February 22

Page Two

Can the Churches Unite? 3-11

What has been the Roman Catholic Church’s relationship to the ecumenical movement? Can it really seek unity with other churches without placing itself on the horns of a dilemma? This and other questions will be considered in the opening articles of this issue.

Color Blindness​—A Curious Defect 21

What are the different types of color blindness? What causes them? And how can people cope?

Why Do I Have to Be a Baby-Sitter? 25

Why do many young people resent having to baby-sit? What can help them develop a positive view of this responsibility?

[Picture Credit Lines on page 2]

British Tourist Authority Photograph

Photo: Godo-Foto

Efforts to Unite

By Awake! correspondent in France

SHAME! Yes, shame was what started the ecumenical movement. Shame at what? Shame at the painful spectacle that Christendom offered to the non-Christian world of being a house divided against itself.

At the very first assembly of the WCC (World Council of Churches), its general secretary, Dr. W. A. Visser ’t Hooft, explained: “We are a Council of Churches, not the Council of the one undivided Church. Our name indicates our weakness and our shame before God, for there can be and is finally only one Church of Christ on earth.”

A recently published French Catholic encyclopedia admits: “Consciousness of the scandal resulting from divided churches became more acute during the 19th century. This was particularly so among the missionaries, whose mutual antagonism contradicted the Gospel that they had come to preach to non-Christians. . . . The decisive shock came with the development of the African and Asian missions that brought into broad daylight the divisions between Christians that were obstructing the evangelizing work.”

Its Beginnings

The word “ecumenical” is derived from the Greek word oi·kou·meʹne (inhabited earth). The ecumenical movement, which had its beginnings in the mid-19th century, aims at earth-wide unity of the churches of Christendom. Conscious of the disadvantages of divisions between churches, reformers organized various interdenominational associations during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Missionaries sent out to convert non-Christians were particularly sensitive to the rifts within Christendom. They could hardly point to the blood-spattered pages of church history as proof of the superiority of their religion. How could they justify the existence of so many churches, all pretending to be Christian, while at the same time quoting Jesus or the apostle Paul, both of whom underscored the need for Christian unity?​—John 13:34, 35; 17:21; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13.

No doubt this situation contributed to the formation of the modern ecumenical movement, which called together the first World Missionary Conference, in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910. Later, in 1921, the International Missionary Council was formed. The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “The International Missionary Council was formed not only to spread information about effective missionary methods, but also to lessen the scandal of Christian divisions by avoiding competition in non-Christian countries.”

Catholic Aloofness

What, though, did the Roman Catholic Church do to lessen the scandal of Christian divisions? In 1919 the Catholic Church was invited to participate in an interchurch discussion on faith and order, where differences in doctrine and ministry were to be considered. But Pope Benedict XV rejected this offer. Again, in 1927, the Catholic Church received an invitation to take part in the First World Conference on Faith and Order, held in Lausanne, Switzerland. Delegates from several Protestant and Orthodox churches met to discuss obstacles to unity, but Pope Pius XI refused to allow any Catholic participation.

In its article on Pope Pius XI, the New Catholic Encyclopedia says: “The Holy See took a negative attitude toward the ecumenical movement of non-Catholic Christendom.” This negative attitude evolved into open hostility when, in 1928, the pope issued his encyclical letter Mortalium animos. In it he condemned the ecumenical movement and forbade Catholics to give any support to ecumenism.

In 1948 the WCC was formed. At its foundation, its membership included nearly 150 churches, most of them Protestant. Some Eastern Orthodox churches were included, and other Orthodox churches joined the WCC later. All these churches accepted as a basis for membership the declaration: “The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches which accept the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour.” In spite of this definite Trinitarian formula, Pope Pius XII refused an invitation to associate the Catholic Church with this ecumenical council.

A Change Among Catholics?

John XXIII, elected as pope in 1958 at nearly 77 years of age, was considered by many Catholics to be merely a papa di passaggio, or interim pope. As it turned out, he opened the Vatican windows to winds of change that to this day are causing flurries in Catholic circles. One of Pope John’s first decisions, early in 1959, was to summon an ecumenical council, which, in Catholic parlance, meant a general meeting of the bishops of the entire Catholic Church.

The purpose of this gathering was, first, to “bring the church up to date” and, second, to “open the way toward the reunion of the separated brethren of East and West in the one fold of Christ.” In line with this second purpose, Pope John XXIII in 1960 set up at the Vatican the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity. This was hailed as “the first official recognition by the Roman Catholic Church of the existence of the ecumenical movement.”

The winds of change certainly appeared to be blowing. But was the Roman Curia, the powerful group of prelates making up the administrative government of the church, in favor of these changes? And if so, what was their concept of Christian unity?

Notable Dates in the Ecumenical Movement

1844: Beginning of the interdenominational movement that later produced the Young Men’s and the Young Women’s Christian Associations.

1846: First international conference of the interdenominational Evangelical Alliance, held in London, England.

1908: Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America formed. In 1950 it became the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

1910: First World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh, Scotland, “where the modern ecumenical movement really began.”​—Encyclopædia Britannica.

1919: Pope Benedict XV rejected an invitation for the Catholic Church to participate with the Protestant Episcopal Church in a meeting on faith and order (interchurch differences in doctrine and ministry).

1921: International Missionary Council formed.

1925: First international conference of the Universal Christian Council on Life and Work (for studying a common church policy on economic, political, and social issues), held in Stockholm, Sweden.

1927: First world conference of the interchurch “Faith and Order” movement, held in Lausanne, Switzerland.

1928: Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Mortalium animos, forbidding Catholics to give any support to the ecumenical movement.

1937: The “Life and Work” conference held in Oxford, England, and the “Faith and Order” conference held in Edinburgh, Scotland, agreed to form a provisional committee for setting up a world council of churches. This project was postponed because of the outbreak of World War II.

1948: The WCC (World Council of Churches) was formed at a constituting assembly held in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its membership included almost 150 Protestant and some Eastern Orthodox churches. The WCC has since regularly held general assemblies (1954: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.; 1961: New Delhi, India; 1968: Uppsala, Sweden; 1975: Nairobi, Kenya; 1983: Vancouver, Canada).

1960: Pope John XXIII set up at the Vatican the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity. This “was the first official recognition by the Roman Catholic Church of the existence of the ecumenical movement.”​—Encyclopædia Britannica.

1961: The International Missionary Council united with the WCC. The Vatican began sending official Catholic observers to WCC general assemblies.

1964: Pope Paul VI promulgated the Second Vatican Council’s “Decree on Ecumenism,” which defined the limits of Catholic participation in the ecumenical movement.

1965: The pope and the Orthodox patriarch mutually nullified the excommunications that their predecessors had pronounced against each other in 1054.

1968: SODEPAX (Joint Committee on Society, Development, and Peace) was set up by the Vatican and the WCC.

1969: Pope Paul VI paid a visit to the world headquarters of the WCC, in Geneva, Switzerland. He emphasized, however, that he was the successor of the apostle Peter and that any talk of the Catholic Church’s joining the WCC was premature.

1980: SODEPAX was dissolved.

1986: Pope John Paul II organized an ecumenical “World Day of Prayer for Peace” in Assisi, Italy, where spiritual leaders representing major religions of the world assembled to pray for peace according to their separate rites.

A Dilemma for the Catholic Church

“A NEW PENTECOST.” Such was the hope that Pope John XXIII expressed for the ecumenical council that began in 1962 and that came to be known as Vatican II. He hoped that it would be a means of spiritual renewal among Catholics and that it would bring about changes that would pave the way for reuniting Christendom.

But such ideas of aggiornamento (updating) were not shared by all the prelates in the Vatican. The New Encyclopædia Britannica reports: “The Pope’s decision, consequently, was received coolly by his conservative Curia, who were convinced that the church had prospered under Pius XII’s leadership and who saw no good reason for the changes John envisioned. Some of the Vatican cardinals in fact did everything in their power to delay the council until the old man had passed from the scene and the project could be quietly dropped.”

