In November 2007, 14-year-old Dennis Lindberg lay critically ill at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Dennis had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia just weeks earlier. Doctors began chemotherapy, but the treatment devastated his red blood cell count. To continue treating him, they said he needed blood transfusions.
Dennis refused.
He was a Jehovah’s Witness, and accepting blood would violate what he understood God to require of him. His aunt and legal guardian, also a Witness, supported his decision. His biological parents did not.
The dispute went before a Washington judge. Doctors testified that with transfusions and continued treatment, Dennis had an estimated 70 percent chance of surviving at least five years. Without them, his condition was rapidly becoming fatal.
On November 28, 2007, Superior Court Judge John Meyer declined to force the transfusion. “It is time to do what Dennis has decided, to place this in God’s hands,” he ruled.
Dennis died seven hours later.
A few days ago, the religious rule that Dennis believed required him to refuse that transfusion changed.
On September 18, 2026, the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses announced that receiving donated red blood cells is now a matter of individual conscience. So are white blood cells, platelets and plasma. Congregations are instructed not to judge members for accepting them.
A 14-year-old Jehovah’s Witness in Dennis Lindberg’s medical situation today could choose to receive the packed red cells his doctors wanted to give him without violating the denomination's policy.
What Changed?
Jehovah’s Witnesses have not abandoned their famous prohibition on blood entirely.
Whole-blood transfusions remain forbidden. But as of September 18, Witnesses may personally decide whether to receive any of the four major components that make up blood: red cells, white cells, plasma and platelets. They may also choose to donate blood when it will be separated into components or fractions for use by other patients.
It is the second major change this year. In March, the Governing Body announced that Witnesses could make their own decisions about having their own blood removed, stored and later returned during medical treatment. That had previously been prohibited as well.
International spokesman Paul Gillies says the basic theology has not changed. “Blood remains sacred to Jehovah’s Witnesses,” he explained. But because the Bible does not specifically discuss the individual components of blood known to modern science, the organization now considers those medical decisions a matter between an individual Witness and Jehovah.
That explanation makes more sense with a little history.
Who Are Jehovah's Witnesses?
Jehovah’s Witnesses began with a small Bible study group organized by Charles Taze Russell in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh, in the 1870s. Russell and his associates believed established churches had strayed from biblical Christianity. He began publishing Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence in 1879, and the movement eventually spread far beyond Pennsylvania. The name "Jehovah’s Witnesses" was adopted in 1931.
Today the denomination reports more than nine million active members worldwide. Witnesses identify as Christians, but several of their beliefs differ sharply from those of Catholic, Orthodox and most Protestant churches. They reject the Trinity, regarding Jesus as the Son of God but not Almighty God himself. They believe God's Kingdom is a real heavenly government and maintain strict political neutrality, including refusing to vote for candidates or serve in the military.
Their distinctive practices are often more familiar to outsiders than their theology. Witnesses are known for door-to-door evangelism and worship in buildings called Kingdom Halls. They generally do not celebrate Christmas, Easter or birthdays.
Scripture never explicitly prohibits birthdays. Witnesses instead point to the pagan origins of birthday customs, the absence of birthday celebrations among early Christians and the fact that the Bible's only two birthday parties involve nonbelievers and end badly.
The prohibition on transfusions came considerably later in the movement's history. Jehovah’s Witnesses formally adopted their position against blood transfusions in 1945, as blood banking and transfusion medicine were becoming increasingly common.
Why Blood?
The biblical argument rests partly on Genesis and Leviticus, but one of the most important passages is Acts 15:28-29. In the King James Version, early Christian leaders tell Gentile converts:
“For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.”
Jewish and most other Christian traditions have generally understood the instruction to abstain from blood as a dietary command. Jehovah’s Witnesses concluded that receiving blood intravenously also violated it.
By 1961, the interpretation carried disciplinary consequences. Jehovah’s Witnesses' own history says members who accepted transfusions and remained unrepentant could be disfellowshipped.
The boundary that remains is whole blood itself.
A Rule Medicine Had to Work Around
Few religious teachings have required modern medicine to adapt as extensively as the Jehovah’s Witness blood policy.
Medical literature has for decades described treating Witness patients as a distinctive ethical and clinical challenge, particularly in trauma, childbirth, cancer treatment and major surgery. When severe bleeding or anemia develops, physicians can find themselves unable to use a treatment that would ordinarily be standard care. Emergencies involving children create another problem because parents' religious authority, a child's developing autonomy and the state's responsibility to protect minors can collide in the same hospital room.
As Dennis Lindberg's red-cell level fell, his heart enlarged and his body weakened. His doctor told the court that Dennis would have to be restrained and repeatedly sedated if transfusions were forced upon him once he regained enough strength to resist.
Cases like his are not historical curiosities. Just last month, Scotland's Court of Session considered two cases involving Jehovah’s Witness parents who would not authorize blood transfusions for their children. One child was a 13-year-old undergoing cancer treatment. The other was a 3-year-old with sickle cell disease who needed kidney surgery. The court authorized clinicians to use blood if it became necessary to prevent serious harm or death.
