japan had huge publisher growth till the year 1998.. 1998 - 222,912 publishers 3802 congregations.. 6 years passed.. 2004 - 217,555 publishers (-5,357) 3,164 congs.
what was the reason?
"this generation of 1914" failed doctrine or the internet..
A quick look at the population figures, for 1998-2021, approximately with rounding of numbers
Population -0.8%
JW publishers -2.4%
JW congregations -16.8%
Apparently the population of Japan peaked about 2009-2010 and has been declining ever since. The JW decline is outpacing the general population decline
in a recent post ffghost made a comment about how they're always inserting modern concepts into biblical narratives to make it relatable to jw's organization.
here are some that come to mind:.
- the capitalized term "governing body" when referring to the older men in jerusalem (really just another group of christians that paul outspokenly disagreed with and didn't look to for approval).
Showing Jesus and the apostles as white men. Of course the WT is not the only religion guilty of this.
in a recent post ffghost made a comment about how they're always inserting modern concepts into biblical narratives to make it relatable to jw's organization.
here are some that come to mind:.
- the capitalized term "governing body" when referring to the older men in jerusalem (really just another group of christians that paul outspokenly disagreed with and didn't look to for approval).
Showing groups of first Century Christians in which reading from a codex or scroll was common. This implies a few things which are anachronistic. That the majority of people were literate (most were not) and that possession of a scroll or codex was common (being copied by hand, they were quite expensive and out of reach of most of the populace)
do you have any information on tony's family history and mormon background?.
I seem to remember that one of the GB members had a Mormon background, but for the life of me I cannot remember who it was. It was discussed on this board at the time. I don't know if it was Morris or not.
considering it is contacted in the open and i see other people engaging outdoors on other sales activities why is cart witnessing still not allowed?
are there any updates as regards returning to this activity any time soon ?.
mcfree v. watchtower.
a us federal judge has ruled against watch tower pennsylvania, denying their dmca subpoena to identify the creator of the jehovah's witness parody videos known as "dubtown.. .
see last page (page 20).
The Bottlegate Irish song gave me a good laugh, with that little toy flopping about
[disclaimer: the headline is slightly misleading since the eff itself doesn't participate in the case, so read more below].
it's not a secret that during the last two years watchtower obtained nearly 40 dmca subpoenas requiring google, facebook, instagram, twitter, soundcloud, scribd, reddit and other isps to provide personal information of users that allegedly infringed the society's copyright.. since subpoena proceeding is ex parte, almost all the requests were granted.. but one of the affected users contacted, on advice of youtube's legal team, the electronic frontier foundation (eff), and the foundation found a law firm ready to represent him pro bono, namely garvey schubert barer:.
youtube's legal department emailed the user on or about july 10, 2018, five days before the subpoena's return date, stating that it would comply with the subpoena unless it received a file-stamped motion to quash "or other type of formal objection before july 20, 2018.
I got a laugh out of his animations, and I hope he makes more.
...is found in a recent journal of cesnur article:.
abrahams, kyria.
i’m perfect, you’re doomed: tales from a jehovah’s witness upbringing.
"...published this millenium"
"Ex-Member Accounts from New Religious Movements: A Compilation, 2000-Present"
I hadn't looked at the OP article until Corney posted this clarification. <thanks> I see that J.Gordon Melton was a co-author of the article. I have seen his work before and was favorably impressed.
i have another post here about how the wts is reeling from covid, as reflected in their abysmally catastrophic service report:.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6315842470936576/annual-service-report-yet-another-analysis-big-trouble-wts.
here's another rupture showing.. in the latest "announcements and reminders" to elders, there is a paragraph with these sentences:.
there's already been a couple of threads on the 2021 report with insightful comments, but i'm vain enough to want to start my own topic with some additional thoughts..... as others on the other thread noted, it's useful to compare the 2021 numbers not only to 2020 but also 2019 (the last non-pandemic report).. there are some really troubling (if you're a wt headquarters guy) news in the latest report.. 1) baptisms plummet.
2021 - 171,393. baptisms dropped 20% in 2020, and 30% more in 2021. the total drop from 2019 to 2021 is an amazing 44%.. one could argue that without in-person assemblies and conventions you'd expect baptisms to drop.
but....if someone really wants to get baptized, jws will find a way.
sbf's last post brings to my mind a lot of questions about how the pandemic isolation is affecting people on a more general level. People tend to use church activities as a social mechanism, and is part of their search for happiness. Non religious people may use clubs or volunteer activities to meet the same need. Most likely these groups have seen drop in participation as well. I know my volunteering came to an end in March 2020 and I miss it.
