November 8

Unidentified Flying Objects​—What Are They?

Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum, along with her son Colby, alleged that on December 29, 1980, they were exposed to the heat, smoke, and flames of a UFO (unidentified flying object). A report said that they described it as a ‘large diamond-shaped object, floating in the sky in front of their car on a deserted farm road near Huffman, northeast of Houston, Texas.’ As a result of this encounter, they alleged, they suffered various health problems.​—Miami Herald, September 4, 1985.

The women thought that the U.S. government was involved because “the object soon flew off toward the north, accompanied by about 23 military-type helicopters.” In this report, one of the women, Vickie Landrum, said that “all three suffered blisters, hair loss, dizziness and headaches. Landrum believes the device emitted some type of radiation that also made the three sensitive to sunlight.” They sued the government for negligence.

With the above and other news stories, UFO’s have repeatedly claimed public attention. As Philip J. Klass wrote in UFOs​—The Public Deceived: “The prospect of finding intelligent life elsewhere is universally appealing, and the search for it has attracted the attention, and efforts, of many competent scientists.” ‘But why now?’ asked Edward Dolnik in The New Republic of August 1987, under the heading “Close Encounters.” His reply was: “The leading explanation today has to do with deep-seated and apocalyptic fears associated with approaching the millennium,” that is, as we approach the year 2000.

Do People Believe in UFO’s?

Do you believe in UFO’s? Have you ever seen something in the night sky that has baffled you? Whether driven by apocalyptic fears or persuaded by other experiences, many today believe in UFO’s. In his account, Dolnik mentioned that a Gallup Poll indicated that “57 percent of college-educated Americans believe in extraterrestrials.” He adds: “For Americans without a college education, the figure drops to 46 percent.”

In the past, UFO reports generally described strange and unusual sights in the heavens or sometimes at close range. Quite recently, however, they seem to revolve around actual human contact. These contacts are sometimes said to be with “aliens” who allegedly abduct humans. The accounts indicate that the intent of the “aliens” at times involves biological or even genetic experimentation with humans. These assertions have served to direct the attention of the public again to the subject of UFO’s.

These claimed sightings and encounters are international in scope. For example, one involved a man in Switzerland. Over a period of five years, it is claimed, he “produced hundreds of bright, detailed photographs. He also recorded the sounds of ‘beamships,’ collected several metal samples, and made films of the ship in flight.” The description continues: “Dozens of witnesses have seen the beamships and corroborated [the man’s] fantastic story. His evidence, investigated by a professional security team headed by a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, has been examined by scientists at IBM, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Arizona State University, and the McDonnell Douglas aeronautics company.”

These stories are still being heard. One of the most interesting appeared in The Tampa Tribune, January 30, 1989. It featured a color illustration of a “spacecraft” that had been photographed in the vicinity of Gulf Breeze, Florida. The account involved the experiences of a man called Ed. The description of the first contact that occurred is as follows: “When he peered out the glass doors of his bedroom, Ed says, he was face to face with a childlike creature clad in gray.” These apparent contacts took place over a period of time, with Ed taking many photographs. However, no photographs were reproduced in the newspaper.

With sensational reports of encounters appearing in newspapers, periodicals, and books on the best-seller lists, people are asking, What is it all about? Are UFO’s real, or are they just figments of the imagination? Is there any record of such things in history? Is it possible that there may be explanations that transcend present-day science? These and other questions will be considered in the following articles.

UFO’s​—Ancient and Modern

From the most ancient of times, men have reported seeing strange objects in the sky. A Pharaoh was supposed to have seen fiery circles in the heavens, and American Indians have legends of flying canoes. The early Romans reported seeing flying shields. According to some interpretations of Aztec carvings, the god Quetzalcoatl supposedly arrived on earth wearing a beaked space helmet and in a serpentlike airship.

In 1561 and 1566, according to ancient accounts, “multitudes” of inhabitants of Basel, Switzerland, and Nuremberg, Germany, reportedly saw unusual sights in the sky. However, during 1896 and 1897, a most extraordinary thing happened in the United States. People throughout the country reported seeing an airship cruising overhead. It was said: “America had never before experienced anything quite like the excitement generated by the mystery airship.” These sightings occurred at major cities as well as at villages across the United States, beginning in California. The interesting point is, says the book The Great Airship Mystery, that “the known history of flight contains nothing about a wide-ranging dirigible in the United States in the late 1890s.”

One of the most elaborate and widely published stories came from a small town in Kansas, U.S.A., in 1897. The account relates how a citizen of the area, Alexander Hamilton, described an airship that came down in his cow lot. When the ship finally took off, the crew took along one of the heifers. Later on, three or four miles [5 or 6 km] down the road, a neighbor “found the hide, legs and head in his field.” However, many years later, the story was reprinted and was exposed as a hoax.

Accounts such as the above, whether fabricated or supposedly real, have been reprinted in recent books on the subject. Many of the reports from that period prior to the turn of the 20th century might have been forgotten in dusty newspaper files except for some striking parallel events that began happening over 40 years later. Then it was that people began to recall and research these earlier events and began noting marked similarities.

UFO’s in Modern Times

The subject was revived in more modern times during World War II when Allied bomber pilots reported that they saw “strange balls of light and disc-shaped objects [that] followed them as they flew over Germany and Japan.” The American pilots called them foo-fighters, a term that was derived from the French word feu, for “fire.” Although World War II (1939-45) came to an end and along with it the foo-fighters, stories of strange sights continued to be related.

In Western Europe and the Scandinavian countries, wingless craft called ghost rockets were reportedly seen. They were often described as trailing flames across the sky. In response to these reports, even the United States “felt compelled to send two top intelligence experts to Sweden.” The above stories were only the beginning. The account that seemed to startle the world and that initiated the flying saucer era was told by Kenneth Arnold, a private pilot and a businessman. On June 24, 1947, it was reported that he saw “a chain of nine peculiar aircraft approaching Mt. Rainier [Washington State, U.S.A.].” They were described as “saucer-like things” and as being “flat like a pie pan and so shiny they reflected the sun like a mirror.” He was reported to have clocked their speed “at about 1,200 miles an hour [1,900 km/​hr].” This was much faster than jet aircraft flew at that time.

The use of the word “saucer” caught the imagination of the press and resulted in the now common term “flying saucer.” After this account was published worldwide, many who had seen strange objects in the sky began to tell their varied stories. This, along with other sightings, caught the attention of military authorities.

United States Government Investigates

Apparently at the recommendation of a high-ranking military officer, UFO’s eventually received official attention by the U.S. government. The result was the setting up of Project Sign, which began work on January 22, 1948. This investigative group was assigned to carry out work under the direction of the Air Technical Intelligence Command, located near Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A. The project had hardly begun when tragedy struck. Captain Thomas Mantell, a military pilot, lost his life in a plane crash while in pursuit of a then unidentified object. He could have become unconscious while going too high without the benefit of supplementary oxygen. Later, it was learned that he may have been pursuing a Skyhook research balloon.

However, a new sighting by two Eastern Airlines pilots, coupled with the death of that Air Force pilot, further fueled the growing concern with UFO’s. According to the report, an Eastern Airlines plane had left Houston, Texas, and was headed for Atlanta, Georgia, when suddenly the pilot was compelled to take quick evasive action in order to miss a “wingless B-29 fuselage” that passed him on his right. A passenger and several ground-based observers seemed to add credibility to the story.

The Project Sign group finally issued a report that disappointed some. Later, some staff members who were sympathetic to the viewpoint that UFO’s were real were replaced, and a new title, “Project Grudge,” was given to the project. However, during this period, belief in the existence of UFO’s reached a new high when retired major Donald E. Keyhoe wrote an article entitled “The Flying Saucers Are Real.” The account was published in the January 1950 issue of True magazine, and the issue enjoyed wide circulation. Then, to add to the already wide interest, True published a further article by Navy commander R. B. McLaughlin. This article was entitled “How Scientists Tracked the Flying Saucers.” The enthusiasm was short-lived​—other magazines, Cosmopolitan and Time, published articles debunking UFO’s. With these new articles and a lull in sightings, interest subsided. Then came 1952, a remarkable year in UFO history.

1952​—The Year of UFO’s

The greatest number of UFO sightings received by the U.S. Air Technical Intelligence Command was recorded in 1952: 1,501. Early in March 1952, with increased numbers of sightings, the U.S. Air Force decided to create a separate organization called Project Blue Book. During that year of intense UFO activity, the sightings were diverse and many.

