March 22

Page Two

“What man of you with a hundred sheep, on losing one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine behind in the wilderness and go for the lost one until he finds it? And when he has found it he puts it upon his shoulders and rejoices.”​—Luke 15:4, 5.

[Pictures on page 2]

The stray is found . . .

. . . and returned to the fold

Loving Shepherds, Trusting Sheep

IN Bible times the close attachment between the shepherd and his sheep was proverbial. Often the shepherd was either the owner of the sheep or a member of the owner’s family. In the morning he would go to the fold and call out his flock from among the several flocks penned there. He knew his sheep; they knew his voice. He did not drive them​—he led them and they followed. To green pastures and fresh waters he guided them. In bad weather at nightfall, he either returned them to the fold or sheltered them in a cave. In mild weather, he spent the nights with them out under the stars​—just as in the autumn of the year 2 B.C.E. when shepherds were “living out of doors and keeping watches in the night over their flocks.”​—Luke 2:8.

If one sheep strayed, the shepherd searched until he found it. (Luke 15:4) The 99 did not satisfy him until the lost one had been restored.

The relationship of the Eastern shepherd to his flock was deeply emotional, as one of them testified: “The loss of a sheep brought sorrow to my soul. When one of them became sick or was sold, I wept because I was losing a friend whom I cared for and who cared for me. Beneath the clear and burning skies of the Bible Lands, there grows up, as it did with me, between the shepherd and his flock a union of attachment and tenderness. Alone in their solitude, with no human being near, in hours of peace or peril, the shepherd and sheep feel a life in common.”

The faithful shepherd was a fearless protector. He fought off robbers that came to steal. He routed wild animals that came for prey. And as the shepherd lad David, he was accurate to a hairbreadth with the slingstones. (1 Samuel 17:34-36, 49; see also Judges 20:16.) If a sheep was eaten, the shepherd sought to retrieve pieces of bone or skin to make an accounting for the lost animal. Especially was this so if the shepherd was a hireling​—without such proof he might be suspected of stealing it.​—Exodus 22:12-15; compare Amos 3:12.

The sheep trusted their shepherds. Many were given descriptive names​—split ear, fat tail, black face, pure white. When the shepherd called their name, they responded. One researcher sought to verify this when he passed a flock of sheep. He relates the following: “I then bade him [the shepherd] call one of his sheep. He did so, and it instantly left its pasturage and its companions, and ran up to the hands of the shepherd, with signs of pleasure, and with a prompt obedience which I had never before observed in any other animal. It is also true that in this country, ‘a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him.’”

Jesus confirmed much of the foregoing when he identified himself as the Fine Shepherd of his sheeplike followers: “The sheep listen to his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out [of the fold]. When he has got all his own out, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. A stranger they will by no means follow but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers. I am the fine shepherd, and I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I surrender my soul [my life] in behalf of the sheep.”​—John 10:3-5, 14, 15.

Not only Christ Jesus but also Jehovah God is referred to as a shepherd. “Jehovah is my Shepherd,” says the psalmist. As such He as well as Jesus shows loving concern for “the sheep of his pasturage.” Of him it is written: “Like a shepherd he will shepherd his own drove. With his arm he will collect together the lambs; and in his bosom he will carry them. Those giving suck he will conduct with care.”​—Psalm 23:1; 100:3; Isaiah 40:11.

But to the false shepherds who ill-treat his flock, Jehovah says: “I will deliver my sheep out of their mouth, and they will not become food for them.”​—Ezekiel 34:10.

In view of the conduct and teaching of today’s religious shepherds, how do they measure up in Jehovah’s eyes? The following article considers this.

Do Today’s Religions Feed or Fleece the Flock?

“Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have become feeders of themselves! Is it not the flock that the shepherds ought to feed?”​—Ezekiel 34:2.

AS IT was in the days of ancient Israel, so it often is today: Many of the religious shepherds feed themselves and starve their flocks. Last year the television evangelists were on center stage, zealously fleecing the sheep.

The star players were Jim and Tammy Bakker of the PTL, but they had a strong supporting cast. Incidentally, PTL stands for “Praise the Lord” and for “People That Love,” but by year’s end many news reporters were saying that “Pass the Loot” and “Pay the Lady” were more appropriate. One columnist referred to their ministry as “money-changing in the temple” and labeled it: “The deceit of preaching the gospel while fleecing the poor.”

The Bakkers once presided over Heritage USA, a 2,300-acre [930 ha] retreat in Fort Mill, South Carolina, with an assessed value of $178 million. The PTL empire brings in $129 million a year. Since 1984 news reports have said that the Bakkers received salaries and bonuses totaling $4.8 million​—in 1986 Jim Bakker’s salary was alleged to be $1.6 million, Tammy’s $300,000. They lived in a South Carolina $1.3-million lakefront home, with gold-plated bathroom fixtures​—and an air-conditioned and heated doghouse out back. Bakker often said: “God wants his people to go first class.” At least he and Tammy and their dogs did​—while it lasted.

But it all came tumbling down when Bakker acknowledged his adultery with a church secretary. In spite of $265,000 of PTL funds being set aside as hush money​—this little escapade is the basis of the “Pay the Lady” rendering of PTL. (The lady involved, however, never received this amount.) The charismatic Pentecostal PTL was turned over to fundamentalist Jerry Falwell.

Falwell started off all love and forgiveness, but before long the gloves were off and the mud was flying. He denounced Bakker’s PTL as “the greatest scab and cancer on Christianity in the past 2,000 years of church history.” With a fine display of righteous indignation, Falwell thundered: “I see the greed. I see the self-centeredness. I see the avarice that brought them down.” So when Falwell took over the PTL, he made this resolve, as reported by Newsweek: “Falwell said one thing he wouldn’t do was ‘beg for money on the air.’ Last week Falwell went on the air and begged.”

The New York Daily News, under the headline “Falwell to Followers: Pass the Loot,” proceeded to say: “Jerry Falwell yesterday once more flung wide his money net, pressuring his electronic flock to come up with more cash.” He said to his mostly poor congregation: “We need the most sacrificial gift you can send. . . . If you don’t want this ministry to continue, just ignore me.” They didn’t. The fund-raising drive netted $20,000,000. Then​—having promised to do so if the drive was successful—​he put on a natty blue suit, stood at the top of Heritage USA’s 163-foot-long [50 m] water slide, recited the Lord’s Prayer, and plunged down. Falwell later withdrew from the PTL.

Newsweek reported: “Michael Korpi, a former photographer of Falwell’s ‘Old Time Gospel Hour,’ charges that the ministry [Falwell’s] raised more than $4 million through a 1979 appeal for Cambodian refugees but sent a mere $100,000 to aid the victims.”

Televangelist Oral Roberts rivaled Falwell’s water-slide act with a pretty dramatic act of his own. Early last year he told his followers that he was warned by God that if he did not raise $8,000,000 by March 31, he would be “called home.” In his closing prayer he said: “Extend my life. Let me live beyond March.” His son pleaded: “Let’s not let this be my dad’s last birthday!” This emotional blackmail by Roberts and son worked. Roberts stayed in his prayer tower​—supposedly it put him 200 feet [60 m] closer to God—​and his television audience came up with the $8,000,000. One of his followers, however, was philosophical about it: “If he did die, that would not be bad. Heaven is a good place to be.”

One time he regaled his TV audience with a harrowing tale that ended happily. The Devil came into his bedroom and grappled with him. As Roberts reported it: “I felt those hands on my throat, and he was choking the life out of me. I yelled to my wife, ‘Honey, come!’ She came in and commanded the devil to get out. I began to breathe and came out of my bed strong.” Apparently, his wife had more power over the Devil than he did.

