It's weird to look back at old family stories about our beliefs.

schnell

My parents had a story that the first time my dad ever met my mom's father, he opened the door and immediately asked dad, "What are you gonna do if my grandson needs a blood transfusion?!"

Grampa was a WW2 vet, an airplane mechanic, a Methodist and Freemason. He and my grandmother were pictured all my life as these ogres who opposed my mother's JW conversion and her marriage to my father. I never spent a lot of time with them, never got to know him, and only had a (not)Thanksgiving dinner with my grandmother towards the very end of her life. They were by no means perfect or even necessarily good people.

But episodes like that one were always told a certain way by my parents. As kids, we soaked up the lesson quite well: Blood transfusions are bad, and we have to withstand persecution from family about our beliefs.

And that is so completely irrational to me now. Why can't your beliefs withstand criticism, and re-examination? Why the persecution complex? Dad, why couldn't you just get off your high horse and admit this is wrong?

Now, I have to study with my wife about this because of her years of indoctrination. Because we want to have children, we have already accepted blood fractions to that end, and indeed, what am I going to do when our son needs a blood transfusion?

Finkelstein

Tell her that when this doctrine was created (1940's) by F Franz, N Knorr and possibly J Rutherford, it was stated by these men that to receive blood from another person, one would also receive the givers ill personal attributes, stupid yes but that's what they said.

There is some insightful information about the WTS's blood doctine on this site and a very good one by Cofty , that debunks this doctrine by using intellectual honesty and reason .

Also these men particularly Franz twice used a 6000 of mankind's existence dating calculation, one ending in 1941 and then again in 1975.

Which was actually used previously decades early by C T Russell (1902) , the founder of the Watchtower Publishing house.

The main reason I personally left the WTS/JWS was because of the lying and deceiving marketing corruption of the WTS.

Could never get my head around that god would be actually guiding this organization or had selectively chosen it, as the WTS personally proclaimed.

schnell

I have told her about the belief that a blood transfusion changes your personality, and discovered that she believes it due to a family anecdote of her own.

tiki

I am confused. You are now married and now contemplating having a family and worried about possible events requiring blood transfusions? What if such a situation never occurs? Why split hairs about things that may never happen? If down the road blood transfusion issue arises..simple. Yes or no. It is a medical reality decision that has no bearing on your eternal daydream.

JWdaughter

It has bearing that both spouses agree ahead of time because for JWs it is a critical issue in that lives can be lost, relationships and marriages severed, jobs lost, all family ties effectively cut. . .yeah, it's good to have that one agreed to. Eternal daydream is the jw issue, here and now is for those who are awake and cognizant.

schnell

@tiki I am awake and faded after nearly 5 years of marriage. My lovely wife hangs onto this or that.

As JWdaughter said, that's something I would want agreement upon should it ever arise, not that I hope it does. It is most certainly not a mundane decision.

dubstepped

Yeah, inside the stress of such a life or death situation isn't the time to hash this out. I applaud you for being proactive and discussing things now.

I like your point too about how things were told a certain way. That persecution complex sure skews the way that everything is related.

scratchme1010

Why can't your beliefs withstand criticism, and re-examination? Why the persecution complex? Dad, why couldn't you just get off your high horse and admit this is wrong?
Now, I have to study with my wife about this because of her years of indoctrination. Because we want to have children, we have already accepted blood fractions to that end, and indeed, what am I going to do when our son needs a blood transfusion?

Tough situation. This makes me think about the people who still make excuses for the WT and claim that they do not cause harm to people and families.

Good news about the blood transfusion thing is that it's no longer a hot topic in JW land for various reasons. In the subway I overheard two JW ladies talking about the fraction thing, and one of them said "you know, 99/100 is still a fraction".

The other thing is that we are now in times where medicine has advanced a lot when it comes to treatment, and has been able to replace the use of blood in many treatments and not even recommend it at all in instances where in the past they did. The WT presumes that it's because of their influence, but the reality is that the medical industry itself has gotten a lot of problems over using blood. There was the AIDS crisis, there's the issue of blood banks always being in the red, especially those uncommon blood types, etc. Medical professionals themselves offer many different options today. And since now the medical industry is about making money, the use of blood is not as cost effective as many other alternative treatment or products.

I think that should ease your mind from too much worry around it.

It's sad that you couldn't have a relationship with your grandparents over that nonsense, though.

schnell

Thank you, scratchme1010. That does help.

Nevuela

Son? Are you opposed to having a daughter? Why do men only want sons and never daughters?

It's weird to look back at old family stories about our beliefs.

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