I was 11 years old when my mother remarried and quit her job. A year later she started studying with the jws. Her husband was very opposed and frequently caused fights about it. My younger brother went with her to the meetings, but I wasn't interested. At the time, I was an honor student, on student council and a class officer. The more she studied, the less interested and even oppositional she became to my academic career (Jws don't encourage college. The leadership claims that it is due to worldly influences, but the real truth is because they don't want anyone to engage in independent thinking).
There were a few times when I was home alone with my stepfather while the rest of the family were attending the meetings. He tried to force himself on me, but I fought him off. I told my mother, and she did nothing about it. Eventually she left him because of his opposition to her becoming a Jehovah's Witness. They reconciled a few months after he began a study with the Witnesses.
The title of my story is rhetorical - I am going to answer it with my experience.
Before I do that, I want to discuss what we are told through Watchtower literature and the instruction that is given during meetings, assemblies and conventions, for the reasons why people leave the “Truth”.
The Watchtower of 15 November 2008, in the article “Help Them Return without Delay” indicates people leave because of the following:
They succumb to “anxieties of life”
they may have been "stumbled"
they may have a problem with teachings,
They may be involved with wrongdoing.
So how can anxieties of life affect someone? Well according to one personal account in the aforementioned article:
“I started giving more attention to worldly matters than to spiritual things. Then I stopped studying, engaging in the ministry, and attending meetings. The next thing I knew, I was no longer a part of the Christian congregation”.
Allowing these anxieties to facilitate a drifting away from the “truth” means that an individual has failed to put their faith and trust in Jehovah and have allowed poor spiritual habits to develop.
Most Jehovah's Witnesses are unfamiliar with the great emphasis the Watchtower Society has put on particular dates that they predicted would bring catastrophic events to earth. They feel that a fullfillment of their predictions would be proof that we are in the "time of the end." When each predicted event failed, one after the other, in many cases the prediction was given a new future date and the whole process was started all over again. These errors were covered over with their "new light" doctrine, and the blame was always placed on the "brothers" jumping to conclusions and running ahead of the organization.
This "never getting it right" practice has caused many to lose faith in the Watchtower organization as God's spokesman. Many have asked, "if the "faithful slave" really have God's holy spirit, then why can't they ever get it right the first time?" Why the "pin the tail on the donkey" method? Are we to conclude that "trial and error" is God's approved way of bringing us all to the "Truth?" As we all know from reading the Bible, this kind of scholarship is not found anywhere in the Holy Scriptures. Even so, over 7 million people faithfully follow them as the channel through which God speaks. But does he?
Millions of Witnesses have put their lives on hold and are hard at work trying to earn enough points with God so they can live in peace in a future "Paradise Earth." What is not realized is, that all this volunteer work for a better future life down the road has as its reward much sadness and bitterness. Comments like, "the new system was supposed to be here by now" or "it wasn't suppose to end like this" are common when long sought after goals are finally realized to be in vain.
The Watchtower Society constantly dangles the carrot in front of these workers so they will reach out and do more with sayings like, "the end is imminent", "we're in the last days of this system", or "the end is just around the corner", and "Armageddon is knocking at the door."
As an independent, outspoken critic of the Watch Tower organization, I know, “The more profile, the more scrutiny.” Inasmuch as I write many articles, posts and blogs, there is opportunity for criticism of my integrity and honesty if I make certain claims without proof such as saying, “Thousands of Witnesses die each year when they need whole blood or some major blood components that JWs leaders don’t approve of.”
I was 11 years old when my mother remarried and quit her job. A year later she started studying with the jws. Her husband was very opposed and frequently caused fights about it. My younger brother went with her to the meetings, but I wasn't interested. At the time, I was an honor student, on student council and a class officer. The more she studied, the less interested and even oppositional she became to my academic career (Jws don't encourage college. The leadership claims that it is due to worldly influences, but the real truth is because they don't want anyone to engage in independent thinking). 
The title of my story is rhetorical - I am going to answer it with my experience.
As an independent, outspoken critic of the Watch Tower organization, I know, “The more profile, the more scrutiny.” Inasmuch as I write many articles, posts and blogs, there is opportunity for criticism of my integrity and honesty if I make certain claims without proof such as saying, “Thousands of Witnesses die each year when they need whole blood or some major blood components that JWs leaders don’t approve of.”