Maximus, well written and well thought out, as always. In the 1980's, a CO visiting our congregation gave the figure that one out of eight kids leaves the Witnesses. He didn't say where he got them, but that figures out to about 88% leave - VERY nearly your figure. What we found that was interesting, was that my wife and I were talking about that afterward, and remembered the congregations we grew up in in the 1960's. And damned if it didn't come out to exactly one out of eight kids that we grew up with stayed with the Org. So I would say that your experience of half a century is similar to my somewhat shorter one - the vast majority of kids leave the Witnesses. I'm reminded what an elder in a local, reclusive cult in my home area told me. I asked him about how many of the young people raised in the group stay with it. He told me that his group would consider it the worst kind of failure if many of the children left. His point was that if the children raised in the group struggled to see it as having a superior way of life and being the truth, what chance was there that outsiders could be convinced? It was a point well taken. There is an insanity to the WTS, as you said. Doing the same things over and over, and expecting different results. More study, prayer, meeting attendance and family study didn't make a difference in the 60's, the 80's or the 90's. And they certainly won't in this new century. The WTS is doomed.Always great to read your stuff.
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