Vatican II’s Decree on Ecumenism

Pope John XXIII lived long enough to set the Second Vatican Council in motion, but he died shortly afterward, in June 1963, long before the council concluded in December 1965. Yet, the Decree on Ecumenism was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 21, 1964. It stated in its introduction: “The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council.”

Significantly, Jesuit priest Walter M. Abbott wrote in The Documents of Vatican II: “The Decree on Ecumenism marks the full entry of the Roman Catholic Church into the ecumenical movement.” And in a similar vein, under the heading “Roman Catholicism following the second Vatican Council,” The New Encyclopædia Britannica said optimistically: “The Roman Catholic Church has officially abandoned its ‘one true church’ position.”

But has the Catholic Church really abandoned that position? On what conditions was unity to be brought about? After having defined the extent to which Catholics could engage in ecumenical activity, the Decree on Ecumenism stipulated: “This sacred Council urges the faithful to abstain from any frivolous or imprudent zeal. . . . Their ecumenical activity cannot be other than fully and sincerely Catholic, that is, loyal to the truth we have received from the Apostles and the Fathers, and in harmony with the faith which the Catholic Church has always professed.”

Obstacles to Unity

The fact is, the Roman Catholic Church did not abandon its position that it is the one true church. The Vatican II Decree on Ecumenism states: “It is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help towards salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that Our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant.”

The recent French work Théo​—Nouvelle Encyclopédie Catholique (1989) states: “For Catholics, the pope, as Peter’s successor, is theologically the permanent element of the unity of the Church and the bishops. The plain fact, however, is that the pope is the major cause of division between Christians.”

This divisive doctrine of the primacy of the pope is closely related to the dogmas of papal infallibility and the apostolic succession of Catholic bishops, both of which are unacceptable to most non-Catholic churches of Christendom. Did Vatican II do anything to modify the Catholic position on these doctrines?

The Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on the Church answers, in paragraph 18: “This sacred synod, following in the steps of the First Vatican Council [which decreed the dogma of papal infallibility], teaches and declares with it that Jesus Christ, the eternal pastor, set up the holy Church by entrusting the apostles with their mission as he himself had been sent by the Father (cf. Jn. Joh 20:21). He willed that their successors, the bishops namely, should be the shepherds in his Church until the end of the world. In order that the episcopate itself, however, might be one and undivided he put Peter at the head of the other apostles, and in him he set up a lasting and visible source and foundation of the unity both of faith and of communion. This teaching concerning the institution, the permanence, the nature and import of the sacred primacy of the Roman Pontiff and his infallible teaching office, the sacred synod proposes anew to be firmly believed by all the faithful, and, proceeding undeviatingly with this same undertaking, it proposes to proclaim publicly and enunciate clearly the doctrine concerning bishops, successors of the apostles, who together with Peter’s successor, the Vicar of Christ and the visible head of the whole Church, direct the house of the living God.”

Significantly, this Dogmatic Constitution on the Church was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on the very day that he signed the Decree on Ecumenism. And on that same November 21, 1964, he made a statement proclaiming “Mary ‘Mother of the Church,’ that is, of all the faithful and all the pastors.” How can it be claimed that the Decree on Ecumenism ‘marked the full entry of the Roman Catholic Church into the ecumenical movement’ when the pope chose on the very day it was published to reaffirm dogmas that are totally unacceptable to the majority of the members of the WCC (World Council of Churches)?

The Dilemma of the Church

Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, former general secretary of the National Council of Churches, who played a leading part in the formation of the World Council of Churches, stated: “The Decree [on Ecumenism] does not really reconcile its ecumenical outlook with its assumption that the Roman Catholic is the only true Church. . . . Associated with this is the further assumption of the primacy of Peter and of his jurisdiction over the whole Church. These assumptions seem to indicate that the Roman Catholic understanding of ecumenism is unchangeably Rome-centered.”

Dr. Konrad Raiser, deputy secretary-general of the WCC, declared: “The pope [John Paul II] is making many ecumenical declarations, but he is inspired by a mission that is taking him in a different direction.”

This evident contradiction between the Vatican’s facade of ecumenism and its dogged attachment to its own traditional concepts only reveals that the Church of Rome finds itself on the horns of a dilemma. If it is sincere about its participation in the ecumenical movement for Christian unity, it must forgo its claim to be the only true church. If it refuses to forgo this claim, it must admit that its so-called ecumenism is just a tactical move to entice the Orthodox and Protestant churches back to the Catholic fold.

Put bluntly, the Catholic Church must either admit that its centuries-old claims are false or that its present participation in the ecumenical movement is sheer hypocrisy. Either way, many sincere members of Christendom’s churches are perplexed. They wonder if Christian unity will ever be attained.

[Blurb on page 8]

‘The Decree on Ecumenism marks the full entry of the Roman Catholic Church into the ecumenical movement’

[Picture on page 7]

Vatican II placed the Catholic Church on the horns of a dilemma

[Credit Line]

UPI/​Bettmann Newsphotos

Is Christian Unity Possible?

CHRISTENDOM is a divided house. Its estimated membership of over 1,500 million people is split up into Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, and other churches and sects claiming to be Christian. Many sincere people wonder if Christian unity will ever be attained.

Deploring the religious disunity, a document of the Second Vatican Council stated: “All proclaim themselves to be disciples of the Lord, but their convictions clash and their paths diverge, as though Christ Himself were divided (cf. 1 Cor. 1:13). Without doubt, this discord openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world, and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the good news to every creature.”

The Catholic Church and Unity

The Catholic Church, which claims about half of the total membership of Christendom, has its own concept of Christian unity. Various “unions of prayer” were formed at the turn of the century. Among these were the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Compassion for the Return of England to the Catholic Faith, the Pious Union of Prayer to Our Lady of Compassion for the Conversion of Heretics, and the Archconfraternity of Prayers and Good Works for the Reunion of the Eastern Schismatics with the Church.

In 1908, on the initiative of an Anglican priest turned Catholic, an annual Catholic prayer week (January 18-25) was organized “for the conversion and return of the separated brethren.” This later became the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, with which the WCC (World Council of Churches) has associated itself since the early 1950’s.

The Catholic book The Documents of Vatican II states: “Each year in January, for many decades, Roman Catholics have offered eight days of prayer for Church unity. Until 1959, the general idea behind those days of prayer, January 18-25, was the hope that Protestants would ‘return’ to the one true Church, and that the Orthodox schism would end.”

Did Vatican II fundamentally change the Catholic Church’s view of Christian unity? Pope John’s successor, Paul VI, promulgated the Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, which says: “This is the sole Church of Christ which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic. . . . This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him.”

So the Catholic Church’s view of Christian unity has not changed fundamentally. The view expressed at Vatican II is, in effect, that whatever good things exist outside the Catholic Church really belong to her and are, therefore, as the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church says, “forces impelling towards Catholic unity.”

Qualified to Promote Unity?

What can be said of the Catholic Church’s oft-repeated profession to be “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic”? First, the recent schism of traditionalist Catholics under the leadership of Archbishop Lefebvre, not to mention the open rebellion of hundreds of Catholic theologians, gives the lie to the church’s claim to be “one.”a

Second, the record of the Catholic Church, with its anti-Semitism, its torturing of “heretics,” its promotion of “holy wars,” and its involvement in politics and dirty financial scandals, reveals that it is far from holy.

Third, the Church of Rome can hardly justify its claim that it is “catholic,” or “universal,” since it consists of only about half of those claiming to be Christian, or approximately 15 percent of the world population.

Finally, neither the facts of history, the record of the papacy, nor the opulence, the immorality, the political involvement of many Catholic prelates, can justify the church’s claim to be “apostolic.” Obviously, the Catholic Church is in no position to claim to be the rallying point for true Christian unity.

The World Council and Unity

The World Council of Churches includes over 300 Protestant and Eastern Orthodox churches that have more than 400 million members in over a hundred countries. The purpose of the council is “to proclaim the essential oneness of the Church of Christ and to keep prominently before the churches the obligation to manifest that unity and its urgency for the work of evangelism.” However, does the WCC offer any more hope for true Christian unity than does the Roman Catholic Church?

