The boy was just five years old and desperately ill, but as he crouched in the back seat of Donna Ryder's car, he became more fugitive than cancer patient.
Police in New Brunswick were already out looking for the child when, according to Ms. Ryder, she hid him and his mother in her Dodge Omni and drove them to Fredericton, away from children's aid officials who might have forced the son of Jehovah's Witnesses to accept a blood transfusion.
Fellow officials of the Church then took over, whisking the child to their Canadian headquarters, she says. The patient and his family ended up eventually in Mexico for alternative treatments that abided by the sect's controversial -- and vigorously enforced -- ban on receiving blood. He died soon after.
It was a particularly dramatic episode, but Ms. Ryder alleges that the Church regularly transports sick children far from the reach of child welfare authorities -- and the possibility of forced transfusions -- before the cases can turn into high-profile court battles.
Witnesses stake out the hospital rooms of children around the clock, mostly to offer support but sometimes hustling the patients away when it seems likely an attempt will be made to impose a transfusion, charged Ms. Ryder, who did legal work on Witness cases for several years before leaving the church.
"It makes me feel ill when I recall my part in that," said the 58-year-old, now a social work student at Ryerson University. "I was terrified I was going to get arrested.... When a doctor says a child needs a blood transfusion to live, that becomes a necessity of life. To work behind closed doors and under the rug to spirit the child away is not protection, it's illegal."...
...Ms. Ryder's allegations were firmly dismissed, however, by a top church official, who said the Witnesses as an organization never transport children to avoid legal action, though parents may choose to take them to a health-care facility or practitioner who is willing to provide treatment without blood.
"Treatment options are a personal decision of parents," Warren Shewfelt, the Witnesses' Canadian national director, said in an emailed response to questions. "Responsible parents make treatment decisions based on where they can get the best medical care in accord with the law and with the co-operation of their treating physicians."
As for Ms. Ryder's comments, her "accusations and innuendo ... are devoid of any facts and are completely false," he said...
...Another former Witness who was a paralegal for the church in the 1990s, though, largely confirmed Ms. Ryder's account, saying he can recall at least four cases where the Witnesses moved sick children out of province or out of the country to circumvent an expected attempt by child welfare authorities to gain custody so a transfusion could be carried out.
"It doesn't happen often but it has happened," said Michael Saunders.
Barbara Anderson, an employee of the church's world headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the 1990s, also said she was aware of organized attempts to move sick children from situations where they could have blood forced on them, though she believes it is much less likely to take place today.
PASTOR DELANY – THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST
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To listen to Pastor Delany preach his sermon based on Luke 2:1-7, please
click on the following link: THE STORY OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST Thank
you very...
46 minutes ago
Life defending Watchtower land is sure one tough deal.
ReplyDeleteThe Watchtower is not God's anything. FACT OF LIFE!
Prove God chose Watchtower JWs.
Cause I got a MOUNTAIN OF PROOF that God never chose Watchtower for anything: http://home.tiscali.nl/t661020/wtcitaten/part2.htm
The printed page tells it like it is. MANY PAGES.
Sorry JWs but you just keep losing all the time.
Did God get all those EMBARRASSING DATES wrong JWs? (1914, 1925, 1975, 2000, GENERATION OF 1914 ETC)...
Did God get Vaccinations wrong too?
And then 21 years later did God change his mind about vaccinations?
(Or was it possibly because vaccinations were stomping out polio, smallpox, diptheria, measles and more)?
Did God get organ transplants being, "CANNIBALISM", wrong too?
And then change his mind again 13 years later saying organ transplants were not cannibalism after all! (how bout that!).
Did God get, "ALTERNATIVE SERVICE" wrong? (((FOR 50 YEARS))).
Did God change his mind 50 years later and then say alternative service is now okay to do?
Who did all those brothers go to jail for JWs? Was it for Jehovah or for the Watchtower Society?
What about good ole and special BETH-SARIM? (look it up)
Was Jehovah behind Beth Sarim too? An entire house and property waiting for the ancient worthies to be resurrected and have a place to go to.
Who was Beth Sarim an embarrassment to JW's? Please tell us.
Is it reasonable to expect just a little more from God's channel than all this JWs?
What do you think JWs
Who did all those witnesses that died because of not getting vaccinations or organ transplants die for? Did they die for God or for the Watchtower Society? You tell me JWs.
So please, tell me JWs, are you ready to let your little children DIE if for some reason they need blood? Please answer yes or no. Put yourself in that situation right now before it actually happens.
Are you ready to teach other people in your territory that they too must say no to blood even if death results?
JWs, Are you also ready and willing to shun your children if they get baptized at like 14 but then say, "sorry, but the JW's just ain't for me", at 18?
JWs, do you tell your bible studies that the JW's were FLAT WRONG about those organ transplants, vaccinations, alternative service, Beth Sarim, 1914, 1925, 1975, 2000, Rape Rules, Sex with animals or sex with the same sex not breaking the marital bond along 500 more things just like these?
Do you tell your bible studies all about these many mistakes JWs?
You see, it would be disingenuous of you to only show the one side of the JW picture, don't you think?
People have a right and you have an obligation to show people the COMPLETE JW PICTURE.
Most bible studies only know what JW's tell them in their little bible study books. (I bet you all know this now). And NOWHERE does it mention all these problems that destroy the WT Society as being used by God for anything at all.
If the Bible is True:
Jesus walked on water.
Moses parted the Red Sea.
A Cloud followed the ark of the covenant.
And the JW religion owns this bad boy: http://home.tiscali.nl/t661020/wtcitaten/part2.htm
Do you see the slight difference here JWs?
This is why many people after knowing the entire JW range of facts end up walking away altogether. Just like I did almost five years ago now.
Vinny