by davidmitchell 31 Replies latest members private
I related details of my encounter with a JW elsewhere here - I also meant to ask: He said that the JWs were the 'fastest growing religion in the world'. Is this true? If not, can anyone direct me to the stats that show this?
Personally I don't think it has any relevance, but it would be interesting to know whether it is true.
Thanks
David
False statement. Just through birth, Many religons add many more the their ranks the JWs. There are over a billion Muslums and Hindus.
Old news. They are still growing but not as fast, nor are they the fastest.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/belief-blog/2010/feb/12/latest-church-growth-stats-in/
Like it or not, Islam is the fastest growing religion.
There is one thing that JWs excel at beyond all other religions: they LOSE born-in members at the highest rate of any religion in the US!!!
See the report summary here, with links to the full report:
http://religions.pewforum.org/reports
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life / U.S. Religious Landscape Survey - Retention of Childhood Members, p. 30
Tell your JW friend to put that in his pipe and smoke it! Then watch his cognitive dissonance cause his brain to go into overload.
Are Jehovah's Witnesses the Fastest Growing Religion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUgdTVJ0FjY&list=UU_7ou_iThmk2wGWJUE-fKug
The problem is that I assume the JW was talking about the present time and the latest article you cite is 2010. Also, unless I have missed something, the Washington Times agrees with the JW, reporting an increase of 2%.
Newly Enlightened.
Thanks for all the information.
Unfortunately, the List is 2007 and I assume the JW was referring to the present time and the Pewforum article is US based and I think he was talking globally. Nonetheless, the retention stats are fascinating as an 'increase' is hardly this if a significant percentage subsequently drop out. Vrey useful. Even though it is US based, I presume it is illustrative of the Western drop-out rate. And of course, as we all know, many JWs would like to abandon their JW life but will not do so as they fear the loss of family, etc. I have kepta copy of this file as it demonstrates, to me anyway, that to many, the WT lifestyle is a passing phase.
The Wikipedia article was very interesting as I realised that the amount of increase really depends on the period you are covering! So, if he's talking about just 2013, then he could be right, but few would view just one year as being particularly evidential.
And PS. The JW is *NOT* my friend!!!!
Apologies for misreading author's names (I always expect them to bea t the end of the message!).
In the above msgs just left, Oubliette should be jgnat and Newly Enlightened should be Oubleitte.
Sorry!
There is a lot of information on JW growth at jwfacts.com http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php
Also for a quick read: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111231222735AAQGCMm I would have appreciated what sources this answer came from but in general it has some accuracy but contains personal opinion.
"Jehovah's Witnesses as a worldwide group continue to grow, but the percentage of growth over the past few years falls between 1 and 2%. He is also correct that most of that growth has taken place in the less affluent Pacific Islands and in Africa.
In North America and Europe growth has been very flat, falling around the normal birth rate of 1 to 1.5%. The Watchtower usually also rounds up to the next whole number, which tends to inflate the percentages a bit (1.6% becoming 2%). What is interesting is the lack of real growth when you compare baptisms (example: 250,000) versus net growth for the year (Example: 200,000) That shows that in some countries, there is actually a net loss of members. In Europe, for example, some countries showed a gain over 2010, but a net loss from what they were in 2009. I am not a statistician, but anyone looking at the numbers can see the trends are not good overall.
Recently it was reported that over 85% of all Jehovah's Witness children leave the religion between the ages of 18 and 25. Of those, only about 18% return. The average age of Jehovah's Witnesses has moved up from the low to mid-40s, to around 50-52.
What is most significant is the number of JWs who admit that they would leave tomorrow except for the fear of losing their family members and friends through the Watchtower's shunning policy. You can't just walk away from the religion like you can if you were a Baptist or an Episcopalian. No, the Watchtower makes sure that if you leave, you also leave your friends and family behind. A recent survey indicated that as many as 40% of all Jehovah's Witnesses in North America would leave immediately if the shunning rules were relaxed even to the point that only family would not shun. Another 10% might leave if shunning was discontinued completely.
There are other signs that Jehovah's Witnesses are beginning to decline. Kingdom Halls that serviced over 100 regular members are now seeing 40-60 at meetings. Kingdom Halls are being merged because of lack of members or enough attendance. The Watchtower has admitted that finding qualified men to take positions as elders or ministerial servants is becoming more difficult. Some congregations have to loan elders to nearby congregations to help out. Fewer brothers are taking speaking assignments.
Another negative clue that not all is well is that the number of disfellowshipping cases has jumped in recent years, and congregations get several "disassociation" letters each year. Not all members who face judicial committees are disfellowshipped, but there are far more DFs in recent years than there were during the years of greatest growth. Between 1945 and 1980, few congregations had more than one or two DFs a year. Some had none at all over several years. One brother commented that it seemed that for every new person baptized, that two persons were being disfellowshipped. He commented, "It's almost like we are eating our own young. Maybe we should find a way to show more mercy and forgiveness. It seems like you can be disfellowshipped for almost anything anymore."
It has become very clear to observers both in and out of the Watchtower Society that Jehovah's Witnesses are definitely facing a crisis in their history. That is why some have described it as "a sifting." As long as the Watchtower refuses to admit their past mistakes and continues to become more hard line in the way they manage dissent and honest debate, they will see their numbers erode, especially in wealthier and more educated countries."
Many thanks Giordano, I will have a look at this info shortly.
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In fact I tried to find the answer to my question and realised that talking about percentage increases is not very informative. For example, if the membership of a new religion begins at 1 and grew to 2 in a year, that's a 100% increase in growth. Such statistics aren't very meaningful and can be easily used to mislead.
As far as all the stats on the internet are concerned, the problem with figures quoted for 'Christianity', I would dispute these can be used with any validity as lumping together Pentecostals with the Brethren, or Seventh Day Churches with Roman Catholicism is far too generalised.
Islam appears to be growing at 1.86% - a slightly smaller growth rate than the 2% of JWs which some articles mention, but Islam has about 1.6 billion adherents and apparently makes up well over 20% of the world's population. So even with 2%, the JWs with less than 8 million adherents, are absolutely dwarfed by Islam, so the '% increase' mentioned by the JW means little. And as stated, how many of these have become JWs and are then too fearful to leave for fear of losing their family/home/etc. Hardly something to boast about!
