Awake!, October 22, 1957
Download: PDF — Awake!, October 22, 1957
fly Graham’s Crusade—Success or Failure?
^bacco on Trial
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests, "Awake!" has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish, facts, ft is not bound by political ambitions or 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 abufb 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 continents, 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 rs 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, its coverage is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens.
"Awake!" pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a righteous New World.
Get acquainted with "Awake!" Keep awake by reading "Awake!"
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Tbs Bible tronalrtlon atad In "Awake!” Ie th Mew World Transition at the Holy Strlpfirei, Wfitn trthor truelatlana an used the following symbol* will agpur behind tki citation*:
AK - American Standard Vera ten AT - An American Translation AT - Authorised Version (1611) Pa - J. N. Darby's version
Dy — CathoUc Douay Torsion DD — The Emphatic Diaglott JP “ Jewish Publication Sot Le - leaac Treat's version
tfo - James Moffatt's version
— J. B. Rotherham's versten RjS - Revised Standard Version Y0 - Bobert Young's version
CONTENTS
The Clean Bomb
Falsehood and Fraud
“Ruining the Earth”
Animals in the Law
Harder than Steel, Lighter than Aluminum
Tobacco on Trial
Ingenuity in Action
How Times Change
Travel in Tibet
“Your Word Is Truth”
The Dominican Republic
Why Does God Allow Wickedness?
—Back to the Dark Ages? Billy Graham’s Crusade—Success
Jehovah's Witnesses Preach in All
or Failure?
the Earth—South Africa
Typhoon Toll in the Philippines
Watching the World
THE
CLEAN
BOMB
is told it can relax: it bomb. This news, sup
NOW the world has the clean posed to calm the world’s fears, came with the announcement by the United States that it had developed a nuclear bomb 96 percent clean—that is, one virtually free from radioactive fallout. The clean bomb is being hailed as the glorious triumph of modem science.
No small number of columnists were lavish in their effusions over the “progress” the clean bomb represents. One columnist went so far as to suggest in effect that the clean bomb may be the salvation of mankind. It is surprising how many editorial articles about the clean bomb carried a triumpnant and exultant tone.
The Washington Evening Star editorialized that American atomic tests now have a significance consisting “not merely of their contribution to our defensive potential but also of their role in terms of making nuclear bombs far less inhumane than
they are in their ‘unclean form.’ ” "We can only hope,” the Star concluded, “that the Russians are striving for progress in the same direction as they build up their own arsenal of ‘A’ and ‘H’ weapons.”
What is one to think of the so-called clean bomb and cheerful-sounding pronouncements about “progress”? Is the
clean bomb a blessing to the world? But since when is war clean ? Is it not dirtier than ever before? The clean bomb is a grimly ironical name for a device that can still massacre millions of men, women and children, littering the land with corpses and drenching the earth with blood. Is any bomb clean when its power to burn big cities and their peoples by radiation remains unimpaired?
And does the clean bomb even represent progress in relaxing the world’s tension? Is it a greater deterrent to war than the dirty bomb? If anything, the H-bomb seems to have become more usable than before. The clean bomb means that if an aggressor could launch a successful sneak attack he might conceivably get away with if; he would not be punished by the booin-erang of deadly radioactivity. The bomb actually makes nuclear war tempting to desperate dictators.
clean more
clean
The verbal fanfare extolling the bomb is fatuous and inane. It has, as one disenchanted columnist summed it up, induced a kind of “suicidal serenity of mind akin to the argument it’s OK to smoke around a gasoline tank if ytiu take care to use safety matches.”
IF ONLY man could have a new planet, an "earth not ruined by the greed and selfishness of men! Such a wish has long been on the lips of lovers of righteousness. But when you stop to think of it, would a new planet really be necessary? Not at all, for it is not nature that has made this planet an almost unlivable home for man. Earth could be fair. It could reflect more fully the glory of its Creator, Jehovah God. It does not, because man, according to God’s own appraisal of the situation, is “ruining the earth.”—Rev. 11:18.
It takes no profound study to know what man has done to the earth. Look at earth’s vast waterless seas of sand, its numerous fields of desolation! Not all man's doings, true, but much of it is.
To get rich men have ruined the earth. In America alone men have plowed up vast areas of land that should never have been plowed up. Years ago, at a news conference, President Roosevelt once explained what happened to America’s land in the West. He told how two-dollar wheat during World War I had invited feverish plowing up of great tracts to plant the crop. This ripped off the buffalo grass cover that held the latld together. Stripped of its cover, the dirt became the whim of wind and weather.
Did that ruinous policy teach man a lesson? During another high-priced period —from 1941 to 1950—“about 4,000,000 acres1 of sodland were plowed up for wheat or cotton/’ reported the United States Soil Conservation Service, “Af least 75 percent of this newly plowed land is unfit for cultivation. It is highly susceptible to wind erosion in years of below normal rainfall.”
All over the world this kind of “get rich quick” attitude has led to the de-struction or near destruction of innumerable forests—trees that served as nature's police force, as guardians of the soil. Vast acres of grazing land
have been overgrazed with the thought of more money but with no thought of the dust and erosion sure to follow. So who has ruined the earth’s surface? “Man,” says Paul Sears in Deserts on the March, “has upset the balance under which wind and water were beneficial agents of construction, to release them as twin demons which carve the soil from beneath his feet, to hasten the decay and burial of his handiwork.”
Earth*s Creatures Suffer
Small wonder that the animal creation has suffered! With their habitat destroyed by the greed and thoughtlessness of men, birds and animals have disappeared from the face of the earth. And what of the wholesale slaughter of animals for sheer sport? Man has indeed ruined even the animal creation. One of1 the best-known examples of an animal exterminated by man is the dodo, a large flightless bird. Now the dodo remains only as a symbol of utter extinction. Gone npw with the dodo are the passenger pigeon, the great auk, the cahow, the Cuban macaw, the heath hen, the Irish elk, the quagga, the solitaire and Steller’s sea cow. More than a hundred kinds of mammals alone have gone into, extinction during the past 2,000 years, but the saddest part of it is: Some two thirds of them have disappeared within the last hundred years!
Man’s ruinous policy was certain to’affect his living conditions. Man needs to eat to live. Erosion and loss of soil fertility reduced earth’s productivity. Selfish commerce and politics have made the price of foocl artificially high. • So more than two thirds of the world starves. Millions lack proper housing and clothing. The prime things that man needs—food, clothing and shelter—should be made abundant for all. Instead, man’s selfishness and blindness have made them costly, scarce or of inferior quality. ’
Look at the ruinous policies man has pursued! He ha$ developed countless false religions that bind men to degrading superstitions. He has developed traditions and followed them,blindly, even though they lead to misery and starvation. For monetary profit he has corrupted his own mind. A flood of books and magazines engulfs mankind, choking it with the sullied waters of triviality and sensuality.
With his obsession with sex, his immoralities, his broken-down marriages, his crima and his revolutions and wars man has ruined the earth by ruining earth’s inhabitants. What bloodguilt the human race is guilty of! Two international wars have claimed the lives of an incredible 40,000,000 persons! In waging his wars man has squandered earth’s natural treasures. And now man has the hydrogen bomb. With his nuclear weapons man’s ruinous policy toward the earth goes on apace.
Radioactivity Ruining the Earth
Now there is a new kind of fear in the world, fear that man has gone or is going too far in spreading the deadly by-product of nuclear explosions—strontium 90. Fifteen years ago there was no strontium 90. Ab test after test of nuclear weapons goes on, more and more of these long-lived radioactive isotopes clog the upper atmos-phpre, sift down all over thte earth, then pass through food channels from contaminated plants and animals into human' bones, blood and reproductive systems. The radioactive substance then accumulates in the human body, and when it reaches a certain unknown quantity it may cause a form of blood cancer.
Yet this form of radioactivity is in all or most of the food we eat; Milk and cheese especially have a high proportion of radiostrontium. They contain more “sunshine units” than other foods. A “sunshine unit” is one one-thousandth of what is deefned to be the maximum permissible dose of radiostrontium. Just how much strontium 90 can be absorbed without danger? That is not known with absolute certainty. Meanwhile, we eat strontium 90 with our food. A report recently showed that one Wisconsin Swiss cheese measured as high as ten “sunshine units" of strontium 90. But cheeses in other parts of the world may be even higher. There is no escape from strontium 90.
But has not the announcement of a “clean” bomb solved the radiostrontium problem? Even if a clean H-bomb is being produced, the strontium 90 is with us. It would take almost fifty years to clear up the atmosphere, if no more were added to it. And it is unlikely that no more will be added. What about the world’s stockpiled bombs? Are they all clean? Obviously not. Is Russia testing clean weapons? Is the clean bomb even a reality in the United States? Is it, as some have suggested, a stratagem to assuage public opinion so the United States can go on testing its weapons?
Whatever the truth, the situation is already dangerous. Famed Dr. Albert Schweitzer has warned the world of its radiation hazards. Dr. Linus C. Pauling, one of the world’s most noted theoretical chemisfs, has made public a petition signed by 2,(XX) American scientists calling for a halt to atomic weapons testing. And Dr. William F. Neuman has appeared before a special subcommittee of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy. This subcommittee; which has been gathering testimony from top scientists on the present peril, heard Dr. Neuman say that earth’s atmosphere may already be “very close to .loaded” with the permissible level of strontium 90 from past explosions. Who can say that man is not “ruining the earth”?
Making clean bombs is not the way to reverse man’s policy of ruining the earth. It is; after all, not weapons that need to be made less inhuman; it is the governments that use them. And yet, as Harvard University scientist Dr. Pitirim Sorokin has said: “The rulers of the states are the most criminal group in a respective population.” Dr. Sorokin warns that man had better do something soon to prevent selfish groups and criminals from destroying the world.
But what can be done? Yes, what can be done'when the sad lack is not human intellect and technical know-how but rather morality and common sense? If the rulers of the nations do not develop moral stature along with their technical growth, would it not be better for the human race to stay primitive?
God to Rid Earth of Defilers
Fortunately for right-hearted men, the time has come for the Creator of heaven and earth, Jehovah God, to step in. He purposes not to create a new planet for righteous men. There is no need for that. Ho has the power to rid this earth of those who ruin it. In times past he has demonstrated his power to rid the earth of those who abuse it. He did it at the great Flood. He did it in the days of ancient Israel, when that nation turned apostate, and Jehovah said through his prophet: “The Lord [Jehovah] 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,” —Hos. 4:1, 2, AT.
Therefore Jehovah declared his purpose: “Behold, the Lord [Jehovah] will lay waste the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.”—Isa. 24:1, 5, 6, RS.
Just as God cleansed the land of the unfaithful Israelites, so he will rid the earth of its defilers. This is certain. Christ’s apostle assures us that “all the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction,” and “they were written for a warning to us upon whom the accomplished ends of the systems of things have arrived.” Rejoice, then, that the time is at hand for Jehovah God to do what he has promised in his Word—“to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”—Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11; Rev. 11:18,
HARDER THAN STEEL, LIGHTER THAN ALUMINUM
< What kind of material is this? It is a new ceramic. It is Corning Glass' new family of basic materials called Pyroceram. Besides being harder than high carbon steel .and lighter than aluminum, the new product is rtine times stronger than plate glass! Even at temperatures of up to 700 degrees centigrade the new ceramic loses very little strength. It resists heat deformation up to 1,350 degrees C.
INGENUITY IN ACTION
e/jir Servict
rj’ In Japan a grocer faced up to the problem of how to get orders from customers without telephones. The grocer stationed homing pigeons In four outlying areas of Nagoya—and they fly in with the customers’ orders.
Cose of the 'Slues
A mothe^n Cosham, England, rushed her two-year-old son to the hospital and cried: “What shall I do? His lips have turned blue!” Without referring to medical literature, the doctors quickly made the diagnosis. They told the mother: "Stop letting him suck blue pencils.”
