Most Ubiquitous Religious Bodies: The religious bodies on this list which are most likely to have a church, mosque, or congregation near you (in most countries in the world) are:
Catholic Church
Sunni Islam
Baha'i Faith
Jehovah's Witnesses
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Seventh-day Adventists
Regarding ubiquity: There are many large religious groups which are not especially ubiquitous, although they may seem widespread. This is the
case with groups whose membership comes primarily from one country or a limited region, yet is also organized in a large number of countries. The group may only have a small or token presence in most of the countries in which it is organized, or it is only organized in the major cities of the foreign countries, often primarily among expatriates. Groups which are "widespread but not ubiquitous" like this include Sikhs, Eastern Orthodox, Soka Gakkai, Ahmadiyya, International Church of Christ, Church of Scientology, Church of the
Nazarene, and the Churches of Christ. Protestant Christianity taken as a whole is, of course, quite ubiquitous, but most individual Protestant religious bodies do not currently have a sense of doctrinal exclusivity on the denominational level sufficient to attempt establishing a presence worldwide.
Is it not amazing that not even
one single Protestant group is mentioned? For example, Why aren't
Churches of Christ listed? Although widespread within the U.S., its
membership is very scars in other parts of the world. The same can
be said for Baptists, Church of God or any of the other 40,000
denominations claiming to be "Christian". So, Which of the
above mentioned ubiquitous groups is preaching the Gospel
(good news) of the Kingdom Jesus said at Matthew 24:14 would be done
before the end comes? Which one holds to the precepts of primitive
Christianity? Let the reader decide.
Although a couple of years ago the Mormon Missionary Organization Cumorah.com removed the article which was located at http://www.cumorah.com/bestprograms.htm, here is the internet archive on the web for your reference (Paragraphs of interest are quoted below)
Information taken from:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080919004306/http:/www.cumorah.com/bestprograms.htm
Below is how the webpage looked on Sept 19, 2008. The Site was redesigned after that and the Best Programs page was never more included. Lands where consumerism have won the hearts and minds of most individuals, uninvited visits from strangers trying to awaken spiritual interests is looked upon as of no value or as a source of irritation; however, in other lands growth is phenomenal and religious groups, such as LDS, are somewhat jealous of our results and have even used our success to motivate their missionaries. Such comparisons
are met with complaints by their leaders and eventually they remove these references such as what the Cumorah Project has done.
Best Missionary Literature Printing and Distribution Program
The Jehovah's Witnesses distribute over 5,000 tons (10 million pounds) of religious literature in Russia alone each year! In
contrast, the average LDS missionary worldwide distributes only one copy of the Book of Mormon every five days. Even the best and most spiritually prepared individuals can't accept a message unless they have an opportunity to hear it! In light of these facts, it can hardly come as a surprise that there are over 120,000 active Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and similar numbers in Ukraine and Poland, compared to only about 4,000 active Latter-day Saints (out of 12,000 "on the rolls") in Russia, 2,500 active (out of 8,000 "on the
rolls") in Ukraine, and 250 active out of 1100 "on the rolls" in Poland. Nor can it come as a surprise that there are over 13,000 active Witnesses in Kazakhstan and over 10,000 in Georgia, compared to only a handful of LDS members in both countries.
A comparison of statistics in many other Eastern European and Asian nations is similar (Slovakia -- 12,000 JWs to about 40
active LDS, Romania -- 30,000 JWs to under 500 active LDS, et cetera.) Why are the Witnesses growing so rapidly in these countries with very few foreign missionaries, while Latter-day Saints are experiencing very slow growth in spite of a large contingent of full-time foreign missionaries? It isn't that JW commitments are easier -- meeting schedules are comparable and JW members actually have to be attending church for much longer before they can be baptized. The answer lies in the Jehovah's Witnesses strategic planning and
literature distribution to reach every soul and sound their message in every ear, often many times over.
The Apostle Paul asked, "How will they believe in him of whom they have not heard?"
Good question. And, judging by the statistics above, there are far, far more people who are having the opportunity to hear the Jehovah's Witness message, than the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. It isn't that people are hard-hearted -- it's that they aren't having enough exposures and opportunities to receive the Restored Gospel.
