“Fastest in Growth”

● The Windsor Star recently published some information from the latest census. In a column written by Maurice Jefferies from Ottawa, Canada, the newspaper carried the headline “Jehovah’s Witnesses Fastest in Growth.” The brief note said: “CENSUS NOTE: The latest report on religious denominations shows that Jehovah’s Witnesses make up the fastest-growing denomination in Canada. They doubled in numbers from 34,596 to 68,018 in the last decade.” In view of the way census takers count religious adherents, that figure would include all children in families and likely many persons who are studying with Jehovah’s witnesses and who name the Witnesses as the religious group with which they associate. Since that is the way most religious organizations count their membership, the census department looked at the Witnesses the way they look at others. The Witnesses themselves, however, count only those who are active ministers, and even of these there were 40,121 in Canada in 1962.