No, It's not BIG news

by ApagaLaLuz 13 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  TheOldHippie

  I cannot see this as BIG news, either. I agree with seattleniceguy in his points on misrepresentation and misquoting etc., but time and again it is pointed out that the reason for not receiving transfusions, is a biblical/theological one, and not a medical/scientific one. then you have this huge group of followers who are only looking for letters and laws and regulations and blindly follow the written words of a brochure as if it were the almighty himself who had written it. Their own responsibilty, their own conscience - thy don't have it. And if you get lawsuits out of this - it will take five years till the final appeal possibilities have been used.

  Ammunition for lawyers and non-JW family members, but close to nothing for JWs and those for reform. Too vague, too little, too unimportant for Mother's children.
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  seattleniceguy

  Well, the funny thing in all of this is that it really doesn't matter what JWs think of it.
  If a legal precedent is set that costs the Watchtower Society money, it will affect everything.
  For example, imagine 1000 ex-Witnesses who have been adversely affected by the blood policy launch a class-action lawsuit for $1,000,000,000 (a million dollars per litigant). Not only is that big news, but I seriously doubt that the Society has that kind of cash. They have assets, but probably not that much cash. So they'd have to start selling property to manage the payouts. Witness watching this all go down may tighten up their purse strings, adding to the Society's financial woes.
  In other words, if legal and financial pressure is brought to bear on the Society, it is a good thing, regardless of how individual Witnesses see the news immediately.
  SNG
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  Sam the Man

  Agreed. Like I said at the time, the news was 'hyped up' for some kind of attention purposes, and by no means is it 'massive'.
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  Abaddon

  It's not big news doctrinally as it's got nothing to do with the supporting material for the doctrine being misrepresented, i.e. the Bible.

  The misrepresentation occurs in the 'supporting evidence' for how right JW's are to believe this and how risk free it is that is drawn from medical and legal literature. If they had said 'it's our interpretation of the Bible' and nothing else they couldn't be done for it. It's just their perpetual desire to lend credibility to their doctrines through using secular sources and MISUSING THOSE SOURCES TO DO SO that is what has potentially got them in trouble. Ha! Ha! and thrice Ha! I say.

  The fact that the JW's will be shown (if legal cases set precedents as suggested by this article) to have omitted information to falsely portray non-blood therapy as low risk and legal precendent as being in favour of a parent's rights to refuse blood for their children will sadly miss a lot of Witnesses.

  But if legal cases based on this article end up awarding damages, they will be large damages and there will be a lot of them, or a crushing class action.

  If property starts being sold to cover these damages, some of the R&F will wake up enough to smell the coffee... if it impacts upon them personally (i.e. if their hall is sold), they'll take a FAR more specific interest in the facts of the cases (human nature being what it is).

  But contributions to the Worldwide Misrepresentation Work either by R&F or taken from people on the door as contributions for literature will likely drop massively as a result of the court case, if the precedent the article suggests is set in case law.

  Now, there will be the old switch-eroo tried; going from "See Jah blesses us with sucess and new printing plants" will go to "See how Jah's people are marked for persecution by secular authorities", but the financial heart of the Borganisation could well be ripped out along with it's ability to generate more money and we'll be left with something less toothless than Christadephians.

  Calling out around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat? / Summer's here and the time is right, for dancing in the streets...

  If you expected the end of the Borg as we know it tomorrow, sorry, no dice. But a five-year+-long disembowelment sounds FINE to me...