by jw-verite 69 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Seen in The 03/2018 Watchtower study :
"During the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to Jehovah by water baptism."
It's 20.000 more than last year
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/2017-yearbook/jehovahs-witnesses-service-report-2016/
So still no slowing down yet :-(
“rightly disposed” individuals ..... really???? And what if among those so-called “rightly disposed” individuals are a few child molesters??
What does it even mean, a person who is “rightly disposed”???
where the growth comes from in Africa and still parts of South America makes no real difference in the grand scheme of things, billions on this planet have never heard of them and their message nor are ever likely to, even the growth on the areas I mentioned will come to a stop sooner or later, how many are leaving? that is the more important issue.
It may be that their push for children to get baptised is happening. We will have to see the rest of the worldwide report to see other figures to judge how the org is doing. Thanks for finding that figure though.
Yes it is somewhat surprising, this increase in baptisms.
The all time peak for baptisms was around 380,000 in 1996, or thereabouts. (From memory)
It will be very interesting to see the congregation total, in view of "consolidations", if it is published.
Don't forget that between 80,000 and 100,000 JW's will have died in that 12 months !
So the increase is far from being something to crow about !
I think this is the highest since 2010 when the figure was around 290,000
Yes the increase is a large number of people but remember that the religion makes it a moral duty to entrap your offspring by early baptism compounded by avoidance of university education which would reveal Watchtower fallacies.
The world average birth rate in four years will be a 1% annual population increase but Africa will grow to become 54% of the world’s population by 2050. I guess that the birth rate for JWs, weighted for a large African contingent, would be around 2.25% but perhaps more. Eight and one third million JWs would therefore make for a natural “born-in” increase then of between 175,000 to 200,000 just from insider population growth which broadly leaves 100,000 new converts many of whom will be relatives of insiders.
Of this second group (the converts) most will come from Africa where deism is universal and belonging to a religion, whatever stripe it is, is what you feel obliged to do. Further, endemic poverty and corruption in the political system in central Africa make any religious membership an attractive opportunity to join a community which teaches a hope of deliverance from worldly woes.
In the Western World Japan is leading the way showing membership stagnation from three sources: the deaths from the high average age of the JW population there, families leaving en bloc and general loss of appetite for the merits of doomsday cults.
Menrov -What does it even mean, a person who is “rightly disposed”???
What indeed? When I dispose of something, I bung it in the bin. Discard it. A bit like the jobos discard someone once they're craptisied because they can no longer count time™ with them.
I wonder, percentagewise, how the WT growth numbers compare to the global population growth. My gut tells me that the "growth" is a flatline.
