Just MHO and I don’t know if this is what AK-Jeff had in mind
The number I came up with was higher because it seems to me "in" should count from the time of your association that brought you into the religion because that is where it all starts, otherwise, not one of us would have ever been "in", unless we won a baptism playing the lottery or accidentally fell out of a plane into a baptismal pool during an assembly and they counted it. I know two people right now that are disfellowshipped and still consider themselves to be jws in good standing again someday. They are still “in”
My mind became entrapped by the religion at birth. Lol! It was the influence of my entire thought process and how I viewed everything in life as I grew up because it was what I was taught and how my parents raised me to think.
After I left… for a while, I married a Catholic. He was baptized a Catholic at birth.
Even though I could not conform to the rules and regulations of jwism and there were many things I could not swallow about some of the teachings and continued to see numerous contradictions over the years, I still believed that jws were closer to the truth then any other religion.
Even though I had my doubts and kept my distance, traveling constantly, I continued to read the literature and received all the books and attended assemblies, memorials, and “some” meetings in various congregations. It wasn’t until the late nineties that I became really disgusted and it wasn’t until a few years ago that I decided they were completely full of shit.
This is a lot of life consumption that can only have an effect on someone who is under the influence. So, I count 43 years for myself.
272 + 90 (Mr&Mrs Ozzie) + 32 (Bavman) + 8 (JH ) + 28 (done4good) + 13 (littlerockguy) = 443?? I counted 2wice and got 2 different totals.
plm