Jehovah's Witnesses allegedly put child in company of known molester; defy court

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/apr/14/jehovahs-witness-lopez-sex-abuse-appeal/

Muslim father loses circumcision court battle over sons

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-36074482

Woman disabled due to refusal of medical care

http://deadstate.org/permanantly-disabled-idaho-woman-wants-her-faith-healing-parents-prosecuted/

Alternative Medicine and Jehovah’s Witnesses

When I was a jw child, as I have written about before, essential medical care was withheld from me. 

At that time (and for the record, this was before the discovery of HIV in the blood supply), the jws I was associated with were heavily into folk "remedies".  They did not trust, and avoided, standard medical care. I happened to come across some older publications that rather thoroughly document this "race memory", if you will, that jws have about modern medicine. Back then of course they were no longer producing those bizarre, paranoia-fueled cartoons, conspiracy theories, and calling doctors "The Serum Trust" and things like that. But the paranoia and bizarre beliefs remained as strongly as it had been in earlier decades.

Many of the jws were distributors of a line of vitamins and herbs known as Shaklee. They were really taken in by the sales pitch, believing Shaklee had a remedy for everything, eliminating the need for Western medicine. They had all the answers and doctors were blinded by Satan, who was trying to trick jws into taking blood products.

Blood was the subject of many of their delusions. It became routine to hear a rumor of animal blood being hidden in a certain product, jws boycotted it and engaged in letter writing campaigns to the manufacturers (counting this as evangelizing on their required monthly time cards). I was not allowed to eat Milky Way candy bars, hot dogs, and lunch meats at various times because of alleged "hidden blood". (There were similar issues with witchcraft—there would be a rumor that a company donated to Satanism or witchcraft, so we’d throw out the products and boycott them too.)

Doctrine prohibited them from having any medical treatment involving blood, even a drop. If you research this, yes, you will find some literature quotes contradicting this, along with ones confirming it. That's one of their tactics--if they don't want you to do something but don't really want to commit to it in writing, they use veiled and contradictory statements in print, while verbally prohibiting it from the pulpit. Many times they would say anyone taking blood was weak of conscience and therefore should be socially scorned within the group (socialization outside the group was prohibited too).

That being said, you can begin to imagine what it was like having a life-threatening genetic disease that can only be treated with blood, while being a part of this religion. What a paradox for a parent! The elders helped mine resolve it by teaching us that I'd be resurrected and it was ok to die for faith. (This “sacrifice” was bragged about in Awake! Magazine, whose cover featured dead children.) That paradox was further glossed over by placing a lot of faith in Shaklee’s unproven cures to save me.

One thing jws are infamous for is reading enough medical information to be dangerous, and misapplying it. There have been several instances when they read about a treatment for one disease and think it's effective for other diseases.

One of those remedies, for me, was Shaklee alfalfa tablets.  Alfalfa naturally contains Vitamin K. This company's products were touted as completely safe, free from side effects, because they were "natural". This product, though, does have some serious side effects, which I experienced.  Alfalfa contains Vitamin E, which makes my disease worse.

My condition deteriorated and I was on the brink of death multiple times, which you can read about here or here.

Pathetically, the jws’ delusions about modern medicine flipped the truth on its head. Their use of herbs was fine because it was “in the Bible and Jehovah gave them to us to use”, while modern medicine was considered witchcraft.

Ironically, the jws only believed in certain alternative healing and completely scorned others. I was often told the story of Rasputin, who they said used false religion and demons to cure a blood disorder. They ruminated about this, and with each iteration, the belief took another turn. Eventually, I was personally demonic because Rasputin was.

Scientific illiteracy is dangerous and deadly!

The Duggars: The continuing wackadoodle saga

Here is the latest update in a long, sad story of people sorely misguided by religion. They also seem to be cashing in on their fertility.

The truth is, overpopulation is a major contributing factor to some of the major problems facing us today--economic, ecological, etc. Any sane god(s) would not expect us to blindly overfill the Earth.  He, she, it or they, if we were created, fitted us with a nifty thing known as a frontal lobe which has a feature known as logic.

The family's website says this is Michelle's favorite quote:

Come on, Michelle. If the world was overfilled with flowers, so much that other plants couldn't thrive, surely you can envision this causing problems. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

From Wikipedia:
The Duggars are conservative Christians, and due to their fundamentalist biblical beliefs, they practice the following: The only television the family watches are wholesome family programming on DVDs, and various historical events. Internet use is restricted. The male family members keep their hair cut short (by cutting their own hair to save money), while the females keep their hair long. The children are home-schooled using a mix of materials, including those of Switched On Schoolhouse, Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), and Accelerated Christian Education (ACE).[8] For college studies, several of the older kids use the CollegePlus! program.[9] The children are discouraged from dating, but rather practice chaperoned courtship, and the couple abstains from physical contact. In addition, the young man seeks permission from the young woman's father to become engaged.

The Duggars raise their children using a buddy system, wherein an older sibling is assigned to a younger sibling and assists in their primary care. 

Oh dear.

Purge, rinse, repeat! The cult cycle

I was musing on the sick cycle cults have whereby they have a Salem witch trial-style inquest, “find” the evil influence (even if it means making up stories), purge it, have a period of catharsis and renewed affinity to each other, then repeat the cycle. If you’ve ever been in a cult, you know exactly what I mean.

While searching for background material for this post, I came across this excellent list of cult behaviors which is, as the Brits say, “spot on”.

It is as though some of the adherents are not aware of the cycle, or prefer to blindly trust their leaders that there is an actual threat, agreeing with their decision to investigate and expunge it, and feeling a sense of relief and renewed bonds to their fellow cultists. They even appreciate the leaders for providing this opportunity to feel that satisfying “lull after the storm” along with the sense of superiority provided by the opportunity to shun the outcast.

Others—strategists—foresee an upcoming vacancy in the cult family tree which provides them an opportunity to move up a rung on the social ladder.

Others feel powerless to stop it—that was me. I tried to talk sense into a few people and that resulted in suspicion being cast upon me.

It’s a very sick social convention and one that can damage a person well after disaffiliation.

Salvation Army--is it a high control group?

Decide for yourself.

Sally officer threatened with job loss for marrying a woman who is not a Sally officer herself.

Salvation Army position statement on homosexuality.

News article alleges Salvation Army lobbies against gay marriage.

Advocacy action: Donate the $3 bills you can print for free here.