I was talking with a gentleman Friday and the conversation turned to the geneological center at the LDS church that they are 'gracious' enough to let his wife use on a regular basis. They are all "so friendly" and help out his wife to no end. I told him just a touch of my leaving the church and included that I still have several good friends there and that's when he dropped the bomb.

"They can be a piculiar people but they are doing something right. They are the 'fastest growning religion' in the world.

I pounced on that so fast, I think I scared him. I told him I'm sure that's what his wife has been told but if facts were checked and statements were held accountable, the story would end right there. I also informed him of the 3rd world country baptisms with the wonderful 10-15% rention rates and the non-accounted members whom they keep on the role until the age of 109.

He walked away with a new perspective, I Hope!

This may be splitting hairs but isn't atheism the fastest growing 'faith' in the world today with by far the most members?

it is actually those who say they belong to no organized religion that are growing by leaps and bounds. Their feelings about God are more varied in that group.

Sounds like another of those false "Atheism is a religion" gambits.

And just how does one become a member of Atheism ?

Enquiring minds like mine want to know.

"one study classified 2.5% of the world's population as atheists, and a separate 12.7% as non-religious."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism

christianity is the largest religion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups

Mormonism as "the fastest growing religion" has never been anymore than--at best--fanciful. Seventh-Day Adventists started 33 years after Mormons and have 16 million members. That's significantly faster. Annually, the Catholics add more than probably the entire Mormon church population just in infant baptisms alone. This means that even in the Mormon heyday, it never grew faster than the Adventists.

The notion that they are the fastest growing religion is generally believed only by a few willfully uninformed stalwarts and misinformed press. It's the press, sadly, that helps perpetuate the notion. That's because they are just passing false information whenever they interview Mormons, and fail to do simple Wiki lookups. No one would ever believe that Mormons were the fastest growing religion in the world if not for the assistance of the press.

And you know what? I'm convinced that even the Mormons at the highest leadership level have no real idea anymore who's a member and who not, or what their real stats are. For all the Nazi-like record-keeping that they do, it is so botched up that it no longer has any real reliability in my book.

Their noses... They keep growing longer while their membership numbers aren't, and their grip on the truth grows looser and looser...

There are, incidentally, only around a million SDA's in the United States... Or even less...

And reading from the following, I am utterly unable to make a judgment which group is nuttier, the Mormons or the SDA's... Of course I did work a Pentecostal convention here a few years back, and those folks need to be considered in the running as well...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Seventh-day_Adventist_Church

>The Seventh-day Adventist Church formed out of the movement known today as the Millerites. In 1831, a Baptist convert, William Miller (until then a Deist), was asked by a Baptist to preach in their church and began to preach that the Second Advent of Jesus would occur somewhere between 1843 and 1844, based on his interpretation of Daniel 8:14. A following gathered around Miller that included many from the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Christian Connection churches. After a number of revisions, October 22 was considered the most probable date that the return would occur. By 1844, over 100,000 people were anticipating what Miller had dubbed as the "Blessed Hope". On October 22 many of the believers were up late into the night watching, waiting for Christ to return and found themselves bitterly disappointed when both sunset and midnight passed with their expectations unfulfilled. This event later became known as the Great Disappointment.

>The Adventists had closely followed American politics, matching current events to the predictions in the Bible.

Now about those numbers...

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Seventh-Day-Adventists-2318/2010/8/Church-Attendance.htm

>This information came from a study by the NAD many years ago. However, its author has backed off from the paper and is trying to make some corrections. See his comments below.

>Monte Sahlin wrote at 2009-07-24 to All Experts:

>The information presented here incorporates some errors. In addition I now have more refined data than the sources that you refer to that I previously published.

>The article states that "only 50% of those on the church books actively attend church." That is not true and never has been true precisely as it is worded. It is a misreading of the cited data.

>There are four data points involved that are each somewhat different, but at least two of them are often confused with each other.

>1. There is the membership. This is the 100% data point relative to my other data points here. These are the people who have been baptized or made Profession of Faith and are listed on the official membership records.

>2. There are "adherents." This is a larger number; perhaps 200% to 300% worldwide in the Adventist Church. This includes the membership plus those who participate regularly, including unbaptized children who attend with their parents, other unbaptized family members who come to church regularly and prospective members who are already attending church or have professed belief in the Adventist faith. In many nations there are more people attending the baptismal class preparing for membership than there are current members.

>3. There are attending or active members. These are members who attend regularly (which, for statistical purposes, means at least once a month). In North America this averages about 65% of the membership.

>4. There is attendance headcount. In North America that averages about 50% of the membership and is the number you reference.

>So the SDA books are not accurate or true any more than their confused theology. The membership numbers are knowingly and purposefully inflated.

http://www.adventistarchives.org/DocArchives.asp

>Today, regardless what the church leaders may claim, only a fraction of those on the books are active, tithe paying members. Most every SDA church has a less than honest record in this matter. If they were honest, the active membership in NAD would plummet from 1 million members to half of that inflated number. This is the real point that should not be overlooked.

As I said, quite a bit in common with LDS Inc.

The operational word may be "appeared." But throughout Central Africa, the SDA's have enormous presence and operate schools and medical facilities. They make Mormons look small indeed, in two senses of the word.

As a finance clerk I don't worry about membership records, except to record who's paying tithing (here's the report of your donations, please look over it and verify that it is accurate). I can say that the ward clerk is always bombarded with requests from SLC to check on this person, or that person because contact has been broken for whatever reason. I believe that SLC truly has no idea what the actual numbers are. What they do know is that revenue is down. Our ward still has the same number of tithe payors with approx the same tithing amt of income as last year. The big drop in revenue comes when you look at donations for BOM, missionary, fast offering, temples etc. Very few ward members are donating this year to these extra funds.

LDS Inc better enjoy that while it lasts

the letters to search out contact information usually state the following:
"
Bishop XXX

SLC is trying to locate contact information for the following member. Please contact the person listed below to see if contact information can be provided... "


when these letters are handed to me from Bishop xxx, I file them through the shredder. Activity levels and participation in the church are a personal choice. I won't participate in the man-hunt for someone not living in boundaries of my ward.

That's the correct line of thinking: Catholicism converted entire countries . . . Islam is now making inroads into that . . . Mormons? Who the hell are they?

The church of SBNR just published its statistics and put to shame all who claim that Europe has fallen by the wayside, and America is not far behind.

Soon--the world!

Nah---it's still Islam!

nwmcare Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nah---it's still Islam!


I think worldwide it is Islam, and SDA in the US. Don't quote me though.

Your answer was that the growth was illusory. The truth is that the growth tapered off 15 years ago.

There was some truth to it growing fast in the 1980s, but since 1995 (when the Internet started to become ubiquitous) the growth rate plummeted from around 7% to 3%, and then again in the early 2000s it fell to it's current 1-2% annually.

At the same time, LDS families have shrunk in a generation. In the 1980s, the average LDS family had 5 kids. It is now 3 kids. That's a 40% decrease in family size in one generation.

When people quote "fastest growing", they are using outdated facts. It's been about 15 years since Mormons could brag about rapid growth. Even TBMs realize that their growth rate has stagnated.

The next time someone says that, just reply, "That was true 20 years ago, but since the Internet it has tapered off considerably." 7% growth is impressive, but 1.5% growth isn't really growth at all.

The worlds population shows a net increase each year of approximately 75 - 80 million people (births - deaths).

The Church converts (including children born into the Church membership) less than half of one percent of this number. I'm not sure that constitutes a 'fast' growing religion.