Jehovah’s Witness mother refuses blood transfusion leaving behind NINE children

A Jehovah's Witness mother leaves behind nine children after refusing blood
A Jehovah’s Witness mother leaves behind nine children after refusing blood

If a Jehovah’s Witness is in need of a life-saving blood transfusion and no other options are available, they are instructed to die.

This was the case with a woman from Ghana named Rebecca Dankwa. She had had eight previous pregnancies, meaning that her ninth pregnancy was considered “high risk.”

It was thus understandable when even though she successfully delivered her newborn, she began to bleed profusely. She refused the proper medical treatment on religious grounds until it was too late and she died. Was her death inevitable or could it have been avoided?

Years earlier, Watchtower had subjected Dankwa to a religious tribunal, known among Witnesses as a “judicial committee,” because she had accepted a blood transfusion when giving birth to her previous child.

On that occasion also, because she had given birth so many times, she was considered a high risk pregnancy requiring a transfusion. Her religion found her guilty and she was cut off from her friends and family. Only after the leaders in her community and the chiefs from her hometown rallied around her was she eventually reinstated into the congregation, but the experience must have been traumatic.

It could very well be that when confronted with the same situation again she decided to stick to her guns about the transfusion for fear of reprisals. If she had accepted a second transfusion she could have been disfellowshipped again – deemed an unrepentant wrongdoer for being a repeat offender. It’s hard to even imagine the mental and emotional anguish she must have been put through, especially when you consider that she finally relented to receiving a transfusion but only when it was too late.

Dankwa’s decision couldn’t rightly be considered as being taken of her own accord. The pressure her religion placed on her simply cannot be ignored and must be factored into her choice to abstain from a life-saving medical procedure (not to mention that the entire JW doctrine on blood is both nonsensical and unbiblical, as you will see from reviewing the JWFacts article on blood).

No free will, no love

Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that God endowed humanity with free will. Yet, at the same time they have a policy of shunning that pressures members into conforming to their religious standards.

If free will is such an important principle, why not just leave people alone to make decisions for themselves, especially in respect to medical choices concerning life and death?

Also warped is the Witness claim that they are the most loving people on earth. They claim that their group fulfills the standards of love set forth in the Bible that make them unique as “God’s people.”

Was Rebecca Dankwa indeed being faithful to a “God of love” or was she simply influenced by a religion who had real power over her life? Are nine motherless children really what a loving god would want?

This tragic story serves as a perfect example of how loveless Watchtower’s shunning policy truly is. For far too long the organization has intruded upon the private medical decisions of its members. It is high time for them to lighten the load they place on the millions of lives they directly affect. The ball is, and always has been, in their court.

In the meantime the body count continues to increase while so many watch helplessly from the sidelines.

 

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Further reading…

45 thoughts on “Jehovah’s Witness mother refuses blood transfusion leaving behind NINE children

  • June 25, 2015 at 2:03 am
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    Just to point out some details, that are illustrating the absurdness of that story:
    Her mother was there with her and they together insisted on not accepting the blood. That means her mom came there to make sure she does not repeat the same error again and does not go against JWs. What a “great” mother.

    At the end she changed her mind, but it was too late. So maybe if she was alone there, without the pressure of her mom, she could still live. Maybe her mom prayed for her, maybe she said God will protect her, she just needs to stay firm, I’m just guessing. But the influence was there and she was not commited to 100%, that she want’s to obey it till the edge.
    And that is extra sad

    • June 25, 2015 at 2:50 am
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      @bobow
      The blame for the “decision” falls squarely on Watchtower leadership. It’s their rules that dictate so-called choice in the matter of accepting blood, not scripture or personal decision making.

  • June 25, 2015 at 2:28 am
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    This is so tragic for me to read, because now having lost even my belief in ‘God’ I feel (in that personal belief) that her Mother, children and husband will never see her again. If those kiddies leave the truth they lose hope, so from that point of view in seems kinder they continue in their beliefs. I feel so sad for this. Trapped!!!!!!!!

  • June 25, 2015 at 2:30 am
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    How much longer before this obscene cult has the same reputation, outside its controlled and blinded followers, as ISIS?

  • June 25, 2015 at 3:02 am
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    To add to how sad this story is, is that since she decided to accept blood in the end when she realized the reality that she really was going to die and that Jehovah wasn’t going to answer her prayers, she will now be looked at by her family and congregation that she didn’t remain faithful to death and instead of being a martyr, she will be looked as unfaithful and not worthy of a resurrection.

