spent lots of time with ex-JWs. Many are very damaged, given to new sets of extreme views on a wide range of topics including politics, religion, healthcare, etc. In many cases, they have exchanged one set of extreme views and beliefs for another.
  
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  55

  Cults in our Midst

  by Lee Elder in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is related to a comment i made in a previous thread.

  cults exist in many diverse parts of society.

  this includes politics.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Lee Elder

  This is related to a comment I made in a previous thread. Cults exist in many diverse parts of society. This includes politics. There is strong tendency among former Jehovah's Witnesses to exchange one set of extreme beliefs for another. Politics provides such an opportunity, and it comes as no surprise to me that some here allow the JW vacuum to be filled with the Trump cult that is running rampant in the Republican party in the U.S. This has been addressed by Senator Bob Corker - a respected Republican who frankly stated that the party was becoming "cultish".

  According to Professor Lalich (Professor Emerita of Sociology at Pacific Standard), cults consider their ideology the "one true path", and share four characteristics:

  They 1) espouse an all-encompassing belief system; 2) exhibit excessive devotion to the leader; 3) avoid criticism of the group and its leader; and 4) feel disdain for non-members.

  Its not coincidental that this sounds like both Jehovah's Witnesses and members of the Trump cult. Like the JW's he has to meet regularly with his followers to "encourage" them, to "rev them up". They feel like they are a "special group" of people following a very "special man".

  Like the Watchtower, he creates common enemies, and tries to separate his true followers from the rest of the "world". Only he has the answers and can fix the problems. The media are his "apostates" for drawing attention to his obvious, blatant lies. He seeks to brand them as "fake news" to shut down the flow of information that can discredit him.

  Instead of breaking up families of members like the Watchtower, he seeks to break up families of immigrants. However, quite literally, there are actual families where rational discussion of politics is becoming impossible due to the extreme "all or nothing" brand of Trumpism.
  

  Cult like supporters of Trump will eventually become disillusioned, and look for some other all encompassing truth or charismatic leader to chase after. Article worth a read:

  https://psmag.com/news/a-sociologist-explains-the-similarities-between-cults-and-trumps-gop
  

  
  
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  72

  Since Democrats Are All About the “Children” why does ABORTION Not Bother Them?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if everything is supposed to be about the lives of children, how can they hypocritically fight to take babies and kill them?

  what about the children and their quality of life?.

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  Lee Elder

  Minimus. You are welcome to think anything you want and speak your mind, not that you need my approval to do that. I've called you a troll because you meet the definition as posted above. I say that because this is a JW forum with the specific purpose of being a place for "those interested in JW.Org beliefs or the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society". You are posting off topic on a provocative political issue, hence a troll in my view. I made the poor choice of responding to one of your posts because I see a number of similarities between Donald Trump and the autocratic leadership of the Watchtower. I am clearly nothing special. Never claimed to be. I do what I can. You can have the last word here. I have better uses for my time.
  
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  72

  Since Democrats Are All About the “Children” why does ABORTION Not Bother Them?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if everything is supposed to be about the lives of children, how can they hypocritically fight to take babies and kill them?

  what about the children and their quality of life?.

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  Lee Elder

  Minimus

  Internet troll

  In Internet slang, a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting quarrels or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, or off-topic messages in an online community with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion, often for the troll's amusement.
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  72

  Since Democrats Are All About the “Children” why does ABORTION Not Bother Them?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if everything is supposed to be about the lives of children, how can they hypocritically fight to take babies and kill them?

  what about the children and their quality of life?.

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  2. 
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  Lee Elder

  Starting to think you are a troll.
  
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  118

  Do You Think President Trump Is Doing a Good Job?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think he is.

  if you don’t want to put reasons for your yes or no, it’s ok. .

  your vote,please?

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  Lee Elder

  He is a lot like the Watchtower Society leadership. Overly concerned about image, autocratic, narcissistic, and unapologetic. Perhaps he appeals to some of the JW conditioning among his supporters in this forum. This most recent episode of separating babies and toddlers from their mothers is simply beyond the pale. Akin to the way the Watchtower sacrifices children over the blood and child abuse policy. Someone has to be on the spectrum of psychopathy to behave in such a manner.
  
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  4

  Medical Treatment for Jehovah's Witnesses

  by Lee Elder in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  if the watchtower speaks for jehovah, and jehovah' s witnesses must accept what the watchtower says, why has god changed his mind so many times about medical treatment?

  here is the historical timeline: http://ajwrb.org/the-historical-persp…/blood-policy-timeline.

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  Lee Elder

  That must be some kind of bug with this website.
  
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  4

  Medical Treatment for Jehovah's Witnesses

  by Lee Elder in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  if the watchtower speaks for jehovah, and jehovah' s witnesses must accept what the watchtower says, why has god changed his mind so many times about medical treatment?

  here is the historical timeline: http://ajwrb.org/the-historical-persp…/blood-policy-timeline.

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  Lee Elder

  If the Watchtower speaks for Jehovah, and Jehovah' s Witnesses must accept what the Watchtower says, why has God changed his mind so many times about medical treatment? Here is the historical timeline: http://ajwrb.org/the-historical-persp…/blood-policy-timeline
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  4

  Where the Watchtower missed the boat on Blood

  by Lee Elder in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  to really understand the jehovah's witnesses policy on blood, you have to understand the fundamental mistake watchtower leaders made when the policy was first developed.. http://ajwrb.org/the-historical-perspective/the-evolution-of-the-watchtower-blood-policy.

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  Lee Elder

  Confirmation bias - followed up with a failure to understand the both the science and the context of the relevant Biblical passages. The icing on the cake was the need to find issues where they could distinguish their unique Watchtower "brand".