In 1980 when funds were lagging, he told of seeing a 900-foot [270 m] Jesus standing in His bare feet talking to him. This vision led to $5,000,000 in donations. He claims to have raised dead people. On one occasion, he reported: “I’ve had to stop a sermon, go back and raise a dead person.” All of which caused Newsweek to comment: “Oral Roberts says he has raised the dead, but raising cash is what he’s up to.”

Pentecostal preacher Jimmy Swaggart is said to be TV’s most popular evangelist, reaching eight million viewers each Sunday. A leading gospel-music singer, he has earned $100 million from his recordings. About the Bakker upheaval, Swaggart said: “I felt that entire debacle was a cancer that needed to be excised from the body of Christ.” On a later occasion Swaggart added: “People are going to say, ‘Hey, they’ve been ripping off the public.’ And to be honest with you, that’s exactly what was being done.”

But from news reports it seems Swaggart himself was not far behind. Newsweek reported that George Jernigan, a former executive of Swaggart’s, claimed that Swaggart “raised $20 million for a children’s fund but spent less than 10 percent of it on the program. Says Jernigan: ‘the rest was spent in Baton Rouge’ where, WBRZ-TV reports, the Swaggart compound includes Jimmy’s $1 million home, his son’s $776,000 spread and his grandchild’s air-conditioned tree house.”

On one of ABC’s Nightline series of programs on the televangelists, ABC correspondent Marshall Frady said: “At the least, as a number have begun to notice, all the trappings of modern television evangelism seem a long way from the original simplicity of that intense young Galilean mystic without property, without any boards of directors, who just trudged about a dusty corner of the earth talking, two thousand years ago.”

It is true that “all the trappings of modern television evangelism” are a long way from the methods of Jesus. But it is also true that times have changed. To preach worldwide to millions involves the use of modern facilities and efficient organization, and it takes large sums of money. Even so, the basics of Jesus’ way of life remain the model for Christians. The values and principles that he laid down are still the only pathway for Christians today.​—1 Peter 2:21.

Some of those principles follow: ‘You received truth free, give free. Don’t be anxious about material things. Seek first the Kingdom. More happiness in giving than in receiving. Teach in the homes of the people. God’s Word is truth. Love God, love your neighbor. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Feed my sheep.’ True Christianity has not changed; only the facilities for spreading it have.

It is not the huge amounts of money involved that are objectionable. It takes millions to preach worldwide. Money is not evil. It is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evils. It is the ways of getting the money​—the pleas, the gimmicks, the begging, the deceit, the lies—​that are evil. It is the fraudulent extraction of it from the poor by con games that’s evil. And collected for one purpose, then used for another, for personal enrichment​—that’s embezzlement. The Pharisees were money lovers. Judas sold out Christ for money. Many religious shepherds today walk in their footsteps rather than in those of Jesus.

They feed themselves, not the flock. And it’s not just the Pentecostals. The fundamentalists teach Trinity, hellfire, earth burned up​—all pagan doctrines of ancient Babylon and Egypt. The modernists deny the Bible​—not inspired, not infallible, its books not written by the ones claimed or at the time claimed, and support not creation but evolution. Then there are the preachers peddling pop psychology, the goody-goody palaverers that dole out the smooth things to tickle ears unreceptive to unvarnished Bible truth. Not the wheat but the chaff is what they feed their flocks.​—Isaiah 30:10; 2 Timothy 4:3, 4.

Truly, it is today as it was in Jesus’ day: “On seeing the crowds he felt pity for them, because they were skinned and thrown about like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) And upon seeing them, “he started to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34) Jesus does have followers in the earth today who walk in his footsteps, preach the way he did, and teach the Bible truths that offset spiritual famine.​—Amos 8:11.

Those followers are Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their worldwide preaching work needs large sums of money, but it comes from voluntary, unsolicited contributions. Literature is printed and distributed at a minimal cost. Weekly Bible studies are conducted in homes free of charge. Congregation meetings are free, no collections taken, no pleas for money made, no salaries paid. Many Witnesses work secularly for their livelihood and contribute time and money to accomplish the preaching of the good news of the Kingdom.​—Matthew 24:14; Acts 1:8.

They do as Jesus instructed: “You received free, give free.” They do as Peter instructed: “Shepherd the flock of God in your care, not under compulsion, but willingly; neither for love of dishonest gain, but eagerly; neither as lording it over those who are God’s inheritance, but becoming examples to the flock.”​—Matthew 10:8; 1 Peter 5:2, 3.

[Blurb on page 6]

“Oral Roberts says he has raised the dead, but raising cash is what he’s up to”

[Blurb on page 6]

“The deceit of preaching the gospel while fleecing the poor”

[Blurb on page 8]

“You received free, give free”

I Escaped Religious Deception

I REMEMBER the first “miracle” I saw. I was six and a half years old. My mother and I were at this Pentecostal meeting held in a house. The preacher was singing, and he got the spirit, the way Pentecostals do when they sing. It was winter, and there was a big round stove in the middle of the room. I saw him reach into the stove, still singing and giving little shouts, and he took out this big chunk of coal that had burned down to a red-hot cinder. He held it up with both hands, carrying it around the room and giving those little triumphant shouts and singing too. All this time the others were singing and shouting and dancing around him. After the meeting, everybody kept looking at his hands to see if they were burned. There wasn’t a mark on them!

And this was only one of the signs of this Pentecostal church in Kentucky that my mother went to. They believed in the 16th chapter of Mark, beginning with the 17th verse Mr 16:17, where it talked about speaking in tongues, healing the sick, taking up serpents, and drinking poison. (These verses Mr 16:17-20 are spurious, that is, they are not in the oldest manuscripts of the Bible.) Not all Pentecostal churches believe in these things. But when you see them happen, it makes you feel like, well, God has to be in a church that can perform these signs and people not be hurt.

We then moved to Indiana. I was baptized when I was 12, in 1953. I learned to play the guitar and accompany groups singing at the meetings. I felt that it was part of my serving God​—it is by this singing that Pentecostals get the spirit. When I got the spirit and spoke in tongues, I didn’t know what I was saying, but it was a good feeling.

I never handled snakes myself, but I remember one weekend I visited the church in Kentucky where I used to attend. A visiting preacher got the spirit and pulled a big rattlesnake out of the snake box he had brought with him. He twirled it around his hand and was crying out. I was on the stage behind him with the singers, and I remember seeing blood start oozing out from between his fingers. Then the preacher that I had seen handling fire years earlier got the spirit, and he came up and took the snake out of the other preacher’s hand and put it back in the box. But the man who got bit never got sick. I do remember, however, three people I knew that were bitten by snakes and died. My father-in-law was one of them.

When I was 19, I married a young man who was supposed to have been saved. But he was not a strong Pentecostal. I saw him handle snakes once, yet he didn’t have a spirit that corresponded with mine. He would do good as a Pentecostal for a while, then he’d quit, start smoking, do other things we didn’t believe in. This matter of spirits, however, was one thing that troubled me. When Pentecostals got the spirit, the spirits were not always the same. Some were stronger, some were not compatible, and some even clashed with others.

I never could understand this. It caused me to wonder why there were so many different spirits. I remember praying all through the time that I was a Pentecostal: “This is the only religion that I know of, God, that can be right. But if I’m not serving you in a way that’s pleasing you, God, I want to know it. If this isn’t the right religion, please show me the one that is.” I prayed that prayer many times.

It was during this first marriage that I saw the Watchtower and Awake! magazines. We had moved to Cincinnati in 1962, and Jehovah’s Witnesses came to our door. My husband liked to talk with them, but I never would. I stayed in the kitchen when they came. My husband subscribed to the magazines, yet never read them. But I did. I knew I shouldn’t, felt guilty when I did, but couldn’t stand anything around without reading it. I would even throw the magazines in the garbage and later go and get them out and read them!

