November 22

Page Two

From the Black Death to the Spanish flu, man has long suffered from epidemics. Even today, physical sickness still plagues the human race. But in modern times, epidemics of a different kind have become even more prevalent and threaten to overwhelm us. Learn what these epidemics are, why we should protect ourselves from them, and how the threat of them will ultimately be removed

We Are Being Deluged by Epidemics! 3

An Epidemic of Homosexuals 4

Child Abuse​—The Spin-off Epidemic 5

The Harvest​—A VD Epidemic 6

The Way Out 8

We Are Being Deluged by Epidemics!

IN 1975, a year when some scientists were envisioning the eventual end to all diseases, more people in the United States died from cancer than ever before. “Venereal disease, an ancient scourge that modern medicine thought it had conquered, is reaching epidemic proportions throughout America,” said news analyst Louis Cassels. Similar reports of a continuing grim toll reaped by malaria, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, snail fever​—even influenza—​tell the same story: Mankind is still under assault by epidemics.

Yet the greatest epidemics are more devastating than diseases of the flesh. They are the epidemics of violence, lawlessness, sexual permissiveness, alcoholism, divorce, family breakups​—spiritual diseases that have left mankind benumbed, “past all moral sense.” (Ephesians 4:19) Many of today’s pestilences of the flesh merely follow in the wake of sicknesses of the spirit.

Epidemic of Sexual Immorality

Some years ago Redbook magazine surveyed 100,000 women, mostly young, white, middle-class mothers. Thirty percent had committed adultery and 81 percent had had premarital sex.

That might have been brushed aside as sensationalism had not Cosmopolitan magazine, five years later, surveyed 106,000 women and confirmed the findings. Half the married respondents had had some kind of sex outside their marriage.

Some other symptoms of this sickness: In the United States 1,297,606 babies were aborted in 1980. Worldwide, an estimated 40 million unborn babies were purposely aborted​—almost twice the population of Canada. In Roman Catholic Poland, in 1982, there were 702,000 live births and at least 800,000 abortions.

A Teenage Pregnancy Epidemic

Premarital sex was viewed as wrong by 77 percent of Americans in 1969; ten years later only 41 percent felt the same way. In Sweden during the 1950’s and 1960’s, every third bride was pregnant at the altar. By 1978 every third child was born out of wedlock and every ninth couple was living together without marriage.

In 1976 the U.S. Public Health Department estimated that 41 percent of unmarried American girls 17 and under had had sexual intercourse. This represented a 54-percent increase in five years. Not surprisingly, the proportion of girls aged 15 to 19 who had illegitimate children increased a huge 800 percent between 1940 and 1980.

Clearly, sexual morality is no longer valued by most young people. Sexual immorality is viewed as the norm. “I don’t want my boyfriend to know I am a virgin,” one embarrassed 17-year-old high school junior wrote to advice columnist Ann Landers. In answering another letter, the columnist said: “It is useless to tell an 18-year-old girl who has had two abortions that the word ‘no’ is the surest form of birth control.”

Schools for Immorality

Where in the world do young people (and their parents) learn this kind of behavior? Of course, they learn it from one another. They are also open to suggestions from outside. In 1980 only 4.6 percent of the movies shown in the United States were rated G, that is, fit for young people to view unaccompanied by an adult. Because of their explicit immorality or violence, more than 55 percent were rated either R (persons under 17 must be accompanied by an adult) or X (persons 17 or under absolutely prohibited).

Would it be better to leave the children at home watching television? By the time he is 15, the average TV-watching youngster has witnessed 13,400 people meet a violent death on the video screen. And now, with more cable TV available, youngsters at home can watch pornography.

In some cocktail bars in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco, entertainment includes not only topless waitresses and bottomless dancers but nude performers who climax their act with live sex on the stage. Paying customers are in some cases invited to take part.

If more ideas are wanted, there are drugstore paperbacks galore, suggesting all kinds of sexual experiments. Some books include such misinformation as the following: “You have the good luck to be having a sex life when medical science is able to knock out venereal disease in rapid order. . . . Run to your gynecologist and get fixed up.”

Does the epidemic of immorality really exact such a light toll? Peek ever so fleetingly into an adjacent ward.

An Epidemic of Homosexuals

IN 1970 Dr. Charles W. Socarides of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York, warned that homosexuality was an epidemic growing faster than the four major medical diseases.

Nine years later election officials in San Francisco were estimating that nearly 30 percent of city voters were gay. There are elected officials who openly admit to being gay. There are gay political clubs, gay churches, gay synagogues and a gay dating service.

By 1982 homosexuals were parading in the streets and claiming 25 percent of the vote in Atlanta, Georgia. The Institute of Sex Research estimates that 10 percent of the United States population is gay. “Homosexual men and women are coming out of the closet as never before to live openly,” says Time magazine. “They are colonizing areas of big cities as their own turf, operating bars and even founding churches in conservative small towns, and setting up a nationwide network of organizations to offer counseling and companionship to those gays​—still the vast majority—​who continue to conceal their sexual orientation.”

There was a time when mental-health authorities dealt with homosexuality as though it were an illness. But had not Freud himself held that homosexual behavior “cannot be classified as an illness”? In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association’s Board of Trustees ruled that “homosexuality . . . by itself does not necessarily constitute a psychiatric disorder.”

First-century Christians did not view homosexuality as something normal, like blue eyes or dark skin. They viewed it as the cultivating of “disgraceful sexual appetites” when homosexual women “changed the natural use of themselves into one contrary to nature,” and homosexual men ‘worked what is obscene’ with one another.​—Romans 1:26, 27.

Yet, like other unclean appetites and hurtful desires, homosexual tendencies can be controlled and even overcome, stripped off as part of the old personality. In the Corinthian congregation there were some who had been homosexuals, as well as others who had been thieves, greedy persons, extortioners, drunkards, adulterers and idolaters. Yet all of these had changed. They had been “washed clean . . . sanctified . . . declared righteous.”​—1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Colossians 3:5-11.

Child Abuse​—The Spin-off Epidemic

CONSTANT obsession with sex and more sex leads to more abnormal cravings. One of the most depraved practices crawling into view is sexual abuse of children. How widespread is this? No one really knows, but a 1982 report on child abuse in the United States estimates that at least 1.5 million cases go unreported or unbelieved.

Sexual abuse of children can be anything from indecent exposure to rape. One of its uglier forms is child pornography. Children are photographed in sexually explicit poses, sometimes of unimaginable depravity, and the photographs are sold to pedophiles, morally sick individuals who find children sexually attractive.

Another aspect of this spin-off epidemic is the problem of incest. “As recently as 15 years ago, experts claimed that incest . . . occurred in only one out of a million families,” Reader’s Digest reported in January 1981. “Now some professionals believe the actual incidence could be as high as one in a hundred.”

Are you horrified even to contemplate the sexual use of children? Not everyone shares your feelings. The official publication of the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States has suggested that incest with the children at home might be better than so much teenage fornication outside the home!

In Los Angeles there exists the Rene Guyon Society, reportedly made up of doctors, lawyers and other men and women in respected, influential positions, whose members believe that young children should experience sex. The group’s slogan is, “Sex by age eight, or it’s too late.” This group is reported as using child pornography to stimulate youngsters.

Then there is NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association), a homosexual group interested in promoting “love” between men and boys. Such ideas of “love” remind one of the Bible proverb: “The mercies of the wicked ones are cruel.” (Proverbs 12:10) Many children today suffer from such cruelty.

And while the sexual abuse of children gets worse, other kinds of abuse are not lagging behind. As never before, children are tasting parental violence. Homicide is one of the five leading causes of death among children in the United States. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), in recent years such homicides have risen at a shocking rate and one third of these are at the hands of parents or stepparents. In most cases the 1- to 17-year-olds are killed with guns, knives or by strangulation.

