Awake!, August 8, 1951
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A FOOL’S PARADISE OF MORALS
Papal Appeal for War Orphans
Scandals in Orthodox Monasteries
Jehovah’s Witnesses in China
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CONTENTS
jlitical Pressure from Religious Loaders 3 j Fool’s Paradise of Morals
’Juvenile” Delinquency
Radio, Theater, Literature
Movie Morals
Proper Conduct Ridiculed
apal Appeal for War Orphans
harity Begins—at Home or Abroad? 12
Qiat Is Happening in Colombia?
Jnfln i shed C hi Idren'1
Scandals in Orthodox Monasteries and
Old Calendar
Controversy of Calendars
Malaria, Scourge of the Tropics
'100 Per Cent Cure' in Sight
No Grains for Idols
“Your Word Is Truth”
Did Jesus Adore His Mother?
Jehovah’s Witnesses in China
Watching the World
Political Pressure from Religious Leaders
HOW much influence do you think church pressure groups exercise over lawmakers in the United States? Not much? They probably wield much more than you imagine. Generally, the religious organizations hesitate to be identified with “lobbying”, but they do engage in it, and some religious leaders argue for even more religious influence in politics.
Msgr. Thomas J. McCarthy of the National Catholic Welfare Conference said (Time friagazine, January 22, 1951) that Protestant groups “certainly used secular methods such as badgering Congress and the president for the ultimate purpose of dominating the social scene in American life”. On February 1 one of the organizations McCarthy attacked charged that the Roman Church’s “political ambitions” are inconsistent with the "ideals of American democracy”. The same day an official of the American Jewish Congress, Leo Pfeffer, censured Protestants who plead for separation of church and state but press for their own denominational interests. However, the Jews are not free from this influence either. Apparently the old custom of each politician accusing the other of v^hat they are all guilty of is common with religious politicians too.
Walter Trohan reported in the Chicago Tribune, February 19, lasu, that political pressure from religious groups has increased particularly during the last ten years, and said, “Within the last few weeks President Truman grumbled to a Republican senator against Catholics and Jews . . . expressing his annoyance at the pressures these groups are exerting on him to enforce their political beliefs.” Trohan listed the three most active groups politically* as the Federal Council of Churches (Protestant) t the National Catholic Welfare Conference, and the Jewish Anti-Defamation League. Some Protestant denominations have their own influence groups, too. Baptist pressure got the U. N. to include religious liberty in its Human Rights declaration. Congregationalists worked for civilian control of atomic energy, Jewish pressure has mainly concerned Israel. Catholics have tried vigorously to get federal money for religious school support, succeeded in getting Spain recognized, and have tried to get a new U. S. representative to the Vatican.
On this last matter Trohan said that Myron C. Taylor was sent as President Roosevelt’s personal representative to the Vatican in 1939 “as a payment to the late Cardinal Mundelein of Chicago for political services rendered President Roosevelt”. Challenged on this by the editor of Chicago’s Catholic newspaper, the New World, Trohan, himself a Roman Catholic, pointed out that he accompanied Taylor to Europe in 1939, and at Taylor’s invitation went with him to present his credentials to the Vatican. Trohan stated it was common knowledge in Taylor’s official party that the appointment was in payment of Roosevelt’s debt to Cardinal Mundelein, and that it “was stated as a fact by members at the legation and consular staff at Rome, was well known and commented upon among the White House staff, and among White House intimates and high level politicos in Washington”. It is interesting to note that Roosevelt’s correspondence with the cardinal is included in the
15 per cent of his papers that are still restricted, not to be made public for at least 25 years.
Could you imagine Christ Jesus visiting Rome to exert political pressure for more liberal rule of Jerusalem? He did not Neither did the apostles meddle in politics. According to James 1:27, one proof of the true religion is that it would keep unspotted from the world. Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism have not done this.
following statement on the jacket of Gerald Heard’s new book Morals Since 1900., “New arms, new sex standards, new views of wealth, new ideas about the given word and the function of thought have dislocated former ethical reactions. ... So rapid has been the process of change that there is a general acceptance of standards which would have been intolerable fifty years ago.”
Many persons choose to ignore
Are you living in such a paradise, or do you recognize-and do something about present conditions?
T^HE prophet Hosea, writing in the Bible 1 about 742 B.C., said, under divine inspiration, “The Lord has a quarrel with the inhabitants of the land; because there is no fidelity, no kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery—they break out, and one crime follows hard upon another. Therefore the land mourns.. . . Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I likewise will forget your children.” —Hosea 4:1-3, 6, An Amer. Trans.
Compare those words, written in condemnation of the nation of Israel that had fallen away from God’s worship and was destroyed therefor in 607 B.C., with the the present facts, just as the majority chose to ignore the warning uttered by Hosea and other prophets who foretold Jerusalem’s doom in 607 B.C. Rarely does man wish to admit wrongdoing, but in The Rediscovery of Morals (page 18) Henry C. Link says, “The great majority who refuse to face the facts are living in a fool’s paradise.”
The Lord has a quarrel with the inhabitants of the land today because fidelity, kindness, and knowledge of God are rarei| while cursing, lying, murder, theft, adultery and all kinds of crime abound.
Morals have broken down in tha training of children, leading to juvenile delinquency; in education leading to bribery scandals; in the, theater, movies and literature, , leading to the prevalence of sex appeal, unreasonably low necklines, smutty jokes and to brazen half-naked women spiasned on tfie covef jf countless books and magazines lining racks in drugstores and newsstands. The blame carihof be^IaiH-entirely on tne advertising agencies, television and movie producers, and book publishers, for if the people did not demand an immoral diet today, if they were sufficiently opposed to such lewd publicity, then it would promptly stop. One group panders to the passions of the other gropp, and the Lord has a quarreiwitn bum.