I learned from The Watchtower and Awake! about the earth continuing on forever​—an earthly paradise filled with righteous people. It was the biggest thing I’d ever heard. It hit me hard because we Pentecostals didn’t believe that about the earth. I remember reading about this Paradise earth that was to abide forever, and I’d think, ‘This is not right!’ But I loved to read it. A war was going on within me. I prayed about it. Finally, I asked my husband to stop taking the magazines, and he did.

My husband became involved with other women, and after seven years of marriage, we were divorced. My two sons and I went to live with Olene, a longtime friend who had married my uncle. She was an excellent singer, and we went to Pentecostal meetings together and sang in different churches. Olene was also the daughter of the preacher who had handled the fire.

Twice I was “healed.” First was when I had had a miscarriage and was hemorrhaging. In spite of this, I went to the Pentecostal meeting. I was so weak I was afraid I was going to have to leave. Then I heard Olene and her father start to sing. They got the spirit. They got ahold of each other’s shoulders. They came and laid their hands on me. I immediately became unconscious. When I came to, I felt fine! No more hemorrhaging!

The second time was when I had a gum disease. I’d worn false teeth since I was 15. Now, years later, my mouth started swelling under my upper plate. I went about three months without my teeth and was on liquid food. I became desperate and went to a medical doctor. He looked at my mouth. “You don’t need me; you need an oral surgeon.” He named the disease, papillomatosis, and recommended a dentist.

I never went. Olene and I were on our way to the church in Kentucky. Later that night I was singing, getting very deep into the spirit. Olene laid her hands on me, I blacked out, and I sank to the floor. After I came to, I spit out pieces of what seemed like dry, chewed-up meat. By the time I got home, I could put my false teeth in. I’ve never had any trouble since.

Olene did a lot of Bible reading. Shortly after I moved in with her, she called me into the room where she was reading. She had a question. She read Ecclesiastes 1:4: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.” (King James Version) Then she said: “I want you to explain this scripture to me. We don’t believe this. So what’s it talking about?” I got real upset.

“I want to know,” she demanded, “why you are so upset about this scripture. It’s in the Bible, and we need to know what it means!” So I explained: “I read about that in The Watchtower and Awake!, and I didn’t want to let you know that I’d read those magazines put out by Jehovah’s Witnesses.” She immediately wanted to hunt down the Witnesses.

“Don’t bother,” I said. “If we live here very long, they’ll be at our door. They always find you.” Two weeks later when I came in from work, she was at the door waiting for me, all smiles. “Guess who was here today?” I had no idea. “Jehovah’s Witnesses! I set up a Bible study for both of us!” I was dumbfounded. I didn’t want to study with them. I was afraid of them.

But we did study. They invited us to the meetings. Olene didn’t like going, but I did. My youngest son was about three at this time, and we went to the Kingdom Hall. By the time we finished the Truth book in the home Bible study, both Olene and I realized that the Pentecostal church was wrong. Nevertheless, Olene quit the study, so I also stopped.

That was in 1972. In 1974 I got a call from Olene​—we were no longer living together by then. She asked me if I would marry her father​—the man I had seen handle fire when I was six and a half years old. Well, my marriage to my first husband had ended over seven years previously, so I married Olene’s father in January 1975.

He lived in Kentucky, near the same Pentecostal church that I went to as a child. When I married him, I told him that I would never go back to the Pentecostals, that if I ever got involved with any religion again, it would be with Jehovah’s Witnesses. He agreed to this. But we had been married only a few months when he wanted me to go to his Pentecostal meeting. I went once. I couldn’t sit through it. The demons’ presence was overwhelming!

By this time I had learned that Satan, his demons, and his ministers here on earth could perform signs and wonders and that the Christian’s warfare was against such demonic forces in heavenly places. (Exodus 7:11, 22; 8:7, 18, 19; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; Ephesians 6:11, 12) Also, I had learned that the miraculous gifts of the early Christian church were for the establishing of it in its infancy and that later, with the passing of the apostles, such gifts would pass away. Concerning the gift of speaking in tongues, for example, it is written: “Whether there are tongues, they will cease.” Love, faith, and hope are now the mainstays of the mature Christian church.​—1 Corinthians 13:8-13.

What my husband was trying to do was to get me to go to the Pentecostals again and sing with him and play the guitar. Instead, I started going back to the Kingdom Hall. When he would come in from a weekend of preaching at Pentecostal churches, he’d flash a billfold full of money received from the collections the Pentecostals had taken up for him. He would laugh because people would give him all this money, and he hadn’t done a thing to deserve it.

Ultimately, my younger son went to the meetings with me and became an active Witness. My husband would be very upset if I got home late from the meetings. One night I got home about ten o’clock, and my husband locked me out of the house. My son and I had to spend the night in the car. This happened several times. He carried a gun in his car, and when he found me reading or studying, he’d get his gun and shoot underneath my chair four or five times. If I carried soft drink bottles out on the patio, he would shoot the bottles out of the carton. He wasn’t trying to kill me; he was trying to make me mad. But I prayed to Jehovah and stayed calm, and that made him mad.

One day I was getting ready to go to the meeting, and he asked: “Are you really going to become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses? Are you really going to be traipsing around from door to door preaching?” And I said, “Yes, I’m going to do that.” “Well,” he said, “I’ll give you two weeks to get out of the house.” So my son and I moved out. We moved into a little house that hadn’t been lived in for years. No running water, very little furniture, and no money.

But it was so nice to have the freedom to go to a meeting and not worry about being locked out of the house or shot at and to be able to serve Jehovah by preaching from door to door. (Acts 20:20) When I met Pentecostals at the door, I often felt the presence of the demons. Then I’d say: “Jehovah, I know that you’re stronger than the demons. I know you have the power to help me, and I need your help. I need your holy spirit to cope with this.” And he would always help.

I was baptized in September 1976. My son was baptized in July 1977. My sister is a dedicated Witness. My mother studied and began preaching from door to door. So I’ve had lots of encouragement from my family and lots of help from Jehovah and his people. Jehovah has been so patient with me. May he also be long-suffering with the millions of others whom ‘the kindly quality of God is trying to lead to repentance.’ (Romans 2:4)​—As told by Ireta Clemons.

[Blurb on page 11]

Three people I knew were bitten by snakes and died

[Blurb on page 12]

By this time I had learned that Satan, his demons, and his ministers here on earth could perform signs and wonders

[Picture on page 10]

Ireta Clemons, now a Witness

Young People Ask . . .

Is Running Away the Answer?

IN THE novel Tom Sawyer, author Mark Twain tells of the time that Tom ran away from home with his two closest friends, Joe Harper and Huckleberry Finn. The three boys stole away at midnight, going by raft to an island on the far side of the river. There they spent the better part of a week, living off provisions they had brought with them and fish that they caught. Soon they became spectators to the scene of the townsmen searching the river for their “drownded” bodies. Finally, Tom, Joe, and Huck sneaked back to town, hid in the church gallery, and witnessed their own funeral service. The episode ended with them happily reunited with family and friends, and showered with kisses and thanksgivings.

For Tom, Joe, and Huck, running away was a spirited adventure with a happy ending. It was fun. But that is not the case for most youngsters who run away today. “For many runaways, trouble is a typical description of life off the road,” says Margaret O. Hyde in her book My Friend Wants to Run Away. “A few runaways actually get jobs and make it on their own. But, for most of them, life is worse than it was before they left home.”

Perhaps you feel that you will be the exception. Surely, things will be better than the situation that exists at home. Amy thought so. She ran away at 14 years of age because she lacked a close relationship with her parents and could not talk to them. “I felt that there was no one who would understand me,” she says. “I felt that being away from my parents and going to a ‘friend’s’ house would be better. I was sure my ‘friend’ would listen.”

