Because Big J the GB said so. That's what it boils down to.
How to Die at the Order of the Watchtower Society
Scottleblog: The Odd Life of Jehovah's Witnesses
Taking alcohol into the veins (WBT$ illo) - can someone deconstruct this for me?
by punkofnice 30 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
LongHairGal
punk of nice:
Having blood transfused into your veins is not feeding you. Somebody getting transfused who does not eat will still starve. A blood transfusion is more like an organ transplant.
-
moggy lover
I think the problem lies with the word "abstain" which the Watchtower writers constantly keep using in the wrong contexts. The Watchtower "reasoning" goes something like this: Your doctor tells yah to "abstain from alchohol" right? Well, if God tells us "to abstain from blood" it must be equally valid, right? Would a person "reason" that I could not drink blood, but I can take it in intravenously? No! they coo.
The point is that they can! Because "abstain" here is being used ccontextually in a different sense. When we eat or drink something, we are utilizing the digestive system in our bodies. So when God tells us to "abstain" from blood, if such an injunction were still valid [most evangelicals believe that this was only operative in the first century when the peculiar Jew/Gentile controversy was in effect] it would mean that of either eating or drinking it, using our digestive processes.
But when we take blood into our veins, we do not use our digestive systems but rather our circulatory system which is an independent operation in our bodies. It is never classified as "eating" or "drinking" or even "feeding". It is merely circulating.
Now if God had said: "Abstain from circulating blood" in your system, then the ban on blood transfusions would be valid.
But then it would mean that we could drink it!
-
recovering
It is very interesting since they say it is ok to have organ transplants. Please look at the chart I have linked. Under circulatory system it has blood listed as an organ. JWs certainly are not consistant.
-
punkofnice
Thanks folks.
Just shows how scewed WBT$ thinking is!
-
wha happened?
IN the original blood booklet, blood is refered to as an organ. But then, back then, organ transplants were a no-no. They had to chnage that up when organ transplants were approved
-
Vidiot
Respectfully, you guys are all missing the point.
The only reason the transfusion ban exists at all was because a grade-A grump at Brooklyn who had a bone to pick with the AMO came up with the idea to drum up publicity and feed the R&F's persecution complex during the WTS's recruitment slump following WW2.
And since these guys have always firmly believed that the Big A would be dropping any day now (and would thusly render any interpretational errors moot), they couldn't possibly have anticipated the bad PR it's given the WTS, the interpretational gymnastics needed to maintain it, or especially the thousands-strong body count that the policy has accumulated over the decades since.
It's the original "real-world" motivation behind the WTS's decision that truly matters.
Any alleged "scriptural" reasoning for the proscription is just gravy.
-
Marvin Shilmer
-
Punkofnice,
Documented information in the following two articles will help you on this point:
- Transfusing blood is eating blood? available at: http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2012/07/transfusing-blood-is-eating-blood.html
- Watchtower’s expert on blood transfusion… available at: http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2012/10/watchtowers-expert-on-blood-transfusion.html
Marvin Shilmer
-
Satanus
I see the difference between eating and implanting. Swallowing booze is 'eating'. Is iv-ing booze eating or not? Is breathing it to get high eating?
S
-
punkofnice
Again thanks guys.
That's why I like these threads I get a cornucopia of info I can assimilate.
You guys rock (Throws up rock hands) \m/ \m/