July 8

Page Two

To smoke or not to smoke, that is the question. It is usually faced when you are a teenager. There is no obligation involved. It is a freewill decision. But according to medical authorities, it is a decision that could have serious repercussions in your life. It could even determine when and how you die.

Therefore, important questions are raised: Is it ethical to advertise tobacco products? Is it morally justifiable for so-called Christian nations to export their tobacco products, unloading them on other nations? Are cigarette salesmen selling disease and death? And since people choose to smoke, does it really matter?

Tobacco and Your Health​—Is There Really a Link?

“Thank You for Not Smoking”​—A sign of the times.

“Thank You for Smoking”​—A counterattack in a tobacco company’s magazine.

BATTLE lines are drawn, propaganda pens and computers are put into action. Advertising agencies send out their opposing messages. This war is being fought in the world market. It is the tobacco war, and the stakes are high. Billions of dollars yearly. Whether you smoke or not, you are affected.

It is a war fought on two main levels​—economics and health. For those against smoking, health is priority number one. For the tobacco barons and those tied to the industry, economics, profits, and jobs are at stake. Emotions and reactions tend to run high. At an airport a smoker asked a bystander for a light. “Sorry, I don’t smoke,” was the innocent reply. “I didn’t ask you if you smoked!” snarled the smoker.

But what is at the core of this controversy? Is smoking really so bad for you? Should you give it up?

Government Health Warnings

The issue of tobacco and cancer has been debated for decades in the United States. The tobacco industry donated millions of dollars to research back in the 1960’s allegedly to help pin down the relationship between cancer and tobacco and thus find some way of producing cigarettes without the cancer-causing agents. One result has probably been more than the tobacco manufacturers bargained for.

In 1964 the U.S. surgeon general issued his first report warning against the dangers of smoking. Ever since 1965, U.S. cigarette manufacturers have been bound by law to print warnings on their packages. At first the message was low-key: “Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health.” Then in 1985 the tobacco companies were required to rotate four messages in their advertisements and on their products. Each starts with the words: “SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING.” Then the different messages are: “Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy.” (See box on page 4.) “Smoking by Pregnant Women May Result in Fetal Injury, Premature Birth, And Low Birth Weight.” “Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health.” “Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide.”a

Some other countries, apart from the United States, also issue warnings about cigarettes. India Today magazine carries ads that include the words: “STATUTORY WARNING: CIGARETTE SMOKING IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH.” In Canada they used to state in small print: “Warning: Health and Welfare Canada advises that danger to health increases with amount smoked​—avoid inhaling.” Since May 31, 1988, tobacco advertising has been banned in Canada. In Britain cigarette ads include the words: “MIDDLE TAR [or LOW TAR] As defined by H.M.Government DANGER: Government Health WARNING: CIGARETTES CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH.” Tobacco advertising has been banned in Italy ever since 1962. (Yet Italians have doubled their cigarette smoking over the last 20 years!) With so many warnings based on overwhelming scientific evidence, more than 50,000 studies over the years, the conclusion is inescapable​—smoking is dangerous to your health!

Although smoking is a worldwide phenomenon, not all countries demand that warnings be printed on the product. And when markets shrink in one area, the tobacco giants, with their high-pressure advertising, break open markets in other countries. Is your country affected by powerful tobacco advertising? Are foreign cigarettes made to look more attractive? What is the real story behind the “big sell”?

[Footnotes]

[Box/​Picture on page 4, 5]

SMOKING and Pregnant Women

The Soviet magazine Nauka I Zhizn (Science and Life) recently published an article by Dr. Victor Kazmin in which he detailed the dangers to mother and child if the mother smokes during pregnancy. He stated: “Smoking does colossal harm to the woman’s organism, whose biological distinctions make it fairly sensitive to poisonings. After all, tobacco smoke contains components that pose a grave threat to health.”

He states that smoking mothers can actually poison their offspring. “Laboratory analyses have shown the presence in the amniotic fluid of such women patients of poisons​—nicotine and its metabolite, cotinine. But what is most dreadful, as has been detected by electron microscopy, is that with smoking women during pregnancy even the structure of the umbilical cord changes; and it is along this cord that the foetus receives all it needs for life from the mother. . . .

“If the mother smokes during the first two or three weeks after conception, as a rule, worst affected is the embryo’s central nervous system . . . During the fourth or fifth week of pregnancy the cardiovascular system develops. Then it becomes poisoned first.”

The conclusion reached by Dr. Kazmin? “Tobacco smoke is much more dangerous to the foetus than to the mother herself.” Is it worth it? Remember the U.S. surgeon general’s warning: “Smoking . . . May Complicate Pregnancy.” And that is putting it mildly.

[Credit Line]

WHO/​American Cancer Society

[Box on page 5]

SMOKING and Emphysema

Emphysema is a disease that leads to progressive inelasticity of the lungs, which eventually makes it impossible to exhale stale air sufficiently. The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Complete Home Medical Guide explains: “The people in [the United States] who have emphysema follow a pattern: They are primarily men, between 50 and 70, who have been heavy smokers for years. In the past, women did not develop emphysema as often as men, but this pattern is changing as women continue to become heavy smokers.”

The same work adds: “Emphysema may masquerade for years as something else. A person with emphysema has probably had several very bad colds each winter for a few years, each accompanied by a heavy cough, and perhaps by chronic bronchitis. The cough often persists and becomes chronic.” What are some other symptoms of emphysema?

“Emphysema develops slowly. Slight morning and evening difficulty in breathing may be followed sometime later with the beginnings of interference in activities. A short walk may be enough to bring on breathlessness; walking up stairs is difficult. Eventually, as the lungs become less and less able to carry out inhaling, exhaling, and gas exchange, there may come a point when every breath requires a major effort and the patient is disabled and unable to carry out normal activities.”

The same medical guide adds that emphysema can lead to serious cardiovascular problems. Is it really worth it? Why abort your precious gift of life in exchange for the ephemeral kick of nicotine?

Salesmen of Death​—Are You a Customer?

“The guy that smokes has been told all the warnings on earth that it is going to kill you, and I think the same thing. I think it is going to kill you. I think any fool that takes smoke down in his belly is going to suffer. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. I have made a fortune on it. . . . The only way that we built this country is by selling the rest of the fools in the world tobacco.”​—James Sharp, longtime tobacco grower in Kentucky, in Merchants of Death—​The American Tobacco Industry, by Larry C. White.

THAT candid remark speaks volumes but leaves several questions unanswered. Why do more than a billion people around the world smoke? What induces them to continue with a habit that is known to be death-dealing? After all, the tobacco story is basically the same as the drug story​—supply and demand. If there is no profitable market, then the supply dries up. So why do people smoke?

Addiction is the key word. Once nicotine establishes a foothold in the body, there is a daily need for regular fixes of nicotine. Combined with the addiction is habit. Certain situations, established by habit, trigger the desire for a cigarette. It might be as soon as a person gets up or with the first cup of morning coffee, the after-lunch drink, the pressure and social interchange at work, or in recreation. Dozens of apparently insignificant habits can be the “on” switch for a smoke.

Why Did They Smoke?

Awake! interviewed several ex-smokers to try to understand the motivation behind smoking. For example, there is Ray, in his 50’s, a former quartermaster in the U.S. Navy. He explained: “I was about 9 years old when I first started smoking, but I got serious about it when I was 12. I recall that I was kicked out of the Boy Scouts for smoking.”

Awake!: “What got you interested in smoking?”

Ray: “It was the macho thing to do. You know, it was manly to smoke. I remember that the ads in those days showed firemen and policemen smoking. Then later in the Navy, I had a high-pressure job in navigation, and I felt that smoking helped me ride through the stress.

“I used to smoke about a pack and a half a day [30 cigarettes] and would not start a day without my cigarette. Of course, I inhaled. There’s no point in smoking if you don’t inhale.”

Bill, a professional artist from New York, also in his 50’s, tells a similar story:

“I started as a kid of 13. I wanted to be like the grown-ups. Once I was in its grip, I couldn’t stop. Having a cigarette was like having a friend. In fact, if I was going to bed and realized I had no cigarettes in the house, I would get dressed again and, regardless of the weather, go out and buy a pack for the next day. I was smoking from one to two packs a day. I admit that I was addicted. And I was a heavy drinker at the same time. The two just seemed to go together, especially in the bars where I spent a lot of my time.”