On what basis does the WCC hope to unite Christians? An encyclopedia states: “World Council of Churches. . . . The members generally agree that division among Christians is contrary to God’s will and a grave obstacle to the acceptance of Christianity by non-Christians. . . . The conviction has grown that unity must be based upon truth.” So, then, what is considered to be fundamental truth by the over 300 member-churches of the WCC?

In 1948 the original basis for membership in the WCC was considered by some churches as insufficiently Trinitarian. So in 1961 the basis for membership was modified to read: “The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the Scriptures and therefore seek to fulfil together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”​—Italics ours.

That very basis for membership in the WCC is a contradiction in terms. Why? Because the belief in “one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit” is not “according to the Scriptures.” The Encyclopedia of Religion states: “Theologians today are in agreement that the Hebrew Bible does not contain a doctrine of the Trinity.” Further, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology explains: “Primitive Christianity did not have an explicit doctrine of the Trinity.” And The New Encyclopædia Britannica declares: “Neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in the Old Testament: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deut. 6:4).”

Moreover, the WCC has become deeply involved in political struggles. For example, it has provided funds for armed liberation movements. The New Encyclopædia Britannica reveals: “Identifications with various revolutionary movements by WCC groups has occasioned criticism by some constituent churches.” Unchristian involvement in politics cannot bring about true Christian unity, any more than can an unbiblical doctrinal basis.

True Unity Is Possible

Interestingly, the French Encyclopædia Universalis (1989) states that the purpose of ecumenism is “to give back to the divided family of Christians profound and visible unity, in harmony with the teachings of Jesus. . . . Observing how Christians love one another, non-Christians should come to have faith and join the Church, prefiguring the new world in which service, righteousness, and peace will be the governing principles, as foretold and demonstrated by Christ. . . . It is noteworthy that . . . the Epistle to the Hebrews (II, 5) should speak of the ‘oi·kou·meʹne [inhabited earth] to come,’ thus emphasizing that the Christian hope is not for a nonfleshly spiritual world, but for this inhabited world [earth] reconciled with its Creator.”

More and more members of Christendom’s churches are coming to realize that the teachings of their church are not in harmony with the teachings of Jesus. They notice with shame that the members of their religion do not love one another. Many of them, however, have found a family of Christians that are profoundly united, and they observe how these really love one another. Yes, they have found true Christian unity and hope among the worldwide family of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

As a result, millions of former members of Christendom’s churches have come to have hope in God’s united new world, in which service, righteousness, and peace will be the governing principles.

[Footnotes]

[Blurb on page 11]

Many people have found a global family of Christians who are already united

[Picture on page 10]

This monument at the headquarters of the World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland, symbolizes their prayers for church unity, as yet unanswered

What Do You Know About Temperature?

WHAT is more relaxing than stepping into a warm shower or bath on a chilly day? But if the water is too hot or too cold, you may feel discomfort and spend as little time bathing as possible. What makes taking a shower or a bath a pleasant experience instead of a shock? Of course, it is the temperature of the water.

The temperature of the air outside is also an everyday concern. Knowing the temperature helps us decide how to dress and how to plan our day. Since knowledge of the temperature is so useful, public buildings often display it along with the time.

Yet, depending on where you live, the number displayed may reflect entirely different conditions. Why, for example, would a reading of 40 degrees in the United States call for donning a coat, whereas a 40-degree reading in Europe would call for the lightest possible clothing?

Temperature Scales

Very simply, where the Fahrenheit scale is used, such as in the United States, 40 degrees is cold, not far above the freezing point of water. But in Europe, where the Celsius scale is commonly used, 40 degrees registers a temperature that is swelteringly hot. In this article we will only consider these two scales used by the general public. Where did the Fahrenheit and the Celsius temperature scales come from?

In 1714 Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, a German physicist, used a mercury thermometer to devise a temperature scale. He determined three fixed points. He wanted the zero point on his scale to be as low as possible. So he mixed ice, water, and a kind of salt, and the temperature of the mixture dropped down to the lowest point he could then obtain. That temperature became 0 degrees on his scale. After that, Fahrenheit selected the temperature of a healthy human body as the upper point on his scale. He set this temperature at 96 degrees. (However, since then the body temperature of a healthy human has been found to be about 2 1/2 degrees higher than what he arbitrarily set.) To obtain the third fixed point, he measured the freezing point of water and found it to be 32 degrees. Later, the scale was applied to the boiling point of water. The temperature turned out to be 212 degrees at sea level, which Fahrenheit later proposed as the upper point on his new scale.

A contemporary of Gabriel Fahrenheit was Anders Celsius, a Swedish astronomer, who lived from 1701 to 1744. In 1742 Celsius devised a temperature scale that is also identified by its inventor’s name. The scale is based on two fixed points: 0 degrees is the freezing point of water, and 100 degrees is the boiling point of water at sea level. Since Celsius divided his thermometer into 100 equal parts, it is also known as the centigrade temperature scale. The Celsius scale is used wherever metric units have become accepted.

Since both the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales are in common use today, it is often necessary to convert from one to the other. How is this done? Well, note that the difference between the boiling point and the freezing point of water on the Fahrenheit scale is 180 degrees (212 degrees minus 32 degrees). But on the Celsius scale, it is 100 degrees. Therefore, the ratio between the two scales is 180/100, or 9/5.

Thus, to change from Fahrenheit to Celsius, first subtract 32 from the Fahrenheit temperature. Then multiply the difference by 5/9. As an example, say the Fahrenheit temperature is a sweltering 104 degrees. To arrive at the Celsius temperature, subtract 32 from 104, which gives 72. Then multiply 72 by 5/9. The result is 40, which is the Celsius temperature. Indeed, 40 degrees Celsius is sweltering!

On the other hand, to change from Celsius to Fahrenheit, you need to multiply the degrees Celsius by 9/5 and then afterward add 32. So, as an example, say the temperature is 20 degrees Celsius. What does that equal on the Fahrenheit scale? Multiplying 20 by 9/5, you get 36. By adding 32 to 36, you arrive at the Fahrenheit temperature of 68 degrees.

What Is Temperature?

Temperature is a measure of hotness and coldness. But what makes a substance hot or cold? If you could peer into the molecular and atomic structure of materials as they heat up, you would see various changes taking place. Consider a pan of water as heat is applied to it on a stove.

The water molecules move faster and faster. Soon the water boils. This occurs when the water molecules are moving so fast that they bounce off one another and no longer stick together in liquid form. The water is actually beginning to change into a gas, which we see as steam.

Bubbles of gas form first at the bottom of the pan, since the temperature there is the highest. Even though heat is continually added during this transformation of water into steam, the temperature does not change. This is because it takes energy to break the molecules free from the liquid state and transfer them to the gaseous state. The added heat supplies that energy. So instead of making the water hotter, it simply causes more water molecules to change to the gaseous state.

The water molecules in the gaseous state move faster and faster, vibrating and shifting position with temperature increases. If the temperature of the steam was raised extremely high, say into the tens or hundreds of millions of degrees, even the electrons would be stripped off the atoms. At such high temperatures, the nuclei, the tiny cores at the center of atoms, would strike one another so hard that nuclear reactions could take place. In fact, this is the idea behind the goal of using nuclear fusion to generate power.

Temperature Ranges

As far as is known, temperature does not have an upper limit. On the other hand, it does seem to have a lower limit. Absolute zero has been set at -459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, or -273.15 degrees Celsius. This is the point at which molecules and atoms of a substance have the least possible energy.

The surface of the planet Pluto has an estimated temperature of about -350 degrees Fahrenheit, or -210 degrees Celsius. In 1965 astronomers learned that the blackness of outer space has a temperature of about -455 degrees Fahrenheit, or -270 degrees Celsius, just 3 degrees above absolute zero on the Celsius scale. Toward the other extreme, the center of the sun is believed to be about 15 million degrees Celsius. But stars larger than the sun​—and there are stars thousands of times larger—​probably have much higher temperatures.

