Dear Mouthy, Oompa and all other board members:
You might not be persuaded by the author's [Gruss] declarations as much of the information in THE FOUR PRESIDENTS has been given anonymously. I am not certain of the sourcing for Jerry Bergman's book, however. Regardless, please give what follows a read. If ever Fred Franz and Clayton Woodworth truly had a theocratic mission, it is indeed Mission Accomplished.
You be the judge.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/126825/1/Persecution-Wanes-Banning-Blood-Garners-Publicity
"After the Judge's death, as World War II was ending and persecution against the Witnesses began declining, along with the attendant drop in news-media publicity, Hayden C. Covington told the author [of THE FOUR PRESIDENTS] that Fred Franz saw the prohibition against blood transfusions as a way to accomplish two things: to continue to publicize the religion, and to create an uproar in the community. This reaction would convince the membership they were being "persecuted" and "suffering for righteousness sake," a sure sign they were "in the truth."
According to Jerry Bergman, author of BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS: A HISTORY AND EVALUATION OF THE RELIGIOUS, BIBLICAL, AND MEDICAL OBJECTIONS, 1994, p. 5:
"The blood issue has brought witnesses more publicity than any other issue in the last twenty years."
"The ban on blood transfusions was an effort to solidify the Knorr administration." [Knorr initially objected to the weird scriptural interpretation justifying the abstaining from blood; he understood the scriptures to be in reference to animal blood only. Nevertheless, he went along with the ban.]
"Key Watchtower officers held a view of distrust toward the medical profession."
"Some high level Watchtower official naively reasoned that, if eating blood was wrong, blood transfusions were also wrong because they are 'intravenous' feeding as opposed to extravenous feeding, or normal eating."
While Rutherford swallowed some irrational rantings by Franz and Woodworth over the beginnings of the blood issue, he would not allow publication of FWF's "special knowledge" as "new light" in THE WATCHTOWER. The two mischief makers kept things stirred up and began convincing others, including Knorr. The author was told that now that "King Saul" [FWF] is dead, the leadership would like blood transfusions to be a matter of conscience and lay the blame for all the suffering at the feet of Franz and Woodworth.
Does tacit approval on the part of the Governing Body constitute blood-guilt?
THE FOUR PRESIDENTS OF THE WATCHTOWER SOCIETY (JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES), Edmond C. Gruss, Editor, pp.74, 75, 231
"When faced with mounting opposition, Fred Franz eased the Society's position on blood regarding the following: (1) Serum injections such as diphtheria toxin antitoxin and gamma globulin blood fractions were permitted. (2) There was no need to drain blood from fish (except when "a person sees an accumulation of blood"), only land animals. (3) While a Witness could not personally use fertilizer using blood, he could use it when employed by a non-witness. This and similar situations were made matters of conscience. (4) Over the years, the Watch Tower Society had taken the position of prohibiting the use of blood fractions in the treatment of hemophiliacs. But long before officially leaving this stringent position, if one were to call the headquarters they would be told that such treatment was permissible. Years later, in the June 15, 1978 WATCHTOWER, the "oracle" decided the pressure was getting too severe, so he withdrew his position altogether, and permitted both hemophiliac preparations Factor VIII and IX. How many hemophiliacs died in the interim, further sacrifices on the altar of man-made Watch Tower dogma?"
THE FOUR PRESIDENTS, E. C. Gruss, Ed. p. 77
Compound-Complex