I don't think this has changed, it's just a way of describing the game mechanics. The point is that you must give something to your god in order as a part of worship. The trick is in the definition of sacrifice - do you tithe 10% of your income, kill your best goat, send your eldest son to work in the temple or, just show up at the temple every holy day and give a little of your time. That said, I still think this discription is dangerous see here:
> From: Richard Develyn <Richard.Develyn_at_viewgate.com>
> Subject: Re: Hypocrisy and Orthopraxi
>
> I think the one thing that didn't come through into this debate from my
> original post is what I mean by 'belief' in a god.
>
> What I mean is belief as in 'support', rather than just 'accept the
> existence of'.
>
> A hypocrite, IMO, is someone who uses a god as a 'slot machine'.
> Plug in the
> worship, pull out the abilities.
I just don't see Gloranthan Theistic magic working like this. Afinities and feats aren't like magic spells - you don't pay your worship and get your affinity. This is of course one way of looking at it but it's more accurate to say that when using an affinity, you're directly channeling the power of your god which you learn how to do in worship. This ability to 'channel' implies a very real and very personal link - this is why Devotees spend their time behaving like the object of their devotion, they need to be that much closer in order to do more of the good work - as a result of this closer link, they get access to more specific modes of super-natural behaviour. In effect a devotees every action becomes a piece of worship.
To put it in D&D terms, You don't simply use your Turn Undead spell you direcly call upon Humakt to work through you and rid the mortal plane of these abominations which are the antethesis of everything you _believe_ in.
Of course, there are exceptions to this; Andrew's very scary Thanatari, the God learners and possibly Arkat although, I'm not sure of this. As Andrew hiself said, this sort of thing _must_ be very rare.
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