Some viewers might particularly be interested in the "blood transfusion" court cases that relate to pregnant JWs and their "unborn children".
See how the right to refuse blood transfusions was gradually given to pregnant JWs, even though such would mean the death of their "fetuses".
See how such relate to the court cases that gradually legalized abortion.
OVER 450 JW LAWSUITS, COURT CASES, ETC SUMMARIZED: BLOOD, CUSTODY, EMPLOYEE
by West70 14 Replies latest watchtower medical
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West70
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West70
WatchTower and Abortionists walked hand-in-hand as "unborn children" were lowered to the status of "fetuses".
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West70
See the posted question at their forum, in which Founder denies WatchTower link to Foundation, but fails to dispute his own ties:
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stapler99
Bumped thread. I just came across this website as well. It is full of experiences going back to the 1940's.
http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com/decisions/1950sCases.html
GRIESHABER v. GRIESHABER was a 1958 Missouri appellate court decision which stands as a testament to the tens of thousands of marriages that have been destroyed after Jehovah's Witnesses came door-knocking while the husband was at work. Although this specific case should be interpreted within the environmental context of the 1950s, there are thousands of divorces that occurred in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and right up to 2011, whose names could be interchanged with the Grieshabers.
Elzie Grieshaber and Alice Mae Grieshaber were married in August 1948. While this was Elzie's first marriage, it was Alice Mae's third marriage, and she had two children from a prior marriage. Elzie owned a small farm about six miles outside Saint Genevieve, Missouri. The farm was about a mile off the main road, and the closest neighbor was about a half mile away. Alice Mae was used to living on a farm -- probably having been reared on such, and doing so during her first two marriages. Alice Mae was perfectly aquainted with Elzie and his farm before she agreed to marry Elzie. Alice Mae was a typical farm wife who raised a garden, and helped Elzie with raising the crops and feeding the animals.
In addition to caring for the farm, Elzie was a iron worker. Elzie regularly traveled to the greater St. Louis area to help erect steel frame buildings -- some as tall as 30 stories or more. This was dangerous, exhausting work that required Elzie to leave home around 4:30 AM and return around 6:30 PM. In addition to being a hard worker, Elzie was a moral, non-drinking man who took his family to the Methodist Church on Sundays. The couple soon had two children of their own, and in 1954, Elzie constructed a new home on the farm for his expanding family.
In 1955, several strangers stopped at the Grieshaber's farm, spoke to Alice Mae about the Bible, and either sold or left some Bible literature. Typically, they intentionally failed to identify themselves as "Jehovah's Witnesses". However, their identity quickly became known as those JWs repeatedly returned in their efforts to convert the naive farmwife. Alice Mae became the "backcall", and thereafter the "bible study" of Kenneth Smedstad and Dorothy Smedstad, and slowly but surely Alice Mae became a JW convert.
Knowing little about Jehovah's Witnesses, and the consequences of associating with them, Elzie initially was cordial with the Smedstads after they started to also visit when he was at home. Elzie even drove Alice Mae and the children to a few Sunday afternoon meetings at the closest Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. However, the true nature of the beast gradually displayed itself. Not only did Elzie gradually notice a change in his wife as she spent more and more time studying WatchTower materials, attending meetings, and pestering him about such, but one day while the Smedstads were visiting, one of the Grieshaber children accidentally kicked Kenneth Smedstad's leather briefcase. Smedstad blurted out, "I don't see why people don't make their kids mind, ... ." (This editor has personally experienced numerous similar instances over the decades of JW Elders sitting in my own home speaking down to me in a similar fashion. The only reason those JWs walked away unscathed was because I was a "true believer" at the time.) Being a smarter, stronger person than I, Elzie Grieshaber quickly told Kenneth Smedstad that he was not going to come into his home and tell him how to raise his children. The Smedstads got up and left. However, little did Elzie Grieshaber know, he had won the battle, but lost the war. (Interestingly, during the divorce hearing, Kenneth Smedstad testified that this incident never happened.)
Thereafter, the JWs had no further chance converting Elzie, but Elzie still did not fully understand the consequences of Alice Mae's conversion. While Elzie nagged Alice Mae about her conversion, he grudgingly drove her and the four children to the Kingdom Hall on Sunday afternoons, while the family ceased attending church on Sunday mornings. Elzie specifically told Alice Mae that he didn't want his own two children to join the JWs, because he wanted them to live a normal childhood at home and at school without all the burdens of the WatchTower religion.
