Glossary of American English Hacker Theocratese

Midstream Changes

Readers of the first two versions of the Glossary may recall a section entitled Things to Avoid with its own set of headwords. These terms deal with speech patterns that are not recommended although they are in use. I found it was confusing and silly to have two sets of headwords, so I merged all these entries into the main body of headword entries. The entry text should make clear what practices are undesirable.

In the course of developing version 5.1, I began a section entitled Religiosity and Pomposity. Its entries were ultimately merged with the others for the same reasons. Its content included some common words and expressions generally associated with the flavor of Christianity practiced in {Christendom} that are either not a part of theocratic speech, or have an entirely different meaning to speakers of the {Truth}. In several instances there is nothing intrinsically inappropriate about the term being defined.^[12] In such cases, their non-use in theocratic speech serves to emphasize the separateness between the Truth and {Babylon's} form of worship.

[12] See {hymn}, {pastor}.

The meanings of other terms from this group have become highly distorted in many people's perceptions because of the false teachings of the churches of Christendom.^[13] In such cases, {God's people} substitute less colored terms. These entries attempt to explain some of the differences.

[13] See {church}, {hell}.

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