The Harvest​—A VD Epidemic

“SEXUALLY transmitted diseases (STDs) are so widespread that they are considered to be hyperendemic.” This announcement of the Journal of the American Medical Association gives just one indication of how the modern epidemic of immorality has resulted in literal epidemics of the flesh. Thinking that medical science had conquered venereal diseases, this generation has gone after sex in a way that rivals the Rome of Nero and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. But the new morality has boomeranged.

It was commonly thought that the miracle drug penicillin had solved the problem of gonorrhea once for all time. But recently a publication for the United States military, the Pacific Stars and Stripes, reported that during one year 8,000 soldiers in the Philippines and South Korea had contracted a new penicillin-resistant strain of “super gonorrhea.”

From Canada comes the report: “Gonorrhea, with 120,000 estimated cases, is ‘out of control’ in Canada with more cases than ever​—even more than during World War II.” (The Toronto Star) In England a similar statistic is reported. “The number of women who now get gonorrhea is almost twice as high as in the war.”​—The Sunday Times.

A similar story comes from Africa. The newspaper Fraternité Matin of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, reports regarding a neighboring country: “Half the adult women . . . have suffered or are suffering from venereal diseases.”

A disease agent with an unfamiliar name​—Chlamydia—​is also commonly transmitted by sexual activity. It produces a condition known as NGU (nongonococcal urethritis), which somewhat resembles some of the symptoms of gonorrhea and is threatening to overshadow gonorrhea as the leading sexually transmitted disease.

The Herpes Scourge

Another alarming modern epidemic is herpes. The herpes viruses cause a wide range of diseases, including chicken pox, mononucleosis and cold sores on the mouth. The one most often transmitted sexually, however, is herpes simplex II, genital herpes. This produces blisterlike sores on or near the sex organs, often accompanied by fever, muscle aches and swollen lymph glands​—“like someone putting a soldering iron against your skin,” to quote a victim.

Not only is genital herpes agonizingly uncomfortable but it can be deadly. It is the most common cause of infectious blindness in the United States and can result in a deadly brain infection, heart trouble, sterility, birth defects, miscarriages, stillbirths and, possibly, cervical cancer.

Herpes viruses are harder to fight than bacterial infections. When they are not actively tormenting their victims they remain latent in the body. “The herpes viruses fight a guerrilla war, hiding somewhere in the nervous system and darting out for surprise attacks. Researchers think that once the viruses enter the body, they are there for good,” according to an Associated Press release. As yet, medical science acknowledges no cure for this sexually transmitted disease, which the CDC announced is spreading faster in the United States than any other virus except the common cold and influenza.

Recently a new disease captured the headlines: AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. What is that?

Simply stated, the victims of AIDS lose their immune response to diseases and many of them fall victim to other sicknesses, prominently rare forms of pneumonia or cancer.

In July 1982, 471 cases of AIDS had been identified in nine countries. By August 1983 the disease had been identified in 16 countries, with 1,972 cases in the United States and Puerto Rico. Of these, 759 had died, one of the highest percentage mortality rates for any disease in history. A 1982 report showed that of those who had had the disease for more than a year, the mortality rate was over 60 percent.

What causes AIDS? Nobody knows. How is it transmitted? No one is certain, but doctors believe that most cases are sexually transmitted. One thing is sure: The disease surfaced among young, active male homosexuals. And it continues to exact its heaviest toll from this same group. In May 1983, according to Health magazine, 71 percent of AIDS cases had occurred among homosexual or bisexual men.

Yes, immorality​—a sickness of the spirit—​has reaped an abundant harvest of physical epidemics.

The Way Out

THE Bible warns: “A man reaps what he sows.” (Galatians 6:7, New International Version) If ever a generation proved those words true, it is this generation. On the preceding pages, we have examined the epidemic of sexual immorality and seen some of the ugly physical plagues it has produced. Other diseases caused by immorality have produced similar results.

For example, two of the big killers today are cancer and heart disease. About these two plagues the World Health Organization reports: “90 per cent of [lung cancer] cases occur in [tobacco] smokers. Smokers are five to ten times more at risk from cancer of the mouth, throat and gullet.” It goes on: “Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in most developed countries, and the risk of dying from it is two to three times greater in smokers than in non-smokers.”

No, not everyone who dies from cancer or heart disease smokes tobacco. But if nobody used tobacco, these two killers would claim far, far fewer victims than they do. The self-indulgence of the smoker who risks his life for a habit, and the greed of the commercial interests that make money out of his addiction combine to multiply horrendously the needless deaths from these epidemics.

Third World countries are still reeling from epidemics that are under control elsewhere. The Sunday Times of London reports: “Today . . . more than 500 children will go blind​—just for lack of vitamin A. And for about 3p [5c, U.S.] per child it could be prevented. Prospects that the money will be found and the vitamins dispensed are bleak.”

Around the world, 25,000 people die of various physical diseases every day because their drinking water is not clean. The technology exists to provide clean drinking water for every human on this planet. The cost of applying the technology would be about one tenth of what the world spends on tobacco and only a small fraction of what is spent on armaments. Yet 25,000 people a day continue to die. Surely this betrays a sickness of the spirit in human society.

Consider, too, the widespread abuse of alcohol, which produces cirrhosis of the liver and causes “between a third and a half of all road deaths in industrial countries​—and a growing number in the Third World.” (World Health) Remember the widespread illegal dumping of dangerous chemicals that puts the population in general at grave risk. Yes, in many, many instances, the physical health problems of mankind are closely related to its moral sicknesses.

The Problem Foretold

Jesus Christ prophesied a time when mankind would be under assault by epidemics. He said: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another pestilences and food shortages.”​—Luke 21:10, 11.

The apostle Paul foretold a future onslaught of epidemics of the spirit. He warned: “In the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money . . . without self-control . . . lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God.”​—2 Timothy 3:1-5.

There is no doubt at all that these prophecies are being fulfilled today. Does this mean that the human race is destined to sink deeper and deeper into the mire of moral and physical decay, until eventually it is completely overwhelmed by such epidemics?

You Can Help Yourself

No, that is not the case at all. The Bible not only prophesied our present plight but also showed us the way out. Even now, if we avoid the moral epidemics that plague mankind, we are protected to some extent from physical disease. Consider this Biblical advice:

“Let fornication and uncleanness of every sort or greediness not even be mentioned among you.”​—Ephesians 5:3.

“Let us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit.”​—2 Corinthians 7:1.

“Supply to your . . . knowledge self-control, to your self-control endurance.”​—2 Peter 1:5, 6.

Do you apply this advice in your life? If so, you are avoiding the epidemic of immorality and are thus protected from the pandemic of venereal diseases. Also, you are not a slave of tobacco, drugs or alcohol; thus you have reduced considerably your risk of contracting numerous other diseases. That is a good feeling, is it not?

But that is only part of the problem. What about your neighbors who put you at risk because of their moral sicknesses? What about the drunk driver who might crash into you? Or the people who pollute your environment? Or the selfish commercial and nationalistic interests that cause thousands to go blind or die unnecessarily? Clearly, we cannot entirely avoid the results of the epidemics of immorality of this system of things. Neither can we completely avoid the physical epidemics​—the influenzas, the cancers not related to smoking, and so forth.

To overcome these problems we need a strong central authority that will protect us from the morally sick actions of others and that will promote the kind of society where the physical epidemics of mankind will be attacked and defeated. That authority exists. It is called God’s Kingdom.

The Problem Solved

God’s Kingdom has a program to save the human race from epidemics, and so far its program is right on schedule. First, after its establishment in the heavens in 1914, it had to cast Satan down to earth and rid the heavens of his sick influence. (Revelation 12:7-12) It also had to organize a worldwide teaching program to inform mankind of its existence and goals and to begin to cure right-hearted ones of their sicknesses of the spirit.​—Matthew 24:14; 28:19, 20; Isaiah 61:1, 2.

