Three children families stop step decline in Mormon membership

by joe134cd 12 Replies latest jw experiences

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  joe134cd

  I just posted this on a seperate thread, but I think it deserves its own thread. This is with regard to the pew survey that states “2 out of three 3 born into the Jehovah’s Witness faith. Will not remain in the faith as adults.”

  Ok fair enough. Now compare this with a quote from John Delin, of Mormon stories pod cast, where he says “ the only thing that is stopping the Mormon church from free fall in the USA, is the Mormon birth rate of 3 children per house hold.”

  There are a couple of things to think about here?

  LDS need 3 children house holds to stop membership from free fall in the USA. On the other hand JWs lose 2/3 of their youth but still manage to maintain their membership in the USA.

  Mormons have been encouraged to have families, and in some cases large ones. JWs have been discouraged from having any children. One could assume with the ageing JW membership, along with the attitude to having children. Their stocks would be a lot lower in supporting membership in the USA through internal births. This hasn’t happened, as yet, as it’s been 1.2 million JW members in the USA for some time.

  Interesting I thought.
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  road to nowhere

  When are mormons baptized? Is their shunning as strict?

  I think lots of witness kids are held hostage.
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  Diogenesister

  This is why I can't accept JW numbers joe134CD . If the Mormons need three children families to prop up numbers, and we know JWs don't have a lot of children and certainly are not making converts ..how can JW numbers have remained at 8 million for over ten years? Even with PiMO's included, It's just not possible!
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  JW GoneBad

  What has saved and helped the JWs maintain a 1.2 million (meager 14%) presence in the U.S. was the introduction of the cartoon characters Caleb & Sophia some 8 years ago! WT has been pushing very hard 'child baptism' for the past 8 to 10 years in case y'all didn't know/notice!

  If it wasn't for this campaign of 'child baptism' for nearly a decade now...JW membership numbers would be tanking at a much faster pace!

  Thank God for the children and thank God for Caleb & Sophia...we couldn't of done it without you! :-) :-) :-)
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  asp59

  Org has always told members generation living 1914 would see the end. That biblical generation was 70-80 year's. The time to preach. Middle 90s, 80 year has passed and, no Harmagedon. Congregations started to be more zombie liked. So org put in the hard rule, if you abandon org you can not have contact with family. Back in the 90s thing's started to die of for org. They must have thought they gonna fool everyone with overlapping generation teachings some years ago. Think that it hade the opposite effect of what they wanted.
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  Black Sheep

  Is there a link to the survey?
  
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  joe134cd

  To be honest I love making comparisons with the LDS. Yes I do believe the JWs are fudging numbers. If anything they are underestimating numbers. Time and time again when you compare the publisher count with the country census, they are vastly different. The JWs certainly are a bigger more engaged religion than that of the Mormon church. I would also suggest when you start making comparisons with a 3.5- 4million lds membership, it makes the 8 million JW membership look very believably.

  It just hit me when I heard John Dehlin comment about the 3 member house hold propping the Mormon church up. Yet the JWs lose 2/3 of their youth and still have a more healthier membership. Even if 50% of the JWs are pimo. They still are doing better than the Mormon church. Who is the biggest lier? I’d say the Mormon church.
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  Biahi

  I definitely think the witnesses are fudging their numbers. Figures don’t lie, but liars figure. They would have zero growth in the US, without baptizing children.
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  truth_b_known

  I once heard it said that there are 3 kinds of lies -

  Lies

  Damn Lies

  Statistics

  Numbers don't lie, but how those numbers are presented can be misleading.
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  joe134cd

  Baihi- here is my side of the story let’s hear yours.

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5926017217593344/lds-statistics-extension-may-suggest-that-jws-could-bigger-more-engaged-membership
  

  Here are some things to think about.

  LDS rely on a 3 children birth rate to support membership in the USA. The JWs lose 2/3 of their children, to support their membership in the USA.

  The lds claims a world wide membership of 16 million. When in reality some estimates say it could be as low as 3 million. Those who believe it enough to hold a temple recommend would certainly be lower than that.

  We compare this with the JW 8 million world wide. The 3 million and the 8 million are certainly with in range of each other.

  Even if 50% of the JW were PIMO. It would make the 3 million lds figure look very believable.

  In the country I live in, which is outside the USA. The census shows there are twice as many members claiming to be JWs as the publisher count. However, in recent times the census has shown a drop while publisher count has remained steady. This could be explained as recent leavers are more aware of the BS of watchtower, rather than leaving for more secular reasons, but still identify with it.