Are Baptism numbers going down?

by Julia Orwell 37 Replies latest jw friends

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  Julia Orwell

  I've noticed that a striking number of baptisms at assemblies and that are around 16 or under. I was baptised at 19, and everyone just assumed I was 'raised in the truth' when in fact I'd come 'in on my own'. The usual mix seems to be born-in teens and people over 40 around here.

  How's this, out of 5 baptised from my cong with me, not one is a JW now. One in his 50s died a JW about a year later from a heart attack, one the same age as me left JWs just after baptism and got dfd, another convert with a couple of kids hung on for a couple of years with the man who the elders made her marry (they were just living together) before she could become a publisher then left said man for another and got dfd, a guy in his early 20s, born in, got dfd and jailed as a pedophile, and all that was left was me, until this year.
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  Frazzled UBM

  Nice to see that Australians are world leaders in resisting WBTS BS - a triubute to our education system and critical thinking skills.
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  Julia Orwell

  Yes, the crit lit has really been working well. I think the kids I teach are far more savvy than I was at their age when it comes to understanding how texts are designed to position them as audiences.
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  mP

  @julia

  I guess bad associations do ruin a person. Its sad the WT has many attributes including being a pedo paradise and school.
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  Julia Orwell

  Well they can't seal themselves off forever, not in the face of better education and unprecedented access to information right in your own home. I think we'll see the trend JWfacts has graphed on his site continue.
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  Apognophos

  Well they can't seal themselves off forever, not in the face of better education and unprecedented access to information right in your own home.

  They can try, though. Cue the new light about homeschooling all JW kids despite the fact that this might not make sense from a "strategic or human standpoint". As far as information access in the home, they already have instructions to place the PC in an open family area to make sure kids can be monitored (not an entirely bad idea, frankly, as long as it's for the right reasons and not for WT information control).
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  sir82

  Looking at it another way:

  Baptisms have declined to 1989 levels (3 generation definitions ago, for those of you keeping score at home) and continues to trend downward.

  At a recent circuit assembly, there were 8 baptized out of 1300 in attendance. All of them kids of JWs, one looked no more than 9 years old, the rest teens.

  I expect the trend of baptisms to continue to trickle downward.
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  ?me?

  unfortunatly, the numbers will not go down that much as long as the org continues to grow because of BIRTHS and the births 13-20 years ago. teens will continue to get baptized, and young teens/20's will get married and produce the next generation of witnesses. the "great growth" in the last few decades is linked to some preaching, but mostly to the witnesses of the 70's and 80's producing 4 or 5 kids that were witnesses, then getting married and having 3 or 4 more kids that are now young people/families... people my age are the result of their parents becoming witnesses (like mine) and me and my brother have about 10 kids , some of his are baptized already, that have already added to the publisher count and will within 15 years all add to the baptizism count..

  it has happened similarly with the mormons, the amount of loss is less than the amount of growth.. you will alway have a few that do not become or stay witnesses, but the majority will and will compound the numbers.... and we all know the newbies will still trickle in ...
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  steve2

  I view the step of baptism in a very positive light: It is the first essential step to leaving the organization (i.e., similar to divorce: You cannot divorce someone you are not married to; similarly, you cannot leave an organization you were never committed to).

  Go ye forth and get baptized. It will show you what it's like to be an active member. You will realize it ain't what you were led to believe it would be. And you will leave, either directly or indirectly (fade).
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  slimboyfat

  That's cynical. I wish I was never baptised.