Rational Compassionate Living

Dispensing with the Hebrew Scriptures

In past articles I have made some tongue-in-cheek suggestions such as doing a write-in vote for Jehovah in all future elections, and renaming the Jehovah’s Witnesses to Yaheweh’s Perjurers.

But today I have a more serious proposal: If Christian religions wish to survive in the 21st century they need to dump the Hebrew Scriptures (“Old Testament”) from their canon of “God-inspired” works. In other words they need to drop the OT from the Bible and stop trying to defend it as true or revelatory of God’s nature. (Some publishers of the Bible evidently came to this same conclusion, paring down the OT to just Psalms and Proverbs in some editions.)

The OT has been a constant source of embarrassment to Christianity ever since the first skeptic read it:

We know that plants did not exist on Earth before the Sun shone on its surface.
We know that humans have been on this planet long before 4026 BCE.
We know there was no Earth-wide flood that covered the highest mountain peaks.
We know there is no great fish or whale capable of swallowing a man whole and keeping him alive for three days in its stomach and then vomiting him up on shore as good as new.
We know the Earth never stopped or reversed its rotation.
We know that 70 people did not become millions of people in 400 years or that these millions of people “left Egypt” in one day.

In short, we know that the OT is not true.

We also know that the God of the OT bears little if any resemblance to the one depicted in the Christian Greek Scriptures (aka the “New Testament”).

Personality Trait	God of OT	God of NT
Compassion for animals and the desire/efficacy of animal sacrifices	And you must slaughter the bull before Jehovah, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And you must take some of the bull’s blood and put it with your finger upon the horns of the altar, and all the rest of the blood you will pour out at the base of the altar. It is a sin offering. “Then you will take the one ram… And you must slaughter the ram and take its blood and sprinkle it round about upon the altar… And you must make the entire ram smoke upon the altar. It is a burnt offering to Jehovah, a restful odor. It is an offering made by fire to Jehovah. –Ex 29:11-18 If, though, he cannot afford enough for a sheep, then he must bring as his guilt offering for the sin that he has committed two turtledoves or two young pigeons to Jehovah, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering. And he must bring them to the priest, who must present first the one for the sin offering and nip off its head at the front of its neck, but he should not sever it. And he must spatter some of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar, but the remainder of the blood will be drained out at the base of the altar. It is a sin offering. And the other one he will handle as a burnt offering according to the regular procedure; and the priest must make an atonement for him for his sin that he has committed, and so it must be forgiven him.– Lev 5:7-10	‘I want mercy, and not sacrifice.’ –Mt 9:13 for it is not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take sins away. Hence when he comes into the world he says: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but you prepared a body for me. You did not approve of whole burnt offerings and sin offering.’ –Heb 10:4-6 Observe intently the birds of heaven, because they do not sow seed or reap or gather into storehouses; still YOUR heavenly Father feeds them. –Mt 6:26 Do not two sparrows sell for a coin of small value? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground without YOUR Father’s knowledge. –Mt 10:29
Regard for Children	If his master should give him a wife and she does bear him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will become her master’s and he will go out by himself… And in case a man should sell his daughter as a slave girl… –Lev. 21:4,7 I will send the wild beasts of the field among YOU, and they will certainly bereave YOU of children –Lev 26:22 then Jehovah our God abandoned him to us, so that we defeated him and his sons and all his people. And we went capturing all his cities at that particular time and devoting every city to destruction, men and women and little children. We left no survivor. –Deut. 2:33-34 Finally he turned behind him and saw them and called down evil upon them in the name of Jehovah. Then two she-bears came out from the woods and went tearing to pieces forty-two children of their number. –2 Ki 2:24 “In case a man happens to have a son who is stubborn and rebellious… all the men of his city must pelt him with stones, and he must die. –Deut 21:18-21 Every one that is found will be pierced through, and every one that is caught in the sweep will fall by the sword; and their very children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be pillaged, and their own wives will be raped. “Here I am arousing against them the Medes, who account silver itself as nothing and who, as respects gold, take no delight in it. And their bows will dash even young men to pieces. And the fruitage of the belly they will not pity; for sons their eye will not feel sorry. –Is. 13:15-18 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you… deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle… And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. — Jer. 18:11,21; 19:9	So, calling a young child to him, he set it in their midst and said: “Truly I say to YOU, Unless YOU turn around and become as young children, YOU will by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens. Therefore, whoever will humble himself like this young child is the one that is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens; and whoever receives one such young child on the basis of my name receives me also. –Mt 18:2-5 Then young children were brought to him, for him to put his hands upon them and offer prayer; but the disciples reprimanded them. Jesus, however, said: “Let the young children alone, and stop hindering them from coming to me, for the kingdom of the heavens belongs to suchlike ones.” And he put his hands upon them –Mt 19:13-15
Attitude Towards Enemies	And you must consume all the peoples whom Jehovah your God is giving to you. Your eye must not feel sorry for them; –Deut 7:16	However, I say to YOU: Continue to love YOUR enemies and to pray for those persecuting YOU; that YOU may prove yourselves sons of YOUR Father who is in the heavens –Mt 5:44-45
Mercifulness	I shall certainly be hostile to your enemies and harass those who harass you. For my angel will go ahead of you and… shall certainly efface them. –Ex 23:22-23 And Jehovah went passing by before his face and declaring: “Jehovah, Jehovah, a God… bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons and upon grandsons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation.” –Ex. 34:6-7 ” ‘Now shortly I shall pour out my rage upon you, and I will bring my anger against you to its finish, and I will judge you according to your ways and bring upon you all your detestable things. Neither will my eye feel sorry nor shall I feel compassion. –Ezek. 7:8-9 And Jehovah went on to say… “Pass through the city after him and strike. Let not YOUR eye feel sorry, and do not feel any compassion. Old man, young man and virgin and little child and women YOU should kill off–to a ruination. –Ezek. 9:4-6	continue to love YOUR enemies… and YOU will be sons of the Most High because he is kind toward the unthankful and wicked. Continue becoming merciful, just as YOUR Father is merciful –Mt 6:35-36 Happy are the merciful, since they will be shown mercy… “Happy are the peaceable, since they will be called ‘sons of God.’ –Mt 5:7,9 “For if YOU forgive men their trespasses, YOUR heavenly Father will also forgive YOU; –Mt 6:14
Primary personality type	Jehovah is a God exacting exclusive devotion and taking vengeance; Jehovah is taking vengeance and is disposed to rage. Jehovah is taking vengeance against his adversaries, and he is resentful toward his enemies. –Nahum 1:2	God is love. –1 Jn 4:8

