Awake!, December 22, 1959
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Mat Is Acceptable Worship?
PAGE 5
time in Our Streets
F=>A<3 E I 2
wimos—At Home
in the Far North
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eer Up, Cardiacs!
PAG E 2 1
DECEMBER 22, 1959
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CONTENTS
Pride Is a Killer
What Is Acceptable Worship?
The Smoker's Deadly Companion
Seeing Is Believing
Crime in Our Streets
Eskimos—At Home in the Far North 17
What Parents May Overlook
Customs from Bible Times Found
in West Africa
Cheer Up, Cardiacs!
“Your Word Is Truth”
Is the Bible a Catholic Book?
Watching the World
Index to Volume XL of Awake!
York city was packed out with 15,000 persons watching a performance of the country’s largest circus. The twelve-tiger act had just been completed and Rajah, the leading tiger, was heading for the passageway out of the cage. Suddenly he sprang at Ila, a tigress, and seized her by the throat. The crowd watched with breathless horror as the two tigers fought a blood-chilling battle.
By the time the animal trainer and the circus attendants had succeeded in separating the two beasts it was too late for Ila. A half hour later she died from loss of blood. What caused that fight? Pride. Ila had committed lese majesty by daring to cut in ahead of Rajah as he led the tigers out of the cage.
Well did the disciple James write regarding pride: “If you have bitter jealousy and contentiousness in your hearts, do not be bragging and lying against the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is the earthly, animal, 'demonic.”—Jas. 3:14,15.
Pride is a trait we must stand guard against. It might be likened to a deathdealing virus that abounds everywhere and to which we are peculiarly susceptible owing to the transgression of our first
parents. If unchecked, it causes the heart to lose all appreciation for life, both of its own and that of others. Individuals resort to duels and nations resort to war because of pride. It was pride that caused Austria to declare war on Serbia in 1914, that caused Hitler to declare war on Poland in 1939 and Japan to make her attack on Pearl Harbor.
God’s Word, from beginning to end, tells what a killer pride is. Did not Satan the Devil sacrifice the lives of our first parents on the altar of his pride, and will he not suffer destruction himself because of it? Well does James say that pride is demonic wisdom, for the prince of demons is the very personification of pride. What egotism was his to boast: “To the heavens I shall go up. Above the stars of God I shall lift up my throne, and I shall sit down upon the mountain of meeting, in the remotest parts of the north. I shall go up above the high places of the clouds; I shall make myself resemble the Most High.” The fact that he offered the Son of God all the kingdoms of the world and their glory if he would bow down and do an act of worship to Satan is further proof of his great pride.—Isa. 14:13, 14; Matt, 4:8, 9.
Pride made Satan the Devil both the first killer and the arch killer. He is responsible for the first death as well as the deaths of all the billions of humans that have died since Abel. Jesus correctly labeled Satan as “a manslayer when he began.” And ever since he has used pride to influence men to do his murderous biddings.—Gen. 4:4-8; John 8:44.
Among the foremost Scriptural examples of how pride causes a disregard for human life is wicked Haman. From beginning to end he is shown as inordinately proud and vain. When ‘‘Haman kept seeing that Mordecai was not bowing low and prostrating himself to him,” he “became filled with rage. But it was despicable in his eyes to lay hand upon Mordecai alone, for they had told him about Mordecai’s people, and Haman began seeking to annihilate all the Jews who were in all the realm of Ahasuerus.” Imagine the pride of a man that would demand the' death of thousands upon thousands of men, women and children, the destruction of an entire nation, all because a single one of that nation had refused to bow low and prostrate himself before him! Haman even offered to pay the equivalent of $12 million into the king’s treasury for the satisfaction of destroying all the Jews! While divine Providence intervened to spare the Jews, Haman’s pride nevertheless caused the death of about 76,000 enemies of the Jews, actually dupes of Haman.—Esther 3:5-9; 9:12,15,16.
King Herod the Great was another that illustrated that pride is a killer. So that he and his own offspring and not Jesus of Nazareth should rule Palestine he decreed the death of all male children two years old and under, “in Bethlehem and in all its districts.” —Matt. 2:16.
Thirty-three years later the religious leaders of Judaism as well as Judas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, gave furtherproof that pride is a killer. Because Jesus’ rebukes wounded their pride they “began to seek how to destroy him.” Their pride caused them to be guilty of the blackest crime on the pages of human history, the murder of the Son of God. Some thirty-five years later their pride was to be their own undoing. It was pride that caused them to rebel against the Roman yoke, resulting in more than a million of them perishing in the destruction of Jerusalem A.D. 70.—Mark 11:18.
Secular history, from that time down to our day, gives many more examples. Among the many that might be mentioned is Constantine, reputedly the first Christian emperor, who waded through seas of blood to establish himself as emperor of the Roman Empire. And among the most notorious modern examples must be mentioned Adolf Hitler, whose pride plunged the world into World War II.