Of these two steps, the first has been accomplished and the second is well under way. When the preaching work is completed, things will be ready for stage three: the active intervention of the Kingdom in world affairs. The prophet Daniel foretold this: “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.”​—Daniel 2:44.

God’s Kingdom will thus “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” (Revelation 11:18) It will bring in a system of things where physical epidemics will be conquered. And, more importantly, the epidemics of immorality will be overcome.​—Compare Isaiah 33:24.

Finally, the human race will be safe for all time from epidemics of the flesh and epidemics of the spirit. Then the divine promise will find complete fulfillment: “[God] will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”​—Revelation 21:4.

No one will say: “I am sick.”​—Isaiah 33:24.

Young People Ask . . .

Is Religion for Me?

“IF YOU want to be part of the future, progress, the real world, leave your faith behind. If you want to remain old fashioned, stay in the Church! The success of your life is at stake.”

This is the cautioning cry of many to young people. Many feel that when the principles of religion are pitted against the glittering values of today’s sophisticated world, they appear obsolete and lifeless. And you, too, may wonder if religion has relevancy. But why has the importance of religion waned among so many young people? Many have soured on religion because of

Religious Hypocrisy

The English word “hypocrisy” stems from the Greek “hypokrisis”​—an “act of playing a part on the stage.” One 17-year-old wrote: “Am I supposed to go to church, which is like a theater where everyone goes through the motions?” Hesitant to condemn all, he continued: “I suppose some of the people there are sincere; but what disgusts me is that others play their role badly. I hate this hypocrisy.” Echoing this refrain, an 18-year-old said: “I see the way Christians around me live. I try to find real Christians, I look for love in them, for that assurance which their faith ought to give them.” Yet she found “nothing but egoism, pettiness, and a pretense of love.”

Surprisingly, however, a recent survey of U.S. teenagers disclosed that 95 percent of those polled still confessed belief in God or a “universal spirit”! The conclusion of The Adolescent by F. Philip Rice is, “While the modern generation is antichurch, it is not unconcerned, nor is it . . . unreligious.”

While there has been some revival of interest in the Bible among youths, many have radically departed from “traditional” religion. They may seek Eastern religions or join strange cults.

What Is the Appeal of the Cults?

The book Those Curious New Cults explains: “Young people began to see the hypocrisy of their elders more clearly than ever before. They saw hypocrisy . . . in their parents’ playing with religion . . . Everyplace they looked they seemed to hear people saying one thing and doing another.” The cults seemed different. They appeared to offer meaningful involvement​—a genuine commitment to the precepts of religion.

Some young people say of the cults: “They display a warmth and comradery seldom seen in mainstream churches.” Similarly, a psychiatrist said of his inside experience with the Sun Myung Moon organization: “For a year I was . . . love-bombed. . . . The individual is offered all the attention, affection, and approval that anyone could ever have craved.”

Entrenched as the world is in greed and materialism, the simple life-style advocated by the cults seems inviting. Says Those Curious New Cults: “Reacting against the hard-driving, success-oriented culture today, youth realizes that money and material possessions haven’t brought satisfaction to their parents.” Nevertheless, while the cults may seemingly solve some problems, they have created equally serious ones. For one thing, they replace individuality with group identity. The Jonestown tragedy underscores the danger of this. Still, this interest and fascination with the cults clearly establishes that young people are concerned with religion and seek to fill a

Spiritual Need

In Man, God and Magic, Dr. Ivar Lissner stated that a “fundamental difference between man and beast” is that “man is not content merely to sleep, eat and warm himself.” Man has a “strange and inherent urge” that can be termed spirituality. Hence, Great Religions of the World noted: “Anthropologists have found no culture without religion.”

The Son of God therefore declared: “Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need.” (Matthew 5:3) In joining cults, youths are merely attempting to fill a spiritual void unsated by the churches. But as Fred Graham, professor of religious studies, observed, “Practically anything can fill a religious void, and it can be healthy or demonic.”

Maybe you will agree you have such spiritual needs. But what about the feeling of some that religion is outmoded? Are there benefits to be reaped in genuinely practicing religion? The Bible states: “To be sure, it is a means of great gain, this godly devotion.” (1 Timothy 6:6) “Godly devotion” is reverent worship and service to God. Is there “gain” in this?

Benefits From Pursuing Godly Devotion

Some young people, now pursuing a religious course, say it has aided them in restraining hostile feelings and violent tempers. Nineteen-year-old Tyrone confessed: “I had a quick temper. If my younger sister said a cross word, I’d punch her. I would do the same to my classmates; I was quick to fight.” After deciding to serve Jehovah, he says, “I have learned to control myself, even if I am wronged.”

Is there benefit in this? Some think not. ‘It’s cowardly to remain calm; vent your anger!’ they say. Is this wise? No! Unchecked anger can result in your doing violence you may later regret. (Genesis 4:5, 8) Wise, indeed, is the Bible’s counsel: “Let anger alone and leave rage; do not show yourself heated up only to do evil.”​—Psalm 37:8.

Other youths say their religion has helped them resist the temptation to engage in criminal practices. Of his school days, 21-year-old Victor recalls: “On lunch break, many of my classmates would crowd into stores distracting the clerks while others stole food, candy, comic books and other items.” Why did he refrain? Was his prime concern not to get caught, or was he concerned about what his parents would think or do? “Yes,” he answers. “I thought about my parents’ reaction and the consequences, but I thought more of its effects on my friendship with God.”

Bible counsel such as this helped Victor: “Son, when sinners tempt you, don’t give in. Suppose they say, ‘. . . Come and join us, and we’ll all share what we steal.’ Son, don’t go with people like that. Stay away from them.” (Proverbs 1:10-15, Today’s English Version) Heeding such counsel will benefit you too.

Interestingly, a 1979 survey disclosed, “Persons who fit the category of ‘very religious’ . . . tend to be happier . . . and have a higher level of achievement.” More importantly, however, the apostle Paul recommended godly devotion as a way of life, saying: “Godly devotion is beneficial for all things, as it holds promise of the life now and that which is to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8) But, if you wish to reap these benefits you must practice godly devotion. Still, some may wonder, ‘Why be religious when you’re young?’

Why Youth Is the Best Time

Wise King Solomon admonished: “Young people, enjoy your youth. Be happy while you are still young. . . . But remember . . . you aren’t going to be young very long. So remember your Creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, ‘I don’t enjoy life.’”​—Ecclesiastes 11:9, 10; 12:1, Today’s English Version.

There are tens of thousands of young people like Tyrone and Victor who are ‘remembering their Creator.’ They are acutely aware that youthful energies and stamina are ephemeral, fleeting. They know that service to their God and Benefactor brings lasting benefits, however. These young people are not soured on religion, for they are in association with people who practice what they preach, people who are known globally for their display of genuine love. As Jehovah’s Witnesses they are happy because their spiritual need is satisfied. Why not investigate? Religion can be for you too.

[Blurb on page 11]

“Am I supposed to go to church, which is like a theater where everyone goes through the motions?”

[Pictures on page 12, 13]

Pious in church . . . . . . but not at home

Koi​—Flowers That Swim

IF ASKED to name a miracle of creation, would you choose the lowly carp? Probably not. Most people think of carp as ugly, greenish-brown fish that live in the mud and dirty up the water for other fish.

Yet there are also carp that are among the most beautiful and highly desired fish known to man. Raised primarily in Japan, these carp can be mixtures of red, yellow, blue, black, gold, silver or other colors. They are often found in small ponds near Japanese homes where they are admired by all, loved as pets and even exhibited in “beauty contests.”