Amy, young and outgoing, started to smoke when she was 12 years old. “It was peer pressure at first. Then, my dad died when I was 15, and the stress of that pushed me further. But as I got older, the ads influenced me, especially that one, ‘You’ve come a long way, baby.’ I was a career girl, studying to be a surgical nurse. I was soon smoking three packs a day. My favorite time to smoke was after dinner and whenever I was on the phone, which was often.” Did she notice any ill effects? “I had morning cough and headaches, and I was no longer physically fit. Just climbing the stairs to my apartment left me breathless. And I was only 19!”

Harley, a former Navy flyer, now in his 60’s, started smoking during the Depression at the age of 5! Why did he do it? “All the kids smoked in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where I came from. If you smoked, you were tough.”

Harley minces no words about why he smoked. “It was pure pleasure for me. I would inhale the smoke deep down into my lungs and hold it there. Then I used to love to puff out smoke rings. I got where I could not live without my cigarette. I started and ended the day with a cigarette. In the Navy, I was smoking two to three packs a day and a box of cigars each month.”

Bill, Ray, Amy, and Harley gave up smoking. So have millions of others​—over 43 million in the United States alone. But the tobacco salesmen have not given up. They are targeting new markets all the time.

Are YOU a Target?

With many male smokers giving up smoking in the industrialized nations, plus the loss of customers through natural and smoking-induced death, the tobacco companies have had to look for new markets. In some cases they have changed their advertising strategies in an effort to bolster their sales. Sponsorship of sports events, such as tennis and golf tournaments, is an effective way of giving a supposedly clean image to smoking. Another strategy adjustment is the markets to be targeted. Are you one of their potential customers?

Target number one: Women. A minority of women have smoked for decades, aided and abetted by the example of film actresses such as Gloria Swanson, who back in 1917 was smoking as an 18-year-old. In fact, she got one of her first film roles because, as the director explained: “Your hair, your face, the way you sit, the way you smoke a cigarette . . . You’re exactly what I want.”

In the 1940’s Lauren Bacall, who featured in films with her husband, heavy smoker Humphrey Bogart, also set a glamorous lead in smoking. But the female side of the cigarette market was always lagging way behind the male market. And so were the cancer statistics for women. Now they are catching up fast​—in smoking and in lung cancer.

In recent years a new trend in advertising has developed, in part due to the more competitive role of women in society together with the subtle influence of tobacco advertising. What is the message being sent to women? The Philip Morris company, which manufactures a variety of cigarette brands, produces “Virginia Slims,” aimed at the modern woman. Their slogan is the one that attracted Amy: “You’ve come a long way, baby.” The ad portrays a sophisticated, modern woman with a cigarette between her fingers. But some women must be asking themselves now how far they have come. Over the last two years, lung cancer has exceeded breast cancer in the mortality rate for women.

Another cigarette brand offers women a bargain: “5 free per pack!” “50 free per carton!” Some women’s magazines even include coupons for free packs!

Sex is another easy way to make cigarettes seem attractive. One brand invites: “Find More Pleasure.” The message includes a want ad, stating: “WANTED​—Tall, dark stranger for long lasting relationship. Good looks, great taste a must. Signed, Eagerly Seeking Smoking Satisfaction.” The cigarette being presented comes “tall” and in dark paper. A subtle connection?

Links with fashion are another hook used for women. One brand is hailed as “A celebration of style and taste by YVES SAINT LAURENT.” Another bait is used for weight-conscious women. The advertisement features a photo of a slim model, and the cigarettes are defined as “Ultra Lights​—The lightest style.”

Why are the cigarette manufacturers targeting the women of the world? The World Health Organization gives an obvious clue with its estimate that “more than 50 per cent of men but only five per cent of women smoke in developing countries compared to about 30 per cent of both sexes in the industrialised world.” There is a huge untapped market out there for tobacco profits, regardless of the ultimate price in health that may have to be paid. And the tobacco salesmen are having success. According to The New York Times, the U.S. surgeon general’s report, released in January 1989, stated that ‘children, especially girls, are smoking at younger ages’ and that includes elementary-school children. Another source says that in recent years the number of female teenage smokers in the United States has increased by 40 percent. But women are not the only target for the salesmen of death and disease.

The Racial Target

In his book Merchants of Death​—The American Tobacco Industry, Larry C. White states: “Blacks are a good market for the cigarette makers. The National Center for Health Statistics showed that as of 1986, a higher percentage of blacks smoked than whites [in the United States] . . . It’s not surprising that blacks smoke in higher proportions than whites, because they are special targets of cigarette promotion.” Why are they special targets? According to The Wall Street Journal, they are “a group that lags behind the general population in kicking the habit.” Therefore, a black client is often a “loyal” client, ‘until death do us part.’

How do the tobacco companies concentrate on the black population? Author White states: “Cigarettes are heavily advertised in black-oriented magazines such as Ebony, Jet, and Essence. In 1985 cigarette companies spent $3.3 million on advertisements in Ebony alone.” One tobacco company also promotes a yearly fashion show directed to the black women’s market. Free cigarettes are handed out. Another company at one time regularly sponsored a jazz festival and continues to support music festivals popular with blacks. How special a target is the black population? A spokesman for Philip Morris stated: “The black market is very important. It’s a very powerful one.”

But there is an even more important market for the tobacco giants​—not just races or groups but whole nations!

[Blurb on page 7]

“Having a cigarette was like having a friend”

[Box on page 9]

SMOKING and Buerger’s Disease

A recent case in Canada, reported by Maclean’s, highlights yet another disease attributed to smoking. Roger Perron started smoking at the age of 13. By the age of 27, he was suffering from Buerger’s disease and had to have one leg amputated below the knee. He was warned that if he continued smoking, the disease could attack again. Maclean’s reports: “But Perron ignored the warning, and in 1983 doctors had to amputate his other leg. After that, Perron . . . finally quit smoking.” Now he is suing a tobacco company for damages.

What is Buerger’s disease? It “occurs most often in men who smoke. The disease is characterized by an inflammatory response in the arteries, veins, and nerves, which leads to a thickening of the blood vessel walls caused by infiltration of white cells. The first symptoms are usually a bluish cast to a toe or finger and a feeling of coldness in the affected limb. Since the nerves are also inflamed, there may be severe pain and constriction of the small blood vessels controlled by them. Overactive sympathetic nerves also may cause the feet to sweat excessively, even though they feel cold. . . . Ischemic ulcers and gangrene are common complications of progressive Buerger’s disease.

“The cause of Buerger’s disease is unknown, but since it occurs mostly in young men who smoke, it is thought to be a reaction to something in cigarettes. The most important treatment is to stop smoking.” (Italics ours.)​—The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Complete Home Medical Guide.

[Box on page 9]

SMOKING and Heart Attacks

“Although most people are well aware of the association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer and other pulmonary diseases, many still do not realize that smoking is also a major risk factor in heart attacks. In fact, the . . . Surgeon General’s report on Smoking and Health estimates that 225,000 of the American [U.S.] deaths from cardiovascular disease each year are directly related to smoking​—many more than the total number of cancer and pulmonary disease deaths attributed to smoking.

“Smokers often ask whether low-tar, low nicotine cigarettes reduce the cardiovascular risk. The answer appears to be ‘no.’ In fact, some of the filter cigarettes increase the amount of carbon monoxide that is inhaled, making them even worse for the heart than unfiltered brands.” (Italics ours.)​—The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Complete Home Medical Guide.

[Picture on page 8]

Tobacco advertisements are aiming at women and are winning

Is Your Country a Prime Target?

BECAUSE it buys cheaper tobacco in Brazil and Zimbabwe, the United States has a tobacco surplus. So where could the tobacco barons sell it? To countries in Africa and Asia. Thus, the magazine Asiaweek reports: “Asian countries now consume about 50 percent of America’s overseas tobacco sales, replacing Britain and West Germany as leading markets.”

And what a rich prize dangles in front of the tobacco salesmen! A market with a potential population of nearly two billion people within the next 20 years. The present population of China and India alone is staggering​—a combined total of about 1.8 billion! And as World Health stated: “While tobacco markets are decreasing in the west at the rate of one per cent per annum, smoking is increasing in developing countries at an average of two per cent per annum.” And remember that the diminishing market has a much smaller population than the potential market that beckons in the East. The U.S. tobacco industry expects that sales in Asia will increase by 18 percent by the year 2000. But there is at least one barrier. Tariffs.