What about temperature ranges here on earth? They fluctuate in a relatively narrow range. In Antarctica a temperature of -128.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or -89.2 degrees Celsius, was measured on July 21, 1983. And a record high temperature of 136 degrees Fahrenheit, or 58 degrees Celsius, was registered at El Azizia, Tripolitania, in northern Africa on September 13, 1922. But the vast majority of humans have not experienced temperatures even approaching those extremes. We can be thankful to our Creator, Jehovah God, that the range of temperature on earth stays within relatively narrow limits. As a result, life on earth can be enjoyed.

[Diagram on page 13]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

Fahrenheit Celsius

98.6 37 Normal body temperature

32 0 Water freezes

-460 -273 Absolute zero

Finnish Hospitality

THE lake was frozen, covered with a 16-inch-thick [41 cm] sheet of ice. The air temperature was 5 degrees Fahrenheit [-15° C.], quite normal for a day in February in Finland. And there was our host, Martti, clearing a hole in the ice. This was his first opportunity to extend Finnish hospitality to a foreigner from the Caribbean Islands.

Among the people in tropical Puerto Rico, what I was about to do could be regarded as foolishness. But among the Finns, taking a dip in ice-cold water is an old practice that is becoming increasingly popular. The Finnish language even has a specific word, avanto, that refers to a hole kept open in the ice for brief ice-water immersion.

This “cold hospitality” lasted only a few seconds and was preceded and followed by about 15 minutes in a rather hot sauna of 185 degrees Fahrenheit [85° C.]. I found the experience exhilarating and even chose to do it a second time, much to the delight of my Finnish friends!

For some the practice is just recreation. Others claim that it improves their health, prevents certain ailments, reduces stress, and increases stamina. These claims and other issues related to the Finnish sauna and the practice of winter swimming are presently under scientific investigation.​—Contributed.

Meet the Elusive Kudu

By Awake! correspondent in Kenya

‘THE elusive what?’ you ask. The elusive kudu! A beautiful antelope that lives in East Africa’s national parks and wildlife reserves. And elusive is the best word to describe this extremely shy animal. Let’s go to Tsavo National Park in Kenya and see if we can catch a glimpse of one.

It is midmorning when we enter the western section of the park. Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, greets our eyes. Its majestic snowcapped peak is one of the many sights we enjoy as we drive through this lovely sanctuary. No, we will not see any kudu now. They feed and move about only in the very early morning, in the late afternoon, or at night. During the heat of the day, they rest in bushy thickets. So to see them, we will have to be in a suitable location soon after sunrise or some hours before sunset.

With the approach of dusk, we pitch our tent at a campsite on the top of a small sandy cliff overlooking the Tsavo River. We rise at dawn, and after a simple breakfast, we set off, driving slowly down a trail. Look there! Why, it’s a male kudu, standing motionless.

Oh, how beautifully the early morning light illuminates him! He is a handsome ram of rich gray color. His body is banded with 13 or 14 narrow white vertical stripes. A conspicuous white patch adorns his throat, and a white bar his lower neck. The white chevron between his velvety eyes and the white area around his mouth give character to his dark face. A cool morning breeze gently ripples the short white mane running down his neck, shoulders, and back. His head is crowned with two triple-twisted horns that gracefully spiral upward and outward.

The kudu we are looking at is one of the two varieties that is found in Africa. He is known as the lesser kudu. His ‘big cousin,’ the greater kudu, frequents northern Kenya and is rarely seen in Tsavo. Aside from being bigger, the greater kudu can be distinguished by the heavy brown and white beard that extends to his chest in an impressive neck fringe. His horns are more massive, and his ears are proportionately larger. He never has more than eight white body stripes.

Infancy and Territoriality

When a baby kudu is born, its mother will immediately lick it clean so that it will have no scent by which predators may track it. Then, when the mother goes off to feed, the infant antelope will obediently stay put, lying quietly where its mother has placed it. The mother will regularly give her baby a “licking” bath to keep it deodorized and thus protected from predators. But on about the tenth day, when her baby begins nibbling plants, it develops body odor. Since its specialized protection from detection is then lost, from that time on, it accompanies its mother everywhere.

A conspicuous kudu characteristic is that of establishing territory boundaries. This is the choosing and defending of a particular patch of ground by the males of the species. In claiming an area, the male marks the boundary by depositing its body excretions on grass and bushes. Then he defends his area by chasing out any male intruder that crosses these scented territorial boundaries. What about female intruders? Why, they are not intruders! They are guests who are welcome to stay. In fact, they may be pressured into doing so!

Evidence of Intelligent Design

The instinctive behavior of marking off territorial boundaries keeps herds well dispersed and protects against overgrazing. Thus, browsing kudu are assured of an uninterrupted supply of the leafy bushes they relish. But what happens when a drought occurs?

Conservationist Daphne Sheldrick explains in the East African Wildlife Society’s magazine Swara: “When times are hard, however, and food and water scarce, Nature introduces a radical measure which is the exact opposite of territoriality . . . , and that is Migration. Territoriality inclines toward separation and a readiness to fight and mate; migration inhibits both these basic instincts as the need for closer cohesion increases. Survival becomes the paramount concern of all, and so males and females come together . . . in peaceful mixed association. And then, one day, as though by Divine Command, they will vacate an area en masse and a general exodus takes place.” Yes, off they go, seeking new feeding grounds where foliage is abundant!

Could an unintelligent, undirected force called Nature devise and develop such opposite patterns of conduct? Surely, only an intelligent Master Designer could have programmed this complex instinctive behavior into the kudu.

Surprise Departure

Now, aren’t you glad that your curiosity about the kudu moved you to come with us? As we watch him over there, busily browsing on the bushes, he does not seem elusive at all! But he has spotted us! Suddenly, his nostrils and large ears twitch. With a coughing bark, he jumps into the bushes and dashes away. Just as we release our pent-up breath, we are surprised again! Out of nowhere, a fawn-gray female leaps after him. All the while, she had been standing in a nearby thicket! Her coloring and immobility camouflaged her completely.

This is how the peaceful kudu survives in the wilds of Africa. Its protection is the instinctive ability to stand motionless and blend in with its surroundings. No wonder the kudu is so elusive! Its life depends on it.

We Made India Our Home

AS GRACEFULLY as possible, my sister Leona and I lowered ourselves to the ground and attempted to sit comfortably. Two shiny banana leaves were placed on the ground in front of us, spread with steaming rice and a variety of curries, chutneys, and sweets. We two girls, in India less than a week, had been invited to a wedding reception.

We watched the local people and began picking up the food with our right hand and eating with our fingers, just as the rest were doing. It was a hot, humid day, and as we sat under the reception pandal (canopy), consuming the spicy hot curries, perspiration literally poured down our faces. The chili powder set our noses running. We surely must have been an interesting sight! But we can never forget this incident, a part of our introduction to India 38 years ago.

Since that time we have become well acquainted with India and many of its people, striving to make this land our home. Why? Not out of a mere adventuresome spirit; rather, we had a specific purpose. First, though, let us explain how we got to India and what helped us adjust.

Early Life in Canada

We were born in the small farming community of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, in Canada. When the Depression came in the 1930’s, our father said we would have to quit school and go to work to help out. We literally cried. Our goal had been to attend high school, but economic needs came first.

During the second world war, my sister Leona joined the Canadian Air Force, while I stayed home and worked. I regularly went to the Catholic Church and sang in the choir. But once when the Pentecostals came by, they gave me a Bible, and I began taking it to choir sessions. I would read it when we were not singing. The parish priest was told of this and came to our home. He said I was a bad influence and should not come to choir sessions anymore. In fact, he said I should be excommunicated. I did not go back to the church after that.

Meanwhile, Jehovah’s Witnesses would visit our home and leave our family various Bible-based publications. Eventually, I began to study with the Witnesses. When Leona came home on leave, I told her what I had been learning. She sat in on my studies and liked what she learned. Back in Ottawa, she continued to study with local Witnesses until her military discharge in 1945. She and I were among the 2,602 who were baptized at the 1946 Glad Nations Theocratic Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Cleveland, Ohio.