Truly, pride belongs to the wisdom of this world and is earthly, animal and demonic. The proud are looked up to, bowed down to and envied in this old world. Pride rules the lower animals, and that is not only true of the jungle beasts but even of farmyard animals, as scientists have shown. And above all, pride is the personification of the prince of demons, Satan the Devil.
There is also a lesson in this for dedicated Christians. Although these would not think of taking the life of another human, yet they also, if not careful, can become killers because of pride. How so? In that pride may cause ill will and hate, and “everyone who hates his brother is a manslayer.”—1 John 3:15.
WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE
How eon it be determined?
Does God care how devotion is shown?
IS IT up to man to decide how his Creator should be worshiped? Is he the one to determine what is acceptable or unacceptable devotion? Is the worship of God subject to the whims, imagination and traditions of humans? Rather than being determined by man, acceptable worship is determined by God. He is the One that lays down the limiting factors that mold religious devotion so that it is pleasing in his sight.
Because man does not generally recognize this fact, a great number of conflicting religions have come into being. Each has its own religious philosophy and form of worship, with some professing to be Christian and others not. These cannot be considered as different paths leading to the same God, because the supreme Being does not accept all forms of worship. This was made clear when he expressed himself to the nation of Israel: “You must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them nor be induced to serve them, because I Je-
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hovah your God am a God exacting
who on a
£ exclusive devotion.” (Ex. 20:4, 5) He thus limited the religious devotion that would be acceptable to him. How can a person who ignores this limitation and follows his own philosophy be going path that leads to the true God?
The expressed will of Jehovah God must be taken into consideration, otherwise a person’s religious devotion is in vain. A religious path that fails to meet the requirements God has set down does not lead to him. A person’s form of worship must not be the way he imagines it should be, but the way God says it should be. It is written: “There exists a way
that is upright before a man, but the ways of death are the end of it afterward.” (Prov. 14:12) That is because it is not God’s way.
How Determined
The divine requirements for acceptable worship are clearly laid out in the Holy Bible, the book that expresses God’s will. At James 1:27 it says: “The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.” The fact that this scripture speaks of a form of worship that is undefiled eliminates any contention that all forms of worship are acceptable to God.
Since exclusive devotion is required by the Most High, any religion that fails to give it must be considered as unclean in his eyes. Thus worship that incorporates the venerating of images, of relics and any other material body would come under what is classed as defiled. Remember, God specifically instructed the nation of Israel not to give devotion to such things. “You must take good care of your souls, because you did not see any form on the day of Jehovah’s speaking to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire, that you may not act ruinously and do not make for yourselves a carved image, the form of any symbol, the representation of male or female, the representation of any beast that is in the earth, the representation of any winged bird that flies in the heavens, the representation of anything creeping on the ground, the representation of any fish that is in the waters under the earth; and that you may not raise your eyes to the heavens and indeed see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the army of the heavens, and certainly get seduced and bow down to them and serve them.”—Deut. 4:15-19.
Religions that incorporate these practices in their devotion do not lead to God. They are not acceptable to him, but are unclean in his eyes. The same can be said of those forms of worship that give religious instruction that is contrary to what the Creator has given in his written Word. “It is in vain that they keep paying respect to me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.”—Matt. 15:9.
That such worship is defiled in the eyes of God is also pointed out in the instructions given at 2 Corinthians 6:14, 15, 17, which state: “Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what portion does a faithful person have with an unbeliever? ‘Therefore get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing,’ ‘and I will take you in.’ ”
How can a person that persists in clinging to an unclean form of worship expect God to receive him as a worshiper? How can he expect to be shown divine favor or to have his prayers heard? Approach to God must be according to the way God says it must be.
Care for Orphans and Widows
James states in his definition of clean worship that such worship includes taking care of orphans and widows. Does this mean that a person must adopt orphans or help build and support an orphanage for God to accept his worship? Is that the work to which Christians must devote themselves? No, it is not. When Christ gave his followers the assignment of activity God wanted them to engage in, he did not command them to build orphanages and similar institutions. Instead, he said: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, . . . teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.”—Matt. 28:19, 20.
The work of a Christian was to be that of teaching Scriptural truths, but that does not mean he is to have no regard for the need of orphans and widows. To ignore their needs callously would be contrary to God’s instructions. The nation of Israel" was commanded to care for them, for those that were Israelites as well as for those that were non-Israelite believers. Gleanings of the harvest were for them and the poor. Every third year a tenth of all the crops was to be devoted to their care. (Deut. 14:28, 29) Because widows and fatherless ones are without anyone to defend them, God said: “Render judgment for the fatherless boy; plead the cause of the widow.”—Isa. 1:17.