These ornamental fish are called koi by the Japanese, who have been admiring them for hundreds of years. In a country with little arable land, a well-stocked koi pond becomes a kind of living garden, one that blooms the year around! So it is not surprising that the most valuable koi are those with bright colors on top, where they can be seen by people looking down at them. A fish that is colorful on the sides but dull on top may wind up being served for dinner!

Do not think that brilliant colors are the only thing that make koi valuable. Indeed, in koi exhibitions harmonious body proportions count for as much as color and pattern together. How much is a champion fish worth? The “prices run to unbelievable heights,” reports koi expert Herbert Axelrod. “I witnessed one sale of eleven koi which were sold for $100,000 [U.S.] . . . in cash.” A single prizewinning fish might be worth $40,000!

What goes on at a koi show? Usually a huge hall is rented and filled with shallow wading pools. Into each pool go ten fish, identical to the untrained eye, since they are all of the same size and variety. The judges, however, know exactly what they are looking for and usually select no more than one of each group of ten fish as a candidate for a prize.

Like all carp, koi are hardy fish. If well taken care of, they frequently outlive their owners, and koi have been handed down as family heirlooms for generations. Hanako, a red carp belonging to a Japanese koi expert, was said to be 215 years old in 1968! Hanako’s age was estimated from rings on her scales that correspond to growth rings in trees. Even if Hanako is not really a double-centenarian, there is little doubt that koi frequently live to be over a hundred years of age.

It is interesting to reflect on the fact that the genetic material of the carp “kind” of fish contains a dazzling potential of color and beauty. If you sometimes feel drab and unspectacular, remember that you were created with far more potential than any carp. Just as there may be a beautiful koi inside a carp, perhaps you too have something beautiful within you, waiting to be expressed.

Killer From the Sky!

“We believe that the jury is in. Scientific authorities from around the world concur that acid precipitation exists and that something must be done to curb it.” So says Robert F. Flacke, commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

“We believe the jury is still out,” retorts Carl E. Bagge, president of the National Coal Association. “The causes and effects of acid rain are unknown,” he asserts.

Two leading spokesmen, two conflicting opinions. Which side is right?

“WHEN I came up here you never saw the likes of the fishing.” As he spoke, Peter Peloquin, longtime resident and owner of a lodge alongside Canada’s Lake Chiniguchi, leaned across the table for emphasis. “In that Chiniguchi chain,” he continued, “there used to be a spectacular fishery in almost a dozen big lakes.”

But in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s curious things began happening in this lake. Young trout were wiggling on the surface​—something they never normally do—​and gulls made quick, easy meals of them. During the same period the last of the big fish was caught. Today there are no fish at all in Chiniguchi nor in hundreds of neighboring lakes.

What is causing this havoc? Acid rain​—one of the most serious ecological problems of our time.

Industry’s Bad Breath

In North America 30 percent of acid rain is caused by nitric oxides​—half of which comes from motor vehicle exhausts. The other half comes from the burning of fossil fuels, mainly coal, by electric utilities and other industries. Coal is also the source of a worse culprit, sulfur dioxide, which makes up the other 70 percent of acid rain. The annual discharge of these gases into North American skies is 60 million tons. The atmosphere is becoming a garbage dump.

Riding high on prevailing weather patterns, these oxides undergo complex and little-understood chemical changes in a medium of sunlight and water vapor. The resultant interaction produces sulfuric and nitric acids​—acid rain. These acids also come down as acid snow, hail, sleet, fog and even in a dry form.

A Spreading Blight

In 1852, when English scientist Robert Angus Smith discovered acid rain near the coal-burning industrial town of Manchester, it was merely a local phenomenon. By the 1950’s and 1960’s emissions of smoke were sparking angry protest from communities located close to coal- and oil-burning plants.

The solution of the 1970’s? Build taller stacks. For example, in Sudbury, Canada’s industrial giant International Nickel (now Inco Limited) was pumping as much as 7,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the air each day. Fumes so devastated the area that in the late 1960’s United States astronauts practiced moon walking there. Then Inco built the “superstack”​—at 1,250 feet, the world’s tallest at the time! Grass, flowers and trees began to grow again in Sudbury. However, the “superstack,” along with hundreds of other stacks heightened in Canada, the United States and other countries, proved to be an ecological blunder​—turning a local problem into an international one.

The vagrant pollution, now thrown high into the air, is invading other lands. Sweden and Norway are dumping grounds for pollutants from Europe’s industrialized heartland. Canada receives acidic air currents from the United States. In turn, Canada exports acid rain to the northeastern United States. Isolated islands like Hawaii and Bermuda have not escaped. Even China and countries in the southern hemisphere are affected.

What Is This Doing to the Environment?

In high-acid environments, lake waters grow unnaturally clear, as plankton and other types of microscopic life succumb. The reproduction of aquatic animals is hindered or stopped. Then, too, aluminum and other metals, normally found in harmless compounds, are released from the soil in toxic forms. The aluminum attacks the gills of fish, making breathing difficult. They literally suffocate.

Particularly tragic is springtime, when life stirs from its winter sleep, when fish are being hatched and frogs and salamanders lay their eggs in meltwater pools. The concentration of pollution in the melting snow often increases the acidity a hundredfold, preventing more than 80 percent of the eggs from hatching.

“The whole water system changes,” says Dr. Harold Harvey, pioneer acid-rain researcher. “The clams go first, then the snails, then the crayfish; and many of the aquatic insects like the mayfly, damselfly, stonefly and the dragonfly. Then you start dropping off things like amphibians. . . . Then out go the fish and so on.”

What has been the result? Trout and bass can no longer be sustained in 2,000 to 4,000 lakes in Ontario. Salmon are dying out in nine rivers in Nova Scotia where they once thrived. Government reports say 48,000 more lakes are threatened.

In the northeastern United States, over 200 lakes in the Adirondack Mountains are without fish. Ten percent of the largest fresh-water lakes in New England have joined the casualties. An Ohio government study predicts that “if something is not done quickly, 2,500 lakes a year to the end of the century will die in Ontario, Quebec and New England.”

But the casualty list is worse in Sweden. According to Environment Minister Anders Dahlgren, the number of dead lakes there has reached 20,000!

Damage Mounting

Acid rain is ruining the soil​—leaching out essential nutrients like calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. Deadly aluminum is attacking tree roots, choking off the water supply and destroying their defense against disease. In the Green Mountains of Vermont, 50 percent of the red spruce trees​—young and old—​have died since 1965.

Forests are also dying in England, France, Switzerland, Yugoslavia and Poland. An estimated 30 percent of the forested third of West Germany is seriously afflicted. Even if sulfur emissions remain constant, say experts, the trees lose their ability to fight off the acid. With alarm BUND (the Environment and Nature Conservation Union of Germany) reports that the extent of diseased forests in West Germany has doubled in less than a year. In Europe acid rain is called “an ecological Holocaust.”

That’s not all. Metal corrosion is increasing under this acid wash. And sulfur dioxide in the air has been turning the calcium in sandstone, limestone, concrete and plaster into crumbling calcium sulfate. In the United States the presidential Council on Environmental Quality estimates the damage to buildings and monuments at over $2,000 million annually. The columns of the Parthenon in Athens, the Colosseum in Rome, and Canada’s parliament buildings are all under attack.

As for human health, the evidence of adverse effects of acid rain is sketchy but still alarming. Acid lake water has leached out toxic lead and copper from plumbing systems into the water supply. In some areas this has caused such illness as diarrhea in babies. But more frightening have been studies suggesting that sulfur dioxide in the air causes bronchitis, emphysema and a strain on the heart and circulatory system, bringing about illnesses that may kill 50,000 Americans each year!

What Is the Solution?

Obviously, the environment must be cleaned up. But the coal industry and many Midwestern utilities say there is no conclusive evidence that stiff emission-control legislation would have any effect on acid-rain levels.

