Yep Brokeback, they lie about everything else why in the hell would anyone believe these numbers . And let’s not forget that these supposed baptized ones were once publishers , in fact they were publishers right up until they got baptized so last year they were counted twice.
284000 baptized in 2017
by jw-verite 69 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Dreamerdude
I'm interested in finding out where the increase in baptisms happened. My best guess is Congo, Angola, and their neighboring countries.
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menrov
Baptism numbers do not say much about growth. If 285k were baptized, then this must compensate for those who have left or have died. In uncertain situations, it is not uncommon that for each person who decides to leave, another person decides to stay or get baptized. I mean, some feel more attracted to the organisation just because of the bad news they hear about it. A sort of a loyal feeling takes over.
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slimboyfat
See the graphs 5th and 6th down. Baptisms are trending down long term, and are well below their 1990s peak, especially in percentage terms.
https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php
In the mid 1990s baptism numbers were almost 8% of the publisher number, whereas in recent years it dropped to nearly 3%. That is a huge reduction that makes real growth pretty much impossible.
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alanv
I dont think the org makes up the figures. Over the years they have reported many minus figures in different countries. Most who post on here are from USA and UK I think, so we would be surprised when we hear of increases. But those increases are not in the mainly developed world. They are often where people do not have the luxury of easy internet access. Once you drill into the figures you see why we think there is little increase. For instance in the UK last year there was an increase of just 26 publishers over the year. I also found that in the whole of Europe put together, there was no increase at all.
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Crazyguy
There’s other graphs that show from year to year numbers they report that they loose almost as many as they report being baptized. I willing to bet that any actual new baptized ones are from third world countries and are replacing ones leaving in the rest of the world. In twenty years this will be a cult mostly of Africans.
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konceptual99
This figure is meaningless until we see the rest of the report. It's the context and the trends that tell the full story and I am sure we shall still see plenty of evidence for decline and contraction, especially in the western world.
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Drearyweather
It is also important to know- out of all the people who leave the JW's, how many leave out of their own and how many are kicked out or disfellowshipped by the JW's themselves.
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Gayle
"a cult mostly of Africans."
JW.org will burn out these ones even more quickly. The organization will teach them to "eke" out, when the most are already doing that. The org will teach them not to seek higher education when just getting 'some' education is necessary challenge. The WT won't help them to get basic education. Health needs are a challenge.
The GB will not have any sympathy for the populations in the African continent. It will stand out how much the GB asks for money all the time. Some of the African governments might not be very WT.org friendly either.
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Half banana
Sorry to harp on about Africa but JW's star performer the Democratic Republic of Congo is the poorest country in the world having the majority living below the poverty line. It is a land where instead of advancing they have lost much of the civilised infrastructure including good roads developed fifty years ago and returned to a basic hand to mouth existence.
The consequences of this to the welfare of the Congolese are crime, large families, hardships and desperation. It is little wonder that the rapidly increasing population of young and uneducated agricultural workers might be attracted to the JW delusion.
I recently saw (on video) GB member Losch claiming that the high figure for the memorial attendance in Congo is evidence for big growth in JW interest.This does not represent the real picture Mr Losch,you are falsifying the case for world growth!
As soon as things improve economically and with the arrival of the internet, the Congolese will not be so keen-- just like the rest of the world.