This godly principle of showing liberality and helpful assistance to the unfortunate and oppressed is binding on Christians today. In the Christian congregation of the first century, widows and orphans were given aid if they needed it. A widow, however, did not receive help merely because she was a widow. If she could provide for herself or if relatives could help her, no aid was given. ,
She had to meet certain requirements to qualify for congregational assistance. The instructions were: “Let a widow be put on the list who has become not less than sixty years old, a wife of one husband, having a witness borne to her for right works, if she reared children, if she entertained strangers, if she washed the feet of holy ones, if she relieved those in tribulation, if she diligently followed every good work.”—1 Tim. 5:9,10.
Thus we see that aid was not given to everyone that might make a claim for it. It might be noted that no provision was made to help widows outside the Christian congregation. Christians were not required to care for all the orphans and widows in the world, only those that met Scriptural qualifications. The responsibility for giving care to unchristian orphans and widows rested, not on the Christians, but on the religious communities to which they belonged.
The term “orphan” or “fatherless” does not necessarily mean, in the Bible, children that have lost their fathers in death. It means bereaved ones, and can, therefore, include adults who have lost a beloved friend, guardian and caretaker. Jeremiah said: “We have become mere orphans without a father. Our mothers are like widows.” And Jesus promised that he would not leave his followers to be orphans. (Lam. 5:3; John 14:18) The duty of persons who offer undefiled worship to God is not only to provide material care for widows and bereaved ones in need but also to give spiritual care to spiritual orphans and widows.
Unspotted from the World
Clean worship, James says, must also include being unspotted from the world. A person cannot offer acceptable worship to God as long as he makes himself a part of this corrupt world and tries to promote or perpetuate its aims and policies. The world is not of God and is opposed to his sovereignty as well as his righteous principles. That is why Jesus made it clear that he was no part of the world. Regarding his followers, he said in prayer: “I have given your word to them, but the world has hated them, because they are no part of the world just as I am no part of the world.”—John 17:14.
The world belongs to Jehovah God’s archenemy and can have nothing in common with Him. Its purposes, principles, actions and fruits are contrary to what God says is good. For this reason James says: “Do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.” (Jas. 4:4) The worship that comes from persons who are friends of it is unclean in the eyes of the Creator. It is defiled and unacceptable to him. How, then, can religious leaders in Christendom justify their crowning of worldly kings, meddling in politics and giving open support to warring nations? By showing friendship for the world can it be said they are leading people to offer undefiled worship to God?
The person that offers acceptable devotion to Jehovah God does as James says. He keeps himself “without spot from the world.” He lives in it but docs not cultivate its friendship. He does not become part of its political activities and therefore indirectly responsible for violations of God’s laws by its political parties. Because of this stand the world will have no love for him, but neither did it have for Christ. “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own.”—John 15:18, 19.
Bridling of the Tongue
In addition to keeping undefiled from the world and earing for widows and orphans, James mentions one more thing that is necessary for one’s worship to be acceptable to God. He says: “If any man seems to himself to be a formal worshiper and yet does not bridle his tongue, but goes on deceiving his own heart, this man’s form of worship is futile.”—Jas. 1:26.
The person that fails to exercise control of his tongue so that it speaks what is right in God’s eyes deceives himself if he thinks his worship is acceptable, even if he meets the other divine requirements for right worship. Jesus pointed this out when he said: “Not what enters into his mouth defiles a man; but it is what proceeds out of his mouth that defiles a man.” “Offspring of vipers, how can you speak good things, when you are wicked? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man out of his good treasure sends out good things, whereas the wicked man out of his wicked treasure sends out wicked things.”—Matt. 15:11; 12:34, 35.
The tongue must be controlled by accurate knowledge of the Scriptures so that it speaks and teaches right things about God and his purposes. A person cannot permit it to speak things that are contrary to God’s Word, even when such things are traditionally accepted and taught in many religious organizations. Neither can he compromise with worldly rulers by ceasing to speak Scriptural truths and God’s adverse judgment of the world. He will not permit worldly political and religious leaders to control his tongue so that he speaks only what is pleasing and inoffensive to them. He will not allow anyone in this world, no matter how much political power he may have, to hold the reins of his tongue. He will do as God told Jeremiah: “You must rise up and speak to them everything that I myself command you. Do not be struck with any terror because of them.” (Jer. 1:17) Like Christ, he will use his tongue to speak the truths of God’s Word boldly, for that is acceptable devotion to the Most High. “With the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.”—Rom. 10:10.
God’s Word is the deciding factor of what is good and bad, and what is true and false, not the organizations, traditions and philosophies of men. “Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.” (Rom, 3:4) That is the motto Christians must follow. Worship must be tailored to what God has said is clean and acceptable. “The hour is coming, and it is now, when the genuine worshipers will worship the Father with spirit and truth, for, indeed, the Father is looking for such kind to worship him.”—John 4:23.
THE SMOKER'S DEADLY COMPANION
<1 “The experts have stressed that lung cancer is becoming the number one killer among males more than 40 years of age. Lung cancer in the U.S. has increased
400 times in the past 30 years. ... A two to six year study of 6,000 persons who showed no symptoms of lung cancer initially was conducted by Dr. David A. Cooper of the University of Pennsylvania. At the end of the investigation period, 86 of the 6,000 had developed lung cancer. Of these victims, 85 were smokers.”—Science News Letter, May 16,1959.