One of a series of especially notable sightings began over Washington, D.C., during the midnight hours of July 19 and 20. It was reported that “a group of unidentified flying objects appeared on two radarscopes at the Air Route Traffic Control Center at Washington National Airport. The objects moved slowly at first . . . then shot away at ‘fantastic speeds.’” The visual sightings corresponded with the radar returns. It was further reported that an interception was attempted, but “the objects disappeared as the jets neared.”

In 1966 Gerald R. Ford, then congressman from Michigan, was credited with calling for another federal investigation of UFO’s. This was in response to a number of UFO sightings in his state. The result was that another study was set up at the University of Colorado. Dr. Edward U. Condon, a prominent physicist, assumed oversight of the work. In 1969, at the conclusion of the study, the Condon Report was issued. Among other things, it said that “nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge . . . that further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby.”

This ended the official involvement of the U.S. government in the study of UFO’s and, in addition, tended to cool public curiosity. It did not, however, end the UFO controversy, nor was it the end of UFO sightings. According to one report, “20 percent of the ninety-five cases discussed in the document remained ‘unexplained.’”

Interest in UFO’s seemed to rise and fall along with waves of sightings. Outstanding were the years 1973 and 1974, when UFO’s were observed. With the arrival of the 1980’s, reports were again in the news. But what have scientists and other experts concluded in more recent years?

[Picture on page 5]

Some have thought the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl arrived in a snakelike spaceship

UFO’s​—Can They Be Identified?

How do scientists explain UFO’s? The late Dr. Donald H. Menzel, a Harvard astronomer, and Philip Klass, former senior editor of Aviation Week, are among those who have studied the subject of UFO sightings. They affirm that UFO’s are actually IFO’s (identified flying objects). When investigated, UFO’s have turned out to be identifiable things or effects, such as weather balloons, nighttime advertising airplanes and helicopters, meteors, or sun dogs.a

Philip Klass explained UFO’s as natural phenomena or as incorrect identifications. As an example, according to him, some UFO’s were suspected of being a kind of ball lightning, or a plasma. His critics were quick, however, to say that plasmas, or highly ionized gases, can have very short lifetimes and do not adequately explain the problem. He says that some UFO’s seen on radar are artifacts of weather phenomena. However, according to some radar operators, this explanation does not account for the seemingly intelligent behavior sometimes observed. Klass’s thought is that people who are suddenly exposed to a brief unexpected event “may be grossly inaccurate in trying to describe precisely what they have seen.”

In his book Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, Terence Hines states that “careful investigation has resulted in straightforward natural explanations for even very impressive-sounding UFO reports. . . . All these cases make clear the nearly total unreliability of eyewitness reports. In almost every case, the witnesses’ reports differed substantially from the actual stimulus, but in only a very few cases were the witnesses willfully lying. Their knowledge about what UFOs ‘ought’ to look like influenced their reports, along with the effects of visual illusions.”

UFO’s​—Guided by Beings From Space?

A popular theory is that UFO’s may be associated with intelligent beings from outer space. Dr. James McCampbell, a leader among those who came to this conclusion, warned: “It would appear that a superintelligent alien species is indeed becoming a more intimate part of our earth’s environment.” Major Donald E. Keyhoe, “a retired Marine Corps officer turned free-lance writer . . . first popularized UFOs and claimed they were extraterrestrial spacecraft,” according to Philip Klass, writer of UFOs​—The Public Deceived. Keyhoe also advanced the “beings from space” theory and warned: “If the aliens’ purpose should be migration to Earth, it would set off a wave of fear and hysteria.”

Another concept that has captured the interest of some investigators is that UFO’s are superior beings that inhabit a “parallel universe.” According to this theory, these beings may be “able to manipulate the electrical circuits of the human mind.” With this ability, they could presumably control human governments. Some say they may be connected with “intelligences [that involve] the world’s leading religious movements, miracles, angels, ghosts, fairies, poltergeists, and the like.”​—UFO and The Limits of Science, by Ronald D. Story.

UFO’s​—Can We Identify Them?

As we have observed, some investigators are quite positive that they can identify all UFO’s as natural things or known phenomena. Others, however, present their own special theories.

It was while the Condon Report and the subject of UFO’s was still a matter of public concern that Awake! provided a review of the subject along with a discussion of some of the more spectacular cases.b Awake! reached the conclusion that “the great majority of all [UFO] reports have their origin in the same kinds of things that Project Blue Book [an earlier government study] named: Planets, airplanes, balloons, meteorites, mirages.”

The article continued: “The more thorough investigation [summarized in the Condon Report] has clarified the part played by physical and psychological distortions. It has explained how ordinary objects, seen in the sky by persons who do not recognize them under the perhaps unusual circumstances, can be misconstrued in perception, magnified in the telling, further exaggerated in the newspapers, and end up as spaceships landing little green men from Mars.”

The official Condon Report and conclusions as above, coupled with diminished UFO reports, seemed to end the matter for many. Nevertheless, two decades later we find UFO’s still getting public attention. As mentioned in our first article, a writer for one prominent journal observed that a new element has been added. We live with a backdrop of “deep-seated and apocalyptic fears” as we approach the year 2000.

Even more uncertainties developed from recent claims that in the past the United States and even other governments may have ignored or covered up some evidence of UFO’s. The author of a 1988 publication took advantage of the Freedom of Information Act, established in 1966 in the United States, together with sources in other countries, to gather information that according to him “proves beyond doubt that there has been a monumental cover-up of the UFO subject.”​—Above Top Secret, by Timothy Good.

Gary Kinder, in his book Light Years, raises questions as to what proof is needed to convince the authorities of the existence of UFO’s. He notes that one observer asks: “What constitutes proof [of UFO’s]? Does a UFO have to land at the River Entrance to the Pentagon, near the Joint Chiefs of Staff Offices? Or is it proof when a ground radar station detects a UFO, sends a jet to intercept it, the jet pilot sees it, and locks on with his radar, only to have the UFO streak away at phenomenal speed?”

On the other hand, Professor Hines argues that the 997 pages of documents released, covering the period from 1949 to 1979, do not reveal an attempt at a government cover-up. He states: “An examination of the secret CIA papers and documents on UFOs reveals an agency mildly interested in the phenomenon but skeptical of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. These documents . . . also contradict the oft-repeated claims of a government cover-up of the ‘truth’ about UFOs.”

One of the foremost reasons for the lack of proof is that no UFO has ever been publicly exhibited, nor have any extraterrestrial beings officially presented themselves for public recognition. Furthermore, alleges Professor Hines, “there is no UFO photo that can be considered genuine showing anything other than vague shapes or blobs of light.” Time and again, experts have identified UFO’s as misinterpreted sightings of Venus or of other celestial bodies. It is evident that no solution to the UFO problem has been satisfactory to all.

At the time that the Condon Report was in the news, an Awake! contributor discussed privately some of the results with one of the associated scientists working at Boulder, Colorado. The scientist seemed to think that in the unexplained cases, the UFO experiences involved “mental perceptions” of some kind. Thus, although many UFO sightings can be explained scientifically as physical things or wrong identifications, some may involve mental or psychological experiences or perceptions.

Is There an Occult Influence?

When reviewing the mental or psychological experiences of some who have reported contacts with UFO’s, it is also possible to recognize similarities with spiritistic or other paranormal phenomena. One example of this is the testimony of John H. Andrews in his book The Extraterrestrials and Their Reality. In his acknowledgments of help in producing the book, he states: “Great appreciation also goes to the four space people [“ET’s in physical human bodies who circulate unnoticed among us”] who told me their stories and who wished to remain unnamed, to the numerous psychics and channels who assisted me with my many experiments, to the extraterrestrials for their many informative messages.” Regarding these “space people,” he states: “They were all quite intelligent; all were channels for invisible entities.”​—Compare 1 Samuel 28:7, 8; Ephesians 6:12.

Andrews also claims to have received messages from extraterrestrials. He lists some of these as: “There is no such thing as death. . . . There is no such thing as good or evil. [Compare Genesis 3:3, 4.] . . . Creation, evolution, and reincarnation are valid processes at work in the Universe. . . . We (the ET’s) are not here to control or rule you, but to guide you. . . . The Earth will soon undergo tremendous, cataclysmic changes. When these changes are completed, less than 1/1,000 of the present population will still be alive!”

The Bible also speaks of extraterrestrials, spirit creatures, such as obedient angels and disobedient, rebellious angels who became demons. Down through Bible history, God on many occasions used faithful angels to communicate with men. (Genesis 22:9-18; Isaiah 6:1-7) Satan still uses his demon followers to mislead mankind with all kinds of philosophies, fads, messages, communications, and cults that distract from the message that God’s Kingdom, his heavenly government, will soon rule over a restored earth.​—Compare Luke 4:33, 34; James 2:19; Revelation 12:9; 21:1-4.