Sandi, abandoned by her mother and molested by her foster grandfather, ran away at age 12. Peggy left home at 16. “I’ve had a lot of pressure at home,” she says. “My mom would yell at me a lot and call me bad names.” Her mom made her feel unwanted and unloved, “as if she wishes I wasn’t born or something.” Unable to talk to her mother without an argument and constantly being put down and made fun of, she ran away to search for happiness elsewhere.

Julie took off because for several years she had been sexually abused at home. Danny left twice. The first time was to escape a stepmother who said bad things about him. He soon realized how difficult it was outside without a means of support, so he returned home​—only to get in a vicious argument and be rejected by his father as well. Both Julie and Danny were only 12 years old.

Yes, life at home for many runaways seems unbearable. They want to get away from it. They want to be free. “But teens don’t find freedom on the streets,” notes ’Teen magazine. “Instead, they find other runaways or throwaways​—like themselves—​living in abandoned buildings, where they have no protection from rapists or muggers. They also find a lot of people who make it their dirty business to exploit young people, and teenage runaways are an easy target.”

What Usually Happens

Amy’s “friend,” for example, a 22-year-old male, had her pay for her stay “by having sex with him and nine of his friends.” She also “got drunk and took lots of drugs.” Sandi became a prostitute, living on the streets and sleeping on park benches or wherever she could. They are typical of many runaways. Why does it happen that way?

“When a child first runs away, he may have a few bucks in his pocket, he may even have saved some money, but once it runs out, he has few options,” states Sergeant Jose Elique, former director of New York’s Port Authority Runaway Squad Police. “When the kids get hungry, they have to eat, and when they get cold, they have to find shelter, so they really don’t have too many alternatives. If someone happens to approach them when they’re really hungry and down and out and asks them to do something​—it could be any number of illegal or degrading immoral acts, for money or drugs—​then this child will be much more receptive, no matter how he may have felt about sex and drugs before.”

Most runaways have few salable skills. They find modern society just too hard and complicated to deal with. Neither do they usually have any of the necessary paperwork to get hired: birth certificate, social security card, permanent address. “I’ve had to steal, to panhandle,” says Luis, “but mainly steal because nobody gives you nothing out there.” Some 60 percent of the runaways are girls. “What can a 13-year-old girl do besides show her body?” asked one girl. She was offered big money to pose nude. Most likely those pictures would be used later as blackmail to get her to do more.

Pornographers, drug dealers, and pimps frequent the bus stations looking for runaways to exploit. They are masters of manipulation. They offer scared youths a place to sleep and food to eat. They give them what they lacked at home​—a feeling that they are truly special and loved. They are introduced to other youths, already involved, who welcome them and make them feel accepted. Slowly they are sucked in. The pimp may even arrange for someone to rape a girl and then promise to protect her from it happening again. Or he may introduce the teen to drugs, get her hooked, and then insist that she work for him thenceforth if she wants to continue getting her supply. Some rely on beatings or brute force to get their way. As can be imagined, many runaways end up seriously injured or even dead.

What Options Are There?

A teen thinking of running away may feel there are few options, especially if he or she is unwanted and unwelcome at home. Such are called pushouts or throwaways. Also, most youngsters on the run know that if they are apprehended by the police, their parents will be contacted, and they will most likely be sent home. And if the situation at home has not changed, they will run away again. Yet, the younger they are and the longer they stay on the road, the more likelihood there is of trouble. So a solution must be found.

First, try to work it out at home. Make every effort​—and that means more than once—​to talk with your parents. Let them know how you feel and what is going on. If that fails, talk to someone else who can help. Some youths have talked to their school counselor, a social worker, or a supervisor at a youth services bureau. Others have made use of the toll-free hot lines that have been set up in some countries to aid both parents and children. Christian youths, though, have had the advantage of turning to the elders in their congregation and receiving loving, personal help and Scripturally based counsel. But remember the key word: TALK. It is the thing that will help both you and your parents. “There is a frustrating of plans where there is no confidential talk,” says the Bible, “but in the multitude of counselors there is accomplishment.”​—Proverbs 15:22.

The accomplishment may be an improved homelife that will give you hope for the future. It can mend old wounds and instill a feeling of trust, love, and happiness. You will feel your worth as an individual. Even if life at home may not be ideal, keep in mind that worse things can happen when you are on the run.

Whatever your situation, remember that there is always Someone who cares and who would like to help. Those who turn to God can be assured of his help and protection.​—Proverbs 18:10.

[Picture on page 15]

Someone may offer you food, shelter, and a good time. But what does he want in return?

“The Butterflies of the Seas”

WHAT do you think of when someone mentions the word “snail” or “slug”? Most of us think of some slimy, slippery animal that isn’t the least bit pretty, fascinating, or appealing.

Beneath the surface of the sea, however, lives a type of sea slug, a snaillike animal, that is so beautiful and colorful that it has been called the butterfly of the seas. Although most of these creatures are shell-less, they are in the mollusk family, which includes seashells.

What is it? It’s a nudibranch (pronounced nōōdē-brank). The nudibranch was given its name because it is a mollusk without a shell and, therefore, its gills are exposed. Its name means, literally, “naked gills.”

Marine biologists are still learning about nudibranchs, but over 3,000 species have been found and most of them identified. They range in length from 1/8 inch [0.3 cm] to more than 12 inches [30 cm] and are among the most vividly colored animals in the sea, possessing vibrant orange, blue, purple, yellow, and red pigments.

Even the masses of eggs of some of these creatures are beautiful in color and design. Their eggs are laid in ribbons arranged in various shapes, which have an appearance much like the ribbon you might use to decorate a gift. These “ribbons” are laid on edge and are formed into a large egg mass resembling a beautiful flower. What keeps such a delicate-looking morsel from being nibbled on and eaten by fish and other predators? The egg case contains a substance that makes them very distasteful to predators, thereby protecting the eggs until they develop into planktonic larvae.

Adult nudibranchs not only are delicate and highly visible but are slow-moving and soft, a seeming paradox in the often severe, harsh, and hostile environment of the ocean​—so much so that one marine biologist said, “They amaze and astound simply because they are.” Yes, it is amazing that they can continue to exist in their environment​—particularly that such an appetizing-to-look-at morsel keeps from being eaten by the fish that are attracted by its bright colors and often fluttering appearance.

Many of the soft-bodied nudibranchs are uniquely designed to graze on sea anemones and their relatives the hydroids. These organisms upon which they feed have stinging cells in their tentacles to stun their prey and to act as a protection against most predators. The nudibranch, however, is immune to their sting, and when one of these sea slugs eats the stinging structures responsible for the venomous sting of the anemone or hydroid, its remarkably designed digestive system passes some of these poisonous organisms on to other parts of its body to become a defense against marauders who might like to make a meal of Mr. Nudibranch.

Other nudibranchs protect themselves by secreting mucus that smells unpleasant to man and perhaps makes them unappetizing to fish and other predators. One species, the sea lemon, has a specialized gland that emits a slimy, sour secretion containing sulfuric acid as a defense against predators.

Fish have been observed to grab a nudibranch, only to spit it out in “disgust.” Observation of this behavior has led scientists to conclude that the association of bright color and repugnant taste and/​or a stung mouth produces a learned response that makes the brightly colored sea slug an invitation to an unpalatable meal. A powerful defense mechanism indeed!

Some nudibranchs enjoy still another defense mechanism; they can swim and are thus able to get away from possible danger of an obstinate foe. Others are able to cast off parts of their bodies when under attack and get away. Later, these parts are regenerated.