“Juvenile” Delinquency
Often, all too often, youth is pointed to as having produced, the moral breakdown, with such terms as “juvenile delinquency” becoming common. Youth has played a big part in crime and continues to take the lion’s share of it. Teen-agers have been caught by the hundreds smoking dope-filled “reefers”. Adolescent boys and girls have become thieves or turned to Drosti-tution to pay fnr_ the drugs. Organized gangs whose-members sometimes are not more than 12 or 13 years old have battled savagely with guns and clubs on the streets of America’s cities. The part youth plays in the national crime rate is appalling. In 1946 twenty-six dope addicts under 21 were admitted to Public Health Service hospitals, but in 1950 the number jumped to TOO, and will probably be higher this year, reported the Associated Press on March 26.
The increase in juvenile crime was reported by J. Edgar Hoover, director of the F.B.I., on April 11, when he said that in 1950 there were 1,790,030 major crimes —one every 18 seconds—and that of this total, 28.9 per cent of the robberies, burglaries, larcenies, ^uto thefts, embezzlements, frauds, forgeries, counterfeitings, receivings of stolen property and arsons were committed by persons under 21. —New Vork Times, Anril 12.
Yet this delinquency cannot be blamed entirely on the juveniles. Youth follows the pattern set for it. Delinquent parents make delinquent children, and the moral breakdown among the younger set today merely proves that adults have not properly discharged their obligations. It has been suggested by some that students develop their own principles of conduct instead of going by adult standards. But the failure of youth to follow proper standards is not because the codes of behavior have been written by adults, but because they have been undermined by adults. Because adults have not succeeded in upholding proper moral standards there is now this childish notion that maybe the children can do it by developing their own moral codes in accordance with modem conditions.
Melvin A. Glasser, executive director of the Midcentury White House Conference on Children and Youth, said in New Brunswick, N. J., on March 31, that unless each child gets his fair chance the country will continue to permit the development of conditions that will make future “Kefauver” committees necessary. “We would/’ he said, “gain immeasurably in better, happier, more secure people if we could, in the next few years, put as much time, energy and money mta research abcwt children as we are now putting into re-
/« Education the Solution?
Some will say that surely education would help in this situation. But has it? The breakdown of morals in education has been pointed up particularly by recent scandals. Harold E. Stassen, president of the University of Pennsylvania, told 14,000 educators attending the American Association of School Administrators’ convention in Atlantic City on February 21: “In recent days a shocking number of present students have been arrested for accepting bribes to betray their schools, their classmates, their personal bond, in deliberately losing athletic contests for the benefit of sordid gamblers. These . . . developments have a basic interrelationship in a reflection of moral and ethical weakness. They are very serious.”
According to the April 10 issue of the New York Times, J. Edgar Hoover blamed the “hypocrisy and sham” of college athletic codes for inspiring the “fixing” of basketball games, and he thinks that laxity by college officials has contributed to some “very atrocious crimes”.
It all boils down to one simple statement, “A crook plus education equals an educated crook.” So anyone who thinks that modern education has provided the moral force that brings youth into upstanding citizenship is blinding himself to the facts.
Youth only follows the example set by its elders. An irate parent yells, “Don’t He to me!" But where did the child learn to lie? On page 130 of Morals Since 1900 Gerald Heard says, “During the first part of the present century there is little doubt that among the English-speaking peoples truth telling was becoming considered an archaic standard and a certain undefined and growing laxity in prevarication was generally permitted.” Or simply stated, the people lied more and more. Is it any wonder that the children do the same?
Radio, Theater, Literature _
And what aboutfsejfj It is publicEea, advertised, televised, commercialized. The National Association of Radio and Television broadcasters reported on April 19 that it would go to work on a program of moral standards concerning such matters as “the TV neckline” and that the industry must do something about program standards before “somebody does it for us”.
are even lower. Smtffl^jOKes^suggesnve scenes, and an appeal to the base' attitude seem to be almost a necessity to having a big boxoffice take.
Trashy reading in(cheap bo6Rs>thriving on sensation, sex and crime are still worse. Conversation and situations in some of these are so vile in their immorality as to forbid discussion, yet this is the stock in trade of authors whd lack sufficient ability to hold readers with clean writing, and these are eagerly purchased by an immoral world that wants its lustful appetite pampered. Perhaps the aulimrswould say that they must achiev^freansim1^ but in doing so they condemn THBfflflTOrals and the morals of their readers who believe that only immorality and prostitution are "realism”. They would make decency seem unreal, If a book can become known for its baseness; if it succeeds in being banned in a few cities for the immoral circumstances within its pages, then the insidious slime becomes more assured than ever of climbing high on the best-seller lists as perverted minds devour its lewd pages. No decent author can justify his indecent writing, though he rationalize and strain reasoning in an effort to “pass the buck". It was summed up by an article in the St. Louis (Missouri) Globe-Democrat of August 24, 1946, which said; “One critic wrote of a recent ‘best seller,’ ‘This is the greatest real estate bargain of the day: it offers more dirt for the money than may be had
anywhere else/ I heard a successful author say publicly that she could not find a publisher for her book until she had "sexed it up? These two quotations portray more than a literary trend of the times: They reveal a colossal slump in public morals. All avenues of public entertainment show a vogue of salacity, Reports from borne and abroad portray a moral looseness amongst many members of the armed forces. It is matched by the prevalence of adultery in our own land. Ilie old standards of society and of the Bible are breaking down. . . . Our feet are on the path that led ancient Rome over the precipice. A country’s morale cannot survive the decline of its morals.”
Actual instructions are given to authors to write such base material. The Donald MacCampbell Agency which handles pocketbook manuscripts had the following notice inserted in the May, 1951, Writer's Digest: “The present demand for mysteries and sexy love stories ... is considerably greater than the supply. . . . The love novels should be earthy and should contain three or four torrid love scenes. . . . Sex is one form of entertainment that television cannot kill and we look for a real boom this summer in the love books ”
On April 29, 1950, Dr. Edith Summerskill, Britain’s Minister of Insurance, declared she was “astonished at learning of the pornographic rubbish it is possible for young people to buy”. She said she is also amazed "when she goes to the cinema and for thirty minutes endures shooting, stabbing arid choking scenes presented as if they were the normal British way of life’.