The Christian apostle Paul gave due warning of demon influence in the last days when he wrote: “The inspired utterance says definitely that in later periods of time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to misleading inspired utterances and teachings of demons.”​—1 Timothy 4:1.

Keeping in mind how deep we are into these apocalyptic days, it would not be advisable for Christians to spend their valuable time investigating in depth matters of this kind. Rather, we should concern ourselves with the more important challenge at hand, that is, obeying the command of the extraterrestrial holy angel who proclaimed: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of the judgment by him has arrived, and so worship the One who made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.”​—Revelation 14:6, 7.

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 10]

UFO’s​—The Scientific View

“Astronomy and UFOs are related: if people knew more about astronomy, there would be far fewer UFO sightings.”​—Astronomy, December 1988.

“Venus is the brightest of all the planets in the night sky and is responsible for more UFO reports than any other single object. . . .

“Modern airport radars now automatically identify all aircraft in their area . . . As radars have become more sophisticated at correctly identifying aircraft and filtering out sources of error, the number of radar UFO reports has dropped almost to zero. Of course, if UFOs were real, one would expect . . . modern radar to increase the number of UFOs seen on radar. . . .

“In nearly forty years of investigation, not one authentic photo of a UFO has been taken and not one piece of genuine debris or other physical evidence has been found. Impressive-sounding sightings are reported year after year and, year after year, when carefully examined, they disappear into the mists of misperceptions, misidentifications, and hoaxes.”​—Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, by Terence Hines.

“Much of the trouble arises from the fact that the sky presents an almost endless variety of peculiar sights and objects, only a few of which are likely to be encountered by one person in a lifetime. And when this does happen, he may be misled into thinking that he has seen something extraordinary​—instead of merely unfamiliar. . . .

“Seldom has any subject been so invested with fraud, hysteria, credulity, religious mania, incompetence, and most of the other unflattering human characteristics.”​—The Promise of Space, by Arthur C. Clarke.

“I should like to see these profound words inscribed on the threshold of all the temples of science: ‘The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe in something because one wishes it to be so.’”​—Louis Pasteur, 19th-century French scientist.

[Picture on page 8]

Depending on the angle of vision, nighttime advertising balloons, airplanes, and helicopters can be misperceived as UFO’s

[Credit Line]

Nite Sign, Inc.

“Let’s Drink an Horchata de Chufas!”

THIS invitation very probably is not familiar to you. But if you happen to live in Spain, and especially on its eastern seaboard, it certainly is. Throughout the year, but above all during the hot summer days, multitudes enjoy this sweet, yet refreshing, nonalcoholic beverage, the unique horchata de chufas!

Even many Spaniards will be surprised to learn that horchata can be made from almonds and the seeds of pumpkins or melons, as well as from rice, apricots, apples, cherries, currants, verjuice grapes, mulberries, plums, and licorice. Nevertheless, Spaniards usually think of chufas as being the basic ingredient of the drink.

But what are chufas? They are earth, or ground, almonds or rush nuts, and the term applies specifically to each of the small underground nutlike tubers produced by the European sedge plant (Cyperus esculentus). They are found about two to three inches [5-8 cm] below the surface of the ground. The sedge plant is cultivated from July to October not just in Spain but also in the Middle East and in North Africa. From there the Arabs brought it to Spain. Although it was first planted in the south of the country, there is no place as well suited for its cultivation as the irrigated fields of Valencia on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, where it is raised in great quantities.

How do we prepare horchata? The chufas are soaked for several hours, with each horchata maker having his own opinion as to the precise duration. This causes the chufas to swell up, since they absorb a large amount of water. Now is the time to crush them, while more water is added. Once the crushing is done, the pulpy mass is deposited in a receptacle and mixed well, and after allowing it to sit for some 15 minutes, it is passed through a press so as to separate the syrup from the pulp. Later on, the syrup is filtered, and sugar is added (approximately one pound [kilogram] for each pound [kilogram] of dry chufas).

Some also add cinnamon, grated lemon peel, or maybe even some orange-blossom water. Once the drink is prepared, it has to be preserved immediately by refrigeration, but in no case longer than 48 hours; otherwise the enzymes of the chufas will soon take action and change the flavor. If you want to enjoy it as a liquid, it should be refrigerated at 37 to 39 degrees Fahrenheit [3-4° C.]; and if an iced drink is preferred, it should be kept at approximately 30 degrees Fahrenheit [-1° C.].

Horchata de chufas is a refreshing, sweet, nutritious drink. Therefore, if you ever have opportunity to visit Spain’s eastern seaboard, accept the invitation, “Let’s drink an horchata de chufas!”​—Contributed.

Pope’s Visit to Mexico​—Will It Help the Church?

By Awake! correspondent in Mexico

“THE ‘Pilgrim of Evangelization’ Lands in Mexico” was the headline of the Vatican English weekly L’Osservatore Romano of May 7, 1990. This was the second visit of John Paul II to Mexico in just 11 years. What message did the pope bring? What were the expectations of the Mexican people and the Catholic Church in Mexico? What benefits would it bring to the Mexican people?

According to some press reports, the millions of poor and oppressed hoped that the pope would affect the conscience of the ruling class and bring about better conditions for the working class. An article in the Mexican daily El Universal had the title: “Christianity and the Poor of Mexico.” It spoke of an open letter to John Paul II from a large and varied group of Mexican Catholics. The letter stated in part: “This people, knocked about and in the process of organization and participation, awaits a word of encouragement.” And it entreated him: “We ask that you again be ‘the voice of those without voice.’ . . . Proclaim the message of hope and life and demand justice, especially for the poor and the oppressed.”

How did the pope answer the call? In a massive meeting held in the town of Chalco on the outskirts of Mexico City, where more than two million mostly very poor people came together to hear him, John Paul II made this appeal: “Therefore I invite Christians and all people of goodwill in Mexico to awaken their social consciences in solidarity; we cannot live and sleep peacefully while thousands of our brothers and sisters who are very near to us are deprived of the necessities for leading a worthy human life.”

Not all the Catholic media were impressed by such words. The U.S. National Catholic Reporter carried the headline: “Pope Passed Mexican Poor at 50 km. an Hour.” It claimed that “many of the poor . . . endured hours of rain just for a glimpse of the popemobile, which passed at 50 kilometers per hour.” A Mexican daily, La Jornada, stated: “Inside the basilica? Fancy suits and dresses. Outside? Thousands of poor on their knees in the rain.” Others complained that while he talked with politicians and businessmen, he did not have direct dialogue with the workers and the campesinos.

Major Issue​—Restoration of Church Power

However, the main preoccupation of the Catholic Church in Mexico is with trying to recover some of the power and prestige it lost nearly 150 years ago when Benito Juárez, an educated Zapotec Indian who later became president of Mexico, led a liberal reform movement. The church is also irked by certain laws from that period, the “Laws of Reform,” strengthened in the Constitution adopted in 1917, that the clergy consider restrictive to the operations of the Catholic Church.

The clergy dislike Article 3, which keeps all religion, including Catholicism, out of the State school system. Article 5 prohibits the establishment of monastic orders. Article 27 does not allow any religion to own property or real estate; all churches are the property of the State. Article 130 states that the law does not recognize any religious group, and religious ministers have no special status under the law. They are not allowed to criticize in public or in private the fundamental laws of the nation.

In view of these restrictions, the Catholic Church wants to get the Constitution modified to give the church more power and room to maneuver. The pope’s visit was a vehicle for these aspirations. From the sidelines other religions suspiciously watch this Catholic flirtation with the government, asking themselves if more freedom for the Catholic Church would mean more liberty for all religions in the country. However, in March 1990, a government official, Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios, stated very clearly that separation of Church and State would continue, as would also respect for all beliefs and ways of thinking.

Nevertheless, the fact that the pope was welcomed at the airport by the president of Mexico, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and was invited to his palace is being viewed by many Catholics as a favorable sign. They feel that the very presence of the pope as well as the huge public religious meetings that were allowed seemed to indicate that the authorities recognized a need for change. The Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano commented that the presence of Mexico’s president at the airport “eloquently [expressed] the improving Church-State relations in Mexico.”

The clergy and Catholic propagandists are trying to make capital of this public support for the pope’s visit. Mr. Alamilla Arteaga, chairman of the Episcopal Commission for Social Communications, stated: “This event, the papal visit, is a national plebiscite. And national plebiscite means a massive, spontaneous mobilization of the multitudes to support a desire . . . , the desire of a whole people, because we already know that the Catholic community is the majority group of the nation.”

