Obviously we carry loaded language like 'the truth' for a while before we realise we are using their self-defining labels.
I didn't fall away (fall, mistake, hurt). I walked away (deliberate, measured, independant).
For me, adding Jehovah's to Witness/es has no intrinsic meaning other than as a label for a cult. I'm an atheist. I can understand if you have a religous attachment to the name Jehovah how it would rankle though.
There's a thread a bit further down the board on nicknames; I'm sure you know most of them, although the Borg and Witlesses are my faves. If you want to have a non-offensive tag avoiding the 'divine name', JW's or just Witnesses would be pretty comprehensable to most people who've made the mistake of opening the door on a weekend to someone in a suit.
Not only in the term "Jehovah's Witnesses" but in hundreds of jargon terms do the JWs use such loaded, Orwellian language. Like the follower's of Orwell's Ingsoc, JWs have their own version of Newspeak, both of which are based on concepts like crimestop, blackwhite and most of all, doublethink.
I remember journalists using the term "THE Jehovah's Witnesses", as opposed to just "Jehovah's Witnesses". The word "THE" helps the term "THE Jehovah's Witnesses" to look like a label, rather than validating that they actually may be the unique people belonging to Jehovah.
just a note on "1984" i gave that book to my 15 yr old unbaptized jw brother. he read it and wrote a book report on it for school. i'm hoping he saw some similarities between ingsoc and the jws...unfortunately, i'm afraid to bring it up to him myself. i just read the book about a year ago and couldn't believe the similarities!! he is a smart kid and i have LOTS of hope that he will wake up. i also gave him "animal farm" which is required reading for his school...hehe, good thing my 'rents have always allowed us kids to read pretty much whatever we wanted... 'rents would be quite shocked if they realized my underlying motives for giving him these books. and although i love them dearly, i feel i have to be "sneaky" if i wanna help my brother.
anyway..just wanted to share.
love harmony
"Power doesn't mean you're acting like a man, or you're a bully or a bitch. It's that you don't let people step on you" -Sharon Monplaisir
alan, thank you! i need to realize that i can't expect him to "get it" immediately...patience is something i need to work on
tr, as for saying "jehovah's witnesses" i only use that term when speaking to someone who doesn't know anything about them. but i will usually use it once then revert to "jws" or "dubs". when i was in school and i had to explain why i couldn't attend a dance, party, whatever, i'd say "well, my PARENT'S are jehovah's witnesses and they won't let me go" LOL
But, as bad as the JWs are, they are nowhere bad enough to qualify for the title "Jehovah's Witnesses", when we think about the old vengeful deity the Israelites worshipped.
- Jan -- Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel. [Ambrose Bierce, The Devil´s Dictionary, 1911]
