Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now

As mentioned in a previous post, my wife is a Jehovah’s witness.  She probably wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she isn’t near as devout as she once was or as her two sisters currently are.  I think I get a little credit for that.  Not that I am proud of causing her to ask some questions of her faith, but I did at least get her to open her eyes.  She was indoctrined  in the Truth when she was very young, and while there are some good things about JW’s, she had some serious blinders on as well for many years.

I wonder how many stay in religions just to appease family members?  I can remember still going with my mom to church, especially at Christmas or Easter, long after I knew what I believed.  I would sit there and sing and listen to the sermons knowing in my mind that I thought it was all a bunch of hooey.  Even before I met my wife I had researched and knew that Christmas wasn’t Jesus’ birthday (one of the JW’s big bombshells they spring on new disciples is this fact)and that it was really a pagan holiday that was kept to appease conversions to Christianity.  I always thought that it was quite ironic that the God you read in the Old Testament would never allow that to happen and yet it was the most celebrated religious day of the year.  Not to mention the commercialism of it all.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved Christmas growing up as it was often when my parents would both get time off and we would vacation somewhere or just stay home and spend a lot of time together.  We went to both Disneyland and Disneyworld during separate Christmas vacations and they were quite memorable.  My main point is I only did that a couple of times a year, but I think many stay actively involved in church and religious activities long after they may want to.

Getting back to JW’s, I think my wife would convert to a more conventional Christian church if her family wasn’t so involved with the Truth.  I think she still believes in the Bible but not in the way the JW’s present everything.  She has actually listened to me a couple of times when I have discussed with her the history of the Watchtower Society and some of the issues they have.  They too have some irony.  She once showed me a Watchtower article discussing false prophets and how they believe most of the other religions are the false prophets.  Yet the Watchtower is guilty of prophetizing a couple of times as documented very well here and here.  Once I showed her these articles and she researched a little she started to realize there was a few things wrong in her previously untarnished religion.  There has also been some incidents in her congregation that has changed her trust in the association.  But she stays to appease her family, and she goes to just enough meetings and does just enough studying to keep them off her back.  Don’t get me wrong, my wife enjoys reading and studying the Bible and gets a lot out of it, but I think she realizes that had she been raised Catholic, Mormon, or any other version of Christianity she would probably follow that with the same fervor she once had for the JW’s. 

I could go on about some issues with JW’s, but that is really not my intent.  I don’t believe in any of the Christian religions, so no matter which one my wife is involved in, it really isn’t going to effect us that much.  I just can tell she is not as happy with the Watchtower association as she once was, and I think she stays in it for the wrong reasons.  I also am concerned with my children, and how they will be treated when they get older if they follow my path rather than my wife’s.  I would be interested to know if anyone else has had these types of conflicts.