September 22

Page Two

5 HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Even in the early years of school, young children in many places are taught evolution. But parents and youths deserve to know that there is another viewpoint on “how it all began,” one that is far more satisfying

9 CATHOLICS CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR CHURCH SPEAK OUT

In years past, most criticism of the church came from outside. Now some of the most outspoken critics are Catholics themselves. This is having far-reaching effects on both priests and parishioners

Have You Ever Wondered—

What Causes Children to Become Delinquent?

From all over the world comes the same alarming report: Crime by children is rising at a shocking rate.

You personally may have been confronted by disrespectful, even criminal, youngsters or have known of children who went bad. What was wrong?

ARE PARENTS A MAJOR CAUSE?

Often they are. Obviously, no one can have as great an influence​—either for good or for bad—​on children as their parents. They have molded the child’s mind and heart since infancy.

Without being taught proper standards children can easily become delinquent. Often parents are so involved with their own work or social activities that they neglect to give their youngsters the necessary attention.

But making sure that children receive the needed direction in life is not easy. Why? Because, according to the Bible, “foolishness is tied up with the heart” of a child. Discipline is needed to get the child to take responsibility seriously. (Prov. 22:15) Who is in the best position to administer such discipline? Is it not the parents? When parents fail to do so, delinquency is usually the result.

Frequently parents are not firm with their children because they are not firm with themselves. If they set a bad example, being dishonest or disrespectful to proper authority, who’s to blame if the child imitates them?

However, there are some parents who have tried to do their best, yet their child turns bad. Why?

IS IT ALWAYS THE PARENTS’ FAULT?

No, because we live in a world where the prevailing standards are quite different from what many parents teach their children. Our children live in a selfish, immoral and dishonest world. Pressure from schoolmates or playmates​—not to mention corrupt television programs or movies—​can undermine the best efforts of parents.

Conscientious parents may spend years trying to develop within their children fine habits. Yet all this work could be spoiled by the child’s companions. Many parents know the sad truth of the Bible warning: “Do not be misled [yes, do not think that it cannot happen]. Bad associations spoil useful habits.”​—1 Cor. 15:33.

Also, there are youngsters who simply will not respond to the good advice from parents. The Bible frankly states that there would be children who would ‘hold a father in derision and despise obedience to a mother.’​—Prov. 30:17.

Despite outside pressures and wayward tendencies of youth . . .

WHAT CAN PARENTS DO TO PREVENT DELINQUENCY?

When a man asked what he could do to keep his children from becoming delinquent, a long-time juvenile-court judge answered: “Love your wife.” “If parents love each other the kids will be all right,” he explained. Yes, a loving atmosphere in the home is one of the first steps in preventing delinquency. A good example usually rubs off on the children.

Does this mean letting the child do anything he wants? “An infallible way to make your child miserable is to satisfy all his demands,” warns another judge. A parent needs to say “No” at times, and mean it!

The Bible shows that genuine love for a child involves firmness, saying: “The one holding back his rod is hating his son, but the one loving him is he that does look for him with discipline.”​—Prov. 13:24.

When a parent is firm, his child realizes, deep down, that the parent cares. He may put up an argument, but in reality he appreciates the security such firmness gives. Especially if the parent follows up such firmness with loving concern for the child will his heart be reached. This concern involves teaching a child proper standards of right and wrong. The Bible counsels: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”​—Eph. 6:4, New American Standard Bible.

Much more could be said about preventing delinquency. Many additional suggestions are detailed in the Bible, and these are discussed in the book “Making Your Family Life Happy.”a Millions of persons have found that, when applied, they really work.

WHY IS DELINQUENCY SO BAD IN OUR TIME?

The Bible foretold that the increase of delinquency would be a sign of the “last days.” It predicted: “But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here,” for during that time many would be “disobedient to parents.”​—2 Tim. 3:1, 2.

“Haven’t there always been delinquent children?” some may respond. True, but never before has there been such mass disrespect from children on an earth-wide scale. In some countries juveniles now commit ONE HALF of all reported serious crimes, student revolts have paralyzed scores of cities in recent years and some schools have become virtually armed camps. Such conditions are without parallel in history​—all evidence of the accuracy of Bible prophecy. These developments show that we are nearing the time when God will remove all delinquents from our earth​—both adult and juvenile.​—Prov. 2:20-22.

Jehovah’s Witnesses will be happy to assist you without charge to become acquainted with the counsel in your Bible about rearing children. They themselves use the beautifully illustrated publication “My Book of Bible Stories”b to mold the thinking of their young ones in a wholesome way. And to help their teen-agers to get sound counsel on situations that they face, they use the book “Your Youth​—Getting the Best out of It.”c They will gladly share with you what they have learned about coping with the problems of youths now, as well as what the Bible says each family must do in order to survive the coming end of this wicked and selfish world into one wherein righteousness will prevail throughout the earth.​—2 Pet. 3:13.

[Footnotes]

How It All Began​—Did It “Just Happen”?

PEOPLE have different ideas as to how humans and other living things that exist today began. Likely, you were taught some of these in school.

Some people believe that these things developed from lower forms of life by evolution. Others believe that they had a Designer and Maker who is greater and more intelligent than all that he made.

What do you think? Which seems reasonable to you? Can you tell for sure which is right?

Those who believe in evolution point out similarities in certain animals and birds. They say that this is evidence of evolution from one form to another. Look at these drawings of the skeletons of the forelimbs of some of these creatures. They are similar, aren’t they? Does that mean that one slowly changed into another?

Now look at these airplanes. You see certain similarities in them, don’t you? Does that make it reasonable to conclude that, on its own, the modern jet evolved from the others?

Birds could fly long before man made airplanes. They can also do something that airplanes cannot​—produce more of their own kind. No one doubts that airplanes are a product of intelligent design. Is it reasonable to believe that birds are not?

Those who say that one living thing evolved into another usually start off with things that already existed. They are talking about how they think things developed, not how they began.

Some who believe in evolution know that this is a weakness in their belief, so they try to show how life began all by itself in early times. They call it “spontaneous generation.” In other words, it just happened by some happy combination of circumstances at the right time. A single living cell, they say, came from nonliving matter. Of course, they are still starting with something that already existed​—matter.

It is true that scientists who believe in evolution have demonstrated that they can send electricity through certain gases and produce acids that are basic to life. Of course, such acids are not living cells that can pass on life to another cell. But look closely at what is being done. The scientist works with gases that already exist, and he uses these in just the right combination. He must also supply electricity. The entire experiment is carefully supervised.

What is proved is that intelligent direction is needed in order to produce just a few of the substances required for life. It does not “just happen.”

Someone may give you the parts for a bicycle​—all designed to fit together. But if no one puts them together, will you have a bicycle to ride? What if you wait for five years? Ten years? No, it won’t “just happen.” Someone with intelligence has to put it together.

No wonder that books teaching evolution have to admit: “Scientists can only guess how the first living things were born in the far, far distant past.” Yes, their belief is only a guess.

Then, how did it all begin? Well, where did you come from? If someone told you he didn’t have a mother or a father, would you believe him? You know he had to be born from living parents.

But where did the first parents come from? The Bible answers that they were made by God. “God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.”​—Gen. 1:27.

We did not make ourselves. “Know that Jehovah is God. It is he that has made us, and not we ourselves.” (Ps. 100:3) That same Creator produced the vast universe and all the things in it.

How did he do it? By his great power. The universe is made up of matter that had to come from a source of boundless energy. The Bible tells us that Jehovah is that Source. “I myself have made the earth, mankind and the beasts that are upon the surface of the earth by my great power.” (Jer. 27:5) He is also described as having an “abundance of dynamic energy, he also being vigorous in power.”​—Isa. 40:26.

[Box on page 8]

As we have seen, much argues that what exists today is the result of intelligent design. Thus the Bible reasons: “Of course, every house is constructed by someone, but he that constructed all things is God.”​—Heb. 3:4.

Science knows that our universe had a beginning. It did not always exist. The Bible is right when it says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1) That is how it all began.

Pictures on page 6]

DID ONE EVOLVE INTO ANOTHER?

Bird

Whale

Man

AIRPLANES WERE DESIGNED. WHAT ABOUT BIRDS?

