My father is an ex-Javaho and his brother is an Elder. My father married a fellow witness, she turned out to be batshit crazy and they didnt want them to get divorced. So he ditched the organization and ended up with a Catholic (my mom) and they've been married over 35 years now. He still holds on to a lot of their beliefs though. Based on my experiece with my Dad and Uncle, it was used a lot as a good excuse not to have to buy people gifts.