When observing the delicate beauty of the nudibranch in its ocean environment and learning a little about its means of continued existence, one is again in awe of the great imagination, wisdom, and creative ability of Jehovah God. (Revelation 4:11) The psalmist expressed it well when he wrote: “How many your works are, O Jehovah! All of them in wisdom you have made. The earth is full of your productions. As for this sea so great and wide, there there are moving things without number, living creatures, small as well as great.”​—Psalm 104:24, 25.

[Pictures on page 16, 17]

Opposite: Spanish shawl

Above: Mexican goddess and eggs

Below: Head of lettuce

[Pictures on page 18]

Above: Spanish dancer eggs

Below: Pugnacious aeolio

Superconductivity​—What’s All the Excitement About?

INSIDE what looks like the bottom half of a Styrofoam coffee cup is a pellet of some black material the size of a small button. On top of the pellet sits a still smaller chip of metal. Cautiously, the young student pours a fuming liquid into the cup, a little at a time. Everyone around the table watches with keen anticipation.

At first the liquid fizzles violently when it hits the cup. Soon things quiet down and the air becomes still. Then, the small metal chip begins to jitter as in a little dance. All of a sudden, it lifts itself off the pellet and floats in thin air! The student takes a wire loop and slips it past the chip. No tricks, no gimmicks​—the chip is levitating!

That was an experiment on superconductivity performed by a group of students in a California high school. Only a year or two ago, such an experiment could only be performed in advanced research laboratories with sophisticated equipment and substantial funding. The fact that high school students are doing it today is an indication of the rapid pace of developments in this field.

Time magazine ran a cover story last May entitled “Superconductors!​—The startling breakthrough that could change our world.” Newsweek called it “A New Electrical Revolution.” Life magazine titled its coverage “Fast-Food Physics,” hinting at how quickly things are moving along in this area. So, what is superconductivity? And what is all the excitement about?

A Long-Sought Ideal

Conductivity, by definition, is the measure of a substance’s ability to carry an electric current. Most of us know that materials such as glass and porcelain do not conduct electricity. On the other hand, metals like copper, gold, and platinum are good conductors because they offer relatively little resistance to the current passing through them. Superconductivity, then, is the absence of all electrical resistance in a substance​—that ideal state in which electricity flows unimpeded and with no loss.

Scientists have long envisioned the vast potential that such an ideal material​—a superconductor—​would hold. For example, power transmission lines made of superconductors would eliminate not only the enormous energy loss due to resistance in conventional wires but also the unsightly and costly power lines that crisscross the countryside. Use of superconductors would make it possible to build densely packed supercomputers that operate at speeds hitherto unattainable. The unusual magnetic properties of superconductors could lead to a new generation of powerful electromagnets that could make practical such experimental devices as medical scanners, levitating high-speed trains, giant particle accelerators, and even fusion energy.

Fascinating as all of that is, however, there is one catch. For more than 75 years, scientists have known that certain metals do exhibit superconductivity but only when cooled to extremely low temperatures, hundreds of degrees below freezing. It was in 1911 that a Dutch scientist, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, first stumbled upon the path of superconductors. Having just worked out a technique for liquefying the gas helium, for which he was awarded the Nobel prize in 1913, he was investigating the effect of low temperatures on various metals. Unexpectedly, he found that mercury loses all electrical resistance at about -452° F. [-269° C.], or 4 K, four degrees above what scientists call absolute zero on the Kelvin scale.a

Although superconductivity was discovered quite by accident, its value was soon recognized. However, the extremely low temperature, called the transition, or critical, temperature, at which the material became superconducting was a severe handicap. The high cost and complexity of working at such low temperatures limited its practical value. In the following decades, scientists experimented with other materials in hopes of finding something that would become superconducting at higher temperatures. But progress was slow in coming.

Over the years, however, other properties of superconductors came to light. One of the most important, discovered in 1933, was that when a superconductor is placed in a magnetic field, it would not allow any of the magnetic flux to pass through it, but it will repel or be repelled by the flux. This phenomenon, called the Meissner effect, is the cause of levitation, as demonstrated in the high school experiment. Its discovery led to renewed efforts in the search for higher-temperature superconductors. Still, progress was at a snail’s pace. As recently as 1973, the best that had been found was a certain metallic alloy that became superconducting at 23 K, or -418° F. [-250° C.], still an impractically low temperature. And for the next dozen years or so, things remained more or less at a standstill.

Temperature Rising!

A new twist of events began when two scientists in the IBM research laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland, came up with the idea that perhaps the reason other researchers were not having much success was that they were looking at the wrong kind of material. Up to that time, most of the research was done with metals and alloys. “I became convinced that you could not make any more progress along those lines,” said Alex Müller, one of the two scientists.

Müller and his partner, Georg Bednorz, started experimenting with metallic oxides in 1983. By early 1986 they had achieved the first major advance in years, superconductivity at 35 K, or -396° F. [-238° C.], using a compound consisting of barium, lanthanum, copper, and oxygen. When the news was eventually published in September 1986, the scientific community was taken by surprise. The material used by the scientists in the Swiss laboratory, a family of ceramics, was normally an insulator, and no one would suspect that this was where the biggest breakthrough in decades was to come.

In quick succession, one new record was replaced by another. By February 1987, a team led by C. W. Chu of the University of Houston discovered superconductivity in a material at a record high of 93 K, or -292° F. [-180° C.], by replacing the lanthanum in Müller’s mixture with yttrium, another of the so-called rare earth elements.

This achievement opened up a new chapter in high-temperature superconductivity. Up to that point, liquid helium had to be used to bring the materials under study to the low temperature required​—a very expensive and complicated process. With the new discovery, the cooling could now be done with liquid nitrogen, which liquefies at 77 K, or -321° F [-196° C.]. Liquid nitrogen is readily available, costs only about as much as milk, and can be handled without elaborate equipment. This, along with the fact that the oxide material is also easy to make and inexpensive, played a major role in giving research in superconductivity an added boost.

The ultimate goal, of course, would be a superconductor at room temperature, eliminating any need for cooling, and scientists all over the world are in hot pursuit of this goal. As a matter of fact, reports of “fleeting traces” of room-temperature superconductivity have begun to appear.

By the end of May 1987, Chu and his group had bettered their own record. They found a small portion of a specimen turned superconducting at 225 K, or -54° F. [-48° C.], but only intermittently. “You can observe it once,” said Pei-Heng Hor, one member of the team, “then after a while it disappears, but you can see it again.” Another group, at the University of California at Berkeley, reported the appearance of superconductivity at 292 K, or 66° F. [19° C.], in a material they were working on, but they were not able to repeat the result.

Golden Age Just Ahead?

All the exciting news about superconductors has given many people the impression that we are now at the threshold of a new era, a technological golden age. Our life is about to change, they say, the way it did with inventions of the past, such as the electric light and the transistor. Are all the wonderful things that superconductors are supposed to make possible really just around the corner?

To begin with, “a much fuller basic scientific understanding will have to be obtained before we will be able to put superconductivity to widespread use,” observed Erich Bloch, director of the U.S. National Science Foundation. Scientists have not as yet been able to come up with definite answers as to why the man-made ceramic materials work the way they do.

Because of this, many experts feel it will likely be years before superconductors will leave the laboratories and be put to practical use. “The potential of these materials is great, but the timetable that’s been set up by the press is wrong,” says a researcher at the National Bureau of Standards. “It will be five years before we see them in thin films in computers, and up to twenty years before we see them in bulk applications.”

One obstacle lies in the fact that the high-temperature superconductor materials are not malleable or workable as are metals. Nor can these brittle materials be flexed easily, as anyone knows who has ever dropped a ceramic or china dinner plate. Yet, for the superconductors to be used in practical applications, they must be fabricated into wires and films. In computers and integrated electronic circuits, for example, they would have to be made into films only fractions of a micron thick. Motors and magnets require thin, flexible wires in their windings, and power transmission lines must be strong and flexible.