[Pictures on page 7]

A CAREFULLY SUPERVISED EXPERIMENT

SOMEONE HAS TO PUT IT TOGETHER

[Pictures on page 8]

YOU CAME FROM LIVING PARENTS

THE FIRST HUMAN PARENTS WERE MADE BY GOD

Catholics Concerned About Their Church Speak Out

DESPITE her gray tweed suit, the woman was a nun. Indeed, she was the administrator general of the Sisters of Mercy of Potomac, Maryland. As president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious she shared a speaker’s platform with Pope John Paul II, introducing him to 5,000 of her fellow nuns in Washington, D.C. In her words of welcome she spoke of her deep concern over the Vatican’s policy not to ordain women as priests in the church. As the pope stepped forward to address the crowd, 53 of the nuns stood in silent protest, all of them dressed in civilian attire.

A few months later, this time in Europe, Swiss theologian Hans Küng said bitterly, “I am deeply ashamed of my church,” when informed that Rome felt he “could no longer be considered a Roman Catholic theologian.” Why not? Among other things, because of his rejection of the doctrine of papal infallibility and his questions regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Although many Catholics supported the Vatican’s censure of Küng, 50 Spanish theologians wrote an open letter disagreeing with Rome. Meanwhile, 67 American and Canadian theologians signed a statement taking exception to the official characterization of Küng as being ‘no longer a Roman Catholic theologian.’

These are some manifestations of the increasing concern being expressed by sincere Catholics over developments in their church. Morale problems in the church are increasingly affecting, not just lay members, but the clergy. Indeed, published statements in the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, indicate that problems among the clergy are reaching grave proportions. Consider a few examples:

Clerical Decrease

Says L’Osservatore Romano of May 16, 1979: “We are faced with a sharp decrease in numbers [of seminary students in Italy]. The tendency began to manifest itself about 10 years ago and has maintained its trend up to the present. The phenomenon is part of a more general tendency characterizing the whole of Europe.”

So for the past 10 years, according to the Vatican’s official newspaper, there has been a steady loss of candidates for the priesthood. Indeed, as the accompanying charts indicate, the decrease has been very great. In Italy only one third as many seminary students were enrolled in 1978 as in 1962! In France, ordinations of priests in 1974 were less than one third of what they had been in 1965!

The Vatican paper points out: “The decrease in seminary attendance has caused a corresponding fall in the number of seminaries themselves. They numbered a total of 375 in 1970 against 259 in 1978. . . . From a peak of 918 [priests] ordained in 1966 [in Italy] we have reached a minimum of 384 new priests in 1978.”

This situation is not confined to just a few European countries. According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa: “[World wide] it is ultimately calculated that between ’65 and ’75 at least forty thousand priests, including diocesan priests and those belonging to religious orders, abandoned the holy orders as well as twenty thousand nuns.”

How Many Catholics Are Still Practicing?

Meanwhile, what about the Catholic flock? Some Catholics are afraid that many may be becoming Catholics in name only, and they have cited the following figures in Italian publications: Attendance at Mass has dropped by more than half in France and Italy in the last 15-20 years. In Italy, where it is estimated that 99 percent of the population is nominally Catholic, less than one third of them attend Mass regularly! Even so, the Italians are better Mass attenders than the French, of whom only 16 percent go each week.

If the feelings of young people are an indication of the future, then Italian Catholics have another reason for concern. Panorama magazine interviewed young Italians from 16 to 24 years of age and found that only 12.6 percent felt that spiritual values were the most important in life. Of the values most in doubt among young people, “Religion and the Church” tied for first place with “the family, the couple, marriage, parents.”

Defiant Young Priests

With fewer applicants for the priesthood creating what is called a ‘vocational crisis,’ it appears that the seminaries cannot be too choosy about applicants. The results have been disturbing to Catholics, both in Italy and around the world.

Writing in the Italian journal Seminari e Teologia, a Catholic layman stated in 1976 that “in answer to the ‘vocational crisis’ the seminary doors have been thrown wide open to all and, among others, a motley array of young people have been welcomed inside.” He went on to describe the priests coming from such seminaries as “rebellious, presumptuous, irreverent and almost always irremediably Marxist.”

This Catholic layman spoke of the new generation of Italian priests as “troublemakers who operate from their deconsecrated headquarters full of subversive posters,” and added: “Just let the Bishop try to do anything about those characters. We have seen what can happen​—there is a near revolution!” Who is to blame? This writer states: “The fault lies with those who should be holding the reins, but have let them be snatched out of their hands, either as a result of weakness or cowardice, or even because they have been won over to the new modern ideologies.”

What the Pope Is Doing

Pope John Paul II has made it clear that he does not want to let anyone ‘snatch the reins’ of church leadership from his hands. Religious publications in recent months have written of a papal ‘crackdown’ against liberal theology, moral laxity and clerical unrest. Yet, as seen at the beginning of this article, the pope is getting opposition from persons prominent in church affairs.

Illustrating both the papal crackdown and the worldwide nature of the problem with the clergy, the Italian magazine Avvenire reported that the pope gave a stiff lecture to the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). He told the worldwide order (27,700 members in 106 countries): “Certainly I am not in ignorance of the fact . . . that the crisis afflicting religious life in these times has not spared your Society.” He called upon the Jesuits, who “have developed a reputation for providing the theoretical foundation for the church’s involvement in political and social issues,” not to “give way to secular tendencies.”​—New York Times, December 7, 1979.

A Vatican-based U.S. priest said the pope is “upset with the general lowering of sexual standards in religious life, including homosexuality,” and he added that it is reported that many young Jesuits in the U.S. “don’t believe in life after death, don’t believe Jesus to be the son of God, and even skip Mass on Sundays.”

The Vatican censure of theologian Hans Küng is another example of the pope’s ‘crackdown,’ and other theologians also may be headed for trouble. In December 1979 Edward Schillebeeckx, a liberal Dutch theologian, was interrogated in Rome by the “Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith” (the C.D.F.). This committee, which censured Küng, is the modern replacement for the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Other theologians, such as Brazilian Franciscan priest Leonardo Boff, have also been summoned by the C.D.F. to explain themselves.

During his travels in the fall of 1979 the pope made an eloquent worldwide appeal to Catholics for unity. He stressed the need to adhere to strict standards of morality​—opposing adultery, homosexuality and abortion. For this he received much praise, even from non-Catholics.

At the same time, however, the pope failed to moderate Catholic Church stands that are unpopular among many Catholics, including the prohibition against contraception and the celibacy requirement for priests.

Ironic Situation

All of this has led to an ironic situation. In his opposition to abortion and the ordination of women, or in his defense of strict sexual morality, the pope has invoked the support of the Holy Scriptures. Meanwhile, he has proved to be very sensitive to criticism of the doctrine of papal infallibility​—a doctrine not found in the Bible, as his critics point out. Indeed, Küng states that it represents a development quite contrary to the spirit of the Bible.

The pope’s critics claim that he is not giving proper weight to the Scriptures in his refusal to allow Catholics to exercise their own conscience in such areas as contraception. Yet these very critics are generally at the forefront of a ‘new wave’ of scholarship that classifies large portions of the Bible as “inspired fiction.”

The attitude of such scholars toward the Scriptures was illustrated in a Newsweek magazine article entitled “Who Was Jesus?” It stated that “most New Testament scholars believe that at least some sayings attributed to Jesus are authentically his, and a national conference is being planned in which scholars will try to reach a consensus on which passages qualify.” When such persons cite the Bible as an authority, one must wonder how seriously they take their own arguments.

“Examine Yourselves”

The Catholic Jerusalem Bible advises all Christians: “Examine yourselves to make sure you are in the faith; test yourselves.” (2 Cor. 13:5) It is appropriate for sincere Catholics to examine both themselves and the spiritual state of their church.

Of course, the Catholic Church is by no means the only religious organization undergoing change today. Various Protestant denominations are intensely debating subjects such as the ordination of women to the priesthood, the admission of homosexuals into the church, the role of the Bible in church teaching, and the acceptance of contemporary standards of morality into the congregation.

Is your church involved in such debate? If so, you owe it to yourself to be well informed on the Scriptural principles involved. Regardless of whether you are Catholic or Protestant, you may find helpful the chart of Bible principles on this page. Why not compare them with what leaders in your church are saying?