Double Standards in Spreading Disease and Death

How can the American tobacco companies get other countries to accept their surplus cigarettes? Paradoxically, they have an ally that, while warning its own public against the dangers of smoking, actively promotes the sale of deadly tobacco in other countries. Who is it? The U.S. government!

Asiaweek explains: “The tobacco-export juggernaut has moved with the weight of the U.S. government behind it. . . . The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative . . . has gone all out to batter down trade barriers and push for access to the Asian media for American companies​—even though cigarette ads have long been banned from the airwaves in the U.S.” World Health magazine reports: “The [U.S.] tobacco companies wield considerable political influence. Trade sanctions or the threat of such sanctions have been made against Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea unless they open their markets to the sale and advertising of American tobacco products.”

Even worse, the tobacco companies not only sell their products in Asia but also boost their sales with high-pressure advertising. Some countries, such as Taiwan and South Korea, under pressure, even dropped their ban on tobacco advertising! Now China is also high on the U.S. cigarette manufacturers’ hit list. Little wonder that one tobacco company executive is quoted as saying: “You know what we want? We want Asia.” But how do some view these American high-pressure tactics?

According to a New York Times correspondent, one Korean businessman railed “against American immorality for pushing American cigarettes on the Korean people.” And he has a valid point. While America wages a war against imports of cocaine and heroin that are basic to some other economies, it wants to off-load its own poisonous plant on other nations. Since America claims to have high ethical standards, is it consistent for it to foist on other nations, many in dire economic straits, its surplus of hazardous tobacco products?

Some Fight Back

Some African nations, such as Gambia, Mozambique, and Senegal, have banned cigarette advertising. Nigeria’s health minister stated last year that the Nigerian government was “going to ban all newspaper, radio, television and billboard advertising. We are going to ban smoking in all public places and transport.” Awake! was informed (January 1989) by a Nigerian information officer that this issue is still under debate.

China is a nation with 240 million smokers. By the year 2025, medical authorities expect to lose two million people each year as a result of smoking-related diseases. China has an enormous problem, as the magazine China Reconstructs admits: “Despite the Chinese government’s ban on cigarette advertising, frequent newspaper and magazine reports warning of the harmful effects of smoking, and the ever-increasing price of cigarettes, the number of smokers in China continues to rise.” And what is one of the results? “Cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases are now the chief killers in China.”

In some parts of China, it is considered a sign of hospitality to offer cigarettes when welcoming guests. But what a price the Chinese are paying! China Reconstructs reports: “Medical experts have warned that the incidence of lung cancer is increasing on a massive scale.” As one Chinese expert stated: “We are already paying too high a price.”

There is, however, another danger in the power of tobacco advertisers​—their subtle influence over the media.

[Picture on page 10]

Antismoking ad in Hong Kong

Tobacco and Censorship

“Enough Censorship! Freedom of speech​—including the freedom to advertise—​is a right we must preserve. A ban on cigarette advertising is not supported by the majority of Americans.”​—Newspaper ad, January 1989, based on “a nationwide telephone poll of 1500 adults.” But do 1,500 represent “the majority of Americans”?

TOBACCO advertisers argue that their ads do not initiate people into smoking. They just determine the distribution of the business among the different brands. However, the present increase among women smokers makes that claim disputable. But there is another pernicious influence that springs from the power wielded by the tobacco advertisers.

In recent years U.S. tobacco companies have bought themselves a certain respectability by buying up food companies and dropping the word tobacco from their corporate names. Thus, the American Tobacco Company became American Brands; R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company recently became RJR/​Nabisco; Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation became Brown and Williamson Industries. But what is one of the results of these changes? More advertising pressure. How so?

Even magazines that never feature tobacco ads have to think twice about publishing articles critical of smoking and tobacco products. True, tobacco advertising revenue may not be lost. But what about the other companies that now belong to the tobacco barons and advertise food or other products? And what about articles or statements that may cast smoking in a bad light? Here is the basis for a subtle, almost subliminal self-censorship.

An interesting case in point is the June 6, 1983, issue of Newsweek. Issues prior to and following that of June 6 carried from seven to ten pages of cigarette ads. But the June 6 Newsweek carried 4.3 pages on a controversial series entitled “Showdown on Smoking.” How many pages of cigarette ads did it carry in that issue? None. Author White states: “When the cigarette companies learned of plans for the story, they asked that their ads be removed. The magazine may have lost as much as $1 million in advertising for publishing that story.”

Advertising revenue is the lifeblood of magazines and newspapers. Evidence indicates that editors think very carefully about what material they will publish in criticism of the tobacco industry, if any. One health writer stated: “If I put smoking on a list of factors that cause heart disease, for example, my editor will either put it at the end of the list or drop it altogether.” As the saying goes, “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” Self-censorship has become the order of the day.

Interestingly, The Wall Street Journal reported that over a period of six years during which two black-oriented magazines were featuring tobacco ads, neither of them published any article dealing directly with smoking and health. Just a coincidence? Evidently, magazines that advertise tobacco products can hardly bite the hand that feeds them. So they refrain from exposing the dangers of smoking.

This review of the subject of tobacco, smoking, and advertising helps us to see that a lot is at stake. For the tobacco growers, their living is at stake. For the tobacco barons, the salesmen, their fat profits are at stake. For governments, their taxation revenue is at stake. And for the millions of smokers, their health and their lives are at stake.

If you are a smoker or you are contemplating starting smoking, the choice is yours. As the U.S. tobacco magnates like to remind you, it is your constitutional right to smoke. But remember, that means it is also your constitutional right to risk dying of lung or throat cancer, cardiovascular diseases, emphysema, Buerger’s disease (see box page 9), and a host of other deadly ailments. On the other hand, if you want to give up smoking, how can you do it? What is needed? Motivation!

[Picture on page 12]

U.S. surgeon general Koop has consistently warned against the dangers of tobacco use

[Credit Line]

Public Health Service photo

Smoking​—The Christian View

OBVIOUSLY, the Bible does not mention either tobacco or smoking, since they were unknown in the ancient Middle East. The simple reason is that the tobacco plant is native to South America, Mexico, and the West Indies and was not introduced to the rest of the world until the mid-16th century.

Does that mean that the Bible says nothing relevant to smoking? Not at all. It clearly states principles that have universal application and are guidelines for our conduct. What are some of these basic principles?

Love of God and Neighbor

The fundamental motivating force for a Christian has to be that which Jesus expressed: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength and with your whole mind,’ and, ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”​—Luke 10:27.

How can one render love to God with one’s whole heart, soul, mind, and strength if one is deliberately corroding one’s faculties by indulging in a habit, a vice, that leads to premature disease and death? How does one show appreciation for God’s gift of life when inhaling an addictive drug like nicotine? God gave “to all persons life and breath.” (Acts 17:24, 25) Should we pollute that God-given breath? From God’s viewpoint it truly is a vice, “an evil, degrading, or immoral practice or habit.”​—The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.

How does smoking show love for neighbor, when a smoker’s foul breath and smoke pollute clothing and the surrounding air? What about a smoker’s closest neighbors, his spouse and children? Is it love to pursue a course that might lead to an early, slow, and painful death that they must observe? Does it show Christian consideration for other people to oblige them to be passive smokers, inhaling a smoker’s poisonous exhalations? Little wonder that the botanical garden in Blanes, Spain, has the tobacco plant in its poisonous plants section!

What about love of self? It is legitimate to love oneself to the point of caring for one’s bodily, mental, and spiritual health. The apostle Paul stated that “no man ever hated his own flesh; but he feeds and cherishes it.” Does it show love of self to indulge in a habit that slowly subverts one’s health?​—Ephesians 5:28, 29.

Jehovah God has promised that there will be ‘new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness is to dwell.’ (2 Peter 3:13) That will be a clean new world, without pollution of any kind. Smoking will not be permitted or even desired then, so why smoke now? Logically, Paul’s counsel applies here: “Therefore, since we have these promises, beloved ones, let us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God’s fear.” (2 Corinthians 7:1) Nicotine defiles the flesh quite literally. Smoking makes it impossible for a Christian to present to God his body “a sacrifice living, holy, acceptable to God, a sacred service with [his] power of reason.” (Romans 12:1) The power of reason dictates that smoking is harmful and against Christian principles. There, then, is the primary motivation to quit smoking if one wants to please God.

Why Did They Quit?