To complicate matters further, scientists are not sure if the superconducting materials are capable of carrying the large electric currents or magnetic fields that many applications call for. All superconductors have a threshold above which they will lose their superconductivity. At present, that threshold is relatively low. Perhaps all these problems can be solved​—but not by tomorrow.

There is, however, a more ominous side to it. Already there is talk of using superconductors in particle or directed-energy weapons in space warfare! Will superconductivity turn out to be the blessing that everyone is predicting and hoping for, or will it turn out the way other revolutionary inventions of the past​—as gunpowder and nuclear fission—​did? That is a question apparently no one is prepared to answer.

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 21]

The Potential of Superconductors

“Practical nitrogen-cooled superconductors could save the utilities billions​—and save enough energy to put 50 or more power plants in mothballs,” says Business Week. Superconducting generators and power lines could also mean more powerful generating plants farther away from cities, which could cut pollution, cost, and danger.

Maglevs​—magnetically-levitated trains—​with speeds up to 300 miles an hour [480 km/​h] may be made practicable by lightweight superconducting magnets. Electric cars powered by efficient superconducting motors could cut down urban air pollution. Even ships can be operated by such motors.

Superconducting microchip devices that are a thousand times faster than silicon transistors are already being developed. Using such chips, not only will future computers be faster but, by greatly reducing the heat produced, they will also be smaller. Desktop computers will be as powerful as today’s mainframes.

NMRs (nuclear magnetic resonance scanners) and SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices) are machines that can peer into the human body and detect brain waves. The reduction in cost and complexity when superconductors are used can bring these machines within the reach of ordinary hospitals and clinics.

The potential for superconductors is great. How much of it will be realized?

[Picture Credit Line on page 19]

IBM Research

Why Some Are Mean and Others Mild

In recent months pit bulls have made the headlines in the United States. They are feared by many as dogs that attack, maim, and sometimes kill people. Are they naturally mean, or do mean masters make them mean? Are dogs mean or mild by breeding or by training? Perhaps it’s as it is with people, a combination of these factors makes them what they are.

THE record reads like an unrelenting indictment of pit bulls. In California two-year-old James Soto was pinned down by a neighbor’s pit bull and bitten on face and neck until dead. In Florida a pit bull crawled into the crib of a sleeping baby and killed it. In Georgia three pit bulls killed a four-year-old boy when he walked across a neighbor’s lawn. A 16-month-old girl in Oklahoma wandered near a chained pit bull​—the family’s pet—​and died of severe throat wounds. In Michigan 20-month-old Kyle Corullo, while playing in his grandmother’s backyard, was attacked by a pit bull. Fighting off the child’s mother, it dragged the boy to a vacant lot and shook him to death. A pit bull guarding a marijuana crop in California fatally mauled a two-and-a-half-year-old boy. A family pet in Harlem crushed the head of a two-month-old infant. Without warning, a pet pit bull turned on toddler Melissa Larabee and killed her with one crunching bite to the throat.

Adults are also victims. A 67-year-old nurse’s aide in Kansas was attacked in her yard, her body mauled, and her scalp torn off. The two pit bulls had been trained to attack anyone with a weapon​—she had a rolled-up newspaper in her hand. She died in the hospital. In Ohio a 67-year-old retired physician was killed by two pit bulls in an attack that lasted 25 minutes. A pit bull attacked an unemployed man as he watched fireworks in Rochester, New York. He died in the hospital.

The Humane Society of the United States says that since 1983, pit bulls killed 21 of the 29 people slaughtered by dogs​—72 percent killed by 1 percent of the nation’s dogs. Randall Lockwood, a Humane Society expert on vicious dogs, says: “These animals can be canine crocodiles. They have a dark and bloody history.”

After bullbaiting and bearbaiting were outlawed in England in 1835, the Staffordshire coal miners bred their dogs for dogfighting. Today’s pit bulls trace their lineage back to that time​—hence their present name, American Staffordshire terriers. They are also called American pit bull terriers.

With squat, muscular bodies and heavy steel-trap jaws that can exert a pressure of 1,800 pounds per square inch [130 kg/​sq cm], pit bulls are formidable fighting machines. They often attack silently, without provocation, and clamp their jaws on their victim in a viselike grip and shake and tear like a shark. Many victims have been family members. But one enthusiastic owner of three pit bulls praises them as being ‘loyal and making great pets, especially for a family with kids.’ Nevertheless, one of his loyal pets locked its teeth on his arm and put him in the hospital for three days.

Last year a national television audience watching the evening news witnessed a grisly attack on Los Angeles animal control officer Florence Crowell. A pit bull named Benjamin burst through the screen door of a house and crushed one of her hands and severely damaged the other one. The animal was beaten back but charged again and bit her on the left breast. She had gone to the house to investigate an earlier attack by the dog. Crowell was hospitalized five days. Benjamin’s picture appears on page 23, held in the Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation. A criminal complaint for assault with a deadly weapon was filed against Benjamin’s owner.

Over the last few years, the list of those injured by pit-bull attacks has run into the thousands. Because of this, owners have been dumping hundreds of pit bulls onto the streets or turning them in to animal shelters for destruction. Many owners no longer felt safe, and others were unwilling to risk lawsuits over their dog’s conduct. Some insurers now refuse to cover pit bulls, Dobermans, or German shepherds.

While Randall Lockwood called pit bulls “canine crocodiles,” he also said: “The tragic thing is that not all of these dogs are dangerous. It’s not as if every pit bull is a little time bomb waiting to go off.” And certainly not the canine pal of a cast of children in the old Our Gang comedies! It was a pit bull called Pete, with a black circle around one eye.

Typical of the pit bull’s defenders is Sara Nugent of Houston, Texas. She has bred and raised them for 22 years. “The problem is not with the dogs, it’s with the owners,” she said. She does note, however, that “it’s a more difficult dog to raise than some, and not everyone should have one.” Andy Johnson of the United Kennel Club says: “If you’re raising pit bulls like you should, you’re going to have one of the nicest pets you can imagine.” Roy Carlberg, executive secretary of the American Kennel Club, is more cautious. He says that ‘some pit bulls are perfectly stable, while others can’t control their violent temperament and superior strength.’

Samuel McClain, a former investigator for the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) in Philadelphia, confirms Nugent’s view of owner blame: “There is a new type pit bull coming about​—wild, savage, uncontrollable. You can tell by the names​—Homicide, Switchblade, Crazy Pete. They breed what we call wacky dogs, father and daughter, mother and son.” Not only has inbreeding ruined the dog but so has the training it gets. Sixty percent of the 3,000 pit bulls in Philadelphia are used for dogfighting. To make them mean while still young, some are given kittens and small dogs to tear to bits.

Dogfighting is illegal in all 50 states and a felony crime in 36, but ‘you can find a dogfight on any weekend in any of the 50 states,’ says Eric Sakach of the Humane Society in Sacramento, California.

Pit bulls have become The Dog for street punks. Their insecurities need the macho reinforcement they get from such animals they’ve made mean. The fierce beast is like an extension of themselves​—“We’re tough, don’t mess with us!” Teenagers in Chicago and Philadelphia brandish their vicious pit bulls as they would a switchblade or a gun. Street dope dealers in these and other big cities keep these dogs with them, with names like Murder, Hitler, and Scarface. In their steel-studded collars are concealed cocaine and the day’s proceeds. Members of motorcycle gangs have stashed their drugs beneath the doghouses of their pit bulls.