    That religion is something to be ashamed of if anyone is a member. It is not something to be proud of.

  • June 25, 2015 at 3:12 am
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    @ anonymous
    While I understand completely how you feel and I really do. It always upsets me when negative comments are made about ones still in the org. My Mum, and all the rest of my family are very proud to be called ‘one of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ and it sticks in my throat. I wish they would wake up soon. Until then I totally respect them simply because they are mind controlled. They will woman’s decision as an act of disloyalty just like you say, but they are really lovely people. Remember we were there once.

    • June 25, 2015 at 4:23 am
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      @HEAVYHEART, I am sorry I seemed offensive to the people still caught up in the religion. I should have been more specific in saying it is the religion and what it does to people that I hate, not the people. I also have children who are in that religion and I also believe most of the Witnesses are lovely people. But any religion that teaches their followers to look at a woman who died, leaving behind 9 children without their mother as unworthy of a resurrection has taught those people to be sociopaths unless they stick up for that woman. That makes them judgmental and arrogant.

      Most seem like the nicest people in the world to us, but once we leave the religion and disagree with the Organization, their true colors come out. All the love that they show is conditional and you will find that out if you decide to disagree with them about the religion or take a blood transfusion to save your life.

      Once a person wakes up from the religious coma they are in, they realize how wrong they were and I am one of them also. But, when I was in the religion, I also shunned without knowing the full reason. I followed the religion blindly and now I am ashamed of my past when I was fully in the religion. That is what I mean when I say that they should be ashamed of belonging to the religion.

      That religion teaches them (and I was one) to be proud to be called one of Jehovah’s Witnesses but in the community where that woman lived, JW’s will be looked at a stupid religion now because of that needless death with 9 children left without a mother. The community will not look at the religion as a religion that people should be proud to belong to but as a religion that is stupid and shameful. That is what a needless death like this does to that religion’s reputation. When Witnesses in that community go out and preach, that is the stigma that those Witnesses have to face until people forget about it. But when those kids go to school now and when they go to the Kingdom Hall, nobody is going to go up to those kids and tell them that they should be proud of their mother. They will be made to feel ashamed of their mother because in the end, she relented. That is what makes me so especially angry about the religion and those who will treat that family like that because in the end she took the blood but she died anyway. Anybody who sticks up for that, in my opinion, is shameful.

      I can honestly say that when I was in the religion, I would never have made any comment that that woman would not have been worthy of a resurrection and hopefully if anybody made a comment like that, I would have told them not to ever say anything like that again in my presence and to those kids. At least, I hope I would have done that.

      Even when I was in the religion, I refused to sign my medical directive like we were all told to do at the meetings in the presence of others and were told to have them sign them as witnesses. Something in me told me that I was signing my death warrant and I wouldn’t do it, but I ignorantly did keep my blood card in my wallet.

      • June 25, 2015 at 7:14 am
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        If people are good, but just mind controlled, do you give a pass to the Nazis, ISIS, and so on and so forth? They’re just “mind controlled” after all?

        The Jehovah’s Witnesses are evil, just because they’re family and former friends, don’t mean they’re not evil.

        There’s no way, at this point, the everyday average JW hasn’t realized that something can’t be right about their silly religion. So to continue to let loved ones DIE, over the dictates of men, that’s evil, no other way to cut it, plus their silly shunning policies, which really are only a way of saying “I don’t believe you are an equal to me, and your thoughts don’t matter”, that’s evil as well, no other way to phrase it.

    • June 25, 2015 at 1:20 pm
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      JWs evil as Nazis? I don’t think so.

      But leaders tend to attract followers of the same kind. So if the leaders are lying hypocrites, you can expect the same from their followers.

      Good people can be temporarily deceived by WT, but at some point reality sets in.

      I can’t fell too sorry for those left behind. They can’t be mind controlled unless they like it.

  • June 25, 2015 at 3:34 am
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    This is so tragic, the pressures of the org and her own mother, poor JW was probably thinking at the last minute about her children, something has to be done about this, at least WT make this a conscience matter.

