Hi ljwtiamb,
Nothing can make you automatically leave the WTS. Only an individual JW's common sense and a commitment to truth seeking will allow them to see the WT Society for the white-washed monument to falsehood that it really is. The WTS own claims that seeking the truth was a noble life's goal had instilled in me the seeds of their own udoing in my mind. Long before I had ever heard of Raymond Franz and his books, the World Wide Web, or even touched a computer I had already begun to question the truth behind the "Truth". The journey was a long and painful one but well worth breathing the fresh cold air of reality.
My first clues about the true "heart condition" among the leadership of Watchtowerism was the glaring mismatch between what they told the Rank & File to do and believe and what they did themselves. I'm not talking about a blatent disregard for morality but rather something that was much worse to my mind. They simply never really acted like the World's end was imminent. I found this contradiction stunning and unresolvable. The entire reason that they claim Jehovah had called them all together into the WT Organization in these Last Days was to warn the World that Judgement was fast approaching, and yet, for all their talk and posturing even the local Elders were, by and large, totally invested in the Here and Now of this World.
The WT Society itself was totally complacent about writing off huge areas of the Globe where ever they could not easily send their missionaries. The Communist and Muslim dominated parts of the World encompassing billions of people were all but forgotten in their self proclaimed "World-wide preaching work". The WT Society's lame justification for this was the collective guilt theory which stated that the political leadership which barred JWs from making inroads to these populations were ultimately responsible to Jehovah for the billions who would die at Armagedon. This is hardly the attitude one would expect from true believers who should be willing to risk everything to get in and warn these people of their doom. It was clear to me that maintaining their resources and directing them to the easier converts in the rest of the Free World and Catholic dominated countries was their real goal. I never understood how the Watchtower leadership could make the claim that God's Judgement would be brutal yet fair since all had been given ample chances to repent when billions of people had never even heard of the Jehovah's Witnesses. The Bible clearly stated that the entire inhabited earth would be warned and then the End would come even if the stones must cry out the warnings. How could the big "A" come without this being fulfilled? No one in the WT Society ever gave me a good answer to that question.
When I told the Elders I wanted to learn Arabic so I could go and warn the Muslim World I was told that this would be a foolish waste of time and to concentrate my efforts in the U.S. Bible belt region I already lived in. I was shocked that they didn't care at all about these people who would be destroyed based only upon the geographic accident of their births. How could a fair God do such a thing? For an Organization whose sole mission is to save as many lives as possible in such a self proclaimed limited amount of time they sure were conservative and cautious in going about it. It was pretty clear that there was no major plan in place for the WT Society to infiltrate these difficult regions and billions would be killed without warning because of the Society's total lack of interest in ever doing so.
The local Elders were also busy with building their own comfortable lives and businesses. Using their gullable flocks as cheap labor they created cleaning businesses or sign shops allowing them to buy large new houses and expand these businesses while they married attractive ladies and proceeded to have children. Hardley the actions of people who were convinced that the World as they knew was soon to end any day now. All the while the Society's publications and the Elders told the R&F that they shouldn't pursue "worldly" goals or get a University education since the End was so near. The bragging reports of the Society's long term buiding projects (some requiring up to 8 years to finish) also made me wonder just how conviced they were that soon the UN would turn on the World's religions and destroy them including the Watchtower and all its physical holdings. It looked to me that even in the mid 1970's that the Society was digging in for the long haul and investing in this World rather than desperaretly saving as many people as possible before the End could overtake them. All the evidence told me that, despite what they insistantly claimed, the WT leadership did not act like they believed Armageddon was near.... so then why should I?
This was just one of many realizations which led to my eventual dismisal of all that the Watchtower's taught and the end of it's control over my life. It would be years later until I found the internet and Ray Franz. His books filled in the gaps and made sense of many things I had only suspected before. I would say that by the time someone reads Franz's books they are already on their way out of Watchtowerism. The Watchtower Society is its own worst enemy because of its many false prophecies, lack of love and conviction, and downright illogical, contradictory, and ever changing doctrines. Ray Franz should be the least of their worries. Intelligent, honest, and sensitive JWs will eventually feel that something is wrong because the WT Society is rotten to the very core and no book is needed to tell them that.. As these honest people of conviction leave the rotteness just becomes more apparent.