Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderX
Are you serious? Church membership figures are horrific when it comes to activity. This is not strictly limited to S. America either. I know this from experience in every ward I have worked in. Check any ward membership roll. In my ward in Atlanta there were nearly a thousand people who had been at some point in their lives, baptized LDS. Yet, we could only fill up 75% of the pews each sunday. On my mission in Madrid there were supposedly tens of thousands of members, yet when Gordon B. Hinckley came to give a talk with three other GAs, we only managed to get about 2500 LDS to show up, about 15% of which were missionaries from all the missions.
David Stewart over at Cumoroah.com estimates that the Church is about 35% active worldwide. So it is a bit misleading to keep saying the Church has 13 million strong. I doubt we even have five million. One thing is for sure. The internet is killing the Church. More information is available and it is easier to access now. People don't jump into things as easily as they once did. They want to investigate it. Not just the good things, but they also want to get testimonies from people who used to be a part of the organization, and unfortunately, there are more ex-Mormons in the world today than there are Mormons.
|
There are two statements above that I don't agree with:
"The internet is killing the Church" and "there are more ex-Mormons in the world today than there are Mormons"
For the first, I suppose this is an opinion and cannot be expected to be confirmed via some solid data gathering...
For that second one, though, I would hope that in making such a measurable claim, you could justify it? With, maybe, some numbers? Seems way outta line, to me, but I'm willing to be convinced (as long as it wasn't some dishonorable person like Bill Keller or Ed Decker saying it).
HiJolly