SEEING is BELIEVING
By "Awoke!" correspondent in Bolfrta
THE best way to believe what you read and hear about Bolivia is to see this unique country with your own eyes. From the moment your plane touches down at “El Alto," the La Paz international airport, you will become conscious of its unusual character. The plane lands at an altitude that is above what many planes generally fly—13,300 feet. This is the highest international airport in the world.
Instead of a thriving metropolis surrounding the airport as you might expect, there is little else than a railroad yard and a few adobe buildings. There is no sign of Bolivia’s capital city, La Paz, with its more than 350,000 inhabitants. Despite assurances that the plane had landed at the right place, you may leave the airport with some misgivings. Along the road Indian women offer things for sale, and you may think it strange that they are wearing derby hats. Many visitors never expected to see women wearing that kind of headgear. What is even more surprising, practically every Indian woman wears one.
Not until you reach the edge of the mountain plain upon which you landed will you locate the city of La Paz. There, a thousand feet below you, it lies in a huge mountain-rin ged bowl. Needless to say, the scene is surprising and impressive. It is magnificent at night when the city is ablaze with lights.
When you finally enter the city you will find it to be a most interesting place, where the old is contrasted with the new. On a single block you may see old houses of distinctly Spanish architecture, with adobe walls that are over three feet thick, flanked by buildings of modern design. On the outskirts of the city are many one-room adobe houses that are the homes of almost pure Indians. They are a marked contrast to the modern office buildings and beautiful residential sections of the city. Although La Paz has rush-hour automobile traffic like other modern cities, it is not uncommon to see a flock of llamas being casually driven along a side street by an Indian that speaks little if any Spanish. It is only by seeing La Paz that you can believe the contrasts and unique sights that exist there.
Towering above the city to a height of 22,579 feet is majestic Mount Illimani, the fourth-highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere. A splendid view of it can be had from the main street of La Paz, Avenida Camacho. Above the snow line in the Andes mountains can be found Arctic weather right in the tropics.
About 80 percent of Bolivia’s population lives on the huge altiplano or high plain. This is a great plateau that has an average elevation of 12,000 feet. It varies from sixty-five to a hundred miles in width and is about 450 miles long.
Bolivia has not shoved the Indians aside but has made them a vital part of the country’s daily life and commerce. They make up 54.5 percent of the total population. The mestizos, persons of mixed Indian-Spanish ancestry, compose 30.9 percent of the population, and the remaining 14.6 percent consists of persons who are of Spanish-European descent.
If you should enter the colorful and unusual Camacho market in the center of La Paz, you will see Chola Indian women seated behind piles of merchandise of every description. They speak excellent Spanish, strike a hard bargain and are very independent. These descendants of the Incas have become prosperous from their business activities.
The Indians around La Paz speak Aymara, a dialect peculiar to that region, whereas those of Potosi and the valleys speak Quechua, a descendant of the tongue of the Incas. Much of the country’s 68 percent illiteracy among the adult population is due to the large number of Indians that speak no Spanish but use their dialects exclusively.
Schooling is now compulsory and has made great strides in the past twenty years. All teachers must spend some time teaching in isolated villages after graduation before they can get a position in the city schools. This may mean hardships for them, but it is helping the village children to obtain an education.
Jehovah’s witnesses are helping many Bolivians to learn how to read and to write. This is done in addition to teaching them the life-giving truths of God’s Word. It is a heart-warming sight to these New World missionaries to see Indians that have learned about the good things in the Scriptures standing at a door with Bible open, telling the householder about the good news of God’s kingdom.
The Bolivian people enjoy friendliness and cordiality. Upon entering an eating place it is the custom to say, "Buen pro-vecho" which is the equivalent of saying, “Receive the good from what you are eating.” It is not strange, when traveling on a train, to have the person next to you start a conversation by asking where you are from. Generally a good conversation follows. By the time the trip ends you feel as if you have known the person for some time. Visitors to Bolivia can enhance their trip by learning Spanish well enough to converse with these friendly people.
The Land
Most of Bolivia’s population lives in only 16 percent of the country’s total area. Large sections of the Republic are in jungle lowlands. The State of Santa Cruz, for example, comprises nearly one third of the total land area in Bolivia. This state is badly in need of development, for although it is larger than all Germany, it supports a population of less than one percent of that in Germany. The same problem of underpopulation exists in the State of Beni. It, too, is a jungle lowland and covers 20 percent of the total land area. The population it supports is only 5 percent of the total Bolivian population. Meat from the cattle raised here is shipped out by airplane because of poor ground transportation.
