The latest change in Watchtower vocabulary to catch out the unwary

by slimboyfat 44 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  slimboyfat

  I got a copy of the recent Kingdom Ministry the other day and it reminded me of something in the book The Orwellian World of Jehovha's Witnesses by Heather and Garry Botting. It's on the front page of the December issue of the KM, they have a heading called "Not 'Alternative' Witnessing" where they explain that the term is no longer considered appropriate and "public" witnessing should be used instead.

  In The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses the Bottings discuss the importance of the particular language JWs use to set themselves apart from other people. They redefine common words to give them a particular slant, such as "brother", "sister", "literature" and so on. Then they have their own special terms that only insiders understand: "great crowd", "faithful remnant", "field service". On top of that, changing the vocabulary from time to time also serves an important function as the Bottings explain, comparing the practice of constantly making small changes to the vocabulary with a passage from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four:

  The acceptability of a particular word or phrase may change from time to time, and good Witnesses stay on their toes. In fact, catching a fellow Witness using a verboten expression is a popular game - a form of social one-upmanship - not unlike the one that O'Brien plays with Winston Smith: "I noticed you had used two words which have become obsolete. But they have only become so very recently." (page 85)

  Can't you just imagine a conversation like that the next time an unsuspecting Witness uses the now defunk phrase "alternative Witnessing"!

  "Oh brother don't you know that term is not appropriate, it is not called alternative Witnessing because it should not be unusual. It is called public Witnessing!"

  And the funny thing is, typically whoever makes such a correction seems to think they should personally take credit for making such a deduction about the old terminology, when in actual fact if it had not been changed in the literature they would still be using the old terminology himself. I know one brother who used to get positively angry with anyone who used the older expression "circuit convention" instead of "circuit assembly". In fact, even though I am not old enough to remember when "circuit convention" was used, I sometimes used the phrase by "accident" just to annoy this particular brother. And it did, it never failed! Get a grip you silly man!

  Does anyone else use old terminology on purpose just to wind up other Witnesses?

  Apart from that I find the article about not calling alternative Witnessing alternative Witnessing any more simply insulting. Is this really the most important thing the governing body could think to print in their 8-page monthy newsletter to their followers? Is this what they really mean by prividing the best so-called spiritual food in the world? People are undergoing all sorts of hardships and all sorts of problems the world over, and all they can think to write about is how ordinary Witnesses should alter their language to conform to the latest nit-picking they can come up with? It's pathetic. And I don't think they even realise how pathetic it is because no one tells them to their face how pathetic it is.
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  JAFO

  Is that the same thing as what we used to call "incidental witnessing" back when I was in?
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  slimboyfat

  Is that the same thing as what we used to call "incidental witnessing" back when I was in?

  LOL I don't think so, not exactly. "Incidental witnessing" is now called "informal witnessing" and includes talking to school mates, work mates, family, people you meet on the bus, at the doctors and so on. (If I am sufficiently up to date on that terminology too) "Alternative witnessing" is now called "public witnessing" and refers to street witnessing and business territory. If I remember correctly they dropped the term "incidental witnessing" in similar circumstances to how they have now dropped "alternative witnessing": they argued that it should not be called "incidental" because it should happen all the time and it should be on purpose, and the word "incidental" seemed to them to imply the opposite. If that seems confusing, the point is that it is meant to be confusing!
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  WTWizard

  It's all the same. You get only a few categories--street work, door to door, long-distance (texting, phone, letters), and preaching to those you happen to be working with or around. And those all require the same basic message--street work (including what they call "incidental" or "informal" witlessing) is usually briefer than door to door, which is usually briefer than preaching around those you are working around.

  When they alter terms, they make the illusion of new means of getting the message and thus new experiences. Of course, it is the same experience all the time. You are preaching the same message, as worn out as it is, with the same objective. You are not getting anything novel, because the whole religion was meant to waste your whole life doing the same crap all the time. Changing the names of the crap, or splitting various aspects into sub-aspects, does nothing to change this.
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  Jeffro

  This reminds me of when they were no longer supposed to say 'vindicate Jehovah's name', which was common wording in their publications through to the late 1980s, but was then replaced with 'sanctify Jehovah's name and vindicate his sovereignty'.

  Their infatuation with semantics is fairly tedious, and yet they can't master the fairly plain meaning of the word 'generation'.
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  punkofnice

  The referrence to 1984 and language loading is most appropriate IMHO. Consider..............

• "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?... Has it ever occurred to your, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?... The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking-not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."
  - George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5