My bishop told me that he's not seeing lots of people leave the church. I live in the Atlanta area, maybe the apostasy pandemic hasn't made it to the deep south yet.

Here's to hoping that more southern TBM's see the light.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2014 08:13PM by Hold Your Tapirs.

How many is he seeing leaving?

eyes wide shut

Perhaps he sees people leaving in throngs rather than droves.

Or people leaving in thongs.

You can certainly see the cracks appearing....

not leaving in their garmies? Oh the humanity!

Droves it is then. Me and one other that I know of so far in my ward. There are a couple youth that have come across MT as well and they're struggling.

While all this hastening of the work is going on, how many full tithe payers has his ward picked up?

My sister is about as TBM as you can get, she was just released after serving many years in about as high a calling as you can get as a woman in the Church not living in Utah. She was talking about how glad she was to be released and how little thanks she got, and was making snarky comments about having to clean toilets while the Church owns huge malls and half of rural Florida.

Most the time I think people who say the Church is going to implode are just not realistic, but trust me when my sister starts seeing the light, you know things can't be going well.

He said basically no one. Although that's not necessarily true. There's another person in my ward that feels the same way I do. I would think there's at least a couple more but I'm not certain.

Maybe I was living in a bubble, but I believe members in the south are more isolated against the "anti" literature because it's not coming from other mormons. Anti lit is usually pushed by the other churches and TBM's easily dismiss all of it as lies.

Converts joining in droves. Is he seeing that? And are they staying active in droves?

We're definitely not getting baptisms. The missionary work here is abysmal. Only 1 real convert (non 9 yr old) this year.

Soooooo - why did bish think to bring it up at all?

"I ain't askeered of the dark. Really!"

In the past 10 years how many families have converted into the ward versus families that have left the cult?

Hold Your Tapirs, I live in the Atlanta area too. I can think of a few couples who left, including myself and my husband. maybe not "droves", but more than no one...

IMO growing up in the South you are put on your guard about anti stuff because you are such a minority. Also its really drilled into your head to be ultra TBM as an example and sort of ambassador for mormondom since there are so few here. Ha my coworker just found out I was raised Mormon and she told me the name of the only mormon she has ever known and of course I knew her. Tiny community, so if droves left there would be no one!

With approx. 30,000 congregations worldwide, if just 2 long-term TBMs per congregation leave each year, that's 60,000. Sounds like "droves" to me!

That puts it in perspective. And you're just looking at long-term TBM's. You're not even counting the people who sign-up but drop out before the first billing cycle is over.

"first billing cycle" LMAO!

If you add their 5 kids, 60,000 turns into 210,000.

I also live in the Atlanta area and have seen some shrinkage in activity. I know several that left because of unbelief and a few spouses that no longer believe but attend for family sake. I guess you could say MT caused me to leave as well.

Don't most Mormons leave in mini-vans?

Mini vans that they "drove". Pay attention.

Well keep in mind there are next to no members outside utah and idaho. I can't imagine many attending in the first place in all of Georgia.

Your eyes get all glassy so's ya don't hafta see anything ya don't want to.

Does a company want to admit it is losing customers?! Of course not! It would precipitate the loss. So of course the company man, the bishop, will tell you it is not happening...even if it is.

+ 100

Me thinks he doeth protest too loudly.

Ok, people are leaving in Fords; and chevys, Hondas, Toyotas, etc etc etc. Maybe a mazda or a Chrysler thrown in for good measure.

You should ask him how many people are listed as part of the ward and how many are actually active...that would be a lot more telling. Most wards only have 20-50% actively attending.

activity rate in one of my areas in georgia with 80 members: 0%

in the year 2000

Europe:

Number of members - 500,000
Number attending Sacrament Meeting - 100,000

I think 400,000 (80%) constitutes 'droves'

It's myopic to think that way, accepting your home town/state area as the only thing going on in the world. Atlanta is one of the most dynamic cities in the country, so there are a lot of people coming to the area and swelling the numbers. To the myopic Mormons, they see success and growth, and the fact that there is no longer any viable Mormon church going on in other ares of the country doesn't faze them because they are locked into this ignorance. But there is something fundamentally wrong with a church in which almost 70% of their membership dislikes it so much that they will have nothing to do with it.

If there's slight growth in Mormonism, that would be the reason. I would think the Mormon church is probably growing slower there than more trendy activities and services.