but this is probably true with all religions around the world?
Typically, they might give lip service to whatever their religion teaches, but in practice just quietly ignore its more extreme demands. (A good example of this being the Catholic Church's stance on contraception. Not too many "practicing" Catholics pay a lot of heed to that one!)
It is similar amongst the JWs. I notice that the ones who have remained long term with the religion are generally those who are likewise inclined to turn a blind eye to the more extreme (or more ridiculous!) utterances of the GB. This is certainly the case in my family, anyway.
Within any of the so-called "Mainstream Churches", such a course of action is not too difficult to take. For example, the Catholic Church's rules are "attend mass at least twice a year, and confession at least once a year". Meet those requirements, and the church generally leaves you alone.
However, amongst the JWs, it must be a lot more difficult to maintain the charade? (This question is addressed to those who are PIMOs).
As WC Stevenson summed it up in his 1968 work The Inside Story of Jehovah's Witnesses: "No other religious group would demand so much from its members, in return for so little". Compared with the other Christian churches, the demands placed on their adherents by the WTS/GB is greater by a number of magnitudes. (In fact, this difference is what mathematicians would describe as "exponential").