[Chart on page 9]

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SEMINARY STUDENTS (in Italy)

1962 30,595

1978 9,853

[Chart on page 12]

Questions Churches Debate​—What Do the Scriptures Say?

IS THE POPE INFALLIBLE?

“When Cephas [the apostle Peter] came to Antioch, however, I opposed him to his face, since he was manifestly in the wrong.”​—Gal. 2:11, “The Jerusalem Bible.”

“We have already shown that all men alike are sinners, whether Jews or Gentiles. As the Scriptures say, ‘No one is good​—no one in all the world is innocent.’”​—Rom. 3:9, 10, “Living Bible,” Catholic Edition.

SHOULD PRIESTS BE ALLOWED TO MARRY?

“It behoveth, therefore, a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife . . . one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all chastity.”​—1 Tim. 3:2, 4, “Douay Version.”

SHOULD UNREPENTANT HOMOSEXUALS BE WELCOMED INTO THE CHURCH?

“Don’t fool yourselves. Those who live immoral lives, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, or homosexuals​—will have no share in his kingdom.”​—1 Cor. 6:9, 10, “Living Bible,” Catholic Edition.

SHOULD THE BIBLE BE THE FINAL AUTHORITY FOR CHURCH TEACHING?

“All God’s promises are like metal tested in the fire; he is the sure defence of all who trust in him. Add to his word no word of thine; speedily thy practices shall come to light.”​—Prov. 30:5, 6, “Monsignor Knox Translation.”

“All Scripture is inspired of God and is useful for teaching​—for reproof, correction, and training in holiness so that the man of God may be fully competent and equipped for every good work.”​—2 Tim. 3:16, 17, “New American Bible.”

SHOULD CHURCHES RELAX STANDARDS OF SEXUAL MORALITY?

“But when you follow your own wrong inclinations your lives will produce these evil results: impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure . . . drunkenness, wild parties, and all that sort of thing. Let me tell you again as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God.”​—Gal. 5:19-21, “Living Bible,” Catholic Edition.

[Graph on page 10]

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DISAPPEARING CLERGY

Since 1881, the population of Italy has doubled, while the number of priests has halved, from 84,834 to 40,866

(Priests per 1,000 Italians)

1881 (2.9)

1977 (0.72)

[Graph on page 11]

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DISAPPEARING FLOCK

(Percent of regular Mass attenders in Italy)

1956 69%

1977 28%

In the Clutches of Death

A survivor of disaster in the North Sea tells his story

“I FELT the platform sink below me, and in seconds I was in the water. I was drawn down, down, down,” Jahnsen recalls. But he got out alive!

Jahn Otto Jahnsen, age 23, of Grimstad, Norway, was on board the service and hotel platform “Alexander L. Kielland” when it capsized in the middle of the North Sea on March 27, 1980. Of the 212 men on board, 123 lost their lives in what was Norway’s worst peacetime disaster in this century.

The platform was a huge structure, with a total height of 99 meters (325 feet) from the bottom pontoons to the top of the drilling tower. It had been converted from a drilling rig to a hotel platform, and was situated beside the fixed steel platform “Edda” at the Ekofisk field.

Jahnsen was down in a small movie theater on the hotel platform that night. He recalls: “I heard a bang, then another. At first I thought it was a large wave hitting the platform deck, because we had rough weather. Then we heard a third bang, and suddenly the entire platform tipped over. In seconds the deck was at a 35- to 40-degree angle.” Evidently a brace had fractured, causing one of the five main supporting legs of the platform to break.

Everyone in the movie room got out. But higher up in the structure those in a larger theater were trapped​—unable to reach the doors because of the tilting floor.

“I came out into a corridor and worked my way upward. Some were panicking. Screams were heard. Some had fallen and hurt themselves, and we were all scared.

“I was able to press open an emergency exit, a steel door. It had to be pushed upward and was very heavy. At last getting it open, I climbed out onto the slippery deck. But for the icy wintry winds the clothes I had on were much too light.” The air temperature was about five degrees Celsius (41° F.) and the winds had the strength of a storm.

Making his way up a ladder, Jahnsen succeeded in reaching one of the lifeboats, at the highest point of the tilting deck.

Into the Sea!

“Some went into the lifeboat, but I simply didn’t dare,” he says. “When it was lowered, it was smashed against the platform. As far as I know, only one of the men on board got out alive​—and about 10 others lost their life.”

While watching this, Jahnsen received a safety vest and put it on. Several came after him, but there were not enough to go around.

“The deck tilted even more and we realized that we had to get into the water,” Jahnsen remembers. “We tried to get down one of the giant shafts or legs. Eight meters [26 feet] in diameter, it was now pointing out from the deck almost horizontally, high above the water. It must have been 20 meters [65 feet] to the surface. Others smashed out windows in the living quarters and then walked down the walls.”

Now everything happened quickly.

“The platform tilted more and more. We held in a 10-centimeter [4-inch]-thick wire, which followed the leg downward. Suddenly this wire was ripped apart, with fireworks of sparks all around us. Fortunately, I wasn’t hit by it. But a man close by me was and he fell into the sea.”

Right then the platform submerged. Fortunately, Jahnsen had on the safety vest. He struggled against the water until he came back to the surface.

The “Alexander L. Kielland” had capsized. The four remaining platform legs were sticking up out of the water. Many of Jahnsen’s friends were trapped in rooms and corridors inside the gigantic platform, 40 to 50 meters (130 to 160 feet) underneath.

“I caught sight of a pickup boat. The boat was damaged and full of water, but I got into it and later hauled four other men aboard,” he says.

During the next few hours the waves increased to heights of 15 meters (50 feet). The winds rose to hurricane force.

“While our boat was being pitched around by the wind and the waves, we saw a lot of people in the sea. Some were injured. Others floated with heads down, motionless.”

From the deck of the neighboring drilling platform “Edda,” 30 meters (100 feet) above the water, rubber rafts were thrown to the men below who were fighting for their lives. Most of them were carried away by the wind and the waves, but some were grabbed by strong hands and put to use. Jahnsen caught hold of one of them.

“The raft was floating upside down, but we got it turned over, and three of us managed to climb on board. We sat in water up to the waist. But it was a raft with a tent over it, and this gave us shelter against the icy winds. In just a few minutes, we were able to pull more men out of the water, until we were nine on board this raft.”

It all happened very quickly.

“It took only 10 to 15 minutes from the first bang till the platform capsized, and I don’t think it was more than a quarter of an hour from when we fell into the water until we were on board the rubber raft.”

But then they drifted for some three hours.

“The waves got larger and larger. Most of us became seasick and vomited. One had an ugly-looking cut in the head and seemed somewhat absentminded, but he managed to sit upright. Later we began seeing supply boats. At times they came very close, but the waves were so high that I doubt they saw us.”

A Helicopter Above

On board the tiny rubber raft, as the men slowly came to their senses, they began to beat and massage one another in order to keep warm. It was biting cold. They did not believe they would be rescued before dawn.

“All the time we heard helicopters,” Jahnsen recalls, “but they passed by. Suddenly, about 11 o’clock, a strong beam of light was centered on the opening of the tent of our raft. We heard the sound of a helicopter, louder and louder. We looked out, saw the copter hovering above us and a man being lowered. Due to the waves he missed the raft and was hoisted up again.”

The helicopter circled above, and when it came back the man hit the small raft perfectly with his rescue wire.

“‘Is all well?’ was all he said. Without waiting for any answer he placed a strap around the first of us. Up he went into the British military helicopter above. Man after man was sent up in rapid succession, and the last to leave the raft was the Englishman.

“The helicopter made another swoop around, to look for more survivors, and then, after some 20 minutes, we nine men were brought down to the ‘Ekofisk hotel,’ a large platform that was built as a fixed platform to serve exclusively as living quarters. Men ran out to the helicopter, two by two, to carry us into the platform hospital. Here we were wrapped in warm blankets, given warm drinks and were massaged.”

Before it was over, sailors and airmen from many countries took part in the rescue operation, the largest ever mounted in the North Sea. It involved 2,000 men and 47 vessels, with 24 helicopters and planes above sharing in the search for survivors.

“We were the first to be brought to the Ekofisk hotel,” Jahnsen says. “All of us, even the one who was injured, had come through it well. At 2:30 a.m. a helicopter took us to Rogaland Hospital at Stavanger, Norway. Next morning I was permitted to leave the hospital, and the same evening I was with my family once again in Grimstad, 24 hours after it all began.”

