Any Good Ideas for a Letter to the Editor?

by AK - Jeff 26 Replies latest watchtower medical

• 

  Scott77

  Jeff,

  The quality of your article will be judged by the objectives it wants accompolish. So what are them? Are some below some of them????

  1). Hightlight the problem of blood transfusion and why its scripturely wrong or misinterpreted?

  2). Provide useful information to aid honest thinking Cult members to come out of it.

  3). Show that recent or past court intervetion reflect growing public and private concerns to save the lives of Cult members

  You can add more above objectives. Then afterward, we readers can give you effective criticism and positive feedbacks to see whether the article has effectively addressed the objects set forth. As idea, you could add some recent or past court interventions that have lead to the saving or prolonging of lives of some JW patients. That this is a sign of awakening on the part of the cult. Another point can be that some non Cult members of the family, troubled by this unecessary promotion of martydom in the name of religion, are sueing the cult in various courts for wrongful death. Then you can give example such as Hugh in Canada.

  Scott77
• 

  AK - Jeff

  The objective is obvious. {I thought}

  • To alert the public to the dangers of cults that make it's children martyrs in the name of God.
  • Secondly, to allow Jw's who read the article to be made aware that many active Jw's are not just sitting back and accepting that children or adults must die while refusing blood.

  But thanx.

  Jeff
• 

  Georgiegirl

  I think the challenge (as pointed out in another thread) is that Baby Binn appears to be responding to alternative treatments and doing well. In the eyes of many JWs, this will, in fact, be seen as a divine blessing and your letter (no matter how carefully written and well-reasoned) to be the rantings of a lunatic apostate. I would suggest acknowledging how fortunate it is that medical progress is such that there are alternative treatments HOWEVER in many cases, that is not the case and babies die.
• 

  Lillith26

  I'am not sure if iam just being too critical of the WT here but in the two years i spent reading every single publication mag WT/AWAKE I dont know if i ever noticed them publish a question that they could not answer (using scripture) or discredit (using scripture)in some way... To publish a letter that without a doubt proves them wronge???-to do so would be self destructive wouldn't it?

  Maybe sending this Letter to the Ed of your local Newspaper instead of WT would be more productive- I have felt like doing simmilar several times- it may just spark enough intrest from the REAL media to do a proper indepth story on the Issue and cause more to question the GB and prevent more people from joining this "cult" in the first place.

  Appart from that, I give your letter an 11 out 10.
• 

  watson

  Hey Lillith,

  I think he was intending to send this to a website, not the WTS. Just so you know.

  Watson
• 

  Lillith26

  TY Watson- I was just trying to show my support. I think the letter is great just how it is - In my haste to comment I did not click on the link to understand exactly which Editor it was being sent to- Iam sorry and also Iam very glad it wont go to waste by being sent to WT!

  Watson I think we can both agree that issues like this are not being told properly by the media at large, exposing the lies and helping the real victims must be a priority in any case (in this case a very younge child). LOTS MORE LETTERS NEEDED!!!
• 

  AK - Jeff

  The intended recipient would be the local newspaper - sorry if that was cloudy in my first post.

  As far as being considered a raving apostate by Jw's - what is new? They consider anyone who fails to bow to the GB a lunatic unworthy of life. Someone as evil as I am - willing to have left the troof after decades of service to Jehober - well it's a foregone conclusion that I have latched onto the horns of the Debil himself in their captured minds.

  Still, I want the letter to be tactful enough to allow any of the captives who have cracked the mind's window, to begin to see the illogical nature of the insane blood doctrine cornerstone.

  Jeff
• 

  parakeet

  Jeff, I fully agree with every statement you make in your letter. Some time back, I worked for a weekly newspaper (very local) and did a lot of editing and proofing of letters sent in. Given my limited experience, here are a few suggestions that you may use or not as you like:

  If you plan to send it to a small-town paper, it probably will not run. Generally (not always), editors prefer letters that are local in scope.

  If your local paper is a daily in a small city, the readership will be broader, and the editors may decide the subject will appeal to them.

  I don't know if they'll run it specifying dubs by name. Newspapers tend to be conservative if they think they may be sued. However, even if they don't run your letter, it may spark enough interest for an investigative feature piece.

  You will not have the final say if they run it. Be prepared for massive cuts and editing for space. Every column-inch is expensive to print. It's up to the editors to decide what's worthy of that space.

  You don't need to edit out your feelings of outrage. Letters to the editor are opinions; let your opinions show. You're not an objective reporter. You're an outraged citizen and subscriber. If you come on too strong, they will tone it down.

  Don't worry about spelling and grammar. The proofer will take care of all that.

  Good luck.
• 

  AK - rekrul

  I have some ideas.

  1. Allow everyone the chance to remember who is writing, you might start with "Hi, I'm AK-Jeff, you might remember me from (insert the name of some of your last 10 Letter to the Editor columns about Jehovah's Witnesses)."

  2. Let the editor know that you have been a faithful member of a discussion board, Jehovahs-Witness.net, and that for some of your really special letters, you allow other ex-Jehovah's Witnesses help edit and arrange the comments. Perhaps he could go with some of the other members ideas on what you should write and just edit it himself.

  3. When discussing the blood issue and family life of Jehovah's Witnesses, let the public in on your family life. Give your audience some tips on how you raised your children right and how they are doing today.

  Hope this helped.
• 

  rebel8

  Check your paper's requirements. I don't know of any that accept >300 words.

  Many papers won't open attachments, so just paste it in the body of your email.

  Here's an idea for a shorter version if the paper requires it (as much as it pains me to remove the comments about Hemophilia!). I got it down to ~350.

  In March 1997 we were disturbed to learn that 39 members of the 'Heaven's Gate' cult committed suicide. Although their belief system was ludicrous, destructive, and tragic, its victims were all grown adults. They could have chosen to leave, or not participate in such actions. No children died.

  Last week, a young child, "Baby Binn", was being denied blood transfusions by its parents, under the direction of Jehovah's Witnesses in Fort Wayne. This child, who is not a JW yet, was being subjected to his/her parents' interpretations of a single scripture in the Bible, 'abstain from blood' (which they think means to reject blood transfusions).

  I am a former lifetime member and know the doctrines are fraught with duplicity. The group will allow members to accept all parts of the blood, as long as they are separately administered.

  A shocking cover on the JWs' Awake magazine in 1994 featured 26 children, dead due to denial of blood transfusions. The organization seeks to make them heroic. It was the parent's belief system that was being enforced, not the children's. True, some teens may choose this. But how is this conceivable in the case of a baby? Or any young child? Yet children keep dying - gradually starved for oxygen, suffocating.

  Parents are pressured by the church; often clergy sit right outside the hospital room. Parents know should they allow life sustaining treatment, but they'd be expelled from the church and shunned by their friends and family.

  They are more correctly just mimes of adult opinion, fully expecting that 'faithfulness' to Watchtower doctrine would result in a 'sure ticket to paradise'.

  Thankfully, thousands of good, honest and careful Bible readers among JWs are working to reform this policy that shifts like the sand while it that kills children and adult adherents alike. That group is Associated Jehovah's Witnesses for Reform on Blood (AJWRB.org). My experience shows that most Witnesses do not fully understand their church's actual teachings.

  Please pray for Baby Binn and for adults who hold its precious life in their hands. Don't allow this sect to sell its self-engineered martydom as proof of God's love.