I understand the need for these threads, so despite the fact that I have stated my story before, I usually try to answer such threads for the new people to see.
I started looking into problems with the WTS because of doctrine. The 1995 change in "generation" was devastating to me. They just change things like it's no big deal. I saw the imminense of the end going out the door and I started looking for better work because I would probably retire in "this system of things." Still, I stayed another 10 years and quietly investigated. It wasn't until injustices and problems popped up that I moved toward the door.
I chaired a judicial committee for a virginal young adult lady who got involved in some heavy petting with a virginal JW young guy. She just wanted the whole thing kept quiet. According to the rules, we could do that. She confessed and we could just apply some restrictions. Well, one elder on the committee wanted to make an example of her to the other young adults and said we had to announce her reproof to the congregation. I said we don't do things that way, we do what's right for the individual instead of hurting them to make a difference in the cong. He went around me by calling Bethel and explaining things in a way that they insisted that we announce a public reproof, and I had to do it as the chairman. It nearly destroyed her for the embarassment.
I looked at how the organization puts the individual behind their own needs. The Jesus of the Bible that I learned about would never have done that. If the cong. needed something, he would never have acheived it at the expense of an individual's needs.
Next, the Regional Building Committee (RBC) chairman in my area had asked for volunteers to go to the relief effort for Hurricane Katrina. He needed people during the winter after the initial relief effort had taken place. I put in for vacation and told him I could go. I had experience with Hurricane Hugo and Hurricane Andrew. Right before the trip, the RBC chairman called me to say there wasn't room on the bus for me- they needed to load it up with electricians and plumbers. I told him I could follow in my SUV, taking a few other people and/or supplies, paying for my own gas. He then said there would be no place for me to stay. I told him I knew people in the area and could stay with them, or I could simply "camp" on the floor of the Kingdom Hall like we did at Hugo and Andrew sites. I said that while I wasn't a plumber or electrician, I was willing to work and bust my back for them.
He finally simply said that "we don't do things that way" and I would not be able to go. I didn't go. Right after they got back, he called me to ask me whether I could go another date. I said NO, I used up my vacation. His wife didn't know that I had already said no, so she was calling people and called me again. After saying I couldn't go, she said, "Too bad you couldn't make that last trip. Brother "Jones" and his wife went, I went and brought the kids. We had a great picnic on the last day."
Maybe Sister "Jones" and the RBC chair's wife were great electricians or something. Maybe even their kids had some skill that was needed. I extremely doubt that though. I was bumped from going to do thankless hard work so connected people could have an "outing." I vowed never to work with the RBC again. Plus, I hated how the organization had said "Do not donate any relief items except for money. Do not earmark the money for relief effort. Just give it, we will know how best to use it." They learned how to actually make money on the generosity of the members and screwed over the people in need. Money was donated to the worldwide pedophile fund instead of Hurricane relief as the members wanted it to be used, then volunteers went down in a bus spending a tiny bit of the donated money for supplies. The rest was profit for WTS.
Then that summer, I went to the local convention and one of the latest GB members was the Bethel guest. I had never heard of him. I realized that I was standing on the platform week-after-week supporting the doctrines from these men, and I didn't even know their names. That was the last straw for me. You could say it was my fault for not knowing his name, but even if I knew that, I would not know anything about how the GB operated. I started planning a way out of the WTS in a way that would not cause me to lose contact with my JW mother.
