Q: Why is there such a 'high turnover' within the Jehovahs Witnesses?

A: Because it's a bullshit religion. Eventually, anyone with any moral integrity, even a moderate amount of courage, self-awareness and modest intelligence (which is apparently the least important of the qualities I've listed) wakes up and says, "Fuck this, I'm outta here!"

LongHairGal

JP1692:

That's a very concise nutshell that says it all.👍🏻

The key is the word "eventually". I have the highest admiration for somebody who gets the hell out of the religion right away and doesn't waste time like I did. I should have exited that sham ten years earlier than I did!

jp1692

Thank you LongHairGal.

The implication of my post is that people that stay in this religion are:

Lacking in moral integrity,
Have less than even a moderate amount of courage,
and are extremely low in self-awareness.

I have abundant scientific data to back this up. So if anyone doubts this, bring it on. Show me your evidence to refute my claims.

BTW, again note that intelligence is NOT a reliable predictor or who will or will not join a cult.

joe134cd

I'd also like to note that these 2/3rds that supposedly fell away. It doesn't mean they're not ideologically 80% Witness. Many people drop out, with the thought that it's the wrong thing to do. That they fell in love and are busy with this worldly guy/girl and someday when things settle down, they're coming back. They still generally believe what the JWs teach.

I think with the advent of the Internet those who are leaving are becoming more deffinant in their decision. If it wasn't for the Internet I would still very likely not only be sitting in the KH, but if I did leave would be more likely to return. The other day I was feeling a bit down, when my father asked me if I'd come back to meetings. I replied with "it would be intellectually dishonest both to myself and to those in the hall if I did".

shepherdless

Hi jp, I have no research, apart from anecdotal observations. Nevertheless, your points 2 and 3 seem spot on to me. I also agree that intelligence (whatever that means) is not a significant factor.

Could you expand on what you mean by point 1? Also, if you have any easy links to publicly available relevant scientific data, I for one would be interested to see it.

Anecdotal observation and intuition suggests to me that another important factor is how “street-wise” a person is. I don’t know how that can be measured.

stan livedeath

snugglebunny

My father converted around a dozen or so people to the JW religion. None of them came from door to door work, something in which he partook with enthusiasm. 6 of his converts were workmates - all of them air traffic controllers at London's Heathrow. (if you've seen Pushing Tin you'll appreciate what a weird bunch they are)

oh dear....just when you thought it was safe to board the plane.

DesirousOfChange

Why is there such a high turnover rate within the Jehovahs Witnesses?

You can only fool some of the people some of the time. Fortunately for the Borg, "there's one born every minute."

nonjwspouse

Steve2, I stay interested because my husbands family is JW, and he is a fence sitter, or as far as I know is a fence sitter.( He refuses to share any of his feelings about this with me at all)

I am trying to convince myself to look at his involvement, or non involvement, with the JW as like a cancer in remission. Right now he is in remission, not doing any JW related activities and not reading materials ( or not reading much). I need to try to release this anxiety about this fence sitting limbo that I have absolutely no control over.

It shook me to the core six years ago. Changed my ability to trust with his outrageously different, new, (bad) behavior.

I hope to rebuild without the "limbo" haunting me, keeping me from moving forward in my marriage.There are residuals of the bad behavior which can keep us from moving forward.

Being the "unbeliever" "worldly person"or " opposer" in a marriage with a born in, wannabe( maybe?) baptized JW sucks. Really sucks. It could blow up in my face. But like a cancer, who knows? Life must go on until the possible reoccurance, then direction might be changed.

jp1692

Shepherless: Could you expand on what you mean by point 1? Also, if you have any easy links to publicly available relevant scientific data, I for one would be interested to see it.

Sure, I'm short on time at the moment, but I wanted to acknowledge your question. I probably won't have time for a decent response for a couple of days.

In the interim, I've a couple of questions for you so I know what to share. Are you familiar with the concepts of:

Cognitive Dissonance?
Confirmation Bias?
Asch Conformity Experiment?
The work of Leon Festinger?

Also, what do you mean by "street-wise"?

Thanks,

jp

UnshackleTheChains

The implication of my post is that people that stay in this religion are:
Lacking in moral integrity,
Have less than even a moderate amount of courage,
and are extremely low in self-awareness

Jp1692

Though I agree with some of the above, that for many these can be factors as to why people stay, there are however other factors involved.

I found it useful to reflect on the 3 points you made from a personal angle.

In regards to moral integrity. Its not that I lack moral integrity, it's about how you view your situation. Yes the JWs have many things that are clearly wrong, but so do the other 30 or so thousand Christian based groups. As a Christian who wants to worship God, I could leave the jdubs and join another group . However, the turmoil this would cause within my family and so on would be a stress I couldn't handle at this time. So I reason that God knows my situation. It's the religious leaders of every denomination will pay the price for misleading people just as Jesus viewed the Pharisees of his day.

In regards to courage, I have on about 3 occasions over the years pointed out to the elders the many things the society have got wrong. I can't believe they didn't kick me out to be honest. On one of those occasions I wrote a five page letter outlining these issues. They clearly didn't want to rock the boat, instead saying perhaps Jehovah will in time change these things? Admittedly, I know I have been watched over the years by the elders. It's a bit like they don't step on my toes, I won't step on theirs.

Lastly, I am very self aware. I know what I believe, God knows what I believe. The GB, the elders etc cannot take this away from me.

For me the biggest factor as to why I stay is purely' for social reasons. That's it. I have faded in the past for several years, but this made things very awkward for my wife etc.

I am also hopeful that the Watchtower Society will wake up and smell the coffee. That they will reform many of their ridiculous policies. That they might just even one day be that quaint benign Christian faith group I thought I was joining all those years ago.

I can't say how things will go in the future. I may fade, I may end up df'd, I may continue to do what I do now is attend occasionally just to keep up appearences. Who knows.

Your points were very thought provoking. Thanks

UTC

Why is there such a 'high turnover' within the Jehovahs Witnesses?

Q: Why is there such a 'high turnover' within the Jehovahs Witnesses?

A: Because it's a bullshit religion. Eventually, anyone with any moral integrity, even a moderate amount of courage, self-awareness and modest intelligence (which is apparently the least important of the qualities I've listed) wakes up and says, "Fuck this, I'm outta here!"

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