......well, that's my question.
I have no stats to back anything up. Just putting it out there for thoughts/comments.
Are there more XJWs than JWs?
by punkofnice 20 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Pickler
I guess........yes there are!!!! Someone here will know ....?
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Chaserious
Just my own guess... if you count born-in kids and faders, yes and it's not even close. If you only count DF'd/DA'd former JWs, no.
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Suraj Khan
It's tough to know for sure as there hasn't been a universal survey of people identifying as ex-JWs.
An anecdote from a week or two ago here put the numbers at dead even (JWs and ex-JWs) in the 1980s, and cited an elder or MS as the source. And I'm sure you're familiar with the Pew study here:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/02/more_americans_2.html
which finds that the retention rate of JWs is only 37 percent. It follows that there should now be less JWs than ex-JWs.Circumstantial evidence also points to this conclusion: congregations appear more elderly, and the Witness organization has recently been lowering time requirements for pioneering and publishing. A cynical person would be led to believe that since the WTBTS is first and foremost a publishing company, lowering these requirements serves them no valuable purpose except shoring up sagging numbers.
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punkofnice
Out of my family of 5, only 2 are still 'in'.
The forums seem to welcome more newbies than I remember 2 years ago. Again just a personal observation.
Pickler - I agree. Stats would be interesting.
Chaserious - Interesting observation.
Suraj Khan - Yes. The congos are full of the elderly and the younguns are leaving 2 out of 3 it appears.
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Phizzy
I have a gut feeling that the XJW's outnumber the exisitng ones, I would hazard a guess and say 10 million are xjw's.
If I am wrong today, give it two or three years more and I shall be right.
And as I pointed out to a long time JW Elder, the people who have left once believed it and lived it, but now have found it wanting, WHY?
He did not answer.
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thomasaquinas
This could be answered in two ways, but both answers would be a resounding yes.
Over the history of this religious organization far more left, than stayed.
Presently there are more who are living who have been studied with or baptized and who attended for a time, which are no longer associated.
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CADSkin
3 rd generation born-in here. Out of my Immediate family of 5, 0 are in. Out of my extended family blood relatives only of 25, not including my wife’s side, 5 are still in. The 5 that are still in are all over 50. 1 recently returned after 20 years of hardcore addiction.
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Tater-T
way more.. if you look at COC the first thing Ray noticed when he got to bethal was, The number of baptism and increase of Publishers was way out of skew.. they lose 25% in the first year..
it's a revolving door.. most just move on as a bad experince and never look at it again ..
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Theocratic Sedition
Speaking from my own experiences, I don't think so. Granted, I can only speak on my own observations in the couple of congregations I've been in. I'm a 70's baby so I don't know what the turnover rate was like prior to the 90s. I don't know what it was like after the 1975 thing, or the early 80ish purging. Don't know what it was like during the 60's, 50's, etc.. But speaking from my experiences as a teenager in the 90's, I'd say while they've lost a ton of young people, the majority of folks in my experiences have remained with the religion.