Jahnsen thinks he was fortunate. He survived, with no injuries, and did not have nerve problems afterward. By profession he is a mason and he had just taken work in the North Sea during the slack winter season. Now he intends to stay on land.

“Unforeseen Occurrence”

The difference between life and death was very small that March night in the North Sea. It was a terrible illustration of how chance may decide whether a man will live or die​—or, as the Bible puts it: “The swift do not have the race, nor the mighty ones the battle, . . . because time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all.”​—Eccl. 9:11.

When disaster strikes, pure chance may often be the deciding factor. If Jahn Otto Jahnsen had gone to the large cinema instead of the small one, if he had entered the lifeboat instead of climbing out on the huge platform leg, if he had come too late to get a safety vest, if he had been holding in the steel wire when it cracked, if he had not got onto a raft covered by a tent​—in all these cases he might have lost his life instead of surviving. Being young, well-trained and accustomed to skindiving no doubt helped, but these were not decisive factors.

What decides in such situations is not being among “the swift” or “the mighty,” but timing and “unforeseen occurrence.” The truth is not, as some religious leaders will contend, that God is acting in a special way when such disasters strike. On the contrary, through the Bible he makes clear that many things in life are chance happenings.

Getting out of the clutches of death was like a miracle to many of the survivors and it produced a sense of gratefulness over being alive. The same sense of gratefulness may, in fact, be felt by many of us when reading a story such as this. After all, we should be grateful for life every day, for having time in which we can do a little good for our fellowmen and show gratitude to our Creator​—“because time and unforeseen occurrence” befall us all.

Our Pursuit of Fame in the Boxing Ring

IT WAS January 21, 1966. As I sat on the stool in my corner of the boxing ring, I felt that I was at last on the threshold of fame and fortune. All I had to do was win this fight and Francisco San José would be proclaimed the Spanish heavyweight boxing champion. The next step would be the European championship.

My thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the sound of the gong, and the first round began. My opponent, Mariano Echevarría, obviously had similar ambitions, and we entered into a punishing duel that lasted 12 rounds. We were both strong and no quarter was given. That day I became the Spanish heavyweight champion​—a victory on points.

As a boy, in my hometown, Toro, Zamora, in northwest Spain, I was known as a street fighter. Though I was educated at a Catholic college, my schooling did not change me. From school I went into a life of delinquency and immorality.

In time I fell in love with a local girl, but she would not accept me unless I changed my ways. So I began to reform somewhat, but I still wanted to fight. Since the only legal and “noble” way was as a boxer, I started boxing. In 1963 I represented Spain in the Mediterranean Games held in Naples, Italy, and won a bronze medal. However, instead of trying to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics the following year, I decided to turn professional. After all, I thought, if I was taking risks I might as well get paid for it.

But where did it get me? Six months after I had won the Spanish heavyweight crown, my rival, Echevarría, beat me in six rounds. I was no longer the champion. During the next four years I fought 23 contests, won 11, lost nine and drew three. Gradually I began to realize that I was being manipulated by the promoters and managers to further the careers of others. By 1969 one sports writer wrote me off as a “propitiatory sacrifice.” Because I needed the money, on two occasions I collaborated in what we call in Spanish a tongo, which means a rigged fight. When I refused to cooperate in a similar deal in 1967, the referee made sure I lost. It finally sunk in that in many cases championships are decided in promoters’ offices and not in the ring.

Early in my career I persuaded my younger brother, Carlos, to try his hand at boxing. Here is his side of the story:

While Francisco was succeeding as an amateur boxer I was winning cross-country races. However, I tended to look up to Francisco and follow his example.

One day in 1963 Francisco arrived at home and announced that he had arranged my first fight. With the approval of the Valladolid Boxing Federation I was to fight against a boxer called Sanchez in a contest in our hometown. I felt nervous, but I could not let down my own townsfolk. As it turned out, I won by a knockout in the second round. The crowd went wild and carried me shoulder high through the town. I was heady with success. With that first taste of victory I was bitten by the boxing “bug,” and I too began to dream of fame and fortune in the ring.

I moved to Madrid to get the right kind of training and fights. In 1965 and again the following year I became the Spanish amateur champion in my weight class. I was selected for the Spanish national team to fight against France, and at regional level against teams in Germany and Portugal. All these amateur contests were stepping-stones on the way to a professional career.

At last the long-awaited day arrived​—November 23, 1966. My professional debut in Madrid was against Ben Bachir. I won by a KO. Little did I realize then that I would meet Ben Bachir years later under far different circumstances. Now, a string of international opponents began to fall before my fists, some by KO and others on points. But the fight that had the deepest impact took place in Barcelona on December 30, 1969, against Bernard Daudu, an experienced Nigerian boxer.

Although I was a quiet, reserved person outside the ring, once the fight had started I was transformed into a savage punching machine, intent only on knocking out my rival. I remember the words of a trainer in my amateur days: “When you enter the ring remember that you have got to finish off your adversary any way you can. Go out there with hate in your heart and smash him to pieces. He is your enemy. Have no pity on him.”

As the fight got under way my blows were missing the mark. The crowd got impatient. They wanted blood. It was an eight-round fight with only one round left. I was in my corner listening to my second’s hasty advice: “Finish him off in this round or else you will lose the fight!” With that my blood was up, and at the sound of the gong I went out full of fury and hate. Suddenly, about halfway through the round, I caught him with a left hook to the jaw, followed by a right to the liver. He folded up on the ropes and I hit him again. He went down for the count.

With the brief victory formalities over, I quickly left the ring, changed clothes and caught the train back to Bilbao. When I got off the train my wife and my sister were there to greet me, but they looked strained. What was the matter? They broke the news. Daudu had died of a brain hemorrhage!

It is difficult to describe my reactions on hearing that news. I wept long and bitterly. I could not believe that my fists had caused another man’s death.

But how strange human nature is! How easily we rationalize! I soon began to find excuses to justify my continuing to box. Others who had an interest in my career offered their advice: “It was an accident. Boxing is a sport. You are not to blame. The damage was probably done in the previous fight.” “Now is your chance to make capital out of the fame you have achieved.” But deep down inside, none of this pleased me. I knew that boxing had killed him, but I had been the executioner who had administered the coup de grace.

Three months later I was back in the ring, in Madrid. On TV they wanted to know how I felt about my career after the tragic experience. I answered that I was determined to continue in boxing.

One victory after another finally led to my great opportunity on December 25, 1970. It was the contest for the Spanish heavy-welterweight crown. The place: Bilbao, Vizcaya. My rival: José María Madrazo, an experienced man. But I was younger and stronger, and in the sixth round I had him down twice on the canvas. He was taking a lot of punishment, so finally the referee interrupted the contest and awarded me a technical KO. At last I had achieved what my brother had done over four years earlier. I had become a Spanish champion.

But over a year before I attained this goal, my brother Francisco had retired from boxing. Why? Let him tell you.

Although I considered myself to be more of an atheist than a Catholic, when Jehovah’s Witnesses visited me I was curious to know what they believed. I admired their courage. They were obviously sincere. Though I did not believe everything they taught, I was interested in knowing and understanding the Bible. With the weekly help of the Witnesses, I studied the Bible along with the textbook The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life. The Witnesses never mentioned boxing. But when we studied chapter 14, “How to Identify the True Religion,” I realized that the outstanding identifying mark of a Christian should be love. I learned that Jesus had said: “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.” (John 13:35) The book went on to explain: “It must be love that deeply affects every aspect of one’s daily living.” In my case, that included boxing.

A special fight was coming up. My brother Carlos and I were going to appear on the same program, San José I and San José II, as we were known professionally. I meditated deeply about my situation, asking, in prayer, for God’s guidance. Should I and could I continue to box and still call myself a Christian? After much soul-searching I decided that my fight in the Bilbao Bull Ring on October 17, 1969, would be my last.

When I announced to the press my retirement from the ring on grounds of religious conscience, it was a real bombshell. Carlos could not believe that four months of Bible study could cause such a change in me. My “friends” in the boxing world tried to get me to go back on my decision. They offered me the opportunity to go for the European crown, with a big purse at stake. Although I needed the money I did not waver in my decision.

