I think the swamp would empty overnight
How many JWs would Disassociate if their were no family sanctions?
by Chook 20 Replies latest jw experiences
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Crazyguy
No there's a lot of truly delusional believers still in. I'd say only about 10 percent would bail immediately then after more over time as they are screwed over in one way or another.
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pale.emperor
I've said many times, if they offered this AT LEAST half would walk out. Take a look at your last KH. There's always a divide of the elders families and their cliques, and everybody else. The everybody else are the ones who'd just love to leave but cant.
Even the believers could say "we worship Jehovah at home". Many in my family say "Jehovah is perfect, it's his people that are wrong. Jehovah will sort it out". That right there tells me they have little faith in the GB but just tow the line.
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sir82
Half? No way.
I tend toward the 10% or so estimated above. Most JWs really do believe it is true. And then there is the emotional attachment - even if they have doubts, the promise of seeing resurrected Gramma again, or building a seaside mansion, or having a pet panda, is too enticing to give up.
However, if the "no repercussions for DA" provision were allowed to continue, i.e. it wasn't just a "one time offer", then gradually the numbers would decline. In about 20 years or so the JW population would hit half of what they have now, as the current GB gradually dies off and GB 3.0 has to come up with something even more absurd than the "overlapping generations" to explain away Jesus words.
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stuckinarut2
Most would at least mentally disconnect and become "less active" if there were no forms of punishment or judgement for doing so.
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smiddy
I would be more inclined to think anywhere between 10% and 25% no more.So many older Jw`s have invested so many years in this religion with time and money and their participation in it , they are not going anywhere
.Pride is also keeping a lot of people in.And so is self esteem ,how many want to admit they have been duped all these years and then admit its just not true.? Not many
And i think it is surprising how many leave the religion over the years yet the religion never leaves them and something happens in the world or their life and they jump straight back into the religion.
Not only have they never made the "truth" their own they have never proved to themselves that the JW religion is anything but the truth.
They are what I would call the LAZY believers usually born ins who drop in and out over many years actually fence sitters . ,those that the bible identifies as those who are like corks tossed about by the seas not knowing what they believe and accepting whatever their Elder tells them.
Thats why I say between 10% and 25% but definetely no more.
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Phizzy
I think that putting a figure on it is impossible. Initially it would be the ones already awake, and the disaffected, but this would have a huge knock on effect.
For that reason the GB will never sanction such a thing, an Open Prison policy would remove their chief means of Control.
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pale.emperor
The question is, how many are fully aware it's not the truth but are staying because they have to? Those figures in the yearbook of Jehovah's Witness numbers around the world are meaningless when you take into account that there is at least 1 apostate in my old hall. When i was there i was awake for two years before leaving. How many more of us are there stuck in those halls?
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sir82
Most would at least mentally disconnect and become "less active" if there were no forms of punishment or judgement for doing so.
This I absolutely agree with.
If they removed the stigma of being perceived as a "spiritually weak low hour publisher" and/or stopped requiring the reporting of field serve-us activity, then field serve-us would drop by I'd say anywhere from 50-90% lower.
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Anony Mous
I think if they dropped all the silly "no part of this world" and disfellowshipping they would actually grow in numbers. Sure there are those that would leave but how many people did you "study" with only to hook off when they realized they couldn't associate with their worldly family (or disfellowshipped ones)? I think 90% of studies stop right there, back in the day pioneers would call that page in the "Knowledge" book or in the older red one "the week of truth" it was about 3/4 into the books and you feared getting to it, it was about 2 months into a study. Some even skipped the chapter just to continue a study, it was the most heavily annotated page as it generated endless questions. All my studies ended there (I've studied with ~5 or 6 people over the years)