WTS & VACCINATION

B J Kotwall

(Investigator 33, 1993 November)

The Watchtower Society (WTS) recently made the following statement about vaccinations:

"Previous articles in this journal and its companion The Watchtower, have presented a consistent position: It would be up to the Bible-trained conscience of the individual Christian as to whether he would accept this treatment for himself and his family."
(Awake! 1993 August 8 p.25)
Whether the WTS has been "consistent" in their stand on vaccinations the reader may judge from the following quotations:
"Reasons why vaccination is unscriptural... Vaccination is a direct violation of the Everlasting Covenant that God made with Noah after the flood…" (The Golden Age 1931 February 4 p. 293)

"As vaccination is a direct injection of animal matter in the blood stream, vaccination is a direct violation of the law of Jehovah God." (The Golden Age 1935 April 2 p. 465)

"Vaccination is a direct violation of the holy law of Jehovah God… I have no alternative. I must obey Jehovah’s law."
(The Golden Age 1935 April 24 p. 471 – quoting court testimony of Maria Braught)

"Oh, yes, serums vaccines, toxins, inoculations, are all 'harmless', because the man who is selling them says so. You, my friends, believe this LIE, and continue to submit your body to these violations; then all I can say is, 'God have mercy on your soul'… All vaccination is unphysiological a crime against nature." (Consolation 1939 May 31 p. 8)

"After consideration of the matter it (vaccination) does not appear to us to be in violation of the everlasting covenant made with Noah, as set down in Genesis 9:4, nor contrary to God-s related commandment at Leviticus 17:10-14… Hence all objection to vaccination on Scriptural grounds is lacking." (The Watchtower 1952 December 15 p. 764)
In Investigator No. 8 it was explained how the anti-blood doctrine of the WTS was a spin-off from their anti-vaccination doctrine. Vaccinations were banned for 21 years from 1931 to 1952. The same Bible verses were used which they presently use to justify the transfusion ban notably Genesis 9:4 and Leviticus 17:10-14.

The WTS also imposed a ban on organ transplants for 13 years from 1967 to 1980, claiming that organ transplants were unbiblical and cannibalistic. The same Bible verses from Genesis were cited for that too! (The Watchtower 1967 November 15 pp. 702-704) This view was reversed in 1980. (The Watchtower 1980 March 15 p. 31)

Nobody knows how many JWs went blind by refusing cornea transplants. The WTS gave no apology for its shift in position!

How can the WTS writers, in honesty and without being ashamed, claim that they have been "consistent"?

[Note that JWs stands for "Jehovah's Witnesses". The Golden Age and Consolation were magazines published by the WTS, the former 1919 to 1937, the latter 1937 to 1946.]

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