Why is it that JWs can toss around insults like "Worldly" when talking about non-JWs? (Fiancee got offended).

by SnakesInTheTower 36 Replies latest jw friends

  • steve2

    Actually you're onto something really helpful here: "Worldly" people are the best source of normal feedback on how crudely judgmental JWs are. We can be so accustomed to the JWs smug view of everything that it's like a breath of fresh when people who don't know much about JWs give instant feedback on the JWs petty-mindedness.

    I also agree with the other posters: Be more sparing in what you feel compelled to tell these petty-minded people because you know full well they won't understand. refuse to play the "Explain Game". Your life and your choices are yours, not theirs. Period.

  • blondie

    If you check the WT-CD you will see how the WTS refers to non-jws less and less as "worldly" around 1997. But jws just can't drop it from their spoken vocabulary. I remember a speaker at the circuit assembly referred to "worldly" people and a sister's non-jw husband did not like it. He went home at noon and never attending another assembly.

  • bluecanary

    I can identify with this woman. It used to piss me off that (a) there were more women than men in the JWs, (b) women could only receive certain privileges if they were married (c) most of them wanted nothing more than love and companionship and (d) so many men went and took wives outside of the b0rg.

    Now that I'm out, I can see why they did that. Half the witness girls I knew wouldn't even have sex after they were married. But at the time it was very frustrating that our (the women's) choices were so limited and the men were snubbing us for other women, leaving us single and lonely. This especially holds true for women in their late thirties and up.

  • SnakesInTheTower


    Toni is`nt going to put up with another woman..Encouraging you not to marry Toni.. LOL!!.. Your going to have to get rid of your Bevy of Beauties and concentrate on Toni..

    yeah, Toni mentioned that about how do you think I feel about her discouraging you from marrying me?.... So I already heard it and understood it.

    Problem here is.... I don't have a "Bevy of Beauties." (Ironically, when I was an elder, blah blah, etc, some jealous brothers called them my "Harem."....and I certainly wasn't getting any action. LOL)

    Seriously, I did not initiate the call. I did not encourage it. I had hoped by ignoring Sister Naive's voice mail she would get the message. Guess not. Hopefully she gets it now. Any further calls from her will result in my being more blunt and less polite.

    Snakes (Rich )

  • Scully


    Why not just subscribe to Call Control or Call Block and put her number in? She'll get a message to the effect that "The party you have dialed has chosen not to accept calls" and then disconnects. If that doesn't buy her an effing clue, I don't know what will.

  • purplesofa

    I agree with Scully,

    Hit IGNORE!

    Soon you will be so into your new life

    it will be easy to do.


  • CandleSurgeon

    It is funny to me how I never realized what an ugly phrase "worldly" is when I was a JW. It was just a regular part of my vocabulary but I might as well have been calling people "Nigger/Spick/Cracker" or any other racial slur. It comes down to the same thing, it implies so many ugly things and it is demeaning.

    It kind of reminds me of people who are raised by parents in the KKK, they are taught from birth that all non-whites are worthless and no good. From birth I was taught that all non-JW's were no good and dangerouse to my relationship with god. It's just sickening, I'm glad I am away from that crap.


  • TD

    Human nature coupled with the delusion of being the only people God considers worthy of life can produce some outlandish behaviour

    I remember a JW speaker admonishing the youth against marrying outside of the "Truth."

    "Remember" he said, "Kissing an unbeliever would be like kissing a walking corpse."

    The fact that there could have been (An actually were) unbelieving mates in the audience didn't seem to even occur to him.

  • Billy the Ex-Bethelite
    Billy the Ex-Bethelite

    As usual, I'm standing out in left field on this one kinda...

    Growing up, I recall that "worldly" usually just would mean that they're not JW, not an insult, just a simple way to say that they're not dubs. Usage may have been different here, but it was no more insulting than calling them Catholic, Methodist, or Lutheran. However, calling them "goats" or "bird food" was insulting, big time.

    I think the term "worldly" was most insulting when applied to a JW. Dubs would be called "worldly" because of their dress, choice of music, nice car, etc. That insinuated that they may be JW, but Jehovah hates them because they're not good enough and will wind up as goatly bird food at the big A.

    Confession time for Billy: Since dub sisters were sometimes described as "worldly", I always considered "worldly"="sexy"! As in, stay away from that "worldly" sister with her long "worldly" legs and abundant "worldly" cleavage !

    B the X

  • The Almighty Homer
    The Almighty Homer

    Its a statute of arrogance and self righteousness for they are something special from the rest of humanity.

    Unfortunately other religious groups use the same labeling on to people who they assume are not of their special faith.

    As an example I have heard Mennonite people use the same identifying term on myself, when recently working at their home.

    ( It gave me a chuckle when I overheard them talking ) .......is he worldly ?

    Everyones faith is better than everyones else, well at least thats what their select mental indoctrination has told them is so.

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