Proof Jehovah's Witnesses have been declining for nearly 20 years? (At least in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand)

by slimboyfat 40 Replies latest jw friends

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  JWoods

  I really think that the authors here may be onto something important: It is certainly very possible that a fringe extremist belief system like that of the JWs simply has a kind of glass ceiling as some small % of the population who can be attracted to and participate in such nonsense.

  Also, like Scientology, the more their bizarre belief and behavior is exposed to the public, the more a significant percentage of the general population becomes aware of their extremism - the more they will have a prejudice against any attempts at conversion. Probably things like this movie director coming out publicly on Scientology (and the Scientology spokesman walking out of a TV interview when he was asked to explain the doctrine of Xenu the alien) - are opening peoples eyes to the Hubbard weirdness. This may be happening in some small way to the witnesses, too.

  I know for example that a lot of the people on my Ferrari owner's website in the Politics and Religions section were absolutely horrified to find out about the shunning, the blood transfusion rules (to the point of death of a child), and all the nonsense time of the end prophecy. The owner of the site, a son of a Presbyterian minister, went so far to comment that he always had viewed the JWs as a sort of quiet pentacostal-like church...never imagining what really went on behind closed doors.
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  Meeting Junkie No More

  Those figures are most ENCOURAGING and no doubt spot on. Hopefully the rate of decline increases exponentially and the implosion is UNDERWAY! Thanks for sharing.
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  PSacramento

  In the information age that we live in, claims such as those done by thge WT are easily researched by those willing to spend the time and as such, the hole sin their doctrines and arguments are found and it is far harder to pull the wool over people's eyes as it was 20 years ago.
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  JWoods

  Very true, PSacremento - and of course they are doomed to an ageing smaller & smaller membership if they cannot retain their young. And it is the young who are getting out there into the information world every day.

  This slow death by ageing seems to be what happened to christian science and we may be seeing the first seeds of this in the oldest witness strongholds - specifically countries like US, Canada, Australia, etc. as noted in this study.
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  PSacramento

  An example, my mom has been trying to "convert" my younger sisters husband, but here is a guy that to buy a digital camera does tons of research on the net, getting reviews and such, something for a TV or a GPS.

  Now imagine the research he did on JW's !!

  He comes to me, not too long ago, and mentions all the stuff he found and askes me if I knwo about it, I tell him I do and add a few things he didn't know.He askes me how the "F" are my parents and older sister still JW's if they know all this ??

  I tell him that they don't know it because they choose NOT to know it.
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  Elsewhere

  > He theorizes that it could be due to certain stricter religious movements reaching "market penetration," and that there is only a certain small number of people in the population that will be itnerested in such strict religions in the first place.

  That's called the Law of Diminishing Returns: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns

  Religions are like viruses... once all of the vulnerable population is infected, the infection rate begins to plummet.
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  quietlyleaving

  nice to see unitarians and pagans doing so well - most of us seem to head that way too
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  TheOldHippie

  But no matter how eager many are to tell that "congregations in my area are shrinking" and semm to think that has to imply it is like that worldwide too - the Yearbooks keep telling the number of publishers is frowing, even in the "white and Western" world. No huge figures, a per cent or two per year - but a long shot from the decrease some of you seem to see.

  Wishfull thinking, anyone?
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  daniel-p

  The numbers show the religion is in decline. A percent or two each year is big, and tells of further declines in the future. of course, if its God's sole channel on earth, none of this matters, and only serves to tell the end is near, right? GET BACK TO THE MEETINGS BROTHERS!!!111
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  insearchoftruth

  Just more proof that "the time left is reduced"