Accommodating Witness patients has also helped advance bloodless medicine, which uses techniques such as treating anemia before surgery, minimizing blood loss, recovering a patient's own blood during certain procedures and carefully managing clotting. Johns Hopkins created a Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery in 2012, and many of these techniques now benefit other patients as well.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are close to unique among large religious traditions in having a denomination-wide prohibition specifically focused on blood transfusion. The Associated Press described them this week as “almost alone” in this belief. Members of other faiths may refuse blood or other treatment for personal religious reasons, but there is no comparable blood-specific prohibition across another major global faith tradition.
The September change therefore has practical consequences well outside the Kingdom Hall. Many medical situations that previously put a Witness patient's faith directly at odds with standard treatment may no longer do so. Whole blood remains prohibited, and individual Witnesses are still free to refuse any component their conscience will not permit, so those conflicts will not disappear.
Did God Change His Mind?
Beatrice Jones was 11 when severe anemia brought her to a doctor's office in England. The doctor recommended a transfusion that Jones understood could save her life.
She had also grown up as a Jehovah’s Witness and had been taught that accepting blood could place her relationship with Jehovah at risk.
Jones remembers hiding in her bedroom and crying. She wasn't simply trying to decide whether a medical treatment frightened her. She was wondering what accepting it might mean for everything else in her life.
“Would I lose my family? Would I lose my chance of entering the promised paradise?” she recalled.
No elder was standing beside her demanding that she refuse. Jones told the BBC that the rule had already been absorbed deeply enough that external pressure was unnecessary. “No one person was pressuring me,” she said. “It was ingrained.”
She refused the transfusion, received alternative treatment, and ultimately survived. Jones later left Jehovah’s Witnesses, but says the memory still returns whenever blood transfusions come up.
Jones spoke publicly in April, after the Governing Body's first blood-policy change allowed Witnesses greater freedom regarding their own stored blood. That revision already angered her. “How dare you?” she remembered thinking about a rule under which people had suffered, only to see part of it reclassified as a personal choice. Her comments came months before September's much larger change.
Jehovah’s Witness leaders reject the premise that God has changed his mind. Their position is that Scripture remains the same while human understanding of how to apply it has become more precise. The Governing Body now says that because the Bible does not address the medical use of blood components, leadership should not impose a rule where Scripture does not provide one.
Religious reinterpretation is hardly unique to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Churches and denominations have revised teachings on everything from organ transplantation to divorce as theology, scholarship, social conditions, and technology changed. A believer can reasonably see such revision as evidence that human beings are fallible even when they are sincerely trying to understand a divine command.
But what if that re-interpretation could have saved a life?
Dennis Lindberg cannot return to his hospital room in 2007 knowing what a Jehovah’s Witness teenager knows in 2026. Beatrice Jones cannot reassure her 11-year-old self that accepting red blood cells would one day become a permitted choice. We cannot know what Dennis would have chosen under today's policy. He might still have refused.
When a faith community decides that a rule once presented as God's command went further than Scripture actually required, what responsibility does it have to the people who organized their lives, and sometimes risked them, around the old interpretation?
62 comments
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Leslie A. Hulberg Née Tomasura
IMHO, no faith should put pressure on someone to follow their teachings. If you come to the faith, it should be of one’s own free will. Everyone is supposedly a sinner. And no one is perfect. That said, those who make the body of rules for a faith, are doing so based on their own interpretations. Since no one is infallible, that person’s interpretations may differ from another’s interpretations. Ask yourself if your faith requires blind adherence to rules made by a group of infallible individuals? Maybe following your heart and your sense of what is right and what is right for you is enough to sustain your faith. Maybe people lose faith because of rules made by others who do not walk in their parishioners shoes. Does that mean those people are less than? What brought you to faith to begin with? What were you lacking? Was it inherited faith? Or was it your heart that led you into the fold? Didn’t God give us free will? To believe? To not believe? To be moral or immoral? To sin or not sin? Would a god reject you for a decision made in trying times? Would God reject you? Would God accept you as you are and help you to find your own path to peace and love? I believe that rigidity within the governing bodies of all faiths could lead to the detriment of the faith itself. Since no one is perfect, it is to be expected that every single person will at some point fail to live up to the standards of perfectly following every rule in every aspect of life and faith. Wisdom suggests that each of us must atone for our own shortcomings. Accordingly we will must be prepared to accept those shortcomings and attempt to better ourselves with our actions each day. We must be able to look in the mirror and know the person looking back at us, judging for ourselves if we can do and be better than we are today. Religion must do the same. The governing bodies must do the same. We must all be held accountable. We all must believe we can accept our decisions and be able to stand in judgment with an open heart and a clear mind that we have done our best and whatever we have done in our life that is not right, we can and will accept the responsibility for them knowing we did our best and willingness to right any wrong we had made according to our understanding.
