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http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris/key_findings.htm on Exhibit 1, they show    Mormon/Latter-Day Saints:    1990 - 2,487,000    2001 - 2,787,000 My calculator says this is a 12 percent increase. Each General Conference in April, there is a Statistical Report published by the LDS, compiled as of Dec. 31. It includes a total church worldwide membership figure. This number is calculated by counting the names on the membership rolls, which can only get there by people being baptized when old enough to make a conscious decision. It takes into account, I believe, people who are removed from the rolls, whether by excommunication or death. As of Dec. 31    The Membership was   1990               7,760,000   1991               8,120,000   1992               8,406,895   1993               8,696,224   1994               9,024,569   1995               9,340,898   1996               9,694,549   1997              10,070,524   1998              10,354,241   1999              10,752,986   2000              11,068,861   2001              11,394,522   2002              11,721,548   2003              11,985,254   2004              12,275,822   2005              12,560,869   2006              12,868,606   2007              13,193,999 This equates to annual growth of 2.3 to 4.6 percent. Over the years, most of the membership has been in the U.S. but recently we passed parity , where there are now more LDS outside the U.S. than inside, and growth outside is greater.  If you figure that in 2001, about half the LDS were in the U.S, this data would give a number of 5,697,000 as opposed to the CUNY study's 2,787,000. The LDS data here doesn't reflect active v. inactive membership.  Presumably some inactive LDS will not tell a poll they are LDS, but I don't think that would be most of them. Perhaps, if we assume that a *majority* of inactive LDS would not tell a stranger they were LDS, then these numbers are perhaps within the accuracy of the poll. I believe your claim of zero growth is _base_d on Exhibit 7, which shows numbers for switched in and switched out , which don't tally with Exhibit 1.  Nor do they seem reasonable.  We've been baptizing 300,000 people a year for the last several decades, but the poll indicates that only 441,000 in the U.S. have switched in to become LDS.  And Exhibit 7 covers a period of many years, maybe 75 - the verbiage associated with it says, ...there is no indication in the current data whether the religious switching actually occurred in the 1990s or earlier. Surely, for our older respondents the switching very likely had occurred earlier. There can be little question, however, that the LDS growth is real.  Everywhere, there is much evidence of it. We used to have 10 or 20 thousand missionaries, we now have 50 or 60 thousand.  You see them everywhere. You see new chapels everywhere. The members of the Church are attending new chapels, closer to where they live.  There are more stakes. The ratio of LDS to non- LDS in the United States and the world used to be around 1 to 1000, now it's more like 1 to 50, as you can probably verify just among the people of your own aquaintance.  And the numbers presented above, from both CUNY polls and LDS records, demonstrate a consistent and steady growth, and they tally with our other figures we post, such as convert baptisms, number of stakes, number of church units, etc.  New wards and stakes don't get made, and new Temples don't get built, if the active membership isn't real. But, if you want to content yourself that all this is not happening, because one of the numbers in an obscure study says zero percent, you can do that. Wood

  1990               7,760,000   1991               8,120,000   1992               8,406,895   1993               8,696,224   1994               9,024,569   1995               9,340,898   1996               9,694,549   1997              10,070,524   1998              10,354,241   1999              10,752,986   2000              11,068,861   2001              11,394,522   2002              11,721,548   2003              11,985,254   2004              12,275,822   2005              12,560,869   2006              12,868,606   2007              13,193,999 This equates to annual growth of 2.3 to 4.6 percent. Over the years, most of the membership has been in the U.S. but recently we passed parity , where there are now more LDS outside the U.S. than inside, and growth outside is greater.  If you figure that in 2001, about half the LDS were in the U.S, this data would give a number of 5,697,000 as opposed to the CUNY study's 2,787,000. The LDS data here doesn't reflect active v. inactive membership.  Presumably some inactive LDS will not tell a poll they are LDS, but I don't think that would be most of them. Perhaps, if we assume that a *majority* of inactive LDS would not tell a stranger they were LDS, then these numbers are perhaps within the accuracy of the poll. I believe your claim of zero growth is _base_d on Exhibit 7, which shows numbers for switched in and switched out , which don't tally with Exhibit 1.  Nor do they seem reasonable.  We've been baptizing 300,000 people a year for the last several decades, but the poll indicates that only 441,000 in the U.S. have switched in to become LDS.  And Exhibit 7 covers a period of many years, maybe 75 - the verbiage associated with it says, ...there is no indication in the current data whether the religious switching actually occurred in the 1990s or earlier. Surely, for our older respondents the switching very likely had occurred earlier. There can be little question, however, that the LDS growth is real.  Everywhere, there is much evidence of it. We used to have 10 or 20 thousand missionaries, we now have 50 or 60 thousand.  You see them everywhere. You see new chapels everywhere. The members of the Church are attending new chapels, closer to where they live.  There are more stakes. The ratio of LDS to non- LDS in the United States and the world used to be around 1 to 1000, now it's more like 1 to 50, as you can probably verify just among the people of your own aquaintance.  And the numbers presented above, from both CUNY polls and LDS records, demonstrate a consistent and steady growth, and they tally with our other figures we post, such as convert baptisms, number of stakes, number of church units, etc.  New wards and stakes don't get made, and new Temples don't get built, if the active membership isn't real. But, if you want to content yourself that all this is not happening, because one of the numbers in an obscure study says zero percent, you can do that. Wood Timothy Heaton, a BYU sociologist, used census data from Mexico, Brazil and Chile to show the number of citizens who claim Mormonism as their religion there was only 20 to 25 percent of the church-reported membership figures, suggesting low retention. Associated Press, February 02, 2008 http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/020208/rel_185828.shtml