There is only one paved highway in the country. It links Santa Cruz with Bolivia’s second-largest city, Cochabamba. A traveling representative for the Watch Tower Society who visits congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses in many parts of Bolivia often begins his trip by plane, then bounces along in a truck for awhile and finishes the trip on mule back.
If you should see a cactus-like plant in Bolivia called Puya raimondii do not pass it by without photographing it. This is a very rare and unusual plant. Its flower stock is sometimes twenty feet tall, with a circumference of eight feet. The plant grows for 150 years before it sends up a flower stock and produces blooms. So if you see one blooming you will see something that happens only once in one and a half centuries.
You will certainly want to see Lake Titicaca, the world’s highest lake on which steamships operate regularly. Its altitude is 12,500 feet above sea level. The reflection of the surrounding mountains in its deep-blue water is such a beautiful sight that it has to be seen to be believed. The rushes that grow in the lake are as important to the Indians there as bamboo is to the Chinese. Houses are thatched with it, raincoats and boats are made from it and its young roots are eaten like asparagus tips. Some of the largest salmon trout in the world live in this lake.
Economic Problems
At the time of World War II Bolivia was the world’s greatest producer of tin, but because prices for tin and the demand for it dropped, Bolivia has suffered great economic trouble. It is, in fact, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
This may seem strange in view of the great wealth that has come from its natural resources. For two hundred years it was the world’s foremost producer of silver, but Spain, not Bolivia, profited from the silver. The Spanish took the silver of Cerro Rico of Potosi and left nothing for the people they enslaved to do the digging. It has been estimated that Cerro Rico yielded one billion ounces of silver, all of which went to Spain.
Simon Patino became the seventhrichest man in the world because of Bolivian tin, but he did not help Bolivia’s economy by investing his money in Bolivia. Instead, he invested it in foreign lands.
While you travel about Bolivia you will get captivating views of unspoiled primitiveness. Between cities there are only a few mud huts covered with straw. No other man-made structures mar the natural appearance of the land. Occasionally a herd of llamas will be seen grazing on what little grass there is on the Altiplano. These unique creatures are used primarily as pack animals.
Bolivia’s second-largest city, Cochabamba, is located at a lower altitude in one of the many fertile mountain valleys. Its average winter temperature is 57 degrees and the average for summer is 67 degrees. Although the city is over 8,000 feet in elevation, people in the higher altitudes will often go to it to get out of the higher altitudes. The higher up the mountains people live, the cooler the temperature becomes and the more rarified the air is. There is a mining camp at 15,600 feet where it is necessary to sleep under six blankets in midsummer. In spite of the cool nights, there are few of Bolivia’s highland homes that have central heating.
The highest cosmic observatory in the world is located in Bolivia, at an altitude of 17,000 feet. A few hundred yards from it is the highest ski run in the world. The scenery, of course, from this high altitude is magnificent.
When you have seen Bolivia with your own eyes you will readily agree that it is unique and has much that is well worth seeing. Its majestic mountains and awesome scenery should impress you with the wisdom and might of the Creator of our beautiful earth. “How many your works are, O Jehovah! All of them in wisdom you have made. The earth is full of your productions.”—Ps. 104: 24.
ALKING the streets at night has become a perilous venture. Even a casual stroll through the park or just
-■»
OUR,
plain sitting on one's doorstep is no longer safe. These pleasant moments of relaxation can end up in brutal attack, rob--bery, rape and even death. This— because violence is O)> the rampage. It is an epidemic the world over, said Judge Samuel S. Leibowitz of New York. Ours has become “the hoodlum era, the era of the switchblade and the zip gun, the flailing belt buckle, the slashing bicycle chain,” writes Arthur Hoppe, of the San Francisco Chronicle. “This is the era of violence on the streets.”
Serious juvenile crimes in the United States showed an increase by 8.1 percent in the last year. The crime rate went up to 9.3 percent above the 1957 high mark. Director of the F.B.I., J. Edgar Hoover, called the 9.3-percent increase “shocking.” Since 1950 crime has increased nearly four times as fast as the population. “We are fast approaching the time when this nation will have over 2,000,000 persons who have appeared in juvenile courts,” said Senator Thomas C. Hennings, Jr., chairman of a Senate subcommittee to investigate juvenile delinquency. “Although our child population has increased only 25 percent from 1948 to 1957, appearances before juvenile courts have increased almost 150 percent in the same period. This is a
I?
shocking situation.” What the statistics do not show is the spreading pattern of senseless brutality, the increasing outbursts of pure sadism.
Juvenile criminals, in their attacks, spare no group. Victims include old people, young people, socially prominent people, visitors, businessmen, lawmen and ordinary citizens; anyone who dares to cross their path gets a taste of their violence.
Edgar L. Gilcreest, a seventy-four-year-old surgeon, had worked late in his office. As he started to walk down a quiet street from the bus stop to his home, six young men stepped out of the shadows, grabbed him, pinned his arms behind his back and beat him unmercifully. A knife blade slashed across his cheek and laid it wide open from ear to chin. They took his wallet and dashed off into the darkness. It used to be they would rob a person and then leave. But now they either slug their victims into unconsciousness, shoot them or stick a knife into them before leaving.
