There are more Jehovah's Witnesses in Portugal than there are Scientologists in the whole world

by cedars 83 Replies latest jw friends

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  cedars

  Hi everyone

  It would be nice if this little nougat of information could be more widely known - especially by journalists.

  The quoted figures for Scientology are taken from Tony Ortega's 2011 article in the Village Voice, which quotes former Scientology PR executive Jeff Hawkins as saying...

  "I know that event attendance internationally was somewhere in the region of 25,000 to 35,000. The International 'Bodies in the Shop' (people actually in the orgs that week for service) was 16,000 to 18,000. IAS was struggling to get 40,000 members. Based on this and a lot of other information I was privy to, I estimate the actual number of Scientologists at a maximum of 40,000. That's on the high side."

  Portugal is one of 33 countries with more than 40,000 active Jehovah's Witnesses - demonstrating the gulf in size between the two faiths.

  The following list shows all countries with more than 40,000 JWs according to their reported peak publishers for 2013.

  

  Though Scientology is undoubtedly a more quirky cult with its teachings of Lord Xenu and the Galactic Federation, it affects far less lives than Watchtower does.

  Even so, the celeb factor gifted by the likes of Tom Cruise and John Travolta will likely allow it to hog the headlines over Watchtower for more years to come.

  Cedars
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  bats in the belfry

  “ Every generation has had its share of “false prophets.” So their mere existence today does not prove that we are living in the time of the end of this system of things. But the rapid increase in their number and in the number of persons they are misleading, along with the fulfillment of all the other things Jesus foretold for our day, does! Never before have so many religious leaders, political rulers and counselors striven to give people guidance. And never before have so many people been misled. ”

  1981 Awake!, December 8, page 15
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  Terry

  How easy it is for any religion to claim X amount of adherents when there is no way to verify the statistic.

  How many years did we hear the brag: Jehovah's Witnesses are the fastest growing religion in the world?

  The very fact that every baby born to a Catholic couple is automatically counted as Catholic should give that lie a rest.

  I'll say this for Scientology: it is very interesting to young people because it combines science fiction with a focus on

  you, you, you. It has some great terminology, rituals of self-improvement and a whiff of technology. If every practioner

  would quit at the 3rd O.T. level they would never have a moment of trouble (other than paying a hefty fee for their auditing.)
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  Laika

  In 2005, the Church of Scientology stated its worldwide membership to be eight million

  Damn. Exaggerate much?
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  Jeffro

  cedars:

  It would be nice if this little nougat of information could be more widely known

  Mmmm... nougat. Probably not what you mean though.
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  EdenOne

  Then there is a distinction between what is a "publisher" and what is an "ordained minister", that is, a baptized, active Jehovah's Witness. Why do we never get that figure? I always wondered.

  Eden
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  Jeffro

  EdenOne:

  Then there is a distinction between what is a "publisher" and what is an "ordained minister", that is, a baptized, active Jehovah's Witness. Why do we never get that figure? I always wondered.

  It's a bit tricky for JWs to provide a number of "ordained ministers", because their definition changes depending on the context.

  When they want to boast about having no clergy class or that they have high numbers, then every baptized JW is an ordained minister.

  When they say JW elders can claim clergy-penitent privilege, then only elders are ministers (and they breach clergy-penitent privilege anyway).
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  cedars

  Oops, Jeffro - yes I meant nugget! Thanks for pointing that out.

  Cedars
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  cantleave

  Hmmmm I like nougat!
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  EdenOne

  Jeffro,

  I agree with you, but I'm referring to statistics. Why don't we ever get the clearly stated number of how many BAPTIZED and ACTIVE withesses thare are? The number of publishers is interesting, but it only obscures matters.

  Eden