Millions of people around the world have quit smoking. It can be done. But how? What is necessary? A powerful motivation. With many it is health, self-respect, and a love for the family. But others also have a religious motive​—a desire to please God.

So, what about Ray, Bill, Amy, and Harley, mentioned in our second article? Why did they quit smoking?

Bill, formerly a bearded, long-haired artist, studied the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. What next? “I decided I wanted to please God and serve him with a clean body and mind. I quit cold turkey. No gradual withdrawal. On January 1, 1975, I took my last drag on a cigarette and then threw away the cigarette pack. Since then my health has improved. I still have a touch of emphysema. But even my perception of color improved after I quit smoking.”

Amy, the surgical nurse, explains how she quit. “I assisted in open-heart surgery, and I have seen every kind of lung​—pink and healthy, dark and poisoned. Even though I saw those horribly sick lungs, looking as if they were impregnated with black peppers, I still did not give up smoking. I kidded myself, saying, ‘You’re still young. That won’t happen to you.’

“Then in 1982 I felt the need to straighten out my life, and I started to study the Bible with the Witnesses. Even though I stayed with a Witness in her home, I used to sneak out onto the roof to have a smoke! So I had to come to grips with myself. I prayed hard and long. But once I had made the decision, it was easy. The first two days were a test, but constant prayer was the key for me.”

Harley, the former Navy flyer, had a hard time breaking the nicotine habit. “I tried to taper off my smoking, but it didn’t work. Then when I decided I wanted to be baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I went cold turkey. I went through two or three days of agony. I was nervous, tense, and uptight. How I wanted a cigarette! Then a Witness helped me with some fine counsel. ‘When you want to reach for a cigarette, that is when you must pray to Jehovah for help.’ It worked for me. Another thought that impressed me was, ‘Could I imagine Jesus with a cigarette in his mouth?’ It was out of the question. But I realize that a smoker needs a powerful motivation to quit. I used to say to my mother, ‘I’m only hurting myself, Mom.’ In fact I was hurting her too, in more ways than one.”

Ray, the former Navy quartermaster, also did not find it easy to stop smoking. “I had tried a few times before I met Jehovah’s Witnesses, but it never worked. I was always mixing with smoking people, and it was hard to refuse the proffered cigarette. But when I got to know the truth from the Bible, I wanted to serve Jehovah, even as Christ had done. So I quit in one day. It was miserable for two weeks. My body was crying out for nicotine. But what a change it made! I suddenly had boundless energy again. I felt good about myself. I was in charge again.”

Is It Worth It?

Common sense indicates that any harmful practice should be dropped. But with smoking we are not talking about just harmful. It is deadly, death-dealing. It is poisonous. As Patrick Reynolds, the tobacco fortune heir, stated in his testimony to a U.S. Congress subcommittee: “I believe that cigarette advertising is promotion of a poisonous product and that it is moral, right and good to eliminate all advertising of cigarettes.”

For Christians wishing to please God, it is certainly moral, right, and good to eliminate, not just tobacco advertising, but all tobacco products from their lives. Cigarettes (“safe” and unsafe), cigars, pipe tobacco, and snuff​—they all come from the same poisonous, nicotine-producing tobacco plant. And you don’t need it to prove ‘you’ve come a long way, baby’ or to have enjoyment and fine taste in your life. Sophistication is not displayed by self-poisoning, regardless of what the salesmen of disease and death try to tell you!

[Box on page 15]

Defectors From the Smoking Trade

In 1875 R. J. Reynolds established a chewing-tobacco company in North Carolina. In 1913 they made their first cigarette​—the Camel brand. From there the business has prospered to become second only to Philip Morris in the cigarette sales and earnings league in the United States. The great-grandson of the founder is Patrick Reynolds, now in his early 40’s. Formerly a smoker for 15 years, he dropped a bombshell on the tobacco world.

In 1986 he appeared before a congressional subcommittee to testify against smoking! Since then he has become a regular campaigner against tobacco usage. What triggered his antipathy to the product that made his family’s fortune? Remembering watching as a boy as his father, a heavy smoker, slowly died of emphysema. Patrick stated: “My memories of my father are all of a man always short of breath, and counting the time he had left to live.”

Patrick decided to do something positive with his life. “I saw I could make a difference and do something with my life.” He said that to continue to promote “proven killers” would be “plainly immoral.”

“If the hand that once fed me is the tobacco industry, then that same hand has killed millions of people and will continue to kill millions more unless people wake up to the hazards of cigarettes.”​—The New York Times, October 25, 1986.

David Goerlitz is the model who was famous for being the Winston man on Winston cigarette ads. He has given up his cigarette advertising and has now become a spokesman for the American Cancer Society. What made him change? In an interview on TV, December 29, 1988, he said: ‘I visited my brother in a cancer ward at a hospital in Boston. It brought me face-to-face with the effects of my work​—cancer patients who were suffering because of smoking. I saw the devastating effects to the victims of smoking and the victims of the victims, their families. I saw men in their 40’s with no hair, tubes in their throats and stomachs. I felt guilty and decided to quit advertising tobacco.’

[Picture on page 14]

“I assisted in open-heart surgery, and I have seen every kind of lung”

Ten Ways to Stop Smoking

1. Be truly motivated. Have good solid reasons for wanting to quit​—self-esteem; concern for your health, present and future; concern for loved ones affected by your dangerous habit; desire to be clean, physically and morally, before self and God.

2. Set a date to quit, and follow it. Go cold turkey; it hurts fast, but it heals fast.

3. Take positive action to break the habit. Break up any cigarettes in the house, and pour water over them. Get all your tobacco-smelling clothing cleaned. Start afresh, feel fresh!

4. Avoid tobacco-laden atmosphere and smoking friends while completing total withdrawal from nicotine. Visit places where smoking is forbidden, such as museums and libraries.

5. Save the money you would have spent on tobacco and count it after a month! Buy something you really need. Or buy a gift for a loved one who can also rejoice in your victory.

6. Keep yourself and your hands busy in those moments when you would normally reach for a cigarette. Chew gum (not nicotine gum) or suck mints when the desire to smoke gnaws at you. Instead of smoking, clean teeth after meals. Take a walk, write letters, sew, garden, repair things, clean the car, and so on.

7. When feeling nervous or under stress, breathe deeply and slowly. Rather than reach for a cigarette, drink plenty of water and fruit juices. Liquids cleanse.

8. Exercise within your physical limits. Check with your doctor first as to what is reasonable. Your improving physical condition will encourage you.

9. Cut down on alcohol intake. Alcohol and cigarettes often “go together,” since alcohol can trigger the desire to smoke. Cut the social occasions when this might happen. View tobacco ads critically​—analyze their superficiality and duplicity. Don’t be taken in again.

10. If you are contemplating becoming one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, pray earnestly to God for help and then act in accordance with your prayers. Don’t expect a miracle; just make it happen.

Young People Ask . . .

Gossip​—What’s the Harm in It?

“They [adolescents] . . . spend their time hanging around places gossiping with one another.”​—Socrates, c. 400 B.C.E.

‘HAVE you heard the latest?’ ‘Guess what?’ ‘Wait till you hear this!’ ‘Can you keep a secret?’ These are all common preludes to the passing on of private, tantalizing, or even spectacular news about others​—a habit commonly known as gossiping.

As in Socrates’ day, youths are still particularly fond of the habit, and researchers call gossip a universal phenomenon that cuts across race, age, and culture. Why, according to the Journal of Communication, even small children gossip, “practically from the time they can talk and can begin to recognize others.”

Gossip is strictly a female habit, right? Wrong! Researchers Levin and Arluke analyzed the conversations of a group of male and female college students. The result? Males proved to be just as gossip-prone as females!

Just why, though, do we find gossip so appealing? Is there good reason to be wary of it?

Gossip​—Good, Bad, and Ugly

Gossip is idle talk. Invariably, though, it focuses, not on things, but on the foibles, failures, triumphs, and misfortunes of people. Such talk need not necessarily be harmful or malicious. After all, it is human nature to be interested in other people. The Bible even exhorts us to ‘keep an eye, not in personal interest upon just our own matters, but also in personal interest upon those of the others.’​—Philippians 2:4.

Carefully controlled, then, gossip may simply be an exchange of useful information. How do you learn, for example, that Mrs. Jones is sick and needs help with her shopping, that your friend John is depressed over losing his after-school job, or that your neighbor Sally is moving away? Through some formal announcement? No, more often than not, these things are learned through informal chatter​—gossip, if you want.