In Washington, D.C., where America's laws are made, a seventy-eight-year-old florist was sitting on his front porch enjoying the still of the evening. A teen-age gang, like a hungry pack of wolves, suddenly swarmed all over him. They covered his eyes and mouth with their hands and took his wallet. Before they ran off, they beat, his body into a pulp with their fists.
After citing the beating and robbery of the widow of Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald Quarles by a street gang, also the killing of a Bolling Air Force Base sergeant by a gang of young toughs he caught tampering with his car, and a number of other incidents, Representative Omar Burleson demanded that two companies of United States Marines patrol the streets of the District of Columbia at night to guarantee the safety of its citizens.
Down the line, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Boston and other cities have all had their share of teen-age violence. During the hot spells of July and August teenage crime in New York city reached epidemic stage. There were four teen-age killings in a week, which was too much even for New Yorkers to take. Old and young women were dragged off the streets by teen-aged hoodlums to be robbed, beaten and raped. Newsweek under the subheading “The Big Town—The Big Mess” said: “Much of the city is a jungle, where no one is safe after dark. Even in some schools, teen-age girls must walk the building halls in pairs as protection against rape.” The New York Times told the gruesome story simply by listing a number of headlines in one of its editorials. The shocking twist of events that continued unchecked into September sent New York city’s Mayor Wagner and the state’s Governor Rockefeller into separate huddles to work out a solution.
The trouble is not all with boys, either. Deep in the woods of Maine, in a small town, a sixteen-year-old baby sitter was about her business when seven girls broke into the house and assaulted her. They kicked and pounded her unmercifully, and then they fled. The baby sitter knew the girls. She identified every one of them. They were said to be among the “nicest” girls in town. One of the girls was the daughter of the town’s chief of police. The girls were members of a teen-age gang called “The Kittens"—female auxiliary to a male gang called “The Cats.” The reason given for the brutal attack was that there was a rumor in town to the effect that the baby sitter had dated a boy friend of one of the “kittens.”
A World-wide Phenomenon
Teen-age violence is not confined solely to the United States as some might think. It is a world-wide phenomenon of our time. South Africa is burdened with it. U. S. News <& World Report quotes a police colonel as saying: “There’s no law in the native townships once the sun goes down —anarchy just breaks loose.” This same authority reports: “On pay nights, one policeman says, ‘all hell breaks loose’ in the Negro areas. Gangs of young hoodlums, called ‘tsptsis,’ go up and down bus queues, robbing people by ‘mass production.’ In one hand, they hold out a hat for ‘donations’—in the other, a knife. Sometimes they force a black-African bus to stop, then board it and rob all the passengers and the conductor. ‘It’s almost impossible to get information,’ says a police colonel. ‘Everyone is too terrified to talk.’ ”
During 1955 in the Greater Johannesburg area, which has a population of about 1.7 million, there were some 895 known killings. New York city, with a population exceeding eight million, reported 315 homicides in 1956. London, with a similar population, had only thirty.
The island of Taiwan saw a 200-percent increase in juvenile criminal offenses between 1953 and 1958. The island of Pang-kor had a youth gang war in which one islander was killed, ten others were wounded, and eight houses were burned down. The youths fought with clubs and knives. Japan’s widowed mothers were being recruited for special police duty in an effort to curb juvenile crime in that land. Glasgow, Scotland, saw its worst crime wave since 1945. The total number of crimes was 25 percent higher than the year before.
Italy and France are being plagued by youth gangs and violence. Italy's newspapers reported juvenile violence almost every day of the year. Milan police have organized a special task force to fight youth gangs. Gang wars in France are similar to those staged by New York youth gangs. When the French police rounded up a group of twenty-six boys, ranging in age from fourteen to twenty, they found them armed with iron bars, brass knuckles, chains, whips and knives, with which they terrorized the neighborhood.
Youths in East Germany and in the Soviet Union are reported molesting and frightening people with gangland holdups. The New York Times tells of adolescent gangs and violence “in the large new housing projects near Moscow University and near the Leningrad Highway. In one project a colonel’s son was asked by a gang to help rob his father's apartment. He refused. The teen-agers pinioned the boy, took a sledge hammer and broke both his legs. In an adjacent block two teen-age girls were raped in a week by another gang. Parents in the new buildings have formed their own volunteer groups to work with the youngsters and try to bring the situation under control.”
Profile of Delinquent and Gangs
Who are these delinquent youngsters? What are youth gangs? Why is this menace growing? What is being done to curb its spread ?
Youth gangs are usually made up of teen-agers or young adults in their early twenties. They are hardly a heroic-looking lot. When police nabbed a young gang leader, dramatized in the press as “Dracula,” they found him to be a slight, almost effeminate boy of sixteen. His lieutenant, a lad of seventeen, was just as frail. As a rule these delinquent youths come from unhappy homes. They are displeased with their lot in life. When a sixteen-year-old gang fighter was questioned about two killings, he snarled: “I don’t care if I burn; my mother could watch me.”
These young toughs are organized into gangs to gain a “rep" or reputation, that is, recognition in their neighborhoods. They crave excitement and feel the need of protection, so they steal and destroy.
There are about 150 or more youth gangs in New York city, with an aggregate membership of 6,500 to 7,500. They reign by terror over the slums, the drab housing projects and the city’s parks. Anyone who enters their territory, especially after nightfall, does so at his own risk. J. Edgar Hoover called some of these areas veritable “no man’s land.” Some gangs have two to three hundred members, but when there are signs of a “rumble" or war they can order a thousand or more “troops” into action. They have their own war strategists, generals, presidents, vice-presidents, and so forth. Their weapons are zip guns, pistols, rifles, sawed-off shotguns, pipes and chains, belts and knives.
Recently some of these gangs have been reaching out beyond marked boundaries. As a result, there have been deadly clashes between rival gangs. Often when anticipated clashes do not materialize, the worked-up young toughs, like a wild pack of wolves, run riot through the streets ref-leasing their pent-up emotions on peaceful citizens. When this happens, they destroy, rob, rape and kill without mercy.
It is these unprovoked attacks that have cast a shadow of fear over peaceful citizens and streets. Such lovely cities as Washington, D.C., are fast becoming cities of closed doors for many of its residents. Women are told not to venture out at night, and if they must, to keep off dimly lit streets. Mothers are fearful of sending their children out to the corner store. No longer is it wise to take a shortcut home through the park. New York city warns its visitors and residents to stay out of such beautiful parks as Central Park, Bronx and Prospect Park after dark. Now in lighted residential areas men are seen to walk faster and to glance back to see if someone is following. Even policemen find it advantageous to patrol their beats in twos and threes.
Fear has taken over. Money stolen can be replaced, buildings destroyed can be rebuilt, cuts will heal, bruises will fade, even broken bones will mend, but the loss to man is something far greater than all of these. His greatest loss is his peace of mind, his sense of security that he once enjoyed when he walked the streets, when he sat on his front porch or in the city park. These are the irreparable losses that must be regained.
Proposed Causes and Remedies
Police say racial frictions are closely related to the upsurge in crime. A young Puerto Rican accused of leading a murderous attack was quoted as saying: “We went there to get the Irish and the Italians. We heard Puerto Ricans were being pushed around in the neighborhood.” Some people blame judges for “coddling” juvenile gangsters. They say judges have been too lenient, that youth boards and consultants have been overly sympathetic. Still others blame the flow of alcohol and narcotics for the ferocity of youth crimes. Magistrate Walter 'Gladwin, in Bronx Adolescent Court, stated that if only the parents of youth had made “the boys repeat the Ten Commandments as we did when we were children, particularly the Commandment, 'Thou shalt not kill,’ we would not have these killings in New York.”
Whatever the cause for youth violence, officials promise that from now on there will be no more “kid-glove” treatment. At least eighty-five cities in the United States have turned to the curfew to help control youth. Most of the curfew laws affect youths from seventeen years old and under. Both parents and police like the idea of the curfew. Police in Washington, D.C., have issued special instructions to women advising them what to do in case of trouble. Signs have been posted warning women to keep off dark streets. Some women have been supplied with police whistles to sound in case of danger. In Pennsylvania the law is that if any teenager is convicted of any criminal act, the parents are fined, and, in some cases, even imprisoned. Chief of the juvenile aid division, Harry G. Fox, said: “Rarely does a boy or girl whose parents have been subject to court action show up as a second offender.” In Baltimore, officers and German shepherd dogs patrol the streets from nightfall to dawn. In New York city, Police Commissioner Stephen P. Kennedy canceled all days off for his 23,428-man police force and mobilized 1,400 extra patrolmen and rushed them into explosive areas. A camp system patterned after the old Civilian Conservation Corps is proposed. A ban is sought to stop the flow of illegal arms and narcotics into the hands of youngsters. Judge Leibowitz says that something must be done to advise young people on how to cope with “this crazy world we live in.” He asserted that where family bonds are tight, crime is at its lowest, that education should begin at the marriage license bureau to help keep the parents out of the divorce courts and to help them to raise their children. Home Secretary R. A. Butler of Scotland, a father of four, said that the best treatment for juvenile delinquents was a pat on the back “administered lower down.”
