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Article: Blood on the Altar: Confessions of a Jehovah's Witness Minister.
- Article from:
- Free Inquiry
- Article date:
- June 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Blood on the Altar focuses on the Jehovah's Witnesses' refusal to allow blood transfusions, even in the face of death. Much of the rest of the book deals with the 117-year history of the Witnesses and their plethora of scandals, failed prophecies, and contradictory biblical interpretations.
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, which governs the Witnesses, 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 1930s and 40s the Witnesses also interpreted this passage as a biblical ban on ...