The original Greek word used in the Bible for “gossipers” came from a verb that meant to “overflow with words.” (1 Timothy 5:13; A Greek-English Lexicon, by Liddell and Scott) We are reminded of the words at Proverbs 10:19: “In the abundance of words there does not fail to be transgression, but the one keeping his lips in check is acting discreetly.” The golden rule in conversation means thinking before you speak!

The line between harmless and harmful gossip can be treacherously thin. Announcing that ‘John no longer works at the mall’ can be just a short hop away from adding that ‘John just can’t seem to hold on to a job’​—a flirtation with slander! Even attempts to say something nice about someone often go awry. The statement, ‘Judy is the brightest student in class,’ can easily be followed with, ‘But have you noticed the way she dresses?’ And all too often, gossip can become downright ugly, the vehicle for transmitting slanderous lies and rumors about someone.

Negative Gossip​—Why It Occurs

Why, then, does gossip so often lean toward the negative? For one thing, ‘the heart is treacherous,’ and negative talk often satisfies certain selfish emotional needs.​—Jeremiah 17:9.

“It makes you feel important to know something that others don’t know,” admits young Connie. And very often that “something” is quite an unflattering piece of information about someone else. Others seem to feel that spotlighting the flaws and mistakes of others obscures their own defects. For yet others, gossip is a tool to promote their own popularity. They strive to be in the know so that they can be the first to tell others. To enjoy this brief moment in the limelight, they will betray their best friend’s confidence. Remember, the person who talks to you about others will usually talk about you to others.

Gossip can be used as a convenient means of venting anger, hurt, and jealousy. Some will even resort to fabricating untruth in order to inflict pain on someone toward whom they feel ill will. (Compare Proverbs 26:28.) Thus, one girl spread a rumor that a schoolmate was pregnant​—apparently because the schoolmate was dating a boy that she also liked.

Often, negative gossip results not so much from malice as from thoughtlessness. Admitted one teenager: “Sometimes I realize that what I’m about to say probably isn’t 100% true, but it’s almost like an addiction. I say things before I can stop myself​—and a lot of times it all comes back to me later.”

Negative Gossip​—A Two-Edged Sword

Whatever its motivation, negative gossip is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it can cause irreparable damage to the name and reputation of another person. As ’Teen magazine observed: “If you gossip about other people, criticize, break confidences, exaggerate or even outright lie, you’re probably jeopardizing or destroying relationships​—and quite possibly hindering new friendships from forming as well.” Or as the Bible puts it: “The one covering over transgression is seeking love, and he that keeps talking about a matter is separating those familiar with one another.”​—Proverbs 17:9; compare Proverbs 16:28.

On the other hand, gossip can also backfire and damage the gossiper. Instead of winning listening ears, gossip can breed distrust. “No one who gossips can be trusted with a secret,” says Proverbs 11:13. (Today’s English Version) And the one spoken about is sure to be unhappy if and when he learns that a confidence has been exposed or a fault broadcast. “Gossip brings anger just as surely as the north wind brings rain,” says Proverbs 25:23.​—TEV.

One who speaks disparagingly of others also risks damaging his relationship with God. Often the loose talk amounts to slander. And Jehovah fellowships only with one who “has not slandered with his tongue. To his companion he has done nothing bad.” (Psalm 15:1, 3) However, when we spread an unfounded rumor, we may actually become a party to a lie​—something that Jehovah God hates.​—Proverbs 6:16, 17.

Avoiding the Gossip Trap

It’s next to impossible to stop talking about other people​—at least entirely. But many problems can be averted if you apply the golden rule: “All things, therefore, that you want men to do to you, you also must likewise do to them.”​—Matthew 7:12.

This means refusing to listen to harmful gossip! “With one that is enticed with his lips you must have no fellowship,” advises the Bible. (Proverbs 20:19) If you listen to malicious or damaging talk, you condone it. As a youth named Rosalyn puts it: ‘People who listen to gossip just encourage the gossipers.’ Besides, there is always the chance you will find the ‘juicy tidbit’ too appealing to keep to yourself and become part of a hurtful chain of slander.

So try to shut down negative talk. This does not necessarily mean giving a sermon on the evils of harmful gossip. But you can try changing the subject, steering the conversation in a new direction, or saying something complimentary about the one being discussed. If the hurtful talk continues, take that as your cue to excuse yourself from the conversation.

Yes, something may very well be true​—not to mention titillating and exciting, but does it really need to be said? Will it offend, slander, insult, or embarrass? Would you say it to the person’s face? How would you feel if someone said it about you? “The tongue of wise ones does good with knowledge,” says Proverbs 15:2, “but the mouth of the stupid ones bubbles forth with foolishness.”

So keep your lips in check. It is said that great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about things, and small minds talk about people! Branch out in your conversation. There are many things​—including spiritual matters—​that can provide far better conversational fuel than empty, hurtful gossip.a

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 18]

The gossiper often enjoys being the center of attention

[Picture on page 19]

If you listen to malicious or damaging talk, you condone it

1914​—A Watershed Year

IT WAS 75 years ago this summer that a single gunshot snuffed out the life of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. Simultaneously, it set off a chain of events that resulted in our planet’s first global war​—July 28, 1914.

Writers and historians point again and again to that dreadful war (and to the year that saw it ignite) as a watershed, turning point, or dividing line in human history. Was 1914 really such a year for humanity?

Note what John Wilson writes in The Globe and Mail of Toronto, Ontario, Canada: “The First World War stands as a landmark in modern history.” Though all that remains of that global conflagration are grass-grown trenches, rusty shells, memorials, and cemeteries, Mr. Wilson observes that time has done nothing to soften the importance of 1914 as a watershed year.

“The Victorian idea of an orderly progression toward the best of all possible worlds collapsed in the horror of 10 million dead,” says Wilson. “Today’s pragmatism and cynicism grew out of the futility and mud of Vimy and Flanders [in northern France and Belgium]. We can relate to the flappers of the twenties or the dispossessed farmers of the thirties with much greater ease than we can [to] the empire builders or moralists of pre-1914. The Great War is a watershed, . . . the other side of which is a foreign past stretching back into history.”

But it is what has happened since 1914 that proves its status as a watershed year. Far from being “the war to end all wars” that it purported to be, World War I merely introduced the world to a new kind of warfare. From its embers blazed forth World War II​—yet another anniversary for 1989. Fifty years ago, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the second world war began. Killing as many as 55 million people, it actually dwarfed World War I and introduced new, awesome fears to the human psyche; nor did it end war. Since 1945 some 150 wars have killed nearly 20 million people!

In 1914 humanity entered a grim age. As writer Wilson puts matters: “It is sobering to remember that, for all the horror of the trenches, society after 1918 was concerned with burying the dead in orderly rows and memorializing them. We live under the threat of a global destruction unimaginable to the soldiers who stormed up Vimy Ridge. If there is another world war, who will build the memorials to its dead?”

Long before 1914, faithful Bible Students (as Jehovah’s Witnesses were then known) were already pointing ahead to that year as a watershed in human history. According to the most reliable Bible chronology, this entire world system of things entered a new phase in 1914, the climactic era that the Bible refers to as “the last days.”​—2 Timothy 3:1-5; Matthew 24:1-14.

However, the Bible marks this “last days” period as more than just a time of trouble. It is also a time of hope. Far from allowing man to destroy himself in a final world war, God promises to step in and wage war against all who fill the earth with violence. All weapons of war will then be permanently destroyed. From then onward, all mankind will learn the ways of peace, not war. (Isaiah 2:2-4; Luke 21:28; Revelation 16:14) What a change! Surely, that will be the greatest watershed in all human history.

Religion’s Future in View of Its Past

Part 13​—476 C.E. onward​—Out of Darkness, Something “Holy”

“Sins committed in the dark are seen in Heaven like sheets of fire.”​—Chinese proverb

IN APRIL 1988 the Church in the Soviet Union rejoiced to hear General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev publicly state that mistakes made by the State in its relationship with the Church and its members were to be corrected.

A rift of another kind also seemed to be on its way to settlement when Roman Catholic pope John Paul II sent greetings to the “thousand-year-old sister church as an expression of the heartfelt desire to achieve that perfect union that Christ wanted and that is basic to the nature of the Church.” But how did a breach between ‘sister churches’ come about in the first place?