Movie Morals
And this brings up the subject of movie morals. Whose business are they? Scandals touching topflight movie stars prompted Senator Johnson of Colorado to propose in 1950 that immoral actors be prevented from appearing in films and that no immoral films be permitted shipped across state lines. He objected also to movie companies’ capitalizing on the private scandals of screen personalities, but these are things that today’s immoral public devours.
You can determine for yourself what the three-column-wide advertisement in the April 20 New York Times meant when it made the provocative suggestion that you should take a young lady with you to see this film, or if you are a young lady, take a man, because, “Some kind of a result is an immoral certainty.”
A burfbnt fTffil enhcieu me
Female Sinner” -pin Sunderin'' tells the story of a female prostitute. One critic said, “This film stinks”; but it is breaking attendance records throughout Germany. In Frankfort it drew 90,000. In Diiessel-dorf 102,716, about a fifth of the entire population, paid to see it. Apparently it has what this immoral world wants.
A report of films shown in Paris in 1942 depicted 310 murders, 104 thefts at pistol point, 74 cases of blackmail, 43 of arson, 14 of embezzlement, 182 of perjury, and 405 of adultery! Concerning Am ericanfilms, it was reported in 1949 that “the moral qualities of postwar motion pictures have hit an all-time low”
Airer ima HajTvurtn s affair with Aly Khan in 1949 such comments were made as, “It was refreshing to find that Hollywood was recognizing that there were limits which even the laxity of Hollywood could not let go unrebuked,” and that it would be unjust to criticize Rita Hayworth “without condemning half the population of Hollywood”, and, “A Hollywood pastor . . . recently declared that the press gave a one-sided picture of Hollywood.” But the fact remains that the press gives the side the readers want, and in doing so unquestionably condemns today’s morals.
The off-again-on-again marriages so widely publicized from Hollywood set a bad national fashion and have been blamed at least partially for the soaring U, S. divorce rate. It was summed up by an Australian clergyman who said, “Hollywood’s morals stink.”—Religious News Service, January 18, 1949.
Proper Conduct Ridiculed
Anyone who thinks today’s world is moral is living in a fool’s paradise. The tteiiscovery of Morals (page ±64J says, “Puritanism has been held up to scorn and ridicule. . , . Among these virtues [that have been ridtcuted] absolute frutnnrr-ness, keening one's word, simplicity of speech or avmaance or ’double-talk’, moderation in living habits, thrift, respect for the persons and property of others, hospitality for the strange and the needy, humility, chastity, and many others.” Such virtues would be a refreshing change today.
In ridiculing" proper coiiutiur The public press, movies, pictorial magazines, ham commentators and the literature of our time all appear to take a satanic and moronic relish in the vulgarities they splash intq the faces of the public. Their publicity no doubt adds much to the “stylishness” of immorality in this century. This publicity is not onlr relished by the immoral, but it attempts to convince the moral cnat immorality is the present fad, the accepted course of action. It says in effect, “Everyone’s doing it, so why don’t you?” Such publicity is merciless. It is vile to the extreme. It deals with human destiny. It draws the young into its clutches and perverts them. But the worst part is that so few voices speak out in condemnation. So few have enough morals left to raise their voices of protest over and above the propaganda for more and more immorality.
The same principle applies today that Hosea wrote (chapter 4) under divine inspiration in condemnation of another corrupt generation: “The Lord has a quarrel with the inhabitants of the land; because there is no fidelity, no kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery—they break out and one crime follows hard upon another. Therefore the land mourns!” The people have forgotten the law of God and he will forget them. To escape the destruction that this world faces you must put yourself on the side of God’s kingdom, the only course of action that will enable you to survive the destruction of this morally delinquent world.
God-fearing persons will separate from such immoral conditions and live proper lives to the honor of God’s name, showing respect for the opportunity of learning of His righteous purposes. In the past God’s servants have likewise had to separate themselves from immoral associations. Follow their example if you would receive God’s blessings today. In the ancient city of Corinth immorality was rampant, but Paul wrote to the Christians there: “What! Do you not know that unrighteous persons will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom. And yet that is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean, but you have been sanctified, but you have been declared righteous in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, New World Trans.) Christians today will follow this admonition and abstain from the immoral practices of this world, to their eternal welfare. Only by so doing can they hope to receive the blessings of their everlasting Father, Jehovah God.
the appeal strikes a comforting chord. They are in-> dined, quite naturally, to find consolation in the fact that one great religious organization is not unmindful of the dispersement and destruction of families contingent in combat.
It is to America that this appeal is chiefly directed. On January 31 the pope addressed this urgent suppli
SHOCK waves whip up the rising tide of human fear. In the United States external war and internal corruption threaten the existence of the greatest liberal government on earth. Hoodlums hog control of municipal and even federal departments of government. Shocked over the slaughter in Korea, the fourth greatest in American wars, the dismissal of MacArthur adds another blow. Momentarily, the MacArthur dispute held the stage. Other news spotlights reveal grotesque perversions of greed, RFC exposures "more serious than such scandals as the Teapot Dome which shook the nation three decades ago”. Immune from punishment, criminals Cohen, Costello and comrades reveal bonds of corruption with high government officials. Heightening the threat of danger within comes evidence of Communist infiltration, and the paralyzing disclosure that ECA funds financed, through leakage, extensive manufacture of Russian guns, tanks and planes. Thus stricken from within and without the nation, to which many look for leadership, sits almost numbly in doubt.
Timed to cultivate international favor amid such woe, comes the recent plea by Pope Pius XII for all war orphans, the “poor innocent” victims of ravaging armies, treading and retreading the homes and hovels of the hungry, desolate masses. To many, both Catholic and Protestant, cation: "To you and your noble-minded priests, the homeless, the refugees, and the impoverished victims of war in Europe and other parts of the world, lift up their pleading voices begging you to continue your benefactions to them.” The plea was reiterated by the Catholic press, cinema films and radio broadcast. Since there are so many such appeals for heavily drained American funds, it is necessary for the majority to pick and choose over which charity to support. As in politics, selection is facilitated by examination of the past performance of the group or organization asking support. In the democracies, careful scrutiny often precedes choice of candidate or charity. Such analysis, therefore, should not be condemned, when applied even to the proposal of a world-renowned religious leader of unquestioned political power.