Crimes have been committed with pit bulls used as weapons. When a man in New Jersey ordered his pit bull to attack police, he was convicted of possessing a deadly weapon. When robber Shabu Cooper ordered his pit bull to attack a transit cop, he was charged with the use of a lethal weapon. A Michigan man was charged with assault with a deadly weapon when his pit bull attacked a 12-year-old girl.

Several municipalities have banned pit bulls by law. Such ordinances targeting a specific breed, however, have not held up in court. Laws specifying “vicious dogs” seem more workable. “Effective vicious-dog legislation needs to be enacted,” says Sherl Blair of Tufts University veterinary school. After all, the pit bull is not the only aggressive dog attacking people. German shepherds, Dobermans, Rottweilers, Akitas, and chows have also been guilty. And thousands of pit bulls, properly bred and trained, are innocent.

“Indeed, in responsible families,” a Wall Street Journal article said, “pit bulls can make good pets. Their playful side is aroused as easily as any breed’s. They shed little and are easily groomed. And it goes without saying that pit bulls make good watch dogs.”

This mention of watchdogs raises a question for those thinking of a dog as a family protector. What kind should it be? A professional dog trainer was interviewed for suggestions.

What kind of dog would you recommend for family protection?

“First, let me say that at this point many people think in terms of a trained attack dog or a guard dog. Such dogs are dangerous to have in the home. They are trained to be suspicious and quick on the trigger. They are like having a gun in the house​—the result is more often tragedy than protection. Frequently, such dogs have injured or even killed children in the neighborhood, and sometimes even members of their own family. And if your dog has had attack training and has bitten somebody, you are in serious trouble. If brought into court, you can be held liable. The court looks very dimly on dogs trained to bite. A trained attack or guard dog in the home is very unwise.

“If a family has decided to get a dog for protection, it’s far better that they consider what is called an alert dog​—one that will alert you to trouble and sound an alarm. The best dog for this is a big one with a deep-throated bark that sounds ferocious and will scare off intruders, but the dog is not trained to bite. Such a dog is a good deterrent, yet is not a danger to family or neighbors.”

Is it important to consider temperament?

“Temperament must be considered. There is a great potential difference between one dog and another, even of the same breed. German shepherds that are to be used as guide dogs are bred for temperament. They need to be mellow dogs, cautious dogs, dogs that can be used around many different people. A different temperament is needed for a German shepherd that is to be trained as an attack dog​—suspicious, bold, aggressive. An alert dog should come somewhere in between​—spirited but not overly excitable, calm and steady but not timid.

“I think it’s also desirable to get the dog as a puppy, male or female​—the latter are often easier to control. Let him grow up with the family. He then feels that the family belongs to him. It’s his family, and as he grows up, he becomes very protective of it. It is also important to give him some obedience training. At least teach him a few of the basic commands, such as Stay, Sit, Heel, Come, and Down. Start while he is young, around eight weeks of age. At that age he is very much tuned in to what you want and is totally dependent on you and eager for your acceptance and praise.”

What about correction, when needed?

“A combination of correction and reward is more effective than correction alone. The dog is being praised for the good behavior, and at the same time he’s being corrected for the bad behavior. When I say corrected, I don’t mean beating. It’s a verbal reprimand, such as ‘No! Bad dog!’ He senses your disapproval from the tone of your voice. Reinforce good behavior by rewards​—not tidbits but praise with approving pats. That works better than scolding. And don’t use your dog’s name when you discipline​—you are punishing his behavior, not him.”

Coming back, now, to the questions raised at the beginning of this article. Breeding certainly does affect the temperament of dogs and predetermines aggressiveness and mildness. But environment also plays a major role. Gentle treatment softens aggressiveness and reinforces mildness. Harsh treatment increases natural aggressiveness and breaks the spirit of a mildly disposed dog. The same breed can be bred and trained to lead the blind or attack an intruder. A combination of nature and nurture is at work. But the basic nature of the dog is always present and, under certain conditions, may surface. A stressful situation may make an aggressive disposition flare up unpredictably or cause an overly mild dog to give ground when he should protect his family.

A closing word on the horrors of dogfighting: One dogfighting zealot said concerning his pit bulls that “fighting was the very breath of life to them.” He implied that to allow them to fight was not cruel but merciful. They die happy, fulfilled, doing what they are bred and trained to do, he claimed. In keeping with this strange sentiment, another sadistic devotee of illegal dogfighting made this sick comment: “My dogs die with their tails up and wagging.”

They also die with bones broken, ears shredded, flesh torn, and blood gushing. Fights last from one to three hours. They will fight to the death. Randall Lockwood adds this ironic touch: “It’s not unheard of now for dogs to come out of the pit and attack spectators. Some of our investigators have seen it.” San Diego sheriff Blackwood says: “We’ve seen them, with both front legs broken, push themselves across the ring to fight.” Do these dogs also die with their tails up and wagging?

The courage and strength of pit bulls are phenomenal. How disgusting, how sad, that such courage and strength are put to such a cruel and sadistic use​—dogs made mean by even meaner men! Finally, Lockwood deplores this meanness and its consequences: “Dogfighting is the greatest perversion of the special relationship that exists between people and dogs. It is people subjecting dogs to incredible cruelty. And now that has turned into dogs killing people.”

You begin to wonder, have pit bulls done more harm to people, or have people done more harm to pit bulls? How fitting the Bible’s words at Proverbs 12:10: “The righteous one is caring for the soul of his domestic animal, but the mercies of the wicked ones are cruel.”

[Blurb on page 24]

“These animals can be canine crocodiles”

[Pictures on page 23]

Mean Benjamin . . .

[Credit Line]

City of Los Angeles, Department of Animal Regulation

. . . and mild Neha

[Pictures on page 26]

Above: Siberian husky

Right: Akita

Far right: Samoyed

From Our Readers

Memorizing Comes Easy

I am writing to you about the article “When Memorizing Comes Easy.” (July 22, 1987) There is one aspect of the subject that should have had a good effect but was barely mentioned. That is to keep children from getting puffed up with pride because of being able to memorize easily. I say this from my own experience. When I was four years old, I memorized Bible texts; at five I was going from house to house in the ministry; and at six I was giving talks in the ministry school. I kept boasting about it, and I thought I was the best. Today I see how ridiculous I was. There is a young boy in our congregation who does the same things, and he is insufferable! Please alert parents not to let their children get puffed up so that what happened to me won’t happen to them.

F. R., Brazil

We surely appreciate the importance of Christian parents’ doing all they can to develop in their children the qualities of humility, modesty, and reasonableness. (Proverbs 11:2; Micah 6:8; Romans 12:3; James 3:17; 4:6, 10) The article did state: “The important thing is, after all, not that your child impresses others but that you and he have a warm, loving time learning what God’s Word says.” But we are pleased to enlarge on that thought here. The main thrust of the article was that children can learn at an early age and that Christian parents should capitalize on this ability by beginning early to teach them worthwhile matters, especially those taken from the Bible, which can bring lasting benefits to the children as well as their parents.​—ED.

A Salty Drink That Saves Lives

Thank you very much for that marvelous article “A Salty Drink That Saves Lives!” (September 22, 1985) Our dear son began to have frequent diarrhea and in the afternoon vomiting and exhaustion. His eyes were sunken, and the skin of his belly was losing its elasticity. We thought we should take him to the hospital, but then my husband remembered that article, and we located it in our file. We prepared the drink according to the article and gave it to our son. It was unbelievable how he started to improve. The next day he was almost well. We are most grateful for this information.

M. S., Brazil

We are pleased to see that the simple remedy was a help. Of course, we would like to emphasize that the suggested treatment was not intended as a substitute for needed professional medical care.​—ED.