Another Use for the 'Rowboat
■g The United States Navy recently had the task ot dismantling a 100-toot-high water tank at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, naval base. The navy did it this way: Two men were dropped inside the tank in a rowboat. Then, as others gradually let water out of the 500-thousand-gallon tank, the two men in the rowboat began tearing down the huge container section by section.
Liquidating Larceny
'JJ In Paris canteen officials at SHAPE headquarters have been plagued by constant pilfering of coffee spoons. Officials made their decision and took action. They punched a hole in the bowl of each one and liquidated the whole problem.
flatter of adjustment
'JJ A youthful car owner recently took his car to the inspection station in Washington to have the lights and brakes checked as required by law. The inspectors turned him down. “Sorry," they said, “but your headlights shine too. high into the air.” The youth drove to a filling station, let some air out ot his front tires and added air to his rear tires. Then he went back to the inspection center. He passed with flying colors.
Licking the ‘Problem
■g The Washington National Zoo had a formidable problem recently: how to get rid of some termites. Zoo officials pondered a bit. They decided they already had the means to exterminate the problem. They had a zookeeper bring in “Tommy,” the anteater. Tommy spent an hour and a half going through a wooden file cabinet—gobbling up termites.
c5figh-t>roof ‘tfuel
•g During the recent period of gas rationing in Britain, Mrs. Alice Klouda of London was driving her car home one day when she ran out of gasoline and ration coupons. She obtained some whisky, poured it into the tank and drove home. “The car went like a bomb,” she said.
TfiJalls of Jericho
■g Members of the Providence Methodist Church of Easthampton, Massachusetts, recently found the entrance to their church blocked by a wall of 500 bricks when they arrived for the Sunday morning service. They were asked to enter by a side door. During the service they received an explanation. In his sermon on "Joshua and the Battle of Jericho,” the pastor likened the bricks to Jericho's walls. Then he revealed that the wall of Jericho represented a fund-raising plan. He urged parishioners to purchase the wall of Jericho at $1 a brick to clear the entrance. Half the 500 bricks were sold on the spot.
’EhavcC ifi ETibet
•jf Tibet is the highest country in the world, with an average elevation of about 16,000 feet. Lowland regions in Tibet are between 12,000 and 15,000 feet, and mountains rise to 20,000 and 24,000 feet. Since Tibet is quite large—about the size of Texas, California and New York combined—cross-country travel takes some time. Recently it was speeded up considerably. In Peiping the Chinese Communist regime announced that its rpad-building program in Tibet now makes it possible to travel from eastern to western Tibet “in only two months, whereas before it took two years.”
e--\V / hat you are anout to read is me account W of recent happenings in the Domini
can Republic. As shocking and incredible as they are, they are verified as true. Confirmation comes from several sources, outstanding of which is the testimony of ten American citizens, who, on Au-gust 3, 1957, were deported by the govern-ment of the Dominican Republic. These ten American citizens had served in the Dominican Republic for many years as Chris tian missionaries, representing the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses
What these missionaries relate, together / with reports coming from the Dominican Republic, makes up an account of religious persecution that could have come right out or the Dark Ages.
People in the United ^States began to leam about these shocking happenings especially after the “Life-giving Wisdom” District Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Baltimore, Maryland, held August 21 through August 25, 1957. More than 33,000 delegates assembled at that convention adopted a petition to Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. This petition set forth a statement of the facts concerning what is happening to Dominican witnesses of Jehovah and appealed to Generalissimo Trujillo to dignify his government by revoking a ban on Jehovah’s witnesses.
The assembly delegates also heard testimony from the deported missionaries. Eight of these missionaries, interviewed at the assembly site, Baltimore Memorial Stadium, had been in the Dominican Republic from eight to twelve years. “Our purpose is solely Christian,” said, missionary Lennart Johnson, “and we were only preaching the good news of God’s kingdom, for which all Christians have prayed.”
Background to Present Happenings
The missionaries explained that it was In the year 1945 that the first mission-
REPuiffl
who preached
aries, graduates of the Watchtower Bi-li?: ble School of Gilead, were admitted to ss the Dominican Republic, By 1950 there were twenty-five missionaries in the land, the good news of God’s
kingdom to Dominicans, both publicly and from house to house. Many Dominicans responded to this gladsome message, ^and they too took up the message, in obedience to Christ Jesus’ prophetic command: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.”—Matt. 24:14.
Then in June, 1950, the missionaries explained, the government of the Dominican Republic decreed that the work of Jehovah’s witnesses was illegal. Yet, despite the ban, during the next six years their preaching work bore fruit; and the active Kingdom ministers in the Dominican Republic increased from 217 to 469.
On August 17, 1956, for reasons known only to itself, the government of the Dominican Republic lifted the ban. “We were given complete liberty,” missionary Roy Brandt said. “In seven months we .added 202 to the number of active preachers. Volunteers, native Dominicans, went out even to the smaller towns, zealously preaching.”
Though many Dominicans reacted favorably to the preaching of God’s kingdom by Jehovah’s witnesses, certain groups opposed their flourishing Bible educational work. “Not used to such active Bible teaching,” explained missionary Brandt, “the Jesuit priests were furious. On a radio broadcast of June 30 one of them was especially vehement. He even resorted to the ridiculous falsehood that these Christians were Communists—despite the well-known fact that they have been among the most persecuted of all peoples in the Communist lands.”
Following the June 30 radio attack on Jehovah’s witnesses by Jesuit priest Vazquez Sanz, the newspapers published the lecture. In it the Jesuit called Jehovah’s witnesses Communists and haters of all order, and accused them of many other false things. On July 3 three more like articles appeared in the newspapers, written by prominent men in the Dominican Republic. One of the articles, published in El Caribe, July 3,1957, was entitled “Witnesses of Moscow?” It said in part: “By the very essence of their principles of doctrine Jehovah’s witnesses resemble a crafty vanguard of Communism.....Be
hind Jehovah's witnesses would come, undoubtedly, the Witnesses of Moscow.”
On July 4 two more articles appeared; then three more appeared on July 5. July 6 saw three more, one of which called Jehovah’s witnesses “Russia’s Best Allies.” On July 8 El Caribe said: “There is not the least doubt that the Jehovahistic movement is a dangerous spearhead preparing the way for a communistic disaster. , . . The tactics and preaching of Jehovah’s witnesses are identical with those of the Communists.”
And so the attacks continued. From July 2 to July 25 alone, more than 600 inches of space, in double column, appeared in newspapers, stirring up hatred against Jehovah’s witnesses, calling them lawbreakers, insuiters of the flag and the anthem and'comparing these Christian ministers with the Communists. Then, on July 24, the government of the Dominican Republic reimposed a ban on Jehovah’s witnesses. But even before the July 24 ban the Dominican government had moved against the$e Christian witnesses of Jehovah in a way that shocked lovers of freedom of worship earth-wide and raised a question to the whole world: Have the Dark Ages returned in the Dominican Republic?
Religious Persecution
Violence against Dominican witnesses of Jehovah began especially from Sunday, July 21, onward. Bands of soldiers searched out Jehovah’s witnesses as If they were criminals instead of Christians.
“In the town of Salcedo,” said missionary Brandt, “a political rally was held to reaffirm faith in the Catholic Church and to stir up religious hatred. After that, soldiers went out to seize the native witnesses who lived around the town.”
The entire congregations from Los Ca-caos, Blanco Arriba and Monte Adentro were brought into the military prison at Salcedo. Military policemen had brought in whole families, including youngsters down to sixteen years of age. The group of about one hundred Christian witnesses of Jehovah was taken inside and questioned. They were asked to sign statements renouncing their faith as Jehovah’s witnesses and stating that they would rejoin the Roman Catholic Church. “Christian men and women were thus lined up and told to give up their faith,” missionary Brandt said. He related how soldiers lined up men and women and then beat each man with their fists, one at a time. But that was not enough: the soldiers then kicked the men and smashed rifle butts into their faces.
"When this failed to break their integrity,” explained one of the missionaries, “the men and women were herded into crowded cells, where, throughout the night, the women heard the groans of the beaten men.”
The next morning five of the official servants of the congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses were taken to an office, one after another. The first was Negro Jimenez, about sixty-five years of age, the presiding minister of the Los Caches congregation. Two soldiers beat him senseless; then they dragged the unconscious man out by his feet. There were gashes in his head. Blood was running from his mouth and ears.
Pedro German, presiding minister of the El Jobo congregation, was brought in next. When he was taken out, the thirty-five-year-old man bore bloody evidence that he had been severely beaten. Then, Angel Angel, about sixty years of age, was taken into the office. He was brought out unconscious. Blood ran from his mouth and nose.
Pedro Gonzalez, about sixty years old, and his twenty-five-year-old son, Porfirio Gonzalez, were taken into the office. Porfirio was beaten until he was unconscious. Blood ran from his ears, and an eardrum was broken. Pedro, the father, was beaten until his eyes were swollen shut. Still they would not renounce their faith or agree, under inquisitional pressure, to rejoin the Roman Catholic Church,
The missionaries were talking about people they knew—personal acquaintances, people for whom they felt a spiritual responsibility^ “We thought the Dark Ages and the Inquisition were things of the past,” said missionary Raymond Johnson.
“Ip the Dominican Republic we found it just isn’t so.”
In Santiago other witnesses of Jehovah were arrested. Some were beaten. One of them, Miguel Angel FemAndez, was given a leather whip and ordered to use it on his fellow witness Maximino Ldpez. He refused. Then the soldiers whipped them both, drawing blood as they gave each Christian minister twenty-one lashes, “If you have ever seen this done in an old movie,” said missionary Brandt, “you can imagine the brutality of such an act.”
At La Victoria, one of the prisons in Ciudad Trujillo, some of the imprisoned witnesses went for eight days with only com meal and water. At another prison in the capital one witness was given no food for three days. His only food was candy that he bought with thirty-five cents in his possession. When this witness was finally brought to court he was charged with disrespect for the flag. The trial was short. The judge sentenced him to a fine of $250 and one year in prison —this despite the fact that the policeman who brought him in told the court: “This man did not show disrespect for the flag. I know him and he has always respected the flag.”
Neither age nor youth spares one from religious persecution in the Dominican Republic when one holds firm to one’s faith as a Christian witness of Jehovah God. Take, for example, the case of Cordelia Maria Marte. She is a young girl fifteen years of age. She served as a fulltime minister, preaching the good news from house to house, during the year the ban was lifted. On July 26 she left the home of her aunt in Villa Baez, a rural section near Salcedo. She had gone there because of persecution and arrests in Santiago,, her home. But on July 26 the mayor of the area where she now lived sent word to her aunt that she must put this witness of Jehovah out of her home. If she failed to do so, she herself, though not one of Jehovah’s witnesses, would be arrested.
The aunt told Cordelia that she must leave. Her uncle took her two kilometers to a highway leading to Salcedo and left her to wait for a bus. The owner of a small store told her to step inside while she waited. A man entered the store. He ordered a beer and also offered to buy the girl something. She declined the offer. Then the man began to talk about Jehovah’s witnesses and urged her to talk to him. The bus came and the girl stepped outside. She got on. So did the man.
When the bus arrived at Salcedo it stopped in front of the government building. The man compelled Cordelia to get off the bus. She was then taken in a car to a military prison. Here she was brought before the governor, General Ludovino Fernandez. After speaking abusively of Jehovah’s witnesses he made a comment that they do not have churches'and hence must be from Moscow. The young girl asked the general if he knew what the word “church” really meant. He became angry. He replied that he knew and went on to say that they ought to “cut her up, smash her against the wall so that her brains bounced out and then bury her some place where she wouldn’t smell.” Then he shouted to the soldiers: “Take her away and lock her up without any consideration!”
The guards led Cordelia off and locked her up. On Sunday, July 28, Cordelia was taken to Santiago. Although the law forbids the jailing of minors, she was put in a public jail among prostitutes and women criminals. She was left there until Tuesday, July 30, when she was brought before a juvenile court.
The court accused her of preaching as one of Jehovah’s witnesses. The court decreed that she be sent to police headquarters. Then she was taken by truck to the capital, Ciudad Trujillo, arriving about 10:30 p.m. During the journey a secret policeman accompanied her. He showed her a long list of names and stated that these were witnesses in Santiago that he was searching for.
Since July 30 Cordelia has been in the Women’s Reformatory (Instituto Julia Molina) in the capital. Imprisoned with Cordelia is another young Christian witness of Jehovah named Ramonita. This young girl, though forced by physical means to attend Roman Catholic mass, still holds fast to her faith. Ramonita is only twelve years old. Such is the kind of religious persecution taking place in the Dominican Republic.
Deporting the Missionaries
Government proceedings to expel the American missionaries from the Dominican Republic came to the surface on July 8. On that day the missionaries were called to the office of Major General Arturo Es-paillat, the secretary of security. He told them to sell their personal effects and leave the country as quickly as possible. When the missionaries refused to abandon their Christian brothers voluntarily, the secretary of security told them: “If you want to be martyrs, go ahead, but that went out of fashion a thousand years ago. We will send an official down to your apartment and deport you, if that is what you want.”
The, 'missionaries’ fears about what might happen to the Dominican witnesses of Jehovah were confirmed by Mr. Es-paillat, who said that when they were gone the Dominican officials would “be able to take care of the rest.”
While the missionaries explained their work to this official, informing him that their preaching was neither communistic nor political, they asked him if he would like to live in a righteous new world of
God’s making. ‘There’s no Opportunity for me,” he said. “I have done so many things there is not any chance for me.’1 One of the missionaries wanted to know if Generalissimo Trujillo himself knew of this religious persecution, or if it was just something those around him were doing, “I just came from Trujillo’s office,” said Mr. Espaillat, ‘‘and he ordered it.”
Finally, at government expense, the missionaries were taken in taxis to the airport and placed aboard an airplane boUnd for Puerto Rico, So incredibly brutal is the religious persecution against Dominican witnesses of Jehovah that officials at the airport had orders to arrest or kill anyone who even came to see the missionaries off. Said missionary Brandt: “One official in the capital told one of the Christian women: Tt would be good to kill all of Jehovah’s witnesses and wash the earth with their blood to remove all the bad seed they have sown? ”
Following the deportation and the widespread publicity given to the religious persecution, thousands of persons in America and elsewhere wrote letters of protest to the Dominican government. These persons received in reply a mimeographed letter from Luis Ruiz Trujillo, secretary of state. Each letter contained a serial number. The letters said, as did letter number 16495, that “the Dominican Police have limited themselves to taking the necessary measures to prevent the exercise of such practices [of Jehovah’s witnesses] on Dominican territory, without any atrocity having been committed against anybody?’
What are we to think of a country whose officials brutally beat up witnesses of Jehovah for holding fast to their faith and then say that no atrocity has been done.
What are we to think of a government that forces persons to join its state religion at the point of a bayonet? What are we to think of a religion that would want such converts?
What are we to think of any government in this day and age that would stoop to inquisitional methods?
What are we to think of a government that calls Bible-preaching Christians Communists, while the brothers of those Christians are themselves being brutally persecuted in Soviet-dominated lands?
What are we to think of a country whose officials stoop so low as to imprison young girls twelve and fifteen years of age because of their religious beliefs, and then force one of them to attend religious services at a Catholic church?
What can we think but that the Dominican Republic is back in the Dark Ages! At least that is how all lovers of righteousness, all lovers of freedom of worship, will feel. How can they feel otherwise? They cannot, unless the Dominican Republic reverses its present policy of religious persecution.
As for Jehovah’s witnesses in the Dominican Republic, they will continue to maintain their integrity, declaring as did the psalmist: “O my God, provide me with escape from the hand of the wicked one, from the palm of the one acting unjustly and oppressively. For you are my hope, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”—Ps. 71:4, 5.
MARVEL OF THE HUMAN SKIN
“A portion of human skin the size of a postage stamp/’ said the New York Times Magazine recently, "contains one yard of blood vessels, four yards of nerves, fifteen oil glands, twenty-five nerve endings and 3,000,000 cells, according to medical research.”
a
from heaven couldn’t c down to New York and here two weeks and trim with the crowd that some of you trim with ... and go
ORTY■ I ago revi Billy Sunday descended on New York city, with an army of assistants. To his opening audience of 40,000 Sunday exclaimed that “an back to heaven without a bath of Lysol, carbolic and formaldehyde.” At the end of a ten-week crusade Sunday had stirred almost 100,000 persons to come forward and promise to “come to Jesus.”
This year evangelist Billy Graham descended on New York with a host of assistants. He also came to awaken a city “crying for cleansing of its evil.” To his opening audience of more than 18,000 in Madison Square Garden Graham declared: '■We’re praying that New York is going to have a spiritual revolution.” At the end of a sixteen-Week crusade evangelist Graham had stimulated more than 55,000 persons to make “decisions for Christ.”
“What do you think of Billy’s crusade?” was a question New Yorkers had on their tongue. It was a good question, but one seldom answered in a worthwhile manner. Such a question needs an answer that goes beyond the mere words “success” or .“failure.” Actually, Graham’s crusade was both a success and a failure.
success or failure?
To understand how the crusade succeeded and failed one needs view it from two aspects: ^J-low effective was the crusade gaching its objectives? (2) How e crusade measure up to the s of true Christianity as in the Bible?
fits Objectives and Successes
Crusader Graham wanted New Yorkers to repent from their sinful ways and to gain “the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.” The campaign called for the exposing of sinfulness even among professed Christians.
The target of Graham’s double-barreled evangelism had a bull’s-eye. It was that mass of some 4,000,000 people—New Yorkers indifferent to religion and not associated with any church. With more than half the city’s population unchurched, morale among the clergy was low. Graham aimed to strengthen that morale by directing New York’s vast unchurched population to the churches.
In revealing to the people where they stood spiritually and morally crusader Graham was po small success. He was often brilliant in explaining the unscrip-tural practices of millions of professed Christians. “The disgrace of the Christian church in America,” he declared, “is that we do not have love one for another.” Besides this “lack of love” there is hypocrisy. Too many churchgoers, said the crusader, are “living like the Devil all week and like the Lord a few
hours on Sunday." To the unchurched observer^ the expose of Christendom, though well done, was hardly a stimulus to get them to the churches. Despite revelations of sinfulness, the crowds came.
Graham’s success in drawing huge crowds, and that evening after evening for sixteen weeks, was the most spectacular feature of the campaign. Some 17,000 persons thronged to the Garden each evening, filling it most comfortably. Graham’s meeting at Yankee Stadium drew a crowd so vast that there was hardly any unoccupied space in the stadium, either on the turf or In the stands. More than a month before the crusade ended the attendance figure had soared above the 1,000,000 mark, shattering all Graham’s previous records. Then there was the Times Square finale, whose attendance became a bone of contention between the Graham organization and New York city police. The organization’s first estimate of 200,000 was changed to 120,000, in the face of determined police refusal to change their estimate of 75,000. When reporting the incident Life magazine gave an1 actual head count of 5,354 to one block, which means the total attendance at the most was 60,000. But this was still an impressive crowd.
Did not such successful attendance gladden the hearts of clergymen? Yes and no. It was very gratifying to the clergymen of some 3,000 Protestant churches in the metropolitan area, churches that were represented in Graham’s audiences. But not all clergymen exulted, especially when they thought about the 4,000,000 unchurched New Yorkers. There were obviously more church members than unchurched persons attending. There was, for one thing, a large number of repeats—church members who made Garden attendance a habit.
Thus some clergymen felt little or no exhilaration, such as preacher George C. Bonnell of the West Side Presbyterian Church, who said toward the end of the campaign: “Billy Graham began his crusade by inviting members of the chutahes to support the crusade, promising that in about ten days it would move along under its own steam. I heard him repeat that same promise about' six weeks after the crusade was under way. This seems to indicate that the crusade has Settled into a series of revival meetings for church people and has not appealed to the mass of the unchurched in New York city. Indications of this fact may be derived from the predominant attendance of church members and from the vast number of delegations regularly at the crusade.”
Graham urged his radio and newspaper audience in the South and Midwest to “take your vacation in New York and spend time in the crusade.” Large chunks of reserved seats were set aside for out-of-town delegations. Even before the crusade began the undenominational Christian Century said: “It simply cannot fail. With trainloads of well-saved out-of-town supporters coming from as far away as Texas, the campaign will obviously be railroaded to success.”
Just Part of a Fad?
Then there was the religious fad in America. Was this responsible for many New Yorkers’ attending the crusade services? The Christian Century thought so. “The only startling news possible,” it said, “would be word that crowds were falling off. . . , Here is something hugely religious and everybody is religious like everybody else, so why not go to the Garden? They all read Norman Vincent Peale and they all watch Bishop Sheen and they all go to the big Easter showing of The Teri Commandments and they all believe in records like ‘I Believe,’ so why not go to the Garden?”
If, then, the crusade’s statistical success is narrowed down to the number of “decislons for Christ,” what do New York’s clergymen have? First, one needs to know how many decisions were made by those who are already church 'members. How many unchurched New Yorkers made decisions?
Graham himself has admitted that between 40 to 75 percent of all decisions come from church members. When calling for decisions at the close of a sermon, Graham’s words varied little from evening to evening: “You may be a deacon or an elder, I don’t know. You may be a Sundayschool teacher. You may be a choir member. You may be an usher, but you need Christ tonight. Whoever you are, come right now.” Actually, then, out of the total decisions the number of those who are not church members is comparatively small.
Bow Many Stick?
Of those unchurched persons who make “decisions,” how many become new church members? How many of these, in turn, stick? “It is impossible to estimate the results of this crusade yet,” explains Graham. “It will take at least three years.”
Three years after Billy Sunday stirred nearly 100,000 persons to “come to Jesus,” people.rightly wondered: What difference did Sunday’s converts make in New York's civil and moral life and in the vitality of her Protestant churches?
Will it be the same with Graham’s converts? Graham says that his decisions stick. He claims that Sunday did not effectively follow up his “decisions.” In fact, though, Sunday, like Graham, took down names and addresses and checked church preferences on decision cards. Graham, however, has the added feature of a sixmonth follow-up campaign, one that is costing New York clergymen some $40,000. Graham sends out form letters and tracts through his organization and Stimulates the mhitsters to follow up the converts that come to them by way of th( Graham system. If there is any rekl effectiveness, it is not in the- form letters It is in the ministers’ visiting the care signers. Effectiveness, then, depends or the willingness of the clergy to make back-calls. Will they go to the homes of the card signers, calling back perhap! week after week to nurture them so the; become regular church members? In view of the habits of most clergymen, it is doubtful that Graham’s method will bf any more effective than Sunday’s.
London’s Evening Standard recentlj made a study called “Where Are the Bill; Graham Converts?” It questioned twentj vicars of large London parishes. Of th< twenty parishes, with a population of 420, 216, the survey found that the Graham organization turned over a total of 336 deci sion cards. Of the 336 signers, 226 wen old churchgoers. That left 110 “outsiders.’ Of the outsiders only forty-five are stil coming. Hence the Evening Standard madi a rough conclusion: Since 36,000 persons made decisions during Graham’s Londoi crusade, about 24,000 of them were prob' ably “old faithfuls,” and of the remaining 12,000, fewer than 4,000 are still going t( church. Small wonder that New York’: Episcopal minister John Ellis Large said: “We are fearful simply that the effort has no continuity.”
The Crusade and the Bible
Did the crusade square up with the Bible? In his sermons evangelist Graham spoke mainly about sin, repentance and the need to accept Christ. However, Graham seldom went beyond these elementary truths of God’s Word. He gave his vast audiences no Scriptural explanation for the world’s flood of woes—how Satan the Devil is the “god of this system of things” and how he is now leading all nations to destruction at me war oi Armageuaon. Graham told his audiences nothing about God’s paramount purpose—the vindication of his name by means of a heavenly kingdom. Crusader Graham told his audiences nothing about the most pressing need of mankind: how to survive God’s war of Armageddon into his righteous new world of “new heavens and a new earth."—2 Cor. 4:4; 2 Pet. 3:13.
