We all know that the JW stand on blood transfusions is irrational and dishonest. One thing that bothered me when reading In Search of Christian Freedom was how the chapter Blood and Life, Law and Love, described the ENORMOUS quantities of STORED blood required to extract the blood fractions now permitted Jehovah's Witnesses as a "conscience matter." Once again, Witnesses take and take, but do not give anything back but a misguided hope in some future "New World Society!"
I remembered reading JSchwem's suggestion -- I think it was on the Chicago Convention thread posted by expatbrit -- that we help to organize blood drives or at the very least write letters to the editor at District Convention time in our area to publicize the blood issue. As the DC is coming up soon in my area, I wrote the following as a help to all those who might wish to do something similiar this year or next. (Please feel free to editorialize.):
HELP SAVE JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES
(and others)
BLOOD DRIVE TODAY AT _________________
Jehovah’s Witnesses are well known worldwide for their house-to-house preaching
work which is designed to offer salvation to those with whom they come in contact. They
are equally well known for their supposed refusal to accept blood transfusions.
Locally, (insert your name here), a former Jehovah’s Witness, has joined hands
with (insert name of local church or community facility here) to sponsor a blood drive
which may just save the lives of local Jehovah’s Witnesses. How so?
For many years, the Witness religion has been an outspoken opponent of blood
transfusions, holding that accepting a transfusion is the same as eating blood, which they
viewed as being prohibited by the Bible (Acts 15:28,29). But changes in policy since the
early 1990’s makes the statement “Jehovah’s Witnesses do not accept blood” patently
false.
What changes? Well, the June 1, 1990 Watchtower when asked, “Do Jehovah’s
Witnesses accept injections of a blood fraction, such as immune globulin or albumin?”
responded, “Some do, believing that the Scriptures do not clearly rule out accepting a
small fraction, or component, taken from blood.”
While the Watch Tower Society makes the point in the same article that “Jehovah’s
Witnesses do not accept transfusions of whole blood or of its primary components (red cells,
white cells, platelets, or plasma)” it also explains, “Human blood can be separated into dark
cellular material and a yellowish fluid (plasma, or serum). The cellular part (45 percent by
volume) is made up of what are commonly called red cells, white cells, and platelets. The other
55 percent is the plasma. This is 90 percent water, but it carries small amounts of many proteins,
hormones, salts, and enzymes.”
The Witness objection to the use of “whole blood or of its primary components” is
that these are used to “sustain life” while, in their, view, the Bible says the blood belongs
to Jehovah and thus is sacred. Therefore mere humans should not try to “play God” by
“taking in” blood that God has declared must be “disposed of on the ground.” -- Leviticus
17:13, 14; Deuteronomy 12:15, 16.
Since a more recent article (June 15, 2000 Watchtower) deemed “fractions of any
of the primary components,” including hemoglobin, a “conscience matter” for JW
adherents, many Jehovah’s Witnesses do now accept medical treatment that employs
blood.
There’s just a small problem: While Jehovah’s Witnesses may now accept such
treatment, they are still prohibited from donating blood to bloodbanks themselves. And
thus the appeal above: “Save Jehovah’s Witnesses!”
When one realizes that it takes, for example, plasma pooled “from as many as
2,500 blood donors” to extract enough of the preparations Factor VIII and Factor IX to
allow one Jehovah’s Witness hempohiliac to live a normal life span, one can see the crucial
need for the rest of the donating public to participate in blood drives like the one that will
be held this (insert day of week and date here) at (insert location here).
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I thought that we might encourage the local press to add a side bar directing local Jehovah's Witnesses to www.awjrb.org for more information on how Witnesses are working from within to change the policy from partial ban to total acceptance of blood transfusions without fear of sanctions.
What do you all think?
Particularly, what do LeeElder and SamBeliever think? Am I out of line?
outnfree