Things came to a head in June 1956 when Alice Mae wanted to attend a weekend WatchTower Convention being held in Farmington, Missouri. Elzie told her that she could go, but that she could not take the two younger children. However, Alice Mae left with all four children when the Smedstads came to pick her up. That evening, when Elzie got home from work and discovered noone home, the enraged father went after his own two children. Arriving at the convention, Elzie finally located Alice Mae and the children. Elzie walked right up to her during the program and demanded his two children. When Alice Mae refused to allow him to take the youngest, he slapped her. The ironworker also challenged any of the watching JW Males to try to stop him. No one tried. When Elzie got home, he burned Alice Mae's WatchTower literature. Alice Mae spent that night with the Smedstads and attended the next day's convention program. The Grieshabers had it out that next night, but things calmed down thereafter.
At some point, Elzie had ordered the Smedstads to stay off his property, but the Smedstads continued to visit Alice Mae when Elzie was at work. However, one day in August 1956, the Smedstads made the mistake of coming to the farm on a day when Elzie did not have to work. Elzie grabbed Kenneth Smedstad by the shirt collar, shook him, and threatened to beat his arse. Alice Mae grabbed Elzie long enough for Smedstad to run to his car. Unbelieveably, the Smedstads called to Alice Mae, and she left with them, before returning later in the day. Thereafter, Alice Mae would continue to meet with the Smedstads in their car out on the public roadway.
On September 5, 1956, the Smedstads helped Alice Mae and the four children leave the Grieshaber home. As has been done time and again, the Smedstads took Alice Mae and the four children to the home of other JWs who Elzie did not know. Elzie eventually learned their whereabouts through one of Alice Mae's ex-husbands -- the father of the two oldest children. Elzie tried to get Alice Mae to return home, but she refused. Shortly thereafter, Alice Mae filed a lawsuit for separate maintenance claiming "constructive abandonment" in that Elzie had made her life as his wife intolerable. Elzie responded with a cross suit for a divorce. After a trial, the trial court denied both actions, and Alice Mae appealed. In June 1958, the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's ruling, stating in part:
"We are convinced that prior to plaintiff's affiliation with Jehovah's Witnesses the home life of plaintiff and defendant was serene and surrounded with the happiness described by the defendant. What we have to say in this opinion is not to be characterized as an objection by us to plaintiff's affiliation with her newly found religious group. She was free to follow her religious beliefs in any manner or with any group she pleased. This was the attitude of her husband. While he tried to dissuade her from attending the meetings of this group, he nevertheless took her to the meetings and this continued after the assembly incident and it seems until the separation. The evidence clearly demonstrates that the only real objection defendant had was the effort of plaintiff to raise the two children born of this marriage under the influence and teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Defendant resented her efforts and the efforts of the Smedstads in this direction. In connection with the Smedstads it must be said that they knew and acknowledged in their testimony that defendant did not want them on the farm. Despite this knowledge they persisted in calling on the plaintiff. It is our thought that under the circumstances they should have been satisfied with plaintiff's presence at the meetings.
"As to the slapping incident at the assembly meeting, defendant had told plaintiff not to take the two children, but she stubbornly followed her own desires. Defendant had as much to say as plaintiff about the religious training of the children. While we do not approve of the slapping of his wife, we do believe that plaintiff's action in taking them to the meeting and in squeezing the child in an attempt to keep it from the defendant provoked the slapping incident and that defendant's action under the circumstances was excusable. Nor was the occurrence of the following night of any consequence. Plaintiff said defendant did not strike her but merely raved, cursed and shook her. Defendant denied that he shook plaintiff and denied that he raved at or cursed her. We defer to the trial court's finding on this occurrence.
"The Smedstads must have known they were causing an estrangement between this husband and wife, because they called at the farm in August with the knowledge that defendant did not want them on the farm. Their visit on this occasion precipitated the rather vigorous warning given to them by the defendant. However, the Smedstads were not to be discouraged for they continued to visit plaintiff on the road outside the farm and aided plaintiff in her departure from the home. We see nothing wrong in defendant's conduct on the occasion of the August incident at the farm. It was an effort, as he said, to keep someone else from taking over in his own home."
Non-JW readers should understand that not only have there been tens of thousands of "Grieshabers" over the decades, but that such is due to the fact that there have existed thousands of "Smedstads" over the decades. There is one local JW Elder that I have known only sporadically over the years, who has been an instigator in at least 5 divorces of which I know, and I have no doubt that if I wanted to update my info with local JWs, that number might very well be doubled.
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Scott77
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