Evangelization and Fear of the Sects

During his stay in Mexico, the pope emphasized the theme of evangelization. In fact, one of the purposes of his visit was to give renewed impetus to the Mexican church, “a shaking up on a spiritual level,” as was expressed by the apostolic delegate, Girolamo Prigione. On the day of his arrival, May 6, John Paul II said in his speech: “The Lord . . . has wished that my pontificate be that of a pilgrim Pope of evangelization, walking down the roads of the world bringing to all areas the message of salvation. . . . I directed an appeal to all the Churches which are on this ‘continent of hope’ to undertake a New Evangelization.”

He also warned his bishops: “Nor must you pay less attention to the problem of the ‘new religious groups’, who are sowing confusion among the faithful . . . Their methods, their economic resources, and the insistence of their proselytizing work have an impact above all on those who emigrate from the country to the city. However, we cannot forget that many times their success is due to the lukewarmness and indifference of the sons and daughters of the Church who are not up to the level of the evangelizing mission, with the weak witness they bear to consistent Christian living.”

How did the pope try to draw back those who have left the church? Was it by encouraging them to study the Bible? In his speech at Villahermosa, he said: “Come back to the heart of the Church, your Mother! The Virgin of Guadalupe, with her ‘compassionate glance’, has longed to present you to her Son.” So rather than use the appeal of God’s Word, he resorted to sentimental religious emotion in a vain attempt to recover lost Catholics.

Thus, as in nearly all his travels, John Paul II reverted to his Trinity-based fixation ​—the veneration of Mary, the “Mother of God.” He stated in his opening speech: “The Pope comes to prostrate before the powerful image of the Virgin of Guadalupe to invoke her maternal help and protection on the pontifical ministry itself . . . and to place in her hands the future of Latin American evangelization.”

However, some have asked themselves if these same messages pronounced by the pope were really intended to focus on evangelization. It is true, some people got carried away by the presence and words of the pope, but others felt that the maximum authority of the church spoke more about economics, politics, and human rights and very little about God’s Word. Maybe that is the reason the daily newspaper El Universal of May 8, 1990, stated: “Thinking persons wonder if Mexican Catholicism will reap the very rich benefit that could be gained from the Pope’s second visit” or if, like his first visit, it will not affect the course of Catholic life to any noticeable degree.

Will the spiritual needs of the people be satisfied? Already hundreds of thousands of sincere Mexicans are finding spiritual satisfaction through the evangelizing work of Jehovah’s Witnesses. To use the pope’s phrase, the people’s “thirst for God” is being satisfied by their gaining from the Bible an accurate knowledge of the true God, Jehovah, and of his Son, Christ Jesus. In association with over 8,000 congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Mexico, they are putting their trust, not in man’s false promises, but in God’s promise of his Kingdom rule for mankind on a paradise earth.​—Matthew 6:9, 10; John 17:3; Revelation 21:1-4.

[Pictures on page 15]

Pope John Paul II being welcomed by the president of Mexico, Carlos Salinas de Gortari

Vendors selling “Pope John Paul II” souvenirs

Britain’s “Mad Cow” Dilemma

By Awake! correspondent in Britain

IN November 1986 an alarming disease appeared for the first time among Britain’s cattle. Since then, over 11,000 animals have been infected, with up to 200 new cases reported each week. While the disease is technically called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE for short, the media quickly labeled the sickness “Mad Cow” disease on account of its distressing symptoms.

What is BSE, how did it originate, and why is it of such concern?

BSE is a form of dementia in which parts of the brain are destroyed by abnormal proteins described as “unconventional infectious agents.” When seen under a microscope, the affected organ has a spongy, holey appearance. As the disease progresses, the animal becomes irritable and loses weight, and when it is no longer able to control its limbs, it collapses and dies or has to be destroyed.

Cattle developed BSE from scrapie, a closely related dementia common in British sheep. How did this happen?

Modern Cattle-Feed

A cow is a grazing animal that chews the cud and normally exists on a diet of vegetation, mainly grass. In recent years, however, British cattle-feed manufacturers have added an unnatural protein supplement to normal feed. This consists of slaughterhouse waste, including sheep carcasses infected with scrapie, that is crushed, cooked, and dried. Not only have cattle been affected but five types of antelope, including a rare Arabian oryx, have also died in British zoos from brain disease. All were fed this commercial cattle-feed. Ranch mink have contracted a related disease, believed to be a result of their being fed raw sheep offal.

Tests reveal that both BSE and scrapie are unusually resistant to high temperatures, ionizing radiation, and ultraviolet light. Normal cooking and other forms of sterilization will not kill off these mysterious agents. Although there is no firm evidence that humans have ever been infected by scrapie, the worrisome question now is: What risk does BSE pose to humans who eat beef products?

The Human Link?

“Nobody need be worried about BSE in this country or anywhere else” is the official British government view, expressed by John Gummer, the minister of agriculture. But not everybody is so sure. Richard Lacey, professor of clinical microbiology at Leeds University, England, writes in The Independent newspaper: “If the cow acquired the disease from its feed, then the route of transmission, at least initially, was oral. This raises the possibility of oral transmission to man.”

In line with such reasoning, Germany has banned all imports of British beef because they cannot get an assurance that it comes from BSE-free herds. The United States has banned imports of cattle, embryos, and cattle semen from Britain. The U.S.S.R. has gone further, banning also imports of British sheep and goat meat, along with dairy products, on account of BSE. Some schools in England have decided only to serve beef from herds certified free of the disease.

The government has, among other measures taken, prohibited the sale of certain beef offal. The British public annually spend well over $3 thousand million on beef and beef dishes, such as burgers and pies, and need to be reassured that their health is not at risk. Yet, “it may be a decade or more before complete reassurance can be given” that BSE is not transmissible from cattle to humans, admits an official government report. “The difficulty,” explains Dr. Richard Kimberlin, former director of the Edinburgh Neuropathogenesis Unit, “is the length of incubation period. If BSE does pose a public health risk, by the time this has become manifest as an increase in the number of patients with CJD, it would be too late to do anything about the population already exposed.”a

Meantime, scientists are urgently seeking new, positive evidence to allay these fears, and the British government has set aside $20 million to help in this research. But as the British Medical Journal soberly points out: “The safety of beef has not yet been tested and may not be testable.”

Would You Eat It?

Whatever the outcome to human health, the BSE debate has drawn public attention to the practice of recycling animal waste. British cattle and poultry continue to be fed processed chicken litter, known in the trade as DPM (dried poultry manure), a mixture of feces, feathers, and dead birds. Dried pig’s blood, flavored with chocolate, is given to calves. Although illegal as cattle feed since July 1988, whole sheep heads, along with sheep offal, are still ground up and fed to pigs and poultry. Such practices are condemned as “unnatural” in one official government report. Some may justify them on the basis of expediency and economics in food production. But healthwise, are they worth it?

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 17]

Transparency of vacuolation (holes) in brain of BSE-affected cow

[Credit Line]

J.A.H. Wells, Crown Copyright Material

Human Rule Weighed in the Balances

Part 7​—A Political Search for Utopia

Socialism: a social system advocating State ownership and control of the means of production that communists view as an intermediate stage between capitalism and communism; Communism: a social system advocating the absence of classes, the common ownership of the means of production and subsistence, and the equitable distribution of economic goods.

GREEK mythology tells of a Greek deity named Cronus, during whose reign Greece enjoyed a golden age. “All shared equally in the common lot, private property was unknown, and peace and harmony reigned undisturbed,” explains the Dictionary of the History of Ideas. The same source adds: “The first traces of socialism appear in the lament for a lost ‘Golden Age.’”

Not until the early and middle decades of the 19th century, however, did socialism make its appearance as a modern political movement. It found ready acceptance, especially in France, where the French Revolution had severely shaken conventional ideas. There, as in other European countries, the Industrial Revolution created harsh social problems. People were ripe for the idea that public rather than private ownership of resources would better enable the masses to share equally in the fruits of combined labor.

Socialism is not a new idea. Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato wrote about it. Later, during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, Thomas Müntzer, a radical German Catholic priest, demanded a classless society. But his views were controversial, especially his call for revolution, if necessary, in order to achieve this goal. In the 19th century, Welshman Robert Owen, Frenchmen Étienne Cabet and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and a number of other social reformers, among them prominent clergymen, taught that socialism was simply Christianity by another name.