Concordats with Dictators
Such analysis should not be condemned, but rather acclaimed, because it will clarify the quality or substance of the hope for human betterment. To open our consideration the reader is asked to contemplate events now more than two decades past. Significant of the year 1929 was the signing of the Lateran Treaty. Epitomizing the importance of that treaty the Encyclopedia Americana avers: “The official hostility which had existed between the pope and the government of Italy since Sept 1870 was terminated 11 Feb. 1929 when representatives of the Holy See and of the Italian government [Mussolini] signed the Lateran Treaty at the Lateran Palace.” (Vol. 15, p. 475, 1948 Ed.) Vatican City, as the newly established capital of an empire claiming both political and religious support, was authorized to exchange ambassadors with other countries, and pledged vast monetary and governmental aid. As one of the pillars of Nazi-Fascist accord the treaty acquired increasing importance in the decade that followed. Incidentally, it is still in force.
Amazing though it may seem, the benevolent-appearing prelate. Pope Pius XII [Eugenio Pacelli], who in January 1951 tearfully pleaded the cause of the war orphans before camera and transmitter that depicted his sad gestures and recorded his prayerful English, was a prime and powerful actor in the two decades just past. It is said that Pius XII learned English recently. It can be said with equal certainty, that of the eight languages he is credited with knowing, German is among the most familiar.
Authority for this statement is the pope’s Catholic biographer, who reveals that Pius spent more than twelve years in Germany beginning before his appointment as nuncio to Munich in 1923. The present speaker of humanitarian benevolence held progressively higher diplomatic titles in the era of intrigue and preparation for the second world war. He was, in fact, the ace diplomat in the alliances which fruited history’s most terrible carnage. After the alliance with Mussolini just noted came the shocking concordat with Adolf Hitler, 1933.
During the thirties this document was largely concealed from the American public. However, Kees van Hoek emphasized in 1939: “Cardinal Pacelli has always been known for his strong German leanings.” Other Catholic writers, issuing a booklet through the National Catholic Welfare Conference entitled “The Nazi War Against the Catholic Church”, made this significant admission: “On July 20, 1933, the concordat was signed by Franz von Papen [later tried for his war crimes], vice-chancellor [Hitler was then chancellor] and plenipotentiary of the Reich, and Cardinal Pacelli [now Pope Pius XII], papal secretary of state and plenipotentiary of the Holy See.” Catholic industrialist Fritz Thyssen said that Hitler and Pacelli had many previous conferences together outlining the concordat. A concordat is a form of contract outlining the terms of agreement between the Papacy and a dictator nation. Democracies have never had these intimate agreements.
The terms, later made public, bound the Catholic Church to Nazism “in the most solemn manner”. On August 15, 1933, Archbishop Dr. Groeber held a solemn pontifical mass celebrating the conclusion of the concordat, and Cardinal Bertram, the same year, wrote Hitler: “The Episcopate of all German Dioceses . . , was glad to express . . . readiness to co-operate to the best of its ability with the new government.”
“Readiness to co-operate to the best of its ability with the new government” of Hitler! What significant words avowed in the fall of the year, papally dubbed “holy”, 1933! Throughout the ravaging years swiftly following the conclusion of Nazi-papal accord, unleashed in execution of its terms, the German Catholic Hierarchy, as a matter of yearly record, reaffirmed their blessing upon the murdering armies of the fuehrer. Orphan-making prospered!
The commander-in-chief of the American army has just dismissed a famous general because of disagreement over policy.
Does any Catholic reader imagine that Pacelli, regarded at the time by Britain’s ambassador as the “best informed man in the Reich” and head of an institution requiring unquestioning obedience more absolute than possible in the democracies, could not have stopped the German bishops’ yearly commendation of Hitler, issued from their meetings in Fulda, Germany? Much less, could such public documents have escaped notice of **the Vatican’s incomparable intelligence service” and the scrutiny of the religious commander-in-chief described as “an expert international observer before he was pope”?
Hierarchy Share in Orphan-making
Mark thereafter the swift events of a dozen years whose blood is barely dry and whose mourning yet fills the whole earth* Armed with their concordats of 1929 and 1933, Hitler and Mussolini slaughtered in papal-approved amity. Comrade Franco, knighted and equipped with papal blessing, kept the gate open for American supplies while Comrade Hirohito divided Yankee attention between Europe and the Orient* Emboldened by the wand of religious blessing, Mussolini assaulted Ethiopia (1935), Papal cheers rang around the world, even American Cardinal Hayes (New York, deceased), O’Connell (Boston, deceased) and Dougherty (Philadelphia, deceased), applauding “the marvelous transformation since Benito Mussolini had seized the reins of government”.
The same year, Hitler, “ranting his defiance, . . . tore the Versailles Treaty to shreds and ordered German conscription* The Nazi machine grew* The shadow lengthened.” “1936. The Spanish War ended the European armistice. The dictators welcomed Franco to their fold and tested their men and weapons on Spanish soil.” After grabbing Austria and Czechoslovakia through the aid of such Catholic criminals as Dr. Seyss-Inquart and Dr, Josef Tiso, both of whom have since been executed, Hitler assaulted Poland (1939). The pope did not deign to reply to Polish Americans who demanded the excommunication of Hitler. Polish priests were in the vanguard of Hitler’s panzers!
Turning to Europe, and while the Anglo-French watched their enemies across the Maginot^Siegf rled fortifications (West Wall), Hitler swooped upon Norway and Denmark, promptly installing Catholics' Quisling and Terboven the Terrible to torture the Vikings. The six weeks’ blitzkrieg of 1940’s bloody spring brought France, Holland and Belgium to their knees, and forced the British to evacuate at Dunkirk* Orphan-making showed increased production. Three Catholics, all approved by the pope, betrayed their native France, Petain, Weygand, and “the most loathed man in Europe”, Pierre Hava) (later executed by the Free French).
