‘A system of religious veneration and devotion toward a particular figure or object.’
‘A relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.’
‘A misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing. A cult of personality surrounding the leaders.’ Dictionary
Many times, I have witnessed the, supremely confident orator, sway people to his or her opinion.
We tend to listen to leaders who tell us what we, already believe, or what we want to hear.
Religious groups and ideologies are, abundant, throughout the world. When we think of cults, we think of Jim Jones and the People’s Temple, who moved their church from Los Angles, California to Guyana, South America and subsequently drank, Kool Aid laced with cyanide…and over 900 of the parishioners died…at the instructions of their leader.
Or the, Heaven’s Gate cult, where 39 members participated in,’ mass suicide in order to reach what they believed was an extraterrestrial spacecraft following Comet Hale-Bopp.’ Wikipedia
The Heaven’s Gate cult was led by Marshall Applewhite.
The reality of religious cults is much more endemic and profuse in the societies of the world.
Many of us are affiliated with a cult…and do not realize it.
When a religious leader is doing your thinking for you…you are in a cult.
If you are giving more money than you can afford to give to your, faith community, and it is not your idea, but rather the ministers idea…you are in a cult.
If your religious doctrine is centered around hate of others that are different than you and your fellow congregants….you are in a cult.
If your faith dogma is based in hate of other members of the human family….you are not in a Christian Faith…you are in….something else?
I remember, like it was yesterday, when Reverend Jerry Falwell was the minister at the Liberty Baptist Church and his sermons were televised, each Sunday. I watched him, most Sundays. He began speaking about his, initial concepts, of creating the Moral Majority…and attempting to have, fundamentalist christianity, have an influence on the political arena.
The concept sounded interesting…but the results have been devastating.
Of late, all fundamentalist standards of holiness and Christian ethics, have been set aside to facilitate the, unwavering support of the current chief executive.
Politics, over the past 50 years, has become; tribal and caustic and vile…and cultish!
We have morphed from a country that had many moderate senators and congressmen. Our founding fathers created a system of government that is based on compromise. Fifty years ago most of the south was Democrats.
Now we decide that if our friends and family do not see politics as we see it…something is wrong with our friends and family.
We do not believe the, mainstream news that we see on television, unless it is the news that portrays, only, our political point of view.
I, being an old guy, remember when the news did not contain, by and large, the newscasters political opinion. I recall, vividly, when cable news shows began to include, talking heads, who would argue the merits of each political or social issue.
Have you ever witnessed a Hitler Rally on an old newsreel?
Adolf Hitler, a failed artist, had a style of oratory that captivated his listeners. He began his speeches by watching the gathered, thousands of Germans, for several minutes…until many wondered if he was going to speak at all. He then started speaking, slowly and in a low and calm voice…and, systematically, began to raise the volume of his voice and the passion of his speech…until he had the audience…enraptured…and worshipful.
The eyes of the members of Hitler’s audience are, dilated and manic, and the logic of his points…were not examined by the throngs of spectators…who were in a religious-ecstasy…that promised them a relief from their suffering and a scapegoat for their problems.
How did an entire nation…sit idly by…while 6 million Jews were murdered?
How did an entire nation not say a word when Jews were taken from their homes and their businesses were vandalized and they were placed into box cars, like cattle…no, worse than cattle…to be taken by rail to…Aushcwitz and Treblinka…for the purpose of being…gassed?
Think for yourself!
Do not let anyone tell you what to believe or who to worship…or who to vote for!
I have written and spoken about the wonderful gift that all of us are afforded…the ability to think for ourselves! When something seems; wrong, or ‘fishy’ or not in concurrence with what our eyes have seen or our ears have heard or what we have understood by research of the subject, being disseminated,…beware!
The day is coming…and soon…when the United States will need all of it’s citizenry to be united against an outside force that wants to; capture us…and enslave us…and take our finances and our homes and our personal possessions…and they will no longer be afraid…because the poem of Emma Lazarus…no longer applies…and it is dry as cotton in our mouth…when we attempt to quote it.
‘The New Colossus’
‘Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame.
With Conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lighting, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she
With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’
VOTE!
The Happy Traveler 