The Utopias of Marx and More

But “none of these spokesmen for socialism,” says the above-mentioned reference work, “had an impact comparable to that exerted by Karl Marx, whose writings became the touchstone of socialist thinking and action.”a Marx taught that by means of class struggle, history progresses step-by-step; once the ideal political system has been found, history in that sense will end. This ideal system will resolve the problems of previous societies. Everyone will live in peace, freedom, and prosperity, with no need for governments or military forces.

This sounds remarkably similar to what British statesman Sir Thomas More in 1516 described in his book Utopia. The word, a Greek name of More’s coining, means “no place” (ou-topos), and was possibly meant as a pun on the similar expression eu-topos, meaning “good place.” The Utopia about which More wrote was an imaginary country (no place) that was, nonetheless, an ideal country (good place). Thus, “Utopia” has come to mean “a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions.” More’s book was a clear indictment of the less than ideal economic and social conditions that prevailed during his time in Europe, especially in England, and that contributed later to the development of socialism.

Marx’s theories also mirrored the views of German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. According to the Dictionary of the History of Ideas, “the apocalyptic, quasi-religious character of Marxian socialism was shaped by Hegel’s philosophical restatement of radical Christian theology.” Against this backdrop of “radical Christian theology,” explains author Georg Sabine, Marx developed “an exceedingly powerful moral appeal, backed by a quasi-religious conviction. It was nothing less than an appeal to join the march of civilization and right.” Socialism was the wave of the future; perhaps, some thought, it really was Christianity marching to victory under a new name!

The Road From Capitalism to Utopia

Marx lived to publish only the first volume of his work Das Kapital. The last two were edited and published in 1885 and 1894 respectively by his closest collaborator, Friedrich Engels, a German socialist philosopher. Das Kapital undertook to explain the historical background of capitalism, the economic system characteristic of Western-style representative democracy. Based on unregulated trade and competition without State control, capitalism as explained by Marx concentrates ownership of the means of production and distribution in private and corporate hands. According to Marx, capitalism produces a middle class and a working class, provoking antagonism between the two and leading to oppression of the latter. Using the works of orthodox economists to back up his views, Marx argued that capitalism is in reality undemocratic, and that socialism is the ultimate in democracy, benefiting the people by promoting human equality and freedom.

Utopia would be reached once the proletariat rose up in revolution and threw off the oppression of the bourgeoisie, setting up what Marx called a “dictatorship of the proletariat.” (See box, page 21.) His views, however, mellowed with time. He began allowing for two different concepts of revolution, one of a violent kind and the other of a more permanent, gradual kind. This raised an interesting question.

Utopia by Way of Revolution or Evolution?

“Communism” is derived from the Latin word communis, which means “common, belonging to all.” Like socialism, communism claims that free enterprise leads to unemployment, poverty, business cycles, and labor-management conflicts. The solution to these problems is to distribute the nation’s wealth more equally and justly.

But by the end of the last century, Marxists were already at odds about how to achieve these agreed-upon ends. In the early 1900’s, that part of the socialist movement that rejected violent revolution and advocated working within the parliamentary democratic system gained in strength, developing into what is now called democratic socialism. This is the socialism found today in democracies like the Federal Republic of Germany, France, and Britain. For all intents and purposes, these parties have rejected genuine Marxist thinking and are simply interested in creating a welfare state for their citizens.

One dedicated Marxist, however, who strongly believed that a communist Utopia could be achieved only by violent revolution was Lenin. His teachings, along with Marxism, serve as the basis for contemporary orthodox communism. Lenin, a pseudonym of Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, was born in 1870 in what is now the Soviet Union. In 1889 he converted to Marxism. After 1900, following a term of Siberian exile, he lived mostly in Western Europe. When the czarist regime was overthrown, he returned to Russia, founded the Russian Communist Party, and led the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Thereafter he served as the first head of the Soviet Union until his death in 1924. He saw the Communist Party as a highly disciplined, centralized group of revolutionists serving as the vanguard of the proletariat. The Mensheviks disagreed.​—See box, page 21.

The line of demarcation between revolution and evolution is no longer so well-defined. In 1978 the book Comparing Political Systems: Power and Policy in Three Worlds observed: “Communism has become more ambivalent about how to achieve Socialist goals. . . . Differences between Communism and Democratic Socialism have been considerably lessened.” Now, in 1990, these words take on added meaning as communism undergoes drastic changes in Eastern Europe.

Communism Reintroduces Religion

“We need spiritual values . . . The moral values that religion generated and embodied for centuries can help in the work of renewal in our country, too.” Few people thought they would ever hear these words from the mouth of a general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. But on November 30, 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev announced this dramatic about-face toward religion during his visit to Italy.

Does this perhaps support the theory that early Christians were themselves communists, practicing a type of Christian socialism? Some people make this claim, pointing to Acts 4:32, which says of Christians in Jerusalem: “They had all things in common.” Investigation reveals, however, that this was just a temporary arrangement brought on by unforeseen circumstances, not a permanent system of “Christian” socialism. Because they shared material goods in a loving way, “there was not one in need among them.” Yes, “distribution would be made to each one, just as he would have the need.”​—Acts 4:34, 35.

“Glasnost” and “Perestroika”

Since the waning months of 1989, the Soviet Union and its fellow Communist governments in Eastern Europe have been experiencing mind-boggling political shakeups. Thanks to the policy of glasnost, or openness, these changes have been seen by all. East Europeans have demanded far-reaching reforms that, to a degree, have been granted. Communist leaders have admitted the need for a more humane and compassionate system and have called for a “rebirth of socialism in a different, more enlightened and efficient form,” as one Polish economist put it.

Chief among these leaders has been Gorbachev, who, shortly after coming to power in 1985, introduced the idea of perestroika (restructuring). During a visit to Italy, he defended perestroika as being necessary to meet the challenges of the 1990’s. He said: “Having embarked upon the road of radical reform, the socialist countries are crossing the line beyond which there is no return to the past. Nevertheless, it is wrong to insist, as many in the West do, that this is the collapse of socialism. On the contrary, it means that the socialist process in the world will pursue its further development in a multiplicity of forms.”

Communist leaders are therefore not ready to agree with the assessment made last year by columnist Charles Krauthammer, who wrote: “The perennial question that has preoccupied every political philosopher since Plato​—what is the best form of governance?​—has been answered. After a few millennia of trying every form of political system, we close this millennium with the sure knowledge that in liberal, pluralist capitalist democracy we have found what we have been looking for.”

However, the German newspaper Die Zeit candidly admits the sad picture Western-style democracy presents, calling attention to its “unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, prostitution, curtailment of social programs, tax reduction and budget deficits,” and then asks: “Is this really the perfect society that has forever triumphed over socialism?”

A familiar proverb says that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. What form of imperfect human government can afford to criticize the weaknesses of another? The facts show that the perfect human government​—a Utopia—​does not exist. Politicians are still looking for the “good place.” It is still “no place” to be found.

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 21]

SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST TERMINOLOGY

BOLSHEVIKS/​MENSHEVIKS: The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party founded in 1898 split into two groups in 1903; Bolsheviks, literally “members of the majority,” under Lenin, favored keeping the party small, with a limited number of disciplined revolutionaries; Mensheviks, meaning “members of the minority,” favored a larger party membership employing democratic methods.

BOURGEOISIE/​PROLETARIAT: Marx taught that the proletariat (the working class) would overthrow the bourgeoisie (the middle class, including factory owners), establishing a “dictatorship of the proletariat,” thereby producing a classless society.

COMINTERN: Short for Communist International (or, Third International), an organization set up by Lenin in 1919 to promote communism; dissolved in 1943, it was preceded by the First International (1864-76), which gave birth to many European socialist groups, and the Second International (1889-1919), an international parliament of socialist parties.

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO: An 1848 statement by Marx and Engels of the principal tenets of scientific socialism that long served as a basis for European Socialist and Communist parties.

EUROCOMMUNISM: The communism of Western European Communist parties; independent of Soviet leadership and willing to serve in coalition governments, it argues that a “dictatorship of the proletariat” is no longer necessary.

SCIENTIFIC/​UTOPIAN SOCIALISM: Terms used by Marx to distinguish between his teachings, supposedly based on a scientific examination of history and the workings of capitalism and the purely Utopian socialist teachings of his forerunners.

Young People Ask . . .

How Do I Deal With My Parent Who Left Home?