Of the more than six million active Jehovah's Witnesses, almost all spend a
minimum of ten hours a month sharing their faith with others, and 850,000 -- almost 15% -- spend fifty or more hours a month. According to George Barna's study of religious practices by denomination published on of July 9, 2001, only 26% of U.S. Latter-day Saints make any attempt at all to share their faith with non-members over the course of an entire year. So Latter-day Saints aren't even in the running.
This one isn't even a close. The hands-down winner is the Jehovah's Witness
organization for Watchtower and Awake! Watchtower has an average circulation of over 22 million -- the largest circulation of any religious magazine, while Awake! follows behind at 19 million. No other religious magazines even approach this distribution. The Watchtower is translated into 144 languages for simultaneous release, and so it escapes the English-language cultural stigma of many other religious magazines that are translated into other languages weeks or months after the English version. If you pick up a copy of Awake! or
the Watchtower, you'll quickly see why these magazines are so successful.
Many religious magazines are directed primarily to existing members and use vocabulary and
references that are not understandable to non-members who aren't "in the know." Not so with the Watchtower and Awake! Thumbing through one of the numerous of copies of Awake! in front of me, I see well-written articles on Louis Braille's invention of the Braille script, the volcanic creation of the Santorini island, Chagas' disease, Olympic facts, the life cycle of Beavers, a recent earthquake in Taiwan, Jehovah's Witnesses service projects, and much more -- all masterfully tied in to Bible themes. One Jehovah's Witness friend of
mine mentioned not long ago that he had never completed college, but that he felt that he had learned many college-level items by reading Awake! over the course of his life. The Watchtower contains more life-application type articles related to Biblical doctrines. While the articles definitely carry the Jehovah's Witness' theological slant, they are also full of interesting and relevant facts that one would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. The authors have definitely done their homework, although I do not agree with many points of
their theology.
The Jehovah's Witnesses do a wonderful job of making their publications engaging and relevant to both Witnesses and
non-witnesses alike. Also, many religious magazines today are permeated with flowery blandishments with little substance. Some denominations filter religious media to present a glowing media image, while failing to confront or acknowledge significant real-world challenges. Inspirational stories of individuals -- however moving -- get old after a while without more real-world content, and besides -- many types of inspirational stories are claimed by all denominations, and prove nothing. The Jehovah's Witnesses are pragmatic enough to
acknowledge that living Christian ideals in the real world doesn't always make for neatly-packaged fairy-tale stories. No one could ever accuse Watchtower or Awake! of fostering complacency -- to the contrary, they generate a sense of awareness that I have rarely encountered in other religious publications. The Watchtower and Awake! are refreshing in their factual-based, well-researched, relevant real-world content. Regardless of the tenuousness of Jehovah's Witness theology, it is no surprise that these magazines are so popular
worldwide.
In contrast to 20-25% average LDS retention rates worldwide, both the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Adventists manage to retain
the considerable majority of new converts. Adventist retention has risen from 77% a few years ago to 83% today. The Hartsem study (http://fact.hartsem.edu/Final%20FACTrpt.pdf) notes that strictness of member expectations, rather than dissuading individuals from baptism, actually contributes to high growth. 64% of U.S. congregations with
highly strict member expectations are growing, compared to only 37% with a low strictness of member expectations. Congregations with explicit and strict member expectations are also much more likely to experience conflicts that sap vitality. In light of this, and of a considerably body of additional data, (1) high standards cannot be used to justify low growth, and (2) the level of pre-baptismal commitment of prospective converts deserves serious attention. Short-term baptismal goals, hasty teaching with limited attempt to assess
the true depth of the investigator's understanding and commitment, and "baptize them quick while they feel the Spirit and hope that they decide to come to church again" approaches, have resulted in a 20-25% average LDS retention rates in Latin America and Asia. I have never known of anything good to come of converts being rushed to baptism. Indeed, while rushing baptisms may result in quick, temporary increases in statistics, it also ignites a long-burning fuse that results in serious member problems, or even in the eventual
collapse of local branches. Perhaps in this we have a lesson to learn both from our own scriptures, from our current prophet (Gordon B. Hinckley: "it is not necessary for us to lose any of those who are baptized") and from the Jehovah's Witnesses, who take pre-baptismal preparation much more seriously than most Latter-day Saints.
