At the Watchtower study on November 10, 2011, you may have noticed these two paragraphs:
14 How do you react when Jehovah, the Source of spiritual enlightenment, sheds light on “the deep things of God” found in the Bible? (1 Cor. 2:10-13) We have an excellent example in the apostle Peter’s reaction when Jesus told His listeners: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.” Taking those words literally, many disciples said: “This speech is shocking; who can listen to it?” They “went off to the things behind.” But Peter said: “Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life.”—John 6:53, 60, 66, 68.
15 Peter did not fully understand what Jesus said about eating His flesh and drinking
His blood. But the apostle relied on God for spiritual enlightenment. When spiritual
light on some matter gets brighter, do you try to understand the underlying Scriptural
reasons for the adjustment? (Prov. 4:18)
A poster on JWnet[1] made a very thought provoking post and I took his excellent idea and made an informational graphic to illustrate his point. It is heartbreaking that these few men of the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses have so much power and yet use so little of it for true good. Some have postulated that Brother Herd (a current member) is in favor of removing the blood ban but does not have the required 2/3 majority vote to affect change in JW policy. Whether this is true or not we do not know, nor probably ever will. In the meantime, each year an untold number of brothers and sisters die for refusing the medical use of blood.
What we do know is that silence and the failure to act when people are dying and being harmed all around you is immoral to most people of conscience. One current governing body member used to be what I would consider a friend of mine, and taught my pioneer school many years ago. But how could I call him friend today while the brothers and sisters in the Kingdom Halls are leaving by the tens of thousands? How could I call him friend when he has the power to stop the shunning of millions of people? Or at the very least recuse himself from further participation in something that is “crooked and cannot be made straight”. (Ecclesiastes 1:15)
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