The key thing is communication, grow together and not apart. Especially with this, this is some heavy stuff here. Deep down you know you care for him and love him, and you know he would bleed for you. Communicate. As in regards to his family, they seem liberal about it. I would'nt worry.
Any doubts? TALK TO HIM....you my be surprised.
*sigh* He's so easy to talk to about everything... except his religion. He'll make comments about it - for example, when we were talking a few nights ago on the phone, he was telling me that his younger brother has taken up smoking, and he said, "You know, Witnesses have a rule against smoking" - but that's all I can ever get out of him. He's so open about other things, but talking about the WTS never pans out.
Once, he mentioned the failed 1975 prophecy and I mentioned that I'd read about it, and immediately, he got very defensive about it. "How did you know that?? Where did you find out?? You've been researching, haven't you?? What are your sources??" I didn't even say anything against the WTS, I just said, "Yeah, I read about that once," and he nearly chewed my head off.
I'm looking for ways to bring certain things up, and I think that his brother's new habit may be a window for me. He thinks that I don't know anything about JWs and the WTS (I haven't told him about my membership on this board, he'd probably be angry), so I can use that as an excuse to come up with a few things to ask him about - "Hey, I was thinking about that smoking rule you guys have, so I looked up what other rules you have, and I read that...", something like that. I'm gonna start a thread on that soon, to get some tips.
I know that he doesn't agree with all of the WTS's rules, though - for example, he certainly doesn't think that "fornication" is bad, but of course, adultery is bad, which makes sense. (No, I'm not sleeping with him, just so you know.) Maybe I can find out what else there is that he has doubts about.
I'll think about this some more, and I'll probably PM you over the weekend, jojochan, with a few questions, if that's not too much trouble. Maybe you can clue me in on some things that I haven't picked up on yet.
He means the world to me, I can't bear the thought of it all going down the drain because of some high-control organization run by a bunch of old men in New York.
Thanks again for this thread, we all needed this one.
-Becka :)