by comment 19 Replies latest jw friends
Yes you are right. And after all is said and done, it will be another 1975 issue.
Yup. They'll act as if df'ing was just a MINOR thing, and the rank and file took it WWWWAAAAYYYY to seriously.
They do it all the time.
Just think of the change made on the term 'generation.' It didn't phase any of them.
Lisa
PS-Welcome.
Comment,
Your wording in this is too perfect! Great job!
Maybe I live in a utopia, but I believe that something will change in that organization and we'll hear/see an article like this one come out. It may be awhile...but frauds always end up getting exposed in the long run!
Billygoat
Hey Comment,
Reading those few paragraphs you wrote was spooky. The language is identical to the WTS publications....come on, were you in the writing department? :-)
Seriously though, I'd love to see you continue what you started above, and make it into an entire article....better yet, why not make it an entire Watchtower? Then, we can also go out in...ahem...service...and place these with active JWs. LOL
Peter Stride
Toronto, Canada
comment,
again, i have to applaud you for the excellent job, especially in paragraph 13.....putting the spin on the R&F....instead of saying, "in the past Christians were directed to shun disfellowshipped ones, and having no contact with them....etc etc etc..." i like how you say "some Christians, etc etc etc"..wow....i swear if someone has a direct e-mail address of someone in Writing, this should be forwarded for their consideration...LOL
i wonder if they give writers an indoctrination course on theocratese...that is the language of the Society..LOL
one clown in phoenix actually took the time to put together a theocratic dictionary, talk about an exhaustive piece of work....wow..
anyway, i'm nominating you for the Golden Tower award for excellence in theocratic writing....
i sure would like to comment on par 13 of that issue if i ever decide to return and get reinstated....or at least get reinstated so i can comment on that paragraph..LOL
chippy
Thanks for the compliments on the writing...lol. I was never involved in writing articles for the magazines, but it was suggested a few times that I should look into it.
As you look over the publications, you can see how the Watchtower style has evolved over the years. Overall, the quality of the writing *has* improved somewhat over the years. Not to say it isn't pompous and verbose nowadays--it is--but Watchtowers from the mid-to-late 1980's are more readable than they were in the 1960's and 1970's. Fred Franz had an absolutely awful style. I've excerpted a paragraph from page 114 of the 1971 book The Nations Shall Have to Know I Am Jehovah--How? to illustrate this:
"The Creator does not enjoy seeing this earth defiled, polluted. It is his creation and was meant to be a credit to him. It was his original purpose that this earth, as a home for mankind, should be everywhere a paradise such as would make this terrestrial globe a decoration in the gorgeous celestial Milky Way of which it is a tiny part."
How convoluted can you get?
So if you wanted to parody the Fred Franz era, you'd write something like:
"Would the daily reading of the Bible, attendance at Christian meetings and even participation in the angelic-directed field ministry be sufficient to mark suchlike ones as true, undoubted members of the new covenant of which Jesus Christ spoke when he foretold that heavenly governing arrangement that is operational in our day? Not necessarily so!"
Actually, I just noticed one small stylistic error in my "article": the Society would use the construction "Rather than CLING to past views" instead of "Rather than CLINGING to past views." No biggie, really. ;)
comment
Comment, I always appreciate your gems.
So much I could say ...
One Freddyism that always got me was "soon now."
"Soon now the earth will be cleansed ..." Always current!
The old boy needed a good editor; he never edited himself. The public talks were the absolute worst. Couple that with Knorr reading them and you had a really boring talk, up with which it was hard to put.
Maximus
Thanks, Maximus. Yes, "soon now" is one of those classic formulations. I don't think the Society uses it as much anymore, but maybe the irony would be too apparent.
The Kingdom Ministries often talked in recent years about "preparing in advance" for the meetings. That's a good redundant turn of phrase.
comment
Now comment, be fair! There's nothing wrong with preparing afterwards, is there? After all, the interpretation of prophecies are done that way.....aren't they?
Cheers,
Ozzie
"You can know the law by heart, without knowing the heart of it"
Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace?
WOW, you had me fooled!
I thought the 2006 was a typo! I just thought that was an article that was printed recently. LOL Good job.
SlayerLayer---God was my co-pilot, but we crashed in the snowy mountains and I had to eat him.
Comment...EXCELLENT!!!
I had to do a double take-wondering, "what issue s this from?", LOL.
And yes, the spin showing how the R&F "took things too far" was absolutely CLASSIC!!!
My compliments,
Boozy
