Is Apostacy in all religions?

by ButtLight 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  ButtLight

  NOUN:
  pl.a·pos·ta·sies

  Abandonment of one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause.

  Noun: apostate u'pósteyt

  1. A disloyalperson who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.
     - deserter, renegade, turncoat, recreant [archaic], ratter

  Adjective: apostate u'pósteyt

  1. Not faithful to religion or party or cause

  I feel like the JW's over rate this word, and strictly use it for their own religion. Why? Do other religions use this term? Have you ever heard of say a catholic, who left their faith, called an apostate? (im asking cause i have never been to another religion)

  What if your catholic, leave, and become a JW? Are you still not an apostate? Your welcome as an apostate into the Kindom Hall, as long as your leaving a different false religion?

  Or is it because the JW's think they are the one and only true religion, so you can only be called that if you leave the "truth"?

  If the above definitions are correct, then look at all the people in this world who should be considered an apostate!! It doesnt say leave your faith and try to turn others against it. Its simple, you left your faith!

  I never did understand that one.
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  james_woods

  It certainly was an english word long before Ray Franz, or C.T.Russell, for that matter.

  It really just means religious dissent and withdrawal from an existing religious organization.

  So, yeah - it most probably has happened in any religion you care to name. After all, there were even a few in Jonestown who ran away into the jungle because they were too smart to drink the Kool-Aide.
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  avidbiblereader

  Good point ButtLight, with this meaning it means that the witnesses are full of apostates in the TRUEST sense.

  abr
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  whyamihere

  WOW - Buttlight, actually has a Dictionary?.......speechless.

  ~Brooke
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  ButtLight

  WOW - Buttlight, actually has a Dictionary?.......speechless.

  Oh, go chew on your rawhide!!!!
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  whyamihere

  LOL - Giddy-up!

  p.s. I have no idea what a rawhide is for, or what it means..........
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  Honesty

  LOL - Giddy-up!

  p.s. I have no idea what a rawhide is for, or what it means.......... Brooke
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  fullofdoubtnow

  Anyone who abandons a previously - held religious belief is an apostate, but the jws make a lot more of it than any other religion.

  I believe this is because it helps them to enforce their shunning policy. Let's face it, as jws we were taught to be in absolute terror of any contact with apostates. If, as they often did, they picketed a dc, we used to hurry past them, almost afraid to look at them in case any of their "poison" should infect us. We were told to view any other religions literature as apostate, and never to read it. Going to a church other than the kh or questioning any wts doctrine are viewed as apostate acts, and anyone committing them is liable to discipline and even disfellowshipping.

  Being almost constantly bombarded with all this negative propaganda about apostates would be likely to make even the less - committed jw think twice about associating with someone who the wts has labelled an apostate.
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  ButtLight

  Full of shi* doubt, (Oh god, couldnt help myself there, you know i love ya) lmao but what about double standards? (of course i know the answer to that) An apostate is just that! They consider it someone who left the jw's and try's to turn others against the religion. But that is not the definition of the word. Do they have a different dictionary?

  Noun:

  Someone who leaves their faith as a Jehovahs Witness, who in turn, trys to turn other faithful witnesses against the teachings of the WTS bible!

  The only other one definition i have ever read, also included, leaving a religious faith you were baptized in. Still..........same thing. I have never read one that said turning others against it.
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  fullofdoubtnow

  Hi Buttlight,

  No the jws don't have a differrent dictionary, they just make a lot more of the act of apostasy than any other religion I know of. Their belief that they are the one true religion might influence them in this, of course. I had no idea what an apostate really was until I left the jws, and Trev explained to me that apostasy wasn't the sinister act the wts made it out to be. Trev calls himself a triple apostate, having been baptised into the Church of England at about 6 months old, which he doesn't remember, becoming a Baptist in his teens, though he does admit that he did that to please his then - girlfriend, and being baptised as a jw in 1992. He has abandoned all 3 religions now, hence he is a triple apostate lol.

  I very much doubt that many, if any, current jws know what an apostate really is. They are told the wts version, and go along with it, as I did for so many years, and I doubt that many of them would accept that becoming an apostate isn't synonymous with becoming an evil person, and one to be avoided at all costs. I guess that's why they'll speak to child abusers, wife beaters and drunkards, and there's more than a few that fit those categories in many congregations now, but will treat someone who leaves the wts like they no longer exist.

  Linda