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Christina Lynn Grassi
This is Acts 15:28–29, and the context is important. The early church was deciding what should be required of Gentile converts to Christianity. Some Jewish believers argued that Gentiles needed to follow the Law of Moses, including circumcision. The apostles ultimately said they should not place the full burden of Jewish law on Gentile Christians, but gave them several specific instructions.
Here’s the passage piece by piece:
“Meats offered to idols”: Don’t participate in pagan/idol worship by eating food as part of sacrifices to false gods. “From blood”: This refers to consuming blood as food, something prohibited in Jewish Scripture because blood represented life. See Leviticus 17:10–14. It is about eating/drinking blood, not modern medical procedures involving blood. “Things strangled”: An animal killed by strangulation had not had its blood properly drained. This is closely connected with the previous instruction about consuming blood. “Fornication”: The Greek word is porneia, referring broadly to sexual immorality. In the New Testament context, this generally means sexual activity outside the boundaries of marriage and can encompass adultery and other prohibited sexual relationships. “If ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well”: In other words, the apostles are telling these new Gentile believers that avoiding these practices is consistent with the Christian life they have entered. What about blood transfusions?
Nothing in Acts 15 specifically addresses blood transfusions. They didn't exist in the first century. The command is about abstaining from blood in the context of consumption and the slaughter/preparation of animals.
Some religious groups, most notably Jehovah's Witnesses, interpret “abstain from blood” more broadly and therefore reject blood transfusions. But most Christian traditions do not interpret Acts 15 that way. They distinguish eating blood from receiving donated blood medically to preserve life.
And yes, the fornication part is more straightforward
The passage does tell Christians to abstain from sexual immorality. That's not merely a dietary or Jewish ceremonial rule. Sexual morality is repeatedly taught elsewhere in the New Testament as well, for example in 1 Corinthians 6:18 and 1 Thessalonians 4:3–5.
One interesting detail is that the four instructions aren't just a random grab bag. The first three have strong connections to pagan worship and Jewish concerns about blood, while porneia addresses sexual conduct that was common in the surrounding Greco-Roman culture.
So in very plain English, Acts 15:28–29 is roughly saying:
“We aren't going to burden you Gentile believers with the entire Jewish law. But stay away from idolatry, don't consume blood or animals whose blood hasn't been drained, and stay away from sexual immorality.”
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Brian H. Miller
Do we not share the blood of Yeshua?!
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Sir Lionheart
It depends on what blood type he was, so some will share that same blood type. Other than that the answer will be no.
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Geoffrey C. Olive
No!
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Rev. Deborah L. Halstead
I am not a Jehovah's Witness, but I strongly agree whether or not to accept a medical procedure is an individual choice!
In the case presented of a 14 year old with acute lymphoblastic leukemia that "had an estimated 70 percent chance of surviving at least five years" with constant medical interventions, For me, the question goes beyond blood transfusions to a general, "What medical treatment are you willing to accept?" especially with chronic, debilitating diseases. It's a personal choice.
For me, Death is not the enemy, living in agony is.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Rev Halstead,
I agree up to a point. ALL is not chronic, nor is it debilitating. If one makes it past the 5-year mark, they are considered "cured." Yes, there are some significant and difficult treatments to get there, but 70 percent chance of that happening versus 100 percent for death, is a gamble most people would take, even knowing how tough the road ahead is. I'm sure that a person's general health and family situation as well as their financial situation will play into a decision. As a mother of two, seeing my children in any type of pain cut me to the core, and a 14-year old has a whole life ahead of them. My cousin had a daughter about that age with bone cancer in a leg that they treated for about two years, and she rang the 5-year bell, and now is well into her 20s with a child of her own. What happened to this child is tragic for everyone involved.
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JaZe
I understand the disgust of receiving blood, blood is the most intimate material in the human body, it carries a lot of the essence of another being, some of which may be removed through the process blood is put through before being injected. The question is, how much do you want to live?
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Ari Joseph Bertine
All religions organized around writings too old to know what the writers meant are interpretations agreed upon by a consensus of humans, thus forming sects. If a sect starts racking up casualties that might make its members defect to a less lethal sect, it is eventually going to introduce a new interpretation. That's just survival.
I personally cannot imagine any deity making rules that would result in the loss of worshipers. That would be quite silly.I do wonder what was going through the heads of the humans who originally decided that a law regarding what not to eat would apply to something that didn't exist at that time. The blood of sacrifices was for the gods, specifically, but moreover, sacrificial meat and blood sat out where it could spoil. That is a sensible ban. The only thing that's odd about this change in interpretation is that it took so long, but that is what happens when humans make laws based on feelings.
