Jehovah's Witnesses: Fastest Growing Christian Group in the US (page 4)

mP

Why does the WTS claim to be Christian, if the history of xianity is lets be fair hardly a good one. Murder, greed and everything evil.

besty

If anybody has spent more time analyzing global Jehovah's Witness figures than Paul at http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php I'd like them to present their analysis here.

Paul has used self-reported figures from the Watchtower so there is no argument about internal consistency or source methodology (even if there is debate about the quality of self-reporting from the individual publishers!)

For me its reasonably certain that Jehovahs Witnesses have passed their glory days of rate of growth (1970's) and numerical growth (1990's) and are in a period of stable but unspectacular numerical increase slightly higher than population growth.

The sub-plot is three-fold -

The increasing amount of activity required to achieve this stability (hours preaching per additional publisher) and

Secondly the changing demographic mix being skewed away from typical Western blue collar family to developing world, black and Latino older and poorer.

Lastly the attrition rate (revolving door) where the total number is growing but largely offset by those leaving.

jws

binadub wrote:

That total should be divided by 4 (years) to get the correct average (10.37 ÷ 4 = 2.59%) per year.

You can't do that either. It's like compound interest. Each year, you have more to start with when you figure the percentage to the next year.

Let's say you start with 100 and grow to 121 over 2 years. That's 21% grow over 2 years. If you divide by 2, it's 10.5% growth/year, which is't true. It's actually 10%. Year 1, start with 100 + 10 (10% of 100) = 110. Year 2, start with 110 + 11 (10% of 110) = 121. So there's an exponential factor.

Same with finding how much it grew each year. You can't say it grew 10% each year, so it grew 20% over 2 years. You have to divide the end total by the beginning total to see change over 2 years. 10% each year, but 21% over 2 years.

slimboyfat

For me its reasonably certain that Jehovahs Witnesses have passed their glory days of rate of growth (1970's) and numerical growth (1990's) and are in a period of stable but unspectacular numerical increase slightly higher than population growth.

Sure, there is no doubt about that. The point that I am making, which I think is relevant when considering JW success or lack thereof, is a comparative one: most other churches have done far worse than JWs in recent years. JWs may not be growing as fast as they once did, but neither are they in rapid decline as many mainstream denominations are across the western world.

Earnest

I have no quarrel with Mormons who I find, in general, are sincere, honest and polite. I do find their theology a bit unorthodox, one of their teachings being baptism of the dead (or, more accurately, on behalf of the dead), and would be interested to know whether such baptisms are included in their numbers.

jwfacts

The same world conditions affect other religions. I think it's likely those other religions will have benefitted to some extent from people's hardship and worldwide instability.

I don't agree. People go back to the Watchtower predominantly, because it indicates Armageddon is about to happen. That may be a factor for other doomsday cults, but of little relevance to other religions that expect to die in old age and go to heaven.

You could argue earthquakes might have a particular effect on JWs because they view them as part of the sign of the end. I think the most significant earthquakes in recent years have been in Haiti, Japan and New Zealand. Have significant numbers of JWs come in from those countries? Not particularly as far as I can see. I heard of some people who went back to the organization in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks. I have never heard of someone going back because of reports of earthquakes.

They don't go back because of an earthquake in their country, but because it is a sign of the end, and so a large earthquake anywhere has an effect. I heard JWs getting very excited about the recent ones in Haiti/Japan/NZ as a sign Armageddon was about to come.

The fastest growing religion in Australia is "no religion".

jookbeard

SBF, I wouldn't rule out the growth of Mormons as being so completely unreliable, I see groups of them far more frequently in the areas of London where I live and work, where I resided during the years form 1995-2002 I had the Mormons bang on my door at least thrice yearly,(I eventually requested they stop calling) during all of that time the Dubs called once (I was unknown in the territory), the years from 2005-2012, The Dubs never called, I would say in London and the major cities in the UK the Morons are enjoying huge growth. Islam's growth in the UK wipes everything else away.

slimboyfat

I don't agree. People go back to the Watchtower predominantly, because it indicates Armageddon is about to happen. That may be a factor for other doomsday cults, but of little relevance to other religions that expect to die in old age and go to heaven.

There is a lot of social science research to suggest that instability, insecurity and lower standards of living are strong predictors of religious involvement and commitment. So from that perspective the global economic situation is likely to benefit all sorts of religions not just Jehovah's Witnesses. If you are interested in the data and the theory behind it this is an excellent book to get a hold of:

Sacred and Secular: Politics and Religion Worldwide by Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart

You could of course argue that the fact JWs focus on Armageddon means they benefit more from such instability. To a degree perhaps, but it could perhaps also be overstated in as much as all religions seek to cater for similar primal needs within humans, such as desire for community, ritual, hope for the future, and mental escape when times get tough.

The fastest growing religion in Australia is "no religion".

Indeed as in the United Kingdom too. Long may it contiune.

wasblind

I agree Slim, all religions benefit from bad situations

just the other day I was watchin' a documentary about

Mitt romney, it was stated that Mormonism was the fastest

growin' religion

Accordin' to the JW's they are, seems everybody's claimin' to be the champs

of recruit

Finkelstein

Jehovah's Witnesses: Fastest Growing Christian Group in the US

Interesting how so much Bullshit surrounds this religion from the inside out.

I guess David7 is a JWS so supporting his chosen designated religion is to be expected.

I wonder if David7 has the balls to discuss some of the core doctrines of this particular religion.

Jehovah's Witnesses: Fastest Growing Christian Group in the US

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