I retired with my family to my hometown of Toro, where I have since waged a different kind of fight, the Christian contest. Bible truth has changed my personality. To illustrate what I mean, some time ago as I was making calls from house to house to discuss the Bible, a hefty fellow threatened to throw me down the stairs. In the past that would have been the signal for me to lay him out with a pair of uppercuts to the jaw. Instead, I talked him out of his bad mood and terminated the conversation peacefully.​—2 Tim. 2:24-26.

It has not been easy to transform my personality, to exchange the use of fists for the power of reason. But I am certainly more content to be with my family, working the land, tending animals and serving God in some small way. What a contrast with the glaring lights of the boxing arena, and the blood lust of the fickle crowd!​—Rom. 12:1, 2; Col. 3:10, 12.

Although my decision to quit the ring puzzled Carlos, he continued in his career. Let him tell what happened:

About a year after Francisco’s retirement, a knock came at my door. It was the same Witness that had visited him. I asked him in and after a conversation he invited me to study the Bible. My thought was, “Knowledge occupies no space,” and in any case I was curious to know what had so greatly influenced my brother. So I accepted a study, but made it clear that I would never give up boxing for religion.

I think my first big surprise was when I checked the Ten Commandments in the Bible book of Exodus. I thought I knew them by heart from my school days, but these commandments in the Bible differed from the ecclesiastical version. For example, I had never heard of the second commandment, which prohibits the use of images for worship. That omission was covered in the church version by forming two commandments from the tenth. That fraud was an eye-opener for me.​—Ex. 20:4-6.

After just a few Bible studies I began to have a real fight with my conscience. My wife was accepting Christian truth, and I could see the handwriting on the wall for my boxing days if I continued to study the Bible. So some weeks I excused myself from the study, and others I just hoped the Witness would forget to come. Nevertheless, the Bible was affecting my thinking. I realized that when I defended my heavy-welterweight crown on October 10, 1971, against Angel Guinaldo from Salamanca.

When I stepped into the ring the crowd shouted: “Give it to him, San José! Finish him off quickly!” “Bash him with your left,” and suchlike expressions. My adversary was over in his corner awaiting his chance to strip me of my crown. Meanwhile, my conscience was pounding away at me. Words from the Bible, at 1 John 4:20, came to my mind: “He who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot be loving God, whom he has not seen.” A flood of other texts also invaded my mind, condemning my action, while I tried to rationalize what I was about to do.

The gong sounded. I found myself face to face with my opponent. As we fought, my conscience would not leave me in peace. I found myself asking: “What am I doing here? Dear God, please forgive me!”

It all seemed to last an eternity. But I dearly wanted to retire from the ring as reigning champion. My personal pride was involved. I wanted people to know that I gave up boxing for love of God and not because I lost my title.

At last the fight ended, but not with my usual KO punch. Had I won or lost? I waited anxiously for the decision. The referee announced . . . a draw. I was still the champion!

I was now officially considered a contender for the European title. For years I had worked and fought for that chance. I was under pressure from all sides​—from my conscience and from my boxing handlers. I was constantly studying the Bible and attending Christian meetings. As a consequence, there was a force impelling my mind. In boxing terms, the Bible had me against the ropes and I was about to hit the canvas. How could I resist scriptures such as: “I pummel my body and lead it as a slave, that, after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow,” and, “Love does not work evil to one’s neighbor”?​—1 Cor. 9:27; Rom. 13:10.

I managed to let several months pass by without accepting another fight. Then in February 1972 I received a letter from the boxing federation advising me that I had 15 days in which to defend my title or forfeit it. I went to Jehovah in prayer and asked for help and guidance. That help came and I announced my retirement from the ring on the basis of my religious principles.

That certainly provoked a reaction in the news media. I was interviewed twice on TV to explain my motives. Many sports followers criticized my decision. But at last I was at peace with myself. I had won a true victory.

Sometimes I am asked if I am sorry I quit boxing. It makes me recall the caption of a press photo of Francisco and me, in boxing shorts, with our hands bandaged up for combat. It read: “Carlos and Francisco San José, face to face. Although in distinct weight divisions, both brothers seek a compensation for their efforts in the ephemeral glory of the ring.” Notice, “ephemeral glory.” “Ephemeral” comes from a Greek root that literally means lasting just one day. How true that is in the boxing world!

I have come in contact with some once-famous ex-boxers. They are a pitiful sight. They are always looking back to their brief and faded glory. Where are their “friends” now? How often I saw that a boxer has “friends” only when he is winning, and when those “friends” are winning money as a result of his victories. Start losing, and the “friends” disappear.

As for fortune​—I certainly did not make one in boxing. About a third of the purse goes to cover training and management expenses. And for months between fights the rest goes to support one’s family.

However, since I became a Witness I have gained much more in other ways. I now have genuine friends whose friendship is based on true and lasting values, rather than on the reflected glory of an idol. They are my spiritual brothers with whom I share the preaching of the “good news” in San Salvador del Valle, Vizcaya, here in northern Spain. And as I share in this work I have the privilege of being a witness for the grandest person in the universe, Jehovah God.

When I attend Christian assemblies, there are often memories of my boxing days, simply because they are held in sports arenas where years ago I fought as a boxer. Such was the case in 1978 at the international assembly in Barcelona, which included the Municipal Sports Palace, where I had been instrumental in terminating the life of the Nigerian boxer Daudu. What a contrast! Instead of a bloodthirsty crowd screaming for a KO, there was a peace-loving multitude listening to the Word of God in an atmosphere that breathed love and tranquillity.

Earlier, in 1974, when I attended the district convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses at the Salamanca football ground, I saw walking in my direction a hefty Witness who seemed familiar. He looked at me, walked past and then turned around to look again, even as I was double-checking him. Astonished, we exclaimed simultaneously, “But you must be Ben Bachir/​San José II!” Sure enough. We who had formerly been enemies in the ring were now united as Christian brothers!

Francisco and I are glad to have abandoned the sordid world of boxing, with its cruelty and violence, avarice, manipulation and exploitation. We have found a better way of life, the Christian way of love, one that offers a lasting reward, God’s approval and everlasting life.​—Heb. 11:6; Rom. 6:23.

[Blurb on page 17]

“It finally sunk in that in many cases championships are decided in promoters’ offices and not in the ring”

[Blurb on page 18]

“I knew that boxing had killed him, but I had been the executioner”

[Blurb on page 19]

‘I learned that a Christian should have love that deeply affects his daily life. In my case, that included boxing’

[Blurb on page 20]

“In boxing terms, the Bible had me against the ropes and I was about to hit the canvas”

[Blurb on page 21]

‘Ephemeral glory​—lasting just one day. How true that is in the boxing world!’

Visit Strangers? For What?

“The Observer” magazine of Canada’s United Church titled an article: “Who, Me? Visit Strangers?” It suggests that both ministers and laity can make such calls, but “suppose that stranger does open the door and invites you in. Then what? What do you say?” The article cautions against discussing money: “One of the images the church needs to wipe out is that we only visit with an outstretched hand​—palm uppermost.”

Among things recommended for discussion were: “the church bulletin if it has phone numbers and meeting dates on it. The newsletter. The annual report, if it’s interesting, and shows what your church is all about.” Jesus’ recommendation to his disciples when he sent them out “ringing” their equivalent of “doorbells” might have been helpful to United Church visitors: “Go therefore and make disciples of people . . . teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.”​—Matt. 28:19, 20.

Mangroves​—Seafaring Land Builders

WITH their maze of tangled roots gripping the mud and sand of tidal flats, mangroves do a remarkable work of land building. They also provide an important link in the food chain of land and marine creatures that find a haven in their protective covering.

Mangroves are found practically everywhere in the tropics​—in Africa, on the shores of Central and South America, and on coastlines of countries in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. One of the most outstanding mangrove forests in the world is found in southern Florida (U.S.A.), where they blanket more than 700 square miles (1,800 km²) of coast and thousands of islands.

From the air, mangrove forests look like an evergreen wilderness of islands and estuaries​—all interwoven with shallow bays, lagoons and creeks.

From the surface, however, the picture is entirely different. They present an almost impenetrable wall of twisted and intermeshing trunks and roots. In mature or older mangrove swamps, the root systems are jumbles of arches. Rising from the watery surface, the roots cascade in so many directions that it is quite difficult to determine where one root begins and another one ends.

