Doom’s witnesses

Among all the nonsense with which religions amuse us, there is one that usually draws my attention and is usually found in a strong controversy, is the Jehovah’s Witnesses refusal to blood transfusions. It’s interesting that, instead of doing as other denominations do, “kill” the person little by little, this one is a belief that can kill a person right away.

Jehovah’s Witness who refused blood transfusion because of her religion dies

She was intervened few moments after suffering a car accident, but died because of blood loss since her religion prohibits blood transfusions

The header and following paragraph are to certain point ridiculous. I find it unconceivable that a person dies even though she had the opportunity to receive medical care on time.

My opinion is certainly divided. In one hand it saddens me to see that a person dies even though she had the opportunity to be saved by the advancement of medical procedures. On the other hand, there is a part of me, a very politically incorrect part, that wants to enjoy the death of a fanatical person who is retarded enough to kill herself, which means one less contribution to a church, and a few less doors knocked. And also, there is the indifference to see a person who died happy of dying the way she wanted.

As usual with abrahamic religions, the Jehovah’s witnesses also dislike gay people. The Sodom and Gomorrah story is frequently cited to justify such bigotry (of course, nothing is said about Lot’s offering of giving his daughters to an angry mob to be correctly gang-raped). Even though they don’t stage protests, since the Jehovah’s Witness church is a pretty solvent institution, which makes it a powerful lobby when it comes to collect signatures and ask for laws that discriminate against gays.

Less outrageous is the fact that they give priority to evangelization instead of education, which is why they have time to go around knocking on doors. However, the good side is that few of them will be able to talk about biology or cosmology when trying to convince people of accepting God in their lives.

It’s also worth mentioning that Jehovah’s witnesses don’t celebrate birthdays, Christmas or Halloween, so don’t even bother inviting them to your party. Some won’t even sign a card, so it wouldn’t be rare to find a friend or relative missing in a celebration. It surprised me that they don’t celebrate Christmas, but after doing some research, I found out that they don’t like Christmas because of its pagan origins. At least they got that right.

There are also the common nonsenses which, while not critical, are annoying to find in the XXI century, such as denial of evolution, demonization of sexuality, prohibition of smoking and drinking, authority of the husband over the wife and finding Satan everywhere.

Going back to the blood transfusion issue, while my opinion is divided when a person dies, it’s certainly defined when the victim is a minor. In this case, it would be outrageous to see a kid dying because his or her parents don’t want to allow a blood transfusion. Fortunately, hospitals have the power to take custody of the kid and make a transfusion.

Anyway, I’m sure I’m leaving behind many issues about this sect, but I think I covered the most controversial issue of this group: the refusal of a medical method that in many cases it’s vital to save a person’s life.