Reniaa:
I'm late to this party and most of my expressions have been covered already. I do wish to add this thought:
I left the JWs because I was a good soldier. I was all in, I put my life and my family on the line for the cause, I sacrificed career, family, friends and fortune for "the Truth." I rose in the organization and saw things that would certainly shock your sensibilities. The actions of dubs at every level, but particularly those considered "prominent," were exposed for me because I had privileges and was allowed to see behind the curtain. What lies there is hypocrisy and corruption that rivals anything in "the world" or in "Christendom," I assure you.
When you reach that point in the organization, you are supposed to be immune to these things, unaffected, having passed all the loyalty tests along the way. That's why the Society insists that only "mature" brothers get these responsibilities. By mature, they mean committed. They mean captive. They mean having too much to lose.
The antidote to doubt among JWs is to strengthen your faith utilizing the PASS formula: Prayer, Association, Service and Study. And I did. After I prayed, associated and served, I studied. The more I studied, the more I realized how out of synch the organization is compared to the early Christian principles spelled out in the bible. You won't see that when you are new, or when you have only progressed to your comfort station and have never been backstage in the Most Holy. But when you've seen it all, the contrast is startling.
What I learned from my studies was that the Bible was all pretty simple. It was a collection of ancient books that commented on life in another era, but it also contained wisdom for the ages. Most importantly, though, it was the story of the coming of Christ and the change he would bring to the earth. And what was that change?
The day will come when you will no longer worship at the temple, he told the woman, but in these mountains.
Christ called out and condemned the leaders of the organized religion of his day. You cannot read the NT (Greek Scriptures) and not conclude that Christ's message was a radical one. He was calling for an end to rules, to law, to a hierarchy of men lording it over others. He was foretelling a new age when the Law would live in people's hearts. He was saying you don't need all this religious structure, you just need to take the Law into yourself and live by it. And let no one judge another.
They killed him, of course. This was crazy talk, unthinkable. Why, we'd lose our place in the pecking order. We'd lose the right to control others, to spell out exactly how other people should live, not to mention the ability make hold power and position by appointing ourselves to enforce the rules.
And that's the answer to your question. I came to believe the Bible, and so I no longer believe the JWs.
...OUTLAW