Moroni 6:1-3 states, "Behold, elders, priests, and teachers were baptized; and they were not baptized save they brought forth
fruit meet that they were worthy of it. Neither did they receive any unto baptism save they came forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and witnessed unto the church that they truly repented of all their sins. And none were received unto baptism save they took upon them the name of Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end."
Jehovah's Witnesses would never consider rushing an individual to baptism in two weeks or less: individuals must first prove
their dedication to Jehovah and worthiness to serve as his spokesman. As a result, they achieve 80+% long-term retention, compared to an average 25-30% worldwide LDS retention rate. Isn't that what Moroni 6:1-3 is all about? Missionaries have nothing to fear and a great deal to gain by being fully frank with potential converts about expectations and challenges and insisting that fundamental gospel habits, including daily reading in the Book of Mormon, weekly church attendance, and Sabbath Day observance, be firmly established well
prior to baptism.
In the working-class neighborhood of South Los Angeles where Teresa Graves lived with her ailing mother, she was known simply as "Tudie," a trim, middle-aged woman of deep religious convictions who mostly kept to herself.
Where she lived most of her life was at the church," says next door neighbor Joyce Jones. "We talked in depth about her religion, but never in
depth about anything else."
When Graves, 54, was killed last month in a fire caused by a portable heater in a back room of her house, Jones was both saddened and surprised: She learned from reporters that Tudie had once been a Hollywood star, a beautiful actress with her own TV show and legions of smitten fans. "She never talked about [her career] with me," Jones says. "The only time there was a discussion was with Bill [Willie Graves, Teresa's mother]. She
showed me a picture of Teresa with Marvin Gaye. And I said "Oh! and Bill said, 'Yeah, she was in entertainment.' "
To say that Graves was "in entertainment" is an understatement. In 1974, she made television history when she became the first African-American actress to star in her own one-hour drama -- "Get Christie Love!" Her image graced the covers of national magazines (includingTV GUIDE)."Teresa was a
star; she wasn't just another girl," says Bernie Brillstein, whose business relationship with Graves began in the late 1960s, when she sang with the Doodletown Pipers, whom he managed. "If you look at Whitney Houston today, that's what Teresa looked like.
If you compare her to a performer today, she would be Wayne Brady. She was everything good." Adds executive producer George Schlatter, who hired Graves to wiggle and giggle alongside Goldie Hawn as a
regular on Rowan and Martin's "Laugh-In" in 1969: "She sang, she danced, she was funny; She was just a magic, magic girl." After Graves left the series the next year, she performed in nightclubs, toured Vietnam with Bob Hope and appeared opposite David Niven in the horror-movie send-up "Old Dracula."
Her experiences helped her win the role of martial-arts master Christie Love in a 1974 TV-movie (Love's catchphrase was "You're under arrest, sugar"). The movie
was so successful that ABC turned it into a series that same year. But by the time "Get Christie Love!" premiered, Graves's involvement with the Jehovah's Witness religion had changed her life.
Executive producer David Wolper remembers that Graves came to his office and gave him a list of what she would no longer do as Love, including knock off bad guys or sexually entice men. "She was a' superhip policewoman. But you can't shoot anyone, kill anyone. Can't
have relationships with anybody, any violence. You can't do a police show based on that." Producers tried to accommodate her, but the series was dropped after one season.
Brillstein says Graves decided to get out of show business a few months after "Get Christie Love!" ended. "I wished her good luck", he says. "I was heartbroken because I hated to see her throw away what I thought she had. But she obviously found something bigger and better." That was her
faith, a devotion to "the Creator" that Graves toldTV Guidein 1974 was her all consuming passion. "Jehovah is first," she said. "My job is second."
In 1977 two years later she began working as a minister, she wrote in an issue of the Jehovah's Witness publicationAwake!that
"I'm convinced that heeding the counsel of God's Word is the best way to live." She remained out of the public eye, although she showed up several years ago at a party thrown for Wolper for his 50th year in show business. "She was a terrific, terrific gal " Wolper recalls.
Some 600 people attended Graves's memorial service in Los Angeles on October 16, including brothers A.D. and Mannie Graves, and myriad nieces and nephews Also in attendance were "Laugh-In"
costars Ruth Buzzi, Gary Owens and Henry Gibson. They heard minister Glenford Harris describe Graves as a "warm, giving and dedicated person" Why did she give up such a lucrative career? She gave it up because she loved the truth."