Loss of a Unity That Never Was

Early in the fourth century, after becoming emperor of the Roman Empire, Constantine the Great moved its capital from Rome to the Greek city of Byzantium, located on the shores of the Bosporus. It was renamed Constantinople, and we today know it as Istanbul, Turkey. The move was designed to unite an empire threatened with dismemberment. In fact, as early as the latter half of the second century, “the blueprint for a divided empire had already been sketched in outline, no matter how faintly,” notes The New Encyclopædia Britannica.

Christianity had spread through the eastern part of the empire faster and more readily than through the western part. So Constantine saw in a universal (catholic) religion a force for unity. But even as the empire was basically split, so also was its religion. The Eastern church was more conservative than the one centered in Rome, and it resisted the theological innovations Rome offered. “Right up to the twelfth century there would be many political and theological disputes between the two churches,” says The Collins Atlas of World History.

One of these theological disputes involved the Nicene Creed, which furthered the development of the unscriptural Trinity doctrine. As developed by the first three general councils held by the church (Nicaea in 325 C.E., Constantinople in 381 C.E., Ephesus in 431 C.E.), the creed spoke of the “Holy Ghost . . . who proceedeth from the Father.” But at a council in the sixth century, the Western church changed the phrase to read “who proceedeth from the Father and the Son.” This issue of the filioque (Latin for “and the son”) was, and still is, a point of dispute between these “Christian” sister churches.

Disunity became more apparent when the western empire ended in 476 C.E., marking the start of the Dark Ages. As regards Christianity, the Dark Ages were indeed an era of intellectual darkness and ignorance. The gospel light of Christianity had been, for the time being, overwhelmed by the darkness of Christendom.

Religious darkness is not conducive to unity. “The various sections of the Christian world were constantly seeking for a unity which was never achieved,” says former Canon of Canterbury Herbert Waddams. “It was not a case of full unity which was later broken,” he says, adding that “the idea that Christendom was once one great united Church is a figment of the imagination.”

A “Child” Is Born

The “child” born in 800 C.E. on Christmas Day grew up to be called holy. It was a restored western empire born after Pope Leo III broke with the Eastern church and crowned Charlemagne, king of the Franks, emperor. After a short interruption, the western empire was revived in 962 C.E. and later became known by a more pretentious title, Holy Roman Empire.

Actually, the name Roman Empire was a misnomer. The bulk of its territory, present-day Germany, Austria, western Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, eastern France, and the Low Countries, lay outside Italy. German lands and German rulers predominated, so its official name was later changed to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.

The empire mixed religion with politics. Collier’s Encyclopedia explains that the idea was “that there should be a single political head in the world, working in harmony with the universal Church, each with its own sphere and authority derived from God.” But the line of demarcation was not always clear, thus leading to controversies. Particularly between the mid-11th and the mid-13th centuries, Church and State contended for European leadership. Some feel that religion’s involvement in politics was unselfish and justified, but as author Waddams admits, “there is little doubt that papal ambition for power did play an important part in the development.”

During its last century and a half of existence, the empire degenerated into a loose collection of nations under the shaky control of a common emperor. Most appropriate during this phase of its history are the words of French writer Voltaire, who said that it was “neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” Finally, in 1806, gray with age and with nothing to recommend it for sainthood, the “holy child” died. In 1871 it was revived in the Second Reich (German for “empire”) but collapsed in 1918, less than 50 years later. And in 1933, Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich began its goose-step through Europe, only to come to an inglorious end in 1945 in the ruins of Berlin.

Germanic Influences in the West

The German reference work Meyers Illustrierte Weltgeschichte (Meyer’s Illustrated World History) calls “the three pillars upon which Europe’s Middle Ages rest . . . the heritage of classical antiquity in its late Roman mintage, Christianity, and finally the traditions taken over by the Germanic peoples from their ancestors.” In corroboration, German author Emil Nack says: “The old Germanic annual festivals were often continued in the form of Christian holidays, since the church, as advised by Pope Gregory the Great, transformed many a pagan festival into a Christian one.”

Observance of these religious festivals did not imply a deep sense of religiousness among Germanic peoples. Andreas Heusler, deceased authority on Germanic religion, describes it as being a religion that “forbade very little and demanded nothing of difficulty, including any mythological orthodoxy. A person was considered pious if he made his sacrifices, paid his temple tax, did not dishonor the sanctuary, and wrote no verses of mockery about the gods.” He concludes: “It was hardly religious ardor. . . . A German’s idealism did not lie in his religion.”

Although ancient Germanic peoples believed in gods, they felt that there was actually a still higher power, one that had created the gods. This was “the power of fate,” explains author Nack, which, he says, was “not swayed by sacrifices or prayers.” Notwithstanding, fate was not viewed as “blindly arbitrary,” since it operated in accordance with natural laws. So a person was viewed as “a free agent, not a victim.”

Germanic religion had its roots in nature. Sacrifices were often held outdoors, in groves and forests. A Germanic myth speaks of a cosmic tree called Yggdrasill, where the gods daily held court. The Encyclopedia of Religion describes it: “[It rose] to the sky, and its branches spread over the entire world. . . . The symbolism of the tree is . . . mirrored in other traditions. In ancient Babylonia, for example, a cosmic tree, Kiskanu, grew in a holy place. . . . In ancient India, the universe is symbolized by an inverted tree. . . . [But] there is no proof of any Judeo-Christian element in the concept of Yggdrasill.”

In view of this background, it is not surprising that in countries that have been strongly influenced by Germanic religion, people are often fatalistic, not very religious, and prone to say: ‘Nature is my god!’ It is also understandable that many of the pagan customs Germanic religion introduced into Christendom are nature-oriented. Christmas customs, such as using lights and mistletoe, burning the Yule log, or displaying a Christmas tree, are just a few examples.

Meanwhile, in the East

Always at odds with the Western church, the Eastern church was not at peace with itself either, as illustrated by the iconoclastic controversy. Icons, differing from the three-dimensional images, such as statues common in the Western church, are religious images or pictures on a flat surface, including raised work. They generally depict Christ, Mary, or a “saint.” They became so popular in the East that, according to John S. Strong of Bates College, they came “to be viewed as direct mirrors or impressions of the figures they represented, [and] . . . were thus thought to be filled with sacred and potentially miraculous power.” Nevertheless, in the early eighth century, Byzantine emperor Leo III prohibited their use. The controversy was not finally settled until 843 C.E., since which time the use of icons has been sanctioned in the Eastern church.

Another example of Eastern disunity comes from Egypt. While some Egyptian Catholics spoke Coptic, others spoke Greek, the two language groups disagreeing on the nature of Christ. Even though Byzantine authorities refused to admit it, this led to the de facto existence of two separate churches. All the while, each faction tried to maneuver one of its bishops into the position of patriarch of Alexandria.

Today, the Eastern church is still divided. Some churches of Eastern rite, known as Uniates, accept, for example, the jurisdiction of Rome’s pope. The Eastern Orthodox Churches and the so-called lesser Eastern churches, on the other hand, do not.

Like Sheets of Fire

Long before the unholy, scarcely Roman non-Empire ended, “a legacy of hatred of Christians for other Christians had been implanted deep in the hearts of the Christian East,” says Anglican churchman Waddams. Certainly, the sin of “Christian” hating “Christian,” even if committed in darkness, did not go unnoticed in heaven but was as obvious as sheets of fire.

Furthermore, Christendom’s sin of a divided house did not go unnoticed on earth. For example, a certain outstanding Arab of the seventh century C.E., who “knew a good deal about Christianity from his travels and from people close to him,” says clergyman Waddams, was not impressed by “the disputes which he observed among Christians.” This man sought a way better than the one offered by disunited Christendom. Did he find it? Today in 1989, fully 17 percent of the world population champion his cause. Who this man was and how he felt about “Submitting to God’s Will” our next issue will answer.

[Map on page 24]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

At the fall of the Roman Empire (476 C.E.), Christendom was divided under six competing bishops​—Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Salamis (Cyprus)

Rome

Constantinople

Antioch

Salamis

Jerusalem

Alexandria

[Picture on page 23]

An icon (religious image) of Jesus and Mary

[Credit Line]

Pictorial Archive (Near Eastern History) Est.

Who Are the Real Evildoers?

THE Bible states that lies are the hallmark of Satan. In Jesus’ day the Jewish clergy promulgated lies against him. Times have not changed.​—John 8:44.

