I have never heard the word 'apostate' used for anyone who has left my faith. Nor do we turn our backs on people when they decide to go to another church or start doing things that are contrary to scripture. I am sure there are a few odd churches out there that are very legalistic and do this sort of thing but as a whole, no. Never heard of it.
Is Apostacy in all religions?
by ButtLight 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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JH
I'm not an apostate because I didn't leave my faith. I feel as if it's the Watchtower that is the apostate. It has changed lots of teachings around and they are the one who should shed light on their past literature.
In this case, Apostasy has a religion.
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LittleToe
The definition above indicates that you can be an apostate for leaving a friend (and I imagine, by extension, a social group). It's the act of leaving something.
As far as I'm aware only the JWs use the term in a perjorative sense to indicate that everyone who leaves them automatically becomes an "opposer". This reminds me of their often quoted definition of the word "devil" as a resister or opposer. They are quite literally tying to "demonise" those who leave. It's a devious tactic, and for the most part has worked for them for decades.
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lfcviking
Yes i think this is another one of the JW's control tools. To be labelled as an 'Apostate' in some ways is worse that being disfellowshipped/dissasociated. Its an effective means of 'Tarring & feathering' you if you become what they consider a threat to the Organisation. I must admit i had never even heard of the word 'Apostate' before i joined the JW Org and very rarely hear it being mentioned elsewhere and i think this might be true in a lot of peoples cases. Because of this i think the JW Org sort of adopts this word and adds its own flavour to it to give it its own special potency to which it can then use for its own manipulative purposes.
LFCV
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JWdaughter
Part of the definition is "ratter". Maybe they are just focused on that aspect of it-those who 'rat out' the organization. How heinous. Those who turn on the mob are apostate also!