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Jannetje Eleanore Van Went
I don't believed developed script by men is God talking (Gods don't write) people document what they believe they hear, it's called belief not proof. What happened here is not changing a Gods words (those would be symbolic and transfered to word by man, and in transfering a man may use prejudice not because of hate, because of preference and that is what the ideas that need (not accidentally or influencially are changed) but because times change and so do peoples needs. There is no way a God who created people with free will and free thinking minds ever put us in a box. That was interpreted symbology from so long ago, God has changed as well, those prejudices do not make sense today and today's interpretation are not the same as past interpretations it is far past time to update the interpretations of God's as God's would have hoped we would (since our minds also develop over time so would our interpretations) we fall on hardship repeating someone else's interpretation as they do not live our life...these old unforced rules cause Alzheimer's today, if you don't think for yourself you loose thought and mind. Synape are created from your own thought attached to your own action (if it's someone else's thoughts you have no real act, they it's a lie or broken synape) a police officer knows this, if a person fakes a story, they come back later and ask them to repeat it, because if they lied the first time, they won't remember the facts. Unfortunately forced practice tells us to keep a lie as truth.
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Brenda Dawn Schwarz
As a previous fourth generation JW, now in my fifties, who left in my forties, this is only the tip. I had been a " pioneer" donating 90 hours a month to the evangelizing work. I read the bible through every 2 years and read their own encyclopedias all the way through.I was devout. Then I was forced to see through the constructed lies concerning child sexual abuse,rape and kidnapping. After going to the police and being ostracized I started to look into all of the control.Equating birthdays to beheading,Christmas to infanticide, voting aligning with the Devil and blood transfusion being a primal sin.( Being forced to equated to rape.) The thousands that have died ( many of whom were new mothers)believing they were being faithful disgusts me. This group by their own standards is "bloodguilty." A term they use to make anyone "responsible" for actions outside their creed.
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Rev. Lindsay
You don't have to debate their silly no blood transfusion rule. Because this person is a minor this falls under child endangerment laws and the state should take the child away and arrest the parents for neglect in this case. That's all their is to it in this case.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Rev. Lindsay,
While I agree with you, the courts have not, and believe me it's been tried many times. The child made a choice according to his religious beliefs and the legal guardian (an aunt) even agreed with them. The child's parents who had already either been stripped of or given away their parental rights disagreed. Religious exceptions to certain treatments are contrary to many of the medical ethics, including, "first, do no harm." The harm here, according to the religion would be to the child's soul, and that the parents and in this case the child believe that, the trauma of their understanding of the consequence outweighs the life/death decision of the doctors, and most who would willingly accepted life-saving interventions. Any time you go into a medical situation where there might be the need for such an intervention, that is a question they ask you, specifically about your willingness to accept blood products and to accept interventions such as CPR and ventilators if they are necessary to save your life. My nusband and I have completed a directive that states what we wuold want in those events that are on file with our doctors and the hospitals where we have been treated.
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Evone L Payton Banks (Minister/Rev non denominational)
Very well written. Having in mind, this organization has gone under a lot of changes. There are groups who embrace the times and groups who do not. If life saving technology is affordable to help heal and they want or need it... Then by all means. I grew up around a different group. I get all sides. But mine in my childhood was ritual based. Some may argue, no no an you think they're hiding something horrible and others may reveal; the moment you ask background to them of religious categories people deliberately got them sick in one way shape or form. On top of the ladder of this which I am commented, evidence disappeared as proof. Imagine a healthy life and then you want to leave and then are suddenly attacked over who you are to an organization using faith based biblical teaching... And someone makes you sick on purpose. They have come so far. Thank you for a different history lesson.
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Theresa M Gilroy Nielsen
Honestly, I think it is time to check everything against the Ethiopian Bible. Many organized religions apparently are built on a house of cards, founders dreams, or their egos, but not actually on God's word after all. Jesus said "All things would be revealed, and in our lifetimes this is happening. It's bound to be a little confusing for awhile! I've purchased the 4 big volumes, and it is truly an eye-opening experience! This is where I personally will proceed in the future.
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Alexander Clarke
Just more proof that there is no limit to human stupidity. Religion was create by man to control what we think, say, do, deprive you of your wealth, and keep women in their "place". Religion is the major cause of pestilence and war. Religion has nothing to do with faith. We can have faith without ascribing to a particular brand of religion.
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Geoffrey C. Olive
How can something that doesn’t exist have a mind to change?
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Alessandro Padovan
Lovely question! I thin that my 1st year philosophy class is finally coming to use! lol... Perhaps a touch of nihilism along with some Parmenides. Maybe some Subjective Idealism i.e. esse est percipi or Berkley's notion that physical things cant exist outside the mind? Interesting thread. hope all is well with you.
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Geoffrey C. Olive
I agree with you, even though I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about!😂 Never studied philosophy, only science!
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Roy S. Thorpe
The realization of the Bible is hard for many to accept! The OLD TESTAMENT is a collection of stories, sayings and HEBREW laws! That is all! The NEW TESTAMENT is about the life about the son of God sent to enlighten the masses about God and his LOVE! Following in the Masters footsteps will lead you to eternal life not how the Isrealites won a battle story! Wake up for God's love and thinking that surrounds each one us 24/7 since we were created! That old line to let the sunshine in means to let's God's light( the light of the universe)in!
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Sir Lionheart
Thank you for letting us know what you like to believe Mr Thorpe.