Red Mangroves

The forest is dominated at sea edge by the red mangrove. It is the pioneer builder of this unique landscape. Because of the adaptability of these mangroves to different coastal environments, they offer a contrast in shape and size. Some are tall and have straight trunks reaching heights of 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 m). Others are domed shrubs held aloft by their network of roots. Another variety may grow horizontally, rerooting as it moves parallel to the ground.

Behind the red mangrove line and growing on higher ground are several unrelated trees. But these trees are also called mangroves, loosely so.

Ecologically Important

Viewing mangroves up close may cause one to wonder how they can be anything but useless. Generally, they are infested by hordes of mosquitoes and are responsible for a strong swamp odor. However, early explorers of the Americas, India, and the East Indies noted that people used the mangrove for food, the bark as a cure for diabetes and burns, and the roots as a sedative. Man has sought the tannin in the bark for dyeing and the mangrove wood for charcoal production.

During the past decade environmentally minded scientists discovered that mangrove forests represent a complex ecosystem. This has helped to dispel the view existing in some industrialized nations that mangroves are a nuisance to man and a hindrance to land development. Now scientists know that mangroves help to preserve and expand the land. At the same time, the forests create an environment important to the welfare of a host of land animals, birds and marine creatures.

The seedling of the mangrove is the vanguard of the land-building activity. When released by the parent tree, the seedling is a rudimentary tree. It may take root in the shallow waters below, or drift into the sea current for a voyage that could take it thousands of miles away from the parent tree before getting lodged on an oyster bar or a mud flat. If necessary, the seedling can survive afloat about one year.

Once it gains a foothold, it sends out arching fingers that quickly become a mass of contorted prop roots. These roots support the trunk of the tree above the seawater, bring up sap, and supply oxygen not found in the mud. They also act as a strainer for sea debris​—shell and coral fragments, driftwood, seaweed and soils. When the debris consolidates, an island is born, one perhaps only a few square feet in width. As more seedlings are produced by the solitary mangrove, they may take root in the mounting debris below. These add more debris-catching power to the spreading prop roots.

After a few decades, an island may attain considerable size, rising several feet above sea level. Over the years, the sea-voyaging mangroves may even link island to island or an island to the mainland. In the meantime, a variety of wildlife seeks shelter under them.

Wildlife Boardinghouse

The arching roots from the tree trunk and limbs become a boardinghouse. On the roots are myriads of white-shelled coon oysters and swarms of crabs. Within the forest, raccoons, frogs, turtles, alligators, snakes, wildcats, deer and other creatures forage. In the branches, terns, pelicans, eagles, storks, cormorants, egrets, ibises, herons and other tropical birds find sanctuary.

One mangrove island in the famed Rookery Bay Sanctuary on the southwest coast of Florida has become a birdwatcher’s favorite because of the huge flocks of different birds that roost there at night. The island becomes so loaded with white plumage by evening that from a distance it appears to be covered with snow.

Food Factories

Besides being a haven for wildlife, mangrove forests are veritable food factories. Biologists in Florida have observed that creatures feed on the leaves while they are still attached to the trees, and especially after the leaves fall and start to decompose.

To speed the breakdown, hungry crabs and scavenging amphipods no bigger than a grain of rice shred the leaves. The leaf particles become covered with bacteria and fungi that are rich in vitamins and protein.

As these leaf particles are chopped smaller and smaller, diminutive sea creatures feed on the bacteria and fungi. The indigestible cellulose bit of the leaf is excreted and subsequently becomes a vehicle for a whole new colony of bacteria and fungi.

This food web supplies at least 80 to 90 percent of the nutrition for several varieties of crabs, worms, insect larvae, shrimp and fish. In turn, these creatures are themselves food for many other species of fish, including important commercial varieties.

Though man’s knowledge of many of these things in relatively recent, the value of mangroves to the earth’s cycle of life reflects a creative wisdom that existed long before humankind.

Childbirth​—Must It Be So Painful?

“TWENTY hours into my difficult first labor, alone and terrified, I turned to the wall and swore that if I ever lived through ‘this,’ I would never do it again. Later, in the maternity ward, we bathrobed mothers stood around and told each other that our labor had been ‘fine.’ There just wasn’t any familiar language for the earthshaking tremendousness of what we had gone through, so we left it all unsaid.”

This is how a mother described her first delivery. Fortunately not all mothers experience it with that dread. But almost all agree: childbirth is painful. It is understandable when you consider what takes place in the body when a child is born.

Why So Painful?

Childbirth is one of the most intense and complicated processes of the human body. This is necessary to force out a living “lump,” weighing about as much as a big head of cabbage, with four limbs, safely through its mother’s narrow, sensitive delivery canal. Sometimes two or more may come out on the same occasion.

The real pain usually begins with a series of heavy muscular contractions in the womb. The baby first passes from the womb into the narrow lower end of the womb. To get farther, the “mouth” of the womb must open up to about the width of a man’s fist. This affects the dense network of sensory nerves in the lower end of the womb, causing pain. If the contractions are too weak to open up the “mouth” of the womb, the delivery is prolonged and may be very trying.

When the “mouth” has opened to its maximum, the baby is forced into the narrow vagina. The mother has to bear down intensely to force the baby through this passage and press it out through the sensitive external sexual organs. Sometimes it has to be drawn out with forceps or a suction cup.

This sounds painful, indeed. But does it really have to be that painful? Can anything be done to relieve the pain?

Pain-relieving Drugs

Most women giving birth in hospitals are nowadays treated with pain-relieving drugs. In the United States, 95 percent of all pregnant women receive some sort of drug.

“Laughing gas” has long been used as a pain reliever and still is in many places. It has a relaxing effect on the brain’s nerve center. Barbiturates, tranquilizers and analgesics are usually given to women in the early stages of labor to relax them and deaden labor pains.

In order to avoid the depressive effects of narcotics and other side effects of such drugs and to keep the mother alert and cooperative during delivery, regional anesthesia has become popular. Pain-killing drugs are injected to block the sensory nerves in the mother’s delivery canal. Sometimes general anesthetic is applied, rendering the mother unconscious.

Although many have found it helpful and perhaps necessary to use pain-killing drugs, in recent years there is an increasing resistance among the medical profession to an unrestricted use of them. A strong warning signal came in 1978. Two American specialists on infant and child development, Yvonne Brackbill at the University of Florida and Sarah Broman of the National Institutes of Health, analyzed a study involving 50,000 children who were followed from before birth to age seven. A Washington Post report on this says: “During the first year of life, babies whose mothers were given the obstetrical drugs tended to lag or be impaired in their development of the ability to sit, stand or move about. They were deficient in their ability to stop responding, such as the ability to stop crying when comforted.”

The report also says that the children’s behavior was affected at least through age seven, and the following reason is given: “Drugs given during labor and delivery cross the placenta rapidly and easily reach the fetus’ brain. . . . The newborn’s liver and kidneys, which normally break down drugs and excrete them, are not fully functioning at birth.” However, not all agree on these dangers. Some researchers say that “if drugs are chosen with care, and if the dose and timing of the drugs is carefully controlled, then the consequences for the infant are minimal in almost all cases.”

While some women prefer a more comfortable and less anxious birth by taking pain-relieving drugs, many choose to give birth without interference. They want to experience this marvelous occasion to the full. “Women have said they didn’t want to be drugged bystanders at the birth of their own babies,” one columnist comments. However, there are other pain-relieving treatments than those of drugs.

Stop Being Anxious

Research shows that it is not only physical circumstances, such as the size of the baby or the width of the delivery canal, that determine the degree of pain. The physical condition of the mother is an important consideration, but anxiety is also a major factor that is here involved. “Women, who during pregnancy have been very afraid of the birth, describe . . . their delivery as more painful than those who have looked forward to the birth with greater security,” says Dr. Nils Uddenberg, a Swedish researcher at the University of Lund, who for years has studied experiences and attitudes of pregnant women.

This has to do with the relation between anguish and pain, according to this researcher. Anguish increases pain, and both anguish and pain cause muscular tension. An anxious woman is often extremely tense during delivery. This blocks her ability to relax and recover strength between labor pains.

