JW converts - what percentage fall away?

Double Edge

I got into a discussion today at lunch with someone who years ago 'flirted' with becoming a JW (then 1975 came and went). I've never been a dub, but what I've gather from this board there are those raised in the religion who after 30-40 years leave for whatever reason. What percentage of those not raised in the religion, but are converted, become disillusioned and finally leave? I told this person it was probably 50% - high figure, yes...but they don't have all the guilt and family "baggage" keeping them in. Does that figure seem about right?

Finally-Free

My mom and I were both converts. She stayed in until she died. I DA'd after 20 years. Most of the converts I knew eventually got DF'd or faded. I wouldn't be surprised if most converts eventually leave.

W

Double Edge

FF...

so in your family it's 100 %... I think the figure might by a lot higher than 50 percent.

moggy lover

I am not sure if any official figures are available anywhere, but certainly the drop out rate is alarming high. When I was in the movement back in the 50s - 80s, the rate was roughly calculated to be in the region of 33%, with a slightly higher quotient for youths. However the passage of time has not been kind to the WTS, since the defection rate is increasing. Several on this board have in recent times indicated that the rate has in fact passed the dreaded 50% mark, meaning that more are leaving than staying.

I think that the more troublesome feature of this phenomenon to the WTS is not simply the overall numbers, but the quality of those leaving. Most of the best and the brightest have either savvied up to the intellectual dishonesty of the leadership, and are contemplating leaving, or have already left. Leaving behind a somnolent, amorphous tableaux of believers, either incapable of, or unable to, think for themselves. .

One thing that has escaped the understanding of the WT leadership is that an educated, articulate fellowship is an asset to its community. Naturally however this brings dissent, with the consequent need to formulate a theology based on varied but rational decisions.

Several religious groups have suceeded in accomodating these differing views, accepting the silence of definitive scriptures on a given abstraction. Various Baptist churches, for example, allow for either one, two or even three grounds for divorce, all argued cogently from Scripture. Another outstanding example is the broad spectrum of ideas spawned so profusely on this board with no consequent damage to the intellectual acumen of the members.

But the WTS, jealous of its claustrophobic hold that it has on its followers, lays down precisely defined dogma, even in the most trivial of circumstances, thus leaving no room for individualism. I believe that this intransigence on the part of the WTS leadership, along with its self serving rules imposed on the membership is responsible for such a high drop out rate.

Expect the WT leadership to get even more oppressive, and demanding, and expect a bunker like mentality to develop at the top. Expect the drop out rate to accelerate.

This can be seen even in the higher echelons of authority. Ray Franz once commented on the fact that most of the skilled wordsmiths who write WT literature, have dropped out, with the result that this literature today is often facile, circuitous, vacuous, and unencumbered with intelligent thought.

Cheers

richard

Ray Franz in 'Crisis of Conscience' did some calculations (see page 31, 2nd ed.) For 1970-'80 he found that four out of every ten persons baptized left the organization or ceased activity. You can apply his method to other periods.

Quandry

but they don't have all the guilt and family "baggage" keeping them in.

I don't know if you need family in to experience guilt to stay in. Remember, you estrange yourself from your flesh and blood family when you join. If you are in for many years, the witnesses become the only family you have. Then the guilt comes when thinking about leaving and having no one but people who are relatives that you've pushed away for so long.....

greendawn

Only the WTS has all the statistics on this matter but they are not revealing them. I wouldn't be surprised though if at present half the JWs leave since they have no longer a paradise earth to look forward as a certainty in their life time. Then the internet has also caused the WTS a great deal of damage, there are hundreds of websites out there covering in detail every aspect of the org.

When I was a dub back in the 1980's things were stable in that part of the world, few dubs were leaving but that was before 1995.

purplesofa

I was a convert from Catholicism and fell away.

Numinous

The group photographs taken at the hall would seem to indicate through the years that the percentage of people who stay longer than say, 10 years, for our hall anyway, was quite low. There were standbys that were "lifers" for what I could see, with those found in the door-to-door work especially prone to the revolving door. I posed the question to an elder once, 'from the time you have been here how many people have come and gone' and he told me we would have enough to make two more congregations. This is the one figure the society doesn't offer in the year-end reports. I wonder how many have left since the beginning?

WTWizard

Not enough. I, for one, came in through a cold call. I took and studied the Suffer Forever book with nothing to compare it with. Then I stayed in, giving token service, for a time to give them a fair chance. They blew that handily, and I faded out to make them waste time worrying about me.

I would like to see every single one of them drop out even before becoming umbaptized publishers. That way, they would waste time studying and developing them, only to have them turn apostate even before becoming publishers. I had the good fortune of doing this to one would-be publisher who was studying, only to recommend www.sixscreensofhtewatchtower.com . That blew that study. Maybe if more people would look at that and other similar sites, and more sites like this one come online, more would leave the Tower.

JW converts - what percentage fall away?

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