Who could honestly say that column two refers to the same person as column three? Arguing for a “progressive revelation” doesn’t begin to cover the discrepancies between these two characters.

Most of the OT is nothing more than the writings of a barbaric time which depict a war-mongering tribe’s petty, vindictive, and often pathetically stupid god of war.

If there is a God, then attributing to him the actions and personality of the God of the OT would be the biggest insult one could hurl at him.

The OT is filled with all sorts of impossible nonsense and cruelty. Its laws are largely inhumane, its morality largely immoral. It is pointless to continue to argue otherwise. It just makes Christians look foolish.

So, I say: drop the OT from the canon. Treat it like the “Book of the Wars of Jehovah”, which no longer exists, though the Bible refers to it. Treat it like the Book of Enoch which the Bible refers to yet was never made part of the canon (even though it still exists). Let the OT be just a footnote. Where Jesus reputedly refers to the Jonah and the whale story, treat it as if I were to say “I want to play Beethoven on the piano as badly as Schroeder did [Schroeder being a fictitious character in the Peanuts cartoon strip].” It’s not that I believe Schroeder ever existed, rather he’s just a convenient fiction: a well-known character used to make an analogy. So too we can imagine Jesus referring to Jonah simply as a well-known legend without assuming he believed the story was factual.

What about all the OT prophecies about Jesus?

