It’s been a while since I posted on Jehovah’s Witnesses in the news. Here’s a roundup. Refusals of blood transfusions, resulting in death. Sexual predators and child molestation. Mental instability. Violence. Even a possible kidnapping. The usual. <\/p>\n
I am sure that I’ve missed several additional items, but I’ve become too sad to do more than this today. <\/p>\n
Jehovah’s Witnesses, you call yourselves “sheep.” If you must have a shepherd, why not seek a more loving one than the harsh caricature constructed by the publishing empire of the Watchtower Society? I grieve for you. I grieve for you. <\/p>\n
14-year-old Dennis Lindberg Refuses Treatment for Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and Dies<\/strong><\/p>\n Doctors said he needed treatment that included blood transfusions; most children with this form of leukemia recover. However, Lindberg was a Jehovah’s Witness, and transfusions go against the teachings of his religion. He became a Witness while in the care of his aunt, also a follower, who became his legal guardian after his biological father was jailed for drug possession.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Parents and classmates of the boy, who had lived with his aunt for the past four years, cried in disbelief at the judge’s decision. Wherry fled the courtroom in tears.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Anemic 22-Year Old Emma Gough Dies After Giving Birth to Twins<\/strong><\/p>\n As she suffered severe blood loss and her life ebbed away, medical staff urged her husband, Anthony, and her parents, all of whom follow the same faith, to overrule her decision and allow a transfusion which could have saved her, but they refused. She gave birth naturally and all appeared well as she cuddled her baby son and daughter, but she suddenly began to haemorrhage. Her condition was complicated by the fact she was anaemic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nThe latest pronouncement on the topic from the Watchtower authorities said that anyone using blood products, even in life-saving surgery, would be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153disfellowshipped\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or expelled from the Church. This usually means being shunned by friends and family. However, if \u00e2\u20ac\u0153true repentance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is shown, they can be readmitted to the Church. This change was introduced to take some of the heat out of the bad publicity that followed the hundreds of deaths of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses around the world because of the blood ban. The authorities are reluctant to lift the ban completely \u00e2\u20ac\u201d even though there are suspicions that they would like to \u00e2\u20ac\u201d because they fear being sued by families who have lost loved ones to the policy which, in the end, would have turned out, after all, not to be the fixed and eternal word of God, but the demands of mere, deluded mortals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses defended yesterday the decision of a young mother who died after refusing a potentially life-saving blood transfusion, having just given birth to twins. To agree to a transfusion would have been a transgression comparable to adultery or sexual immorality, a spokesman from the central office of the British community of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses told The Times yesterday. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Really? That’s odd, because “sexual immorality” is quite common among Jehovah’s Witnesses. Acceptance of a blood transfusion, even to save a life, is taken more seriously – exponentially so. It’s considered the ultimate test of your faith.<\/p>\n Her right to refuse treatment was respected, enshrined in law, upheld by the establishment \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but what of her children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right to a mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love?<\/p>\n What, moreover, of the doctors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and nurses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 right to do the utmost to save her life? What of our right to decide that any religious belief that condemns its devotees to death is dangerous,\u00e2\u20ac\u201apernicious\u00e2\u20ac\u201aand does not deserve reverence or respect?<\/p>\n Most\u00e2\u20ac\u201areligions\u00e2\u20ac\u201afreely allow the breaking of their most solemn laws if human life is at stake. Muslims, if they will starve to death otherwise, may eat pork. Jews, if the situation is life and death, may break the Sabbath or eat and drink on the Day of Atonement.<\/p>\n Should a religion that sits by and allows a healthy young mother to refuse life-saving treatment be afforded the same deference as religions which recognise that human life is paramount?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ex-JW Rachel Underhill Recalls her Own Brush with Death<\/strong><\/p>\n “I went into premature labour… [and] was told I would need an emergency Caesarean but it wasn’t until very late that night that my consultant noticed I was a Jehovah’s Witness and what that meant. I’d grown up as one, so even as a child I’d known that I wasn’t allowed a blood transfusion. But never in my wildest dreams did I think that I’d ever need one,” she said.<\/p>\n “When I was in labour… no way was I in any physical or emotional state to say that I might have wanted a transfusion… I’d have been cast out of the religion, which at that point was the last thing I wanted. I needed the network that being a Jehovah’s Witness gave you. Plus it’s a very controlling religion, and I didn’t even think of challenging it.”<\/p>\n She eventually cut her ties with the church. This means she is now free to speak out on issues such as blood transfusions. “I think that in extreme cases, doctors should be able to override a Jehovah’s Witness’s wishes,” she added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If Blood is So Sacred…<\/strong><\/p>\n …Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses do use many fractions and components of blood, so if it’s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sacred\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to God why the hypocritical contradiction?<\/p>\n They also use blood collections that are donated by the Red Cross and others but don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t donate back . . . yet more hypocrisy.<\/p>\n The Watchtower promotes and praises bloodless elective surgeries. This is a great advancement indeed. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no good to me if I am bleeding to death from a car crash and lose half my blood volume and need an emergency transfusion.<\/p>\n The reason that Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses refuse blood is because of their spin on the Old Testament of the Bible from 3000 years ago.<\/p>\n Modern medicine will eventually make blood donations and transfusions a thing of the past. But when this technology happens it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t vindicate the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses and all the deaths that have occurred so far.Their rules against blood transfusions will eventually be abolished (very gradually to reduce wrongful death lawsuit liability). Even now most of the blood components are allowed. In 20 years there will be artificial blood and the Red Cross will go on with other noble deeds.