“On days when Dad had promised to come and pick us up for a visit, Mom would get my sister and me all dressed up. And then we would sit and wait for him. And wait. Hour after hour would go by. Finally, Mom would say, ‘It’s time for bed.’ We would start crying and saying, ‘He’s going to come, he’s going to come!’ Even the next morning, we would be waiting for him but still, no Father. Sometimes it seemed that was the story of our life.”​—Anne.a

IF, LIKE Anne, you have seen your parents split up, you can probably understand why Jehovah, the Designer of marriage, so strongly discourages divorce. (Compare Malachi 2:16.) Divorce hurts everyone it touches​—even when a wronged parent has the Scriptural right to divorce the other.b

But when parents finally break up, perhaps by a legal divorce, that does not necessarily end all the problems that their discord can bring on you. In fact, you may now face a tough challenge: deciding whether to maintain some kind of relationship with the parent who has left home. Meg recalls just how hard that can be: “I was so numbed that I just shut down emotionally. So for a while, I had no feelings. It was as if my father had died.” And Mike remembers: “I began to hate my father, and that feeling lasted a long time. When I’d think about how he left a woman with four kids, giving her the least support he could get away with​—well, it made me mad.”

Build Bridges, Don’t Burn Them

In the chaos and tumult of this period in your life, it is all too easy to slam shut the door of your affections on one of your parents and let anger and bitterness fill you. But nurturing that kind of resentment can poison your outlook on life. Such anger can lead you to burn your bridges, damaging your ties to a parent until they are well-nigh impossible to reestablish.

The Bible does not give us license to dishonor our parents. (Compare Luke 18:20.) Experts agree that in most cases you should try to maintain a relationship with both parents after they split up. Professor of psychiatry Dr. Robert E. Gould wrote in Seventeen magazine that seeing both parents regularly may even ease your adjustment to the divorce. Researchers Wallerstein and Kelly likewise found that the youths who came through their parents’ divorce successfully generally had a close relationship with both parents. But how can you be close to a parent who has moved out of your home or one who has betrayed a trust?c

Insight​—The Key to Peace

Your natural anger may get in the way at first. But if you make it your goal to understand your parent better, the resulting insight may help to defuse your anger. As Proverbs 19:11 says: “The insight of a man certainly slows down his anger, and it is beauty on his part to pass over transgression.” This is certainly easier when some sorrow or repentance has been shown by the guilty party. Remember, gaining insight into an estranged parent’s point of view, personality, and human frailties does not necessarily mean that you are excusing the guilty parent or taking that parent’s side in the divorce dispute; nor does it mean that you are betraying the parent with whom you live. It simply means developing a more realistic view of your parent.

For example, many youths assume that a parent who has left the home must hate them​—otherwise why would the parent leave? But really, the breakup was due to marital problems, not you. The departing parent probably did not mean to reject you by leaving​—even though you may feel that way. As Dr. Gould put it: “In all likelihood, parents who loved you before the divorce will love you just as much after.”

‘Then how come he hardly visits?’ you may ask. When a parent repeatedly fails to show up for scheduled visits, or he contacts you only sporadically, it can indeed seem as if he doesn’t want to see you. But that may not be the case at all. Sometimes a parent knows that his conduct before the breakup has left the family deeply offended. If you have ever hurt a friend’s feelings, you know how hard it can be to face him afterward! As Proverbs 18:19 says: “An offended brother is worse than a fortified city.”​—The Interlinear Hebrew-Aramaic Old Testament.

Because of feelings of guilt, your parent may likewise dread facing the family. Pride may also be a factor. It may even be that the estranged parent simply cannot face the former marriage mate, particularly if there has been a remarriage; what used to be “home” may now seem strange. These and other factors may make it hard for your parent to visit you. What can you do to make things easier? At Romans 12:18 we read: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (New International Version) How can you do that?

For one thing, you may have to lower your expectations a bit. Expecting more of your parent’s time and attention than you are getting right now is only going to frustrate and disappoint you. Try instead to enjoy the limited time you do have together.

‘But what do we talk about?’ you might wonder. True, these visits may be awkward at first. But there is likely a great deal your parent wants to know​—about your friends, your progress in school, and your interests outside of school. And there is much you could ask about. The divorce has doubtless left a gaping void in your parent’s life, as it did in yours. So be like “the man of discernment,” spoken of at Proverbs 20:5, who ‘draws up’ the ‘deep waters’ of counsel in another. Ask questions. Learn about your parent’s new home or job, or interests in hobbies, sports, and friends. And if you can’t get over the pain your parent has caused you, maybe in time you can find a way to talk it out peacefully.

Keeping Your Balance

There is a danger, though, of idealizing an estranged parent. Randy’s father, an alcoholic and a womanizer, left the family repeatedly and finally divorced Randy’s mother. And yet, Randy recalls: “For some reason, I really almost worshiped the man.”

Such misguided adoration is not unusual. In the United States, some 90 percent of the children of divorced parents live with the mother and visit the father. Thus, the mother is often responsible for the day-to-day care of her children​—including discipline. And in spite of support payments, the mother’s economic status usually goes way down after the divorce; the father’s may even rise. The result: A visit with Dad means getting gifts and having fun! Life with Mom means pinching pennies and being told what to do and what not to do. Sad to say, some youths have even left a Christian parent in order to live with a wealthier and more permissive unbelieving parent.​—Compare Proverbs 19:4.

If you are tempted to make such a choice, check your values. Remember that your Creator values most what you really need​—moral guidance and discipline. Nothing else a parent can offer will so deeply affect your character and the quality of your life. Discipline is a sign of real love.​—See Proverbs 4:13; 13:24.

Remember, too, that your Creator has only one standard of right and wrong, regardless of what a parent allows you to do. Tom says: “My mom never discouraged us from seeing my dad. But every Friday when we went to visit him, she would say, ‘Just remember that you’re a Christian and that Jehovah sees what you’re doing.’ That helped me to stand by my beliefs when visiting my dad.”

Try as you may, however, you can’t always win a parent’s approval. The suggestions in this article may help you to bridge the gulf between you and your parent. But even if all your efforts fail, do not give up hope. People do change. And at least you will have the satisfaction of knowing that ‘as far as it depends on you,’ peace has been maintained. Better yet, you will still be able to bask in the warmth of a parental smile of approval. As Jehovah says at Proverbs 27:11: “Be wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice, that I may make a reply to him that is taunting me.” When you obediently stick to God’s standards and work to show merciful insight in your relationships with your parents, he is pleased. And he is a Friend and a Parent from whom you need never be estranged.

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 23]

Sometimes it is a test to leave one parent to spend time with the other

“Drugs? Just Shake Hands With Satan!”

What effect can “recreational” use of drugs have on the human body? Consider Charles. He was 15 years of age when introduced to drugs by his older sister. Over the next 15 years, he used marijuana, cocaine, and heroin in various combinations. He served time in a host of correctional institutions for petty theft and armed robbery. His drug use led to his contracting AIDS. Stunned when told that he was carrying the AIDS virus, he watched helplessly as his tall, powerful, muscular body wasted away to a mere spindle of what he once was. Read his sad story and then ask yourself, ‘Is it worth it?’

“YOU destroy a marvelous body. And there are so many things that you miss out on, messing with drugs just to stay high. First, you miss playing with your daughter. You can’t play ball with her, you can’t run with her. I missed seeing my only son grow up from a baby, walking and things like that. I can’t take my wife dancing because I can’t dance anymore. Most sports I can’t play anymore because not only is my body numb but it moves in slow motion like a robot.

“My hands don’t work as they used to. I can’t shave or shape my mustache or cut my hair as I used to. I can’t dress anymore as I used to. I can’t even button my shirts. I can’t use the bathroom alone. At times I can’t even get an eyelash out of my eye because my fingers don’t work. I can’t cook anymore as I used to. My profession as a tile and carpet layer has been taken away from me because of that virus, due to the drugs.

“Everyone has to wait on me. I’m like a baby. My brain doesn’t function as it used to. I forget. For instance, I have to think about my home attendant’s name. My wife repeats things over and over, and I forget them. And the problem is, it’s getting worse.

“Everything hurts, every second of the day. The pain can make a strong man cry, no matter who you are. The pain pills they give you​—they eat a hole in your stomach, and you get an ulcer. So you can’t take the pain pills all the time. And you bleed and cough up blood from the stomach ulcer. If I get cut in any way, I have to worry about infection. My skin is very delicate. I cannot wrestle and play with my son anymore.

“I thought I had the game beat. Fifteen years messing with drugs​—I thought I got away with it. And now I have the AIDS virus. I don’t know when I’m going to die.

“So if anyone wants to trade in Jehovah for that, let them know. Drugs? Just shake hands with Satan because that’s his tool!”

After learning the truth of God’s Word, Charles broke the drug habit and became a baptized Witness of Jehovah. While in the hospital, he preached without letup to doctors, nurses, and fellow patients. However, three and a half years after his baptism, Charles died, January 27, 1990, 37 years of age.

