Why don't JW's used the word 'Church'

Double Edge

I'm curious...do the JW have something against the word Church?

LittleOnes

According to my dub friend anyone that goes to a church are part of the other religion. " The pagan religion."

pomegranate

Maybe because they try so hard to be chosen and different and above it all...

...but when it comes right down to it, their crap stinks too.

TR

It's just another example of 'hovah wordspeak. They're special, only true religion b.s.

TR

willy_think

They use it when it suits them, when they want to seem more mainstream. To the press for example they are indeed a church.
The WT has two sides to there mouth and they use both of them.

plmkrzy

I'm curious...do the JW have something against the word Church?

The word church was always viewd as something produced by "Christendom" whatever, I can't spell it right now.

However when I returned after being away for several years I did notice a lot of JWs giving in to the term when someone refered to a KH as a church. I've even heard a couple of JWs use the word, that made me step back the first time I heard it. It's listed in all the phone books under "churches"

Lady Lee

Accordin g to Schnell 30 years a WT slave Rutherford believed that religion was "a snare and a racket". Many of the doctrines taught were the opposite of what churches taught. There was a real effort on the part of Rutherford to separate the brothers from the churches of the day. And one of the things that changed was the use of the word church so that they could identify themsleves as separate from Satan's "churches"

theleveler

Exactly. According to them, the word church refers to the 'worldly' religions of christendom with their 'pagan' traditions false doctrines. The JWs want to seperate themselves from that, so, internal propaganda and rhetoric only use the word 'congregation'. However, as a few of you mentioned, 'church' is readily used when representatives are speaking to the media in order sound less heretical.

joannadandy

So who cooked up the brainchild that is a: Kingdom Hall? I mean honestly!!

Lady Lee

Well if the slogan Rutherford put out was "Advertise advertize advertize the King and his Kingdom" and people were Kingdom Proclaimersout in the Kingdom Ministry proclaiming the Kingdom Good news and God's Kingdom (notice a theme here?) then I guess it made sense to call the the hall where they met the Kingdom Hall.

JMVHO though

Why don't JW's used the word 'Church'

Share this