by careful 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I've picked up from several replies to posts here that the org has stopped using the term "worldly" as it applies to people. This must have happened after I left. Would someone be so kind as to explain the "rationale" behind this shift? What is/are the preferred term(s) now for non-JWs? Just how is "worldly" used now? When dd the change occur?
Thanks.
It's use was definitely discouraged by the time I left, six years ago. I cannot remember if it was something explicitly mentioned in a publication. Nonetheless, I'm sure it had to do with how foolish they sounded by using it and so-called worldly people's mockery of the term.
I don't know if they got rid of it. It's such a part of their speech. I hear it all the time.
Same here. It may not be in print but it's a huge part of the average JW vocabulary and is used from the platform all the time.
and before 'worldly' there was ..'pagan'. Not to be applied to earrings, wedding rings of course.
The Nov 2017 Watchtower has a study article titled 'Reject worldly thinking'.
It is still commonly used as far as I know...
I read somewhere on this forum that in JW land at the present time it is okay to call behavior and attitudes worldly - but not people.
But I cannot confirm this from any actual JW literature.
A quick look at the J W site seems to confirm what Steve said above. They speak of attitudes being worldly but not people, these days.. Perhaps it's all part of the modernization of their views, like being polite to gay people.
In my latter days I was miffed when an old talk outline would have had me condemn " godless worldlings" . I changed that .
never knew that, was there direction for them to stop using it? its such an intrinsic part of their speech its surprising they've dropped it.