Brillstein says he will always remember "the girl whose laugh could make a hundred people feel good. She was happy, and that's all you can ask for in life. How many of us can say the same thing?"
Male Holocaust Survivor
Leopold Engleitner at 107 - is Still Alive!
Think of the Holocaust of World War II and what does the average person think of? - most likely the six million or more Jews who were brutally murdered in the concentration camps. Yet there were other groups who were also tormented, including Gypsies, the handicapped, and - oh yes - Jehovah's Witnesses. It was of this last group that the oldest known male holocaust survivor, Leopold Engleitner, hails. He has toured the world, making public appearances with his traveling companion, Bernhard Rammerstorfer.
It was in June 2009 that I wrote the article entitled, "At 103 the Oldest Male Holocaust Survivor is not a Jew." Today I found myself wondering if Leopold is now dead. So I checked and found an update. Engleitner is alive at the ripe old age of 107 years!* The joy of life remains yet in him.
Born in Austria in 1905, Leopold Engleitner does not represent himself as anything other than an ordinary man; nevertheless, he is a living reminder of the horrid slaughter of millions in concentration camps. Yet, he even goes a bit beyond that. Whereas most encamped individuals of other groups could not leave, Engleitner had a choice. He could have left by signing a simple document renouncing his faith and supporting the Nazi movement. This he refused to do.
Thus it can be said he displayed, an "unbroken will" to continue faithfully following his God. Indeed, this is the title of a publication written by Rammerstorfer, describing the events of Engleitner's life. What's more, Leopold has not given up his tour of the world. His latest tour has been his "Unbroken Will 2009 USA Tour." He says it is not his Farewell Tour.
Adolf Hitler, who had vowed to stamp out the Witnesses, died, himself, instead-along with his Third Reich.
Credentialism, as a social
phenomenon, refers to reliance upon formal credentials conferred by
educational institutions, professional organizations, and other
associations as a principal means to determine the qualifications of
individuals to perform a range of particular occupational tasks or to
make authoritative statements as“experts”in
specific subject areas. As an ideology, it reflects the ostensibly
meritocratic idea that positions within the occupational structure ought
to be filled by those who have obtained their qualifications through
institutional mechanisms (e.g., training and education within certified
schools; successful completion of formal examinations) culminating in
the attainment of degrees,
diplomas, or certificates. As a social-scientific concept, it is
closely associated with the discourses of the sociologies of education
and work.
Historically, the concept of
credentialism emerged as part of the critique of professionalism and in
the service of the“deschooling
movement”of
the 1960s and 1970s. Radical critics of professional education, such as
Ivan Ilich (1971), proceeded from the assumption that most if not all of
the skills needed to competently perform the work tasks carried out by
many professionals could be acquired through practical experience and
with much less in the way of formal schooling than is usually needed to
obtain the“required”credentials.
From this perspective, the disguised purpose of much formal schooling
(its“hidden
curriculum”)
is to impart a particular disciplinary paradigm, ideological
orientation, or set of values to those seeking formal credentials to
work in prestigious or“highstatus”fields
such as medicine, law, and education. Furthermore, the credential
systems developed in a number of occupational areas are part of the“collective
mobility projects”of
practitioners to achieve a“professional
status”that
brings with it greater material and symbolic rewards. Thus credentialism
is closely associated with strategies of“social
closure”(to
useMax
Weber’s
expression) that permit social groups to maximize rewards“by
restricting access to resources and opportunities to a limited circle of
eligibles”(Parkin
1979, p. 44).
The pursuit of credentials through
bureaucratized, institutional channels constitutes a kind of“rite
of passage”for
those who aspire to socially privileged positions while also allowing
established professional or occupational groups to control the supply of
practitioners, to regulate their activities, and to maintain a monopoly
of legitimacy in the provision of particular services. The credential
system also legitimates the establishment of legal restrictions by the
state in concert with professional, occupational, or skilled trades
associations concerning who is deemed qualified to perform particular
tasks or provide specific services. One example has been the legal
barriers that have been put into place in many jurisdictions to prevent
midwives from providing birthing services to expectant mothers, thereby
ensuring that such services will remain the exclusive preserve of
medical doctors.
