Posted on 08/14/2003 5:50:38 AM PDT by RJCogburn
She has a 'Doctorate' in Exercise Kineseology(sp), not in Psychology or Counseling. So right from the git go I figured she was blowing smoke up a lot of peoples skirts. Also, she has seemed, IMHO, to be a very abusive person on her radio show. People calling her are in very delicate situations emotionally, and I think she takes advantage of that to promote her position.
Her spiritual relationships are no business of mine or anyone elses.
But I will bet $$ to donuts...she is gonna let her listeners know what she gloms onto as her next 'religion.'
Lillith magazine is an extreme feminist publication. It's not even representative of liberal Jews.
You know, I've heard so many calls like the one you posted that I really wasn't sure. . .
"Gosh, Dr. Laura, he only beats me when he drinks, and he only drinks because he loves me so much and I make him crazy. What can I do to please him so he won't beat me anymore?"
And that was a real call. So help me, there are times when I think those calls are set up, and that program is a radio version of Springer.
Just in it for the jokes, huh?
I too agree with her moral stands on the needs of children. And I am sure her charity does good.
That said, she has come to everything through unjust and bitter means, and has left hundreds of unhappy and used people in her wake. I know this secondhand, and a close secondhand.
She has not practiced what she has preached, nor does she do the helpful thing of telling a caller who is cheating on a spouse, abandoning kids, pregnant before marriage, sleeping with her boss, marrying outside of her religion, dumping a parent, having an affair with a married man at work, or posing for nude photos for another boss, that she knows how hard it must be because she has been there. Do the right thing rings hollow when you can't say "I did the wrong thing once; I know what I am talking about. The right thing is better."
She lies on her radio show by her own "admission." One time she said she never worked while her child was little and not in school, but she has also repeated a story of how when she was a therapist, her husband would bring in her baby to nurse and she would hear his cries and have a milk letdown in her therapy session.
She does give rather harsh assignments to her callers, telling one not long ago that he should not marry at 22 to his high school sweetheart because he was "too young" and "statistics" don't bode well for his marriage and he should wait 6 more years. I know countless couples, now young and old, who married young, especially religious couples, and who have had wonderful marriages and happy families.
She tends not to "keep" friends; those who are most useful to her in whatever current "phase" her life is in feel that they are her friends and go out of their way to help her goal, but once it is reached, they either never hear from her again (she has outgrown them) or they find that they have been "taken" and used in some way. I hate to say that but it is a pattern repeated often enough.
Her husband was always there for that child but "I am my child's mom" was not, and seldom went to his elementary school parent meetings, etc.
She fell in love with Judaism and then that was not enough for her. Orthodoxy became the next holy grail for her. She even made her husband convert after he told her he would never do so. That poor man. Also, she converted so fast that my head spun. I asked a Chassidic Rabbi (in the same denomination as the one who converted her) I know how she could have converted to Orthodox Judaism so fast; he rubbed his thumb against the tip of his other fingers.
She thinks that it had something to do with Judaism that she didn't receive that warmth from people? It may have been her own behavior and nothing to do with our religion. I too am a politically conservative (Conservative) Jew and I know how hard it is to hold that position in an extended family of liberals with Lieberman kippahs on, etc. but if you really believe in your conservative values, it gives you the strength of being sure you are right and that the libs are misguided, if lovable, family members. I can handle it; why can't she?
All of you wonderful Christians who think that Dr. L is on her way to the ultimate belief may not be right. I can understand you thinking she has been on the spiritual trail and is now coming to the correct one. If that's true, that's wonderful. Judaism believes that there are many right ways to G-d for all the world's people. However, BE CAREFUL. She may just be going through a phase in order to prove HER superiority. She may toss Jesus out with the next bathwater too.
I guess she is enjoying that bacon again.
What are you talking about?
It is true that so many reform (the vast majority) Jews are harsh with practicing Jews. They feel a sort of guilt that their religiousness is limited to their breakfast choice and twice-a-year temple visits.
But if you are nice and loving and NOT superior-acting, you can through jokes and love bring some people around to adding a bit more spirituality to their lives. I do it.
Yes. And some "slipups" just never would happen to most people. I was thinking that yesterday when reading that Cruz Bustamente (leut. governor and on the ballot for gov in CA) "slipped up" when he said the N word in a speech to black Californians a few years ago. I am sorry; that couldn't happen to me. Since I don't use that word, it couldn't "slip out."
Likewise with Dr. Laura posing gynecologically for her boyfriend/boss/start in radio. I can't say "whoops, I made a youthful mistake like that" because I DIDN'T and WOULDN'T.
In one Jewish sect there is such a thing.
In Judaism, sexuality, as eating, has rules in order to elevate it to holiness and separate the way we eat and make love from the way animals stuff themselves and mate.
Months. They could not tell whether she had been murdered or died of natural causes, it had been so long.
Recently she advised a caller not to cut all ties with a badly behaving mom but to call her once a month or so to make sure she was OK and not dead, ha ha ha. She actually laughed. I hope to heck that show was a old, taped one from two years ago.
"Father, I have a feeling Dr. Smith converted to Judaism just for the jokes!"
"And this offfends you as a Jew, my son?"
"No, this offends me as a comedian!" -- Jerry Seinfeld
"Father, I have a feeling Dr. Smith converted to Judaism just for the jokes!"
"And this offfends you as a Jew, my son?"
"No, this offends me as a comedian!" -- Jerry Seinfeld
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