Then, on June 29, the National Research Council in the United States issued a report that, according to the magazine Science, is likely to be the definitive study on acid rain for many years. The council concluded that 90 to 95 percent of the acid rain in the American Northeast comes from man-made sources, such as industrial smoke and car exhausts. “A 50 percent reduction in the emissions of sulfur and nitrogen gases,” it is stated, “will produce about a 50 percent reduction in the acids falling on the land and water downwind of the emission source.”

The American Electric Power Company, owner of a string of Midwestern coal-burning plants, however, claims that a proposed acid-rain amendment to the Clean Air Act would increase residential rates for electricity by 50 percent and industrial rates by 80 percent.

But environmentalists disagree, citing figures of their own. According to a recent congressional cost comparison, based on a study done for Edison Electric Institute and another for the National Wildlife Federation and the National Clean Air Coalition, costs would be between $2,400 million and $4,600 million in 1990​—only a 2.4- to 4.6-percent electric rate increase.

Despite the cost, a number of countries already have taken action. Japan has been efficiently treating its emissions with scrubbers for years, with a modest 12-percent increase in electrical rates. It also has a sulfur-emissions tax to penalize polluting industries. Sweden has put stiff curbs on its oil-burning industries, even though 67 percent of its pollution comes from outside its borders. All of this has been done despite claims by some polluting industries that there is not enough evidence to act.

How many more years do we have before appropriate action is taken? Warns acid-rain expert Eville Gorham: “If we wait until the last scintilla of evidence has been gathered and the entire chain of causation is proved, a fragile part of life on our planet will have been damaged.” The price for delay could be “a permanently corroded and poisoned environment, ruined fisheries, forestry and tourism industries, and possibly damaged human health,” according to an assessment of a Canadian government report.

Because of all the rhetoric, one is not sure what to believe. Environmentalists, on the one hand, are accused of overreacting to the dangers of acid rain. But, on the other hand, says Time magazine: “The concern of environmentalists is that industrialists will continue to use delaying tactics to put off costly capital improvements necessary to reduce emissions.”

However, while humans talk and bicker, a permanent remedy is already on the way. Soon, now, the Grand Creator of this earth will act to cleanse it of all selfish polluters, so that never again will the beauties of our earthly home be despoiled by acid rain or any other industrial blight. Does this sound appealing to you? Then think seriously about the Bible’s sure promise of that incoming Kingdom government.​—Revelation 11:17, 18.

[Diagram on page 16]

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Acid rain is seriously harming many forests in northern United States and Europe

Calcium deficiency; treetops die

Manganese depleted; pine leaves turn yellow

Needles and leaves drop off

Protective wax coating of leaves removed. Leaves scarred. Breathing hindered

Growth of tree inhibited; less resistance to frost and pests

Supply of water and nutrients hindered

Bacteria prevented from decomposing dead leaves; fewer nutrients

Toxic aluminum destroys root ends; disease defenses impaired

Earthworms destroyed

Acidity leaches out essential nutrients​—calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium

[Diagram on page 17]

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Europe is a caldron of airborne sulfur emissions. Forests in central Europe are dying. Thousands of acid-sensitive lakes in Scandinavia are already dead

[Diagram on page 17]

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Prevailing winds carry sulfur emissions from the Ohio River valley to Canada. In turn, Canada sends its pollution to the northeastern United States

Is Man Winning the War Against Insects?

WAR! The very mention of the word stirs up the senses. And to think of a continuous, nonending war can be very distressing indeed. Yet, we have been told that just such a war is being fought. The issue: The very existence of either side​—for it is fought over the precious food supply both sides need for sustenance. The combatants: man versus the insects.

Some have viewed it as a war of extinction​—that it is either “them” or “us.” But that is really not the case. Without insects this would be a sorry world, indeed, for man needs bees, certain flies, butterflies, wasps, beetles, ants and moths to pollinate his plants. Some crops rely on them. There would be no apples, grapes or clover, and far less of other fruits and vegetables were it not for insects. Insects supply man with honey, wax, silk, dye and shellac. Many songbirds that delight mankind feed almost entirely on insects. A number of insects are most useful in controlling weeds. Insects also perform needed tasks as scavengers, contributing to soil aeration and fertility, while disposing of wastes. And in many places people depend on them for food. The Mosaic Law specified some insects as acceptable for human consumption, and John the Baptist derived his sustenance from them while in the wilderness. (Leviticus 11:22; Matthew 3:4) Yet from within their ranks come those who, from man’s viewpoint, war with man over his food.

Although insects may be very small, indeed, in comparison to man, they can muster impressive forces. Collectively they outnumber man by about 250 million to 1. They also outweigh man by the ratio of 12 to 1. According to one estimate, there are 800,000 different insect species on earth today. The total number of individual insects is astronomical​—far beyond our comprehension. Fortunately, it is only a small number of earth’s insect population​—less than 1 percent—​that are considered harmful to man and are warring with him over his food crops, woodlands and materials.

Their battle tactics would be the envy of any field marshal. Masters of the element of surprise, they invade suddenly and in force, as if overnight. They set up battle lines right in the midst of the food supplies that man wants to protect, forcing him into the quandary of how to destroy the one while preserving the other. Their underground and camouflage tactics, together with their size, enable them to strike undetected while inflicting heavy damage.

They breed prodigiously. A new generation of fighters, all fully trained and battle ready, can be produced in as little as a week. Infants fight as capably as adults, males and females alike join in the fray. Some divisions infiltrate and entrench themselves in man’s own home, running forays to harass and contaminate. Others are experts in germ warfare, spreading the dread diseases of malaria, yellow fever, bubonic plague and sleeping sickness, to name a few. And although poisoned by man, they can adapt and even live in such an environment. Thus the war has continued down through the ages.

At first, all man could do was wait out the attacks and hope for better times to come. Pharaoh and the ancient Egyptians simply had to endure the plagues of gnats, gadflies and locusts that God brought upon them. And what devastation they must have wrought, for an adult desert locust can easily eat vegetation equivalent to its own weight each day! One swarm covered 400 square miles and contained an estimated 40 billion locusts. It alone could consume enough food each day to feed 400,000 people for a year! And yet, breeding as profusely as they do, why have insects as yet not won the war?

The Inner War

Fortunately for man, a concurrent and unceasing war is also going on among the insects. If this were not the case, man might not have had any hope at all. One common aphid, for example, has the capability of producing 6,000 million others in its short life span. If all aphids did so, without restraints, it would not be long before these plant lice would destroy all vegetation on earth.

But nature maintains a balance. There are insect predators, parasites and diseases, not to mention other natural and climatic factors that serve to keep the insect population in check. Some plants, too, have natural defense mechanisms. Red oak trees defoliated by hungry gypsy moths fight back by chemical changes in the replacement leaves that make them indigestible. In the case of the locust plague in Pharaoh’s day, Jehovah God caused a stiff wind to drive the locusts away into the Red Sea.​—Exodus 10:12-19.

Man Works Toward Self-Defeat

It was man himself who upset the balance in nature and escalated the war. Abandoning the sound agricultural practices of crop diversity and rotation that kept pests from getting firmly entrenched and that maintained plant resistance to pests and diseases, he resorted instead to massive monocultures​—single-crop farming over a large area. In search of higher and more cosmetically attractive yields, he bred out much of the plants’ natural resistance to pests. New crops, along with new insects, were introduced in countries where they had never been grown before but without their natural enemies to control them. Insects formerly kept in check suddenly had conditions that allowed them to multiply at alarming rates. The battle was getting out of control and the insects were winning!

Man quickly went in search of new weaponry. Relief came with a battery of synthetic pesticides. These broad-spectrum chemical killers, beginning with DDT, destroyed insects at prodigious rates. Man thought he would win the war at last. Crop yields increased dramatically. Insect-borne diseases started to disappear. Victory appeared in sight and was proclaimed as imminent.