Many thanks for your article “A Salty Drink That Saves Lives!” Recently our dog had serious spinal surgery. Following surgery, complications in the form of severe diarrhea set in because of a reaction to the painkillers prescribed. Nothing the veterinarian tried succeeded in controlling her worsening condition. My husband recalled the above-mentioned article. After locating it, we immediately filled her water dish with a batch of the solution and watched her gulp it down eagerly. Overnight the condition cleared up, and she is now well on the road to recovery. Your article is a real lifesaver for all, humans and animals alike.

S. M., United States

Watching the World

AIDS Blood Tests

A short time ago, researchers believed that it took 3 to 12 weeks for detectable antibodies to develop and appear in blood tests for a person exposed to the deadly AIDS virus. But a more recent study in Finland undertaken by the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of Tampere, under the supervision of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, has lengthened that time estimate. “The period preceding the appearance of antibodies is much longer than was thought up until now,” said one researcher in the French daily Le Monde. “It is still possible to have a negative result for at least 14 months after having been contaminated by the AIDS virus,” continued the account.

Ancient City Discovered

Gene Savoy, an explorer from North America, announced last August his discovery of an ancient city in the Amazon jungle of Peru. The city has more than 25,000 buildings, reports Folha de S.Paulo. In comparison, Peru’s famous Machu Picchu, ancient fortress city of the Incas, has only about a hundred buildings. Savoy believes that the recently found city was built by the Chachapoya civilization, ancient inhabitants of northern Peru.

Rude Awakening

A 66-year-old man has discovered the cause of his leg pain​—snoring. As recounted in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Neil Shear of Toronto, the man had gone to his doctor complaining of leg pain. Although given pain pills, he was awakened two nights later by a sharp pain in the calf of his right leg​—caused by a kick from his wife. “Don’t kick me there. That’s just where my leg hurts!” the man told his wife. Her reply: “You were snoring again, and that is where I always kick you to stop it.”

“Keepers of an Aquarium”

During his visit last September to Australia’s capital, Canberra, Dr. Roy Pointer, the director for church training with the British and Foreign Bible Society, pinpointed a fundamental weakness in mainline religion today. He agreed with a humorous statement that “most ministers in England have been trained to be keepers of an aquarium rather than fishers of men,” reports The Canberra Times. He believes that the average minister needs to “think in missionary terms” and that “door knocking is still the best way to go” for the church to increase its membership. Interestingly, he used Jehovah’s Witnesses as an example of growth “because of door knocking.”

Grisly Corpse Removal

Revered by Hindus as a holy river, the Ganges is bathed in by millions of India’s inhabitants annually. However, in recent years, it has also become a dumping ground for corpses. Relatives too poor to pay the high price of cremation are using the Ganges as a means of disposal of their deceased loved ones, thereby polluting its “holy” waters. To stem the tide of decaying corpses polluting the river, according to the New Zealand Herald, the government of India plans to introduce crocodiles into the Ganges as an effective means of corpse removal.

Grave Changes

Japanese youths are buying their own graves and tombstones. Why this outlay in a land where people are traditionally buried in a family grave? The main reason, according to the purchasers themselves, is that after death they want to be free of family, especially of ancestors whom they have never met. This new trend pleases cemetery officials, who find themselves selling more burial plots. Manufacturers of tombstones are also jumping on the bandwagon and coming up with trendy tombstones in stainless steel, ceramics, or whatever material sells. In Osaka the average cost for grave and stone comes to 3.5 million yen ($28,000, U.S.). Tokyo’s Buddhist Information Center, a counseling service, laments: “In consultations we have, we strongly feel the weakening of family ties, even between husbands and wives, parents and children.”

Microchips for Paralyzed Limbs

Within the next decade, researchers at Stanford University in California hope to implant electronic chips in the nerves of paralyzed limbs to restore feeling and communication with the brain. The idea is that a tiny electronic chip would act “like a telephone switchboard, rerouting brain signals past crushed or severed nerves,” reports Equinox magazine. Being able to demonstrate that very small nerve fibers (axons) “will regenerate individually through holes of an appropriate size in an implanted one-millimetre-square silicon chip” gave rise to those hopes.

Commercials and Children

Children are neither as wary nor as skeptical of television commercials as adults are. Children tend to accept product claims and appeals as truthful and believable. For this reason, Dale L. Kunkel, a communication studies lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told a congressional committee recently that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission should restrict the number of commercials aimed at children. Kunkel said that research findings present strong evidence that children under five years of age “lack the perceptual capabilities to even discriminate program material from advertising content.”

Stroke Protection

“You get tremendous protection from strokes by eating more fruits and vegetables,” says Dr. Louis Tobian of the University of Minnesota. The reason is that most fruits and vegetables are rich in potassium, which, while not lowering blood pressure, prevents the pressure from damaging arteries. Speaking at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting on high blood pressure, Tobian said that animal studies showed that an extra helping of fruits and vegetables each day could cut stroke risk up to 40 percent over a period of time. Among the best sources of potassium are bananas, potatoes, strawberries, and grapefruit and orange juice.

Electronic Antinoise

How do you blot out excessive noise? Window double-glazing, mufflers, and insulating materials are the usual means. But now two British scientists, lecturers in acoustics at Southampton University, have come up with a unique method​—antinoise. How does it work? The sound pattern of an unwanted noise is analyzed and a mirror image reproduced electronically so that when the two sounds meet, they cancel each other out. The application of this new technology is aimed at aircraft engines, particularly the low-frequency noise of propeller propulsion, reports The Sunday Times of London. The technique is already in use for reducing the “boom,” or hum, heard in some automobiles traveling at high speed.

Cairo Subway

On September 27, 1987, the first subway in Africa was inaugurated in Cairo, Egypt. The boring of the 2.8-mile-long [4.5 km] underground line required five and a half years. According to the French daily Le Monde, “the [building] firms had to progress blindly because of the lack of underground maps. It was necessary to feel around and divert miles of pipes and cables before beginning the boring.” When it reaches its peak capacity, the Cairo subway will be able to transport more than 50,000 passengers an hour. The inhabitants of Cairo hope that this “Pharaonic construction” will make traffic lighter in their city.

“I Love God. He Made This Tree”

Many see trees and see money. This two-year-old sees this tree and loves God. As she grows older, she will see more and love God even more. Here’s some inside information on the tree trunk she’s hugging.

It’s loaded with “pipelines.” Some go from roots to leaves, others from leaves to roots. The ones going up are in the sapwood. They carry water and minerals to every leaf on the tree. The ones going down are just under the bark. They carry food from leaves to roots.

The tip of each rootlet has a hard, lubricated cap and pushes its way through the soil, spiraling like a corkscrew as it goes. Just behind the tip are hundreds of root hairs that absorb water and minerals. This water can travel up hundreds of feet to the highest leaf on the tallest tree.

The leaf takes carbon dioxide from the air and energy from the sun, and with the water and minerals from the roots, it makes food for the plant. The food “pipelines” transport it to every cell in the tree. The leaf’s power to do this is not understood. It has been called a miracle.

That’s just part of what’s happening in the tree trunk our young tree-lover is hugging.

Now she is seven. She has expanded her view to take in the whole tree​—leaves and roots as well as trunk. She still loves God, she still sees Him as the tree’s Maker, and she thereby sees more than the worldly wise.​—Romans 1:20; 1 Corinthians 3:19, 20.

April 1, 1988​—A Day to Remember

The evening before he died, Jesus shared a loaf of unleavened bread and a cup of wine with his apostles and said, “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.”​—Luke 22:19.

This year the anniversary of his command falls on April 1, after sunset.

As a result, Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world will be gathered this special night to repeat this Memorial in the manner Jesus requested. You are most warmly invited to join us as observers. Please check with Jehovah’s Witnesses locally for the exact time and place of the meeting.