I have been on this forum for almost 10 years and out of the cult for only 3. For 7 years, I
- knew of the issues with the pedophiles,
- Knew the dates didn't make sense
- the weird teachings of Russell and Rutherford
- I disagreed with the shunning, and the blood policy
- The UN, Malawi, etc.
Despite all this, I stayed in! I reasoned that in the end, they were doing more good than bad.
Then, I finally read the books of Raymond Franz: This truly opened my eyes. The fruits I'd see with the organization were all about sustaining the organization. They preach door to door and in kingdom halls leaving barely enough time to practice what they teach. Charity is not simply sharing ideas, it involves actual actions. Sure, they do some actions, just not enough compared to the time dedicated to talking about it.
In his book, he denounced how they expect the brothers to be "humble and not boastful with pride" by questioning their teachings. In reality, to set this expectation while also admitting that they are not inspired makes THEM the guilty party here.
Still, I stayed. At that point, I thought I could do some changes from within. I had fun from time to time in exposing their beliefs by playing the overzealous. Or presenting things in a truthful, accurate way, and yet, in a light that they were not used to.
For instance, at a super, a brother said how horrified he was that some Muslims had stoned a girl who committed fornication. I said: "Objectively speaking, there is nothing wrong with that. They are simply still following the Mosaic Law. Heck, under Moses, there was even a man who was stoned to death for picking up woods on the Sabbath. I don't think that the word "horrified" is advised here knowing that Jehovah himself definitely approved stoning only 3 days ago. You know, a day for a thousand years? – There was a very odd silence at the table.
Then my kids started to be old enough to listen at the hall. That was the deal breaker for me. I realized that I would not be able to teach my own beliefs. Being kids, they could express these contrary beliefs in the wrong place, at the wrong people, and I could have faced a JC at any time. Essentially, JWs are required to give complete authority to 7 men in NY, even over their own kid’s spiritual education. I could not allow this. I left.