Evangelist Graham, in short, is a dispenser of spiritual baby food. He gives his audiences no conception of what Christianity really is. No, baby food is not enough. God’s Word declares: “Everyone that partakes of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. For this reason, now that we have left the elementary doctrine about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying a foundation again, namely, repentance from dead works, and faith toward God.”—Heb. 5:13; 6:1,
Christianity is not as easy as Graham’s “decisions for Christ” would lead one to believe. “Give your life to Christ,” says Graham. “Settle this eternal matter with God. You can leave here tonight knowing you are on the road to heaven.” It is not that simple. God’s Word shows that dedication to God through Christ is only the beginning. One must thereafter become a follower of'Christ, and that means much' more than Graham ever disclosed.
If Graham’s teachings were pure spiritual baby food it would not.be so serious. But some of his teaching is not even Bible food. For example, he leaves the impression that all Christians go to heaven. The Bible shows otherwise. It shows that only a “little flbck” of Christ’s faithful followers will gain heavenly life, that most true Christians will gain everlasting life on earth in harmony with Jesus’ words: “Blessed are the meek: for..they shall in-nem me eurm. —mute xz:oz; iviact. a: 5, AV.
Clearly the crusade is not interested in a search for right doctrine; its concern is church membership. Is it membership at any price? Among the 3,000 and more churches supporting the crusade there is much conflicting doctrine; it cannot all be true. Yet Graham sends his converts to the “church of their choice.” How are these people who are unfamiliar with God’s Word to know the right church unless they are first put on a search for right doctrine?
But the crusade’s concern is not right doctrine. Said Graham before the New York crusade began: “Ministers have been discouraged and frustrated. ... In talking with many of them we found almost a sense of desperation. Ministers who could not agree with us theologically . , . are willing to cooperate simply because there seems to be nothing else in sight."
Thus the clergymen also ignore right doctrine for‘.membership gains. The situation is reminiscent of one of Billy Sunday’s crusades, during which a clergyman confided to a reporter: “Why, my dear sir, the man has trampled all over me and my theology. He has kicked my teachings up and down that platform like a football. He has outraged every ideal I have had regarding my sacred profession. But what does that count against the results hexhas accomplished? My congregation will be increased by hundreds.”'
In seeking*membership in such a manner, God’s rule is ignored: “What fellowship does light have with darkness?” Did Christ put up with doctrines he could not accept just to gain members?—2 Cor. 6:14.
Spotlighted, then, is the crusade’s appalling failure: It falls far short of the standards of true Christianity.
CORRESPONDENT IN THE PHILIPPINES
■RESIDENTS Rof towns ,in the western half of the province of Pangasinan, in the Philippine Islands, were sleeping soundly at 1 a.m. on Monday, July 15 1957. Within thirty minutes their sleep was shattered by the roaring, tumbling floodwaters of the Balingcagen and Agno Rivers. For seven hours the ter-rifigd-towpspeople fought for survival, and ^ittny jusL uie-oattie.
Typhoon “Wendy” had swept across the island of Luzon through Saturday and Sunday, with its raging winds apd lashing rains. Rice fields became great lakes of water. Mountain streams became torrential'rivers. Indiscriminate and uncontrolled logging had stripped the mountainsides of their natural flood barriers, and waters that should have been a blessing to lowland fanners* became a death-dealing curse, destroying their rice fields and homes and taking more than a hundred lives. The towns of- Mabini, Alaminos, Banl, Agno, Dasol, Infanta and Burgos were right in the path of the waters flooding down from the Zambales , Mountains and were caught without warning, with which disaster struck is illustrated by the accounts related to this Awake! correspondent by survivors. One man was awakened by the
sound of water rushing past his house. He ro&e and went flown to investigate. The water was already knee-deep. He rushed upstairs, awakened his wife and brought her down with him. The water was then to his waist. > Without waiting »■ to save a thing they both struck out swimming to higher ground, 150 feet from the house. Upon reaching safety and seeing his wife safely in the home of relatives, the man returned in five minutes and began to swim back to his house to save some personal belongings. The current was too swift so he returned. As he stepped out on high ground again, he turned to see a huge tree crash against his house and demolish the entire structure. It was swept away in the flood.'
An uprooted house floated past with six persons on the rooftop. The current drove the house against the riverbank, smashing it and throwing all the occupants into the water. All were rescued at 7:30 in the morning. Nine persons took refuge in another house. Only one survived. In the - night cries of pain ■and terror mingled with the roar of wind and water.
In Nibaliw, a barrio of Mabini town, an old man was awakened by the floodwaters, which were about to reach the floor of his house. He gave the alarm to his two daughters, who loosened the water buffalo (carabao). The old man and his younger daughter rode on the back of the beast, while the elder daughter, eighteen years of age, held on to the animal’s tail. Thus they floated away from the house.
Soon another sound added to the terror of the night. The old man suspected correctly what it was and warned his children. A great tree was bearing down on them in the darkness and as it neared them it rolled over them, pushing them all down deep into the water. Fighting to survive, they clawed their way to the surface. The old man pulled himself up to a crotch in the tree and clung desperately to a branch, calling for his daughters. Both called back out of the night, saying they were clinging to branches. There they clung for five hours, wet, cold and weary, until the old man lost consciousness.
A rescue team spotted them in the morning and was just putting out in a raft to pull them to safety when the older girl lost her grip and slid to her death in the water. Jehovah’s witnesses are glad that this young minister, a servant in the local congregation, was the only one of their ranks to lose life in the backlash of typhoon “Wendy.” The old man and his younger daughter were saved.
Another family of four in the same barrio tied'themselves to a tree and were rescued alive in the morning. Only one house in the barrio was left, about thirty being destroyed.
