Christians — Eating Blood Sausage

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Regarding historical Christians, the Watchtower organization writes[1]:

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The message of that Watchtower statement is to say real Christians do not eat products rendered from blood, such as blood sausage. Is this true?

The Watchtower organization has over and over again touted as real Christians those among Jehovah’s Witnesses who were willing to suffer horribly and even die for their faith as Christians rather than give an inch of compromise, such as under Nazi Germany.[2] If such members of the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses demonstrated that they were “real Christians” then the above representation of Christians refusing to eat “blood sausage” is false.

In the book Under Two Dictatorships Margaret Buber shares her experience in the Ravensbrueck Nazi concentration camp as Block Senior over 275 Jehovah’s Witnesses. In her account Buber expresses that until year 1943 blood sausage was eaten by the Jehovah’s Witnesses in her charge. During 1943, of the 275 Witnesses in the camp, a section of 25 decided not to eat blood sausage. Eventually another section of Witnesses were convinced to refuse eating of blood sausage. Nevertheless, until 1943 all the “real Christians” in this Nazi concentration camp were eating blood sausage, and after 1943 some continued eating it.[3,4]

When Watchtower writes statements such as the one stated above about Christians refusing to eat blood sausage it tells a half-truth. It is true that some Christians have conscientiously refused to eat blood sausage; but it is equally true that some Christians have conscientiously eaten blood sausage.

Marvin Shilmer
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References:

1. The Watchtower, June 1, 1990 p. 30.

2. The Watchtower, January 1, 1963 pp. 15-16.

3. Under Two Dictatorships by Margaret Buber, Victor Golloanz LTD, London, 1949 pp. 222, 235-237:

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4. Lest anyone think this account by Buber is less than correct, “Her account is confirmed by Gertrude Poetzinger, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses who was a prisoner in Ravensbrueck for over four years and who serves today with her husband at the world headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Brooklyn, New York.”—The Watchtower, June 15, 1981 p. 7.