    • June 25, 2015 at 3:24 pm
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      Page 112 Shepherd the Flock Book

      Willingly and unrepentantIy taking blood.
      If someone willingly takes blood, perhaps because of being under extreme pressure, the committee should obtain the facts and determine the individual’s attitude. If he is repentant, the committee would provide spiritual assistance in the spirit of Galatians 6:1 and Jude 22,23. Since he is spiritually weak, he would not qualify for special privileges for a period of time, and it may be necessary to remove certain basic privileges. Depending on the circumstances the committee may also need to arrange for an announcement to the congregation: “The elders have handled a matter having to do with [name of person]. You will be glad to know that spiritual shepherds are endeavoring to render assistance.” On the other hand, if the elders on the committee determine that he is unrepentant, they should announce his disassociation.

  • June 25, 2015 at 5:23 am
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    In the interest of accuracy I wanted to correct one point. Since I believe the year 2000 individuals who unrepentantly accept a blood transfusion are no longer disfellowshipped but are considered to be disassociated. Yes, this is a distinction without a difference but the change was made to get the WT Society in compliance with Bulgaria’s standards.

  • June 25, 2015 at 7:04 am
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    This is truly sad and this proves that the Jehovah’s Witness Organization is blood guilty and a doomsday cult that requires human sacrifice.

  • June 25, 2015 at 7:39 am
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    “Go learn what this means. I want mercy not sacrifice”.
    Matt,9:13, Hosea 6:6.

    The words, mercy and sacrifice, are literally transposed
    by this Diabolical org,

    Sacrifice your time, your energy, your mind, personal
    ambitions, personal relationships, even your life.

    Failure to comply, results not in mercy, forgiveness,
    or compassion. But in cold cruel rejection, even by your
    own family and friends. ( no doubt causing them distress
    also.) A situation enforced by this cold blooded,
    Merciless regime.

  • June 25, 2015 at 7:58 am
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    I really would like for someone to explain to me how shunning is a “loving arrangement” when many JWs will often choose death to avoid it. This story is a tragedy and made even a bigger one by the fact that it is repeated over, and over, and over again throughout the world. All the needless deaths in the past. And, what is come…

  • June 25, 2015 at 8:20 am
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    So will the congregation pitch in to help these 9 motherless children? Will the 7 old men in Brooklyn dig into the vaults of cash to help these 9 motherless children?

  • June 25, 2015 at 8:32 am
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    Another dead person, why???? It is a pity to put lives in the hands of people that change “truths” like fashion. I hope that people will learn to use their brains and consciences for personal decision like the use of blood.

  • June 25, 2015 at 8:50 am
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    When I was a new witness, a young man in the KH had leukemia and refused a blood transfusion. His cancer was a very agressive one and he went downhill very quickly. Towards the end he merely lay on a pool lounge at the back of the hall because he was too weak to sit or stand up. He died within a few short weeks, leaving a wife (who was not a JW) and 4 small boys. Nobody stepped up to take on the physical and financial needs of the widow and orphans, they only arranged casserole duty for the week following his death. I was ashamed to have to face his wife with my casserole and was glad she wasn’t home when I visited. From that point on, I had doubts that were never addressed so I gradually fell further and further away until I faded completely.

    • June 25, 2015 at 1:02 pm
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      Casseroles for a week. How nice. But who pays the rent and electric bill?

      JWs don’t believe in “good luck” but they may as well say it, because that’s all the help you can expect from them.

      Good luck poor widow, you’re on your own!

  • June 25, 2015 at 9:10 am
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    In the name of GOD no. In the name of a manmade fundamentalist religion YES I obey by mind indoctrination and loyalty to a CULT. When you get down to it they are no different in killing themselves or their children by adhering to the policies of men.
    When you Fundsmentally look at it they are really no different then ISIS in killing people in the name of a ideology.

  • June 25, 2015 at 11:37 am
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    This was posted recently on FB and is an excerpt from the JW website regarding the blood issue. The delusion is out of control.

    “Myth: Many Witnesses, including children, die each year as a result of refusing blood transfusions.

    Fact: This statement is totally unfounded. Surgeons regularly perform such complex procedures as heart operations, orthopedic surgery, and organ transplants without the use of blood transfusions. * Patients, including children, who do not receive transfusions usually fare as well as or better than those who do accept transfusions. * In any case, no one can say for certain that a patient will die because of refusing blood or will live because of accepting it.”

    • June 26, 2015 at 6:31 am
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      Totally unfounded*?!?!?

