4/8/09

My 90-Year Old Grandma a Jehovah's Witness Refuses Transfusion...


              My 90-year old grandma is in the hospital for very high-blood pressure. She is refusing blood transfusions that might save her life because she's a Jehovah's Witness and they are against blood transfusions.  My mom is very worried and apparently the hospital has little experience dealing with these issues. The doctor says that any minute now she could have a stroke if she does not get a transfusion. 

             Reminds me of a story I heard while studying Buddhism about Cats and Monks that illustrates my theory on this form of stubborn beliefs. I found this story at www.citehr.com


THE CAT & THE MONK’s - STORY 

Once upon a time, there was a monastery in Tibet.

The Monks in the monastery meditated from Dawn to Dusk.

One day it so happened that a Cat trespassed into the monastery and disturbed the monks. The head monk instructed that the Cat be caught and tied to the banyan tree until Dusk. He also advised that every day, to avoid hindrance during meditation, the Cat be tied to the banyan tree. So it became a daily practice, a tradition in the monastery; To catch the Cat & Tie it to the Banyan Tree before the monks starts meditating. The cat remained tied to the banyan tree as the monks meditated

The tradition continued. One day the Head Monk Died. As per tradition the senior most monk was chosen as Head monk and all other traditions including tying the CAT to the banyan tree was continued.

One Day the Cat died. The whole monastery plunged into chaos.

A committee was formed to find a solution an it was unanimously decided that a cat be bought from the nearby market and tied to the banyan tree before starting the meditation each day

This tradition is still followed in the monastery even today. UNCHALLENGED. UNQUESTIONED.
_______________________________________________

NOTE: Look at the practices in our life and even practices in our organizations - some of those so called “customary practices” we follow - we never question it, we do not know why it is done that way and why was it started at the first place . Often we Treat these traditions/practices as commandments assuming “that is the way it is“ , "it cannot be done any other way" etc.


I looked in Wikipedia to find out more about why this is that they do not believe in transfusions and below are the bible passages used to follow this rule:

below is what I found:


Based on a particular interpretation of various biblical texts, such as
Genesis 9:3, Leviticus 17:10, and Acts 15:29, they believe the Bible clearly states that:
Blood is sacred to God.
Blood means life in God's eyes.
Blood must not be eaten or transfused.
Blood leaving the body of a human or animal must be disposed of, except for
autologous blood transfusions considered part of a “current therapy”.
Blood was reserved for only one special use, the atonement for sins, which led up to Jesus' shed blood.
When a Christian abstains from blood, they are in effect expressing faith that only the shed blood of Jesus Christ can truly redeem them and save their life.
Even in the case of an emergency, it is not permissible to sustain life with transfused blood.
Conscientious violation of this doctrine is considered a serious offense, after which a member is subject to organized shunning, known amongst Jehovah's Witnesses as being
disfellowshipped.


This is why I personally can never be part of an organized religion....I am sorry to express this so harshly, but the words above are absolute crock....We are just "tying the cat" and don't even know why we are doing it anymore. If you believe in the sanctity of the bible, then taking a human's interpretation of the bible is just that, an interpretation.....

The god I know and love is more forgiving, loving and all-compassionate and would understand your will to live.....

I am so angry right now about this......

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comment at http://mommyactivist.blogspot.com/. I may respond to your comment individually or respond to various comments through one post. Please do not use this comment area for spam or to try to sell products unrelated to my blog.

Have to know how to fight

Do you know how to fight? If you care about your relationships dare to practice fighting.  It does not really matter what you fight over.......