The Bible’s Viewpoint

Drugs for Pleasure​—Why Not?

“COCAINE . . . is probably the most benign of illicit drugs currently in widespread use . . . and acutely pleasurable.”

So said Dr. Peter Bourne in 1974. Four years later as White House health policy adviser for President Jimmy Carter, Dr. Bourne was forced to resign because of charges of illicit drug use. Like many others, perhaps he thought he could justify the use of drugs for pleasure.

At one time cocaine was easily available to anyone almost anywhere​—at grocery stores, in saloons, and from mail-order vendors. During the 1880’s and 1890’s, it could be smoked in the form of coca-leaf cigarettes. It was imbibed in various wine and soft-drink concoctions. Even the popular English fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is portrayed as using cocaine “three times a day for many months.”​—The Sign of Four, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Cocaine was esteemed for its restorative properties and was hailed as a remedy for headache, asthma, hay fever, and toothache. It became the elixir for the masses. For example, in 1884 a youthful Sigmund Freud wrote: “I have tested this effect of coca, which wards off hunger, sleep, and fatigue and steels one to intellectual effort, some dozen times on myself . . . A first dose or even repeated doses of coca produce no compulsive desire to use the stimulant further.”​—Über Coca.

In years gone by, similar comments were made regarding marijuana, which led some people to believe that the use of drugs was harmless. However, today you can read mountains of medical evidence indicating otherwise. Indeed, the use of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, crack (a form of cocaine), heroin, amphetamines, and barbiturates is extremely harmful to the body.

Harmful and Deadly Effects

Researchers claim that marijuana users can expect smaller babies, more accidents, and damaged lungs. Cocaine and its derivative crack have been linked with paranoia and other schizophrenic symptoms, intense depression, insomnia, loss of appetite, sexual impotence, profound irritability, seizures, heart attacks, strokes, skin lesions or large blisters, loss of limbs and fingers, birth defects, upper respiratory infections, loss of sense of smell, and death. According to one science writer, “if cocaine use during pregnancy were a disease, its impact on infants would be considered a national health-care crisis.”

Certain types of drug users also run a high risk of contracting AIDS. (See page 25.) And many health problems have been associated with the abuse of synthetic drugs, such as amphetamines, barbiturates, tranquilizers, and exotic “designer drugs.”

Yet, in spite of known risks, people are still tempted to try drugs. Casual users find such drugs to be exciting. Nevertheless, the risks are very real. It is like steering an oil tanker onto a submerged reef​—disaster is certain.

Your Body​—A ‘Living Sacrifice’

The principle expressed by the apostle Paul at Romans 12:1 has a strong bearing on this matter. It states: “Consequently I entreat you by the compassions of God, brothers, to present your bodies a sacrifice living, holy, acceptable to God, a sacred service with your power of reason.” Christians are to offer far more meaningful sacrifices than the animal sacrifices required of the ancient nation of Israel.

Noteworthy is Paul’s use of the Greek expression rendered “sacrifice living, holy” (thy·siʹan zoʹsan ha·giʹan). According to various Bible scholars, these words take on the following meaning: The Israelite presented a dead sacrificial victim. It could not be offered again. In contrast, the Christian is to present himself with all his energies alive, “living.” (The Greek verb form translated “living” can sometimes mean “to live in health.”) And just as the Israelite was forbidden to offer that which was lame or in any way deformed, the Christian presents to God his best faculties. And since the Christian’s body becomes a vehicle for his actions, all his deeds and thoughts together with their instrument​—his body—​are to be dedicated solely to God. This becomes an act of total dedication. He makes no other claim to himself. Thus, his life, not ritual, is the true sacrifice.

Hence, Paul was encouraging first-century Christians, while they were yet alive on earth, to use their energies, their health, and whatever talents or gifts they had in whole-souled service to God. (Colossians 3:23) They were to give to Jehovah the very best they could offer physically and mentally. God would be well pleased with such sacrifices.

However, how would God have responded if they had willfully engaged in practices that diminished their physical or mental capacity and even shortened their life? Would Christians want to break the law and take the risk of decreasing their worth in God’s ministry? Unclean practices could disqualify them as ministers and even result in their expulsion from the Christian congregation.​—Galatians 5:19-21.

Today, it is common practice the world over for people to abuse drugs. Can a person use such drugs for pleasure and still offer his body as “a sacrifice living, holy, acceptable to God”? Not only medical research and countless experiences of devastating consequences but also Bible principles give a clear answer​—no!

[Picture on page 26]

“The Opium Smoker”​—by N. C. Wyeth, 1913

Watching the World

NEW CATECHISM ASSAILED

The Vatican, for the first time since the 16th century, is revising its catechism. But the 434-page compendium of Roman Catholic doctrine has been assailed by some bishops in the United States. They “told the Vatican that the new catechism uses outdated biblical scholarship and sexist language and shortchanges the ecumenical progress of recent decades,” says U.S.News & World Report. “The bishops faulted it for taking a literal view of creation accounts and for treating some New Testament passages as ‘direct historical reporting.’” A wrong impression is given, said the bishops, “that all areas are equally important.” They argued that “essential” church doctrines, such as the resurrection of Jesus, should be distinguished from beliefs that, in their opinion, are less certain, such as the existence of angels and Christ’s descent into hell. When completed, the new catechism will “serve only as guidance for church leaders in each country as they fashion their own catechisms,” says U.S.News & World Report.

AIDS​—BLEAK OUTLOOK

Eight to ten million people worldwide are infected with the AIDS virus, reports WHO (World Health Organization), an increase that reflects a growing heterosexual transmission of the virus. “It is now clear that the toll of HIV infection around the globe is worsening rapidly, especially in developing countries,” says Dr. Michael H. Merson, a director of the agency. WHO also predicts that the surge in infections will bring death to at least three million women and children in the 1990’s, over six times the number who died from AIDS in the 1980’s. The number of men who will die from AIDS during the decade is expected to be even higher. With the loss of their parents, millions of uninfected children will become orphans. According to the report, AIDS is already the leading cause of death for women from 20 to 40 years of age in major cities in the Americas, Western Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa, where about 1 in 40 adult men and women are said to be infected.

HERBAL “GOLD MINE”?

Could countries like Brazil make their rain forests profitable? Possibly, according to an article in Scanorama (Scandinavian Airlines System’s in-flight magazine): “WHO [World Health Organization] suggests . . . the cultivation of herbal gardens and the sale of medicinal plants. The Danish botanist Ole Hamann says he considers such projects a potential ‘gold mine’ for developing countries.” How so? The abundance of plants in the rain forests, in many cases still untested as to medicinal properties, is a challenge to researchers. About 250,000 plants are already identified, but “botanists estimate that another 30,000 plant species, mostly tropical, are still unknown to science.” Many of these plants may prove to be valuable in combating various diseases, since “of all prescription medicines used in the West, at least 25 percent, and probably closer to half, contain natural substances obtained from plants.”

SMOKING EPIDEMIC

“During the past two decades, use of tobacco has increased worldwide by almost 75%,” reports JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association), and “is responsible for almost 2.5 million excessive or premature deaths per year​—almost 5% of all deaths.” While demand for tobacco products has been reduced in economically developed countries, developing nations, particularly in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, have seen a surge in the number of people smoking. The United States, for instance, has found itself in the embarrassing position of backing an antismoking campaign domestically while applying pressure to open new foreign markets for its tobacco products in order to help ease trade deficits. According to the report, an estimated 200 million children now under 20 years of age will eventually die from tobacco use, and lung cancer deaths will increase worldwide to two million by the year 2000.

BAMBOO BREAKTHROUGH

Bamboo. According to Asiaweek a quarter of the world’s population rely on it for food, livestock fodder, furniture, scaffolding, and paper products. Giant pandas thrive on it. It is strong, resistant to rot, and light in weight. But most species of bamboo flower and produce seeds only once, taking from 12 to 120 years to do that, apparently according to an internal clock, and after that the whole grove dies. Until now, this characteristic has frustrated scientific endeavors to develop improved strains, since the most economically important species take 30 years to flower and thus often outlive the scientists involved. Nature magazine states that botanists now say that they have found a way to defeat the clock in two bamboo species and induce early flowering that could make it possible to produce better strains and have a steady supply of seeds for reforesting. By putting infant plants in a special growth mixture, adult-sized flowers were produced in a few weeks, and most produced seeds after blossoming.