The“credential
inflation”that
occurred over the last third of the twentieth century was a product of
the tremendous expansion in postsecondary education that occurred in
many of the more developed industrial or"postindustrial”societies
in the post-World War II (1939–1945)
era. Jobs previously filled by people possessing only high-school
diplomas (for example, insurance salespeople) were increasingly filled
by those with college diplomas orundergraduateuniversity
degrees. The proliferation of employment opportunities in the“service
sector”combined
with the contraction of the manufacturing labor force increased labor
market competition for“white-collar”jobs
requiring reasonably high levels of literacy or numeracy. However, many
if not most of these jobs did not require as many specific skill sets as
the blue-collar jobs that they displaced. It is therefore arguable
whether the shift from a predominantly manufacturing to a“service”or
even"knowledge-based”economy
has brought with it the imperative of higher levels of formal
educational attainment for the mass of the labor force. Even so, the
members of this labor force have felt compelled to pursue higher levels
of education (as symbolized by college diplomas anduniversity
degrees) to avoid relegation to employment in the vast array of
poorly paid and menial jobs that characterize the so-called"postindustrial”economy.
In this context, a college diploma or undergraduate university degree is
not so much a ticket to“success”as
a safeguard against migration into the most undesirable regions of the
labor market. The corollary to this phenomenon is that many workers
regard themselves as overqualified for the jobs they perform and
experience workplace dissatisfaction stemming from the perception that
many of the intellectual skills they attained through“higher
education”are
being underutilized or even wasted.
With the advent of globalization and
the increased mobility of professionals and workers of all kinds across
national boundaries, the problem of recognizing“credentials”obtained
in other countries has come to the fore. On the one hand, professional
organizations and other occupational associations are concerned that the
influx of such credentialed individuals may weaken their control over
the supply of“qualified”labor;
on the other hand, governments are under pressure to recognize such“foreign
credentials”by
a public that is anxious to alleviate a real or perceived scarcity of
professional service providers in such areas as medicine and law.
For most of its critics, credentialism is fundamentally a set of
practices and an ideology associated with the reproduction of structures
of social inequality and the intergenerational perpetuation of class and
status distinctions. For its defenders, it is an inevitable concomitant
of a rationalized occupational division of labor, necessary to
maintaining optimal levels of productivity and performance. There are
clearly elements of truth in both positions, but their satisfactory
articulation requires recognition of the ways in which class, race,
gender, and citizenship shape both occupational and opportunity
structures in contemporary societies and of how credentialism conceals
and obscures this reality behind a rationale of technical necessity.
Collins, Randall. 1979.The
Credential Society. New York: Academic.
Derber, Charles, William A. Schwartz, and Yale Magrass. 1990.Power
in the Highest Degree: Professionals and the Rise of a New Mandarin
Order. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Illich, Ivan. 1971.Deschooling
Society. New York: Harper and Row.
Parkin, Frank. 1979.The
Marxist Theory of Class: A Bourgeois Critique. London: Tavistock.
A
process of social selection in which class advantage and social status
are linked to the possession of academic qualifications. Credentialism
expresses the ideology that qualifications reflect either the expertise
or attributes necessary for social ascent or the occupancy of élite
roles. It is said that an unintended consequence of credentialism,
especially in developing societies, is credential inflation or so-called
diploma disease. For a case-study of the United States see Randall
Collins , The Credential Society (1979)
"credentialism."A
Dictionary of Sociology.
1998.Encyclopedia.com.26
Sep. 2012
diploma diseaseA
term developed by Ronald Dore as part of a critique of the excessive
reliance on the selection process in formal educational institutions
(and hence on educational qualifications) as evidence of ability,
training, and merit for entry to particular occupations,careers,
or internal labour-markets. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to
as credential inflation. As an unintended consequence of the belief
that educational certificates are the key to obtaining the best-paid
and most secure jobs, individuals may come to strive for constantly
higher credentials in order to procure jobs which previously did not
demand these, and for which their education does not in any case
prepare them. Education thereby becomes merely a ritualistic process
of accumulating qualifications. See alsoMERITOCRACY.
Jehovah is the only true God and Jesus is his only begotten Son. In Nazi Germany and during the Rwandan Genocide, Only Jehovah's Witnesses were different.