But in his war of utter extermination, man killed foe and friend alike. As one scientist put it: “When we kill a pest’s natural enemies, we inherit their work.” Suddenly, free from their natural enemies, they proliferated at alarming rates. Other insects, previously unimportant, joined their ranks as major pests. More potent chemicals were used, but again the insects regrouped and counterattacked. Some farmers were found to be spraying their crops as much as 50 times in a single growing season and still losing up to half the crop.

Not only were the chemicals failing to eradicate the insects but the insects were becoming immune to the chemicals, and some even thrived on them. So effective had their resistance to pesticides become that scientists were able to feed colonies of houseflies large doses of DDT without apparent adverse effects. Moreover, the birds, so useful in controlling insects, were being killed by eating the poisoned insects, seeds and fruits.

And these poisons rapidly moved up the food chain, poisoning fish and keeping birds from reproducing, upsetting the ecology and showing up in increasing amounts in man’s own food and water. Man’s chemical weapons were backfiring. “Superbugs,” some four hundred insect species resistant to insecticides, became the shock troops for renewed insect invasions and the increased spread of diseases to man. Insects were again winning the war.

Man’s New War Strategy

Man had to look quickly for a second line of defense. He began to learn the importance of the battle cry: “Know thine enemy.” Difficult, indeed, considering their variety, size and habits, but better intelligence was now absolutely necessary to turn the tide in the war. He had to learn the pests’ genetics, biology, ecology and behavior. He needed to dig deep to learn their feeding and reproductive habits, how their reproductive cycles meshed with crop maturity and the life cycles of their insect enemies, and how these were affected by weather and planting times. He even had to learn precisely just how much one insect ate, to determine how many could be tolerated before costly damage was done. He had to discover when they did the most damage and how to make them vulnerable. Man had to restore the balance in nature. He realized he could not kill indiscriminately, for he depended on the beneficial insects for his own survival.

Man also discovered that maintaining small populations of the crop pests may even be the most effective way to reduce crop losses, thus ensuring a food supply for their natural enemies and keeping them from dying out. He learned that insect-free agriculture was neither wise nor attainable, for man can win the battle but lose the war.

Coexistence and control, rather than extermination, became man’s new war strategy. A system called IPM (Integrated Pest Management) was devised. Early warning systems were set up to predict or detect a pest’s presence long before it could cause crop damage, giving the farmer a chance to take the offensive before the enemy appeared in invasion force. He then could use a variety of biological controls: natural predators and parasites, pest diseases, sterilized males to lower birth rates.

Involved also were the farmers’ returning to crop rotation and diversity, cultivation practices that discourage pest infiltration and reproduction, changing planting schedules, planting crops that are more insect resistant, and even using decoy crops to divert the enemy’s fire from the main crop. Pesticides, the atom bombs of man’s warfare, could then be used as a last resort​—but only when needed and in careful and limited applications. Farmers using these methods have reported good yields, while drastically reducing their costly use of fertilizers and insecticides.

How Is the War Going Now?

But the war is far from being won. Insect pests still consume 40 percent of the world’s food crops. “We’ll never actually win,” says entomologist David Pimentel, “because insects are so pervasive around the world that it’s absolutely impossible to keep them out of crops and food.” Much has yet to be done to control the tobacco budworm, African armyworm, boll weevil, Japanese beetle, whitefly, green peach aphid, gypsy moth, red fire ant, spruce budworm, cockroach, termite, housefly and mosquito​—to name just a few of the agricultural, environmental and household pests that still plague mankind.

Scientists are still experimenting with new weaponry: hormones that interfere with normal growth, pheromones (insect sex perfumes) that disrupt mating, pathogens that cause disease, antifeedants that eliminate an insect’s desire to eat. But much testing has to be done to ensure their effectiveness and harmlessness to man. Meanwhile, there is still the widespread use of chemical pesticides, as many opt for the quick kill over slower biological controls. But scientists fear that, due to buildup of insect resistance, their chemical arsenal may soon be exhausted.

The final solution lies, not with man, but in God’s intervention to establish a truce and bring all things back into perfect balance. Soon, in God’s righteous New Order, man will no longer even think of war.

[Picture on page 20]

PESTICIDES

My Search for Real Happiness

IT WAS the summer of 1970, and I was in a forest near Revelstoke, British Columbia. Suddenly I fell to my knees and began praying fervently. The woods around me were beautiful enough to inspire awe and thanksgiving, but that was not what was moving me to prayer. I was, in fact, terrified. My bladder felt like a balloon blowing up and ready to burst. I was sure I was dying. It was terror that brought me to my knees. I was in the throes of an overdose of LSD and I was begging God not to kill me. Permit me to explain how I came to this scary state.

By the mid-1960’s, changes were taking place in the California town where I lived. I was just a teenager at the time and adopted the way that seemed to promise real happiness.

Weekends found us chugging down a pint of gin to start off the evening’s activities. Soon the alcohol gave way to drugs. Much of our time in school we were on LSD, hash or marijuana. Though there were some dedicated teachers, we made it practically impossible for them to do their job.

I enjoyed participating in sports and was progressing well, even winning a second-place medal in a wrestling tournament of the Northern Bay League. Then we began using amphetamines before sports activities so as to be “wired up” with more power and endurance to play. But I soon lost all interest in sports, as did many of my friends. Drug abuse, excesses with alcohol, sexual immorality and material pursuits​—these were the things we felt would bring real happiness.

I recall one time when some friends and I had not slept for two days because of having used amphetamines and LSD. So we decided to smoke some hash and drink some wine so as to bring us down, enabling us to sleep. About then, an individual whom I did not like came to the house to buy some marijuana from us. I decided that he shouldn’t be there. I went to the closet and took out my hunting bow. I placed an arrow in the bow, drew and sent it flying. It missed his head by inches! The young man fled! But neither my roommates nor I fully appreciated what had taken place. What if I had killed him? I wasn’t really a violent person, so why should I do something like that?

Early in 1970 my cousin Larry began speaking to me about the Bible. What he had to say was interesting. I had heard something of the Bible’s message from his father, my uncle. Back in 1966 I had also attended some meetings at a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. When Larry told me that the present world system of things will soon be brought to an end, I thought he had “flipped out.” “Would I like to study the Bible with him?” I accepted out of curiosity. We studied several times and I attended some meetings at the Kingdom Hall, but I found it easier to slide along with the system. So I quit studying.

Some friends and I decided to hitchhike up the California coast road toward Mendocino. And while waiting for a ride on one part of the road, one of the fellows with whom I was traveling found an Awake! magazine in a ditch on the side of the road. Since he knew that I had studied with the Witnesses, he gave it to me. The magazine had an eye-catching title, “Is It Later Than You Think?” I looked at it for a few moments, reflecting on what my cousin had told me, and then threw it in my bag. When I arrived back home I put the magazine on my dresser, but it soon fell behind and was forgotten.

Some time later, we bought a kilo of marijuana and to celebrate we decided to bake a cake​—with marijuana as the main ingredient. That morning we ate so much of the cake that we all got sick. Later we set out to clean up the house. While sweeping, I moved my dresser and what should fall out from behind but that Awake! When I saw that title again, it gave me a real jolt! It happened to be Sunday, so I decided to go to the Kingdom Hall and attend the meeting. For some weeks thereafter I continued attending the meetings and one of the Witnesses studied with me.

However, my bad associates soon dampened my rekindled interest. Once again I stopped studying. Every time I heard about the work of Jehovah’s Witnesses or saw someone I knew was a Witness, I felt extremely uncomfortable. I just didn’t want to hear about Jehovah’s Witnesses again!

A friend and I decided to head for Canada. While buying some supplies for the trip, I met an elderly lady who was doing some shopping. She asked me if I knew where a certain product could be found. Usually, older people did not feel drawn to talk to me due to my appearance. Yet she was talking with me and was very kind at that. But when she told me that the products she was buying were for a Kingdom Hall​—that ended the conversation. Those words made me feel condemned!

