NEW PEW Research data on Jehovah's Witnesses just released

Balaamsass2

I was expecting people who "identified" as JWs to follow Watchtower beliefs more closely than these pollsters report.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/26/a-closer-look-at-jehovahs-witnesses-living-in-the-u-s/

sir82

Based on this, 50% of JWs are apostates (don't believe in heaven) while 25% should be considered disassociated (for "non-neutral activity", leaning toward Republican or Democrat political views).

This makes me think that either the questions were too vague, or the JWS who responded didn't understand the questions, or people who self-identified as JWs really aren't. In any case, it makes me doubt the reliability of the poll.

Vidiot

@ sir82...

Or 75% of the rank-and-file have found an anonymous outlet to reveal their true feelings.

Coded Logic

Like any religion, what "is" and "isn't" a member is a bit ambiguous. The Watchtower says there are around 7 million publishers. A fair portion of these are unbaptised. And of those there is some percentage that doesn't really have a grasp on JW theology.

There are also people who are not publishers or who are inactive but still identify as JWs because they occasionally go to meetings or are studying. Their answers too will influence the stats.

Lastly, there are publishers, baptised ones, ministerial servants, elders, pioneers, etc who are trapped in the religion but no longer believe everything the WT teaches.

We don't just get to cherry pick the JWs who are toeing the party line and say "only their responses matter". We have to look at the whole picture of what it means to be a JW in various states and transitions.

Mephis

Pew's sample size for JWs is small so unexpected results popping up become more likely. The way the questions are phrased seem also to cause current JWs problems. Whether it's asking one whether they're an evangelical christian or not, or, in this case, whether they believe in heaven or hell. Actually, no, it's not the way the questions are phrased which causes problems but the WT filter which gets applied to any answer given.

OutsiderLookingIn

Agree 100%, Coded Logic. There is a spectrum of JW belief. You can also add weak inactive ones (it's the truth even though I don't live it at all). Pretty much anyone in the Watchtower web of influence (somehow exposed to the teachings but unaware of TTATT) might identify as JW for survey purposes.

Also, this isn't a new survey. It's a re-release of the 2014 results in light of the death of Prince, the most famous and (superficially) unlikely JW. Will it generate interest in JWs, i.e. new converts? I doubt it.

OneEyedJoe

These numbers don't add up...maybe someone can help me with this -

it says 0.8% of the US population is JW. That puts JWs at roughly 2.5 million members. Even if you assume that children are represented in disproportionately low numbers compared to the overall population (I'm assuming the survey was done of adults 18 and over, but I see no indication of this for sure) you still have 1.6 million adult JWs. If weekly meeting attendance is at 85%, you'd have to have 2.1 million JWs attending meetings weekly and 1.4 million adult JWs attending meetings weekly. Those numbers seem way too high considering the cult's official numbers are at 1.18 million publishers and I can't remember the last time I heard of a congregation having anything close to 100% attendance, let alone average attendance of 115-178% which is what would be necessary for these numbers to make sense.

My guess is that this survey isn't very accurate due to the small sample size. Either that or they got a good number of inactive JWs who were lying due to guilt over their poor meeting attendance.

FayeDunaway

What's interesting to me is the number of witnesses willing to answer the 'ideological spectrum' question but not the 'political views' question. It's very witness if them...obey (pay minute attention to) the letter of the law, not the overall purpose of the law. Maybe they didn't realize having an 'ideological spectrum' viewpoint is NOT staying 'neutral'. I like that they were willing to say it, I would have done it too as a witness...I just think it's funny.

Regarding the 'heaven' question, there was probably some confusion, did the question mean you think you're going to heaven when you die, or that heaven exists?

steve2

Yes Faye, some of those questions do not take into account unusual or nonstandard views. When JWs answered they did not believe in heaven it was more likely an indication that they believed their hope was living on this earth forever rather than a disbelief in heaven.