In 1942 and 1943 the Americans, many of them Catholic, were to suffer great losses at the hands of their “more papally-favored brethren” of Italy and Germany. Even in 1944 the Germans inflicted severe losses on troops of the U. S. because American Catholic commanders hesitated to storm the Nazis quartered in the “sacred portals” of Monte Cassino Abbey.
In brief flash backs, the reader has reviewed the orphan-making harvest of papal agreements* The question for charity donors to consider includes logically one of sincerity* Is the present pope so deaf to the cries of German, Spanish, and Polish mothers and orphans, so closely related by kinship and religion, really interested in the orphans of the despised Orient? Is this cry not but another camouflage? The blood of the innocents may not show on the scarlet robes of the pope in the eyes of men. But the pope cannot deceive Jehovah. (Jeremiah 2:34)—Contributed*
iQ 09 tMttM States flm Um
Mndfr j«w':ii'te Wfe Haw :mstoy wedy peoples haw been replemslwd fwm the great Amlw storehouse? Stmee the end of the smwd World Wasr, American relfef programs spread have outMripped anything p^ndouW known* Now in Wl, another-applicant bkta for U. S* a kt Thte ttow it i.s dim Public sentiment runs high in favor rf as-wtmee to that ^trk'kw tend, President Truman and Secretary vt State Acheson appealed for Cwngm^ional action., Religtous hato ot demanded it in the name of “Christian charity",. But India had acted todeeirively in the great. Bast-West conflict and even opposed the Americans pan sored condemnation of Red China to the U. N, CmwqumMy American rtc IM action was stow to com tog*
8\i N'aw let benef actors look closer to h<raie« In k very nation, thw “horn of plenty" to the outside worldH whole resmMfonjs of people have W 1NM to the worst want and neglect Ironically, 'these people are lufeo M'ton^ American-. Indians, Furthermw^ aid to tten would be no "charity", but cold legal res pun-MMhty- But how Jw.ve they beai treated?
«A. New York Time,® written by Howard A.. Ru.sk, WLD„f appeared. on April 8, I^:b detailing health conditions mncmg American Mim Partieutarly dhldhtxid diseases are outstanding, In 1948,116 Montana Indiana wt of one thousand 'births died in infancy* For thp nation the rote was thirty-two out of & 'thousand* Pneumonfa, typhoid and tuter-xtoto&U are typkAi diseases whereto, the Indian death rate far outstrips that of. 'the whites* The ^ixty-twu hospitals of the Indian Service W.. the United States and Alaska sire of ten feo $ated and. Jnadeqiiateiy staffed* Forty per ot oi JMtan hospital teds are dated to be no t?«pied by emw of preventable or wntwltable flisceasKesK
The picture darkens with new that some 3-4^00 Navajto wkM-age chikfrw receive? no schooling at all, despite govemmeM promises of thorough education, made irx a treaty In. X8G& Regrettable too k the ca.se of ttw Blackfoot Mtamc Once this proud td.be ran free along 'the tower tog ranges from Canada to the Great SaM. Lake, Today the few thousand of the remnant. BlaektaH reside to. the north" wW corner of Montana, the proud possessore
£. of .2,M3 isquare mta of. largely podr or M' J'1' most ■vrt.h.ie'te-HS- land* Asi Dr* RussK cited above,
say&; “We could, well praetire same of our ft Point IV phtowphy to iwr own backyards/* ft 'v/ Instead, a group of aborted American. ;■ Indians gathered fur the occasion at a .tab-
ioMbte New York hotel on April 23,
>,: had to let out their whoopss and drumbeats fe over a sohtary gift station wagon full of / $3,0(X) worth .medical: supplies being tfe-patched. 2/0 miles help &A0OO Navajo on their reservation in. the Artema-~NciW i| Mexico-Utah ccnwrtr. Press accounts told/ of § pereosw involved, taking the occasion to s?pe^X Rj “serkmssdy of the health campaign that must k be waged for the Indians in thite
p country" And beMd! speeding an tts w&y; K' a very f,sertousPJ' Ione fjtatiorj wagon. a$ down S paymentf literally toaded with good will, Go'if
ero'iis Uncle Sam, giving till It htxrte!
[]<■ Bx>r landsh pa-or toad, malnutrttkm and disease—^nd all the mponMbiW of the goy* enm'wnt. Sutetantfal rather than merely 'to
ft Reas hid to there peoples would prove only ft & minor task to a nation so involve in. tre-.
xntmclouf* foreign relief progi’asma* Nor wouM' ft it impair other eommkmente. And then again & there is this matter of “ChrUtxan charttyk-ft %:iwity tx?g:in® at home," they say* But. re-$ member, Ajm.eri.can Indians jMmitw a tega^, M not merely charitable claim gwenwitoi ■ I' purse ^trin^s* Yet aid to them iwnafe^ ft meager and painfully s;lw, Attending It- B ft w great public prewm? involvtog inter* ft national polHi^u return, it cannot offer tH j| same robust jM.tolt.dty abound the world* But hi shall thtw things ' termtoe its urjgmy?
Shall they blind a. government toterestefl in ft charity halfway around the world to leg^l ft respcmsl bill ties in fe own backyard? WwM ft benefactors? do well to recall advice of the pacesetter for ChrMtan giving, Jesus ClirM"
b; V “Hence when you start making gita of m&h;yt do not blow a trumpet ahwl of yfM
ft jjuM the hypocrites do in the synagogue, ft and in the streete, that they may he gtarMad £. by men* * * * But yen, when, making ctf ft mercy, do :rtot let your left hand know wbat ft' your right, is doi.ngF that your fji.fts of men?y ft .may be in. secret; then your Father who fe ,<, looking ore in secret win. repay you/”—MM--J; thew G124, NW WbrMf ?wm
with uncensored reports, are startled with the violent conditions now existing in Colombia. Stretching into years, namely since October, 1947, political bloodshed has been the bitterest in the hemisphere. Unchecked, it has continued and even grown worse. Violence, insecurity and fear hold the spotlight Killings have long ceased to be “retail” style but are carried out ruthlessly on a wholesale scale.
