no longer disfellowshipped for having a blood transfusion

by still wondering 17 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  still wondering

  can anyone help me in finding any statements made by the wtbs in any of their publications to confirm this change or even just the original news release which i understand was on their official website but i now can't find any reference to it.

  is this a case of having one policy for public consumption to improve their public image but the another policy for internal consumption to give the impression that things hav'nt changed?

  it appears that the majority of jw do not know of the change in policy.
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  Scully

  Watchtower Society ceases disfellowshiping action?(Information from www.ajwrb.org )

  While the WTS has instructed member congregations to cease disfellowshipping JWs who accept blood transfusions, it will from this point forward be understood that one who accepts blood will have unilaterally disassociated themselves from the WTS, unless they express remorse and sincere repentance that satisfies local elders.

  We have obtained a copy of a press release issued by the WTS's Public Affairs office that confirms the policy has changed.
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  greendawn

  I think this is just a gimmick they will no longer DF but they still count those that accept blood as disassociated which is the same thing since both will be treated in the same way.
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  geevee

  Just like joining the army...........
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  blondie

  Nothing has yet been put in the WTS publications on this. Even the elders do not have a letter in their files from the WTS...it was verbally conveyed to the bodies of elders by the COs.

  The letter Scully has is the only official info from the WTS I have seen.

  Blondie
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  LovesDubs

  Boy doesnt that take the "bad guy" hat away from the Org then....they dont have to convene a committee against you or ask any leading questions...they consider you having QUIT so they dont have to FIRE YOU if you take blood. "We told you so..this is the rule, you broke it..yer outta here. Dont let the door hit you on the ass on the way out."

  <dusting their hands off as they walk away from your ruined discarded life>
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  Terry

  As I have mentioned at great length elsewhere the Watchtower has hijacked the meaning of "abstain from blood" from the Noahide Laws.

  Abstain from blood in that context meant DO NOT MURDER. It had nothing whatever to do with blood transfusions or eating.

  Abstaining from "things strangled" was the law against eating an animal whose blood had not been poured out.

  Countless sincere and well-intentioned people have suffered needlessly over this misinterpretation.

  The Watchtower Society is in the same position as the Catholic Church when they discover that a patron Saint was fictional.
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  Narkissos

  The immediate background for this "change of policy" is documented here:

  http://www.ajwrb.org/basics/abandon.shtml

  (1) In 1995 the Bulgarian JW association officially accepted, before the national governement and the European Court, that " members should have free choice in the matter for themselves and their children, without any control or sanction on the part of the association," in negotiation for legal recognition.

  (2) In 1998 a WT letter denied that this was a change of policy and maintained the penalty of disfellowshipping for willful acceptance of blood transfusion.

  Also note than the most recent change in announcements ("X is no longer a JW," for both d'fd and d'ad persons), has suppressed the only visible formal difference between disfellowshipping and disassociating.
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  AlanF

  Narkissos said:

  : Also note than the most recent change in announcements . . . has suppressed the only visible formal difference between disfellowshipping and disassociating.

  That's exactly right. These bastards are just coverning their asses.

  I see the Watchtower cult gradually moving toward declaring that anyone who leaves the cult is to be shunned, and just going with the "so and so is no long a JW" announcement. When enough JWs have forgotten the distinction between DF'ing and DA'ing, they will combine the terms. After all, there is no difference between someone "sinning" by deliberately smoking and by deliberately accepting a blood transfusion. Both can be declared to be a repudiation of the JW cult.

  The notion of dissassociation was created back when the Society discovered that its legal ass was in jeopardy over the "neutrality" issue, because countries where the Society explicitly told young JW men not to enter the military were threatening strong action agaist the Society. So they invented the notion that joining the military was a different kind of sin from committing adultery, and invented the notion of disassociation so as to avoid the obvious legal problems.

  Such a bunch of cynical bastards! They don't want to take responsibility for their nasty actions.

  AlanF
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  MsMcDucket

  Sounds like you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

  That's messed up! Who do they think they're fooling?