Need help from JW History Buffs (page 5)

Old Goat

Vaccination, use of aluminum, etc. were "open debates." The top brass couldn't travel internationally without vaccinations and Macmillan openly said he had his. Blood issues were "doctrinal." The wild health speculations in Golden Age were not, though they influenced many. When I was a hell of a lot younger than I am now (1940s, 1950s) many were still influenced by the anti-aluminum and anti-inoculation articles. But those articles were not meant to be "doctrinal."

Your research will improve if you chase down the biographies of the Golden Age writers. It makes for an interesting study. Also, if you were my student, I'd suggest that you see who else was promoting similar views. You will find a mixture of "real science" as it was in the 1920s and 30s, and quack medicine.

ILoveTTATT

Hi Old Goat...

I take it from your other posts, that you are a history professor?

I thank you for your insight and your moderation. I want to get the facts straight.

About your suggestion of learning of the biographies of the Golden Age writers:

Thanks for the suggestion. Would you suggest, then, to study the life of Woodworth and McMillan? What sources can I use to know about their lives?

Do you know of other sources besides "Faith on the March" where McMillan implied/openly said he had his vaccinations?

I beg to differ on one point (which is the source of my confusion):

There was ONE, possibly two articles, making vaccination SCRIPTURALLY wrong (around 1931). The rest of the articles were either contributed, or "insight on the news" kind of articles. Then in 1952, in the Watchtower, "scriptural objections" to vaccination, if any, were removed.

So the big question on my mind is, can it be said that vaccination was made "doctrinal"?

Whether it can be said that it was "doctrinal" or not, what is CLEAR is that the Golden Age publications influenced many AGAINST vaccination, due to the fact that articles against it were published so often.

P.S. Sorry if I got upset at you in previous posts.

ILTTATT

ILoveTTATT

Band on the run: I read some of your other posts and it seems like you have a law firm or know a lot about laws. I think even today, New Mexico has one of the strictest laws regarding religious vaccination exemptions. You HAVE to explain an prove why your religious beliefs prevent you from receiving vaccinations. I think, if I am not mistaken, that Alaska was the state that had the specific religions mentioned and was shut down because a case ruled it unconstitutional (the language)... New Mexico's law hasn't been challenged yet.

EdenOne

Can someone (Terry?) provide a dated quote where the Organization states that the Watchtower articles (or any other literature) is edited directly by Jehovah?

Thanks

Eden

ILoveTTATT

as they say, "Seek and ye shall find!"

It is interesting that my theory was not too far from the theory of this other article. McMillan did revisionism, it may have been an anachronism on his part, and/or there simply was disagreement between JW's... some followed the viewpoints against vaccination, and some didn't.

http://www.watchtowerinformationservice.org/blood-medical-issues/the-blood-transfusion-taboo-of-jehovahs-witnesses/

" To be sure, this disapproval was never framed in an official doctrine based on biblical articles of faith and promulgated like the ruling on blood, but the practice was vehemently discouraged."

"Besides the perceived dangers of vaccination and inoculation, the markedly cynical writings also breathe of an antagonistic attitude towards the medical profession, the pharmaceutical industry, and, above all, the state as an active agent which compels its citizens to have themselves vaccinated. It is doubtful whether this doctrine enjoyed large support. In one of the first studies of the Witnesses, undertaken in the early 40s, it is noted that the majority of the adherents would accept medical services (13). Also indicative may be the case of the approximately 4300 American Witnesses who were in prison as conscientious objectors during World War II (14). According to Macmillan, member of the Society’s leadership, only a small minority concentrated in one prison refused to submit to the vaccinations compulsory for all inmates. It was only after his intervention convincing them there were no scriptural objections that they complied. Of interest, however, is Macmillan’s argument for the prisoners refusal. In his autobiography (one of the few eulogies on the Jehovah’s Witnesses which have not been published by the Society), he notes "(…) our boys (…) considered [vaccinations] the same as blood transfusions (…)" (15,16). As the doctrine on blood had yet to be promulgated his assertion may exemplify the psychological repression of obsolete doctrines or unpopular policy and subsequent reinterpretation into acceptable and plausible ideological statements; a mechanism not uncommon among Jehovah’s Witnesses and adherents of similar religious groups. In the Society’s own official historiography this particular event has been omitted (17). Furthermore, as noted by Penton, it is not entirely clear whether the aversion against vaccination represented the Society’s viewpoint in general or rather a personal grudge of Woodworth, the editor of Awake! (18). Macmillan’s explanation may therefore reflect the possible disagreement among the Society’s leadership among this specific issue. After 1945 the animosity against vaccinations disappeared from the reading matter, but until the 60s it was still considered an act of pollution of blood and body (19)."

Old Goat

other sources? Most or all of the Consolation and Golden Age are avaialable on line. But there are also the various newspaper archives. Search their names.

I liked Macmillan. He was a nice guy. I never knew Woodworth, though I saw him at a convention before he died. Macmillan I liked personally.

ILoveTTATT

Pretty much all vaccination quotes will be placed here:

https://sites.google.com/site/historiadelostestigosdejehova/historia-de-la-doctrina-de-la-sangre/fotografias

ILoveTTATT

I found out that back in the day, even the Encyclopedia Britannica could not be trusted regarding germs and vaccination, and the Golden Age capitalized on this fact, that the Encyclopedia was respected, and that it went against the germ theory and vaccination.

If you want to read more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Creighton

ILoveTTATT

I also learnt that Florence Nightingale did not believe in vaccinations... because it flew in the face of the miasma theory:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory

ILoveTTATT

They hated this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Fishbein

And were anti-semitic...

William G. Scheckels and Fishbein
WILLLUI G. SCHECKELS beautiful five-year-old
child, once the light of the home at 540
Newton Place, 'Vashington, D. C., is dead of
lockjaw follo\ving vaccination. He was vac~
cinated so that he might have the privilege
of attending school, to get a chance to learn
how to live. The investigation has been turned
over to the 'Health Department', and, as
they are ahyays regular M.D.'s, that \vill be the
end of it. And that brings us to Fishbein, the
president of the American Medical Association,
a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He has just written
a book in which he proceeds to tell us how
superior is the judgment of a member of the
American Medical Association to that of Jesus
Christ, in the following language: "To the modern
informed physician, such risings from apparent
death arc not miracles because they are
perfectly nnder:-toocl. To the uninformed observer
of more than 1900 years ago, such an in.
cident might well appear to haye been a raising
from the dead." No doubt Fishbein feels that it
is just too bad that he did not have an oppor.
tunity to teach Christ the importance ofvaccina.
tion, and to explain to Him that if anything is
ever to be done for William G. Scheckels it ,,,ill
haye to be clone hy a modern informed physi~
ciano Meantime, "see your doctor twice a year."

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