uncle_onion:
I like how your friend uses the term "gray matter" in referring to these details of the blood issue. Most people equate the term "gray matter" as referring to the brain, and use the term "gray area" when speaking of details of nuance and ambiguity. I'm almost wondering if this is a kind of Freudian slip on his part.
Anyway, I think you should use the following illustration with him:
Married people use wedding rings as a symbol of their marriage, in the same way JWs believe that blood symbolizes life.Both life and marriage deserve respect, as do the symbols that represent them. However, what is more important?? The symbols?? Or that which is represented by the symbols??
If you lose your wedding ring, the marriage is not automatically over. A ring can be replaced if it is lost. However, a person's LIFE should be valued above the blood which symbolizes it. If a person loses blood to an extent where their life is in jeopardy, does it not make sense, out of respect for God's gift of LIFE, to use blood which symbolizes that life and that gift, in a way that shows that the person's life is valued more than the symbol.
Incidentally, I've just returned from giving the "gift of life". It feels good. They tell me that every donation I make can save 4 lives. Every healthy adult can donate blood every 8 weeks. If you haven't tried it, please consider doing so. To me, it's a way of making peace with myself for the years I wasted being a JW, and it's also a way for me to mentally offer a great big
F*** YOU to the WTS. The fact that it's helping to save the lives of sick and seriously injured people is a great feeling too.
Love, Scully
In the desert things find a way to survive. Secrets are like this too. They work their way up through the sands of deception so men can know them. - The X Files