Would giving up her religion help Wednesday win? [...] It doesn't seem that it would make her any richer, happier, more successful - especially if she carries on living in Utah. [...] It would make her right. And that would be all it would do - if she were lucky.

When asking if she wins it would help to understand what winning means. Is the contest being right? Than she wins by being right. Is the contest not pissing your family off? Than she wins by not pissing her family off.

If "winning" is maximizing value, what does she gain by being wrong? Friends and fuzzies? If that is more useful, than so be it. The danger here is establishing some form of cognitive dissonance where everything in the back of the rationalist Wednesday's mind is screaming that Mormonism is wrong but she smiles and says she believes. I do not consider this to be useful, so I claim this is a losing scenario. If you bump into the obvious truth it is difficult to close Pandora's Box. You may want to close it, but simply pretending it is close is not a winning option.

Ironically, I personally think that some atheists do the same thing. They want to believe God does not exist but never really do. Saying that you believe something when you don't is bad. The particular belief is irrelevant.

The short summary:

• Wednesday should not be afraid of the truth because she fears what others may do to her
• Wednesday should not lie to herself about what she believes
• If Wednesday looks at the evidence and considers Mormonism to be lacking she should face the crisis of faith instead of trying to ignore the evidence
• Wednesday should ask her family and friends how they respond to the evidence. This may or may not ease tensions but it usually helps amongst reasonable, friendly people.
• If Wednesday sees the evidence and decides to believe Mormonism, she has made her choice. If she believes the evidence and decides to try Mormonism anyway... that may be bad.

ETA:

When Wednesday has been born and has learned to read, it would be nice if there were a place for her here.

And I completely agree with this. I am not a terribly bit fan of kicking anyway out unless they are explicitly causing trouble. Someone who makes a bunch of stupid posts should get their karma hammered and will no longer post. Sounds right to me.