Mennonites (about 1,000,000 worldwide) and the Amish share a common Anabaptist theology, but with several conservative-liberal distinctions. Somebody who can't "cut it" as a member of the Amish community frequently jumps over to a more liberal (though theologically similar) Mennonite group. Therefore I thought the following remark from What Mennonites Are Thinking 1999 was interesting (p. 83):
In North America, the membership in the Old Order and conservative [Mennonite] groups will surpass that of the more modern "mainstream" groups by the year 2005, according to best estimates. Contrary to popular perception, the groups with the more intentional boundaries are growing faster and retaining more of their young people than those with less identity.
There is a basic compulsion in many people to have a religion tell them what to do and how to think, even as they resent the control that that religion has over their lives. They say they can't tolerate what they consider to be a too-restrictive religion, but when they jump over to a more liberal group, they still gravitate to the mind- and behavior-control scenario (ala The True Believer).
It stands to reason that the WTS will actually do better for themselves (membership-wise) in maintaining strict and exclusionary policies, relentless in the face of internal pressures. Changes will not sprout from within the org; they must be imposed from the outside. (ala the Jimmy Swaggart trial, denial of IRS tax-exemption, and subsequent "new light" on the "voluntary donation" program...the UN NGO fiasco...child abuse/pedophilia...and perhaps DFing policies next?).
As someone here posted, a phrase that has stuck in my mind: "When the law of love fails, the hand of Caesar prevails."
Craig