SFB:
Perception is often reality. In my world, the dubs are in trouble. They are not growing. I helped built seven or eight Kingdom Halls. We couldn't put them up fast enough. In the area where this took place, there are exactly the same number of dubs as there were in the early 1990s. Meanwhile, the population of that area has grown 2.5 times. That means there ought to be 5 halls where there were two, and 750 dubs where there were 300. But there aren't any more -- dubs or halls --than there were.
You may not wish to view these as "statistics." But they are real numbers, not imaginary. And they relate to a specific geographic area, not some hypothetical place. We moved hundreds of miles away to another state and we have over the past decade seen precisely the same "statistics" here. There just isn't any growth.
So you can rely on the Society's numbers all you want. But I repeat, this is an organization that encourages people to make up the monthly field service reports they are required to turn in. This organization turns a blind eye to figures they know are bulls---. There is not a congo secretary who doesn't know dubs are manufacturing these reports. There is almost no single elder anywhere who is not putting down a predetermined number on his monthly report, a number designed to maintain the status quo as regards his position. This kind of corruption permeates the organization. The average publisher is fully aware that four people can go out in Service together and all four could conceivable report different hours. There is a don't ask, don't tell policy in force.
Like you, I used to think dubs were scrupulously honest. But they are guillt of gross dishonesty and deceit in so many areas, I no longer believe anything they say.