      Rather extreme comment for the JW organization to say considering they are moving closer to the original whole blood by way of substitutes and/or fractions. Can’t help but think the logic of this being paganism stemming from tribal rituals created by a hierarchy of clerics, of a cult. The hype of purity is well over played and perhaps very dangerous to the unknowing victims. So next, blood transfusions create lowliness in character and destroys moral and spiritual faculties in a man? By the way, this is what islam says about eating pork. Should JWs avoid the non-JW who has had a transfusion or even accept a convert who has had a blood transfusion?

      Let man exercise his free-will and let judgement be between God & man’s choices.

      * Where’s the data to support this fact?

      IMHO

      dogstar

      • June 26, 2015 at 10:56 am
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        @sirius, it is interesting your comment: “So next blood transfusions create lowliness of character” because the Society does teach that. This is quoted from the booklet “Blood, Medicine and the Law of God” from 1961 on page 33 after going on and on on previous pages about all the things that can go wrong with a transfusion:

        “These facts cover only a limited number of the dangers of blood transfusion. There are also at hand reports from doctors showing that numerous other disorders, including cancer and tendencies to insanity, may be transmissible by blood. Reports from doctors in both North and South America show that personality traits have been so altered that formerly clean-cut individuals who have been transfused with the blood of criminals and sex perverts have been changed into degenerates. Surely the dangers of blood transfusion cannot be overemphasized.”

        This booklet was what I studied when I first became a Witness in 1964-1965 and I believed all that as the honest to goodness truth. I believed the Society was telling the “truth” and would never lie to me and it made me paranoid about blood.

        When I was a child before I became a Witnesses, I had my tonsils out and I lost over a quart of blood when my stitches opened up and my parents rushed me to the hospital and they gave me a transfusion. When I studied those paragraphs in the blood booklet, I worried from then on that I might go crazy or get cancer or turn into a sex pervert from that transfusion. We all took it very seriously then. We studied that booklet in our weekly book study group more than one time. The Society has never repealed those statements so they must still believe it and want everyone to think if they take a blood transfusion, they will take on the personality of the one who donated the blood. If anyone starts talking to an old-time Witness, they will tell you that because the Society has never said they lied about it. New Witnesses don’t know about it because they have never brought up the subject with old time Witnesses.

        • June 26, 2015 at 1:58 pm
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          @anonymous, thank you for the response!

          In studying Islam(I am not a muslim) I see some parallels. Nothing like selling fear to rein in the adherents. Consuming pork is a good example for the true/pure islamist. In such, great value is place on what a muslim eats (halal- lawful) or “a man becomes what he eats”. They trumpet, the life of a man is a compound of body and soul. Anything, which is harmful for the body, hurts the soul as well. Odd though, I’d like to know what a suicide bomber eats so I can avoid that diet. This deserves more time but i’m getting off-topic!

          If, blood transfusions cause all those listed problems then for life & death matters they should have their own blood bank exclusive to JWs & not rely non-believers providing solutions. Step it up a couple notches how about the GB the only ones to donate blood. It should be quite pure considering who picked ’em. On the humorous side, the blood donation of a male to a female will cause what…. ?

          IMHO

          dogstar

          • December 8, 2015 at 1:59 pm
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            Yes cleaver youth. But who wrote the bible. Got you there.

  • June 25, 2015 at 1:20 pm
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    Actually it’s at least 3rd such a case this year, as far as I remember, what was presented in news/exJW websites, really tragic.

  • June 25, 2015 at 7:21 pm
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    So many Witnesses will not think that they will die when they go to the hospital and undergo an operation or a childbirth. They believe the Watchtower that the deaths are rare and they won’t think that they will die. It’s not until they get to the point where it’s only going downhill and not getting any better and they will for sure die, is when it finally dawns on them that they won’t live to see their kids grow up but by then it’s too late.

    The Watchtower won’t publish how many die because of refusing blood so that the majority are kept in the dark and never think they will actually die. If they think about it, which I don’t think they actually think about it, they believe that God will save them if they are loyal to God (Organization) and if they do die, they think they will go to sleep and wake up in the “new world”. That is how they think if they actually do think about it.

    I worried about blood every day of my life when I was a Witness. I am so glad now to see what the Watchtower really is, which is a man made religion that is far removed from Christianity.

    If I was in that situation now, I’d listen to the doctors. Yes, doctors do sometimes prescribe blood when it’s not life or death. We are talking about life or death situations, not in situations where eating some liver for a couple of weeks will build up your blood.

