Need help from JW History Buffs

by ILoveTTATT 50 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  ILoveTTATT

  I need help with writing an article regarding vaccinations, organ transplants, and blood transfusions.

  I am doing my research using limited amounts of non-WT sources and mostly just the actual WT literature.

  What I am having a hard time understanding is:

  Most of the articles in the Golden Age, at least at the beginning of the anti-vaccination stance, are actually written by contributors. Since there are very pro-vaccination articles and then lots of anti-vaccination articles, how can I determine the actual WT viewpoint on vaccinations?

  Thanks!
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  Terry

  The Watch Tower Society publications--according to the leadership--were edited by Jehovah. That's all you need to know.

  According to Fred Franz and Joseph Rutherford the angels were guiding the message.

  You don't need to go any farther than those foundational claims to realize anything which went through the magazines

  HAD TO HAVE BEEN APPROVED first.

  The only person who ever wrote for the magazines who did not have his work checked first (and approved) was Fred Franz.

  When he finally went off the deep end prattling about 1975 that policy changed toward him as well.
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  ILoveTTATT

  Terry: Thanks, but I want a bit more solid proof that the articles on vaccination were the actual WT viewpoint. Because if it was, then the articles from "G. Del Pino, Glasgow" were very pro-vaccination (similar to modern viewpoints on it). Therefore there was an ambivalent viewpoint.
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  adamah

  So you've found examples where the WT follows in the well-worn footsteps of the Bible, shot-gunning ALL possible outcomes which allows them to cherry-pick the 'right' answer after the fact and say, "See, we were right!" while ignoring the contradictory statements that weren't true. They're simply covering their bases, hedging their bets, playing all positions on the craps table, talking out of bot sides of their mouth, etc.

  Many different expressions to say how the Bible (and WT) often relies on the 'Texas sharpshooter' fallacy:

  http://www.fallacyfiles.org/texsharp.html

  Etymology:

  The Texas sharpshooter is a fabled marksman who fires his gun randomly at the side of a barn, then paints a bullseye around the spot where the most bullet holes cluster. The story of this Lone Star state shooter has given its name to a fallacy apparently first described in the field of epidemiology, which studies how cases of disease cluster in a population.

  Adam
• 

  JakeM2012

  For many years witnesses were reluctant to take some vacinations because some of them had blood "fractions". Missionaries were required by the different governements to get vacinations, and were told by WTBTS that if they did not get the vacinations they could not go to their assignments.

  I have seen different periodicals write positive and negative articles about the same subject, when the truth comes out they can point out how they were correct, when actually they just covered their arse.
• 

  ILoveTTATT

  Here's my research so far:

  Magazine, Date, Pages, Name of Author (of article), and then I categorized them as Positive/Negative towards vaccination.

  Revista	Fecha, Páginas	Nombre del Autor	Positivo/Negativo?
  Golden Age	Abril 27, 1921, p. 440-442	G. Del Pino, Glasgow	Positivo
  Golden Age	Julio 20, 1921, p.634-636	Mrs. W. R. Burzacott	Negativo
  Golden Age	September 14, 1921, p. 754	H.A. Rutschour, D.C.	Negativo
  Golden Age	October 12, 1921, p.8	A.M. Wilton, M.D.	Negativo
  Golden Age	October 12, 1921, p.9	“Doctor”	Positivo
  Golden Age	October 12, 1921, p.9-10	A.M. Wilton, M.D.	Negativo
  Golden Age	October 12, 1921, p.10-12	L.W. Putman, M.D.	Positivo
  Golden Age	October 12, 1921, p.13-14	J.J. Wentzel	Negativo
  Golden Age	October 12, 1921, p.14	W.M. Pugh	Negativo
  Golden Age	October 12, 1921, p.15-16	Mrs. Mary E. Burnet	Positivo
  Golden Age	October 12, 1921, p.16-17	A. Murray, M.D.	Positivo
  Golden Age	October 12, 1921 p.17	Mrs. R. Walter Maygrove	Negativo
  Golden Age	February 15, 1922 p.314	G. Del Pino	Positivo
  Golden Age	January 3, 1923, p.211-214	Mrs. Andrew J. Holmes	Negativo
  Golden Age	January 17, 1923, p.240-244	Walter H. Hadwen, M.D.	Negativo
  Golden Age	January 17, 1923, p.244-245	Walter F. Moser	Negativo
  Golden Age	November 7, 1923, p.80	General	Negativo
  Golden Age	November 7, 1923, p.87	F.R. Freer	Negativo
  Golden Age	July 30, 1924 p.687	Isaac L. Peebles, M.D.	Negativo
  Golden Age	October 8, 1924, p.17	General	Negativo
  Golden Age	October 8, 1924 p.18	Geo F. Herde	Negativo
  Golden Age	October 8, 1924 p.18	London Daily News	Negativo
  Golden Age	January 28, 1925, p.266	Doctors H.M. Shelton and B. Stanford Claunch	Negativo

  I want to know when it turned from a debate written out in the pages of the Golden Age to actually being the official WT position on it.
• 

  alanv

  The Golden Age 1931, February 4 issue devoted 10 pages to why vaccinations were not for Christians. The index page to the 1931 article claimed this as the viewpoint of the Creator.

  Does not get much clearer than that..
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  ILoveTTATT

  Thank you! That's what I needed... So before it was a debate on vaccination, then later the anti-vaccination stance became the viewpoint of the editor, and then of the WT...

  Thanks alanv!
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  adamah

  That's funny, for what need does Jehovah, the omniscient being who some believe created humanity, have for human debate over vaccinations? What concern could he possibly have for the opinions of "flawed" mortals and doctors? Doesn't he KNOW if He approves or not?

  Of course, non-prescient HUMANS end up on the wrong sides of issues (eg blood transfusions, vaccinations, organ transplants), not omniscient beings.

  Adam
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  ILoveTTATT

  Adam: I am doing it this way just to cover MY a$$ on this... I want to "make TTATT my own" and want to counter the following JW apologist article:

  http://defendingjehovahswitnesses.blogspot.ca/2011/11/vaccinations-vaccines.html

  Also JWFact's article might be only "technically correct" on its article on vaccinations:

  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/medical.php#vaccinations

  The quote below from the Golden Age is technically "information against vaccinations." But the article was written by Mrs. R. Walter Maygrove and it is a bit unclear whether AT THIS POINT the article was the "official WT policy"... since her article was in response to the April 27, 1921 article which was VERY positive towards vaccinations.
  
  
  "Vaccination never prevented anything and never will, and is the most barbarous practice...We are in the last days; and the devil is slowly losing his hold, making a strenuous effort meanwhile to do all the damage he can, and to his credit can such evils be placed. ... Use your rights as American citizens to forever abolish the devilish practice of vaccinations."Golden Age 1921 Oct 12 p.17

  I just want to be a bit more precise in the history...