Determining Our Purpose in Life

In 1949, Leona and I moved to Calgary, Alberta, where we met many full-time ministers, called pioneers, who encouraged us to take up the pioneer ministry. At first we hesitated. We felt we needed to build up a little bank account. But the traveling overseer of Jehovah’s Witnesses in that area encouraged us, so we started pioneering without a bank account. We responded to the invitation to pioneer in the province of Quebec, where the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses was then under ban.

We didn’t have money for railway tickets, so Leona and I, along with two other girls, hitchhiked our way across Canada to Montreal, Quebec. Shortly afterward we had the opportunity to attend a graduation of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead in the United States. We were excited to see so many young men and women prepared to take on a missionary assignment in a foreign land. Right away we put in our applications to attend that school.

We never dreamed that we would be called, so it was a real surprise to be invited to the 20th class, which began in the fall of 1952. We were soon told that our assignment would be India, and we began receiving some advance instruction in the Malayalam language from an Indian classmate. Our purpose in India would be to assist as many honesthearted people as possible to a knowledge of Bible truth.

Making India Our Home

In 1953 after graduation, 13 of us set off by ship. It took us a month to reach Bombay. The sight of the crowds and beggars really surprised us, but we gradually became accustomed to these different conditions.

From Bombay we left by train for the state of Kerala. Seven of us were assigned to the town of Trichur, which at the time did not have a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. We obtained a missionary home, but there was no furniture, so for the time being, we slept on floor mats. Our daily tasks included boiling water from the well for safe drinking and heating more water for baths. All of this, plus our cooking, was done on a one-burner kerosene stove.

Away from the house, in an area known for cobras and other snakes, was the toilet. You can imagine how we girls felt. Also, we were warned about thin green snakes that would occasionally hang from the trees, ready to bite any unwary victim passing by underneath. Needless to say, we seldom ventured out there at night. When we did, we stomped the ground, making a lot of noise, and stayed away from the trees. Yes, things were very different. But we kept our purpose in mind, so in time we adjusted. Never did we think of leaving because conditions were too difficult.

The very first day, we began sharing in the preaching activity. Immediately we found ourselves surrounded by crowds of people. Their curiosity so unnerved us that we fled back to the security of the missionary home. After a while, however, we came to appreciate the genuine interest that the people had in others.

Even before we could give our Bible presentation, we were asked questions such as: Who are your father and mother? Why are you here? How old are you? Who pays you? What food do you eat? Why aren’t you married? Don’t you want any children? After learning such details about us, people would generally listen to our message. As we came to understand the people better, the more comfortable we became in our new environment.

Kerala is a very beautiful place, green and with lots of coconut and other palm trees. There were many wide-open spaces, and it was peaceful to walk along the paddy fields on our way to the homes. At times we would go by boat up the backwaters to reach the villages. The atmosphere was very relaxed. Yes, people were busy, but they took time to listen.

Christendom’s missionaries were also in our area, but the local people soon began to see the difference between us and them. They were involved in various forms of social work, but they really did little if any teaching of the Bible. And unlike them, we did not live in big bungalows and escape to the hill stations in hot weather. Actually, the missionaries of Christendom gave Christendom a bad reputation.

We spent nearly eight years in Kerala, and then we were transferred to Bombay, where we still serve. Of course, the move to a large congested city called for some adjustments too. But this assignment has brought us into contact with a wide variety of India’s people.

Right from the start, we were able to get to know our Indian brothers and sisters well. They were very hospitable, always inviting us to stay with them. Their houses were usually very small, and the privacy we were used to did not exist. We might sleep in the only bedroom​—with the grandfather over in one corner and several children around us on the floor. But the love shown us made it possible for us to adjust.

Over the years, we have learned never to use the expression “home” to refer to the place from which we originally came. Rather, our home is where we are assigned to serve. Instead of highlighting differences, we have learned to become more like the people around us in their tastes and ways of doing things.

Recently we traveled from Bombay back to our first assignment in Kerala. Had things changed? Well, when we first arrived in Kerala, there were fewer than 300 Witnesses in the whole state, but now over 4,000 were present at the district convention we attended. What joy to see that some whom we had studied the Bible with 30 years before are still faithfully serving Jehovah!

We left behind many loved ones in Canada when we began our missionary service in 1953. But true to Jesus’ words, we quickly gained many, many fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers. (Mark 10:28-30) And as we assisted sheeplike ones in learning the truth of God’s Word, we were also blessed with spiritual children. Never losing sight of our purpose has indeed brought us many rewards. With no regrets, then, we look back with satisfaction at having made India our home!​—As told by Tillie Lachmuth.

[Pictures on page 18]

A canal in Kerala

Making rubber

Color Blindness​—A Curious Defect

WHAT a shock for the sober-minded Quakers when they caught sight of John Dalton’s bright-red stockings! Usually clothed in somber colors​—grays, browns, and black—​they found John’s attire startling, to say the least. What had happened?

Dalton, born in 1766 in Eaglesfield, England, described blood as “bottlegreen” and considered a laurel leaf “a good match for [red] sealing wax.” Yes, Dalton, who became a famous chemist, suffered from color blindness, or more precisely, defective color vision.

To Dalton, red looked gray and very little different from green. No wonder his practical-joking friend could switch his stockings and cause such outrage! Interestingly, in some European countries, color blindness is known as Daltonism.

A Worldwide Problem

In 1980, Dr. Janet Voke of City University, London, estimated that more than two million people in Britain have defective color vision. In some isolated communities, comparatively few suffer with this problem. In Fiji, only 1 man in every 120 is color-blind, whereas in Canada, every 9th man, on the average, has less than normal color vision.

Color vision varies from person to person. According to a widely accepted theory, your vision is normal if you see white when three beams of light​—one each of red, green, and blue—​are combined in equal proportions. When the three beams are blended in varying proportions, other hues that are naturally discernible to you can be produced.

If, however, all the hues that are visible to you can be matched by mingling only two of these primary colors, and the addition of the third color does not make any noticeable difference, then your color vision is defective. You are what is called a dichromat. John Dalton was a red-blind dichromat.

The defects affecting those called monochromats are more severe. Those with this condition have no color discrimination. For monochromats, a color TV might just as well be a black-and-white model.

The majority of color-blind people are anomalous trichromats. The hues that are visible to these people are still a blending of all three primary colors, but anomalous trichromats differ in the proportions of the primary colors that they discern. If this is your problem, adjusting the color balance on your TV set may prompt cries of “That’s too red!” or “It’s too green!” from your color-normal companions.

The Causes

What causes such defects? The New Encyclopædia Britannica identifies one culprit as your “wavelength discrimination apparatus.” Each of your eyes has about 130 million light receptors in the retina, but only 7 million of these give you color vision. These color receptors are called cones because of their cone shape.

People with normal color vision have three kinds of cones. Some cones respond best to the longer wavelengths of light (red). A second group senses the middle wavelengths (green), and the rest the shorter wavelengths (blue). If a group of cones is missing or fails to respond properly to its associated wavelength, you will have a problem. If you fail to sense red normally, for example, you will notice very little color change as tomatoes ripen from green through orange to red.

Damage to the optic nerve that affects the cones’ message to the brain can trigger color blindness. Even some forms of medication, such as certain antimalarial pills, have been known to disturb color perception. Some oral contraceptives reportedly can alter perception of blues, greens, and yellows. In the book Colour Vision Testing, Dr. Voke lists both tobacco and alcohol as responsible for some permanent red-green blindness.

Aging too takes its toll, particularly on a person’s sensitivity to blue light. Researcher R. Lakowski comments that color discrimination reaches a peak during adolescence, and it lasts to the age of 35. Then one’s color discrimination gradually deteriorates, especially after the age of 60.

Although defective color vision may be acquired during the course of one’s life, most of those who are color-blind are that way from birth. Why?

‘Like Grandfather, Like Grandson’

Normal human color vision is a special gift. When your cones function correctly and your optic nerves faithfully convey the encoded message to the brain, you then see in full color. “The trained human eye can discern as many as 150 hues,” reports the book How Animals See. “Many animals . . . probably do not see colors as we do. But the condition is normal in their eyes, not defective,” says The World Book Encyclopedia.