I find people’s religious beliefs in all types of religions to be fascinating. Whether they be J.W, Mormon, Islam, Baptist, Catholic, Bahai, Shinto, Hindu etc. It’s quite amazing what mankind has constructed throughout the eons of time. It’s very geographical, a lot depends on where one has been born as to which indoctrination one is going to encounter in their life.
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Robert S. April
And yet, you act as if you are the only one that knows truth. I think yiyu are among the wosthere.
Just WOW!!!!!!!
April
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Sir Lionheart
Using logic, reason, and critical thought is a wonderful way to go about trying to find out what is possibly true and what isn’t with anything in this life. Sadly, religions of this world do not want anyone using logic, reason, and critical thinking, because it appears their main goal is to keep their flock deeply entrenched in the dark with their dogma and indoctrination, which I find to be so terribly sad.
Thank you for your comment though Sir Robert.
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Robert S. April
you a a d a
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Sir Lionheart
It’s okay Robert, your comment lets me know I have hit a sensitive nerve of truth. You will notice I don’t reply with similar vitriol for an obvious logical reason, which might escape you, but I’m holding out hope. Hang in there as best you can.
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Robert S. April
Oh my God you such a narcissist! You are truly clueless about how much you think you know and how little you actually do.
April.
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Sir Lionheart
Hang on there Robert as best you can. In the meantime, perhaps you can spend some time factually letting me know where you think I am wrong. I am humble enough to listen to constructive intelligent criticism at any time with any demonstrable evidence to support your argument. I await your reply.
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Geoffrey C. Olive
Mr. April, If you don’t check your spelling before you post (yiyu, wosthere), then I have no interest in your comments.
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Alessandro Padovan
Well, if we read the passage, it seems it was misread or misinterpreted. The final sentence "Fare ye well", I take it as the very change in view of 2026, in other words, the , "its up to you." doctrine was there all along. It bodes more ill well for those that misinterpreted scripture, possibly not out of evil-doing, but certainly out of ignorance or maybe haste?.
be well all,
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Brenda Dawn Schwarz
It was not a misinterpretation. It as other "teachings" are updated when they face legal (financial) losses. Every member must sign a legal document absolving the "organization" of legal responsibility for following their mandates.
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Luciano Bonazzi
I'm a western pagan Minister. For me, the problem Is the religious Medio Oriental colonisation, to the Eurasian lands & people: But... Wy God Is not a Godesse?
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Dr Dennis Chevalier PhD, DDvin
How can so many look in the mirror and see all the Hypocrisy that you spew out of your Mouths and yet wonder how others don't ???
You demand kindness and gentleness in dealing with yourselfs and yet don't provide any for others... Enjoy the burning flames of the hell that you've Created and earned... ☠
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Sir Lionheart
Here, written above by Mr Chevalier, is the very problem with religion. It’s a terrible emotional scare tactic, commonly known as “religious blackmail” to enslave everyone in chains by telling people they will go to a place of burning flames called Hell if you don’t toe-the-line and do as you have been told.
It’s trauma inducing mental abuse tactics like this that possibly caused the parents of young Dennis Lindberg to insist they do as their god wants them to do, which caused the untimely death of their son.
Notice here how Mr Chevalier, for all the letters after his name, actually gloats by saying “Enjoy the burning flames of Hell”. This comment is supposedly from a very loving religious person. Whatever religion he is part of I am definitely glad I don’t belong to it. What sort of religion creates people to be like this? Notice the scull and cross-bones he placed at the end of his missive, presumably just another scare tactic. I actually feel very sorry for people like this and wonder what has gone on in their life to make them be this way. It’s actually very sad.
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Dr Dennis Chevalier PhD, DDvin
Let me make something perfectly clear.
I have spent considerable time choosing not to engage with this group. I left you to your discussions, your opinions, and your own devices. I neither pursued you nor interfered with you.
Yet, once again, the attacks and attempts to provoke me have continued. As I continue after the month of recovery from a stroke, I find myself no longer tolerant of your childish, cowardly behaviors.
So, this time, I am going to answer.
Most of you here are Delusional, thinking men can birth Babies and mothers can kill their children and have no repercussions from their behavior. This is how you think; This is how you show the world you are...demanding things nothing more than what Satan has told you to act as and you need to wake up and see yourself for what you truly are.
Evil.
I use my real name. I do not hide behind an anonymous account, a fabricated title, or a carefully constructed online persona. My ministry is real.
The church I work in is real.
The people I serve are real. My education and experience are real and provable.
I put my name behind what I believe and what I teach. That distinction matters.
None of you do this!
If you disagree with me, disagree with me with facts and prove it! Produce evidence and make an argument.
I will listen. But what I will no longer tolerate is the substitution of ridicule for reason, personal attacks for evidence, and harassment for illegitimate debate.
Calling names does not prove your position. Repeating an accusation does not transform it into a fact. A group agreeing with one another does not make an argument correct. And hiding behind anonymity does not make you courageous.
It proves you to be a bully and a coward!
That is how adults have serious disagreements.
I have spent decades serving people, investigating claims, teaching, studying, and dealing with situations in which facts matter. I know the difference between disagreements and an attempt to deliberately provoke someone.
