Blood on the Altar

I am one of those unfortunate Jehovah's Witnesses who allowed my child to die refusing blood for him. My 15 year old son was in an auto accident one sunday afternoon returning home from the Kingdom Hall with another young brother who was driving. When my son got to the hopital, before losing consciousness, he refused blood just as he had be trained to do all his life. My other two sons were there and my oldest son begged us to save Dak with blood transfusion he so despritely needed. My husband refused, and our son was flown to another trama hospital. Where to my relieve they gave him blood without our permission, being protected by the law since my son was a minor. But it was too late, his heart had been so weakened by the lack of blood pumping through his system he died. I praise the laws that allowed that doctor to give my son blood in an effort to save him. Women are to be in complete submission to their husbands wishes as head of the house and family. With our religious believe's forcing us to refused blood transfusions under threats of disfellowshipping or disassocation (shunning), made it so painful, and forced. After my son died I began to research the blood policy, not believing that Jehovah and Christ could expect parents to sacrifice our children for this stand they insisted we take.What I learned about the restrictions on blood sickened me. I came to the conclusion we had been lied too, with falsereasoning. It began an complete investigation into the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society background. What I learned I had dedicated myself to for 30 years was unbelievable depressing, it was nothing more than a totalitarian government under the guise of religion. I left Jehovah's Witnesses, and in the end I also left my husband who had refused blood for our dying son. He called me an apostate for questioning the WTB & TS teachings. I am only sorry he has not come to realize the lies he is subscribed too within the Jehovah's Witnesses organization. But all Jehovah's Witnesses are taught never to question anything the rulers called the GB say. The are conditioned never to question the teachings they claim are from God, and are nothing more than mens interpetation of the scriptures. For any of you who have had assocation with Jehovah's Witnesses, or been one you need to read this book.Sincerely,A JW for 30 years

Reed was an honor student at Harvard when he was contacted by the Jehovah's Witnesses. They should have known better then to try to convert a bright motivated person such as Reed. As expected of someone with a mind like his, he devoured Watchtower (Wt) literature and soon became an elder and some people had him in mind for potential circuit overseer material. But as often happens in these cases, Reed continued to study Watchtower publications and began to become aware of the changes in Wt doctrine and the conflicts of their doctrine with scripture. He began to discuss his concerns with what were said to be mature Witnesses. He soon learned that one does not ask too many probing questions as a Witness. His questions were real and of importance. The Wt teaches that all those who are ignorant of God and His Bible as taught by the Wt will perish at Armageddon which was to arrive in 1975 or soon thereafter. Reed did not want to be ignorant of the Bible so he studied it diligently. Then his trouble began. One topic that he explored was their anti blood transfusion teaching. He learned that it was not a disfellowshipping offense until 1961. Before this it was an individual matter (and up until the late 1940s most Witnesses took blood freely without qualms). He explored the change and what he discovered shocked him. The result was this book. To learn his story you must read the book! One hint. The Wt claims that they base the no blood transfusion law (which they now teach is one the highest law in the universe, above murder) on the scriptures. It does not take long to realize that they have no scriptural support for this teaching. For example they cite Genesis 9:4 which says "only flesh with its soul -- its blood--you must not eat" NWT. Note it says not that we cannot eat blood (all Witness that eat meat consume a fairly large amount of blood) but that we cannot eat meat with its blood in it and must drain the blood first as kosher Jews do today. The purpose as correctly taught by the Wt until the late 1940s was one cannot eat living animals but they must be dead first (and the way they were killed in Biblical days was to drain the blood). This Wt doctrine, Reed estimates, kills almost 9 thousand persons annually. It is teachings such as these that make atheists. No wonder my university colleagues are so antireligious! Reed then shows that this behavior and teaching is not Biblical or Christian.

First of all I think that the members of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society(a.k.a Jehovah's Witnesses) should read this book before giving it a review. Second of all after reading this book it helped me to realize that as a Jehovah's Witness I had been putting my life in danger not only in a spiritual way but in a physical way as well. I almost died a year ago from a ruptured cyst in my abdomen because I was bleeding internally from it. Thankfully a week before I had the emergency surgery I had read this life-saving book. I realized that I wasn't abstaining from blood because of a religious belief, but rather like the author clearly shows, I was doing merely what I was told by the Society that I should do based strictly on their interpretation of a certain passage of scripture was. Much thanks to the author for saving my life.

