Hello everyone,
I am a "worldly" person, not of any religion and am soon to be marrying a long-term disfellowshipped Jehovahs Witness. She has not been of the religion for over a decades time and seemingly her immediate family has accepted this through the years.
We've traveled across country together so she could introduce her family to me and have not had any problems. We've now decided to plan our wedding and suddenly problems are occuring. Her family has gone from "Yes, you are our daughter, we will be at your wedding no matter what", - to - "No, we can't go to your wedding unless you become a witness again and if you don't become a witness again, we will treat you as a disfellowshipped person from this point on". From my perspective as a wordly person, I see this as a threat and it makes me very angry with her family to do this to us. She says from a witness's perspective she is the one abandoning her family because she chooses to no longer be a witness (she was baptised as one).
My fiancee has made this choice to seperate religion from her life 10 years ago and continues to do so. I feel her family is now making her chose between me and them. My fiancee says that she doesn't want to be a witness again but does not want to lose her family that she has had with no problems in the past.
My final question: is there anything that can be done so that my future wife and I can live in harmony with her family without us becomming witnesses? Is her family over-reacting? What can we say to them, or show them of Jehovah documentation that will let us live our lives the way we believe to be true yet allow us to spend time together as families should?
- Sincerely,
Jeff