Quote:
Originally Posted by zeek
Wikipedia defines Doublespeak as "language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., " downsizing" for layoffs), making the truth less unpleasant, without denying its nature. It may also be deployed as intentional ambiguity, or reversal of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth, producing a communication bypass."
Witness Lee used terminology that became the doublespeak of the daily "church life." It might be beneficial to identify and thus hopefully to demystify as many of the doublespeak terms as we can. For example, the term "follow your spirit" was a common phrase in the church at one time. The whole idea of being and doing in spirit seem to me to be a cover for the fact that the behavior of the rank and file members was tightly controlled. if you didn't call on the Lord when you supposed to you were looked at with suspicion. Can anybody relate to what I'm talking about?
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I like this thread. I hope you will create a lexicon after you get a lot of contributions.
I think the term "One with the ministry" can be considered doublespeak. It is loosely based on verses in Paul's ministry about how some were faithful coworkers and some abandoned him. But it is used in a way similar to calling someone a Jew in Nazi Germany. It is the kiss of death to be labeled as "not one with the ministry".
This creates an ironic twist. Even though the LSM publications teach that the ministry is for the churches and not the other way around, every church is in fear of being labeled "not one with the ministry".