I am a JW (not active for six months now), since discovering the 'other side of the story' so to speak. I've spent the last twenty years of my life dedicated to the Jehovah's Witnesses organization as a 'publisher' and 'ministerial servant', as well as periodically serving as a 'auxillary pioneer'. I've always had a few doubts here and there about different doctrines and the way things were handled by the 'society', but just 'brushed' it off as my not understanding at the time what the 'Governing Body' of Jehovah's Witnessess were doing. Afterall, these men are 'anointed' by God and would not write anything in the Watchtower magazine that was NOT true. I would put my ideas and thoughts 'on the shelf' and wait patiently on Jehovah to declare the 'truth' to his 'servants' and subsequently, to his 'other sheep'. After discovering the Internet and how I could access information on any subject, I became aware of so called 'Apostate' material. What I really found was insig! ht into an organization that I knew actually NOTHING about. After reading numerous articles on the history of thw Watchtower movement starting with its first president, Charles Taze Russell, I next read, "Crisis of Conscience" by Raymond Franz (former governing body member of JW organization). This book 'blew me away'. I next read Mr Franz's next book, "In Search of Christian Freedom". After careful research, I moved on to "Blood on the Altar" by Mr Reed. This book is fascinating from the beginning to the end. It is not written in a vindictive spirit, but is thought out and brings to the 'open-minded' and mis-informed Jehovah's Witness information that he/she would never know outside their own circle of activity. David Reed conveys to his readers an insight into the psychological, emotional and often tragic side to those who would sacrifice their love ones because of obeying what they think is God's will but in actuality, is only the person! al whims of men who claim to speak for God. These are the s! ame men who at one time stated that organ transplants was a form of cannabilism and that recieving any is against God's will and thus, one can be 'excommunicated'or 'disfellowshipped' from 'God's organization'. Many people died because of what was told to them. After 17 years or so, the GB reversed their policy on organ transplants and said that it was 'okay' to have a transplant if one was needed. Well, how many people died because of their allegiance to the Watchtower society's mandate? Mr Reed explains that this could happen again with the blood issue. Will the Watchtower men change their minds on this matter also? Please read this book. Make up your mind after reading 'both sides of the story'. Thank you

A Review of Blood on the Altar Dave Mackmiller Blood on the Altar: Confessions of a Jehovah's Witness Minister, by David A. Reed (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1996) 285 pp. The main focus of Blood on the Altar deals with the Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) and their refusal to accept blood transfusions, even in the face of death. Much of the rest of the book deals with the 117-year history of the JWs and their plethora of scandals, failed prophesies, and contradictory biblical interpretations. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, which governs the JWs, loosely interprets an ancient Hebrew dietary restriction as God's injunction against blood transfusions. Genesis 9:4 says, "But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." (Oddly enough, during the 30's and 40's the JWs also interpreted this as a biblical ban on vaccinations.) Although the JWs release no official mortality data, Reed calculates that between five and twelve thousand JW's die every year from refusing transfusions. But since they die quietly one by one, they don't make sensational headlines like the multiple deaths at Waco and Jonestown. The book is peppered with news clippings about JWs who died by refusing blood. For example, there's Bill Korinek, injured in a car crash, Although growing weaker from loss of blood, Korinek steadfastly refused to accept a transfusion... The Mormon doctor pleaded with the young man's mother to authorize the treatment, but she replied, "I would rather see my boy dead and in the grave than see him violate Jehovah God's commandment against blood!" Korinek died shortly afterward. Sadder yet are the accounts of babies and children who died because their parents felt they were doing Jehovah's will. Several times the doctors were able to get a court order to force a transfusion, but by then it was too late. Sometimes they were physically prevented by large groups of JWs guarding the patient. This is a recent tactic of the JWs, to send a "Hospital Liason Comittee" to watch over a dying member. A JW who is married to a non-believer may secretly sign over power-of-attorney to a church elder, who can then legally order blood withheld over the objections of the patient's family. The JWs carry their ban on blood to absurd extremes. As a JW, you cannot even accept your own blood if it has been removed from your circulation. If your cat needed a blood transfusion and you allowed it, you would be sinning. You also could not use leeches for medical purposes, since you would be feeding them your blood. (They must panic at the sight of a mosquito!) In 1967, they also interpreted Genesis 9:4 as prohibiting organ transplants. They decried them as "a short cut to cannibalistically chewing and eating human flesh." Then in 1980, the Watchtower stated, "There is no biblical command pointedly forbidding the taking in of other human tissue." Reed comments, What of those who went blind refusing a cornea transplant dur