At present the violence is in reality rebellion against the Gdmez regime. In several departments (states) guerrilla warfare is drenching the land with blood. The most serious fighting has been done in the vast expanse of territory without roads in southeastern Colombia known as the llanos. Opposition bands of Liberals battle it out with the national police and army forces. Since the state of siege was clamped down in November, 1949, the llaneros have harrassed the government’s men. It was reported in October, 1950, that Eliseo Velasquez, a hard-riding Tlanero, had 3,500 armed guerrillas.
An example of the type of warfare carried on is shown in the news dispatch published on May 11. About 5:30 a.m. on May 8 an armed band attacked and wiped out the small detachment of police in Pachaquiaro. During the funeral services the following day in nearby Villavicencio
"fanatics” "Started shooting up the “property of civilians”, leaving several dead. It is claimedUhat drunken policemen were the culprits of this reprisal. As a result of these disturbances 40 persons died. The official report admits that in the last few months 80 soldiers have been killed in similar incidents.
At hand is an article dated April 19, 1951, from the state of Tolima. The massacre is related by a 21-year-old boy who escaped the fate of his family. "At midnight Saturday more than 50 men armed with machetes and guns surrounded our farmhouse and forced us into the patio where we were bound. Then, upon orders from the leader, they proceeded to kill my father Isaiah, 58, and then my brothers Fermin, 28, Isaiah, 19, Javier, 24, and Anacleto, 14; last of all they killed the workers, ages 40, 15 and 24. All of them were chopped up and the diSerenY parts of the various bodies were left scattered in the patio. My mother, who suffered an attack upon arrival of the band, was not killed for that reason. My sisters, 14 and 15, together with me were taken away, but I managed to free myself and escape over a steep embankment, and they were unable to find me. I do not know what happened to my sisters. Everything in the house was robbed. Among those in the gang was my mother's brother who seemed to take the most interest in the annihilation of everyone.”
Upon arrival of the authorities from the nearby village of Rioblanco the different parts of the bodies had to be gathered together to put them into boxes. The patio had the aspect of a “butcher shop”. The following day around 300 persons attacked the village at night, but the army and police repelled the invaders. All the buildings were marked up with the bullet fire.
The next day’s edition of El Tiempa relates the wave of insecurity sweeping that
same section. Three persons, mu dered and unburied, provided food for the vultures.
Equally gruesome is the published national police report of the liquidation of a group of bandits that had spread terror throughout the department cf Antioquia. Thirty-seven decapitated persons were found tied to trees. A March issue of the Conservative daily El Poder attributes 40 deaths to “Liberal bandits”. Fantastic, you say? Yes, perhaps' so, but true. At hand are many more published reports passed by the censors, but these are but a few of the many stories circulating daily or released through secret political propaganda sheets.
A recent cartoon bitterly depicting the pitiful rural scene shows a family of peasants meeting a city man who asks them how they enjoy “The Right to Be Born” (“El Derecho de Nacer”—a favorite Colombian radio drama). “Yes” is the reply, “but what do wo get out of it? Here we don’t have the right to live.”
Police in many villages and rural areas in Colombia are not considered as guardians of the law but political assassins. No one dares cross their path or provoke them in any way. In February this year the minister of government had to issue an order instructing the national police to refrain from getting drunk, shooting off their firearms and starting trouble in public places. Those that did so would be immediately dismissed from their jobs. In the state of Cundinamarca two policemen were being held for participating in the slaying of three doctors. From Santander comes news that several army abuses are being investigated.
As might be expected the situation throughout the country discourages agriculture. In one section, in spite of an excellent coffee crop, it was said that qnly 5 per cent of it would be gathered, due to lack of protection for the coffee pickers. ANDI (National Association of Industries) predicts a grave economic crisis due to the insecurity in the rurals. Everywhere one goes the same answer meets his inquiry concerning business—“Muy malo” (Very bad),
Afwi/ mdlo well describes many conditions in this world, and muy malo will continue to be apt description until Christ’s kingdom replaces all human rule.
The Tragedy of Mental Defectives Known as “Mongolians*’
SUPPOSE you were required to build a house without being supplied with sufficient materials. Not enough cement, bricks, lumber, plaster, paint, shingles; not enough plumbing, electrical and heating equipment. What kind of house could you build? Would it be of the right size, look right and be comfortable? At best it would be a makeshift house, giving the appearance of being unfinished, would it not?
Well, when mothers are required to bear children and they, for one reason or another, are lacking in certain basic elements, they also produce unfinished or makeshift products, children known as “Mongolians” because of their resemblance
to the Mongol race. When they were first thus named it was thought that they had some Mongol blood in their veins. Such, however, has since been found not to be the case.
“Mongols” are found throughout the world, no race or country being exempt. Three out of every thousand children born are “Mongoloids?*, and due to a deficiency they resemble each other so much as to be taken for brothers and sisters.
“Mongoloid" Characteristics
The two most outstanding characteristics of these unfortunates are the flattened nose and slanting eyes. The head is rounded and small, ears are underdeveloped, mouth is usually open with tongue protruding. Hair is thin, straight and light in color. Teeth appear late,, are irregular and subject to decay. Legs and arms are abnormally short and hands chubby. “Mongolians” seldom exceed the height of 12-year-olds.
The circulatory system of “Mongoloids” is usually weak and often defective. The liver and kidneys are less than normal size. They are therefore very susceptible to lung and intestinal infections and so we find few living to be more than 15 years of age.
What is known as “motor development” is Very slow in these sufferers. It is a year before they can sit up, and still longer before they can stand. They are ten years old before they can walk the way normal children do at the age of two or three. They have difficulty in speaking, their vocabulary is limited and often they can utter sounds that only their immediate families can understand.
Their sensory development is also slow. Eyesight is often defective and the sense, of smell below normal. Their response to heat, cold and pain is weak. Hearing likewise seems to be handicapped, although
this cannot be definitely determined. Their development may be likened to a slow-motion picture, about one-third of normal. '’Because of their physical weakness and slow development death almost invariably overtakes them before they reach maturity.