If your vision has always been defective, no doubt you inherited this trait. From whom? Health and Disease defines color blindness as a “sex-linked” genetic disorder “transmitted by females but usually turn[ing] up in alternate generations of males.” Thus, it is often, ‘like grandfather, like grandson.’

Color-Blind? How to Tell

Do you suspect that your children are color-blind? “If you notice that your 5- or 6-year-old child has difficulty identifying colors; if he wears mismatched socks; or if he cannot take the correct crayon from a box when asked to select one by color,” then, the book Childcraft says, “you should have his vision checked.” How?

One of the most popular ways of checking color vision is the Ishihara test. The examiner shows your child a series of cards covered with dots in many different hues. Arranged among the dots are patterns and numbers discernible to anyone who is color normal. Your child has to say what pattern or figure he sees. Looking at one chart, a red-blind child sees “6,” a green-blind child “9.” If your child sees “96,” he is color normal, according to that part of the test.

With the ever-increasing use of color in material that is used to instruct children, it is wise to know if your children’s color vision is defective. But since inherited color blindness is presently unalterable and incurable, can you do anything about it?

Precautions to Take

Hazel Rossotti, author of the book Colour, first recommends early diagnosis. Then the color-blind person can “be made aware of situations which are likely to cause confusion and taught to rely whenever possible on factors other than ambiguous colours.”

You can teach your color-blind child the meaning of the colored traffic signals on the roads. Though he may be able to distinguish a red stoplight from the green “go” light by its relative position, help him to take note of the different intensity or brightness of each light. Then, when he is on his own, he will read the signals correctly even in the dark.

If you are color-blind, it is good to avoid relying on color alone when making decisions. Since the brain can compensate for color-vision defects, supplement its fund of information by paying more attention to an object’s brightness, position, and shape. Do not hesitate to ask your color-normal friends and relatives for help.

In making important decisions, such as the type of work to do, you will be wise to take into account the disadvantages color-vision defects bring. In some occupations, color blindness can be a severe liability. It is, for example, a handicap for many chemists, pharmacists, color printers, and photographers. Good color vision is an asset to dentists when they match artificial teeth. Also, butchers and those in the catering industry can be more alert to changes in the condition of food when they have good color vision. Lack of color perception can make it more difficult for nurses and doctors to determine the state of health of their patients when examining them.

Everyone who sees clearly has a valuable asset. If your color vision is only partial, you should exercise particular care. For example, you should be aware that taking unnecessary drugs, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, or using tobacco can cause a deterioration of color perception. If you have full-color vision, then you have a priceless gift to treasure.

Alert to Help Others

WHILE working at the Dade County Criminal Traffic Courthouse, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Miami, Florida, has had opportunity to provide spiritual assistance to fellow workers. “One day,” Rafael wrote, “a lady who regularly received copies of the Watchtower and Awake! magazines from me said that a salesman had offered her a Bible encyclopedia for her eight-year-old son for $500 but that she could not afford it. I immediately offered to bring her the one-volume publication My Book of Bible Stories. The next day I brought it, and she loved the illustrations and praised the book.

“She laid the book on her desk and continued working. Not more than 15 minutes later, another employee came to my desk with My Book of Bible Stories in her hands; she wanted to know where I got it. I explained that the Watch Tower Society publishes it. She wanted three copies for her children. She teaches Sunday school and felt that this book would be a boost to her class. She said she would let me know later how many more copies she would be needing.

“Half an hour later, yet another coworker came to me with the book in her hands, wanting to know if she could have three of them. Soon others were asking for books, and before I knew it, I had orders for 12 copies of My Book of Bible Stories. The ladies were even provoked at me for not telling them about the book before! The next workday, I brought the books to the office and delivered them to those who had requested them.

“The following week the Sunday-school teacher said she would be needing 15 books for her students. She had been waiting for the approval of the priest and also of the school superintendent. The priest, she said, loved the book and praised its many illustrations. He gave the approval to obtain the books.

“The Sunday-school teacher wanted to give the books to the children as a Christmas present. She said that she knew that I did not celebrate Christmas, but this book would make a fine Christmas present. She told me how easy it was to get the children to listen when she read to them from the book.

“One coworker told me that she reads the book to her children every night and that even she is learning things. For example, she didn’t know that there actually were giants that lived on earth in Noah’s time. Another coworker said that it must have been a genius who did the illustrations in the book. They seem so real. ‘The book is a gem,’ she said.

“Altogether, in just a matter of a few days, I placed 32 copies of My Book of Bible Stories at work, and the number continues to grow. Every time I show the book to someone, the question is asked, ‘Where did you get it?’”

Are you alert to satisfy the spiritual needs of others? Rafael, now a Christian elder in a Miami congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, concludes: “This experience has taught me a lesson about informal witnessing and willingness to help others.”

Young People Ask . . .

Why Do I Have to Be a Baby-Sitter?

“HOW do you feel about baby-sitting your younger brothers and sisters?” Awake! posed this question to a number of youths. The responses were decidedly mixed.

“I love little kids,” said one teenage girl, “so it’s no problem.” One teenage boy even boasted: “I kind of enjoy the power!” Others, though, registered clear reluctance​—or resentment. “I do it because I know my parents need help,” explained a young girl. “But I’m not happy about it.” Said another girl: “I sometimes want to go to the movies or something, but my mother will say, ‘Take your little brother along.’ I really don’t want to.”

“Am I My Brother’s Guardian?”

The firstborn son of Adam, Cain, callously asked this question regarding his brother Abel. (Genesis 4:9) And you may also feel resentment if asked to be responsible for your younger siblings. Why should your leisure time be spent changing diapers or tending to scraped knees? As one 15-year-old girl bitterly put it: “I’m not only responsible for myself but for what my brothers and sisters do, too.”

Young Marna has a different complaint: “If we go to a park or something, I always have to take care of the babies and I can’t enjoy myself. It drives me crazy. . . . When I tell [Mom], she says, ‘You’re the big older sister and you have to take care of children.’ I got mad and told her, ‘Maybe my own, but not yours! You had the babies, not us. You should take care of them.’”​—The Private Life of the American Teenager, by Norman and Harris.

Your siblings may be equally unhappy about your being in charge. And they may take delight in sabotaging your best efforts at maintaining law and order. “I sometimes resent having to baby-sit my brother and sister,” one 14-year-old girl admitted to Awake! “The things they do! Sometimes they fight, and I go to break it up, and they tell me, ‘Who do you think you are? You’re not Mom!’ I wouldn’t mind it if they were easier to handle.”

‘Why Me?’

When one large group of teenagers was asked, “Which chores do you think teenagers should do around the house?” baby-sitting was listed by 32 percent! Yes, baby-sitting responsibilities are a fact of life for today’s youths. For one thing, housework can be strenuous, taxing work for a mother. Fathers face the daily grind of working at a secular job. More and more mothers must likewise work both at home and on an outside job. They are often stressed to the limit.

A baby-sitter makes it possible for mom and dad to get some needed relief from time to time. And if they both have outside jobs, a baby-sitter sees to it that the children will be properly supervised until the parents arrive home. True, your parents may be able to afford hiring an outsider to baby-sit. But wouldn’t they feel more secure knowing that their smaller children were in the hands of a capable and loving family member?

Granted, the responsibility to care for your siblings ultimately falls upon your parents. (Ephesians 6:4) But your helping out as a baby-sitter can assist your parents in fulfilling their duties. It is also a way to “honor your father and your mother.” (Ephesians 6:2) Furthermore, baby-sitting is good training for adulthood. One young woman recalls caring for her brothers and her baby sister while her mother, a single parent, worked as a waitress: “Every day I’d look after them until Mama got home. She would leave me a list of things to do: ‘Hang up the clothes, clean the house, start dinner.’” Quite a burden for a teenage girl! But she says: “In retrospect I can see that it was the best thing in the world for me. I grew up faster and became responsible.”

