Ding: The elders I know personally seem to have been selected based on their willingness to swallow whatever the organization tells them and on their ability to forget all about teachings and practices they used to push
I knew many elder like that, but there are also a lot of good men in this organization (women too, but obviously they can't be elders) that mean well.
I also know that once you become an elder you become privy to a lot more of the dirt behind the scenes. If you're the first kind of elder you described, you just "swallow" it all down. But if you're the second kind, you say, "What the fuck! I'm in a cult!"