Therefore, to relieve a woman’s delivery pains, her anguish must be reduced. Knowledge gives security. If she gets good advance information on what is going on in her body during birth, she will accept her part and do her job more intelligently, being more relaxed and less sensitive to pain. Many maternity hospitals give such information.

The mother’s position during childbirth has also been the subject of research.

Reclining or Sitting?

Professor Roberto Caldeyro-Barcia, a Uruguayan obstetric physiologist, who has dedicated 30 years to research and the development of some of the most sophisticated technologies relating to childbirth, has found that the sitting position of older times is quicker, easier and more natural than that of reclining during birth. A report on his findings in the British newspaper The Guardian of December 24, 1979, says that he claims the reclining position restricts the blood circulation and the supply of oxygen to the fetus.

The report states: “Caldeyro-Barcia has found that with low-risk pregnancies (80 per cent of the total) the best results were obtained when women who had been told what happens during childbirth were allowed to give birth without interference​—no drugs, no artificial rupturing of membranes, no reclining in bed, but moving (sitting or even walking as the mother wants), with the final stage of labour in the sitting position, and the father and the family present. Caldeyro-Barcia found that first labours were 36 per cent shorter for women during the early stages and 25 per cent shorter for all labours.”

According to Exodus 1:16 in the Bible, birthstools were used already in ancient Egypt, and they are still widely used in many parts of the earth, as in Brazil. According to one researcher, the horizontal position was imposed by a French obstetrician, François Mariceaux, in 1738, and spread quickly throughout the earth. But the results sometimes leave much to be desired.

Kerstin, a 32-year-old Swedish woman, tells about her fifth delivery: “It was extremely tough. I was in bed and got some pills. My opening labors lasted 36 hours. The final contractions went on for quite a while, but the baby didn’t move. It had got stuck in me in some awkward position. When everybody left the room for a break, I thought of gravitation and said to myself: ‘Let me do it the old-fashioned way.’ I stood up on my feet and felt how the baby fell down a bit. The personnel rushed in, and after three heavy contractions my boy was born.”

Welcome the Baby

The mother’s attitude toward the baby and the consequences of bearing it may also determine how much pain she will feel. The baby should be wanted and welcome. A pretty 19-year-old mother said: “During my whole pregnancy and delivery I felt my child was going to strip me of my career, my freedom and all fun in life.” Her delivery was agonizing. A week later she beamed in happiness and said, while kissing her baby after almost every word: “I wish I had felt this for you all the time!” How much suffering she would have spared herself!

The pain a mother feels during delivery may also be influenced by her relationship with the father of the child, her social situation, and her age. “Some of the most shocking deliveries I have observed have involved either very young mothers living under insecure circumstances and with psychological difficulties, or older women with very divided sentiments toward motherhood at their age,” observes researcher Nils Uddenberg.

This suggests that the more a mother loves her coming baby, the more she appreciates becoming a mother, and the better the relations are between her and her family, the more confidence and happiness she will feel during labor and delivery. This, in turn, may stimulate her body to produce generously of its own natural pain relievers. The following exciting discovery was announced in a UPI report some time ago: “Some women may feel relaxed and near-euphoric during childbirth because their body is producing a ‘happiness hormone,’ says a Seattle researcher. Dr. J. C. Houck, a biochemist and director of the Virginia Mason Research Center, said the hormone is beta endorphine, which was discovered in 1976. Houck said he has discovered the hormone is present in human placenta and in the pancreas.”

It is also known that happiness and other strong positive emotional experiences affect the output of hormones from the pituitary gland in the brain, such as oxytocin, which is very important for the stimulation of an effective labor.

Skill Instills Confidence

If the mother is attended by someone who is both kind and experienced, this can be of great benefit to her. “As soon as the white-robed friendly woman with the grayish hair came in and put her warm, gentle hand on my cold, sweaty forehead, I felt relaxed and at ease. I knew it was a skilled hand with many years’ experience at childbirth.” This is how a young mother felt about her midwife just before giving birth. Skill instills confidence.

Researcher Nils Uddenberg says: “To the mother giving birth the midwife is the natural source of security. She represents knowledge and experience. . . . A fine contact with the midwife is therefore extremely essential to the feeling of ease during delivery.”

It should be realized, of course, that in some places there are legal requirements that must be met before a person can serve as a midwife. Properly administered and observed, these requirements can be a protection to all concerned.​—Rom. 13:1-5.

In Hospital or at Home?

Many scientists also claim that the environment has an influence on how the mother experiences her delivery. In recent years, there has been lively discussion as to whether the nursery hospital or the home is the best place for childbirth. Some claim that a natural, kind, and homelike atmosphere is very important for mother and child. Many hospitals cannot offer this, they say, and recommend home births instead. In the poorer part of the world many women have no choice​—the home is the only place. In the richer part of the world there is a trend toward more home deliveries. In the United States they now represent 2 percent of all the births.

A mother said at a childbirth conference: “I had my first home birth five years ago. It was a totally different experience from the birth of my first child, which I had in a hospital. Home is home and everything is your way. The family is involved and birth is an emotional not a medical experience.”

Many argue that the hospital is the safest place. Qualified help can quickly be given when problems occur, and at times this is very important. But some claim that not all hospitals are that safe. Dr. Mendelsohn says in a book on medical care: “Pediatric wards and newborn nurseries are the most vulnerable to spreading infections. It’s a well-kept secret in hospitals that the most dangerous place in the hospital​—as far as the patients are concerned—​is the newborn nursery, where none of the patients have (particularly those who are denied the immunity-transference of breast-feeding) developed their immunity to germs.”

Whatever is the case as to safety​—a factor that must not be neglected—​experiments have shown that mothers who experience childbirth at home, or in a birthing room that simulates the home, are more relaxed and therefore feel less pain. In 1974 the French doctor Frédérick Leboyer began his outstanding experiments with so-called soft deliveries in a homelike, quiet and soft-lighted birthing room, where the baby was given to the mother directly after birth. According to a report based on 120 such births, the mothers described them as a “remarkable, wonderful, and fantastic” experience. All these mothers would like to give birth the same way again.

Having a baby is becoming more of a family affair in many places. The mother often feels at ease with her husband assisting during delivery. Some hospitals even let older children stand by in an effort to make the whole affair less dramatic and more natural. An eight-year-old girl was asked, after seeing her mother give birth to her little brother, if she would like to have a baby. “Yes,” she said unhesitatingly, but then she added: “If I didn’t decide to become a ballerina instead.”

“In birth pangs you will bring forth children,” the Creator told the first woman on earth, according to the first book of the Bible. (Gen. 3:16) It has certainly proved to be true throughout history. Due to human imperfection, childbirth is painful. But not unbearably so. If the expectant mother shares a clean, loving relationship with her husband and family, cultivates right feelings toward her coming baby, learns to cooperate with her own body, receives skilled and kind assistance before and during the delivery, is allowed to give birth in a quiet, happy atmosphere, and, above all, puts her trust in the marvelous Creator of life, then she is well equipped to give birth with the least pain that is now possible.

[Pictures on page 25]

Development

[Pictures on page 27]

Normal Birth

Watching the World

Virtues Wanted by Young People

◆ High school principals in Hokkaido, Japan, were surprised by the answers in a poll regarding the most desirable attributes of the opposite sex. Before the survey, virtues of manliness were considered to be: “strong in will power,” “sincere” and “positive in action.” These have been highly valued in Japanese society. But the most common answer from the girls in the recent survey was: “kind and tender,” next was “compassionate” and “cheerful.” Interestingly, the boys selected “kind and tender,” “loveable” and “compassionate” as the ideal virtues for girls. A mere 8.5 percent picked physical features as being important. It is significant that in a world stressing “me-ism” and keen competition these young people recognize there are better attributes to seek and to cultivate.

Traffic in Blood

◆ In Naples, Italy, the Mafia is said to have a monopoly on blood. According to Dr. Ruggiero Pilla, public prosecutor of Naples, a mobster known as “Vincenzo the Vampire” has been buying up vials of blood plasma. He pays $20 (U.S.) per vial and then resells the blood for what the traffic will bear, often $200 (U.S.) a vial. As the police of Naples put it: “The gangsters control the blood donors in this area, and the families of patients who need blood have to pay through the nose. It is a vicious, growing racket. We are trying our best to stamp it out, but it is difficult. The men who sell their blood are afraid of selling it to anyone but the gangsters, because the gangsters have threatened them with death.”