What prophecies are those, exactly? The so-called “messianic prophecies” were debunked over 200 years ago by Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason. The most famous of these “prophecies” (regarding the “virgin birth”) was shown in my article on the Major Prophets to be not a prophecy at all but a trick that the false prophet Isaiah played on a King. The idea that it referred to a “virgin” giving birth was the result of a gospel writer having read a bad translation of the Hebrew word for “maiden” during his quote mining. Hardly something you’d want to base a religious doctrine upon.

So: out with the Old! Then we can all breathe a sigh of relief with that great weight off of our shoulders.

That’s step one. In the next article in this 3-part series we’ll look at what we need to get rid of from the NT canon.

Abridging the Christian Greek Scriptures

Note: This is part 2 of a 3-part series of articles. Please click Previous to read the first part.

And he said to them: “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. He that believes and is baptized will be saved, but he that does not believe will be condemned. Furthermore, these signs will accompany those believing: By the use of my name they will expel demons, they will speak with tongues, and with their hands they will pick up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly it will not hurt them at all. They will lay their hands upon sick persons, and these will become well.”
So, then, the Lord Jesus, after having spoken to them, was taken up to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. They, accordingly, went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and backed up the message through the accompanying signs.

–Mark 16:15-20

The above passage appears in some “ancient manuscripts” but not others. Most Christians, other than some Pentecostals [who regularly die from handling poisonous snakes], consider them spurious.

But did you know that there are other parts of the Christian Greek Scriptures (better known as the New Testament) that are also disputed? These include John 7:53-8:11, Hebrews, James, 2John, 3John, Jude, and Revelation.

In addition, it is almost universally acknowledged that the following epistles found in the NT were not written by Paul: 1Tim, 2Tim, Ephesians, Titus, 2Thess, and probably Colossians. They are what we would today call “forgeries”, along with interpolations in parts of 1Cor and 1Thess.

But removing just the acknowledged forgeries from the NT does not remove all of the harm it can still engender in those who take it literally. For instance, if we remove the above-quoted passage from Mark we are still left with this from Luke10:19:

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

We’re also still left with the verses in Acts which Jehovah’s Witnesses use to justify withholding blood transfusions from their children.

In addition, there are significant discrepancies between The Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles.

The Acts of the Apostles also records some acts of dubious morality such as Paul striking a man blind for questioning his message, sending an escaped slave back to his “master”, and Peter striking a couple dead for not donating 100% of their proceeds to the church.

As pointed out in the article Did Paul Invent Christianity? Paul ignored Jesus’ teachings, and even contradicted him (and Peter) on the issue of whether the Law was to remain in effect.

Finally, we know that the miracles attributed to Jesus were mostly (if not all) legends borrowed from other cultures. Even the idea of a son of a god being born to a woman on Earth, then dying and resurrecting, was a worn-out notion long before the first century (to insert the obligatory pun: it had been “done to death.”)

Miracles were not a reliable sign used to identify the Messiah anyway:

For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will give signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the chosen ones.

–Mark 13:22

Miracles are, by their nature, unbelievable; they contradict the laws of physics, and you can’t do that — even if you’re God.

That last statement is bound to rankle believers, so let me elaborate. Let’s say that I play God by creating a two-dimensional world on a piece of paper with my pencil. Okay, I created this world, so I can damn well do what I please with it.

Only, I can’t. I can’t make the characters I draw speak audibly or have them dance into the third dimension [well, maybe with some creative origami and a pair of scissors] I can’t expect them to go out and get jobs, etc. There are limits to what can possibly take place in the two-dimensional world I have created. Even though I possess powers that a two-dimensional being would consider supernatural [if they were capable of thought], when it comes to my dealings with two-dimensional characters on paper I can’t go beyond the restrictions of that world, and it doesn’t matter a jot if I created it or not.

So too, in our universe there are restrictions: they are known as the laws of physics. God itself cannot violate these laws. This is why “miracles” [the violation of the laws of physics] are only reported where scientific scrutiny isn’t available. Either they happened in the distant past, or they are simply unverifiable hearsay where we are asked to take someone’s word that they took place. But what is more likely: that someone is mistaken/fibbing, or that the impossible has occurred?

