JW terminology really gets my goat

by Ellie 35 Replies latest jw friends

  • GetBusyLiving
    GetBusyLiving

    When I was in high school I had a "worldly" girlfriend that came over to my house and overheard my mom and her friend talking about some "sister" who was "new in the truth". She asked me what "the truth" was and I told her it was our religion. She replied, total deadpan, "You guys are f**king nuts". It was so funny the way she said it when I remember it now. At the time I was just like, "Well you gotta believe something right..?!"

    GBL

    Warning to GBL: Amending a moderator's editing can result in restricted access to posting.

  • Sunspot
    Sunspot

    LOL@GBL

  • El Kabong
    El Kabong

    BCE/CE instead of BC/AD.
    Makes them sound like idiots.

  • sweet tee
    sweet tee

    GBL - Your mom hit the nail on the head with that one! ROFLMAO

    When I was in high school I had a "worldly" girlfriend that came over to my house and overheard my mom and her friend talking about some "sister" who was "new in the truth". She asked me what "the truth" was and I told her it was our religion. She replied, total deadpan, "You guys are f**king nuts".

  • carla
    carla

    Why do they need to identify 'jehovah God' or 'God jehovah' ? That makes it sound like there could be another god in which they must make a distinction. carla

  • Qcmbr
    Qcmbr

    This behaviour is typical of any group. Any organisation (including couples / families) will create an internal dialogue - an in set of words that denote the shared common experience and give a sense of belonging. Its also fairly practical in that their is an awful lot of meaning tied up in the buzzword and using it instead of continually reffering to its contextual history is something that makes conversations quiker and sharper for the in crowd. The easiest place to see this, except in a church, is with kids and playground slang.

    Where this crosses over from social smoothing and inclusive shared knowledge is when it is used as a tool to exclude - 'insiders', by referring to the buzzword without an explanation move outsiders, linguistically into the role of 'other.'
    Not pleasant and many groups esp. religious ones are guilty as heck - mind you there are several words that float around this group here:)
    Troll, borg , troof.. (don't know how many of these are fun crossovers from JW culture:)

  • zen nudist
    zen nudist

    subtle brain washing combined with subtle fence building....

    by constantly using these JW words the average JW can spot anyone leaning outwards or inwards....they can identify subconsciously who is an enemy or a friend...they can tell who is apostate and who has been listening to apostates...etc.

    they can create a mental sheild against anyone not IN....and especially detect those who are waivering and trying to help them OUT

  • Poztate
    Poztate

    This is a repost of mine from last Oct showing how weird things get when you reject the JW terminology

    This just serves to show again what a cult...Cult...CULT they are.

    Well I went and did it. I got into trouble with my wife AGAIN. She had just come home from a one day C.A. and felt the "NEED" to share with me. After a minute or so I told her I didn't really feel like talking religion with her.She almost screamed at me..."YOU MEAN THE TRUTH DON'T YOU" ????. I was not trying to stir it up but I had struck a real nerve with her.

    My thought is when did the truth become "THE TRUTH"? and need to be defended to the death like this ??? Was it after WW 2 or more in the time of Rutherford...the 1930's or so.

    A secondary thought is she gets right upset at me using the generic term GOD instead of guess who.Has the CULT programing become so deep that all good dubs react in this fashion without even thinking why?

    POZ.

  • kaykay_mp
    kaykay_mp

    In our congo, the brothers would have a fierce, annoying habit of mispronouncing one word: edible.

    Of course it means "suitable for eating", but because they knew what it meant, they always pronounced it eat-able. Back then I wasn't even in high school yet and I knew how to pronounce it correctly. It was really stupid when I was answering a question with the word in the comment, pronouncing it correctly and everything, then told that it was pronounced their way.

    (me: "Manna was a gift from Jehovah for the Israelites as it was edible--" brother Isabitch: "eat-able!")

    But far be it from me to challenge the male headship in the congregation; after all, I was only a lowly female, and a little girl at that...

    laters

    kaykay_mp

  • ljwtiamb
    ljwtiamb
    It just really winds me up, I think they do it to seem important and mysterious but it only leaves the other person confused.

    I would tend to agree with you except for the fact that I am having the damndest time getting rid of the terminology myself.

    It's so ingrained in me that I still refer to people as 'brother', or 'worldly' or speak of my old 'congregation'. if it drives me bonkers, I can only imagine what it does to others.

    I worry that my language reflects the amount of remaining doctrines.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit