Awake!, September 8, 1951

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RELIGION’S MORAL FAILURE

Her failure to build faith Her ties with ijnpurity and vice

No Overcrowding in Paradise Earth

Room for resurrected dead and many more

”Fm a Self-made Animal!”

They may lose a limb, but they grow their own replacement!

Democracy in Action in Panama

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

News sources that are abl« to keep you awake to the vital issues of cur times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. “AwakeI” has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, Is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ambitions er obligations; it is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.

“Awake!” uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continent*) in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the*scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journal s viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, it* coverage is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens.

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CONTENTS

Liberty Meets Another Challenge

Religion’s Moral Failure (Part One)

The Churches "Don't Teach”

The Church Takes a Bribe

Religion’s Moral Failure (Part Two) 8

Religion and Criminals

"Fearful Days” at Hand

No Overcrowding in Paradise Earth

Ah, but Would They Not Starve?

"All Things New” in Paradise Earth 15

Democracy in Action in Panama

An Oriental "Mr. Fixit”

*Tm a Self-made Animal!”

Heeding Adventure’s Call

"Your Word Is Truth”

Clergy and Laity, a Scriptural

Distinction?

Colombia’s Aborigines

Truman’s Prayers

Watching the World

ZlWAKE/

"Now it is high time to awake.”—Romans 13:11

Volume XXXII

arookJyn, N, ¥., September SF 1951

Number 17

liberty meets another challenge

AT SEVEN o’clock on the evening of June 27, 1951, Jehovah’s witnesses and interested strangers assembled to hear an advertised Bible lecture in the tranquil surroundings of the Rochester, New Hampshire, common. When the lecture “Will East Meet West in Peace?” was about ten minutes underway, the peaceful setting was suddenly transformed from a typical American scene to one that incited thought of a typical “iron curtain” country.

A rabble mob formed, including the just-replaced local head of the American Legion, and led by two Catholic priests. The hoodlums induced a youth to open a barrage of firecrackers, which they followed with the incessant pounding of a large steel drum and tin cans. The police were called. Officers told the hiob to be quiet, but no results came until one of the priests told them they could continue talking but to cease the pounding. Despite continued annoyance and threats by the nazi-fied mob, no arrests were made by police.

As usual, the delinquency on the part of law enforcement officials was traced to their superiors. The following day, June 28, the local representative in charge of the activities of Jehovah’s witnesses, Mr. Walter A. Reid, visited the mayor and chief of police. Rather than co-operate with him to insure his safety during another lecture scheduled for the following Wednesday evening, July 4 (which had earlier been approved by both of these officials), the mayor now forbade the lecture to be given. Both he and the chief flatly refused to cooperate with Mr. Reid in bringing the ringleaders of the mob to justice. Moreover, the mayor threatened Mr. Reid with arrest if he appeared on the common to deliver the July 4 talk.

However, Jehovah’s witnesses, in the interests of freedom and the public’s right to hear the advertised Bible lecture, refused to cave in to intolerance. Mr. Reid made formal notification that the talk would go on, and a local paper, Foster’s Daily Democrat, honestly presented his full account of the priest-led mob’s attack on free worship. Reid made a request for protection during the next talk, and, in the teeth of the mayor’s threats, went to the state officials to notify them of the local authorities’ contempt for his rights. Attention was called to the fact that the federal government can prosecute a public official who willfully deprives a private citizen of his rights.

In contrast to the local mayor and* chief of police, the state leaders were much better versed in the law, in the principles of freedom and in common courtesy. When the local Rochester officials were next visited—what a change! Though with a beaten demeanor, they provided full protection for the July 4 lecture, which was carried off without incident. Potential an-noyers were cut short by police who this time performed their duty flawlessly.

SEPTEMBER 8, 1951

RELIGION'S rM°«Al

Al£^R£

Fart One: The Failure to Build Faith

jtiTN A city where the moral temperature ' Lof the citizenry is high,” said a New (York clergyman in February, “there is not likely to be a scandal in the Police departement, the Fire department, the educational! \ system and the college institutions all at ■the same time. . . . These are symptom^ I of fundamental rottenness. This is possible (only when the moral temper of the whole 'community is sufficiently low that it can

tolerate such things.”1

ThisTjlergyman decried the religious laxity of New York’s population and said that less than 3,500,000 New Yorkers are “even known by the religious institutions of our city”. However, if this more than 3 million persons had gotten sufficient faith and knowledge from New York’s churches they could do a great deal toward warming up the morals of the city’s more than 7.5 million population.

One writer said, “Something has gone wrong with the world. . . . That something which has gone wrong, in the opinion of many, is the disintegration of . . . the forces of religion and ethics.”2 Many persons are looking for a rejuvenation of religion’s moral forces and expect organized religion to take over and bring the world out of the mess it is in today. Others have little faith in it. From the religious side we frequently hear the claim that religion is the moral force needed today. Note this sampling of the promises for it:

* Christian education and relief is the answer to the challenge of the world situation.’'1 “The greatest responsibility for the reconstruction of society and the shattered world rests with the church and with a renewal of life in the churches.”4 “Judaism’s major contribution to the defense of the United States lies in strengthening the moral fiber of its citizens.”5 “It is the churches to which we must look to develop the resources for the great moral offensive that is required to make human rights secure and to win a just and lasting peace.”0 “As guides to aid the individual in the fight for lasting peace . .. increased church attendance. Individual and assemblage prayer. Conformity to religious duties.”' Also, we hear that “the churches can promote ... a world-wide sense of right and wrong, and an alertness to apply intelligent moral judgments to the conduct of nations”/ and that the churches will help hold the nation together/’ guide the world to goodness,10 and provide the morality that is the world’s sole hope.11

The claims are many, yet moral delinquency continues to worsen. Its very existence shows that religion has not succeeded in its avowed purpose to teach the Bible’s true moral principles, Religious leaders have preached so much about politics, economics and international relations that they have had little time and often less inclination to preach God’s Word. The people do not know the Bible, they have no real moral standard, and the world is in chaos.

The Mesa They Have Made

' It is this failure on the part of the churches themselves that has brought on the conditions described by a Connecticut clergyman in a 1949 magazine article.12 He explained that the church, itfe£lf a landlord, could not go all out against slum conditions; itself a race discriminator, could not go all out against race discrimination. He said it “cannot go all out against war, because despite its theoretical supranationalist character, it is tied too closely to the political, economic and ideological shibboleths that lead to war. This is just another way of saying that the church ... is too enamored of the power and glory of this world. This condition was not true of the church of the first three centuries; it is true of the church today, and it is tragic. - . . We have made a mess of telling the world about God. The mess the world is in is eloquent testimony to our failure”.

Clergymen frequently say that modern cities are, like the ancient city of Sodom, “fundamentally rotten to the core.” But this rottenness today is not in Sodom. It is in nations claiming to be “Christian”, having a wealth of churches and a,back-ground of nearly 2,000 years of claimed “Christianity” in which to cast off corruption. As it has not done this, it betrays its lack of true Christianity.

One reason these conditions exist is that many of the clergy do not believe God’s Word themselves. They subtly refer to the Bible as “the world’s greatest literature”, and gloss over their unbelief of the ransom by talking about the “fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man”. The words sound good and the congregation thinks it is learning the truth, but actually is. being fed on substitutes for the bread of life and shows the symptoms of spiritual starvation, sickness and death. The only thing that will rejuvenate them is a true knowledge of God’s Word, but the clergy do not teach it. One clergyman authoritatively said, “An entire genera- • tion or more has grown up, even within the churches, wh6 have never heard the true Christian gospel.”15

The Churches “Don’t Teach**

This ignorance of the Bible was likewise deplored by Dr. William A. Orton, professor at Smith College, who declared that the current generation is spiritually illiterate and lacking in even the rudiments of theological knowledge. He said, “The student today has not read the Bible and cannot understand any references or allusions to the Bible.”11

The lack of knowledge was further shown by Hampton M. Jarrell, professor of English at Winthrop College (South Carolina), who wrote the article “Sunday Schools Don’t Teach”, in the December, 1950, Atlantic Monthly. In it he said, “Are our young people getting such a foundation for their faith in knowledge and reason? T don’t think so. In fact, I fear that all but a few are getting no foundation at all, but only vague attitudes and allegiances. . . . They aren’t learning because nobody is teaching them. . . . Here’s where I start stepping on toes. . . . The job seems to be up to the church. Well, why not? That is what the church is for —or is it?” Most of the remainder of the article, as well as what had gone before, was devoted to showing the religious illiteracy of modern-day churchgoers. He quoted one of his students as saying, 'tut makes me mad as fire when I think of the time I spent going to Sunday school and then realize how

gion.” He commented, “She expressed the attitude of many students/’ and, “The church is not giving its young people an adequate intellectual foundation for religious thinking?’

This failure of modem religions to teach the Bible is a moral failure on religion’s part, for “moral” means, “Of or pertaining to the practices, conduct, and spirit of men toward God, themselves and their fellow men with reference to right and wrong and obligation to duty.”1*

Frankly acknowledging this moral failure of American Protestantism to faithfully practice the basic principles of Christianity, the National Congress of Home Missions (Protestant) said in Columbus, Ohio, January 27, 1950, “We are constrained in deep humility to confess that as individuals and as churches we have fallen far short of the teachings of our Lord. We have often succumbed to the secular spirit of the age and to divisions, classes, parties and distinctions that are foreign to the purposes of Jesus Christ and the example of the early church.”:c

Spiritual Food Missing

Dr. Andrew V. Clements, dean of the Albany, New York, Law School, told a congregation that “man needs more from the church than ceremonial pomp”, and said, “We are living in a universe of poisoned attitudes, people against people, class against class. I maintain these attitudes are publicly maintained because of a voiceless church.”17 Dr. Merlyn A. Chappel of the Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. said, “Nominal Christianity ... is too anemic today to stand up before a lusty, new materialistic paganism.”1* Dr. W. L. Pettin-gill, of New York, told his congregation, “Religious teaching that is dished out now is a curse and not a blessing. Most of it is false religion which ignores the teachings of Christ. These false beliefs called religion are our greatest enemies.”16 The Vancouver (Canada) December 19,1949, reported that today people seek a “comforting” religion, a “watered down” gospel of Christ, and quoted a local clergyman as saying, “ ‘The very nickname of Christian was given [the early believers] because in their lives their neighbors could see the resemblance to Christ’s? But today, he said, the followers of the faith are easygoing, indifferent; seeking a comfortable brand of religion.”

A report to the Church of England by its moral welfare council in 1950 went so far as to express the opinion that today religion is so weak that instead of dictating the sexual code it is now to be dictated to by it It reported, “In a Society where, as in ours, religion has ceased to be the driving force, it is inevitable that sex should take its place.”20

The Church Takes a Bribe

The-example set by the churches themselves is not a good one. We are living in days when there is much ado about bribery scandals involving sports, law enforcement and high government officials. But are the politicians who accept bribes from criminals any worse than clergymen who accept salary bribes from their congregations to preach what tickles the people’s ear instead of the truth? Are they honest with themselves? With their congregations? If they were really Christian they would follow God’s Word, not the public’s whim. The Bible presents the right course. It teaches God’s instructions on marriage, divorce, human relations, honesty, trustworthiness. Religion claims to believe the Bible, but the clergy cannot preach too strongly against the world's immorality, for fear of losing their congregations who are guilty of the very things the Bible condemns. Where Protestant clergy

may condone loose divorce, the Catholic attitude is loose toward public criminals. (See following article.) Both are wrong. The churches themselves have been drawn under by the moral collapse, and contribute to the moral depravity, rather than eliminate it.

Pure worship has never been popular, Christ did not democratically preach what the majority wanted; he could not be bribed to do so, but he had a vital, though unpopular, message concerning the Kingdom. True Christians are preaching the same today, Christ called the men-pleasing, bribe-accepting religious leaders of his day a generation of vipers, whited sepulchers that looked clean on the outside, but inside were full of dead men’s bones! (Matthew 23) When the clergy cast aside belief in the Bible’s divine inspiration, its moral principles and other doctrines, is their teaching of much more value than that of a pagan witch doctor—who admittedly knows nothing of the Bible, but visits the sick, is a social figurehead, and can pronounce a “blessing” on certain public assemblages?

J. Allison Smith (pastor of Roxbury Methodist Church in Stamford, Connecti-id in his article referred to, a average community,

ve,»

fact that nobody gives a damn what the preacher says. He is not an authority on anything, and such status as he has is that of a civil servant. He has a ceremonial function in the community as a mar ri er, baptizer, funeral orator, and the pronounc-er of invocations and benedictions at public functions. These are but vestigia] remnants of a prehistoric age of faith?

*^R8ay's clergy coritftlUe be bribed by the salary the public pays, to preach to the tune the public demands. In wartime they are called on by the “tribal kings” of both sides, and ciergv of the same religion "bless" both armies who atom-bomb and poison-gas each other and indiscriminately bomb civilian populations, killing millions of innocent persons. Chaplains go along with the armies to help the conscience-stricken soldiers calm their mental anguish over the deeds they are ordered to commit Hypocrisy is evident in every nation. The clergy are well aware of it (as are all informed persons), but regularly they “bless” this national hypocrisy and pray that it will prosper over that of another nation which is likewise bung "blessed” by leaders of the same religion in the other land. Christ did not*take sides with or against the Roman Empire or other nations of his day. In doing so today are the clergy above the level of the witch doctors who speak empty words beseech-mg pagan gods to give their tribes victory over another tribe?

A Better Diet

Religion has failed to be the moral force to solve the world's ills. Recognizing that failure, few people wholeheartedly support religion today. Time magazine, July 19, 1948, quoted Basil Kingsley Martin, editor of Britain's weekly New Statesman and Nation, as saying, “People are more interested in problems that we used to call religious than ever before, but the reason why they don’t go to church is that they don’t believe what is taught there.”

Many persons, thinking what today’s religions are doing represents the Bible, have rejected it too. In doing so they err. You do not quit eating because you do not like your grocer, but you search for a better one. Do not reject proper spiritual food just because it has been mishandled by those who claim to be its sole distributors. Today’s religions have failed to teach the Bible, but through studying it you will learn the truth. The proverb wisely says, “The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just” (Proverbs 3:33) Reject these leaders who have morally failed to teach God’s Word. Come out of the house of the wicked. Study your Bible, and join with those who are blessed in the house of the righteous.

quotation sources

[Unless given in article, the name of person whose statement Is being reported precedes the name of the news source.]

1, Ira W. Langston, New York Times, February 26, 1951.

2. The Rediscovery of Morals, by Henry C. Link, 3. ShSlord' P. Morehouse, New York Times, February 27, 1950.

4. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdlek, New York TimesJ December 3, 1945.

5. R&W Jacob E. Segal (of Detroit), New York Times, May 6, 1951.

6. Senator John Foster Dulles, JSelt^ious Netes Service, August 29, 1949.

7, James M, Gillis (editor the Catholic Worirf), Scranton (Pa.) Times, May 28, 1948, '

8, U, N. delegate John Foster Dulles, New York l7"fi thjs-p Arbril IQwlQ

9. President Truman, New York Times, April 4, 1951.

10. Methodist Bishop Charles C, Selerman, Now York Times, December 10, 1945.

11. Dr. Randolph Ray, New York Times, April 2, 1951.

12. “Have We Ministers Failed”, Tomorrow magazine, May. 1949.

13. Canon Wedel (of Washington), Christian Century, March 19, 1947.

14, New York Times, November 21, 1946,

15, Funk and Wago alls New Standard Dictionary, page 1610.

16. New York Times, January 28, 1950.

1". New York Times, February 28, 1949.

18. Religious News Service, July 14, 1949,

19. New York Times, October 10, 1949.

20, Buffalo (N. Y.) Courier Express, October 28, 1950,

HEUGHIKS

Fart Two: Religion’s Connection with Wide-Scale Impurity, Vice and Moral Rot

WHEN the Kefauver crime investigating committee publicized the corrupt tie-up between big-time crime and law cm forcement officials, the nation was shocked. Religious leaders cried out in indignation at the conditions that were exposed, and the general impression was left with many । persons that religion would be a strong] force in improving conditions.

Protestants and Catholics alike talk loudly about moral standards. They do much in small things, but often completely ignore the more serious things. Each group can see where the other has failed, but neither Protestants nor Catholics have upheld proper moral standards nor fulfilled the high calling for which they claim to be specifically designated.

Our aim here is not to discredit any particular religion, but to present the facts concerning religion’s morals for those who want the truth. The facts are serious, worthy of your careful consideration, and can be checked by the references on page eleven.

Today crime is a major subject for discussion. Have Protestants or Catholics, with all their talk, succeeded in stopping it? Edward Westcrmarck, formerly of the University of London, wrote in his book

“It has also been noticed that a high de-greo of religious devotion is frequently accompanied by a great laxity of morals.” He cited authorities to show that often < “those Moslems who attended to their prayers most regularly were the greatest scoundrels”, and that, “among two hundred Italian murderers Ferri did not find fljy? who was irreligious; and Naples, which has

European city for crimes against the person, is also the most religious city in Europe,” and that “it seems extremely rare to find intelligently irreligious men in prison”. He quoted another author as reporting, “The more regular a vicious man has been in observing the commandments of the church, the more he feels in his heart that he can dispense with the observance of that celestial morality to which he ought to sacrifice his depraved propensities.” He added simply, “And how many a Protestant does not imagine that by going to church on Sundays he may sin more freely on the six days between?”

Religion and Gambling

Religion itself has let the bars down on certain moral lines. The protests were loud and long in Milwaukee in August, 1947, when wide-open religious gambling snubbed the law at the golden jubilee picnic of the Holy Redeemer Catholic church and when another gambling casino was in operation at the Little Flower Roman Catholic church. Girls ran the illegal games. Little children learned ways that could eventually lead them ^efore future Kefauver committees. The priest said the police "tolerate” this illegal gambling "for the church”. When asked about the children picking up bad habits he said: "Of course not, my son. These few pennies, it's just like they were playing in their own homes.” (The "few pennies” amounted to a $1,500 "take” for the church.)1

Religious gambling is a big project. A 5,000-man bingo party was set up in the streets near Pittsburgh on Labor day, 1948. Criminal complaints have been filed against priests in various places.2 A 1949 election issue in New Jersey revolved around the Roman Church's fervent desire to keep up its income from gambling losses and to project the bingo issue into the gubernatorial campaign.

Church gambling is not a small-time enterprise to be ignored. Few realize its broad scope. A few years ago Life magazine reported that more Americans risk money in church lotteries tnan in any other form of gambling.3 Whether .gambling is immoral is a question long debated, but whatever the answer, in most of the U. S. it is illegal, and as long as it is illegal it will be preyed upon by a vulturous underworld and all sorts of crime will revolve around it. By encouraging it the churches will be aiding the underworld. If the churches were sufficiently moral in their behavior they would withdraw this assistance from these most vicious opponents of law and order. If religion were held sufficiently in respect by its parishioners, then it would not have to stoop to such questionable methods to extract sufficient money from its members to meet its needs.

Religion and Criminals

Even more objectionable, though, is the practice of honoring crooks and holding gunmen up as heroes, letting poverty-stricken slum children of crime-ihfested big cities witness grand, elegant religious funerals for the underworld's top bosses. In doing so the churches are not proving to youth that "crime does not pay”. Rather they are implying to those who live In the very incubators of delinquency that they should hatch out into full-fledged crime careers if they want to get anywhere, and the church will cover all.

When Al Capone, who rocketed through the prohibition era to the clatter of a machine-gun barrage, died, in 1947, the mention of his Catholic priest’s presence was widely publicized? When Kansas

City’s notorious political boss, Tom Pendergast, died in 1947 he was praised by Msgr, Thomas B. McDonald, who said, “I can vouch for the fact that he was at church every morning at 7:30 for a period of 30 years.”6 In.1950 when Kansas City’s notorious gunman, Charles Binaggio, whom the underworld forces hoped would make that city a “wide open town”, was shot to death by underworld cronies, the “slightest circumstance” that got him a big church funeral was the fact that “recently he was seen receiving the sacraments and attending Sunday mass”.6-7 On the same day a requiem mass was celebrated for Charles Gargotta, Binaggio’s gunman, who was slain with him.

Hie Denver Catholic Registerf October 27, 1946, went out of its way to put other noted criminals up as good Catholics, trying to prove that Frank and Jesse James "were always good Catholics”. What does it take to make a good Catholic?

The May 2 Christian Century said, "Last week a notorious gangster . . . was buried from a Roman Catholic church in Brooklyn. . . . The gangsters who formerly attended such funerals were absent, thanks to the Kefauver committee’s activities. . . . The mantle of respectability. . . was thrown over this wicked life by the church. Who can estimate the influence on Brooklyn boys when church and society make such a display out of a typical gangster’s funeral? When ‘respectable* elements combine to glamorize the despoilers and parasites, who can blame the children if they elect to follow the hoodlums’ example?”

Yet, does not this church set a high moral standard? Oh yes! It has threatened excommunication to parents who let girls enter beauty contests,6 banned pin-up girl calendars in Quebec,9 and keeps a close watch on movie morals. A man’s daughter can appear in a beauty contest and he is excommunicated, but murderers and gangland leaders can still be good Catholics’ Something is out of balance in that kind of morals. Something is wrpng somewhere.

Protestants, Too

But the blame does not rest on just one church. Take a look at Protestantism. Regarding Protestant religious morals and the crime scandals the May 2 Christian Century said, "While it cannot be denied that public morality could not have fallen so low if members of Protestant churches had done their duty, there are wholesome signs of an awakening.” They are getting on the band wagon after Kefauver started the music and the parade is under way. If these churches were the moral force that they claim to be then Kefauver could have gotten on their band wagon, not they on his.

Said the same publication last October 18, "The corruption revealed by the Kefauver committee could not have spread across the nation if the churches had done their full duty.” The Federal Council of Churches, in its message for World Order Day, October 23, 1949, said the world faced "basically a spiritual and moral crisis”.10 Despite the hundreds of thousands of churches with their vast membership rolls in all lands, conditions of immorality continue to worsen. Obviously they have not overcome the "spiritual and moral crisis” that the world faces. With all its loud talk religion has not succeeded in bringing about really moral conditions. Rather, by all-too-frequent silence or compromise it has even contributed to the moral breakdown. A letter from a reader of Time magazine (published in the January 27, 1947, issue) put the matter this way: "As soon as many leading churchmen wavered, let down, hemmed, hawed, compromised, beat about the bush about adultery, and remarriage of adulterers and adulteresses, contrary to Holy Writ, the secular, more appropriately called the pagan press, let lodse with all caliber guns. ... Millions in America are honeycombed with impurity, vice, adultery and moral rot. When they read popular books and magazines that sanction this ... they feel less guilty about their own sins."

If religion is to reform public attitudes, then it first will have to reform itself. Brooklyn’s notorious Harry Gross, who had a $100 million bookie empire and admitted he paid a million dollars a year to the police for protection, refused to name the corrupt cops. “Some of them have sons about to enter the priesthood. What are you asking me to do?”n How could reli-gion sincerely speak out against such practices when this most notorious of bookies identifies the parents of future religious leaders as the very ones the investigators are looking for? Further showing religion's moral failure, and its blame for conditions, Drew Pearson quoted J. Edgar Hoover as saying, “People commit crimes because of the disastrous decay of religion, faith and hope.”1-

“ Fearful Days” at Hand

Such conditions are frequently blamed on the other fellow. Protestants point to Catholic gambling enterprises, Catholics accuse Protestants of loose marriage morals; but both are in the wrong. The London Catholic Herald, February 9, reported, “ 'Outside the Church, particularly/ [someone else, not us] said Archbishop McGrath, 'men seem to be very often unaware of the gravity of sins of thought and desire/ ” He wondered whether we may not be in the “fearful days prophesied by our Divine Lord” when “men wither away from fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world”. We are in those days, but apparently the archbishop is not yet fully aware of that fact. If he had a proper appreciation of fulfilled prophecies he would know that this particular text (which he quoted from Luke 21:26, Douay Version) has been in course of fulfillment since the end of the Gentile times in 1914, and that this means that within the presently living generation conditions of immorality will be abolished forever by God's destruction of all wickedness.—Luke 21:32; Psalm 37:11,29; Isaiah 9:6,7.

Those leaders of religion who put themselves up as the proper moral guides, the sole interpreters of God's Word, belie their claim through their own failure to support the true moral principles of the Bible, and through their failure to teach those principles to the people. They have not lived up to the high position they have taken for themselves.

For many people these are not pleasant facts, but honest persons will examine them carefully, recognize that something is wrong with organized religion today, and then do something about it. Not being able to overcome these conditions themselves, they will separate from them, study their Bibles, lead proper moral lives, look to God's kingdom which will shortly end such corruption, work for it, and, by receiving God’s favor, live in it forever!

SOURCES FOR QUOTATIONS

1. Milwaukee Journal, August 18. 20, Septembers, 1£M7.

2. Austin (Texas) American, January 29. 1948. fteliyious New$ Service, July 8. 1949.

3. Life, Fel/ruary 2939, page 45.

4, New York Daily Mirror, January 26, 1947.

3. New York Times, January 30, 1945,

0. New York Times, April 11, 1950,

7. London Catholic Herald, April 28t

8, New York Times, October 23, 1948.

9, New York Times, December 6, 1948.

1U. News Service, October 1, 1949.

11. Reader's Digest, April, 1951. page 139,

12, Knoxville (Tenn.) Journal, August 5, 1942,

--f!

"One should keep oneself five yards from a carriage, ten yards from a horse, a hundred yards from an elephant; but the distance one should keep from a wicked man cannot be measured,”—Indian Proverb.

4CTJ IDICULOUS and altogether prepos-XV terous! Why, there would not be room for all of them!” So exclaim many well-educated people when discussing the question of the resurrection of the dead. Having read a couple of popular books (Our Plundered Planet, by Osborn, and Road to Survival, by Vogt) such individuals consider themselves well-informed and qualified to refute two of the greatest men of history, whose testimony is recorded in the Bible. “Do not marvel at this,” declared Christ Jesus, “because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” The apostle Paul believed Jesus, saying, “I have hope toward God, . . . that there, is going to he a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.”—John 5:28, 29; Acts 24; 15, New World Trans.

It is a common belief among many, and one expressed by the eminent scientists who wrote the above-mentioned hooks, that right now the earth is fast approaching its saturation point in population and that if something is not done to check the growth this non-stretchable globe will soon be overpopulated. Where, then, will billions more find space to live if there is a resurrection of mankind? Or, finding standing room, how can enough food be raised to support them?

The superficial area of the earth is 196,940,000 square miles, approximately three-quarters of which is covered by the oceans. The land areas of the continents are calculated to be 51,230,217 square miles, and in this area lives the world population of 2,378,000,000 persons (1949 figures just released). This means there is one square mile of 640 acres for each 46 persons, an average of nearly 14 acres per person. Of course, in many parts of the earth the density is much more: India, 246; Japan, 521; Great Britain, 559 persons per square mile. Although in centers like New York city the pile-up in population is 25,000 per square mile, the United States as a whole is only slightly above the world average, with 51 persons per square mile, as of January 1, 1951. A survey shows that half of the people of the world actually live on less than one-twentieth of the total land area, giving a density of 400 persons per square mile, or an average of 1.6 acres per person.

Room for Many Billions More

The inspired Scriptures warn that the vast majority of earth’s present population will be destroyed at the fast-approaching Battle of Armageddon, and never thereafter will they be resurrected.* “The slain of Jehovah shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the face of the ground.” (Jeremiah 25:33, Arn. Stan, Ver.) Does this mean that the earth will be emptied and made void of human creatures? No, for the same holy Scriptures declare there will be a percentage of survivors, the’meek and

* See the Watchtower magazine, May 1, 1951, p.

mild-tempered ones that will “inherit’' the paradise earth, and to such Armageddon survivors the divine mandate will be reissued, namely, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it?' —Genesis 1:28; 9:7; Psalm 37:10,11; Zephaniah 2:3.

Following Armageddon, earth’s population will multiply until the earth is filled with a righteous race of people as originally purposed. But what about the returning of dead ones from their graves in the resurrection of mankind? Where will room be found for teeming billions who have died down through the centuries? The booklet ‘77u? Meek Inherit the Earth’, published and copyrighted in 1945 by the Watchtower Society, has this to say, on pages 29 and 30, in answer to these questions:

“Do not be disturbed’ The filling of the earth by the divine mandate will not make null God's promise and purpose to raise the human dead from their tombs; neither will the raising of such dead make it inconvenient for the fulfilled mandate. Today it is estimated there are about two billion persons, all together, on earth. Reckoned according to the Bible, it has been not quite six thousand years, or sixty centuries, since man's creation. To be most liberal: If we reckon three generations to each century, and if we allow two billion persons to each of the 180 generations all the way back to the two persons, Adam and Eve, it totals Up to 360 billion (3 X 60 X 2,000,000,000) persons that have lived till now upon this earth. If we allow eighteen square feet of ground in which to bury each man, womanT^child and baby that died, it would require 232,438 square miles to bury them al]. The island of Madagascar, off the east coast of

Africa, with its 241,094 square miles, and hence much less than the state of Texas, would accommodate all such dead, with 8,656 square miles of area to spare. However, conservative calculations have placed the earth’s population that have died to date at somewhat over 20 billions, or less than one-tenth of the above ridiculously high figure. [In 1630 the world population was only 400 million and two hundred years later it was 800 million.] Furthermore, the present land surface of our globe is calculated at 51,230,217 square miles, or more than 212 times the area of Madagascar. Hence the fulfillment of the divine mandate and the resurrection of the dead from the graves will, under God's perfect adjustment, cause no overcrowding of the paradise earth.”

Even if Armageddon’s survivors in car^ rying out the divine mandate raise the population to 20,000,000,000 (nearly ten times what it is now), and, in addition, all 20,000,000,000 return from their graves, still this globe would easily hold them. It is said that under present conditions only about half of the continental areas, or roughly seventeen billion acres, is suitable for habitation,.the rest consisting of polar icecaps, mountain ranges, frozen tundras and desert wasteland. Well, allowing each of the 40 billion nearly a half acre of ground they still could

Ah, but Would They Not Starve?

This is the first question anyone would ask who takes seriously the fallacious and deceptive argument presented by Osborn and Vogt, for their whole contention is that if the present population of the world is expanded much more everyone will have to go on a starvation diet. It is true, there are great food shortages in many parts of the earth today. But why? Why is only about four or five per cent of the earth cultivated? Why is a minimum of 2.5 acres per person required to maintain a high standard of diet, and why is there not enough food for the present population?

Among the principal factors limiting the production of food today are the giant political, economic and social forces of this world. While politicians squabble over prices and prestige, the British people cry out in anguish from a lack of meat. At the same time and for the same reason the bursting packing houses and cattle ranches of Argentina edge toward bankruptcy. The expensive failure to raise peanuts and eggs in Africa, which can be laid directly to bungling government economists, has done nothing to relieve Britain’s hunger. It is not easy to forget how Brazil burned her coffee, or how Argentina burned wheat instead of coal in her locomotives a few years ago, because of political arid economic problems!

When one-fourth of the world is hungry, food markets in the United States are glutted. Farmers here have been paid by the government to kill off baby pigs, have been paid to plow under cotton and corn; have been paid, mind you, if they agree not to plant. Only a short time ago the United States government put a limit on the number of acres farmers could plant in wheat, and violators were subject to fine and imprisonment. More recently, the United States government has bought up hundreds of millions of bushels of potatoes, hundreds of milliorfe of eggs, millions of pounds of butter, hundreds of millions of bushels of wheat, and other vital food’ stuffs, in order to keep them off the market. And if people ask why the government in March of last year ordered 15,000,000 bushels of potatoes destroyed, valued at $9,000,000 (instead of giving them to starving Chinese), they may be suspected of being Communists.

Other Causes for Present Shortages

Many other causes for the famine conditions today may be mentioned. Under the old system of farming it required 108 man-hours of time to produce a bushel of wheat, to compare with 47 man-hours in 1947. Other statistics show that a farmer using old-fashioned methods can feed 5, but a farmer aided with mechanized equipment can feed 15 to 20 persons. The disappointment is in the fact that only a very small percentage of the soil is tilled with modern methods. It is therefore misleading to cite Africa as a continent unable to support itself. The people there may in many cases be on the verge of starvation, but what do they know about modern farming, soil conservation or soil chemistry? With a little help and education in these matters they could produce many times more off their land. Educate India and equip her with modern tools and she could more than feed herself.

When the suggestion is made that Australia, Brazil, United States and Canada open their doors to immigrants from highly populated India, in order that those hungry people might work the vast uncultivated areas in these countries, a howl goes up from those with a “holier-than-thou” attitude over the idea of allowing Moslems, Sikhs and Hindus an opportunity of finding a living off virgin soil. Thus racial and religious hatred contribute their share to the shortages of food.

Manpower shortage? In times past 90 per cent of the people lived on farms and raised food *in the sweat of their face*, whereas in society now only 20 per cent attempt to feed the world. Two global wars turned raw materials into armaments instead of farm implements, and killed off manpower to the staggering total of 35,000,000’ Instead of the prewar annual level of 61 million tons of grain, Europe’s production in 1947 was only 36 million.

There are many so-called “natural” causes for low food productivity. Farmers, like the rest of mankind, are full of sickness and disease, and often their ability to wrest a livelihood from the abused and imperfect earth is very limited. Many times man loses the battle with the weeds and bugs and unfavorable weather. Plant life also has a low efficiency, so much so that not more than 5 per cent of the sun’s radiant energy is transformed into food by plant life. And after the harvest is in, it is estimated that rodents and mites make off with 65,000,000 tons of grain every year. Besides such things as prolonged droughts, torrential floods, unseasonable weather, and plagues of pests and plant diseases, all of which cause total crop failures many times, farmers must often contend with soil erosion in which the valuable top soil is washed away. It is estimated that nearly 21 times as much plant food in the soil is removed by erosion as that taken out by the plants themselves.

“All Things New” in Paradise Earth

One of the prime reasons why Jehovah God will destroy this present satanic system of things is that a new and glorious system of things under the theocratic rule of Christ Jesus might be established. It is therefore with great joy and gladness that every honest person looks forward to the destruction of the present evil world, for with its downfall will come removal of the above-mentioned evils. Under God’s righteous kingdom rule there will be no politicians or false economists. All racial and religious hatred and social evils will be a thing of the past.

Just think of it, never another war! Battle wagons and lethal weapons will be converted into farming implements. (Micah 4:3) Today, as one scientist admits, the world’s best brains are being “prostituted” for war purposes. But not so after Armageddon! What a great burden will be lifted off the necks of Armageddon’s survivors when they find the armies of the old world gone! In 1947 the military forces of the world numbered 19,000,000 and were maintained at an annual cost of $27,000,000,000, and since then military expenditures have rocketed to astronomical figures. Why, Truman’s military budget for this coming fiscal year is set at $47,000,000,000, and those for other countries have skyrocketed in like proportion.

Furthermore, in the new-world arrangement other types of armies will also disappear. No more will there be corps of doctors and dentists and nurses and undertakers. No more will millions of government jobholders live off the taxes of the land. No more will there be a need for lawyers, secret police or jailers. Likewise, there will not be a nonproducing, parasitic clergy class. Instead of a small percentage of the populace spending their full time producing food for the others, the Scriptures say: “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree.” “They shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.... They shall not plant, and another eat.”—Micah 4:4; Isaiah 65:21, 22.

A crop failure? No, not in the perfected earth, for it will become like the garden of Eden. Then, for the first time the whole earth will yield its full increase. (Psalm 67:6) What we now call bumper crops will then be the common yield. It is a myth to say that the soil cannot be “stretched*’, meaning that its present capacity to produce cannot be increased. Even now soil chemists have shown that with a little care and stimulation the soil will produce much more than normally. The phrase “irreplaceable topsoil” is also a myth. Remember a few years ago, the ghastly “Dust Bowl” of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and how it was predicted that it would be a perpetual wasteland? Today that region produces more wheat than ever. The soil has marvelous recuperative powers.

Wastelands to Produce

It is hard to imagine all the happy blessings perfect men and women will enjoy in the Kingdom-ruled “garden of pleasure”, where all the evils that plague farmers today will be completely gone. No more plant diseases, no more pesky bugs, no more foul weather, no more burning droughts. What Jehovah foretold concerning the restoration of his true worship, after enemies had desolated the homeland of his people and his temple, will happen in a literal way to present wastelands of earth: “The desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden.” “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly.”—Ezekiel 36:34,35; Isaiah 35:1,2, Am. Stan. Ver.

What a reclamation project that will be, with a recovery of some 10,000,000 square miles, billions upon billions of acres, which are now uninhabitable.1 And in addition, as earth is brought to its final state of perfection, no doubt the frozen tundras of the northern latitudes will thaw, and the steaming jungles of the tropics will be conquered, thus adding many more millions of square miles to man’s Edenic playground. Man’s slavery to tobacco will be lifted and this will release 7,680,000 acres that are now, wasted to grow the weed. Also, millions of idle acres that are now owned by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and other wealthy landlords will return to the people for them to enjoy.

Man’s proposed remedies—the boasted “Four Freedoms”, United Nations’ Health and Food organizations, Truman’s “Point Four” program, etc.—are infantile compared with the coming accomplishments of God’s kingdom. The wild ideas of such alarmists as Vogt, Osborn, Cain, etc., are truly the height of folly. They look upon wars, famines, calamities and diseases as blessings which keep the population down. The atom bomb they eye as a beneficial check on population. Better, they say, we refuse to feed ten million Chinese and Indians now than allow fifty million to starve five years from now. Better, they think, we pay males a bonus if they have themselves sterilized than spend money to feed hungry Europeans. “According to Vogt, medical men who keep people from dying, upset nature’s balance; if more people died there would be more room for mountain lions. He regards wars and famines (among humans) with a friendly eye-”—Time magazine, November 8, 1948.

How much better is the wisdom of Jehovah God than the foolish drivel of men! He made the earth to be inhabited and enjoyed to its full capacity, and his purpose will be accomplished! “For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else.” “For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: . . . But the meek shall inherit the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”—Isaiah 45:18; Psalm 37:10,11, Am. Stan. Ver., margin.

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celebrate the mr wcler of things. But the

TpHEY call :it the fenri of Maftomsx-Pan 1 am.( where no one does anything to day that, he could put off till tomorrow

But even in conditions like these the sleep of freedom tovera is light:. Of late, Panamanians demonstrated this when they rose in their might to ciwh a tyrant who threatened their liberties. ■

. Panama's pallttes are not known, for harmony -and order, Not unusual thenP that unrest brewed beneath 'the suiface early this year. Dir Anmlfo Arias had occupied the presidency since the close of 1949 when he was swept into office on. the wings of popular fervor. His predecessor had been summarily ousted. Dr. Arias. was declared legal winner of the 1948 elections. He was popular and the peoptefe hopes soamt But passing months did not yield the good things for which they hoped. As 1951 dawned* increasing internal strife wM\blamed on the- president, 'Several pMiffin&nt men said to be plotting against Dr, Arias were imprisoned, The stage 'was set for the biig explosion, ■

The surprise move came on the night: of-Monday, May 7', During a radio speech. President Artes mwnmced a new decree which set aside the 1946 constitution and reinstated in its place one drawn in 1941 during Arias' first term president The decree gave the president, complete power over the courtsr power to appoint: mayors,, suspended habeas corpus rights 'Tor as long as cireumsUmees require’fy and dissolved the National. Assembly and the Sm people could-w^othing in. this to ode« brate-j to Item itweant km of freedom-,. It was rather a ■ time- for decisive action* and it was* not long in conijng.. '

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ftotwed Acte

Immediately the- Supreme Court: branded the decree dictatorial and imeonstltu-tional. .A can went out: by radio for a. pro test demonstration. With amazing rapidity more than 15*000 pwpie gathered in Santa Ana. park in. the heart: of Panama City and marched to national ptjltoe headquarters* where they remained throughout the afternoon and far into the night, protesting the act ton of the president and demanding po Hee action to- oust him. ' <

At the same time a spectacular radio program begun.. A number of stations tied in together toriorm a chain that covemi the principal cities of the entire Republic. These operated twenty-one houfe a day during the entire period and kept the pax pie in every part of 'the country well informed In. detail, as to what: was going on, Over the network went a. call for a general strike agatat the presidents action,. Sup-porters of Dr, Arias' did their utmost to-break up this program,, but failed.

Wednesday the gdwal strike went into effect Not even a little badxstreet grocery store was allowed- to operate,. Doctora* nuw* drugstore^ restaurants, sdwoK' buses—everything—wen 1: on strike,. On the day vkslen.ee broke out. A dash, between secret and national police left many casualties. By 1:00 p.m. eighty persons had been hospitalized and at least three killed. Buses and cars were overturned. Windows were smashed and stores looted.

Amid the tension, presidential representatives met with the chief of police, Colonel Remdn, to discuss the situation and come to an agreement. The president refused to yield to the demands of the people, but agreed to allow them a vote on the change of constitutions. That night at midnight the dissolved National Assembly met and approved a resolution impeaching Dr. Arias as president and turning the executive power over to first Vice-President Alcibiades Arosemena. The Supreme Court quickly backed up their action.

By Thursday morning, noting that the people were determined not to have any part of the 1941 constitution, the president and his cabinet suddenly reversed their position and put the 1946 constitution back into operation. National police headquarters referred to this action as “lofty and patriotic ”, and appealed to the people, “for the sake of the deepest patriotic sentiment, to lay down hatreds and rancors and submit without reservations to the provisions of the [1946] Constitution now in force.” Also, all were urged “to support the incumbent president of the Republic, Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, since he is the person legitimately entitled to exercise the presidency, assuring them that peace and tranquillity will return to the country”.

Tyranny Trapped and Beaten

Did this crafty and cunning bit of political back-tracking satisfy the people and make them meekly submit to their recalcitrant ruler? By no means! The resistance movement stiffened. Demonstration groups again formed throughout the city. Some 500 women from all walks of life and strata of society marched to national police headquarters and protested against the action of the national police in backing Dr. Arias. They demanded that the police recognize the newly sworn-in President Arosemena, and thus stand by the decision of the National Assembly, the Supreme Court and the people. For the moment the police seemed indecisive. Then word was received that Arias supporters in the upper floors of the presidential palace had fired on members of the palace guard. Immediately Colonel Remon, chief of police, gave orders to attack the Presv dencia.

It was then about 12:30 p.m. Battle lines began to form. Hundreds of Arias supporters gathered to the presidential palace. Colonel Remon warned Dr. Arias to flee and offered him police protection; but the beleaguered president refused and declared his intention to fight it out The chain of radio stations warned nearby residents to abandon their homes at once, and told people on the streets to go home, remain calm and leave the fight to the police.

The inarch on the palace was impeded by heavy trucks with tires deflated that were used to block every avenue of approach. For more than an hour the police contended with these and fire from guns of Arias’ men in surrounding buildings. Then another hour ensued in which they put the palace under heavy fire before they could gain entrance. Once inside, it was only a matter of time before the embattled Arias supporters on the upper floors began to surrender. It was now about 5:30 p.m. The battle had lasted more than four hours and had left twelve dead and over eighty, wounded. The final toll for the four days was eighteen dead and nearly 200 wounded. Over 1,000 were taken to jail, including the ex-president and members of his cabinet

Among the dead was the chief of the palace guard, Major Lezcano G6mez, and

his first lieutenant, Juan Flores, One of his aides accused Dr. Arias of personally killing Major Gdmez before the siege began.

Demonism in Government Unveiled!

When arrested, Dr. Arias’ wife clutched a carved jewel box containing an arrow-head-shaped stone lying on two green leaves of a Chinese good-luck plant— fetishes supposedly giving the possessor the power to rule. In the patio, the pair paused at the fountain, symbol of the Rosicrucian cult to which they belong. Sprinkling water on a statuette and into the air, Dr. Arias murmured, “We will return.” Then, in this atmosphere of witchcraft, the deposed tyrant signaled farewell to his followers with a fascistic salute.

Curiosity goaded closer investigation of the building’s two upper floors. Bullet-riddled, blood-spattered destruction met the eye. Cluttering the scene as well were mementos of witchcraft.

During the seventeen months Dr. Arias had been in office, nearly one hundred thousand dollars had been spent on the palace to make it livable. Now it had been ruined in a single day. But an almost in-explainable fact accompanied the ruin: not a vestige of Rosicrucianism had been touched! The crystal ball containing a waterlike fluid and three red roses, crossed, another symbol of the cult, the “picture of a thousand faces” which hung behind the presidential desk, and in which it is said more faces appear the longer one looks at it, and the many books dealing with Rosicrucianism, none of these were harmed. They remained behind as sordid reminders of the invisible demons sponsoring such confusion. Among Dr. Arias* books was one entitled “How to Make the Masses Fanatical”.

Evidence testified plentifully to the depravity that ruled the palace during the four days prior to capture. Signs of licentious orgies mixed with voodoo rites were everywhere. Many scattered liquor, champagne, brandy* and wine bottles qnd glasses, some of them still half full, and the disarranged condition of the beds, all told their own stories. In one room was found evidence that black magic rites had been performed before a very strange picture with the use of psalms and invocations. Nearly 100 empty containers of dope were found. It is difficult to imagine that the ruling body of a so-called Christian nation could sink to such debauchery.

On May 25 Dr. Arias went on trial before the National Assembly which he had dissolved, charged with abuse of constitutional power. It was the first time in the history of democracy that a president had gone on trial. The unanimous verdict of the forty national assemblymen who sat as a court of justice was, “guilty as charged.” The penalty formally dismissed him as president and banned him from public office for the rest of his life. Though no jail sentence accompanied this impeachment, Dr. Arias was held under custody pending investigation of the death of the chief of the palace guard and his first lieutenant. It was not the first time he had been in jail.

…