Socially, these “Mongolians” present a more encouraging picture. They are lovable creatures, full of affection and tenderness. Describing them, one visitor said'. “As playmates, they are always hugging and kissing one another with vague but genuine smiles of affection. They come up and put their arms around a stranger as confidently as a puppy jumping up on a visitor, and, though not understanding a word said to them, good-naturedly answer yes to any question, hoping that will please."
The Creator in his wisdom arranged that children between the ages of two and four have an extra share of ability to mimic. Most fortunate this, as without it they could not learn to talk, walk, etc. “Mongolians,” being mostly “stalled” in their development to this age group, seem to keep that ability to mimic. They are very fond of music, although it seems to be the rhythm rather than the melody that delights them. They often seem to be stubborn, but this doubtless is due to their mental slowness rather than to a contrary disposition.
Causes of “Mongolism”
Some doctors have held that "Mongolism” is a regression, evolution in reverse. Autopsies, however, have failed to reveal any animallike cells. All the facts are against its being hereditary, thereby placing “Mongols” in a class distinct from other mental defectives. For proof note the following, which incidentally explains why they have been variously termed “unfinished babies”, “exhaustion products,” and “salvaged abortions”.
“Mongoloids” apgfear mostly in large families, and that toward the end, the age of mothers at the time of giving birth to such being ten years above the average. A mother between the ages of 20 and 24 takes less than one chance in a thousand of having such a child, but a mother of fifty years takes a 25 per cent risk. One check showed that 47 per cent of mothers bearing “Mongols” had poor health and that involuntary abortions were two to three times as common among such mothers as the average.
Three per cent of all babies are born prematurely, but among “Mongoloids” 43 per cent are premature babies. Female complaints, high-strung nervous condition and even the mother’s attitude toward her unborn child have a bearing on the matter.
In just what way do these circumstances cause the birth of “Mongoloid” children? By causing a “poly-glandular deficiency”, the pituitary, thyroids, adrenals, thymus and gonads being particularly weak or inactive. “Mongolians” are 'an effort of nature to produce human creatures without adequate endocrine function, resulting in an unfinished child, deprived of maturity of mind and body’. 'Depressed maternal powers causing a defect in the formative forces during pregnancy? This is not “prenatal influence” as that term is generally understood, the marking of a child because of some shock the mother experienced; rather it is the failure of a fetus to properly develop due to prolonged mental, emotional or physical stress on the part of the mother and that particularly during the second to the fourth months of the pregnancy.
Preventive and Remedial
According to Dr. Benda, internationally known authority in the field of mental deficiency, “Mongolism” being a prenatal disorder cannot be completely corrected and therefore the goal is prevention. He emphasizes the role that the mental and emotional states of the mother play in this regard, these causing endocrine unbalance or deficiency, resulting in deficiency in the child. (New York Times, May 25, 1951) Having noted the circumstances under which “Mongolism” most frequently appears, wise parents can be guided accordingly.
But what can be done for these unfortunates after they are born? The attitude that all effort is useless is by no means justified. Rather than to begrudge these little sufferers their existence the golden rule should govern, causing parents to do all they can to help them. Since the basic cause is glandular deficiency, the use of glandular extracts is indicated, and that from immature animals in view of the youth of these sufferers. The earlier the start the greater the benefit, a mother being able to help the child through her milk. Additionally, some recommend calcium phosphate and glutamic acid. In view of their lowered vitality, care must be exercised to keep “Mongolian” children warm and away from exposures.
Their need for love and affection is great. With the right kind of help such children can progress to being mentally and physically ten- or twelve-year-olds instead of four- to six-year-olds. Girls can learn to do housework and boys certain kinds of farm work. Says Dr. Benda in his valuable book on the subject, Mongolism and Cretinism, “They learn by imitation and from the example of others—it is amazing how much they can develop if special attention is given to their needs.”
The real hope for all those involved, however, both parents and children, is the kingdom of God; for when it ends all sorrow and pain it will also make an end of all mental and physical defects such as “Mongolism”.—Revelation 21:4,
'Ui
By correspondent in Greece
Scandalsdn M
IN ADDITION to the dramatic phases of the war in Korea, the subject which moved the Greek people’s undivided attention is the scandals and stirring events that occurred in the “venerable” Women’s Monastery “Panaghia Pefkovuniotissa” at Keratea (Attica), Greece, belonging to the so-called “Genuine Orthodox Christians”, or followers of the Old Calendar. These scandals were a daily enjoyment of the Greeks in the Athens papers, which published with resounding and striking headlines many-column reports on these unheard-of scandals and unprecedented crimes committed by nuns and monks living in the monastery, which scandals have burst out since the middle of last October, and still run in the Greek press.
The Acropolis, of Athens, a paper broadly circulating among the popular classes, published reports last October 17 and 21, headlined with bold characters: “A Tempest in Keratea Monasteries—Nuns Drive Out and Beat Monks.” After quoting for three days the long secret testament of “Bishop” Matthew, abbot at the Women’s Monastery, it was stated verbatim: “No worldly person can imagine what is happening in Keratea Monasteries, because,” said it, “in the night of Sept. 2, 1950, a swarm of over a hundred nuns, armed with clubs and knives, under the leadership of Nun Juliana,... invaded the Men’s Monastery ‘Savior’ at Keratea and, availing themselves of the darkness, cruelly beat to senselessness the old and sick people living there in solitude, and drove them out, . . . with the further object of killing Monk Victor. Bloodshed was averted, thanks to the timely intervention of gendarmerie who arrested the nuns at the head,” and added: “In the Women’s Monastery of ‘Pefkovuniotissa’, among the nuns there are over seventy males (monks) of from 18 to 30 years of age, leading an ascetic life?’
The fact that the above-named Juliana “was an unnormal type of woman, indulging in all sorts of debauchery”, and that “unnamable orgies and debaucheries were being committed in the circuit of the Said-Monastery’s apiaries”, and that “some of the Monastery’s minor boarders were the fruit of these illegitimate intercourses”, was deposited at the public prosecutor’s by Monk Chryssanthos and Mr* Const. Depotidis, a building material dealer, as reported by the papers Ta Neat Acropolis, Eleftheria, and others of November 23, 1950.