For all of these reasons it makes sense to abridge the NT: eliminating the spurious, the forgeries, the borrowed legends, the wrangling over doctrines, the contradictory events, the immoral actions, and the miracles.

What we should be left with is what should concern a Christian the most: the words of Jesus, with just enough context to establish their setting. Then we can compare the philosophy of Jesus to other philosophers (and our own common-sense and empathy) and see if he still stands out on his own apart from all of the baggage his words are normally forced to endure. This gives the teachings of Jesus a fair shake in the marketplace of ideas as it keeps us from rolling our eyes due to the words being sandwiched between miracles and legends.

This is exactly what Thomas Jefferson did in 1820 when he completed “the Jefferson Bible” (full title: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French and English). He did this with a razor and paste: cutting out all of the junk in the NT and leaving just Jesus’ words and the context in which he spoke them.

Your assignment (should you decide to accept it) is to read the Jefferson Bible before reading part 3 in this series. Relax; it shouldn’t take you more than an hour or two.

Critiquing Jesus’ Words

(This is part three of a three-part series. Part One. Part Two.)
In part two of this series I asked you to read the Jefferson Bible. If you’ve read it we’re ready to continue. If not, then just try to imagine Jesus’ words divorced from all miraculous events.

Is what we are left with profound? Does it bespeak divine origin? Is it even original?

Planning Ahead

Reading the Jefferson Bible I was surprised at how often Jesus said to take no thought for tomorrow. He said to take an example from the birds “who neither sow nor reap” yet are fed by God. This is irresponsible advice. It’s also misleading; birds may not sow seeds and harvest crops, but birds do put forth an effort to feed themselves: battling for territory, migrating in advance of winter to ensure they are where the food is located, etc. Some peck insects out of the bark of trees with their beaks, other pull worms out of the ground. Their whole lives consist of “toil” in their struggle for existence. Other animals store food for the winter, so they are certainly “taking thought for the morrow.” If they didn’t they would starve. And if you don’t you will starve as well (unless you have rich relations who can tolerate a parasite — in any case it won’t be God taking care of your needs.)

Parables

Jesus tells many parables: analogies for the “end of the world” in which his followers will be rewarded and others will be punished: going off into “everlasting fire.” These smack of the supernatural and are useless as a philosophy of life unless you need reasons to attempt to frighten unbelievers.

Some of the parables seem to contradict the rules he made. For instance, he tells his followers to lend without interest, yet in more than one parable servants who failed to charge interest on their “master’s” money were punished.

Contradictory Statements

Some of what he says is contradictory. In the “sermon on the mount” he makes these statements:

Ye are the light of the world. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works.
Do your alms in secret and your heavenly father shall reward you openly.

So, which is it? Should we do good works openly to let our light shine before men, or in secret to obtain a heavenly reward?

He makes contradictory statements regarding divorce:

If you divorce your wife for any reason other than adultery then you force her to commit adultery, and anyone who marries her also commits adultery.
Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.

So if I divorce my wife do I force her to commit adultery, or do I commit adultery (and does it only matter if it’s on grounds other than adultery [the first two statements indicate Yes, the third indicates No])? In any case, anyone who marries her commits adultery. So, if you’re going to marry a divorced woman just be sure she was divorced for adultery so that you’ll have a 2/3 chance of not committing adultery by marrying her! For a further elaboration on this 3-way dilemma, please see my book: The Cure for Fundamentalism.

