Hi, Katherine!
I am going to try to reach you from a different perspective. One who got married as a non-Witness to a nominal Catholic and had to deal all the time with the non-celebration of birthdays/Christmas issues.
Kes/Aaron is right about these events: "Usually they will tell you to make sure you personally don't celebrate any of it. You can gather with your family, just don't engage in the celebration."
This was a constant source of friction between my husband and my family and I for all the time I was in (I walked away from the Society almost 3 months ago after 11 years baptized, way more than that "associated").
Question: Who does the shopping for Christmas and birthdays in your family? As a Witness, you no longer can, and that means hubby will have to take up the slack if he wants to continue celebrating and being in good graces with the family. You shouldn't even accompany him for the shopping. This breeds resentment and discontent.
Do you have children yourselves? Their lives will change radically if you raise them as the spiritual head of the household is supposed to do.
It does NOT matter to any thinking person whether Jesus died on a cross or on a torture stake. No matter its shape, it was the instrument of his death, the death that paid a ransom for all mankind and enables believers to aspire to everlasting life. THAT's the point. That it should not be an object of worship is probably correct.
To me the problems that you are having with the cross, the birthdays, the Christmas are not a matter of your trying to be "difficult." Actually they are the first signs your thinking brain is giving you that unreasonable, illogical demands are being placed on you that could have real, negative impact on your life and your relationships with the people who TRULY love you.
Many who have studied with Jehovah's Witnesses and "progressed to the point of dedication and baptism" find that the congregation takes a great interest in them when they are studying. Then, unless they become a zealous publisher in field service with excellent meeting attendance, the love and warmth rapidly fades. It sounds very jaded to say this, and you likely won't believe it, but it's true. Once you're "caught", they move on to the next candidate for baptism and you're on your own. (Unless you've got a great personality that REALLY mixed with your study conductor's and she's in the "in" group, then you're "in" by association.) I never heard it described that way until I visited this forum, but they "love bomb" you when you're new and you're left to pick up the pieces once you're a JW yourself.
Ozzie is right to question whether the Witnesses really are Christians at all. There is so much that Christ preached that they do NOT practice, in hindsight (which is where I'm viewing this from).
I would highly recommend reading the book he suggested as well as others you will find if you do a search at amazon.com or freeminds.org
And Aaron is correct to explain that you do "pledge allegiance" not just to the Father and Son at a JW baptism, but actually, the only place the holy spirit is mentioned is in connection with your oath (and they legally view the 2nd question as an "oath" or "induction" into their religious club) to become a member of Jehovah's "spirit-directed organization." So you actually are baptized in the name of the Father, Son (1st question) and the "spirit-directed organization." (2nd question) This is not even CLOSE to the formula given in Matthew 28:19.
I'm worrying that this all sounds a bit vitriolic, and I'm not meaning it to.
Other points I'd like to make:
The assertion that Jesus returned invisibly in 1914 is just that -- an assertion. There is no Biblical proof to support it, and it isn't even the original date the Society published for his return, if you dig into its history.
The assertion that the 144,000 is a literal number of specially anointed beings who only have the heavenly hope is also not Scripturally provable. For one, Revelation is written in symbols, for another, if you look at the two sheepfolds illustration, most understand that to mean that the Gentiles would now be welcomed into the sheepfold of the chosen, which heretofore was open only to Jews who had accepted the Christ.
Katherine, I could go on at length. But really, YOU need to investigate yourself (as you have begun to do, here) so that you can make a FULLY-informed decision.
Because if you DO "pledge allegiance" to the Witness Organization, making sacrifices to be no part of this world, causing division in your own family, and making most of your friends based on "good association" of like-minded "Friends", and should ever decide that a single teaching coming from the "faithful and discreet slave" goes against your Bible-trained conscience? They will cut you off as dead.
Please keep reading.
And before you take a plunge into any immersion pool, be sure to ask these questions:
If I voluntarily join, can I voluntarily leave?
If I do leave voluntarily (disassociate myself) what will be the consequences?
Welcome to this board, Katherine.
Where JWs and ex-JWs are not afraid to speak up and tell you what they are really thinking.
Something they cannot do freely and remain in what is supposed to be "the Truth."
outnfree