<\/p>\n None of these changes, however, will absolve the Watchtower leaders or vindicate their twisted doctrines. \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Danny Haszard<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n On Sexual Abuse and Predators<\/strong><\/p>\n Studies in the US suggest they have proportionally four times more sexual assaults on children than the Catholic Church<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n JW molester met 8-year-old girl at Kingdom Hall<\/strong><\/p>\n 51-year-old JW Rigoberto Flores faces 3 Felony counts: sexual assault, sexual conduct with a minor, and child molestation of an 8-year old girl.<\/p>\n A man who identified himself as Flores\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 brother tells ABC15 their family is very upset with the 8-year-old\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family. He said it, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was her fault too\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 she pressured him.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d … Flores lives across the street from Buckeye Elementary School. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n She was “askin’ for it” – right?<\/p>\n 67-year-old JW Elder in Quebec Convicted: 7-year Sexual Abuse<\/strong><\/p>\n He got nine months of community service<\/a>… she was 11 when it started… <\/p>\n This is a translation<\/a>:<\/p>\n Found guilty in December 2006 of acts of sexual abuse of a minor \u00e2\u20ac\u201c acts which took place between 1985 and 1992 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Marcel Simonin, 67 years old, formerly an Elder among the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses of Ch\u00c3\u00a2teauguay at the time of the crimes, has been sentenced to serve 9 months in prison. He will serve the sentence in the community.<\/p>\n Simonin received his sentence last Wednesday at the Ch\u00c3\u00a2teauguay Court House. At the time of the initial incidents of assault, the victim \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a young girl \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was only 11 years old.<\/p>\n The mother of the young victim met the individual \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who at that time was an Elder, that is to say that he was a speaker during congregation meetings \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Ch\u00c3\u00a2teauguay. He taught the precepts of their way of life and spiritually supported members of the congregation.<\/p>\n After gaining the confidence of this woman and of her daughter, he proceeded to engage in multiple incidents of intimate contact with the adolescent. The incidents included simple touching and full sexual intercourse.<\/p>\n During those 8 years, the assaults took place in several locations; notably, in the defendant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home, in his car, at the home of the young girl and in the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Ch\u00c3\u00a2teauguay.<\/p>\n In her verdict, Judge Linda Despots – of the Criminal and Penal Chamber of Court – noted that the victim had lodged a complaint at the age of 16 or 17, but later withdrew that complaint as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153she felt pressured by the community and by the threat of being disfellowshipped. It was another Elder, in the Qu\u00c3\u00a9bec region where the mother and the complainant had moved, who persuaded her to write a letter to the authorities of the Congregation of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses concerning her experiences with the accused.<\/p>\n Following receipt of that letter, Simonin telephoned his victim to apologize for the events, after having admitted the truth of the accusations. The complainant, allegedly, then forgave him.<\/p>\n However, when in 2003 the young girl again saw the accused during an Assembly of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses at the Olympic Stadium in Montr\u00c3\u00a9al, his presence re-opened her wounds and caused her to re-live the feeling of guilt that she experienced during the years when she had been victimized by the molestations. The young girl then had some difficult years during which she made 3 attempts at suicide and submitted herself to psychological treatment.<\/p>\n In 2005, in order to continue her therapeutic progress and to free herself, the young girl decided again to file a complaint against the accused.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Jehovah’s Witness Elder Wendell Willick Sexually Exploited Underage Psychiatric \nAfter his wife went to bed, Willick gave the girl a beer. He then kissed, fondled, undressed her and had intercourse with her, Bains said. The victim, now 25, recalled during the preliminary hearing that she was wearing Mickey Mouse underpants at the time. She said the advance began without warning and she did not know what was going on, Bains said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Wendell Willick, 47, was counselling the girl at the behest of her parents – who were friends of Willick through their church – during the period of the abuse, which began in 1996, when the girl was 14. The court heard during a sentencing hearing that Willick first had sexual intercourse with the girl when she was visiting his home on a weekend pass from a hospital psychiatric ward. The victim, whose name is protected by a publication ban, was in the midst of a troubled adolescence. She had once run away from home and had repeatedly cut herself. … The girl’s trust and spiritual beliefs were shattered, she said in a victim impact statement that was read during the sentencing hearing. “It made me feel like a person of no value with no voice. . . . Parts of myself are missing,” she wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Michael Porter Case to Be Reviewed<\/strong><\/p>\n The Crown Prosecution Service is to review the sentence of Michael Porter<\/a>, the elder in the Jehovah’s Witnesses who was sentenced to a mere three years’ community rehabilitation after admitting abusing little boys (one a baby of 18 months) over 14 years. The leniency of this sentence caused outrage at the time . It also focused attention- as in some other churches’ cases in the past – on the dangers religions run when encouraging undue reverence for senior figures. … I can find no comment on the Watchtower website about the Porter case, or policy on this subject, but a page of warnings<\/a> against internet chatroom predators.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Judge Tom Crowther opted not to jail the self-confessed paedophile after hearing he had undergone therapy. Dan Norris, Labour MP for Wansdyke, Somerset, and a former child protection officer, welcomed the Attorney General’s decision. “A relieved public will greatly welcome this common sense decision to review this wicked abuser’s sentence,” he said. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fruits of the Spirit…<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\nSound Off<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nMother dies after refusing blood transfusion<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nJehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses continue to die for a blood ban that their elders might one day declare to be unnecessary<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n
\nTragedy of a Religion that Lets People Die<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n
\n
\nPatient<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\n