Help for the faithless!

by philo 4 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  philo

  I am interested in the usages of 'loyalty' and 'faithfulness' in Watchtower writing. Why? Because faithfulness, to a Christian, is usually between the individual and his/her God, whereas loyalty is more often used to describe lower allegiances to causes, organisation, leaders etc, as illustrated…

  Loyal. Faithful adherence to one's promise, oath, word, etc. Faithful allegiance to the sovereign or lawful government. (Also, now, enthusiastic devotion to the sovereigns person or family.)

  Faithful . Full of or characterised by faith; believing - 1759. True to the fact of the original, accurate.

  It would be nice if I could show how the Watchtower has tended to replace 'faithfulness' with 'loyalty' in its writing over the years of its development. Perhaps this change has not happened, but I would like to investigate anyway, and for that I need a little help. Would someone with a CD-ROM please search from 1950 onward for the terms "faithful" and "loyal". No reading is necessary, at the moment I am only interested in the number of hits, which is how many articles for each search. If possible I'd like to have these referenced by year also.

  Initial search result.

  From 40 consecutive Watchtower articles of 1916 I found 30 articles containing 'faithful' and 19 containing 'loyal'. This is only a start, and I am expanding my archive to search more extensively.

  Please let me know if any of you can help. My thanks.

  philo
• 

  somebody

  greetings, philo

  From 1950 to 1999 in the Watchtower mags only:

  "loyal" 2190 times
  "faithful" 9356 times

  peace,
  somebody
  PS..I'll reference them by year when I get home from work tonight. I don't have the spare time right now.
• 

  blondie

  Strangely enough, this occurred to me awhile back...Let's see if I can post it here:

  YEAR FAITHFUL* LOYAL*
  1950 353 41
  1951 334 32
  1952 279 91
  1953 269 63
  1954 295 41
  1955 252 34
  1956 308 25
  1957 281 21
  1958 325 107
  1959 227 42
  1960 252 44
  1961 223 133 10/1 articles "Loyalty with a Unified Heart" & "Prophesying with the Loyal Organization" (Berlin Wall built in 1961....WWIII averted?)
  1962 302 33
  1963 232 38
  1964 358 137 8/1 article "Loyalty to Jehovah's Organization" & 9/15 "Are You a Loyal Christian"
  1965 230 71
  1966 259 60
  1967 242 34
  1968 236 50
  1969 237 54
  1970 235 88
  1971 235 108
  1972 235 63
  1973 220 128
  1974 318 69
  1975 206 91
  1976 231 90
  1977 202 54
  1978 172 106
  1979 194 67
  1980 206 101
  1981 242 151 Kingdom Loyalty district assemblies and 12/1 "Kingdom Loyalty"--What Does it Mean to You."(9/15--If a relative is disfellowshipped) (The great apostasy
  1982 217 174 3/15 "Who Alone is Loyal" & "Loyalty to the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ" & "Loyally Advocating the Word of God" & "Loyally Submitting to Theocratic Order"
  1983 206 102
  1984 188 98
  1985 180 101
  1986 155 81
  1987 158 93
  1988 186 74
  1989 205 52
  1990 194 149 8/15 "Loyalty--At What Price" & "Loyally Working with Jehovah"
  1991 190 84
  1992 209 132 11/15 "Serve Jehovah Loyally"
  1993 215 79
  1994 210 40
  1995 265 42
  1996 222 258 3/15 "Behold the Loyal" & "Meeting the Challenge of Loyalty" (after the "generation," alternative service, sheep & goats punches)
  1997 203 167 8/1 "Serving Loyally with Jehovah's Organization"
  1998 237 52
  1999 193 79
  *INCLUDES DERIVATIONS (i.e. faithfulness, loyalty)

  While faithful is used more often, I thought it was interesting to notice the timing of articles with increased attention to loyalty. Of course, numbers do not show the change in emphasis regarding the word "faithfulness."
• 

  philo

  Whoah! Thanks you guys.

  I'll have a good old chew on that.

  philo
• 

  philo

  A proper Hi to Somebody. Great to see ya lookin in, red locks 'n all.

  Blondie, interesting that the Bethel 'witch hunts' were in spring of 1980, your search result of 242,151 was part of a three year peak1980-83, and then came the summer convention on loyalty in 1981 and articles in 81 and 82. And didn't the new song book with the execrable ditty with the lines, "joyful submission in recognition…loyalty in faith we show" come out in the early 80s. That book was soiled with calls for loyalty to the organisation. The 'generational' loyalty connection is clear enough as you said, 1995 saw the teaching dropped.

  I will work on a similar list for the old watchtowers and post back with it.

  philo