Somewhere in this conversation there may still be people capable of reconsidering what they have been told, examining the evidence for themselves, and recognizing the difference between legitimate disagreement and personal hostility.
This message is for those people as much as it is for anyone else. You do not have to agree with me. You do not have to accept my Catholic faith. You do not have to accept my interpretation of Scripture. You do not even have to like me.
But you will respect the boundary I am establishing. I am finished participating in your personal attacks, manufactured outrage, and deliberate attempts to provoke me.
If you want a serious discussion, bring facts and use your real name. Be accountable for your lies and deceit. I guarantee you will have your day in Court.
If you want a theological discussion, bring Scripture, scholarship, and sources. If you want to challenge something I have written or taught or graded or published, identify the specific claim and explain why you believe it is wrong WITH facts!
But if your objective is simply to insult me, bait me, or turn me into the subject of another round of ridicule, you will receive no further participation from me.
I am not asking for your approval. I am demanding basic human respect! You are free to live according to your convictions. I am free to live according to mine.
And I will continue to serve the 188 people entrusted to my care, practice my faith, teach what I believe to be true, and put my own name behind my words. It's time for you children to grow up and do the same. You can continue shouting into the room if you choose. I am simply choosing not to shout back.
Leave me alone. It is a boundary.
Dr. D
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Brenda Dawn Schwarz
Dear Dr D, I very much agree. I have held off from posting because I am a person of deep faith and I had hoped this would be a place for strength, insight and encouragement. I have posted on this thread as this was something I have personal insight on. I would welcome any productive conversations on this subject.
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Dr Dennis Chevalier PhD, DDvin
May the Lord bless you and take care and watch out for the Vipers that exist in this blog.
Dr. D
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Lester
I do not agree with your Christian faith. I am a pagan. I do agree with many of the principles you have expressed. Men can not become pregnant or give birth. A child should be able to trust it's mother to not harm it. Etc... I am not interested in blood transfusions. I do not want another man's blood in my veins. But that is my personal feelings, based on my personal beliefs. I would never suggest anyone else should do the same, unless they felt that way themselves.
Please don't let any insults harm your health. If the community is too toxic please take a break. You say you recently had a stroke, and I would not want you to have another. Stress is not what you need.
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Robert S. April
Doctor Dennis,
WOW, I need to read more on this and your posts but I think in general, you are right!
April
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'Robert B. Paterson, Usa, Csm, Ret
Mr. April, I have been reading just like you on the comments left by the lost and have, I think Dr. Chevvliers message is very accurate on his description of what these people are here for and what they really are.
Just because ULC provided an avenue for ordination to allow people to perform custom marriages or funerals doesn't mean that they support the evilness that allot of their “so-called ministers” profess in this blog that they had been demonstrating here.
In my time in the Army, I have learned from many different types of people; walks of life that people come from: there are many different titles and types of names and religions but one thing that cannot be hidden is an ass is an ass…meaning bullies are the same everywhere but this blog contains the most I have ever seen.
Where you find a bully, I’ll show you mental illness.
Be careful where you step because you could land on a “bouncing betty” from people like these. Be careful.
I thought this could be a place where like-minded people could share ideas and different cultures; see how things are done differently but that’s not the case here.
They want to RAM down your throat way past common sense and dignity that their insane beliefs and practices are right and everyone else is wrong. PROOF DE DAMNED!
People that claim there is no such thing as God have no business incorporating the entitlement of minister or reverend in their names or services under those same auspices.
Not only does that send confusing messages to the world in general, it shows total hypocrisy So why anyone would hire them to do anything for a wedding, funeral, baptism or blessing boggles My mind.
One fool with internet links to see proof that all could see and verify for themselves, in fact in correcting her about no female US Navy Seals, kept claiming the opposite , another couldn’t understand that an illegal claim of a gay church as a “liberal catholic church” kept insisting that there is such a thing despite links and quotes from the holy see and others that there IS NO ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH THAT IS LIBERAL!
I’m sorry and it’s also a sad-funny that a simple google search lead directly to Rome that flat out says these people have never been a part of the Catholic Church and just because someone has a website that says Liberal Catholic Church doesn’t make it so.
It’s because of this basic lack of intelligence and critical-thinking regarding factual demonstratable repeatable proof and stupid claims like that Dr Dennis guy said denouncing others claiming that men can have babies?
My goodness that is probably what caused his stroke to begin with!
What kind of a place is this?
I don’t want my good name and reputation to be sullied by being linked with people like that. Be smart and do the same. In my profession we call it popping smoke and bailing out. No number of money-making possibilities are worth be damned for eternity!
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Sir Lionheart
And there you have it. No apologies for being disrespectful in telling someone to enjoy the burning flames of Hell. I seriously hope he doesn’t go there. Fortunately, we have no demonstrable evidence of its reality.
On the plus side, I didn’t see any skull and cross-bones.
🦁 ❤️
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Robert S. April
you didnt read his letter did you?