Philosophy of Life

In the Sermon on the Mount we find the famous “beatitudes”:

Blessed are:	Because:
the poor in spirit	theirs is the kingdom of heaven
they that mourn	they shall be comforted
the meek	they shall inherit the earth
they that hunger/thirst for righteousness	they shall be filled
the merciful	they shall attain mercy
the pure in heart	they shall see God
the peace-makers	they shall be called the children of God
those persecuted for righteousness’ sake	theirs is the kingdom of heaven
those reviled/persecuted for my sake	great is their reward in heaven

Along with their parallel “woes”:

Woe unto those:	because
that are rich	they have received their consolation
that are full	they shall hunger
that laugh now	they shall mourn and weep
that are spoken well of	so were the false prophets

In short: if you’re miserable you are “blessed” because you’ll have some sort of future reward to make up for it. But if you are enjoying your life, woe to you: you will be punished in the future. Jesus’ philosophy of life is: Don’t enjoy your life: don’t laugh, or have enough to eat, or be well spoken of; you’ll lose your heavenly reward. It’s better to be poor, hungry, reviled and persecuted; for which you’ll be rewarded in heaven.

People who are in mourning are mourning a loss of some sort: usually of a loved one. But Jesus tells us that people who mourn are “blessed” because they will be comforted. So it’s good to lose a loved one according to Jesus, because then you’ll mourn and be blessed by being comforted. Better to lose a loved one than to enjoy life with them: those who laugh now shall mourn and weep [but then they’ll be blessed as mourners, so maybe laughing is all right after all(?)]

What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? I think it means being non-assertive. The same with being “meek”: not demanding your basic rights as a human being when you are trodden upon. According to Jesus, you should be a “peace-maker” with those who revile and persecute you: if they strike you, stand there and cooperate in making it easier for them to strike you yet again:

Don’t resist evil. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn your head so he can slap you on the other as well.
Agree with your adversary before he takes you to court so that you don’t end up in prison.
If someone does sue you, give them more than they are suing for. If someone compels you to go a mile, go two miles.
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.
If you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t, he won’t.

It is little wonder that such ideas became the favored religion of the Roman Empire. What better subjects could an imperial emperor hope for than people who would allow him to treat them in whatever way was most convenient for him, without rebelling?

When I was in Catholic elementary school I made the mistake of following Jesus’ advice about “turning the other cheek”. I ended up being bullied, lost all self-esteem, and became friendless and suicidally depressed. Great advice there, Jesus!

It was only as an adult, after having abandoned Jesus’ philosophy, that I learned how one can be ethically assertive. The emotional scars of childhood, however, have never fully healed.

How did Jesus come to terms with his sexual appetite?

He states that looking at a woman with lust is committing adultery in one’s heart. This shows a lack of understanding of the human makeup. We have hormones which give us desires. A basic animal instinct is to procreate. Yes, we temper this desire with civilized constraints, but that doesn’t mean we can humanly stop looking at each other with desire. Unless, of course, we take drastic actions to eliminate our hormones:

“…there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”

Yes, Jesus actually recommended castration! (This accords well with his other sayings recommending we mutilate the part of our body that is causing us to sin: If your eye or hand offends you, cut it off; it’s better than your whole body being cast into hell.)

In short, Jesus recommends unhealthy guilt for having healthy sexual desires. When I was a Jehovah’s Witness I dealt with these desires in the most innocuous way possible: masturbation. The Watchtower (and the elders) told me this was a sin worthy of disfellowshipping. It convinced me that I was worthless and unable to live up to the standards that others [I naively thought] were able to maintain. This time the depression led to a very real, and nearly fatal suicide attempt. Way to go, again, Jesus!

How did Jesus regard acts of altruism (i.e. “charity”)?

Once again the answer is a confusing mess. Not only does he tell us to hide and show our good works at the same time, he tells a rich man that in order to be saved he must sell all that he has and give the proceeds to the poor. Yet he tells Zaeccheus, a rich publican who gives only half of his goods to the poor (while admitting to taking things from men by false accusation): “Salvation has come to this house!” When expensive ointment is poured on Jesus’ head and his disciples ask why he didn’t sell the ointment and give the proceeds to the poor, he dismisses their plight with: “the poor are always among us“.

How did Jesus regard hygiene?

The Pharisees complained more than once that he and his disciples did not wash their hands before eating. Jesus said “There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him“. He evidently knew nothing of germs. When he did wash, he didn’t believe in doing a thorough job of it: “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit“! Jesus and the disciples must’ve been a smelly lot (other than their feet)!

