The U.S. now has over 1,000,000 average publishers - Why?

by truthseeker 29 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  blondie

  Then instead of 66 publishers I submit a total of 70.

  So that is why there is such an unnatural jump in publishers in August when many JWs are on vacation. Kind of inflates the numbers, eh?

  Blondie
• 

  TheListener

  Blondie, yes.

  That's why the society uses the average number of publishers to calculate their gains/losses.
• 

  sir82

  So that is why there is such an unnatural jump in publishers in August when many JWs are on vacation. Kind of inflates the numbers, eh?

  Which is also why the "new peak" proclamations are also a bunch of malarkey.

  A couple of months back, there was a notice near the field service report in the KM, "New peak of pioneers reached in XYZ month". I don't recall the exact figure, it was 96,000 or so.

  So what was the total number of pioneers the next month? 95,000 - a drop of 1000.

  Did 1000 pioneers really quit in one month? No, there were just a bunch of slackers in the previous month who hadn't turned in their time in some prior month.

  There weren't 96,000 individual pioneers in XYZ month, but there were 96,000 slips of paper turned in by pioneers that month. The "real" number of pioneers was substantially less. The Society knows this full well, but that didn't stop them from trumpeting about this "new peak".
• 

  blondie

  But the peak number of publishers to push "God is giving us the increase" line.

  Blondie

  ***

  w04 1/1 p. 15 "Into All the Earth Their Sound Went Out" ***

  Over 50 years later, in the year 2003, Japan reported a peak of 217,508 publishers! Jehovah has indeed richly blessed his people in that land.

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/61907/1.ashx

  But the country that most interested me was Japan. Consider how for decades, Japan was held up as a model Witness country to the United States.

  Let's have a look at the sevice report since 1997

  Peak pubs Avg Inc/Dec Baptisms Net loss

  1997 220,663 217,970 4 10,962

  1998 222,912 222,347 2 7,779

  1999 222,857 222,078 0 5,343 5,612

  2000 221,364 220,538 -1 4,388 5,928

  2001 220,113 218,866 -1 4,139 5,811

  2002 218,731 217,791 0 3,925 5,000

  2003 217,508 217,020 0 2,639 3,410

  Japan's baptism rate has dropped by 76% since 1997!

  Now, consider what the January 1st 2004 WT says on page 15 paragraph 12 under the sub heading 'In Foreign Fields'

  Consider Japan. Before the second world war, there were about one hundred Kingdom preachers in that land. During the war, brutal persecution decimated their ranks, and by the end of the war, only a few witnesses were still spiritually and physically alive. Those few outstanding integrity keepers were surely delighted in 1949 to welcome the first 13 Gilead-trained missionaries, and the missionaries quickly warmed to their enthusiastic, hospitable Japanese brothers. Over 50 years later, in the year 2003, Japan reported a peak of 217,508 publishers! Jehovah has indeed richly blessed his people in that land. (Consider that the 1998 peak was 222,912!)

  Reminds me of Orwell's 1984, where the price of chocolate had gone up while the government told the poeple it had come dwon.
• 

  sir82

  a noticable shift in the tenor of the WT and AW magazines.

  In general, there is a "dumbing down" of the magazines that has been going on for the past 20 years or so. Compare any study article on the CD from the 60's or 70's to one from now--the difference is marked.

  I have noticed a lot more Hispanic-looking families in the photos in the magazines over the past several years. Of course, keep in mind that the photographs in the magazines change depending on where the magazine will be distributed--in Africa, most the photos are of black persons, etc.

  And there have been several articles questioning the "wisdom" of leaving your family behind while you go off to look for work in another country.

  As always, the society is nothing more than reactionary. As reports from COs come in, they will tailor the articles to meet those needs.

  Of course, by the time the CO report gets to them, the problems have been festering for years, or even decades.
• 

  Jourles

  Notice the years where the baptisms dropped in Japan? Now if that isn't a sign of the internet's power, I don't know what is. Did anything else of major importance happen in Japan over that same timeframe?
• 

  Terry

  What I am about to say will sound mean-spirited,but,I don't mean it to.
  
  The Nazis and the Communists had a real flaming desire for statistics when it came to what they were all about.
  
  They had something to prove to a disapproving world at large and both entities were profoundly informed as to the efficacy of PROPAGANDA to get their messege across. Such groups as these were reflecting the mind sickness that holds the following dictum to be true: Truth is what we SAY it is.
  
  We all need to keep uppermost in mind that there is no outside auditing agency to examine the Watchtower's books.
  There is no auditor and never will be because religion is a hands-off grey area where much folly can exist beyond reproof or correction.
  
