Lexical changes in JW judicial system

by Narkissos 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  Narkissos

  I don't know if it has been discussed here, but I feel that due to the growing influence of its "legal eagles" the WT is changing a lot of its "judicial terminology" lately. One major change was the wording of the announcement for d'f'ng or d'a'ng ("x is no longer a member of Jehovah's Witnesses" or something to that effect).

  From very recent French documents I came across, it appears the term "excommunication" is regularly used instead of "disfellowshipping," and "committee of religious discipline" instead of "judicial committee". Has the same trend been observed in the English-speaking community?
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  sir82

  What kind of "documents"? Letters from the Society, or press releases, or news stories, or something else?

  Aside from the already-mentioned "Joe Sinner is no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses" announcements, I have not noticed any change here in the US. But perhaps I don't have access to the same type of documents you are seeing.
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  fullofdoubtnow

  I have heard of the "....is no longer one of jehovah's witnesses" one, but I haven't heard of a change in the title of a jc, as far as I know they still call it that.
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  Narkissos

  sir,

  What I have seen is an official convocation to a "Religious Discipline Committee" (comité de discipline religieuse) adressed to an alleged "apostate" in early May. It should be put online in a few days, when it is I'll provide the link fwiw.
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  jwfacts

  I have not heard of any changes yet. It seems the French branchg is being forced to lead the way due to the strong stand the French govt is taking against religious intolerance.
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  Narkissos

  jwfacts,

  You may be right, that's just what I'd like to know.

  The change seems to be designed to suit the European (rather than French) laws on religious discrimination which to an extent except inner "religious discipline" from their application. In that case it might concern the British and Irish too.

  As for using "excommunication" as an alternate for "df'ng" for the sake of outsiders, it was already patent in the famous 4/1 1986 QFR: " Why have Jehovah’s Witnesses disfellowshipped (excommunicated) for apostasy some who still profess belief in God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ?"
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  blondie

  Excommunication is a term that is more familiar to non-JWs (or shunning) partly due to the influence of the Catholic church. The thing is that excommunication Catholic style is not as severe as DF'ing WTS style. I have yet to hear someone excommunicated for adultery or fornication.

  Blondie
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  Narkissos

  http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05678a.htm

  Btw, inasmuch as the Catholic excommunication mainly consists in the denial of sacraments, 99,9 % of JWs are already practically excommunicated.
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  blondie

  The WTS wants to avoid the general public, governments and legal systems, knowing how damaging their form of "excommunication" is. Many Catholics in the US are either not concerned about taking the sacraments or receive the sacraments from the priests/nuns/laypersons handing them out regardless of their "official" standing in the church. For example, Catholic politicians in the US that support abortion, manage to avoid too much negative effects.

  Not many people in the US, know what disfellowshipping means, unless they are JWs, ex-JWs, or close relatives of such.

  Blondie
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  atypical

  I don't know of any other changes here except for the announcement, but I found that change to be extremely significant. In fact, that was one thing that caused me to leave. By using that announcement, they can now claim that they never "disfellowshipped" the person, even though the congregation will still use that term and will still be expected to enforce it by shunning. If legal trouble arises, I would expect that they can now claim "we never disfellowshipped that individual. they merely ceased to be a member of Jehovah's Witnesses"

  Meanwhile, the congregation will still refer to him/her as "disfellowshipped" and will still enforce the shunning that goes with the term. I was active at the time I first heard the announcement and it struck me as very slippery.