Conclusion

Having found too much to dislike in the Jefferson Bible I have created the McRoberts Bible. This is an abridgment of the NT with all of the dross removed. Here it is:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
It is better to give than to receive. [The single instance of Paul claiming to quote Jesus; though it’s not in any Gospel]
Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Beware of greed, because a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
Why do you not decide for yourselves what is right?

The above were platitudes even in Jesus’ day, albeit good ones. (There are exceptions to them as well.) But they are all things that would occur to you naturally if you allowed your inherent empathy to co-rule your life along with your reason [what I like to call “rational, compassionate living”]. All of which means in the end that we can do without the NT as a guide for our lives, especially since there is so much in it that should not serve as a guide.

For more on the questionable ethics of some of Jesus’ actions, please see my article: What Would Jesus Do?

The Watchtower: A Bloody Mother Thou Art!

And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him [Moses], and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.
—Exodus 4:24-26

If we are to walk in the light of truth we must recognize not only Jehovah God as our Father but his organization as our mother.
—Watchtower, May 1, 1957, p. 274

Why is everybody always pickin’ on me?
—“Charlie Brown”

I am typing this with one hand, as the other is immobile: the arm hooked up to an apheresis machine. I am at my local Red Cross, donating platelets. Whenever I do this (which is at least once a month) my mind is drawn back to the days when I believed that such donations were a sin.

97% of people will require a blood transfusion at some point in their lives. I know I did when I had my scoliosis surgery. It was a good thing that I had given up the Watchtower religion’s stance on blood before that event.

Having received blood, I thought it was only right to later start donating blood. The Watchtower stranglehold over my mind had been so strong, however, that it was many years before I started donating, and then only after I had researched the “blood issue” extensively. Only 3% of people donate blood, so there is always a need.

After I had done this a few times the Red Cross asked me to start donating platelets instead, since there was a greater need for my particular blood-type’s platelets and plasma.

Here on the white-board in the apheresis waiting room they have a list of some of the people benefiting from the platelets we’re donating. They range in age from a few months old to over 70 years old. Many are battling leukemia. It does feel good to know that our platelets are helping them to live.

Why I “pick on” the Watchtower religion

Visitors to my site who are Jehovah’s Witnesses often ask why I “pick on” their religion. When I think about it, there are many aspects about the religion which are innocuous to someone [like me] who does not have superstitious beliefs of their own. For instance, I really don’t care what they say God’s name is, or how many persons they think he is, or whether his son is a created angel with an alter-ego named Michael. I don’t care if they choose not to celebrate birthdays or Christmas or salute a flag. In fact, I refrain from some of these things myself (for other reasons). Arguments about such things are only useful in as much as they point out how such doctrines may undermine the idea that they are following the Bible as exclusively and as closely as they claim.

In fact I wouldn’t “pick on” the religion at all [at least not singling it out from my diatribes against religion in general] if it weren’t for a few things, such as:

Refusal of blood transfusions for their children
Disfellowshipping/Shunning
The “two witness” rule that allows pedophiles a free pass in Kingdom Halls.

All of these really stem from one thing: allowing the Watchtower Society (aka the Governing Body) to override individual empathy and common sense.

Each person who becomes a Jehovah’s Witness vows at baptism to submit to the judgments of the Watchtower in deciding what is right and what is wrong. If the Society says you must shun people who come to disagree with the Watchtower, then shunning will take place with no questions asked. If the Watchtower says that blood transfusions are wrong, then [for most Witnesses] they are wrong: end of conversation. There will be no listening [or at least no hearing] of sensible arguments to the contrary. No heed will be paid to the son or daughter bleeding to death; the GB has spoken!

Contrast this attitude to what Jesus reputedly said:

Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
–Luke 12:57

Why indeed?