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Rev. BH
Lion, my previous comment got removed (a first for me, I believe !).Probably deservedly so, but basically I agreed with your concise, courteous response to Dr. D's tirade.
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Geoffrey C. Olive
Repeating religious nonsense doesn’t make it a fact either!
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Geoffrey C. Olive
I have plenty of earned degree letters after my name (BSc (Hons), MEd, and EdD) but I don’t use them to imply my comments are better than those without letters!
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Rev. BH
you just did.
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Geoffrey C. Olive
In that case, they probably are!😂
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Robert S. April
Prove it!
You have no degrees except a fever brought about from drug abuse, alcohol or other measures that you deploy just so you don’t kill yourself from self-hatred!
Your puerile words don't reach above a high school dropout! You're just another fraud pretending to "know" things, leading others straight to hell!
Just like that idiot that claims to be a bishop from Oklahoma. He has no idea what it takes to be one and buying a "certificate" doesn’t make him\it so.
But I see every single one of you are all complicit/guilty of leading the Innocent honestly looking for answers, straight into the abyss of hell and not by mistake or misunderstood intent but deliberate hate of all mankind to damn everyone you encounter!
How else can you keep a straight face saying: a. There are six genders; b. Men can get pregnant and give birth; c. Women “true females” get a free pass on ANY CRIMINAL ACTION because of hormones like:
- Murder of babies
- Adultery
- Theft
- Narcissism
All of this is resultant of fools like you leading the naive astray and outright lying to them that a “potion” can fix everything; dancing around a fire naked fornicating with gays, strangers or animals or that EVERYTHING is the result of others instead of one’s own actions.
I see very clearly now after scanning these blogs, messages, the threats to harm Dr. Dennis and similar; foretold not just in revelations but the more the truth is hidden or outright denied by others like you, the more violence is shown toward those that speak the truth in this collection of the lost; fallen or the possessed .
True love of humanity says the truth in hopes of the fallen to be redeemed or corrected, you take it as a chance to attack others that made a positive difference in others for the better.
You treat the truth like a punchline!
Jesus (Yahweh) always said the truth…and so did his apostles… healing the sick, removed demons, raised the dead and led by example.
What have you done? Except ridicule and dam; obfuscate and mislead and cause strife.
What difference have you made? None except to amplify the a “polished turd is still a turd”.
When you leave this world and will be forced to bend that hubristic knee of yours to the creator of everything, will you have ever mattered, or will he say depart from me I never knew you?
As it stands right now and as I have read your writings, we all know he will tell you to leave and never darken heaven door again!
Finally, I hope you understand that this poisoned pen is because of today’s society where everyone is afraid of being canceled or are being sued or being attacked… they never tell the truth anymore. And you have proven you are no different.
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Patricia Ann Gross
It's about time the JW came into the 21st Century. God has evolved us, and evolved WITH us. That Sir LH and Dr. Z acknowledge no demonstrable proof of the existence of a higher power, there are plenty who believe one exists. None of us can know the mind of God, even me, but I have seen things that seemed set for a particular direction, changed through prayer and meditation. Who knows if that was God's intention all along, or whether God's mind changed for some reason. I have a hard time believing that God is holding puppet strings. I like to think God can be pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised by how we use the God-given free will.
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James Riggle-Johnson
The line “The Bible does not address the medical use of blood components” is ridiculous. The Bible does not address the medical use of blood, period. I feel sorry for Dennis Lindberg because someone’s interpretation of a bible passage made him die.
I have two immediate family members who have worked in hospitals, and they have told me horror stories about trying to save the lives of Jehovah's Witnesses over the years. It’s especially troubling for the children who suffer and die.
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Geoffrey C. Olive
Mumbo jumbo at its worst!
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Sir Lionheart
In reality, how can anything that has no demonstrable evidence of its existence change its mind. It’s like me saying the Supreme Leader of all Fairies changed its mind. Most will see that statement as very laughable, but it is in essence the exact same thing. There are some people that believe in Fairies, just like there are some people that believe in their god. All will swear blind their supernatural identity is real, and many will say they talk to it, and will say that it amazingly replies back in a very special telepathic way, and will even try to get me to believe in it because if I don’t I will be doomed. I know that’s hard to believe but I’m serious.
I feel so sorry that Dennis Lindberg at age 14 had been so conned by his parents. He would possibly still be alive today with his own loving family if it hadn’t been for their ridiculous “belief” system. That’s religion for you!
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
“ In reality, how can anything that has no demonstrable evidence of its existence change its mind”
That was exactly the same thought I had when I read the title of this piece. In reality, all that happened with some dumb people became a little bit smarter.
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ServantOfJudgement
You do know Lionheart that you also believe in that wich can't be seen, measured or handled nor can be verified and measured by science yet it created everything. Nothing created everything.
The universe came from nothing which resides nowhere exactly never years ago.
What frequency to you set your oscilloscope to when you measure nothing? How much does nothing weigh? How many stars can you fit into nothing? When you and I die we go back to nothing?
That sounds, acts, walks and talks like a religious belief to me. It sounds like you've replaced the God of the bible which claims to have done the exact same thing Nothing did.
