An earlier article on this blog detailed the peculiar activity of Watchtower in relation to its blood doctrine during year 2001.[1] Evidence demonstrated inner turmoil at the highest levels within Watchtower regarding that doctrine.
Just prior, in June of year 2000, Watchtower had already changed its blood doctrine so Witnesses could accept transfusion of blood products such as hemoglobin.[2-3] Then in October of year 2000 Watchtower again changed its blood doctrine so Witnesses could accept transfusion of autologous blood so long as the blood removed was transfused as part of a “current therapy”.[4]
Leading up to the changes made in 2000, and the later bizarre episode of year 2001, there was much talk coming from Watchtower insiders to the effect that its Governing Body members were toying with the idea of changing its religious position on blood to one that would leave Jehovah’s Witnesses to accept transfusion of donor blood as a conscience matter[5], including transfusion of whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma. Much of this talk was/is nearly impossible to verify as authentic, but the events that followed gave some credence to it. In other words, as it turned out there was something to the talk.
One of these Watchtower insiders was known by the moniker “Friend,” and he participated fairly extensively in online discussions.[6] In year 1999 Friend shared an article online that, according to him, was drafted by request of Watchtower leadership. Supposedly there was inquiry about how Watchtower could go about introducing “new light”[7] on blood that would leave Witnesses to accept transfusion of blood products that for the last 50 years had been forbidden under Watchtower doctrine, and this article was one of a few drafted for this purpose. I recall reading the article at the time, and since have searched for it several times without success.[8]
Recently, however, I discovered a hardcopy of that article in an archived file. I do not agree with everything as presented, but thought it interesting enough to publish here for whatever value it may hold for readers. I make no claims about the authenticity of the article’s source. What I share above is what I know of it.
Here is the article as it was shared in 1999:
Marvin Shilmer
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References:
1. What Happened at Watchtower in 2001?.
2. “At present, the number of Jehovah’s Witnesses and their associates in Japan is about 380,000. There are more than 2,000,000 in the United States, and about 13,000,000 in the world, increasing at the rate of about 4.4 percent per year…. What kind of blood substitutes do Jehovah's Witnesses accept? They make a decision in this regard based on the above mentioned principles. They would not accept a blood substitute which contained a major component of blood such as red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, plasma or hemoglobin. However, as to a blood substitute which contained a minor blood derivative such as a1bumin, immune globulins, or clotting factors, each individual Jehovah's Witness would decide whether to accept it or not.”—(Richard Bailey and Tomonoro Ariga, The View of Jehovah's Witnesses on Blood Substitutes, Artificial Cells, Blood Substitutes, and Immobilization Biotechnology, 1998, Vol. 26 Numbers 5 and 6, p. 573. Authors Bailey and Ariga are Jehovah’s Witnesses working for the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in its Hospital Information Services department.)
3. The Watchtower, June 15, 2000, pp. 29-31.
4. The Watchtower, Oct. 15, 2000, pp. 31. Watchtower nowhere defines “current therapy” leaving it a highly subjective term apparently left to be applied at the discretion of the individual Witness.
5. For readers unfamiliar with the usage “conscience matter,” coming from Watchtower it is, essentially, a euphemism declaring that members can do this or that without making themselves a subject of another policy of the Watchtower organization known as disfellowshipping and/or disassociation.
6. By all accounts “Friend” was a long-time member of the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and he worked in some capacity at Watchtower headquarters and other of its branch offices. He is deceased since about year 2002 or 2003.
7. For readers unfamiliar with the usage “new light,” coming from Watchtower it is a term depicting a change in doctrine.
8. A reader of this blog who had an unformatted copy of one of Friend's online presentations of this material from 1999 shared the information and I have added the following images that include some comments by Friend:
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