Therapy for Loneliness

◆ When James J. Lynch, author of The Broken Heart: The Medical Consequences of Loneliness, was interviewed recently, he commented on some solutions for loneliness: “My solutions are very elementary. We’ve known them for thousands of years, and they are part of every major religion. Basically, if you want to find love, you’ve got to give love. That sounds trite, but it’s true. . . . Sometimes the solution is as simple as getting a pet, believe it or not. The animal business is not a multibillion-dollar industry because people are kooky. It’s satisfying profound biological needs. Studies on coronary-care patients who leave the hospital and live alone found that those who had a pet survived at a higher rate than those without such companionship. I also think we ought to attack this myth of the ‘independent person.’ There’s healthy dependency and there’s unhealthy dependency, but nobody is biologically independent. It’s really too bad that so many people attack anybody who admits that he or she needs another person.”​—U.S. News & World Report, June 30, 1980.

Avoidable Deaths

◆ According to a recent investigation made by a Brazilian governmental agency, and published by Veja magazine, 40 percent of the deaths that occurred in the State of São Paulo (population about 30 million) could have been avoided. The research, covering the period from 1960 to 1975, classified as avoidable deaths “those that would not have occurred if in all cases of disease in São Paulo the medical and sanitary technology already available in the country had been used.” The crucial point seems to be in the first year of life, when, according to the study, half the avoidable deaths occur. If all avoidable causes of death had been eliminated, life expectancy in the State of São Paulo would have increased from 63.3 to 70.7 years in 1975, the investigation revealed.

End of the Line for Disco?

◆ “After the booming years, discos are now closing down,” writes the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. “The phonograph industry is moaning. Suddenly the bottom has fallen out of record sales. Unexpectedly the growth industry par excellence is going downhill.” What has happened? “With the simple sound of the seventies, the soul of the disco-universe, sound mixers believed they had found the recipe for all-time: the non-sound, the non-rhythm, the ultimate everlasting merit of monotony. . . . In reality, disco is the torment of isolation. Fanatics dressed in spotty robes, after seeking blaring solitude for years, have now discovered that it has eaten a gaping hole in their soul. Disco was a marvel: a rhythm with the emphasis placed on zero.”

Alive​—Despite Decapitation

◆ A report from China claims that a man is now in better health as a result of an operation that removed his head​—that is, one of them. Zhang Ziping, said the Peking Evening News, was born with two heads. Finally, at the age of 36, he had one head removed surgically. The head removed reportedly rested on a neck and had two eyes and a mouth.

“Nothing More Happens”

◆ In the Federal Republic of Germany, “we have 140,000 smoker-deaths a year, but nothing more happens . . . than that this horrible figure is mentioned,” commented Die Zeit regarding the gruesome statistics from the Ministry of Health in Bonn. In comparison: 14,000 persons are killed in Western Germany every year in traffic accidents, and several hundred die as victims of drug abuse. But in both these cases the authorities put forth great efforts to instruct and protect the people. Yet the 140,000 smoker deaths, equal to the population of Bremerhaven or Darmstadt, produce comparatively little reaction from officials.

Robber Robbed

◆ One of the participants in Britain’s famous multimillion-dollar “Great Train Robbery” was himself robbed recently. The ex-thief reportedly lost items valued at about $7,500 from his London apartment. His insurance company is said to be the same one that covered losses on the postal train he helped to rob.

Kenya Bans Public Smoking

◆ Kenya’s minister for health, Mr. Arthur Magugu, has announced a ban on smoking in public places such as movie theaters, public transport, conference halls and similar areas. He said that he hoped the move would protect the nonsmoking members of the public from harmful tobacco smoke. He also appealed to tobacco manufacturers to ensure voluntarily that their advertisements and packages carry the warning: “Cigarette smoking is injurious to health.”

Rebuilding Wrecks Costly

◆ Trying to rebuild a totally wrecked automobile can be much more expensive than buying a new one. The Alliance of American Insurers reports that it now costs four times more to repair such a car than to buy a new one. One study by an auto-repair appraiser revealed that an American compact car that costs $6,018 new would cost $25,458 to rebuild.

Walking Off with U.N.-City

◆ During construction of the new U.N.-City in Vienna, it seemed that everything not “nailed down” was carried away, despite strict controls. Pieces the size of car mats suddenly showed up missing from already laid carpets, reports Austria’s Die Presse. Toilet fixtures disappeared, as did expensive microphones from the conference halls, light switches and even a large generator. One estimate of losses was 15,000,000 schillings (about $1,200,000 [U.S.]). Employees of the various contractors, able to move practically uncontrolled through some of the U.N.-City’s buildings, were the chief suspects.

Obscene Phone Calls

◆ A girl recently wrote to an advice columnist, claiming that the advice given on the subject of obscene phone calls was not very helpful. The girl felt that something can be done, and wrote: “I got 17 calls in one week not long ago. (We changed our number, but it didn’t help.) So I went out and bought a whistle for $1.98. When the guy called again I was ready. I waited until he was into his act and then blew the whistle as hard as I could. Dead silence. . . . there haven’t been any more calls.”

Juvenile Prostitutes

◆ Concern is being expressed about the growing number of child prostitutes in certain areas of large cities in North America. It has been estimated that between 200 and 300 girls and boys between the ages of 11 and 17 are active in this way on the streets of one section of Vancouver, British Columbia. What is making things more difficult is that authorities seem to have little control over the matter. A judge in that city, angered by the situation, called for something to be done. He explained that it was “indefensible” that “there is not a real full-scale interdepartmental attack on the problem.” It appears that within a short period of time after these juvenile prostitutes are rounded up by police and turned over to the local child welfare office they are back on the streets again.

Reducing the Risk

◆ One of the foremost authorities on blood pressure reports that men with loving wives and few anxieties are much less likely to have a stroke or a heart attack. According to Professor Peter Sleight, head of cardiology at Oxford University, a recent study revealed that, compared to others, men who viewed themselves as anxious and whose wives showed them little affection had four times the risk of a heart attack. Professor Sleight says that stress is a significant cause of high blood pressure. Referring to several studies made on the subject, he said: “These studies show that if people can be induced to take life slower, and learn to relax, it can lower their blood pressure and the risks of heart disease and stroke.”

Ego Trips

◆ The National Transportation Safety Board has reported that a light plane is nearly 20 times as likely to be involved in a fatal accident as a commercial airliner. Last year in the U.S. there were almost four times as many people who died in light-plane crashes​—1,311. Why the higher accident rate? Pilot error is said to be the cause of 89 percent of the fatal accidents. Identifying an important factor in pilot error, an investigator for the Safety Board said: “I’m getting tired of going out and seeing people thrown against the rocks because some pilot had ‘I’ve got to goitis.’ I’m tired of pilots’ egos taking people’s lives.” Some pilots licensed to fly only under “visual” rules take off in weather that is likely to deteriorate and are then caught in clouds and cannot find an opening. Pilots naturally do not like to tell passengers that their flying skills are not up to the challenge of the weather. Says flight safety researcher Rudd Sackett: “Their personal image is very important to many pilots. If they have to admit they can’t handle a situation, it’s a blow to their ego and they’ll try anyway, ignoring the risk.”

Drunk on the Slopes

◆ “We are faced not only with the problem of drunken drivers but also with an increasing number of drunken skiers,” says Italy’s Il Giorno. Werner Binder, director of the Alpine rescue service at Saalbach, Austria, complains that “at least four of the fifteen accidents on the snow registered each day are caused by taking one drink too many.” And Il Giorno adds: “It is thought that at least a quarter of the approximately 80,000 such accidents which take place every year in Austria are caused by an abuse of alcohol.”

Listen!

•Hear the miracle of Pentecost

•Peter’s angelic release from jail

•The stoning of Stephen

•Saul’s conversion

•Conversion of the first uncircumcised Gentile

•Paul’s missionary adventures

Enjoy the complete Bible book of Acts on two cassettes. Listen in your car on the way to work. At home. Or bring the book of Acts to life for those who have dimming eyesight. Playing time, over 3 hours.

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How Old Is Man?

Evolutionists say, Hundreds of thousands of years.

But the Bible says, Only six thousand years.

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