Poll regarding Blood Issue

by SWALKER 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  SWALKER

  1st Question...

  Was the MEDICAL information:

  a) Highly Influential

  b) Modestly Influential

  c) Not Influential

  In regards to the following:

  1. Either actually or prospectively choosing to refuse blood (in it's prohibited forms) and

  2. Choosing to become a witness.

  2nd Question...

  Was anyone really fooled by the Society's MEDICAL statements re: Blood?

  I am posting this poll in regards to another thread. Please just give simple answers...as there is enough debate threads around to post long opinions.

  Swalker
• 

  Oroborus21

  
  I'll play.

  1. Not influential, on either my choice to refuse blood or becoming a Witness

  2. I never put much stock in the medical claims of the society. I thought that there might be risks and they were not wrong about there being some risks, but I did not know the real risks and so I put more stock in what the medical facts indicated that a blood transfusion would be helpful or possibly save my life. Still due to the religious belief (I held at the time) I would have been willing to die and refuse a transfusion.
• 

  AuldSoul

  1(1) highly influential

  1(2) not influential

  2 Yes. But I started believing them when I was age six, so...I had to become skeptical of them first.
• 

  SWALKER

  The medical issues were not influential in my rejecting blood transfusions. (Actually, I only slightly scanned over the blood booklet, but would give it to a dr. if I had surgery to undergo. I always signed documents stating this was due to my RELIGIOUS beliefs, nothing to do with medical.)

  I was born and raised a JW and never questioned the validity of their medical or scriptual statements until the last few years.

  Swalker
• 

  Rabbit

  1(1) highly influential

  1(2) not influential

  2 Yes.
• 

  jwfacts

  1, 1 a-highly influential

  1, 2 c -not influential

  2 Yes, trusted every word

  I imagine it is the trusters that are most upset to know they were conned, and the ones most looking forward to some justice.
• 

  rebel8

  My mother was baptized in 1975 and I was a kid then, so I am answering for her.

  1st Question...

  Was the MEDICAL information:

  a) Highly Influential

  In regards to the following:

  1. Either actually or prospectively choosing to refuse blood (in it's prohibited forms) YES and

  2. Choosing to become a witness NO, as far as I know this was not told to my mother until after baptism (a nice thing to do to a kid with a serious bleeding disorder)

  2nd Question...

  Was anyone really fooled by the Society's MEDICAL statements re: Blood? YES, and many people were fooled. We were taught the doctors were influenced by Satan and that's why they were saying blood was necessary when nonblood alternatives were just as good. I did not know until years after leaving the Borg that their medical advice was bogus.
• 

  jeanniebeanz

  1(1) highly influential

  The 'facts' while not the main reason given to the faithful to ‘abstain from blood’ were presented as important backing for the religious stand. If they were not germane to the belief, why were they so presented?

  1(2) not influential

  I was born into the ‘faith’ and so these things were not discussed until I was at such an age to have been already fully indoctrinated by the cult.

  2 Completely.

  When questioning the Society is equivalent to questioning the GB, and questioning the GB will get you booted for apostasy, how could any faithful witness not be? Sure, we question now. But it is not the questioning people who are killed by this policy. It is predominantly the faithful, mislead dubs that die…they or their children.
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  BluesBrother

  The medical arguments about blood in medicine have never made any difference to my decision to become a dub, remain a dub, or eventually (too long later) stop being a dub.

  I always knew that the medical stuff was a minority view among physicians . The whole point of it was , as we were always told, a "Spiritual matter" . We were prepared to refuse because we believed it to be Gods will - and we were dedicated to God , end of story. The witnesses that I have known have always expressed total abhorrence to the idea of taking blood..

  Mind you, I am talking of just a few years ago when the ban on blood products was complete. I wonder if the blurring of the limits has altered the perception of things ?