Jehovah's Witness teenager dies after refusing blood transfusion

Joshua McAuley, 15, refused blood transfusion because of religious beliefs after being crushed by car in West Midlands

A teenage Jehovah's Witness who was crushed by a car as it crashed into a shop died after refusing a blood transfusion in hospital.

Joshua McAuley, 15, was airlifted to hospital from the incident in Smethwick, West Midlands, on Saturday morning, but died later that day.

The schoolboy, who received abdominal and leg injuries, is believed to have told doctors at Birmingham's Selly Oak hospital not to give him a blood transfusion because of his religious beliefs.

Clive Parker, an elder at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Smethwick, where Joshua and his family worshipped, said Joshua was conscious after the accident and "made a stand on the blood issue".

He said: "I don't want to talk about it any more than that because I don't want to add to the family's distress.

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Evangelicals rewrite Texan curriculum

An interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Chris McGreal on the events in America in 2010 and their views on how to improve our Children's education.

HOUSTON: In a coup likely to shift what millions of American children learn at school, a clutch of Christian evangelicals and social conservatives who have grasped control of the Texas Board of Education are expected to force through a new state curriculum this week.

The board is to vote on a purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school books in favour of what board member Cynthia Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world.

''We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future,'' Ms Dunbar said. ''In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system.

These are our children. The next generation. If we stop providing our children with the answers to the questions we have already solved, how are they going to surpass us and go on to better things.

It's like teaching our children that the world is flat, then hoping they don't figure out the truth later in life, by which time its going to be harder for them to understand other questions on Cosmology, Geology, etc.

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Happy Draw Mohammed Day