I think that people's imaginations have run wild, they believe what a "friend
of a friend of cousin" told them, and/or they just happen to know some really
whacked people. (There are whackos in every religion...)
My Mother was a Jehovah's Witness when I was a kid. She left on her own, didn't
relocate or go into hiding or anything... and well, she still had all of the same JW
friends after she left that she had while she was "in". Just about 1/2 of her family
were and are JW's and not a one of them "shunned" her, stopped talking to her, or
anything of that type. Friends of our family are JW's, that have been friends of our
family for the past 30 years or more, before and after my Mother left their place of
worship.
The name "Jehovah's Witnesses" comes from the idea that they are bearing a
witness, proclaiming the "truth" as they see it, in the One True God's name. To them,
"God" is more of a title, not a name. Kind of like the President is a title. But there may
be many "President's" (President of the Rotary Club, President of the United States,
etc etc.) so specifying that they are Jehovah's Witnesses tells exactly who they are
witnessing for. (Jehovah is a English-made word, I think the more exact and proper name
is Yahweh, the important parts being that the JHVH and YHWH parts of those words
are transliterations of the Holy name that is most often translated LORD and/or God
in the modern Bible).
They do believe in Jesus and hold him in the highest position NEXT to God the Father.
God the Father (Jehovah) holds highest rank and was never created, He has always been
and always will be. Jesus is believed to be his first created Son, the One that Jehovah is
handling all of his affairs with the world through. Jesus is the only Mediator between God the
Father and humans.
The Holy Spirit, to them, is the power of God's "hand", his "active force" that he uses to do his
will. To them, it is not another person in a "Triune" Godhead. They don't believe in a Trinity, they
take the views of the Jews or historic Hebrews in the fact that they believe in a singular God. The
difference is they believe the Messiah (Jesus) did come (and died for our sins, and was resurrected
to Heavenly life) and that he will return (with power and that he will restore the Earth to it's original
perfection and be the ruler of it and glorify God the Father in the process).
The Holiday issues resolve mostly around pagan things. If you research, as I would imagine a few of
you have, the origins of Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc etc... you will find in them that most of them
were originally celebrations to pagan Gods/Godesses/nature etc. The JW's take the example of the
Israelites that waited at the bottom of the mountain for Moses' return with the Commandments of God.
When Moses returned, he found that the people had taken and made a golden Calf (an image of one of
the Egptian gods) and were calling it Jehovah and worshipping it. (and they were severely punished for it)
So, they take this lesson and try not to take pagan worship and try to turn it into something acceptible
to their God.
The blood transfusion thing, they hold to scripture that says it is a sin to eat blood. Blood is very
symbolic in the Bible and represents life/washing away of sins/etc. So they abstain from eating blood
and take this to mean any intake of it, including transfusion. (the example being, if the commandment
from God was to not eat Beer, but you thought you would get around it by having a Beer transfusion, they
think you would be mistaken.) LOL
Anyways, I just know a lot about JW's because I have family/friends that are and/or were JW's. I think
that you can learn something about how other's think by actually talking with someone that knows, not
by listening to rumor mongering. I've heard the weirdest things before about JW's. I've been told that they
worship the Devil, that they are communists, that don't believe Jesus ever existed, etc. etc. All wrong and
weird stuff.
And for those that say they know of people who's lives were ruined by leaving this religion. All I can say is
that I know very devout Catholic families that would more or less quit associating with family members that
married out of the Catholic faith or changed religions. And some devout Jews are the same. And so are some
Baptists. It takes all kinds.
Personally, I don't belong to any organized religion. But I think a lot of them are interesting as far as the human
psyche involved.