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AngryMormon, please read my comment more carefully. 1) I mentioned the baseball baptism exception explicitly (which is the same as the soccer baptism example you mentioned) – and it is the extreme exception that proves the rule. There is no disagreement with my comment based on the past, relatively short time in which those baptisms occurred.
2) My stats from actual research were taken from official denomination websites. They weren’t Mormon-generated.
3) It is meant to be simple to have one’s name removed – and it is simple in many local wards and stakes. A meeting with someone is not necessary, as long as the request has been verified. Again, some local leaders don’t follow the policy in place, but others actually go out and ask inactive members if they want their names removed. Neither of those extremes is the official policy.
4) The LDS membership numbers have not decreased in any given year, unless you try to count inactive members as not being members. That method is not used anywhere, and it is a completely different stat than total membership of record.
5) Finally, nobody I know believes there are 14 million active members. There might be lots of people who believe it, but I don’t know any personally. Most people look at their own local congregations and understand that easily. They also understand the total membership of record number is an estimate in the first place. All church membership counts from large denominations with lots of congregations are estimates – every single one.
Again, I am not defending the way membership is counted as a perfect, accurate system. It has obvious problems – but those problems are in no way unique to the LDS Church. In fact, one of the articles I read in my research (published by the Southern Baptist Convention, ironically) praised the LDS Church’s method as much more valid than what many SBC congregations were reporting.
Thanks for the response Ray! I will admit, I have partially changed my view after reading your responses. Sorry for lumping in the soccer baptisms, I misread your response. However, I did find your point number 5 very interesting. I really believe that the vast majority of Mormons believe the 14 million mark. When I mention this topic to people at church, they view me as a heretic and tell me I am wrong. Just my experience.
Quote:I really believe that the vast majority of Mormons believe the 14 million mark. When I mention this topic to people at church, they view me as a heretic and tell me I am wrong.
Some people disengage their brains with some topics.
:silent: 🙄 Old-Timer wrote:Quote:I really believe that the vast majority of Mormons believe the 14 million mark. When I mention this topic to people at church, they view me as a heretic and tell me I am wrong.
Some people disengage their brains with some topics.
:silent: 🙄 In every unit I’ve been in, activity rates have been around 30-40%. Whenever they announce the membership stats I always divide by 3 for active members.
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