Other eyewitness accounts were related in various newspapers of Mapila. The Manila Times of July 17, 1957, told the story of Jos£ Manzano, a farmer living in Ma-bini. His house was shaken by a tremen-dpus rush of water that overwhelmed the family. When he dashed out with his five children the water was already over their heads. The six of them reached the street.
Then a huge wave dashed against them and the farmer saw his five children swept away from him toward the sea.
Diosdado Vallado, an agent of the governor residing in Mabini, reported that he was awakened shortly after 1 a.m, by the sound of the rushing waters. When he rushed out the Water was rising over the rooftops and people were climbing trees and the roofs of higher buildings to escape disaster. Others were caught in their sleep and swept away.
Jos6 Bongalon was on guard duty at the municipal building when he heard “a huge, unusual noise as if the entire sky had opened up with flowing water.” He ran around shouting and warning the people to abandon their homes, but many refused to heed the warning. Before he could reach the houses farthest from the municipal building, the flood caught up with him and he was forced to seek shelter on higher grpund. The chief of police, made three trips to rescue his family frorti his house. The third time he had to swim away from a second-story window.
By daybreak the floodwaters were beginning to subside and rescue teams were on their way. The municipal building was turned into a reception center. Dead bodies began to pile up in the puericulture center as the teams brought them in. Volunteers went to work making coffins so that the dead could be given decent burial. The smell of death hung heavy in the air.
Government relief agencies went into action as quickly as possible. Private organizations sent donations of various kinds to relieve the suffering. A field kitchen was set up- at the market site., Early in the morning of July 17 the provincial governor was on hand with emergency food rations. On the porch of the school building two army men sat patiently tapping out messages on a wireless set, trying to establish communication with detach-nients in nearby towns. Carlos P. Garcia, president, of the Philippines, arrived b? helicopter with members of hi9 cabinet to survey the damage ana to extend relief. He released P210,000 for relief and rehabilitation of destroyed roads and buildings.
First reports listed 230 dead and up to 1,000 missing in the disaster. However, as rescue teams and search parties found more survivors, the figures were scaled down to 141 dead and 180 missing in the seven coastal towns.
Part of the blame for the loss of life and property can be attributed to typhoon “Wendy.” The rest of the blame can be laid on the men who were responsible for stripping the trees from the slopes of the mountains of Zambales, leaving the coastal towns defenseless against flash floods.
Soon a new world will be here in which all of earth’s resources will be used as a blessing to man and a glory to Jehovah God, the great Provider of them all. —Ps. 72:17-19.
Met
newspaper Baek Issues Forbidden!
€, To prevent the exposure of lies, access to back issues of an official Communist newspaper is forbidden in Hungary, says a Hungarian who fought in the revolution and escaped to the West. Writing in the New York Times Magazine of December 23, 1956, the escapee said: "The party line changed from year to-year, sometimes from week to week, depending on which way the winds were blowing from Moscow. History books were constantly being corrected in front of the young students’ eyes. . . . There were so many contradictions and Ues that back issues of Szabad Nep, the official daily organ of the Communist party, were withdrawn and access to them in state libraries was made impossible. The repeated changes in the party line provoked contempt in the people.”
‘Against Dictatorship’
<[ On March 24, 1919, Benito Mussolini said: "We demand a national assembly which will decide for Italy: Monarchy or Republic. We reply now: Republic. We are entirely against all forms of dictatorships.”—Can These Things Be?
Those Precious Antiques
<[ A celebrated English authority, Herbert Cescinsky, once said that eighty percent of all antiques sold in the English market are fakes. The Treasury adds that “Mr. Cescinsky’s statement holds good for all foreign antiques.” •J* The late Dr. Wilhelm Bode put it more epi-$ grammatically by remarking that Rembrandt in his lifetime painted 700 canvases, of which
$ 10,000 are in America.—Bennett Cerf, in The ¥ Saturday Review.
I
Admission
C. In The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 12, V page 737, appears the following: "Many of the more ancient relics duly exhibited for X veneration in the great sanctuaries of Christi tendom’, or even at Rome itself, must now be $ pronounced to be either certainly spdrious, or open to grave suspicion.”
No Shortage of Religious Relics
¥ C. "In the present day there are 20 wellY known gowns and 70 veils eff the Virgin Mary, Y each pronounced to be the real one; 12 heads A of St. John the Baptist, in tolerably perfect X condition, besides numerous large fragments X of his skull and seven extra jaws, each of X great note, and held in much reverence Is Y different parts of Europe. St. Julienne has A 20 bodies and 26 separate heads, whilst St. J George and St. Pancras each possess 30 bodies, and St. Peter has 16; St. Peter the £ Dominican only possesses 2 bodies, but he *t* makes up for the deficiency in the number of £ his fingers, 56 of which are scattered throiigh-out Europe.”—Eveline B. Mitford, in The Monthly Review (1906).
INIMALS get into more laws than we realize. If animals only knew these laws they might be quite upset, such as pussycats in California, where it is technically illegal for anyone to trap a mouse unless he has a hunt* Ing license.
animals in the law
C, A few years ago in Columbus, Ohio, an old law was rescinded: it is no longer against the law to park a cart in the central market without unhitching the horse. <•_ Birds, bats and bees do not escape the eyes of the law. In Mobile, Alabama, any
<[ In Shawnee, Oklahoma, a local law defines as a nuisance the airing of three or more dogs "on any private property without the consent of the owner or occupant/’ And good news for postmen in North Carolina: a law says that a person is not bound to stand quietly by and be bitten by a dog!
<[ An ordinance In Alderson, West Virginia, is concerned with an animal whose bite is more serious. "No lions/’ says the law, "shall be al* lowed to run wild on the streets of this city.” And a Connecticut law forbids walking a tiger on a leash.
In New York city, though, it is still unlawful to open or close an umbrella in the presence of a horse; it might frighten the animal. In Tahoe City, California, it is illegal for horses to wear cowbells, and on the highways in Kan-1 sas it is unlawful for persons to race horses. A law on the books in Honaker, Virginia, says it is unlawful for a person to ride a mule'to church, and in Kentucky one must not go behind a mule without first speaking to it.
…