How did the LDS membership department get it so wrong?

[Guest]

According to a Peggy Fletcher Stack article in the Salt Lake Tribune, the LDS Church has grown by a whopping 45% in the last decade or about 4.5% per year. What an utterly amazing growth rate! But it is completely false.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54026 ... t.html.csp

The story also appears in the Deseret News.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7655 ... rowth.html

The once-a-decade U.S. Religion Census, assembled by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies uses the self-reported numbers from 17 of the country’s largest religious groups to calculate growth rates. According to Peggy’s story the number of US members in 2000 was 4,224,026 and by 2010 it had grown to 6,144,582, an increase of 45%.

The trouble is that the 2000 US membership figure provided by the LDS membership department is plain wrong. The 2001 LDS church almanac reports that there were 5,113,409 members in the US on December 31, 1999, about a million more than reported. According to Cumorah.com there were 4,336,000 US members in 1992. The figure the church provided must have been from about 1990.

In other words, the ASARB is reporting LDS growth over 2 decades not one. The correct growth rate is about 20% during the last 10 years not 45%. The growth in church congregations during that period is also about 20%.

How could the statistical and membership department of the church get it so wrong? They have all the facts and they must know that the church is tanking in the US. It’s hard not to believe that there is deliberate falsifying of data to make the church look good.
For some more details. http://simonsoutherton.blogspot.com.au/ ... nited.html

[_Chap]

Another Pew survey, frequently referred to on this board, has made it clear that for most of the past decade the growth rate of the number of people willing to identify themselves as 'LDS/Mormon' has been precisely equal to the growth rate of the US population, despite the known large size of Mormon families, and intensive missionary efforts, which ought to have made the church grow faster than the population was growing.

The fact that over the long term it is not points to a high rate of people leaving the church.

It is well known that church records grossly overestimate actual allegiance to the CoJCoLDS. The Pew survey depends on people's free expression of which religion, if any, they want to claim identification with. Of course that includes Catholics who never go to Mass, and LDS who never appear at a meeting. The actively involved membership will be a good deal smaller.

I am sure the CoJCoLDS leadership is well aware of all these facts. However they are clever enough to refrain from putting them before members, since that could only accelerate the exodus from their organization as demoralization and the sense that 'lots of people are on the way out' sets in.

[_Polygamy-Porter]

Simon,

They are lying for the lord.

If this news article is enough to get an unwitting "investigator" to pass through the turnstile in the baptismal font and thereby be counted, then it OK by the Lord. Call it a white lie.

[_bcspace]

How could the statistical and membership department of the church get it so wrong?

How do you know it wasn't the ASARB who got it wrong? The article merely states:

"The numbers are based on membership reports from the religious bodies"

They could have accidentally mixed up a couple of reports among other things.

[_Drifting]

How could the statistical and membership department of the church get it so wrong?

How do you know it wasn't the ASARB who got it wrong? The article merely states:

"The numbers are based on membership reports from the religious bodies"

They could have accidentally mixed up a couple of reports among other things.

Do they have a track record of mix ups akin to the COB's track record of lying?

[_Shulem]

Myself, my exwife, and my 3 grown kids are positively OUT of the church for good. But our names are still on the records. But the church gets no support and no money from all 5 of us. That has to count for something. That's less money for the GA's to play around with and means the kingdom of the cult has less cash at its disposal.

The more people that leave means the less funds enter into the private accounts of the GA's. Isn't that wonderful!

Paul O
Member of the church

[_Shulem]

Simon,

They are lying for the lord.

If this news article is enough to get an unwitting "investigator" to pass through the turnstile in the baptismal font and thereby be counted, then it OK by the Lord. Call it a white lie.

Mormonism and lying for the lord go hand in hand. Everything the church does and says centers around its founding lies. Need I remind you about the lies of Facsimile No. 3? That's the white lies of Mormonism! They eat, breathe, and sleep in their bed of lies. They are living in their lies, daily.

What's worse is they want us to join them in their lies and lie too! How sick is that? Can you imagine having to bear your testimony saying you know the Explanations of Facsimile No. 3 are true?



Paul O

[_Runtu]

Do they have a track record of mix ups akin to the COB's track record of lying?

Everyone knows how anal-retentive the church is about making sure it is portrayed accurately and fairly, meaning that they expect the press to publish what they tell them. Does anyone imagine that the church would not have issued a correction had the numbers gone the other way and made the church look like it is stagnating?

[_Polygamy-Porter]

Mormonism and lying for the lord go hand in hand. Everything the church does and says centers around its founding lies. Need I remind you about the lies of Facsimile No. 3? That's the white lies of Mormonism! They eat, breathe, and sleep in their bed of lies. They are living in their lies, daily.

What's worse is they want us to join them in their lies and lie too! How sick is that? Can you imagine having to bear your testimony saying you know the Explanations of Facsimile No. 3 are true?



Paul O

LOL Paul!

You need to get tshirts and bumper stickers made that say: "Hey Romney, ask me about Facsimile No. 3"

I hope that you have something about Facsimile No. 3 on your headstone!

[_lulu]

How could the statistical and membership department of the church get it so wrong?

How do you know it wasn't the ASARB who got it wrong? The article merely states:

"The numbers are based on membership reports from the religious bodies"

They could have accidentally mixed up a couple of reports among other things.

Scientific studies of the US religious population have shown that the LDS church's statements about it's US membership have been wildly off the mark.

However, I'm sure that the church's statements about it's non-US membership are 100% correct.