Glossary of American English Hacker Theocratese

Kudos

This book was not created in a vacuum. Many persons have helped along the way. Readers should be aware that the views expressed in the \Gls are not necessarily always in agreement with those who contributed reviews.

Because I cannot thank everyone who contributed ideas and comments by name without inadvertently leaving out someone, I am obligated to limit myself to mentioning just a few people.

It is appropriate to acknowledge Jehovah God first, as the Creator of the pure language of truth, and the One who has given his people the tongue to speak about him with accurate knowledge and freeness of speech. (1Ti 2:3, 4; Heb 10:35)

The spark that led to the creation of this Glossary came from discussions with Witness friends on the Internet. Extensive reviews and commentaries have been submitted by Jon L. White, Edwin Sheppard, Carolyne Butler, and Tasha Thomasian. Numerous headword suggestions and enthusiastic support were donated by Alan Gauld, John Wadsworth, and Jaime Villareal.

The cover design and execution was done by Tom Johnson, based on an idea submitted by Edwin Sheppard. A brother in Phoenix, Arizona, took the photographs on the cover page.

The rendering of version 6.1 for Microsoft Word was the work of Connor Michael.

The persons in the photographs are yours truly,^[4] my wife Suzy, my son Aaron, and my daughter Cyra-Lea. Each picture illustrates a headword entry. The terms pictured, reading clockwise, are {finger quotes}, {shotgun answer}, {telephone witnessing}, and {literature counter}. Aaron also assisted with the reproduction of {hard copies} of version 5.1.

[4] Nearly 50 pounds heavier than I am today!

Laura Falk provided the LaTeX code for the chart under {Governing Body}, and served generously as a LaTeX advisor.

I am grateful to numerous other Internet Witness friends and to all of Jehovah's American English speaking Witnesses, whose daily language is the subject of this work, for useful headword examples, both deliberate and inadvertent. Since the first version of the Glossary I have received an endless stream of email messages from Witnesses around the world, many of whom submitted suggestions. I have carefully noted and considered every one.

Finally, I must not neglect to thank my greatest helpers, namely my wife Suzy and my daughter Cyra-Lea, especially for not complaining while I spent late evenings hard at work on the Glossary.

The Glossary of American English Hacker Theocratese is written and maintained by