WHEN LIFE BRINGS DEATH

“Imagine,” says obstetrician Malcolm Potts, “that every six hours, day in, day out, a jumbo jet crashes and all on board are killed. The 250 passengers are women, most in the prime of life, some still in their teens. They are all either pregnant or have just delivered a baby. Most of them have growing children at home, and families that depend on them.” The illustration portrays the half million women worldwide who die during pregnancy or childbirth each year. “All but 1 per cent of these maternal deaths take place in the Third World,” says New Scientist. “The biggest killers are haemorrhage, infection, toxaemia, obstructed labour and unskilled abortion.” Unwanted pregnancies lead to an annual massacre of mothers and fetuses. “Every year somewhere between 40 and 60 million women seek abortion,” the magazine states.

EGYPT’S RELICS IMPERILED

The construction of the Aswân High Dam in the 1960’s “brought a fundamental change to the environment of the Nile Valley,” notes The New York Times. “Ground water beneath the monuments has risen; the air is more humid because the irrigation canals never empty; salts in the soil are drawn through ancient facades, peeling them away from the rock below; sewerage has tainted the soil.” As a result, Egypt’s archaeological treasures​—the most extensive in the world—​that have survived so many millenniums are now seriously threatened. Evidence has mounted that even unexcavated sites, once thought safe and protected, have been damaged. Experts are stymied by the enormity of the problem, not knowing what to do. “There are more than 2,000 tombs, a lot of monuments, pyramids, obelisks,” says Sayed Tawfiq, director of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization in Cairo. “If you gave every tomb two years of restoration, that would be 4,000 years.”

NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED

Each year scientists discover over 10,000 new species of plants and animals. A large number of these are insects, with five to ten new mammals and an equal number of birds identified each year. As many as this may seem, biologists still have a long way to go. There are an estimated 50 million species of plants and animals in the world, and less than 1.5 million have been seen and cataloged. The discovery of a new primate, the black-faced lion tamarin, recently drew attention, as it was discovered less than 200 miles [320 km] from the world’s third-largest metropolis, along the densely populated Brazilian coast. As tropical forests vanish, it is feared that species will disappear faster than they can be found.

IMPACT OF FAMILY LIFE

“Family structure has much to do with children’s health and development,” notes an article in The Wall Street Journal. Statistics from a U.S. “government survey of the health and emotional status of some 17,000 children ranging in age from infancy to 17” disclosed that “children living in non-traditional families had substantially greater problems than those living with both natural parents.” The risk of having an accident or injury in the year before the survey was 20 to 30 percent higher for children living with a divorced or remarried mother. Compared with those living with both their biological parents, such children were from 40 to 75 percent more likely to have had to repeat a school grade. Children from disrupted marriages were 70 percent more likely to have been suspended or expelled from school; and those whose mothers had never married were more than twice as likely to have had those problems. Children in mother-headed families were also 50 percent more likely to have asthma.

From Our Readers

Single Parent Households I greatly appreciated the article “Young People Ask . . . Will I Be Normal With Just One Parent?” (July 8, 1990) My father left us when I was only two years old. This affected my emotional development. I became hyperactive and could not make friends. I began suppressing all emotion and eventually was taken to a psychiatrist. So growing up in a one-parent household is not a favorable situation for all youths. But acceptance and understanding by fellow Christians, particularly peers, can lessen the stress some emotionally distressed youths feel. I really had to put myself out in order to gain such friends. And now, with a balanced schedule in which I spend time with my mother and newfound friends, I no longer feel sorry for myself because my family was “damaged.”

T. A., United States

Four years ago my husband ended our marriage. As I read the article with my daughter, she said: “Well, I feel normal. I just have parents in separate houses!” The article also made me feel normal as a single parent, lifting from me the burden of anxiety and guilt I felt toward my child.

J. C. P., United States

Carbohydrate Snacks A special thanks for the small item on carbohydrate snacks. (July 22, 1990) I often prepare my family a pasta dish for lunch. I would become tired and need to rest afterward. Now I understand why. Changing our diet will take less of a toll on my physical resources and leave me better equipped for my afternoon evangelizing activities.

J. W., Federal Republic of Germany

European Ecumenical Assembly Thank you for the article “Judged out of Their Own Mouth.” (March 22, 1990) By their own admission, religions of today have missed the theme of the Bible and failed to look to God’s Kingdom. You can truly say that ‘by their words they are condemned.’​—Matthew 12:37.

D. P., New Zealand

Rosary What you say about the Rosary (June 8, 1990) is only half of the truth. A good part of the prayers are based on Bible stories or are direct Bible quotations. Saying the Rosary is therefore a good start for spiritual life. There are positive results, such as peace of mind and happiness in this world of problems.

H. W., Italy

The use of the Rosary is dear to the hearts of many sincere Roman Catholics. Nevertheless, our article focused on the issue of whether the practice is pleasing to God or not. And while a memorized prayer may contain Scriptural thoughts, remember that it was Jesus himself who said at Matthew 6:7, 8: “When praying, do not say the same things over and over again.”​—ED.

Asthma I am grateful for the article on asthma. (March 22, 1990) I am 16 years old and have suffered from this disease almost since birth. I was unaware that emotional tension and certain foods could trigger attacks. Now I am going to put your advice into practice.

A. D., Spain

The article was of interest to me as a chronic asthmatic who has been rushed to a hospital by ambulance as many as 12 times in three months. I used to treat my asthma as an event rather than as a serious disease. But after suffering three respiratory arrests in one night, I decided to take my medication regularly. I have not been hospitalized now for three years.

S. M., Australia

‘Our Shame Is Clear to the Whole World’

THE New York Times of July 20, 1990, carried a headline: “Canadian Prelate Quits in Clerics’ Sex Scandal.” What was the story? Yet another case of clergymen being accused of sexual abuse of boys. On this occasion the scandal was in the province of Newfoundland, Canada, and the clergy were Catholic. What made it different?

The Times reported: “The Archbishop of Newfoundland has resigned after charges that the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy ignored or failed to deal effectively with three years of scandal involving allegations of sexual abuse against altar boys, orphaned youths and others by Roman Catholic priests and church laymen.” First accused of gross indecency in 1979, one priest was recently sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to 36 charges!

Usually these cases are hushed up, and no significant disciplinary action is taken. Perhaps a priest is transferred to another parish or duty, where the depravity might start again. On this occasion the archbishop was moved to resign after stating: “We are a sinful church. We are naked. Our anger, our pain, our anguish, our shame are clear to the whole world.”​—Compare Revelation 17:15-18.

A judicial inquiry showed that accusations had been made over a period of 15 years, but the police and government officials failed “to act decisively against the offenders.” And even worse, the church hierarchy failed to act decisively. They were accused of being more concerned about the offending priests than about the victims. Yet, what does the Catholic Bible say about such immoral practices?

Regarding those who committed perversion, the New American Bible, St. Joseph Edition, states: “God delivered them up in their lusts to unclean practices; they engaged in the mutual degradation of their bodies, . . . and the men gave up natural intercourse with women and burned with lust for one another. Men did shameful things with men . . . They know God’s just decree that all who do such things deserve death; yet they not only do them but approve them in others.”​—Romans 1:24-32.

What does the Catholic Bible say will happen to any such unrepentant ones? “Can you not realize that the unholy will not fall heir to the kingdom of God? Do not deceive yourselves: no fornicators, . . . no sexual perverts . . . will inherit God’s kingdom.” Yet, for such individuals there is a Bible-based discipline: disfellowshipping from the Christian congregation, even as Paul stated: “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral persons . . . , not associating with anyone who bears the title ‘brother’ if he is immoral . . . It is clear that you must not eat with such a man. . . . ‘Expel the wicked man from your midst.’”​—1 Corinthians 5:9-13; 6:9, 10, NAB.

“A Treasure Chest of Questions and Answers”

That is what a woman from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., called the handbook Reasoning From the Scriptures. She explained: “I recently had two of Jehovah’s Witnesses come to my home. . . . One mistakenly left a book entitled Reasoning From the Scriptures. I must admit, I ransacked that book! I sat reading it for hours. I was extremely impressed. . . . This book was to me like a treasure chest of questions and answers, many that I’ve asked myself.”

This vital handbook contains over 70 main subject headings. Included are “Abortion,” “Drugs,” “Holidays,” “Rapture,” “Reincarnation,” “Sex,” and “Spiritism.” Its seven-page index of subjects and scriptures can help you to find answers quickly. To receive a copy, please fill in and mail the coupon below.

I would like to receive the hardcover 448-page handbook Reasoning From the Scriptures. (Outside the U.S.A., write to local Watch Tower branch for information. See page 4.)