Soon we were on the road to Canada. We passed by a town where we had some acquaintances and stopped off for a few days. During a get-together there, I was speaking with a girl when she suddenly started talking about her sister in another town and saying that she was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses! Some days later we picked up two girls who were hitchhiking. As we traveled along, one of them suddenly began speaking about some Jehovah’s Witnesses that had just passed by in a bus! ‘Why is everyone talking about Jehovah’s Witnesses?’ I asked myself in frustration.

Finally, we pitched camp near Revelstoke, British Columbia, and we decided to “drop some acid,” that is, take some LSD. It wasn’t long before I realized that something was seriously wrong. I had taken an overdose and began thinking that my bladder had blown up and that I was dying of urinary poisoning. I convinced myself that God had caused it because I had stopped studying the Bible.

It was at that point that I got down on my knees and asked God not to kill me, and that if he let me live I would serve him. I wandered around like this for some time before I came to my senses and realized that I really wasn’t dying. Nevertheless, the next day I headed back for California, determined to resume my Bible study with the Witnesses. It was a real surprise to my family when I walked into my father’s place of business shorn, shaved and in a suit, declaring that I was going to become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses! I had resolved to give up my former life-style by September 1, 1970.

The first few weeks were very difficult. At one point, I got so depressed that I actually started thinking about going back to my old habits and surroundings. In fact, one afternoon I was right at the point of giving in, when I pulled into a gas station to fill up the tank. I couldn’t help but notice that one of the attendants at the station was particularly cheerful, whistling and smiling as he filled up the cars. “He’s really got it together,” I thought to myself. When he came to my car, he noticed one of the Bible study aids on the seat and asked me about it. I told him that my cousin was a Witness and that I was reading the literature. In through the window came his arm to shake my hand as he introduced himself as a Witness from a local congregation.

That one conversation was just what I needed! I contacted my cousin and told him that I wanted to study again. In a real act of Christian kindness he and his family invited me to live with them while I studied. Finally, on November 21, 1970, I was baptized in symbol of my dedication to serve Jehovah God. One year later, in November, I began serving as a regular pioneer (full-time evangelizer). In May of 1972 I accepted an invitation to serve at the Watchtower Society’s headquarters. For some four years I enjoyed the privilege of working at the Society’s farm in upstate New York.

Then I heard that there was a great need for Kingdom proclaimers in other countries. So I applied to attend the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, a school designed to train missionaries to be sent to foreign countries. I attended this school, graduating April 10, 1977. On April 21, I set foot in Honduras, ready to help others to find the way that brings real happiness. Currently I have the privilege of serving as a traveling overseer, visiting a number of congregations, endeavoring to be of service to those who are interested in the Bible and Jehovah’s promises regarding the future.

In looking back over my life, I can truly say that it is serving Jehovah God, not a pleasure-seeking way of life, that has brought me happiness, real happiness. It is just as the prophet Isaiah recorded: “I, Jehovah, am your God, the One teaching you to benefit yourself, the One causing you to tread in the way in which you should walk.” (Isaiah 48:17)​—As told by R. Wagner.

[Blurb on page 25]

Drug abuse, excesses with alcohol, sexual immorality, material pursuits​—these were the things we felt would bring real happiness

[Blurb on page 25]

I went to the closet and took out my hunting bow, placed an arrow in the bow, drew and sent it flying. It missed his head by inches!

[Blurb on page 26]

I was in the throes of an overdose of LSD and I was begging God not to kill me

[Blurb on page 26]

“Would I like to study the Bible with him?” I accepted out of curiosity

Higher Earnings Mean Divorce?

Chances for divorce increase for high-salaried working women, the U.S. Census Bureau indicates. The divorce rate is four times higher for the woman making more than $50,000 a year than it is for the average American woman. Those who earn $25,000 a year are said to be getting divorces at twice the rate of others.

Poisoned “Candy”

The magazine Coal Age recently commented on the widespread use of chewing tobacco and snuff by miners because smoking is prohibited in underground mines. But the article pointed out that “the chewer or dipper’s temporary euphoria may in the end give way to cancer of the mouth or throat.” “Touted as cowboy candy,” the article says, “chewing tobacco and snuff are now advertised on TV from coast-to-coast, especially during sports events. . . . Some chewing tobacco, especially the licorice variety, is highly sweetened. ‘One of the scariest cases I’ve seen yet is of a coal miner’s daughter who ate her dad’s tobacco instead of candy,’ said Dr. Chase. ‘She’s about five or six now and has been chewing since she was two. By 30, she’ll have cancer of the gum and mouth.’” A tobacco-company executive is quoted as admitting: “Once a kid’s hooked on cowboy candy he doesn’t leave.” Concludes Coal Age: “What kids​—and grown-ups—​must remember is that this candy is poison.”

From Our Readers

The Vanishing Wild Kingdom

For a long time I have felt bad that only a little has been published about the terrible modern attitude and ignorance about nature and the animals. Your article “Is the Wild Kingdom Vanishing?” (May 22, 1983) was so timely and so necessary. Thank you for speaking out the truth about the “hunter’s role” so boldly.

G. H., Germany

Thank you for the informative, realistic and well-rounded report on the use and abuse of animals. It is good to know that you are willing to speak out for those who are unable to speak for themselves. I especially appreciated the reminder that soon Jehovah will bring a halt to all of this and teach man to exercise his stewardship over the earth in a knowledgeable and proper way.

K. G., Australia

Thank you for the article on “The Wild Kingdom.” We especially enjoyed your insight into the Nimrod syndrome and the overstepping of man’s stewardship. While the cheetah vanished years ago in India because of the “shikari” (game hunters), today a by-product of overpopulation and poverty seems to be the misuse and extreme inhumane treatment of domestic animals and beasts of burden. We simply wonder if any animals will continue to exist in India. Rare is the child who has seen a butterfly in Bombay.

I. B., India

Population Explosion

I was shocked at your one-sided presentation of the subject of the Population Explosion. (August 8, 1983) Your treatment was by no means neutral. You presented arguments only from those who believe there are too many people on the earth and none from those who believe that the earth can support many, many more people. I get the impression that you support those who want to control population growth by restricting childbirth and seeing to it that old and sick people do not live so long.

B. W., New Jersey

We did not intend to give that impression. The first two articles on the subject endeavored to present the problem as many world leaders view it and to show that men are baffled by such global problems as famine, extreme poverty, pollution, war threats, and so forth, which they feel are exacerbated by the increasing world population. These are not our views. In quoting from “Great Decisions 1973” we were showing that even the editors of that publication acknowledge the need for a world government to solve the problem. The third article presented clearly our view that God’s Kingdom by Christ Jesus is the one world government able to solve this problem. It will remove selfish governments that exploit the earth. Then, the Kingdom will teach men how to manage earth’s resources for the benefit of a population that we believe will grow to many through childbearing and the resurrection of the dead​—many times the number of the 4.7 billion presently living on the earth.​—ED.

Watching the World

World’s Water Woes

● “Around the world the thirst for water is growing so great that the search for it is turning into a scramble,” reports the Detroit Free Press. For example, the capacity of the Colorado River in the United States is so taxed that a court order is in force for Southern California cities to find alternate sources by 1985. In the Soviet Union, irrigation drain has shrunk the Central Asian Aral Sea, which was the world’s fourth largest lake, so much (from 25,000 sq mi to 20,000) that serious ecological and climatic changes are taking place. Africa, the Middle East, India and China are all faced with severe water-shortage problems. “World water withdrawals could double by the end of the century from their mid-1970s level,” says the report, and “the world’s water worries can only grow worse.”