    Nobody should be put in the situation that if they were to take blood to live, should be shunned for it, and no this is not a conscience decision. If one takes blood and the elders find out about it and that person lives, they will be called before a committee to see if that person should be disfellowshipped or not. It should be nobody’s business whether or not a person decides to take blood. The Governing Body and the elders were never appointed by God and they hold no power over any of us and they never did. They are presumptuous and false prophets and the Bible says that when it comes to false prophets, we don’t have to fear them.

    We all get only one chance at life and it is worth more than the conditional love offered by the Society. Once it’s over, it’s over. Don’t let those people in New York control you and make you afraid of them. It’s nobody’s business but yours, if you take blood or not. Your life is precious and your children’s lives are precious. God is not going to kill you at Armageddon if you take blood. That is the real myth.

    • June 26, 2015 at 4:28 pm
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      DEAR ANONYMOUS I ENJOYED YOUR OUTSTANDING AND SO TRUTHFUL COMMENT. WE ARE THE ONLY ONES THAT ARE TOTALY RESPONSABLE FOR OUR LIVES AND DECISION MAKING. ABSOLUTLEY NO ONE ELSE HAS THE RIGHT TO MAKE OUR CHOICES ON SUCH SERIUOS MATTERS. ESPECIALY THOSE WHO LIVE IN IVORY TOWERS, WHO NEVER COME DOWN TO WALK WITH US LOWLY MORTALS. WHEN I WAS A JW, I SECRETLY SAID TO MYSELF. IF PUSH COMES TO SHOVE I WOULD ACCEPT A BLOOD TRANSFUSION AND THEN WALK AWAY FROM THE SO CALLED TRUTH. AND NEVER LOOK BACK.

  • June 25, 2015 at 11:18 pm
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    Revoke the Watchtowers tax free status, its a death cult. I wounder how many of her children when they are old enough will stay in the cult?

  • June 26, 2015 at 9:07 am
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    One of my parents was murdered in a disfellowshipped state. Not one brother would do a eulogy. I was told by some, she wouldn’t receive a resurrection. I thought to myself what an unkind thing to say to someone. Sometimes I voiced my opinions. I ended up writing a letter to the service department asking this specific question. The letter was loving and basically stated that the matter was left to Jehovah. As anonymous, stated though, rules and regulations guide most witnesses and their conditional love is just that…

    • June 26, 2015 at 11:47 am
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      Like their faithful and discreet slave teaching, WT resurrection doctrine has flip flopped many times.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToQJIE58xNY (funny video btw)

      WT has repeatedly contradicted themselves on TWO important teachings; the basis of their authority (faithful and discreet slave), and the resurrection, which means eternal LIFE or DEATH!

      And if the witness of two is true, as WT often says, the schizophrenic flip flops of WT make it clear that WT does NOT have God’s spirit; God is not crazy.

  • June 26, 2015 at 2:39 pm
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    My JW friends believe, that God will give you enough power to stay firm. And to survive. All you need is faith.

    What a bulls**t! If God did not help this girl, mother of 9!, then when is he going to help?

    After reading this I would not believe, that if I pray for courage in the ministry, or pray for a job or whatever, than he will listen.

    So, my conclusion – God does not help. For sure not always, and if so, only in very rare situations, so to pray for everyday help is useless. And God does not protect JWs.

  • June 26, 2015 at 3:45 pm
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    THE BIBLE CONDEMS THE EATING OF ANIMAL BLOOD. NOT THE TRANSFUSION OF HUMAN BLOOD TO ANOTHER. IF JWS CAN ACCEPT FRACTIONS AND HAVE ORGAN TRANSPLANTS WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE. IN A COMPLICATED OPERATION , I ALMOST LOST MY WIFE BEACUASE SHE IS A JW FANATIC. MOST JWS HAVE A GREATER FEAR OF THE WTS AND OF ELDERS THAN OF GOD HIMSELF. WE NO LONGER HAVE TO FRET; BECAUSE CRACKS ARE BEGINING TO SHOW ON THE TOWER. IT’S SLOW DOWNWARD SPIRAL HAS BEGUN. I AM GRATEFULL I AM NO LONGER A WT ZOMBIE.

