PHR wrote:
There's a very vague, "peripheral" group in the mix who

1) may OR may not be "born in", sometimes the offspring of an "eternal Bible study"......

2) Never get baptized but attend all meetings and conventions faithfully......

3) sometimes they go through long spells of not being seen at ANY meetings for months at a time, if not more--but suddenly and without warning start back attending faithfully as if nothing ever happened.......commenting during the studies and all.

4) Most of these folks tend to be very close to their non-JW families......

5) yet if push came to shove, for all their "periphery", they would without question die refusing a blood transfusion.

I knew a lot of people like this when I was still in. Some of them were so "peripheral" and....transient....that I wasn't even sure what congregation they officially belonged to. Also, I suspect that some fully celebrated the holidays with their non-JW extended families. As far as I know, they were never taken to task for their long absences from the JW world or for their involvement with their non-JW families. Somehow they managed to move around just on the outside borders of the JW-hood, yet they were somehow still in.

Wow it surprises me that that sort of behavior would go under the radar.  #2 particularly surprises me since my congregation was so focused on baptism. If I could have limped along longer I would have. But the pushing and a little session I had with a couple of Sisters (where I knew they were trying to figure out what my hang up was by sharing some shocking sins that they overcame) finally pushed me right out, since the thought of the baptism pool makes me want to go hide somewhere and throw up.