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Jehovah's Witnesses are fastest-growing U.S. faith; LDS are fourth-largest U.S. faith
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I am just getting use to the other one i joined because someone told me it was the fastest growing church.
And i'm pretty sure that the LDS church includes members who were baptized but stopped coming to church 3 weeks later.
It seems silly to accuse the Watchtower for counting their membership the same way the Mormons do.
"WHY?"
It is not a secret that the LDS Church does not deduct inactive members from its overall member count of 13 million. It only deducts baptized members who die, reach a certain age on record (I believe 110), ask to have their names removed, and possibly those excommunicated. Because of this, the 13 million number is very, very inflated in terms of actual active, practicing members. Actual active members is probably about 5 million worldwide. If the Church were able to swallow some pride and report the actual number of active members, the growth rate would increase substantially because new members (converts and baptized children) would be calculated against a smaller overall membership number. It is also a fact that convert numbers have declined as well so as long as the Church insists on the 13 million and growing figure, the growth rate will continue to be small and pale in comparison to the heady 1980s that drove the annual announcement of numbers.
It is also interesting to note that the Jehovah's Witnesses of today seem to have forgotten that their organization predicted the second coming in September 1975. I had several close acquaintances and friends that were of that persuasion at the time and they were already to be taken up as part of the 144,000. The organization did some pretty fancy dancing in the months following that and lost a lot of followers. Now it is a rationalized part of the distant past. Hummmm... Interesting, from the standpoint of one who was there and saw it in real time.
What really happened at Carthage? Where are you getting your info?
What faith! Gee whilikers... Yah gotta hand it to them, faithful.
That's all there is to the story.
I hope they are still alive and handing out pamphlets to the strangers.
Sometimes we little specks of dust like to think the Almighty needs us for some ... reason...? Companionship? Love? Obedience?
Would a God, a Lord, really worry about the count?
Oh, sometimes, late at night, you can hear Him laughing. Or maybe it is a She? BUt I know we can hear the laughter of the Master if we will just shut up and quitting counting.
The Shadow knows.
As far as inflated numbers, there are other ways to see if a church is growing or shrinking. One way would be to look at the number of congregations or or the number of chapels/mosques/synagogues. Any church cannot afford to continue to build chapels if there are no members to attend it.
I think the LDS church publishes both of these numbers every year. I know for sure the church publishes the number of Stakes, Wards and Branches every year.
you can spend the rest of your life argueing about TRUE churches.
My concern is less people in America are believing in God and thus we are becoming a Godless society.
No God equals no sense of right and wrong.
Here's the truth - Yes, Smith fired a gun at the Carthage Jail mob, but he did not kill anyone. John Taylor was later told by someone that a few in the mob had died, but if this were true, what were their names? Why is it that whenever LDS critics accuse Joesph Smith of killing men at Carthage Jail, they never mention any names? You would think every book or pamphlet, ridiculing the LDS Church would have these men's names published in bold letters.
Yes, Smith jumped out the window, but critics often omit the fact that some of the mob at Carthage stood outside the jail, while others ran inside, so either way, Smith was a dead man. By jumping out, the mob inside the jail ran back outside, therefore allowing Willard Richards and John Taylor to hide, thus saving their lives.
There is what really happened.
"Pay no attention to the man in the corner".....?
Clearly if one looked at the J-Dubs or Catholic doctrine and prayed over it, they would find themselves talking to their nearest LDS nieghbor about how to begin the conversations of inquiry into the church. And that my friends is the truth, we have it and the others not so much.
Be very careful with reporting of statistics in media articles because statistics have very specific meanings but media writers tend to grossly generalize to build their conclusions and they don't stay with the meaning of the metric on which they base their story. Such inexactness leads people to think that statistics is a profession of obfuscation where lies are less detrimental to society than statistics.
Bad data is always a concern (including how data are reported). However, when comparing rates of change, media writers almost always only compare to last year's value. Changes from one year to another may be, in fact, solely the consquence of random variation. One needs to have 5 to 10 years or more of data to detect significant changes.
1) Inactivity happens in all religions. Why beat yourselves up about whether membership numbers accurately reflect activity levels?
2) To those criticizing the Prophet Joseph - have you been to Carthage? Jumping out the window, whether intentional or not, would have caused serious harm or death and anyone actually attempting it would have done it as a last resort. I have been there and it is a sacred place.
3) Reporting rate of increase is the appropriate way to describe growth. Therefore using a percentage as the measure is correct.
Poring over numbers and stats to prove you're the true church, the best church, or whatever, is wrong. I figure church always only has one member. Me. It's about my relationsip with god. Not about whom facilitates the process, or what rituals I observe, or whom I observe them with. Ranking by sales figures works for auto manufacturers. I get god all to myself.
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Jehovah's Witnesses claim to be the 'fastest growing religion' Scientologist claim millions of members too.