growth is real.  Everywhere, there is much evidence of it. We used to have 10 or 20 thousand missionaries, we now have 50 or 60 thousand.  You see them everywhere. You see new chapels everywhere. The members of the Church are attending new chapels, closer to where they live.  There are more stakes. The ratio of LDS to non- LDS in the United States and the world used to be around 1 to 1000, now it's more like 1 to 50, as you can probably verify just among the people of your own aquaintance.  And the numbers presented above, from both CUNY polls and LDS records, demonstrate a consistent and steady growth, and they tally with our other figures we post, such as convert baptisms, number of stakes, number of church units, etc.  New wards and stakes don't get made, and new Temples don't get built, if the active membership isn't real. But, if you want to content yourself that all this is not happening, because one of the numbers in an obscure study says zero percent, you can do that. Wood is burning good now and better later in Revelation 20:15. Sorry William Brison but the numbers put out by the lds church are 100% bogus. For example, your church leadership has admitted that it is losing most of the single women between the ages of 18 to 35. Check out the _link_ for documention purposes. http://www.truthandgrace.com/monson.htm Also, I have heard from several people and a personal friend that they are still on the membership roles of the lds church despite having left YEARS ago. Wake up William, your church is lying and dying!

a year for the last several decades, but the poll indicates that only 441,000 in the U.S. have switched in to become LDS.  And Exhibit 7 covers a period of many years, maybe 75 - the verbiage associated with it says, ...there is no indication in the current data whether the religious switching actually occurred in the 1990s or earlier. Surely, for our older respondents the switching very likely had occurred earlier. There can be little question, however, that the LDS growth is real.  Everywhere, there is much evidence of it. We used to have 10 or 20 thousand missionaries, we now have 50 or 60 thousand.  You see them everywhere. You see new chapels everywhere. The members of the Church are attending new chapels, closer to where they live.  There are more stakes. The ratio of LDS to non- LDS in the United States and the world used to be around 1 to 1000, now it's more like 1 to 50, as you can probably verify just among the people of your own aquaintance.  And the numbers presented above, from both CUNY polls and LDS records, demonstrate a consistent and steady growth, and they tally with our other figures we post, such as convert baptisms, number of stakes, number of church units, etc.  New wards and stakes don't get made, and new Temples don't get built, if the active membership isn't real. But, if you want to content yourself that all this is not happening, because one of the numbers in an obscure study says zero percent, you can do that. Your characterization of the CUNY research as obscure is laughable. Whether it's widely broadcast or not has no bearing on its legitimacy. But leave it to Mormon apologists like Woody Brison to use any possible means to make legitimate research seem less legitimate. - Ukryj cytowany tekst -- Poka¿ cytowany tekst - Wood

...about the same number of people said they had joined the LDS Church as said they had left it. CUNY Survey When the Graduate Center of the City University of New York conducted an American Religious Identification Survey in 2001, it discovered that about the same number of people said they had joined the LDS Church as said they had left it. The CUNY survey reported the church's net growth was zero percent. Not true.  At the website you _link_ed, http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris/key_findings.htm on Exhibit 1, they show    Mormon/Latter-Day Saints:    1990 - 2,487,000    2001 - 2,787,000 My calculator says this is a 12 percent increase. Uh... sorry Woody, the CUNY chart itself says it's only a 1.3% increase in LDS Church USA membership from 1990 to 2001. See for yourself: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris/images/aris13.jpg

The LDS data here doesn't reflect active v. inactive membership. Wood