Posted by Just Me on March 18, 1999 at 02:22:26 {MWKjrYqRskvMg}:
Well, I just watched the SBS television program on the blood issue, and thought they did a great job - gave the JWs plenty of opportunity to state their case, while at the same time providing confronting examples to reveal the tragic outcomes of the doctrine and the disfellowshipping policy.
They showed a girl from country Australia who refused a transfusion after an accident and lived. She and her family trotted out the usual speil and came across as pleasant, naive and wholly sucked in. The main interviewee from Sydney Bethel was not very good - overly smarmy, and tried to be witty and amusing about the change in organ transplants ("Well, I don't remember much about it, I was just a young man ...", stated with a smile on his face - this coming from a man in his 60s!). Not too amusing for the people who died while the policy was in place.
The main example shown concerned Tull Ionnades, the 18 y.o. from Queensland who died recently. Clearly the father is having all sorts of trouble coping with it, and who can blame him. Another example concerned a man who watched his father die, and was left with the feeling that no loving god could demand this of his followers - he was also critical of the behaviour of the elders 'standing guard' over his dying father's bed. Another was the case of the Witness who was disfellowshipped for allowing his daughter to have an abortion after she was raped.
Anyway, if the program is instrumental in saving just one life it will have been worth it ...
Just Me