By the way, there is nothing unmanly about a boy’s caring for children. Men commonly did so in Bible times. (Numbers 11:12) And the apostle Paul did not view it as undignified to compare himself to “a nursing mother.”​—1 Thessalonians 2:7.

Getting a Positive View

Getting yourself to enjoy baby-sitting your siblings, however, may take some doing. A certain amount of rivalry often exists among brothers and sisters. And if you are constantly quarreling with your siblings, or if you think of them as a bunch of brats, it may be hard for you to have a positive view of caring for them. It may, therefore, help you to reflect on some of the lessons taught in the Bible.

Consider, for example, the account of young Joseph and his brothers. Because Joseph was favored by his father, his brothers “began to hate him, and they were not able to speak peacefully to him.” Imagine, then, how Joseph felt when his father said to him: “Your brothers are tending flocks close by Shechem, are they not? Come, and let me send you to them. . . . See whether your brothers are safe and sound and whether the flock is safe and sound, and bring me back word.” Local residents would no doubt recall the vicious massacre perpetrated by Joseph’s brothers years earlier at Shechem. (Genesis 34:25-31) It could be dangerous for Joseph to go there! Not only that, but his brothers would be sure to resent his showing up. Yet, out of respect for his father and genuine love for his brothers, Joseph replied: “Here I am!” and accepted the assignment.​—Genesis 37:4, 13, 14.

Young Miriam was another remarkable youth. When the Egyptian Pharaoh hatched a plot to kill Hebrew babies, Miriam helped protect her baby brother Moses. When the infant was safely placed in a tiny ark and allowed to drift down the river Nile, Miriam did not indifferently brush off her brother’s fate as her parents’ problem. No, she “stationed herself at a distance to find out what would be done with him.” Miriam even managed to arrange for Moses’ own mother to be assigned to care for him!​—Exodus 2:4-10.

Yes, unlike Cain, who had callous disregard for his brother, God-fearing youths today deem it a privilege and a responsibility to care for their siblings​—even when it is difficult or inconvenient. First John 4:21 says: “The one who loves God should be loving his brother also.” And while this applies primarily to our spiritual brothers, wouldn’t it also be true of those with whom we share both a spiritual and a physical relationship?a

Your concern and interest, your desire to protect, and, above all, your unequivocal love for your siblings can even play a significant role in their physical, emotional, and spiritual development. Still, taking care of small children can be a real challenge, and a future article will have some useful suggestions to help you baby-sit effectively.

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 27]

‘I’m Too Old to Need a Baby-Sitter!’

When Awake! asked one group of youths when a child was too old to need a baby-sitter, some guessed “11,” “13,” and, incredibly enough, even “7”! One young girl, though, observed: “I don’t think there’s an age limit. I think it’s a matter of maturity. You can be 15 and be too young to go without a baby-sitter.”

Of course, your parents’ estimate of your maturity may be miles apart from yours. And different families may choose to handle matters differently. So while some of your friends may have the run of the house when their parents go to the movies, you may have to suffer the “humiliation” of having a baby-sitter. This can be particularly difficult if the sitter is an older brother or sister. “I didn’t like having my brother baby-sit me,” confessed young Alisha. “I didn’t like it when he told me what to do!”

Your parents, though, have your best interests at heart. They read in the newspapers about rising crime and child abuse, and they have good reason to be worried. Besides, being alone in your home may be scarier than you care to admit. “I was really afraid to be alone in the house,” said one girl. “So I decided that I’d rather be a little embarrassed than terrified.”

Granted, at times parents underestimate their children. And if that seems to be the case, perhaps you can have a discussion with your folks and assure them that you can handle being left alone. If you rant or whine, you’ll probably convince them of your immaturity. However, if you discuss specifics with them​—for example, how you will handle your time and cope with emergencies—​you may get them to see things your way. If not, perhaps an acceptable compromise, such as your staying at a friend’s house, can be worked out.

Of course, your parents may still insist on your having a sitter. Instead of making things difficult for yourself and your sitter, try to view him or her as a temporary extension of your parents’ authority and cooperate to the extent possible. What if minor abuses of power take place? (“My sister took advantage of me,” lamented one girl. “She made me do her chores.”) It might be best to wait until your parents come home and discuss it with them rather than to wrangle with the sitter.

Watching the World

Child Abuse in Greece

Specialists estimate that in Greece 7,000 children are abused by family members each year, according to the newspaper Kathimerini. Of that number, some 4,000 are sexually abused. Only a fraction of the cases are reported, however. Kathimerini reports: “It is estimated that from 40 to 60 percent of the abused children will suffer again if there is no intervention, while in 20 to 70 percent of the cases, even the brothers or sisters of those children run the risk of being abused.” The paper cites one estimate made by an attorney that 58.8 percent of suicide attempts by children are attributable to their being abused.

Corals in the Greenhouse

A panel of scientists recently warned that a mysterious bleaching of coral reefs, first noticed a decade ago in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, is now damaging reefs around the world. The corals bleach when they lose a certain type of algae upon which they depend for food, oxygen, protection from sunlight, and removal of wastes. Since many scientists believe that even a small rise in temperature can trigger bleaching, they are blaming the global warming that some attribute to the greenhouse effect. Scientist Thomas Goreau of the University of the West Indies calls coral reefs “the tropical rain forests of the oceans.” He warns that these vital oceanic ecosystems have deteriorated more in the last 4 years because of bleaching than in the last 40 years from all other causes combined.

Ostrich “Watchdogs”

Ostrich farmer Johann Stegmann of Cradock, South Africa, has a new job for his birds​—“watchdogs”! According to the South African journal Farmer’s Weekly, Mr. Stegmann says: “They certainly deter thieves, because if they spot a stranger . . . , they race up menacingly, flapping their wings and glaring.” The inquisitive eight-foot-tall [2.5 m] birds do not usually attack people but seem to enjoy a kind of game that intruders would rather avoid. “If you . . . run away they chase after you,” says Mr. Stegmann, “and when you stop they stand expectantly with their wings open, as though challenging you to run again.” However, during the breeding season, they become very aggressive and “attack anything that ventures” into their camp. The book Birds of the World warns that ostriches “fight with their feet, kicking out and down with . . . their heavy claws that can easily rip a lion or a man wide open.”

Boosting Buddhist Education?

The quality of Buddhist education in Thailand’s schools has recently been the subject of heated debate, reports the Bangkok Post. The nation’s Education Ministry has proposed a new school curriculum, to go into effect next year. The curriculum would substantially reduce the class-time devoted to the study of Buddhism. In opposition to the change, a special Buddhist group has launched a national campaign to increase and improve Buddhist education in the schools. The group, which feels that already too little Buddhism is taught in school, says of the new curriculum: “We suspect that this is part of a gradual attempt to wipe out Buddhism in Thailand.”

Jealous Goddess?

Although the press was invited, a female reporter was barred from a recent ceremony to mark the completion of a tunnel in northern Japan. The project’s assistant supervisor explained: “There is a jinx. As the god of the mountain is a woman, she will get angry and cause accidents if other women enter the site. The men say they won’t continue the rest of the digging if a woman comes in.” The myth is based on the sexist belief that women are contaminated, said a disgusted male psychology professor. Even though the practice is “discriminatory,” admitted a Construction Ministry official, “construction workers’ feelings should not be ignored.”

Free-Fall Tower

Scientists often need to carry out their research in a gravity-free environment but can rarely afford to go to outer space to do so; hence, the construction at Bremen in Germany of a unique tower that allows scientists to observe items that are in a state of free-fall. The tower stands 479 feet [146 m] tall and contains a pipe 361 feet [110 m] high and 11.5 feet [3.5 m] wide. Items placed in a 6.6-foot-long [2 m] capsule inside the pipe spend 4.74 seconds descending in free-fall at speeds of up to 104 miles per hour [167 km/​hr]. A camera taking 6,000 pictures per second is among the instruments used to gather data during the fall.

