WT's Worldwide Increase. What Does It Mean ?

by Explorer 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  Explorer

  Regarding the WT's report for the period 2001 - 2002, I guess many here will agree the numbers seem to be coming back up again. It was interesting to notice how the previous years many of the so called "developed" nations namely the U.S.A., Canada, and many EU leading nations such as Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, France, and so on actually reported decrease in their numbers.The only increase came back then from the called "under developing" nations.

  This years there seems to be a very significant rebound to those negative figures. Most of those previos countries reporting negative growth are now reporting at least 1 %. Even the U.S.A. reporting 3 % of increase in spite of the propaganda all over the news regarding pedophilia, and the U.N. "scandal". Along with the forever increasing "under developing" nations, the WT seems to be doing pretty well, I think.

  The fact that interests me more is that those numbers are for real. It has never been WT's policy to inflate its numbers, as anyone who has read the yearbooks for the years 1976, 1977, 1978, or 1979 can witness. All those years the numbers kept coming down as the result of the 1975 fiasco, ant the WT went ahead and published them.

  So what ? , is the WT coming down or going up ? Any clues?
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  JamesThomas

  The sword rattling and talks of war over the last year or so has freaked a lot of people out. Fear, may be the major contributing factor for the increase....if it is a valid one. JamesT
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  NeonMadman

  Are you sure they never manipulated the numbers in the past? Just because they showed decreases in the late 1970's doesn't mean the numbers were accurate. Maybe the decreases were even greater than they admitted.

  Besides, it looks to me as if the WT leaders have become increasingly dishonest and cynical as the years have passed. They were brazen enough to go after all of the silentlambs people two weeks before Dateline aired, then claim that these judicial matters, in different parts of the country, had nothing to do with Dateline, but they were being summoned before judicial committees on unrelated matters. Everyone associated with the show, all at once. Unrelated to Dateline. Yeah, right.

  Anyway, if they are willing to lie that boldly and obviously, surely massaging the numbers a bit is not beneath them. Besides, there is now the 15-minute policy, which allows people who report as little as 15 minutes during a month to be counted as publishers. Suddenly, all the disabled and elderly people who had been inactive due to advanced age or disability are active publishers again! That had to inflate the numbers somewhat.

  I think that they are flat, at best, in terms of real growth. And as long as they maintain totalitarian control over their people, and hunker down in a siege mentality, I think real growth will elude them. Especially with so many people now involved in exposing them, and the Internet providing a way for JW's to get outside information without being caught.
• 

  NeonMadman

  JamesT makes a valid point, too. It's likely that many who had been inactive rushed back to the Kingdom Halls after 9/11, convinced that Armageddon was about to begin. But then, it's always right around the corner, isn't it?
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  Elsewhere

  Last year the introduced the 15 minute rule, resulting in a modest gain...

  This year they are rounding up all of the inactive, which will result in another modest gain...

  Bottom line is this: They are scraping the bottom of the barrel. In their hay-day they had double digit growth... now they are struggling to eek out 3%.

  I'm not worried. But I can tell they are... look at all of the recent articles about loyalty to the organization and not reading or watching anything that opposes them. They are worried, and rightfully so, the flock is tired of being beaten and are waking up.
• 

  RunningMan

  The developed countries that reported a modest gain this year, such as Canada, are basing their improvement on a little statistical slight of hand.

  For example, Canada only baptized a little over 2000 people this year. With deaths and defections, this number of recruits isn't enough to maintain the current total. But, by counting the 15 minute publishers, the total head count grew.

  The developed countries are NOT growing. A longer perspective will show this to be true.
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  metatron

  They are demanding numbers from the congregations and getting them.

  Ask yourself how many publishers are told "You must have put in some time this month!"
  - to which they offer an hour or two.

  Ask yourself why France reported an increase in publishers AND a significant loss
  of whole congregations in the same year!

  The 'field ministry' is phoney. Numbers are counted that are increasingly meaningless.
  They can't squeeze out '15 minute' publisher increases forever - apart, of course, from
  lying about numbers, WHICH THEY DO. Take a good look at claims that Witnesses spent
  so many specific million hours in the 'ministry' - while most of it was spent walking
  door to door, waiting in the car, finding no one home, coffee breaks, discussing the
  weather, and so on.

  Make believe numbers of a make believe ministry supported by organizational pretense.

  metatron
• 

  freedom96

  What it means is that more people have been deceived.
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  jgnat

  Remember this is all about numbers, which can be crunched many different ways. The 3% growth this year may be a result of recent events such as 9/11 and the threat of war. Recent articles continue to emphasize the urgency in these "last days". Hey, it worked before 1974. This modest growth is still not keeping pace with world population growth. You might enjoy these links.

  • The Latter Day Saints (Mormons) Gospelclock, showing relative growths of the world and various religions.
  • A graphical analysis of the statistics, showing growth over time.
  • The recent thread, Sundays WT Study, where stats are talked about.
  • Figures for DFings, DAings.
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  r51785

  Make believe numbers of a make believe ministry supported by organizational pretense.

  This reminds me of the old saying that factory workers in the former Soviet Union had: "They pretend to pay us, so we pretend to work."

  The Watchtower pretends to reward its cultist with "everlasting life," and its cultists pretend to carry on a "life-saving ministry."