  • June 27, 2015 at 2:02 pm
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    This is another case of murder by watchtower mind control. This is an extremely dangerous, fundamentalist cult. ISIS has been mentioned in the same breath as watchtower and rightly so. There are now nine children left without a mother. They are also left in a lifetime of torment due to watchtower`s total disregard for basic human right`s. Life is the preeminent of those rights and yet watchtower wallows in human sacrifice. It is murder sanctioned by watchtower based on fables. We all know that watchtower is being exposed for what it really is in print and on the internet. It is not a scattered expose and so many millions have seen the irrefutable evidence that condemns watchtower. Murder, child rape, marital violence and shunning are the most prominently featured topics exposed. There is so much more but these four are so awful that surely it is time for someone in power to call an end to this madness? Jones-town, Waco and watchtower, there is no difference. Too late the authorities tried to end the insanity of the first two. Why not watchtower? All three were/are death orientated cults. Jones and Koresh were for sometime seen as eccentric rather than the monsters they were. I really see no difference between these three. I have a well founded fear for those in watchtower`s sinister clutch. Some may think me an alarmist. Get past the fallacy that watchtower would never sanction mass murder. It murdered this poor lady. It has murdered in the past and it will do so again. One death is one too much. How much is enough?

  • June 28, 2015 at 8:19 am
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    Suppose we accept that the Bible prohibition on eating blood
    Is more than just a dietary law, ( which it plainly is not,) and as
    the WTS, claim, extends to avoiding blood transfusions.

    What then gives them the right to play God, by adding to his
    word, in allowing certain fractions derived from blood.
    By no stretch of reasoning can this be classed as “Abstaining”
    from. So when JWs, accept these fractions, they’re doing so
    purely on the authority of the WT,org, ( On whom they have
    become totally dependent. ). And not on the Bible.

    If I could bring in the subject of Euthanasia ( Assisted suicide,)
    and make a comparison. One can surely empathise with
    someone who through incurable illness needs constant help,
    even in the matter of bodily functions, wanting out of it.

    The people who are willing to carry out the sick persons wishes
    by euthanasia. Try to make sure they are not acting under
    coercion from others. And that it’s an entirely free will decision.

    When someone dies from want of a blood transfusion. This is
    suicide through intimidation, brought about by intensive
    brainwashing. Here the person doesn’t want to die, they
    want to live, and the remedy is at hand. But through instilled
    fear and guilt, they dare not take it.

    The hard “Evidence is. That we only get one shot at life.
    Take back control, do it your way. Keep your children alive
    and for their sake stay alive yourself.

  • June 28, 2015 at 4:38 pm
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    Has anyone else read the October 2015 study edition of the Watchtower yet?

    The last article in that rag is yet another warning for R&F to stay away from ANYTHING that sheds even a little light on the WT’s behind the scenes court cases, leaked elders letters, and even goes as far as telling them that it is “unwise” to share recorded bible talks amongst themselve

    • June 28, 2015 at 11:39 pm
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      Oh, that’s rich… Now you have my curiosity peaked. I will have to check it out!

  • June 30, 2015 at 1:45 am
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    Another life sacrificed to Watchtower tyranny!
    Our inherent desire is to live and unless we have some terrible illness, we cling onto that life with all our strength.
    This lady did not want to die. With the impending prospect before her, she tried to grab the last lifeline available to her. She was too late.
    This shows the mind control and undue influence that JW Dom has over its people. They have an internal battle as to whether to ‘please God’ and maybe die through refusing blood, or ‘hurt God’ by taking blood, maybe live, only to then die at Armageddon! What a choice!
    So glad I’m out!

  • July 8, 2015 at 5:05 pm
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    I just read this retraction demand from the spokesperson from the Watchtower.

    http://allafrica.com/stories/201507071238.html

    Is this person for real? I can’t believe the disrespect for this poor woman & her family. I wanted to post a comment but I don’t have a Facebook a/c.

    I would love to find out the story behind this lady but either way, does it matter whether she was a witness or not? She gave up her life because she believed what this religion teaches about blood. Who else teaches it?

    People read their journals, they are handed out to the public & if the reader takes what they say literally then they are guilty of influencing her decision.

    Something seems amiss with this article. This is the comment I wanted to write to the paper:

    Mr Nathaniel Gbedemah please explain why this woman decided to be obedient to the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses by refusing to take a blood transfusion & while you are at it, please explain what other alternative she would have had in her situation so that other mothers can be spared. Your article was very vague to the complexities of medical treatments requiring something other than blood.

  • October 26, 2015 at 4:24 am
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    Anthony, when you are bleeding to death, all the “extenders” in the world isn’t going to replace blood. What they are talking about is having your blood extended with salt water.

    No, the Society knows full well that there are many instances where only real blood is going to save the person’s life and they don’t care.

