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Time to take a stand

It's been over a year now since I last set foot on a meeting of Jehovah's witnesses, having spent almost three decades before that as an active member of their religion. Life has finally, properly, begun for me.

The same, unfortunately, can't be said about my sister, a young adult who still lives with my parents. When she spoke to me on the phone some weeks ago I was shocked to hear that she had just had an emergency surgery where she had lost a lot of blood, but of course, had rejected any attempts by medical staff to give her a blood transfusion. She counted on my parents to help her explain the doctrinal position they have. The result was that she was now anaemic and would have to take longer than necessary to recover.

Which brings me to the reason for writing this post. For the last year or so, I have been generally quiet, even when meeting some active JW friend, in saying what I really think or what they should really research about the cult. You can say at times your message will get lost through the fog of indoctrination that fills their minds, or you may lose accessibility to them, or you may give something for the leaders to use in expelling you and forcing your friends and family to shun you--there can be several reasons.

But not anymore. It is too tiring to not be true to oneself. In the year where sincere Jehovah's witnesses should be wondering why they're supposed to believe Jesus has been reigning in heaven for 100 years when this world was going to end in 1925, then 1975, then before the century was out, and now very very soon, in this year I choose to take a stand. I choose to speak out against religious fascism and to denounce the suffering and misery this destructive cult brings to people I know and to millions of others all over the world who still can't be completely free of its control. Even though I myself have been out for a year I have problems with my family that are a direct consequence of them following the rules and preachments of this evil sect.

And I urge you to do the same. Stand up and be counted. Don't let yourself be intimated by the arrogance, wickedness, and tyranny that religion tries to exercise over our lives.

I will speak frankly to my family about these very serious matters. I want them to think of the implications of their stance regarding blood and what would they would have done if the only way for my sister to survive had been to take a blood transfusion. Would they have been willing to let her die for their faith? Would she have been willing to sacrifice herself in the bloodstained altar of this religion?

Many people all over the world are brainwashed into doing horrible things because of beliefs not based on any evidence. In instances like the blood issue and Jehovah's witnesses, there is very little that can be done when a person decides to sacrifice their life for things that no primate can possibly claim to know, like the mind of god, or why a loving god would require us to die for one interpretation in an ancient book written in the desert by bronze age goat-herders. And don't get me started on the rape of innocent children by paedophiles who never are brought to justice lest the sacrosanct image of the Watchtower corporation and leadership be compromised and rank and file members and potential converts start to doubt god is on their side.

I know that very soon my identity will be compromised and old friends will be forced to shun me on pain of expulsion. I hereby take a stand against such authoritarianism, against such dangerous superstitions, I take an antitheistic stance and I say that we need to keep shedding light on these issues, to help others to reclaim their minds, to save children from future physical and emotional torture, to give those who need some of the best assistance that we can--to help them think for themselves. The future of civilization depends on this.

#blood issue

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