Obliged to Vote

Brazilians are obliged by law to vote, but in a recent election, many found a way to show their indifference or even disgust. The magazine Veja comments: “There are those who like to vote and choose candidates and those who do not, and hindered by legislation from staying home, they choose to cast blank or invalid votes.” Veja explains why some evidently have no interest in voting: “In consciously casting an invalid vote, the voter may want to show his revulsion for the entire system of choosing candidates.”

Divorce for Alzheimer’s

A Japanese court has granted divorce to a man whose 59-year-old wife suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. The grounds, according to Asahi Evening News, were that “the marriage was ruptured and the couple could not lead a normal married life.” The husband’s lawyer was quoted as saying that the decision “is a special case in which the husband is only 42 years old and still in the prime of life.” However, sociologist Chizuko Ueno writes in the Yomiuri Shimbun that this case substantiates the conclusion that too often the family of today is held together solely by what each member can get out of it. She fears that the court decision opens up the way for legally recognizing that “families stay together only as long as nothing ruptures the marriage,” thus allowing marriages to hinge on such factors as health, work, or even convenience.

British Car Traps

Insurance claims in Britain for the 378,000 cars stolen last year amounted to $500 million (£280 million). To catch the thieves, police in many areas now use specially converted cars, commonly called rat-traps. The vehicles, costing up to $1,800 (£1,000) each to adapt, are left with keys in their ignition to tempt criminals to drive them away. But as soon as one of these cars has traveled 15 yards [15 m] or so, the engine stalls, the doors lock, and the windows of unbreakable glass or plastic cannot be opened. At the same time, radio alarms alert the police, who soon arrive on the scene to arrest the driver. The National Council of Civil Liberties has voiced some concern at the practice, but the director of the Home Office’s National Crime Prevention Centre said that these self-locking vehicles are “a valuable weapon in the battle against car thieves,” reports The Sunday Times of London.

Recovering From Acid Rain

The damage that acid rain has inflicted on freshwater lakes throughout the world is reversible, according to two Canadian biologists. They began their ten-year study of Whitepine Lake in Ontario, Canada, just as acid rain began to pollute the lake’s waters. As the water’s acidity increased, the number of trout and other species of fish in the lake began to dwindle. Yet, six years after the pollution was stopped and when the acidity of the lake had returned to near normal, two thirds of the initial number of trout reappeared, and these as well as other forms of aquatic life continued to increase. So it seems that at least some lakes damaged by acid rain can naturally return to normal without human intervention​—if only the source of the pollution is removed.

A Wandering Island

Imagine a large island, some 96 miles [154 km] long by 22 miles [35 km] wide by 750 feet [230 m] thick, that floats in the ocean. Such was the iceberg that scientists named B-9. It broke off of the Antarctic Ross Ice Shelf in 1987. Satellites first detected B-9, and scientists later kept track of its movements by means of a radio beacon dropped onto its surface. Since it broke free, obliterating a famous geographic feature of Antarctica, the Bay of Whales, B-9 has traveled some 1,250 miles [2,000 km]. In the process, it has broken up into three gigantic pieces and has taught scientists much about the complex, hard-to-measure ocean currents around Antarctica. Intact, it contained some 287 cubic miles [1,196 cu km] of frozen freshwater​—enough, according to one estimate, to provide two glasses of water daily for everyone on earth for nearly two thousand years.

From Our Readers

“Awake!” Goes to College I am an English professor, and I have been using Awake! magazines in my college composition courses for the past seven years . . . The articles in Awake! are not only entertaining and informative but also of the highest grammatical quality. I use them to cite proper use of punctuation, idiomatic expressions, figurative language, and diction.

J. D. G., United States

Life Beyond Earth? Thank you for the revealing article “Is There Life Beyond the Earth?” (April 8, 1990) I had never before received a satisfying answer to this question. But the logical reasoning in your article, based on the Bible, helped me appreciate what a marvelous privilege we have in living on this unique planet.

A. A. C., Brazil

Selling Blood The articles on “Selling Blood Is Big Business” (October 22, 1990) were of special interest to me, since I was offered a well-paying job drawing blood for a blood bank. After reading the material, I was convinced that this would be wrong. Although I could have used the money, I considered the harmful effects of blood and turned down the job.

R. M., United States

Mistaken Identity In your November 8, 1990, issue about UFO’s, you refer to the “late Dr. James McCampbell.” Almost certainly you meant Dr. James McDonald, a scientist who died in 1971. As to myself, I have frequently been tardy, but some readers may be pleased to hear that I am not yet “late” in the terminal sense.

James M. McCampbell, United States

To borrow a phrase from Mark Twain, it would appear that the reports of Mr. McCampbell’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Sorry for the mix-up.​—ED.

Picking Movies I am ten years old. Thank you for the article “Young People Ask . . . How Can I Pick a Decent Movie?” (August 8, 1990) Some time after reading it, I was tempted to watch a bad movie, but I remembered the advice you gave and refused.

M. B., United States

To be quite honest, there have been times when I have walked out on a movie. At other times, though, I have stayed when I should have left. I was afraid of displeasing my so-called friends when I should have been more concerned about displeasing God. I have found this information very helpful. Thank you so very much for caring about young ones.

G. B., United States

Lead Removal We were quite surprised to read in your article “A Lead-Laden World?” (August 8, 1990) that ‘only a very expensive reverse-osmosis filter’ will effectively remove lead that has leached into one’s drinking water from house pipes. It is widely acknowledged that there are other ways of removing the lead.

G. J., United States

We are sorry if we gave the wrong impression. It was not our intention to exclude alternative means of lead removal, such as distillation systems.​—ED.

Garbage Glut A friend of mine sent me a gift subscription to Awake!, and I find the material to be varied and interesting. I was filled with dismay to read the articles on the garbage glut (September 22, 1990) because I never thought that this matter was so complicated! Although I am not one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I like the excellent topics published in your magazines.

L. R. A., Brazil

AIDS and a False Sense of Security

A WOMAN who tested positive for the AIDS virus wrote, as quoted in The New York Times of June 16, 1990: “I am a 36-year-old happily married, white female, who has never had syphilis, gonorrhea or chlamydia, has never used crack, never been an intravenous drug user, never had a blood transfusion.”

She adds: “Because I haven’t had sex with anyone other than my husband since we were married, this means I have been positive for at least five years with no symptoms.” Is this woman unique? Not at all, as she observes: “I know of at least a score of women from my support groups of similar socioeconomic background with a similar story.”

How, then, have such people become infected with AIDS? The woman explains: “Clearly, I contracted the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus through heterosexual contact [prior to marriage]. . . . Equally clearly, that man would today be classified as a risky sexual partner, but it was not apparent to me at the time.”

AIDS has often been classified as a disease limited almost exclusively to male homosexuals and intravenous drug users. But based on her own experience and firsthand information, the woman maintains that this view “gives white middle-class society a false sense of security.”

She concludes: “AIDS will emerge into the population at large if we continue to think in terms of risk groups, to think in terms of the other getting it, not me. We are all at risk. If I could become [AIDS] positive, any woman (or man) can too.”

What she is saying, in other words, is that any woman or man who engages in premarital sex​—who commits fornication—​can become infected. How wise, therefore, to heed the Bible command: “Flee from fornication. Every other sin that a man may commit is outside his body, but he that practices fornication is sinning against his own body.”​—1 Corinthians 6:18.

‘To Wipe Away Her Loneliness’

A man on a work assignment in the Sultanate of Oman wrote the branch office of the Watch Tower Society in India. “A few days back,” he said, “I happened to see the book Happiness​—How to Find It in the house of one of my friends here. Needless to say, the book as a whole is a real asset. To be frank, this small book influenced me a lot, and I want to present this very loving book to my wife as a wedding anniversary gift to wipe away her present loneliness. Kindly favour me by sending a copy of this book to my wife on my behalf as early as possible. Her address is given above.”

This 192-page book not only provides encouraging help on dealing with stressful situations but points the way to the lasting solutions to problems of life. If you would like to receive a copy, please fill in and mail the accompanying coupon.

I would like to receive the hardbound book Happiness​—How to Find It. (Outside the U.S.A., write to local Watch Tower branch for information. See page 5.)