Friendly warning for JW lurkers re: blood in food

by Kingpawn 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Kingpawn

  I work in a meat-processing plant in the US. One of the products we make is the stuff that becomes roast beef. I can't tell who for, and we're not their only supplier, but they're big enough to advertise nationwide in America, so....

  Anyway, when we do our part on my line, before the meat's sent to the next step, we drip blood from the meat's box in the container the raw meat's dumped into. I doubt the meat was bled before we got it, and we don't make any effort to do it, and I know for a fact that in the last stage in the process blood still goes in the mixer so you're getting your RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of beef hemoglobin when you have a roast beef sandwhich.

  Just thought you'd like to know. Not BS'ing you on this to play on your fears about blood. I've worked on two of the three lines involved in making this stuff so I know what I'm talking about.

  You're welcome.
• 

  lisavegas420

  mmmmmm...roast beef

  Lisa
• 

  RAYZORBLADE

  I rarely eat meat of any sort.

  When I did, I usually purchased items from Kosher meat markets, or Halal Muslim meat markets. They tended to prepare their meats carefully.

  So, if anyone is a bit squeamish after reading what Kingpawn has written, maybe you may want to buy your meat at either a kosher or halal butcher shop.
• 

  freeman

  In theory it is as wrong for a JW to eat improperly bleed meat as it is for them to receive a blood transfusion. Practice however is quite different then theory. I know of not one JW that eats only kosher meat or purchases their meat from devout Muslim butchers.

  Kosher meat is the only properly bleed meat that is widely available in the commercial market. So unless they are butchering their own cows, they are in violation of the so-called command to abstain from blood.

  Some people are under the mistaken belief that kosher means blessed by a rabbi, this is simply not the case. To adhere to the kosher standard, which is to say in fact the Biblical standard, the meat must be drained of its blood entirely. Have you ever defrosted hamburger or a stake, do you see the bloody mess it makes? That my friend is a sure sign that the meat has not been properly bleed.

  The kosher process involves a labor-intensive type of butchery, almost surgical. This includes deliberately removing specific arterial systems and fat from the carcass, and using cold running water to wash the meat as well as salt to drain even the invisible remnants of blood from the meat.

  That is why kosher meat costs more; it is a lot of extra trouble to prepare meat this way, and the commercial market simply does not engage in this practice because of the prohibitive costs involved. So the next time a JW starts in with the we abstain from blood, you may wish to ask him or her how much salt and cold running water was used to drain the meat they are eating.

  Im sighting no references in this posting because Im simply too lazy, and anyone reading this has at their finger tips tons of references available over the net and in their own Bible.

  re-edited to correct typo's (need more coffee)

  Freeman

  Edited by - freeman on 19 January 2003 10:25:50

  Edited by - freeman on 19 January 2003 10:28:41
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  cruzanheart

  MMmmmmmmm......haggis and blood sausage.
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  Gordy

  I was in the Meat Trade for 25 years in Britain. The firm I worked for used to buy its animals live. Which were then slaughtered in line with strict Food Hygiene regulations. On certain days you would get Jewish slaughtermen there as well. Who would kill their animals by cutting its throat, while it was still concious and letting the blood drain away. They would then cut the animal removing certain parts etc. I asked them did they do it following something in the Hebrew scriptures. The Rabbi in charge,said that basically all that scripture required was that the bulk of the blood in the animal be poured out. In other words the animals throat was cut and when the blood had stopped pouring from the cut. Then the animal was said to have been bled and was OK to eat. He said that many of the so called "Kosher" rules were brought in over time, some only within the last hundred years, by Rabbis adding to the Law. That they were all really added man-made rules about how it should be done. Even then not every trace of blood can be removed.

  Even washing under cold water and salt will not remove every trace of blood. I've seen meat still oozing blood 2 weeks after.
• 

  BeelzeDub

  Ever wonder to what extent Noah might have bled his meat? Think he got 100% of the blood out? I doubt it.

  The point is to be so obsesive that you would die in order to obstain from blood, you probably shouldn't be eating any meat either.

  I know many wintesses, myself included, who ejoyed a nice bloody juicy steak after the meeting on Sunday.
• 

  NeonMadman

  Kosher meat is the only properly bleed meat that is widely available in the commercial market

  Much as I hate to defend the JW's position on this in any way (and unfamiliar as I am with meat processing procedures), I feel an obligation to point out that nothing in the Levitical laws requires that meat be not only drained of blood, but washed with water, arterial systems removed, and salt applied to make sure that every trace of blood is removed. The basic procedure is stated at Leviticus 17:13, 14 (NIV):

  " 'Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off."
  

  I suspect that the extreme measures used in preparation of kosher meat are merely embellishments upon the actual requirements of the scriptures (as the Pharisees were famous for doing). They are certainly not required by Old Testament law. Any ceremonially clean animal that has been killed by having its throat cut and the blood drained to the earth would qualify as food, according to the above text. Extreme measures to assure that every molecule of blood is actually removed from the meat are not indicated.

  I hasten to add that I believe that the JW's are absolutely wrong in their teaching, because kosher laws do not apply to Christians under the New Covenant. Further, there is no reasonable basis for believing that transfusion of blood and eating of blood are the same thing. Besides that, the principle of pulling one's ox from a ditch on the Sabbath (working, even though work was forbidden) demonstrates that ceremonial laws could be overridden in the interest of preserving life. However, given that the JW's do believe in the efficacy of the Old Testament laws, I do not believe that they are in violation of these laws due to eating non-kosher meat that has been bled according to the Biblical standard.

  Now if, as Kingpawn asserts, blood is actually added, then the JW's might have a real problem.

  Edited by - NeonMadman on 20 January 2003 11:18:50
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  Gerard

  "The Scriptures clearly show that it would be wrong for a dedicated Christian to donate whole blood for use by someone else either in a transfusion of whole blood or or in a transfusion of any of its four primary components (Acts 15:20)." ----WTBTS

  Really?!

  Acts 15:20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and [from] fornication, and [from] things strangled, and [from] blood.

  Clearly

  shows nothing of the sort!

  Back then they had no idea blood transfusions were possible. They were unaware of its basic components and that they could be used lovingly to save lives.

  How about Leviticus 4:7 "And the priest shall put of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before Jehovah, which is in the tent of meeting; and all the blood of the bullock shall he pour out at the base of the altar of burnt-offering, which is at the door of the tent of meeting."

  Aint that offering kind of dark and pagan? If not, why is it that the WT does not make blood offerings to Jehovah?

  The WT has distorted the Scriptures in a way that that such practice and subsequent deaths glorify their man-made organization.

  Gerry

  Edited by - Gerard on 20 January 2003 13:55:1