Appalling Cruelties
Alongside these deviations from ethics, the Athens papers were for several days publishing depositions made by a score of witnesses before the public prosecutor, and according to which many people died three months after their entry to these notorious Keratea Monasteries as a result of e** hausting fasts, cruel beatings, tortures of all kinds, and other sufferings, with the
only object of having fortunes become the Monastery’s property by means of false testaments; some of these fortunes amounted to important sums.
As an example ot these crimes, we quote Sophia Anthogalidu’s deposition, published in the Acropofe, November 23, 1950: “My mother Magdalene, who had tremendous substance, b°th movable and immovable, and was carrying along with her three purses full of gold sovereigns, died in the monastery at the end of terrible privations and unutterable tortures.” She still reported the astonishing fact that they appropriated, not only her tremendous fortune, but even her golden teeth, In this chapter of crimes, astounding are also the denouncements made by late Nun Trias Stephanopulos, published in the paper’s issue of last November 29, and deposited before the public prosecutor Mr, Papaka-rias, and Mr. Triantaphyllu, examiner. We glean the following therefrom:
"My sisters Photini and Sotiria died tuberculous from privations . . . unde-scribable is also what I myself have suffered from Nun Makrina, to whom they made me subject * . . One day, because I spoke with a nun, Makrina tied my hands back, and then threw me down, trod me on the back and beat me so hard that my mouth bled. This infuriated her more, and she dragged me along by means of a rope before the other nuns and the abbot . . . Another day she seized me by the hair, threw me down, tied my hands, and put me into a bag, with the head out. She left me so for a week. She didn’t take me thereout even for bodily need, . . . and I became full of lice , . . Another time she blackened my face with soot . . . she tied me with horse-chains, laid me flat on a threshing floor and stoned me , - . The stones wounded my head, and traces still remain. Still another time, she disrobed me and beat me with a cord till my body bled . -. And as Nun Theodote spoke in my behalf, Makrina beat her so cruelly that she died some days later ,. —Newspaper AcropoK^ November 29, 1950.
With such cruel beatings have the monks learned to philosophize, and fatalistically expected to become saints. Here is what a liliput monk says, as reported in Kathi-merini of December 6, 1950: “Both the monks and the nuns were beating and making me black and blue.” “And why were they beating you? and without a reason?” “In order for me to become a Christian; they were telling me that they should beat me in order for me to become a saint. They also exhausted me by fastings.” “Where were you sleeping at night?” “In the sheeppen, with the sheep, all during winter- and summertime. But how to sleep therein? A little later they were awakening me with beatings and were taking me to the church to make my rosaries.”
And Kathimerini comments on these as follows: “It was only by means of the whip that they were proceeding to gain the kingdom of heaven.” But the monks were justifying beating as a means of “purging” one from blasphemies. In its next issue, Kathimerini made the following comment: “So the safe recipe for guarding against blasphemy has been found, and this is: Beating to death, tie-ing on a tree, fasting for a week, and then right on to the nearest . . . cemetery.”
The Eleftheria wonders about these horrible crimes of Keratea Monastery, saying: “When exhausting fasts are inflicted for forty, sixty and eighty days, and then be~ gin beatings with planks, piercings with nails, hangings on tree branches with the head downward, tortures, imprisonments in dark cells and catacombs, terrorism and murders, many people wonder: Is it a monastery or a concentration camp of Buchenwald?”—Eleftheria, December 23, 1950.
All the above facts are not exaggerations when considering that the monks and nuns were driving pins into the toenails of the minor children, and also into their fingernails, also hot iron rods in their armpits and genitals to force them not to open their mouth and avow anything, as it was discovered upon examination and reported in the Athens dailies of November 23,1950; and "they were hanging them head downward, as in the case of a nun, and then lighting a fire underneath to expel the demons who were inciting them to evil deeds; and the result of such an 'exorcism* was burnings and death of the nuns”, as reported in the Acropolis of November 29, 1950.
The tremendous impression thereby caused was a hideous one. But the common people’s irritation was also plainly evident. These "monks” and "nuns” have now ceased to be considered as living “saints” and symbols of virtue and chastity. They are now in prisons like common criminals for penal law offenses and not for the name and kingdom of God. Their “angelic” cloth causes a laugh to many and a smile to a few. In order to appease the people, whose irritation is widespread and resounds loudly, these criminals have been proscribed by the official religious leaders themselves, and promises have been given that these medieval-style monasteries will be dissolved and abolished.
Controversy of Calendars
Tremendous material interests are connected with the matter of monasteries of these “genuine Orthodox Christians”. All of these “genuine Orthodox Christians” are following the Old, Julian Calendar, and consider as heretics the official church and its priests who have dissociated themselves from the forefathers* traditions, and generally from the enactments of the “Holy Ecumenical Synods”. So they formed their own religious communities, with their own churches priests, metropolitans, and their own archbishop, without, however, differing, in substance, in anything from the official church of the state, except that they persist in performing their religious ceremonies 13 days later than the officialreligion believers. This strange and inconceivable question was raised about thirty years ago, when first the Greek government, by common consent with the official church, abandoned the old calendar, and followed the new, Gregorian Calendar, as did the majority of the civilized world.
But the old-calendar followers sought to insist on the ‘paternal’ traditions. They intensively continued to cultivate the “genuine Orthodox” spirit, thus making some sort of a “thorn” on the hip of the official church. Their churches and monasteries were claimed by them to be the genuine torches of "Orthodox faith”. But.the disclosed scandals of Kor&tea Monastery, In Attica, proved that the monks and nuns living therein were anxious and disturbed about things having no connection whatever with the real Christian faith.
The official Orthodox church thought that the scandals of Keratea Monastery provided her an opportunity of getting fully rid of the thorns which the old-calendar monks and priests drove into her hips. She managed to have orders issued by the government, commanding local police authorities to close up the old-calendar churches and arrest their priests, as irregularly wearing the Orthodox priest's cloth. Thus one more duty was added to the already very busy Greek police. The papers announce every day the closing of churches and arrest of priests, who are unclothed and sent on to the archbishop’s headquarters where their hair is cut and beard shaved.
…