For some reason I keep picturing a bunch of guys in white lab coats searching the woods for nothing. "It's gotta be around here somewhere...."
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Sir Lionheart
That is indeed funny, but you have me wrong, in reality, my belief is based on the fact that we just don’t know all the answers, and neither does anyone else, even though they will say they do know because they have seen it written down in an old book written by people who didn’t know where the sun went at night.
Yes, we know the universe exists. containing a myriad of stellar objects, but we don’t know how it all got here, even though there are people who will postulate that they do know. I think you’ll find that in general scientists are not looking for nothing, they are always searching for something, based on a variety of hypotheses.
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Theresa M Gilroy Nielsen
(0 votes) I watched a piece recently about Willow, the most advanced AI ever created and how the young scientists gave it a command to find the origin of the universe, It went on and on and on. This took a great deal of time. But when it came up with an answer it was that a series of calculations created the universe, gave it perimeters and let it go! The ones that gave those commands never came back! And I thought about that for a long time.
I also researched the concepts of good and evil, and how the Catholic Church taught them, and how we all got caught up in our own psychological reactions to those teachings. There seems to be much misunderstanding of the concepts of good and evil that have been set down in myriads of religions, I believe. But I think it relates.
The idea of MultiUniverses appeals to me. I have seen a few Light Beings in my time. And I've realized that Light itself at its source could be said to be born in calculations. If that is true, perhaps there are Positive Universes and Negative Universes. Physicality would be obviously part of a Negative Universe This wouldn't make it bad, it would in a way just be part of a AC/DC dynamic. And maybe a place where we just learn about everything, via our experiences and the consequences of things.
Perhaps the Angels of the Old Testament were Light Beings from a Positive Universe somewhere. In Kabbalah Keter is shown as a Light Source. In Hinduism the Gods of their Pantheon are Blue Light beings that shine like the Sun, and there are references to the Yuga's (we are almost at the end of Kali Yuga, the darkest part of their turning of the wheel of time). Researching the Ethiopian Bible and deep inside the Pistis Sophia, Jesus gives himself a different name (his true name), and says his lifespan is many hundreds of thousands of our years. He also teaches about Sophia, who is said to have inadvertently created our universe by falling from the Pleroma into matter. The Pleroma is a place of Light, and where the Source of all created his first creation, a female, Barbelo. Along that line, it is said that Barbelo and the Source created Jesus. But there are many light beings living in this place. These connections all may be a little hazy, but they absolutely exist. And they have similarities.
So maybe we really are learning where our Universe came from. Is this proof enough that our universe was created from someone's calculations? Not exactly from nothing. But that answer then points the questioner to WHO set those calculations in motion? And why? Just thinking aloud and I hope I've given you all something to think about
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Theresa M Gilroy Nielsen
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Theresa M Gilroy Nielsen
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Brenda Dawn Schwarz
The parents not only were willing but, would be revered by the group.
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Nicholas J Page
JW are stupid in disallowed blood transfusions A hospital aims are to save a life not to ignore life saving treatment. This should not be happening in the 21st century Blood is not tainted or whatever its processed properly and is clean and filtered so there's no risk to any patients Parents of a JW are you prepared to let your child die because of this nonsense wake up people your being brain washed by JW I have been approached years ago to join them Elder this or Elder that all wearing suits and ties.I told them to meet me at the same time the same place I didn't go even when I revealed im already a minister 😉
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Brenda Dawn Schwarz
As a born-in fourth generation ( now out) ex JW. It is not stupidity. It was carefully orchestrated mind control. All knowledge is filtered through the "goverening body" . College is discouraged. Outside interaction is discouraged with articles and "dramas" that terrify those within. Seeking any information that does not agree with said "body" is apostasy and the unforgivable sin. Children can be ousted from their home, adults thrust into a world where there are no connections. Family will not even look at you.They have no support system and to seek out previous JWs is to seal your fate. Yes, JWs will let their children, their mothers, their fathers die.For them there is something far worse than death.
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Donald G Magel
Some JWs do decide to let their child die from lack o available needed medical care. God will judge them for their child's unnecessary death. Our courts should judge them for child abuse.
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The issue to me is that this organization makes the claim that they are the only purveyors of "truth" and they spend an inordinate amount of time convincing everyone else that their teachings are false and are doctrines of men. But here we see, this is actually a doctrine of man interpreting the medical viability of blood transfusions. These men are not medical men, they are regular guys just like me or you, telling what components of blood they can have to survive. Take this and combine it to their shunning policy, and you actually have a very dangerous cult that has been responsible for many children's deaths.
As a previous born-in member, that escaped, I did the work to recognize and clear the mind control. (Thank you all the 'apostates' on the internet.) It was when I realized that "clarification" simply means legal and financial penalties that my disgust pushed me to completely reject the whole 'organization.'
Congratulations and welcome to the road less travelled. It is very difficult to escape the mind control plagued by so many. You did well to gain control of your own mind and escape the chains that bound you. 🤗
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