Record Population Increase

● According to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau in September, the world’s population reached 4,721,887,000 in mid-June, increasing by 82,077,000 in the past year. The increase was a record, according to an official of the Bureau, equivalent to adding all the people of Mexico and Somalia to the world, says The New York Times. The annual population increase had been declining in the early 1970’s due to the lowering birth rate. But since then the world birth rate has leveled at 1.8 percent. Because of this, the annual population increase is rising again. “And [the increase] will get larger each year unless the growth rate starts down again,” said the official.

Doctors on Boxing

● A resolution adopted by the 351-member House of Delegates of the American Medical Association suggests “the elimination of boxing from amateur scholastic, intercollegiate and governmental athletic programs.” It also urges that professional boxing be curtailed as “a public spectacle.” The resolution says that “numerous studies have established the frequency of progressive and permanent neurological deficits and death as a consequence of participation in boxing.” A related opinion adopted by the delegates says that “the professional responsibility” of ringside physicians “is to protect the health and safety of the contestants” and not to cater to “the desire of the spectators, promoters of the event or even the injured athlete.”

Lessons for Teachers

● “The majority of teachers talk three times as much during the average school day as all of their pupils combined.” That was the finding of an eight-year study involving 27,000 students, parents and teachers, conducted by John Goodlad, dean of education at the University of California at Los Angeles, and reported in the Rocky Mountain News. Unless teachers take a more imaginative approach, he added, no amount of reforms will improve American education. He suggested that teachers should use methods that emphasize greater student involvement and participation.

Cost of Justice

● As everywhere else, the cost of justice in Britain is so high these days that “only a tiny proportion of people are rich enough to finance substantial litigation out of their own pockets,” says a report in The Economist. A simple, one-day suit in the high court would cost each side at least £1,500 ($2,250, U.S.). If the case is complicated and drawn out, it could cost tens of thousands of pounds more. Last year the total cost of running the legal system in England and Wales was said to be nearly £500 million and about £220 million will be spent this year on legal aid alone.

Defining the Meter

● How long is a meter? This international standard of measurement was defined in 1790 as one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator. With the advancement of science, a more precise definition was needed. Currently, a meter is designated as 1,650,763.73 times the wavelength of orange-red light emitted from a krypton-86 lamp. Now scientists have come up with a new way of defining the meter​—the distance that light will travel in  ^{1/299,792,458} of a second. According to physicist Karl Kessler of the National Bureau of Standards, the new definition, based on the speed of light, is ten times more accurate and will make it easier to measure interstellar distances accurately.

Reviving Ancient Hebrew

● As a source of the Hebrew language, “the Bible has only 7,238 words,” says Yigal Yannai, science secretary of the Academy of the Hebrew Language in Jerusalem. Although the Talmud, Midrash and medieval Hebrew literature provide another 13,000 words or so, “all these together aren’t enough for a modern language.” In comparison, he says, English has 500,000 words and French has 200,000. The Academy’s job is to find old forgotten words, or coin new ones that would describe things such as helicopters or surfboards. Such words are said to be produced on an unprecedented scale in Israel. “Today, Hebrew has 71,000 words,” adds Yannai, “but it’s growing fast.”

Bishop’s House

● An Episcopal diocese in Maryland, U.S.A., purchased a house. Its new bishop moved in. The parishioners broke out in protest, and a legal battle followed. What was the problem? The house turned out to be “a $295,000 waterfront home, complete with boat, car and wet bar,” reports The New York Times. The local parish priest fought the case because, he said, the parishioners are mostly farmers, already hard hit by recent drought. However the bishop replied that the purchase was legal and that other bishops before him had lived in waterfront homes. It is not necessary to live in poverty “to deal with the problem of poverty,” he added.

Sweet Slumber

● Crying babies and sleepless nights are part of every new parent’s trials. But relief may be on the way in what a hospital in Sheffield, England, is using​—a special tape recording of the swishing sounds of a mother’s womb. “During a six-week experiment with 27 babies,” reports The Times of London, “the tape is more effective than patting, rocking, stroking or talking.” The senior nursing officer of the hospital said that, except when the baby is hungry, “the majority of babies go off to sleep within five minutes, but it ranges from one minute to 15.” “Even the mothers find the tape soothes them,” she added.

From Malpractice to Nonpractice

● “In Florida 25 per cent and in California 27.3 per cent of obstetricians have given up normal obstetrics,” reports Canada’s The Medical Post. Why? Malpractice lawsuits against their specialty “are twice the national average at 14 per 100 compared to 6.2 per 100 for other physicians,” says the report. This has drastically inflated their liability insurance premiums. Annual rates reportedly range from $3,297 in New Hampshire to $51,704 in New York. It appears that some doctors took the advice to transfer their assets to their wife’s name. “Not very successful advice,” quipped The Medical Post, “when some of the wives unexpectedly left home!”

Wine-Making Rules

● “A long list of wine-making do’s-and-don’ts” was accepted by the United States and members of the European Economic Community after seven years of negotiations, according to an Associated Press news dispatch from Washington. It was agreed that Europeans will “stop sending wines laced with dried blood powder to the United States, while Americans will stop using hydrogen peroxide to put bubbles in some of the champagnes they export to Europe.” But “powdered milk and charred oak chips” can still be used “to clarify or stabilize” the wines, according to the news dispatch, although producers say “most chemicals are removed before the wine is shipped to retailers.”

Vanishing Elms

● Dutch elm disease is declared “out of control” in large parts of northern England, Wales and southern Scotland, reports Britain’s The Guardian. The disease “has killed 20 million trees in Britain in the past six years​—two-thirds of the total elm population.” Annual fungicide inoculation is not done extensively because it costs £100 ($150, U.S.) per tree. “The tragedy about the disease,” says a Forestry Commission spokesman, “is that it no longer exists in many parts of southern England because all the trees that were there have either been felled or been killed.”

Power of Prison

● A study involving 600 juvenile delinquents in West Germany found that “the ratio of relapses was largest among those who went to prison and smallest among those who got off with a warning,” reports The German Tribune. Why? Prison wardens interviewed pointed to “the damaging influence arising from contact with older, hardened criminals.” And Warnfried Dettling of the Family Affairs Ministry in Bonn said: “It is in prison that many a career in crime begins in earnest.” Each year about a hundred 14- to 15-year-old delinquents are sent to prison in West Germany, according to the report. “Most return to crime after their release,” it says.

Stereos Outblast Sirens

● Accidents of cars colliding with emergency vehicles are increasing in Tokyo, reports the Asahi Evening News. One survey shows that there were 86 such cases resulting in damage compensations in fiscal 1982. In most cases the drivers failed to hear the sirens “because they were listening to their car stereos at a loud volume with the windows closed,” according to the newspaper. And the problem is compounded by the increasing use of car air conditioners, but also to blame are drivers who have “become used to sirens and do not pay attention to them.”

Beer Guzzling

● According to a survey by Japan’s Kirin Brewery, last year West Germans topped the global beer-drinking list by consuming 38.2 gallons per person. Next were the Czechs, with 36.4 gallons. Then came the East Germans, 35.7 gallons; Australians, 34.8 gallons; and Danes, 34 gallons. The United States, though producing more beer than any other country (5.3 billion gallons, or a quarter of the world’s production), only placed 12th, downing 24.3 gallons per person. Worldwide, the survey shows, beer production increased 1.6 percent from last year.

Election Trivia

● In Britain’s last national election, “a total of 78 different parties​—some of them just one-person strong”—​contested, reports the Daily News of New York. Among the ‘also rans’ were such groups as “Freddy’s Alternative Medicine Party, the Belgrano Blood and Hunger Party, the Fancy Dress Party, the Traditional English Food Party, the Assassin’s Bullet Party, the Justice for Divorced Fathers Party and the Nobody Party.” The Loony Society, the Loony Monster Party and the Loony Monster Green Chicken Alliance all ran their candidates, says the report.

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