Are most Jehovah's Witnesses zealous,fence sitters,or going thru the motions? (page 2)

oompa

mini...and others....did you guys think hard about your last or other congos and group the pubs?.....i did........and there were VERY few actual ZEALOUS ones..........oompa

It's so hard to tell because of the way any dissent is handled (i.e. crushed). So, because the only way you can really escape being shunned is to never disagree with anything, most folks keep their true feelings to themselves.

Still, since I currently fall into the going thru the motions category, I think I've become better able to spot them. There are many elders that I know that are in the going through the motions category and several COs as well. Its not what they say, its the body language. The constant meeting in the back during the meeting or shuffling through papers during the meeting. I take note of those who don't sing the songs, ect as well.

Interesting to me is that sometimes you'll have zealous JWs in terms of doing a lot of works who I get the sense are just going through the motions while others who don't do much organizaitonally, maybe are inactive or df'ed, are true believers. Its the strangest religion I've ever seen.

Overall, I think more are going through the motions or fence sitters than are true believers.

Finally-Free

I think most go through the motions of going through the motions. They've been doing it for so long they've forgotten how to do anything else.

W

Tuesday

I would put the percentage of fence sitters rather low. 10% at the most.

Going through the motions is hard because you're not factoring in people who grew up inside and don't know any different, to which they're technically going through the motions because they've done it all their lives but they're not quite questioning things. Also the same could apply to those who have families in. So if you're including them in this percentage I would say this one probably hovers around the 65% mark.

Zealous is kind of tough too mainly because I wouldn't know if you're including the people who are zealous because they want to feel important with priviledges, or be the person that the congregation looks up to or whatever. Also there's the people who are zealous so they can get a mate in the organization. If you're including them then this would probably be about 30%.

But if you include all the different groups involved I would say:

5% - Want to leave but have the fear of "What if they're right?" or can't see themselves outside the Witnesses yet.

5% - Want to leave but don't because of friends/family/etc.

35% - Go through the motions because they've grown up as JWs and it's all they know. Since they've been doing this since childhood they can do the dance with their eyes closed.

25% - Go through the motions because they've been a witness so long they're on auto-pilot. They never even think of doubts, sheeple.

15% - Are zealous because they like feeling special. They like either being looked up to, giving talks, having priviledges, etc.

10%- Are zealous because they think that's the only way to attract a mate in the organization.

5% - Are zealous because they believe the teachings whole-heartedly. They are different than the going through the motions people as they believe but it's more acceptance. This 5% believes everything nearly fanatically.

In the words of the Surgeon General on South Park "And I base this data on absolutely nothing". This is more my observation/opinion. Though some might agree.

booby

If zealous = ardent in field service, which I think it must in JW land, the numbers are low. From my experience, most hated the service and went because they had to for various reasons. For elders it was to keep their position, for others it allowed the I am better than some, who do less than I do, even if they were comparing themselves, possibly a non-working sister with no children with one who had to work part time and had five kids (just a silly example) but close to some actual situations in the borg.

willyloman

Tuesday parsed it pretty well. It's all subjective, depending on your congregational experience. But there are certain norms.

This is actually something we used to think, and talk, about in private conversations among elders. The question would usually be, how many of these people are serious about folowing the organization? [That is how dubs measured spirituality then and now]

The answer, back in the day, used to about one-third. After 1995, I saw the numbers shift. The sense of urgency went away after the WTS dropped its "generation" teaching. The "base" gradually settled to around 20%, by my estimate. This is based on my observations of five congregations in two states.

By the early 2000's, my sense was that 20% were all in, another 20% would leave if they only could but were held hostage by family and/or business ties, and the other 40% weren't asking any questions and were comfortable in their social surroundings. These were essentially those with large families of Witnesses who were self-contained in terms of social activities and who did not look too carefully at the Society's teachings.

BizzyBee

I think the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) can be applied here:

20% of the congregants do 80% of the heavy-lifting in the congo - meeting attendance, commenting, eldering, FS hours, Bible studies, assisting weaker ones, etc.

The other 80% of the congregants do 20% of the remaining work (that gets done).

I would go so far as to say that 20% are total believers (though not necessarily the same people who are in the 20% of heavy-lifters!) and the other 80% are a mixed bag as described.

Mickey mouse

In my congregation I would agree that maybe only 20-30% make up the zealous hardcore. The rest are going through the motions.

eyeslice

I think that the general consensus of the posters here is correct. More and more are just going through the motions.

I couldn't do that - for me it had to be all or nothing - so I chose nothing.

Are most Jehovah's Witnesses zealous,fence sitters,or going thru the motions?

minimus