    It isn’t them that is going to lose their life. They aren’t the one who is going to face losing their life.

    No, they think that when they die, they will shoot straight to heaven. Why should they care about another person who wants to live? It means nothing to them if you or I die or a mother that will never live to see her children grow up.

    Those men in Brooklyn have the lives of eight million people in their hands and they think they are the only ones who have the right to interpret the Bible for them. Who gave them that right?

    The Bible is for all to read and understand. Most people that read the Bible and believe it and feel they have a personal relationship with God. Who gave those men the right to say what God wants and doesn’t want?

    They have to prove that God is speaking through them and nobody else. If they can’t do that, then any decision on blood should be up to that person and only that person.

    They don’t have that right unless they can prove that God is speaking through them and only them. Can they prove that? I’d like to know what their proof is. Just turning out Bible literature isn’t enough.

    • October 29, 2015 at 5:25 am
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      @Anthony, for a person to lose their life over blood, they should be first proved that the Bible is perfect and inspired of God and even in the foreword to the “The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures” printed by the Society (1969) says:

      “No translation of these sacred writings into another language, except by the original writers, is inspired.”

      All we have is imperfect copies of imperfect copies so there is no proof what the original scriptures even said. Why should we lose our life over something that we have no idea where the original writings even came from in the first place? Just saying that all scripture is inspired of God, doesn’t make what we have today from God.

      Plus what that scripture says at Acts 15:29 says to “keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immmorality.”

      What is interesting is that in 1 Cor. chapter 8, Paul says that just because a food was offered to an idol, doesn’t make anything wrong with the eating of the food (even in an idol temple vs. 10), except that they shouldn’t eat that food if somebody with a weak conscience should see that person eating the food sacrificed to an idol in an idol temple, then the one with a weak conscience would weaken his conscience and eat the food sacrificed to the idol thinking that the food they had eaten would bring them closer to that idol god.

      So Paul made up his own rules when it came to “abstaining from things sacrificed to idols (Acts 15:29).

      When it comes to just saying “blood”, that scriptures isn’t even saying to abstain from blood. It just says blood. So, maybe what they meant was blood guilt as in killing somebody. Who knows, since we don’t have any of the original writings in the first place.

      When it comes to losing our life or the life of our child, we should have evidence that:

      1. What evidence is there that God exists?
      2. What evidence is there that God (if he exists) answers prayers?
      3. What evidence is there that we can believe that Acts 15:29 came from a perfect God?
      4. What evidence do we have that God chose the Watchtower Organization as his one and only spokesmen in 1919 and the only ones who can properly interpret the Bible for mankind?
      5. What evidence is there that the Bible is inspired of a perfect God? Just saying it is inspired, doesn’t make any Bible today inspired since all they are is interpretations of interpretations of books written thousands of years ago when the only way of preparing them was by hand writing and no two copies are exactly alike.

  • October 30, 2015 at 3:15 am
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    Anthony, what evidence do you have that there is a supreme being out there who is directing all things from one generation to the next? Doesn’t the Bible say that the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one?

    Witnesses like to say that God is directing the organization, but it’s men who are directing the organization, not God. What evidence is there that God is directing anything?

  • November 26, 2015 at 4:37 am
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    Hi all. I thought this was the most relevant post to place this but excuse me if it’s not. There are a lot of different standards/ideas on medical procedures amongst the JWs. For those of you who watched the news about the Ashya King issue last year (where the poor little lad had a brain tumour and the NHS refused to give him the treated his parents wanted so they “kidnapped” him and took him to another country for treatment):
    This was not a blood issue though apparently the parents said they would give him blood if needs be (now they deny saying that of course). Anyway, the mother claims to be of the Anointed (though she’s only in her 40s). Strange seeing as her son Naveed posted some questionable videos, illegally filming their experiences with police in airports and even refusing to turn off his phone and stop filming when ordered to by the police. After several JW comments on his YouTube page he’s removed them all bar one, his Ice Bucket challenge:
    https://youtu.be/Mi7jI_5c848
    As a poster points out, this is related to stem cell research (something I’m personally against being pro-life ) but it just goes to show, I thought, the double standards in the organisation, even from families professing to be brothers of Christ.
    Peace!

    • December 8, 2015 at 9:09 am
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      To much talk about blood, Either accsept it or dont, The more people talk about it, the more power you give to the GB by giving them the ilusion they have all the answers.

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