by hoser 15 Replies latest jw friends
hoser, just being a little of the Devil's advocate, why does it (seemingly) matter to you to keep up to date with what they do?
I ask since when I walked away from them I decided that nothing that they do from that point on matters to me, unless it is in relationship with my still in JW family, and my dealings with them. I wonder how does that make a difference in the people who do follow up.
I ask since when I walked away from them I decided that nothing that they do from that point on matters to me, unless it is in relationship with my still in JW family, and my dealings with them. I wonder how does that make a difference in the people who do follow up.
That's cool scratchme1010 - but you still cared enough to comment.
Allow me to answer - even though you did not direct your good question at me: I am interested in the growth and retention of organized religions in general - not just JWs. It is a reflection of my undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Sociology. There is an amazing wealth of research and information on the 'life cycle' of religious groups dating back to the time of Emile Durkheim (one of the so-called founding 'fathers' of Sociology). A classic case is the Christadelphians who were once a thriving religious community with a significant preaching outreach initiative that saw them spring up in far flung places such as Scandanavian countries and New Zealand (my home country). In more recent decades, that religious group has bled members so that, in New Zealand, they have lost thousands and are now a virtually stagnant group. Does it matter? Why do I take such an interest? Great questions which could be asked of any social inquiry.
Of course, because of my background I am particularly interested in the numerical "health" of JWs. Most relevantly, JWs once touted themselves as the fastest growing religion in the world, they promoted their growth as evidence of 'having the truth' and 'Jehovah's blessing'. So now that there is evidence of decline (there were more JWs active in New Zealand in 2011 than last year, by the way), it is of interest to see what, if anything JW organization says about it and curious minds wonder what contributed to the so-called fastest growing religion in the world experiencing a downturn in the West. From another point of view it highlights how religions who worship numbers (e.g., we're the fastest, biggest, most impressive, yadda yadda yadda) need to re-think their rationale when a reversal sets in. And this is where the really exciting work lies for those interested in the life cycle of religious groups. I was not alone as a JW in arguing with householders that, while the churches of Christendom were in decline, our group was the exact opposite. Oops.
It's perfectly understandable that you limit your interest to what impacts on your still-in family. But for those of us with a wider interest in the way in which religious groups prosper and/or stagnate, there is rich material for mining in JW organization - but as noted above, not just in that organization.
hoser, just being a little of the Devil's advocate, why does it (seemingly) matter to you to keep up to date with what they do?
We still attend in a different city. Mrs Hoser went to visit one of her friends whose husband is pimo like me. Mrs Hoser and I stayed over night and attended the Sunday meeting
I was just sharing my observation of how things have stagnated in the org
I love to read about the decline, I remember reading just a couple years ago about a CO making the comment here in my area that they’re loosing 6 people per circuit assembly and back then they were having two of those per year per circuit. So that’s 12 people per circuit per year. Nice healthy decline.
Not sure if that the case all over or just my area but it’s been calculated that the cults loosing based on their own numbers 1 million members per decade worldwide. Now if those numbers stay that way or go up and those coming in go down which we know they have their in trouble, and I like that!
30. Great expansion is now taking........er........
