Hello Friends,
The July 15, 2011 issue of The Watchtower and its hard line on "shunning" of the disfellowshipped has generated much discussion on this board. I thought I would start a thread on a related issue because I would appreciate getting your thoughts on this.
We all know how liberally the WTS uses its favorite curse word, apostate, to describe those who have left the organization. My question is does that word really and truly describe WTS dissidents? Back in the Middle Ages and during the horrifying years of the reign of the Inquisition, the Roman Catholic Church used the word heretic to label the dissidents it faced. That word is still in the Church's lexicon today although you very seldom hear or read it. The WTS campaign against "apostates" reminds me very much of the Church's war against "heretics". The Church ultimately lost its war as the Protestant Reformation clearly showed. Still, the Church did survive and today claims some one billion communicants worldwide. I doubt the WTS will have the "happy ending" the Roman Catholic Church had, but that is a topic for another thread.
The dictionary gives these definitions for the two words under discussion.
a·pos·ta·sy
/ ?'p?s
t?si / 
Show Spelled [ uh - pos -t uh -see ] –noun, plural -sies. a total desertion of or departure from one's religion, principles, party, cause, etc.
her·e·sy
–noun, plural -sies. 1. opinion or doctrine at variance with the orthodox or accepted doctrine, especially of a church or religious system. 2. the maintaining of such an opinion or doctrine. 3. Roman Catholic Church . the willful and persistent rejection of any article of faith by a baptized member of the church. 4. any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs, customs, etc. Both definitions were taken from Dictionary.com. Which word more accurately defines those of us who are "no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses", to use the WTS jargon? Not that it really matters to those of us who have left, but I think that as in so many other matters, the WTS has abused and misued the word apostate for its own selfish purposes. We know it really wants total control over its members, and language is a very powerful tool it uses to establish and maintain that control. But it was a friend of mine who told me that she left once she understood what the word apostate really meant and that she didn't fit the definition. She still believed in God and wanted to worship Him, but not in the way the WTS defined worship. For what it's worth, I think I would classify myself (proudly) as a heretic because there are still some beliefs I hold in common with Jehovah's Witnesses. I simply want nothing more to do with the WTS. What do the rest of you think? Quendi