The enemies of Jehovah’s Witnesses are constantly using lies and smear tactics to try to counteract the Witnesses’ preaching work. In Socialist countries the lie is that the Witnesses are evil agents of the United States CIA! One Catholic Sandinista supporter, on a flight from London to New York, snarled that baseless accusation to an Awake! correspondent seated next to him. Yet, every informed person knows that the Witnesses are totally neutral in politics.​—John 17:16; 18:36.

On the other hand, in Catholic countries other lies have been used to defame the Witnesses. In the past they were accused of being evil Communist agents. Recently near Caracas, Venezuela, a bizarre accusation was leveled against some Witnesses. It was falsely reported in the paper Ultimas Notícias that a Witness had been raped and killed by three other Witnesses in a satanic rite! A local priest heaped fuel on the fire of scandal by telling his parishioners, ‘This shows you what kind of people these Jehovah’s Witnesses are.’ What was the truth of the matter?

The woman in question had died of a cerebral hemorrhage and opposers had invented the rape story. Later, an interview and full retraction were published in the same paper.

But what happened to the priest who had exploited this lie? The same day that the denial was published, he was questioned on television. The subject? He had been caught trying to smuggle 46 pounds [21 kg] of cocaine to Spain. It was not his first offense. He confessed to getting involved in drug smuggling first in 1984 through his contacts with an ex-priest who was also a drug trafficker. The report in the magazine Auténtico stated that the police were afraid the priest would be freed and would flee the country as the other priest did, who “was permitted to escape to a house he bought in Miami [Florida, U.S.A.] with the drug money.”

What did the archbishop of Caracas, Cardinal Lebrún, have to say about his criminal priest? “It is my duty to state that father José Luis Gil is not an evildoer.” However, the law’s definition of an evildoer differs from that of the archbishop, and the priest was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The Bible also has a clear definition of an evildoer: “You know perfectly well that people who do wrong will not inherit the kingdom of God: people of immoral lives, . . . thieves, usurers, . . . and swindlers will never inherit the kingdom of God.” “None of you should ever deserve to suffer for being a murderer, a thief, a criminal.”​—1 Corinthians 6:9, 10; 1 Peter 4:15; The Jerusalem Bible (Catholic).

When a priest commits a crime, he is usually transferred to another parish, as has occurred in recent cases of priestly child molesters in the United States. The Biblical norm for unrepentant, unchanged, immoral persons is disfellowshipping, or excommunication. Only in that way can the Christian congregation remain free of willful evildoers.​—1 Corinthians 5:11, 12.

The Bible’s Viewpoint

Homosexuality​—Why Not?

“I don’t think God really cares about one’s sexual orientation. He cares how we lead our lives. And sex is not the point.”​—Member of a homosexual Bible-study group.

A GROWING number of people accept homosexuality as just an alternative life-style. Does God agree?

While many people have changed their view and others are undecided, the Bible’s viewpoint is crystal clear: “You will not have intercourse with a man as you would with a woman. This is a hateful thing,” states the Bible. (Leviticus 18:22, The New Jerusalem Bible) No apologies, no concessions, no ambiguity​—homosexuality is detestable in God’s sight.a For ancient Israelites living under the Mosaic Law, the penalty was death. (Leviticus 20:13) And with the advent of Christianity, God’s condemnation of homosexuality continued.​—1 Corinthians 6:9, 10.

God Is Opposed​—Why?

But why is God so adamantly opposed to it? One reason is stated at Isaiah 48:17: “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.” Those words come from the Author of the universal laws of nature. He knows our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual makeup. He opposes homosexuality because, among other things, it does not benefit the individual. A review of the apostle Paul’s letter to Christians living in Rome confirms this. He wrote:

“That is why God gave them up to disgraceful sexual appetites, for both their females changed the natural use of themselves into one contrary to nature; and likewise even the males left the natural use of the female and became violently inflamed in their lust toward one another, males with males, working what is obscene and receiving in themselves the full recompense, which was due for their error. And just as they did not approve of holding God in accurate knowledge, God gave them up to a disapproved mental state, to do the things not fitting.”​—Romans 1:26-28.

Note, homosexuality is called not only “disgraceful,” “obscene,” and “not fitting” but also “contrary to nature.” Regarding these verses, a report from the Church of England says: “What Paul means by ‘unnatural’ is ‘unnatural’ to mankind in God’s creation pattern. All homosexual behaviour is a divergence from God’s creation scheme.” Anthropologist Weston LaBarre called it a “frustration of one’s own and others’ essential biological nature.” This concurs with the meaning of the Greek word used in the Bible and translated “natural” or, “according to nature.”

It is no surprise that any “divergence from God’s creation scheme” reaps bad results (as man’s miserable record with the environment has shown). Homosexuals ‘receive in themselves the full recompense, which is due for their error.’ In other words, their life becomes a life of unnatural sexual aberration; hence, a life devoid of God’s approval. In addition, they may suffer physical harm because of their perversions.b

Bad Fruitage

Paul also says that homosexuals would be “violently inflamed [literally, burned out] in their lust toward one another.” While wrong thinking can fan wrong desires even in heterosexual relations, it seems that with the anticipation of depraved sexual relations, the wanton lust burns even stronger. “A Perilous Double Love Life,” an article published in Newsweek magazine, said: “Men and women bisexuals alike often talk of the ‘intense’ arousal, the ‘different energy’ they experience with their own sex. James remembers it as being ‘like sky diving. It was intoxicating, a high.’” Being thus inflamed, many homosexuals have multiple partners (some have hundreds), and for some their compulsion drives them to have sex many times a day, even with complete strangers. This promiscuity not only leads to communicable diseases, such as hepatitis, but fosters jealousy, insecurity, and unhappiness, even as it does in promiscuous heterosexual relationships.

Once a person submits to “covetous sexual appetite,” he can become enslaved. (1 Thessalonians 4:5) To what extent? Referring to AIDS, one homosexual admitted: “Even faced with a miserable, awful death, the sex drive is a strong drive.” This calls to mind the Bible’s warning: “Do not let sin continue to rule as king in your mortal bodies that you should obey their desires.”​—Romans 6:12.

Since sexual immorality is based largely on self-gratification, it often leads to more debased acts. And fallen human nature being what it is, once an act becomes commonplace, its excitement tends to wane. Thus, some homosexuals have gone on to sadomasochism and other vile practices.c One Bible commentary says that “the effect of such base and unnatural passions . . . tended to debase the mind; to sink man below the level of the brute; to destroy the sensibility.” A Bible scholar grouped homosexuality with “crimes, which were utterly inconsistent with reason, nature, and their own and each other’s welfare.”

Bible Standards Bring Peace

We can be grateful that God does not change his standards just to satisfy the passing fancies or perverted desires of men. Even as he does not approve of polluting the earth or of lying simply because more people want to do it, so he does not condone homosexuality though many espouse it with zeal. No matter what course men promote, Jehovah wants us to honor him and benefit ourselves.

Thankfully, some have rejected such practices and lined up with “the healthful teaching” found in God’s Word. (1 Timothy 1:10; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11) As one former practicing homosexual stated: “What brings me pleasure is that I now have a clean conscience, and I know that I am living a life that is pleasing to Almighty God.”

[Footnotes]

Watching the World

A BAD YEAR FOR RELIGION

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, people in the United States are losing their respect for organized religion. Gallup surveys in 1988 showed that, compared to 1986, more Americans had lost confidence in the ethics of the clergy and felt that religion was losing its influence on society. The report noted that the disillusionment was most marked among minorities and Evangelical, or “born-again,” Christians, citing as apparent causes the scandals involving such television preachers as Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker.

FOUL AIR

According to The Star of Johannesburg, more sulfur rains down from the skies above the eastern Transvaal of South Africa than anywhere in the Western world. The sulfur fallout comes mostly from coal-fired power-generating stations and could possibly be as high as 149 tons per square mile annually [57.5 tons per sq km]. That would be eight times worse than in West Germany, where similar fallout has already done “irreversible damage to forests, crops and buildings.” Sulfur is a key ingredient of acid rain. One study found the rain in the eastern Transvaal to be about as acidic as vinegar. Since South Africa’s weather patterns tend to keep pollution trapped near the earth, many are concerned over the health threats involved. Parents fear for their children. The Saturday Star notes that the smog is causing “one of the highest rates of ear, nose and throat complaints in the world.”

