A conversation with a PO this week led to a request from him to make a comparison of of JW's to other religions. For ex: their preaching work, their growth, their brotherhood, their building projects, their assistance in times of natural disasters, etc. The search engine in JWD is not working and I would appreciate any information written about this subject in the past.
JW's compared to other religions
by concerned x 16 Replies latest watchtower bible
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A-Team
A conversation with a PO this week led to a request from him to make a comparison of of JW's to other religions. For ex: their preaching work, their growth, their brotherhood, their building projects, their assistance in times of natural disasters, etc. The search engine in JWD is not working and I would appreciate any information written about this subject in the past.
I am Non-Denominational, many JWs have no idea what that is, an all takes I will have will be done based on my church.
About preaching works, It's done all over the world, including Traditional Muslim Strongholds and Atheist countries. This is done by missionaries, TV and Radio broadcast.
In the United States, at the churches (Our Bishop has roughly 50-80 Churches under his different umbrella, each with a different vision for the area in which they are in) we do Street Witnessing, Door to Door (By request only), Nursing Homes, prisons, 1/2 Way Houses, Hospitals and Senior Citizen Complexes.
Our growth at the church I'm at is roughly 20-40 a week (Our congeration averages 5000 Adults and 3000 Children (birth-18)on any given Sunday, 1000 Adults and 800-1000 Youth during Mid-Week Service.)
Our brotherhood is very strong, we help each other out, and even those who do not belong to us. You can't disciminate on who you help, you just do it...even if its just giving someone a 3 dollar combo meal. Internally, I have know people who have paid for peoples' electric bills, car notes, housing notes, bought them groceries, wtc...when people can't afford it. And in many cases, there person who was in this situation didn't tell noone they needed help. (let's figure out how that happens.)
Building projects, we are expanding our Sancatary an additional 1500 seats, to make it an compacity of 6500 seats..which is vital so we don't have to turn people away (we had to do it on several occasions because of fire code) Our assurance on Natural Disasters...jets just say we show up. We raised 250,000 during 1 service to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, and 100K for the Tsunami.
Any more questions, just fire away. -
jschwehm
The largest non-governmental charitable social network in the world is run by the Catholic Church. Add to that the charitable work done by Protestant Churches and it is no contest.
Also, you might find the following stats interesting as far as increase (or decrease) in Church membership in the USA is concerned. This was reported in 2007. A friend of mine sent me this but I am not sure where he got the info from. I will ask him:
1. The Catholic Church, 69,135,254 members, reporting an increase of 1.94
percent.
2. The Southern Baptist Convention, 16,270,315 members, reporting a increase
of .02 percent.
3. The United Methodist Church, 8,075,010 members, reporting a decrease of
1.36 percent.
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5,690,672 members,
reporting an increase of 1.63 percent.
5. The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no increase or decrease
reported.
6. National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., 5,000,000 members, no increase or
decrease reported.
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,850,776, reporting a decrease of
1.62 percent.
8. National Baptist Convention of America, 3,500,000, no increase or decrease
reported.
9. Presbyterian Church (USA), 3,098,842 members, reporting a decrease of 2.84
percent.
10. Assemblies of God, 2,830,861 members, reporting an increase of 1.86
percent.
11. African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2,500,000 members, no increase or
decrease reported.
12. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, 2,500,000 members, no
increase or decrease reported.
13. Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., 2,500,000 members, no
increase or decrease reported.
14. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS), 2,440,864, reporting a decrease
or .93 percent.
15. Episcopal Church, 2,247,819, reporting a decrease of 1.59 percent.
16. Churches of Christ, 1,639,495 members, reporting an increase of 9.30
percent (This increase reports the church's growth since its last reported
figures in 1999.)
17. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 1,500,000 members, no increase or
decrease reported.
18. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., 1,500,000 members, no increase
or decrease reported.
19. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,440,405 members, reporting
an increase of .53 percent.
20. American Baptist Churches in the USA, 1,396,700, reporting a decrease of
1.97 percent.
21. United Church of Christ, 1,224,297, reporting a decrease of 3.28 percent.
22. Baptist Bible Fellowship International, 1,200,000, no increase or decrease
reported.
23. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, 1,071,615 members, no increase
or decrease reported.
24. The Orthodox Church in America, 1,064,000 members, reporting an increase
of 6.40 percent.
25. Jehovah's Witnesses, 1,046,006 members, reporting a decrease of 1.56
percent.Jeff S.
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Junction-Guy
Here is something about disaster relief.
All Jehovah's Witnesses were encouraged to donate to the "worldwide fund" when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. They were told not to put "hurricane relief" on their checks, because then the WT Society would be held accountable to how the money was spent. One congregation in Texas alone sent $45,000 to the WT Society under the premise it would be used to help the hurricane victims. God only knows where all of this money went.
The WT Society would send a few JW's and a few trucks down to this area, and then notify the media so they could get a good story from it.
As long as the JW's didnt put hurricane relief on their checks, hen there was no way for this money to ever be accounted for.
Also JW's love to brag about how much charity they do for their neighbors, but whenever you find the evidence to prove otherwise, then they will simply say "Well charity is not really our concern, we are mainly interested in their salvation.
The WT Society claims they do alot of charity work, but they dont have any soup kitchens, any homeless shelters, nothing.
They rake in close to a billion dollars a year, but spend a paltry amount on charity. -
MeneMene
Make sure you request that he provide you with a complete current financial report on the Organization. The one sentence at the end of the publisher report in the Feb 1 Watchtower is not a financial report.
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greendawn
I would also say that what the JWs present to claim validation as the true religion are appearences without any real substance. If their numbers grow each year that doesn't mean they are the true religion since many other religions also grow, some even more.
Then the lack of charitable work is what immediately marks them out as a false religion, that loveless mentality is shown not just to outsiders but also to long time loyal JWs who come to be in need. Strangely the R&F do not get the clue though it is very obvious.
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passive suicide
Dont get me wrong............but are any of these relig. politically neutral......?this being one of my last sticking points........I hope someone says YES.
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betterdaze
Welcome, passive suicide.
Is the Watchtower politically neutral? Try Googling Watchtower and United Nations NGO and your last sticking point will quickly become unstuck.
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jwfacts
Having a discussion with an elder is unlikely to make any difference to how he views things, most old time JWs do not want to know. However I do hope you can have an affect. Following are some links that may help you.
I have a heap of information in regards to your questions at jwfacts.com, but unfortunately there is a problem with my hosting company at the moment and it is down. When it is back up look at the link on "Similar religions" to see how similiar JWs are to many of the other 18th century groups.
For some information on who preach see http://jehovah.net.au/preaching.html
An article at Leadership “ Currents Shaping Our World: Switched after Birth” July 1, 2003 http://www.ctlibrary.com/le/2003/summer/19.7.html as displayed on 24th January 2007 discussed turnover rates of various religions and shows that JWs have one of the highest turnover rates of every religion. At the bottom of http://jehovah.net.au/aust_statistics.html it shows graphically that 50% of those baptised leave each year.
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A-Team
Only the Quakers do not go to war.