Dear Wife of the World:
You are smart. Your children should be raised as YOU want them raised. Sure, he can offer input, but if it's not to YOUR liking, it will not be to your children's liking either. Discrimination, bigotry, and hate have no place in the raising of children. That is the STYLE of the JW's. They are arrogant in thinking that their way is the ONLY way, and that is just plain wrong. Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship.
This may sound really harsh, but ... you would be committing your children to a life of hell if you let him raise them as JWs. You would be betraying your own flesh and blood. Are you going to let HIM decide if they need a blood transfusion or not? I certainly hope not. As a step-father, he is coming into this family as a person that is adult, but not one that can take command, as their father would be. It's just not the same. You have to make a firm stand and say your children will NOT be raised as JW's, because you don't want them to. You are their natural mother, and what you say goes. If it causes the defeat of the marriage, then so be it, because he doesn't have you, or your children's, best issues at mind. He may *think* he does, but that is just because of the mindset that these JW men have.
He told you, before he was reinstated, how it would be. Is he still keeping his part of the bargain? If not, then he is disrespecting you.
As far as you having a child together, he still can take THIS child to the meetings, because it's half his. You can STOP him from telling YOUR kids stuff, with a Court Order, but as far as him telling his own progeny stuff, it's an uphill battle.
It's very complicated, but as you said, you earn a good living. I know you don't want to break up your marriage, but if he was going to try to raise your kids, and HIS kid, in this religion, I'd stop it full brakes. Do you earn enough to support *all* the kids on yoru own? That is what maybe you may have to be prepared to do. My husband beat me, and I wasn't prepared to let my son live through that, so I left in one day. It was one of the most scary decisions of my life, but I did it, and am glad I did it.
Country Girl