PET ABUSE AND CHILD ABUSE

A recent study showed that abuse of animals in a home may be a sign that child abuse is going on under the same roof, reports the U.S. magazine Parents. Of 57 families troubled with child abuse, some 88 percent also abused their animals. Usually it was a parent who was abusing a pet, but abused children may also turn and vent their anger on animals. The organization that conducted the study urged parents, teachers, and others to take children seriously when they tell of animal abuse in their homes. Suggested the article: “Teach children that any kind of abuse is wrong.”

“PAID TO REMAIN SILENT”

An AMA (Australian Medical Association) survey of women’s magazines, published over an average five-year period, revealed that magazines carrying cigarette advertising appeared to censor material that exposed the harmful health effects of smoking. Of the magazines surveyed, there were ten times as many articles on weight loss and diet as there were on smoking. The AMA secretary-general accused the magazines of deliberately ignoring the dangers of smoking and renewed a call for tobacco advertising to be banned. “The magazines are being paid to remain silent and they are remaining silent,” he said. “That is disgracefully irresponsible.”

A BIG BORER FOR THE SOVIETS

A giant tunnel-boring machine has been assembled in Richmond, Canada, for a hydroelectric project in the Soviet Union, reports The Vancouver Sun. The big borer weighs in at 660 tons and is 92 feet [28 m] long. Its 59 steel alloy disc cutters, set in a 28-foot [8.5 m] diameter cutterhead, can carve through hard rock at up to 4 inches [10 cm] per minute. The mechanical mole’s ten electric motors develop a total of 2,800 horsepower. It will be used to bore two 3.4-mile [5.5 km] tunnels for the Irganaisk hydroelectric project in the Caucasus Mountains. Six similar boring machines are presently tunneling under the English Channel.​—See Awake! April 22, 1989.

SOCCER VOODOO

What secret “weapon” does the Bahia Sports Club, winner of Brazil’s 1988 Union Cup for soccer, use to guarantee victory? “Mysticism,” reports the Brazilian magazine Veja. Before each game, the team’s masseur and dresser prepares a bath of lavender sap and another of garlic for the players. “If I forget to prepare this bath, the players demand it,” he says. Also, before the players run out to the playing field, he places a clove of garlic in each sock. “True, voodoo does not win the game,” the masseur admits. “But it does have a strong psychological effect and also serves to frighten the opposing players.”

INTERESTING ADVICE FOR MOTHER

When a Roman Catholic mother wrote for advice to a Catholic priest who edits a regular column in the Australian newspaper Sunday Telegraph, she received a reply that was probably unexpected. Her letter expressed sadness because her eldest married daughter, though raised a Catholic, had become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The cleric’s answer had some interesting advice. In part he wrote: “She must be free . . . in making her own way through life. Take some comfort from the fact that she is practising a religion. Better to be a practising Jehovah’s Witness than a non-practising Catholic.”

PRISON REPEATERS

Almost 63 percent of all prisoners released from state prisons in the United States were arrested again for a serious crime within three years, according to a recent Justice Department report. Freed prisoners younger than 25 years of age who had been arrested 11 or more times had the highest recidivism rate​—94 percent of them were rearrested.

WHERE THE BICYCLE REIGNS

In just one year, China produced some 41 million bicycles, reports Asiaweek magazine. That means 3,400 bicycles were produced for every car made. By contrast, the United States made only 82 bicycles for every 100 cars it turned out. And those bicycles were “for the most part flashy ten-speed machines built to last an adolescent a season or two of exuberance,” the magazine remarks. The Chinese find bicycles to be eminently practical. “Cycling requires one-third of the energy of walking. A small automobile consumes 50 times as much energy as a man riding a bicycle,” according to Asiaweek.

HAPPINESS​—SINGLE OR MARRIED?

In the past, studies in the United States have shown that married people, as a whole, reported higher levels of personal happiness than the unmarried. This may be changing. More recent data collected from 13 national surveys conducted from 1972 through 1986 by the National Opinion Research Center suggests that there is a decline in the marital status-happiness relationship. While in 1972, 38 percent of those married said they were “very happy” with their lives, in 1986 those figures had fallen to 31 percent. Yet, among the unmarried, the number who said they were “very happy” rose from 15 percent in 1972 to 27 percent in 1986.

KILLER SODA MACHINES

Rocking a soda vending machine back and forth to dislodge a soda is more than a senseless prank. It can be quite deadly. One U.S. Army doctor writes in The Journal of the American Medical Association that he knew of 15 young men injured by falling soda machines in just over two years. Three of them died. The injuries occurred, the doctor notes, because the soda machines are top-heavy when fully loaded, so that some determined pulling or rocking will bring the machine crashing down. Once a machine is rocked forward too far, it may strike with a force of up to a thousand pounds [450 kg] at the top front of the machine. Victims who survived were astonished at how heavy the machines were.

From Our Readers

Ozone Shield Thank you for your informative article. (January 22, 1989) I have become acquainted with this problem through earlier issues of your magazine and have decided that wherever possible, I will avoid using substances that aggravate this problem, such as aerosols and articles made of foamed plastic.

G. C., Republic of South Africa

Christians today should respect mankind’s common environment. However, it is not always practical or even possible to avoid entirely the use of polluting products. The only long-term solution to the problem of pollution is the management of earth by God’s Kingdom. (Revelation 11:18)​—ED.

Kingdom Recordings I thought I should point out an error in your article. (January 8, 1989) One of the musicians quoted therein said that their efforts fell short musically of what could be done by a professional symphony orchestra. I have to disagree. It may not be professional, but it sounds like it​—truly a work of art.

R. L., United States

Christmas Awake! raised the question as to whether Christmas is Christian. (December 8, 1988) Some, who are Christians in name only, celebrate it by drinking bouts and revelry, and I agree that in this way Christmas is pagan. But for many, Christmas is celebrated by fraternizing in church with friends. Is this wrong?

E. L. L., Brazil

No doubt many endeavor to celebrate the supposed date of Jesus’ birth in a dignified way. Nevertheless, the article gave clear evidence that (1) Jesus never authorized any such celebration, (2) Jesus’ birth must have taken place in September/​October (not December), and (3) many of the customs associated with Christmas are clearly of pagan origin. So the issue confronting those desiring to please God in their worship is, not how such a celebration might be carried on, but whether Christmas in any form has God’s approval.​—ED.

Violence Please do not encourage your readers to install deadbolts that require a key to open from the inside. This is potentially life-threatening in case of fire when the occupant cannot reach the key and/​or does not have the time to use it before being engulfed in flames or smoke.

R. M., Bureau of Building Inspection, San Francisco, California

R. M.’s comments, in reference to our April 22, 1989, issue, pages 9 and 10, are well-taken. We agree that the danger of being trapped during a fire generally outweighs the danger of violent crime. No doubt this is why locks requiring a key in order to exit a room or a building are prohibited by most building codes in the United States. We also thus erred in showing this type of lock in our photo. Readers are advised that it is safer to obtain a deadbolt lock that can be unlocked from the inside without a key.​—ED.

Battered Wives Thank you for that series of articles. (November 22, 1988) As a staff member of a shelter for battered women, I have shared this magazine with the counselor, who is now using these articles in her work with the victims. I especially liked the part “God’s Law and the Christian View.” Many of the victims are concerned about how God views their situation. I have ordered enough copies of this magazine to distribute to all the domestic violence shelters in this state.

M. W., Ohio, United States

Cooperation​—That’s for the Birds

Meet Africa’s white-fronted bee-eater, a bird that catches insects, including bees, while on the wing. This colorful little creature is also known for its selfless traits. Instead of nesting in a tree, it digs in a sandbank and makes a nest chamber at the end of a long tunnel, where the female lays her eggs. When these hatch, other bee-eaters cooperate, assisting the parents in providing food for the chicks. These willing helpers are often youngsters from a previous brood, but they also include birds who are unrelated. When food is scarce, as in times of drought, the number of assistant bee-eaters has been observed to increase.

“Even in the non-breeding season,” state Sinclair and Mendelsohn in the book Everyone’s Guide to South African Birds, “this species usually associates in small groups, and at night, large numbers may roost communally in trees”​—which is one more proof that ‘birds of a feather do flock together.’

[Picture Credit Line on page 31]

World copyright photograph by Peter Johnson

Does It All End Here?

Some believe in life after death. Do you? Will those who have died ever live again as humans?

Read the heartwarming answers in the 192-page book Is This Life All There Is?

Please send, postpaid, the hardcover, 192-page book Is This Life All There Is? I enclose $1 (U.S.).