For Witnesses, the answer to Jesus’ question can be found in the following Watchtower quotes:

We resolve that we shall obey all instructions received from the Watch Tower, knowing that such proceed from the higher powers, Jehovah God and Christ Jesus. We resolve to be completely obedient to the Society as the visible part of the Great Theocracy.
–Watchtower, 2/1/1940 p.47

In submitting to Jehovah’s visible theocratic organization, we must be in full and complete agreement with every feature of its apostolic procedure and requirements.
–Watchtower, 10/1/1967 p.592

Avoid independent thinking… questioning the counsel provided by God’s visible organization.
–Watchtower, 1/15/1983 p.22

A mature Christian must be in unity and full harmony with fellow believers as far as faith and knowledge are concerned. He does not advocate or insist on personal opinions or harbor private ideas when it comes to Bible understanding. Rather he has complete confidence in the truth as it is revealed by Jehovah God through his Son, Jesus Christ, and “the faithful and discreet slave.”
–Watchtower, 8/1/2001 p. 14

…direction that we receive from Jehovah’s organization may not appear practical from a human standpoint. All of us must be ready to obey any instructions we may receive, whether these appear sound from a strategic or human standpoint or not.
—Watchtower, November 15, 2013, p.20

Freewill has been surrendered: There is no room left for individual decision making as to what constitutes right and wrong. If there were, then no Jehovah’s Witness would ever refuse life-saving medical care for their child. And no parent would ever shun a disfellowshipped son or daughter. It is only their blind misbegotten loyalty to their “mother” organization that causes them to act against their own sense of love for their children.

To adapt Zipporah’s statement to the Watchtower Society, we may cry: “A bloody mother thou art!” as we cast our bloodless dead children at the Governing Body’s feet.

For a complete refutation of the Watchtower’s blood policy, please see my 8-part series: The Jehovah’s Witness Blood Issue: Resolved!

Here I will only give one reason why the Governing Body is dead wrong on the blood issue. One is sufficient.

To cut through all of their defenses, let’s assume for the moment that they are right in claiming that blood transfusions are against God’s law. The question then shifts to:

According to the Bible is it ever okay to break God’s law in order to save life?

The answer is a resounding:

Now it happened that he was proceeding through the grainfields on the sabbath, and his disciples started to make their way plucking the heads of grain. So the Pharisees went saying to him: “Look here! Why are they doing on the sabbath what is not lawful?” But he said to them: “Have YOU never once read what David did when he fell in need and got hungry, he and the men with him? How he entered into the house of God, in the account about Abiatharm the chief priest, and ate the loaves of presentation, which it is not lawful for anybody to eat except the
priests, and he gave some also to the men who were with him?” So he went on to say to them: “The sabbath came into existence for the sake of man, and not man for the sake of the sabbath”
—Mark 2:23-17 (NWT)

Note that Jesus did not say that he and the disciples weren’t breaking the law. No, he did not deny that they were breaking God’s law. Instead he told a story about King David breaking God’s law as well. Why? For no other purpose than to show that God’s law was never meant to cause hardship. The law was to serve man, not the other way around.

When following the law would cause someone to die of hunger, then to Jesus’ mind it was a no-brainer: the law should be broken.

In Matthew’s account of the incident, Jesus is related as saying:

However, if YOU had understood what this means, ‘I want mercy, and not sacrifice,’ YOU would not have condemned the guiltless ones.”
—Matthew 12:7 (NWT)

He was speaking to the Pharisees, who–as we know–were real sticklers for following the law to the letter. But he could just as easily have spoken those words directly to the Pharisees of our day: the Governing Body of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

If the GB really knew what love is then they would have mercy on their followers and not demand the sacrifice of the very lives of their children. It would be a no-brainer for them as well.

Till that day dawns, they shall remain a blood-guilty “mother” to the victims of their policies which we hereby lay at their feet:

the bloodless dead children (due to their blood policy)
the abused children (due to their “two witness” policy)
the abused women (due to their “women must be in subjection” policy)
the suicide victims (due to their shunning policy)

Till these policies change, we–the “apostates”–will never stop “picking on” them, in hopes of saving those who may still be able to listen.

Meanwhile, if you want to do a really good deed and thumb your nose at the GB at the same time, go and donate blood.

People need it much more than they do a Watchtower or Awake magazine.