Must FORCE your loved ones to take blood = like Heavens Gate cult suicide!

by Witness 007 18 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Bonnie_Clyde

  One of the elders in our area allowed his wife to have a blood transfusion, but denied it later. It never happened.... JW's are good at denial.
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  Hortensia

  Freedom means having the right to make the wrong decision. Of course, then you have to live with the consequences, or die, if that is the case. That's freedom too.
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  PEC

  All the blood information JWs are given by the WT$ are lies. How can they make an informed decision based on lies?

  Philip
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  tooktheredpill

  Here is the last photo of Applewhite:
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  Witness 007

  Who's in that picture??? Anyway, we all have the freedom to drink the "cool aid" Jim Jones style but shouldn't someone stop them for their own good? Based on logical thinking, science, for the love of humanity, would you step in and say: "Your belief's are a lie, and I can't let you die."
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  tooktheredpill

  Witness007:

  That's Ted Jaracz. It was a joke.

  TTRP
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  Witness 007

  He looks terrible....he he he not long now brother!
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  BluesBrother

  A Witness relative who refused blood and would surely bleed to death should be force to take blood rather then die for the sake of an imagined "paradise."

  Who said "surely"? I can think of several Witness associates including family who were told that they were definately going to die unless they accepted a blood transfusion. They are all still here. My family member had a wife and adult sons so I was not a party to the decision, but all of them are committed dubs and there was never any question of blood treatment being accepted.

  I think that we on this board often miss the point of the Witness objection. It is not that the are not allowed to have it - not that they may be punished by the Cong...it is rather that they really do not want it. They are so convinced that it would "displease Jehovah" that they will not take it and would never forgive me if I consented to it.

  Their belief may be wrong, but is it not a fundamental liberty in any free society to be able to chose? No adult of sound mind should be subjected to enforced medication. Would you want to live in a world where doctors could do just what they liked to you, and you had no say in it? The more I see of medicine the more I realise that it is not an exact science and that doctors do not know everything, and do not agree among themselves what is the best treatment. If it is ever me, I will take anything offered but I respect the view of those who do not .

  Of course minors in a trauma situation are different. The State may see the need to override family objections, but for adults? Never!
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  drew sagan

  We are dealing with two very different beasts here. Yes, they both are beasts, but they are also very different from one another.
  
  I think there is all to often a tendency to generalize cults in such a way so that we highlight similarities without ever trying to understand their differences.
  
  In the case of suicide cults, mostly all find sanctuary in some geographical area, albeit a house, a compound, an apartment, or something of the like. They cut themselves off from society physically, and usually it is pretty extreme. While the JWs do refrain from contact with the outside world, it is a limited.
  
  Yes the Watchtower does have their own facilities were people live that are cut off from society (kind of), but not all their members are there. They are a much more subtle group. They have actually created some pretty complex and sophisticated ways to balance their interaction with modern society.
  
  It is the subtle way the Watchtower functions that makes it different from very small extremist groups.
  
  I think there is another aspect to remember as well. Most JWs never have to deal with the blood issue (and a good many pray they don't have to, I know I did!). Because they never personally have much contact with the subject, it is easy for them to say that they don't want blood transfusions. Those who face this challenge are in a minority. Everybody in heavens gate faced suicide, but only a fraction of JWs face death by the blood issue (and of those that face it some come through and survive).
  
  If every single JW faced death because of not taking a blood transfusion then the religion never would put forward this doctrine IMO. The possibility that a majority of JWs would actually have to deal with the reality of this is slim to none, thus it's continuation.