Elders answer questions about the changes of the blood ban

by opusdei1972 51 Replies latest watchtower medical

  • KateWild
    KateWild

    Very interesting thread.

    Snare you make some good points, but Oub so do you. I am afraid I am not taking sides. I love you both to bits. Kate xx

  • Doug Mason
    Doug Mason

    I have an amount of material on the subject at: http://www.jwstudies.com/blood.html

    In particular, I would like to emphasise: http://www.jwstudies.com/Handling_Medical_Evidence.pdf

    But you might find this handy, too: http://www.jwstudies.com/Loyalty_Test.pdf

    Doug

  • Oubliette
    Oubliette

    S&R: anyone with a hint of knowledge about blood find the WT stance illogical and inconsistant.

    As with all their other teachings.

    They are consistently inconsistent!

  • yadda yadda 2
  • AnnOMaly
    AnnOMaly

    "You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. "(Deut 14:21)

    I've also heard this one used a lot to excuse JWs benefiting from blood components processed as a result of 'worldly' people's misuse of blood. The application of this scripture falls down on several levels.

    "You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; ... "

    Nothing has died. The donors are living.

    Nothing is being eaten and digested. The blood is being transfused and used in the body in the way God designed it.

    " ... you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. ... "

    The 'worldly' people can use the blood. That means JWs mustn't use the blood.

    The law said nothing about aliens and foreigners carving up the unbled meat and giving pieces back to the Israelites to consume and that would be OK. So why are JWs using the blood given away for only 'worldly' people to use?

    Besides, JWs do not give blood at all, so how can this be analogous to an Israelite giving/selling an unbled carcass to 'worldly' people?

    " ... For you are a people holy to the Lord your God."

    Holiness without hypocrisy. It is hypocritical for JWs to personally benefit from the result of 'worldly' persons making an industry out of breaking God's laws and principles on blood.

  • jgnat
    jgnat

    Yadda, that principle may apply even closer than mine does. The difference is practicing Jews have found practical applications to take care of obvious inconsistencies (taboo threatens a life) whereas the WT cherry picks scriptures to rigidly apply, injustices be damned.

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot

    AnnOMaly - "The law said nothing about aliens and foreigners carving up the unbled meat and giving pieces back to the Israelites to consume and that would be OK."

    That seems to be one of the WTS's ongoing problems... the Bible is just too damn silent on too many things.

    Gotta plug those holes...

    ...after all, deep down inside, the R&F are really too rotten and stupid to be left to their own devices.

  • bennyk
    bennyk

    "You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. "(Deut 14:21)

    As AnnOMaly states: "The 'worldly' people can use the blood. That means JWs mustn't use the blood."

    Additionally, it would imply that Jehovah's Witnesses should feel entirely free to donate blood for the use of non-Witnesses.

  • M.J.
    M.J.

    "You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. "(Deut 14:21)"

    So she asked why she as a jw shouldn't donate blood (to provide to the supply of blood which could potentially be used by other JWs for fractions), and the elders gave her this scripture. I don't see how their answer here addresses the question. It seems like they were arguing against themselves. This is a passage that would give the green light to donate blood. If the donated blood ends up benefitting of an "alien", no problem, according to the above "principle". If it happens to be used for a JW needing fractions, also no problem, because by their definition a fraction is not "blood". Win-win!!!

  • PaulaCaptiva
    PaulaCaptiva

    My cousin is on a California HLC and he has quietly sugested to simply not share medical information with the congregation. Medical records are personal. Many HLC members now realize the Society is wrong.

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