Religion and blood
Ruth Gledhill has a guest blogger, Anna-Marie Julyan, for her Articles of Faith column who explores the symbolism and use of blood in religious traditions:
Blood has symbolic meaning in many faiths, whether represented by wine as part of the Eucharist or avoided in food, while others regard it as sacred. The pressing need for blood donors was highlighted by World Blood Donor Day on Sunday [June 14], but how does it equate with religious belief?
Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and Jews have no prohibition about giving blood and many traditions actively encourage this as an act of self-giving.
International humanitarian organisation United Sikhs launched a campaign to get “the Sikh community to pledge their share of blood” in the UK, Canada and the USA.Melinda Palkaur, director of United Sikhs in the UK said that at present they have no idea how many Sikhs give blood because they are not registered as a group, so the campaign is “pretending to start from scratch”, although she said they are in no doubt that this country needs the campaign.
There are more than 70,000 Sikhs in Britain and United Sikhs hopes to register 14,000 for blood donation by this time next year. The campaign is strongly linked to faith, encouraging Sikhs to follow in the spirit of Sarbat da Bhalla, or “well being to all”.
Read more here.
