For me, there was no 'choice' - this is BULL, I am outta here. So, no family, and a hard life (what with my health problems, being on my own and uneducated wasn't easy), which I have never regretted! My freedom was worth every lonely minute, every mountain I had to climb alone, it was WORTH IT.
For some people, especially those who have children, it is a different kind of choice. Will their spouse divorce them? Will they lose their CHILDREN to the pedo-infested Watchtower society? And, having known nothing else since birth, with no education, no friends, and no way of 'relating' to anyone who is not JW, leaving is a scary thing to do.
Did you know that the Watchtower teaches them they will have nowhere else to go? I know someone (my only relative who still speaks to me) who is in 50s, disabled, and grew up a JW. This person said to me, "the brothers don't bother with me, now that I'm in a wheelchair, my friends don't come visit, but where else would I go?" That is drilled into JWs from birth, and it's a hard script to unlearn.
It's sad. Yeah, some people don't have the cojones, but for the most part, I think that it's important (for me) to put myself in their shoes and feel empathy for their plight, instead of scorn. xx