  THE WATCHTOWER can make up whatever figures it wants to make up in the same manner that it plays fast and loose with its quotations of secular authorities. The thrust of the propaganda is that Jehovah is blessing their efforts no matter what is really going on in the real world.
  
  The illusions in life we hold dearest eventually bump up against sharp-edged realities. There are opportunities for a reality check when a 1975 comes along or a "this generation" policy is suddenly changed. Statistics about the preaching work or memorial attendance don't amount to spit in a bucket in the real world.
  
  For many many years the Watchtower and Jehovah's Witnesses in general have spoken the lie that they were the "fastest growing religion". This is profound malarky.
  Every baby born to a Catholic is automatically considered Catholic. There is no way to catch up to those statistics!
  The Mormon Church has always outshone the JW's in its missionary zeal and effectiveness as well as overall rate of increase.
  
  Moreover, the JW's could learn lessons from the amazing success story of the Mormon Church in general. They went mainstream and overcame decades of ill-will by a salvo of public interviews and propaganda messeges on TV ads.
  The messege was all lies, of course, but--it was mostly quite effective as the growth rate of that church demonstrates.
  
  This cult, Jehovah's Witnesses, is slowly...gradually..eventually..becoming something so flat and dull and awkward that only the third-world uneducated will respond to the cracked alarm bell warnings of imminent doom at an always hasty Armageddon..
  
  The U.S.A. contains too many better informed people.
  
  T.
• 

  Quentin

  What I am about to say will sound mean-spirited,but,I don't mean it to. "Terry"

  
  Not at all...well said...

  Ah the numbers game. What they count on is the average person being numb. So unfocesed that all they do is march to the beat of the drum. One million eh, we are blessed. Lets go knock some doors.

  How many folks do you think actualy read those numbers? I never did. Don't imagine to many Js do. They hear the figures, but they don't see, nor comperhend. It's a big number that sounds great and gets the base fired up. Nothing more, nothing less.
• 

  AndersonsInfo

  For what it's worth: When I was in Bethel's Writing Dept. completing one particular assignment for Karl Adams where I was totaling up for use in the Proclaimer's book all the literature placed and hours spent in the ministry using the Society's records going as far back as such information was available, I decided, out of curiosity, to see how the Society came up with total number of publishers each year. In fact, I still have that chart in my files.
  I chose a particular year and started off with the number of publishers reported in the U.S. mentioned in the yearbook for the previous year. I fiddled with baptism and publisher figures recorded in the Kingdom Ministry for the year I chose. I tried to come up with an exit number and work that in. No matter how I figured, nothing tallied or harmonized and it bothered me. Because I'm not an expert at such computations, I allowed for ignorance in that I was doing something wrong.
  Since the Awake! editor, Harry Peloyan, was a friend and confident, I thought he would explain to me just how the Service Dept. arrived at their final number of publishers each year and tell me where I was making my mistake. To my surprise, when I explained the dilemma, Harry's demeanor immediately changed. He went from friendly to quite unfriendly and gruffly told me to cease and desist and just stared at me. That was it! There was no further explanation. Case closed!
  Yes, I've always wondered why such a reaction from a man who never responded like that to any question or subject I put to him before. I wondered then and wonder now, just what did he know that he didn't want me to know?
  A famous caveat should be noted here: Figures do not lie, but liars figure.
  How the Society lies about publisher figures, or numbers, is the way I have found they lie about child sexual abuse in the organization, blood transfusions and other doctrinal matters: Yes, they use misrepresentation, falsification, distortion, twisting, slanting, fiddling, fabrication, and deception. But, worst of all, they use half truths!
  Lord Alfred Tennyson said in 1864: That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies; That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright; But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.
  And that folks is precisely what honest critics of the Watchtower Society are up against--half truths--when we try to show our loved ones the truth about "the Truth."
  Barbara
• 

  Double Edge

  A famous caveat should be noted here: Figures do not lie, but liars figure.

  I like that! ** writing it down **
  
  

  How the Society lies about publisher figures, or numbers, is the way I have found they lie about child sexual abuse in the organization, blood transfusions and other doctrinal matters: Yes, they use misrepresentation, falsification, distortion, twisting, slanting, fiddling, fabrication, and deception. But, worst of all, they use half truths!
  
  Lord Alfred Tennyson said in 1864: That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies; That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright; But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.
  
  And that folks is precisely what honest critics of the Watchtower Society are up against--half truths--when we try to show our loved ones the truth about "the Truth."
  
  Barbara

  Well said, Barbara. You should write a book (or have you already? curious minds want to know.)