Right Examples Needed
The big question is, Will these proposed remedies work? Children are not born delinquents. To a large extent they merely copy their parents or copy patterns set for them by the adult world. We want our children to be honest and to obey laws. But how many adults are honest and obey laws? J. Edgar Hoover stated .that in the last year the number of criminal offenses noted by the police forces came to 2,796,400, and the vast majority of these offenses were committed by adults. Who is it that has set the pattern in which bitter territorial wars are waged, where live amuni-tion is used and lives are taken? Still adults appear aghast when they hear of youth gang wars. From whom do the children learn racial and religious prejudices, how to fight and kill? A newborn infant knows of no skin color or prejudice. But before it is hardly old enough to walk it is already indoctrinated with the fears, superstitions and hates of the adult world. Are we to blame youths for what the adult world has taught them? This is not the excusing of juvenile crime and violence, but a call for a more genuine look at the cause.
Parents want their children to be honest, upright and good—to be what they themselves may not be. They say, ‘'Son, you must be honest.” But in the fiscal year 1958 the bad checks that came to the attention of the F.B.I. had a face value of $8,000,000. Says William Hard: "The cost of employee dishonesty in American business enterprises of all kinds can safely be estimated at somewhere between 500 million and one billion dollars a year. And it is increasing. ... 70 percent of dishonesty culprits in the most recent months of complete record have been women! . . . Dishonesty losses now cost the country many times as much per year as fire losses.” Certainly people cannot expect to straighten the children out with that kind of example. Philip Wylie’s article “Are We Becoming a Nation of Chiselers?” clearly shows that chiseling, from the top down, is "epidemic.” He states: “One out of every three working Americans is now covered by some sort of surety bond—a gauge of the trust employers have in employes!” Still parents are amazed at the distrusting nature of their children. Can we teach good principles with wrong examples? Magistrate Gladwin says it would be different if only the parents of youth had made the boys repeat the Ten Commandments. But who is there to get the 'parents to repeat and practice the Ten Commandments?
On one occasion Jesus Christ said: “Why, then, do you look at the straw in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the rafter in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: ‘Allow me to extract the straw from your eye’; when, look! a rafter is in your own eye? Hypocrite! first extract the rafter from your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to extract the straw from your brother’s eye.” Doubtless this principle presents the surest remedy for juvenile crime and violence. Let adults first get rid of the rafter that is in their own eyes—the corruption and crime, the gangsterism and immorality— then, perhaps, they will see youth’s true problem. At least they will have an honest basis for presenting practical remedies that will alleviate the deteriorating conditions among youth. "For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap,” is a divine principle. If adults turn to God and conform to his righteous law as set out in the Bible they will provide youth with good examples. Youth will follow, and peace will return to the streets of the world. —Matt. 7:3-5; Gal. 6:7.
ing to the east as far as Greenland and others heading west to the farthest tip of the Aleutian Islands. Because of their geographic isolation and genetic accentuation, in some areas they have developed their own particular facial features, but as a rule they have the Oriental look.
THE Eskimos are a widely dispersed people who inhabit the most northerly and broadest stretch of land of any people on earth—from Greenland through Northern Canada to Alaska and up to the western tip of the Aleutian Islands, a distance of more than 6,000 miles. Because they are so widely settled, they have developed cultural patterns, habits, and customs that are not known to many people.
Most people imagine that the Eskimos live in igloos or snow huts and share a perennially frozen home, surrounded by polar bears, foxes, reindeer and dog teams. While this was true in some respects many years ago and periodically now a hunter may spend a day or two in an igloo when caught in an Arctic storm, today the Eskimo lives in timber-constructed homes, which are usually heated by an oil stove. Many younger Eskimos do not even know how to construct an igloo. Modernization in the way of schools, hospitals and timesaving equipment in the home as well as on the sea has helped some Eskimos to enjoy a better standard of living.
Where did the Eskimo originate? It is generally agreed among anthropologists and archaeologists that they migrated from Asia by way of Bering Strait, some follow-
Their Customs and Games
These people are very happy, congenial and hospitable. If you were to visit their village, you too would find yourself laughing with them at the “blanket toss,” sailing in their skin boat called the “kayak,” rejoicing with the hunters after a successful hunt, tasting a bit of “muktuk,” wearing “mukluks” and eating some Eskimo “ice-cream” with delight.
Their customs and games may seem strange to you, but they are very enjoyable to the Eskimo. For instance, let’s watch their “blanket toss.” The game is unique. A group of Eskimos, men and women, will gather together in a circle, with one hand on the edge of a skin blanket made of split walrus hide. The skin is so resilient that it produces a powerful springlike effect. One player will step to the center of the blanket, and at the command of the captain all will move away from the center and pull. As the skin stretches it begins to toss the performer into the air, first a few feet, then again and again tossing the man higher and higher. The longer one can remain without falling, the higher he can be thrown. Some buoyantly ascend to heights of fifteen feet or more. In some parts, this becomes a competitive game.
Football is another game that is well liked and played by the Eskimos in the Arctic. Men and women play on both sides, and often this contest is played under the scenic northern lights. Usually the game gets rough, as both sides are very eager to win, and women can play it as rough as men.
Eskimos love music, and many sing their native songs. Usually festive and special occasions are celebrated with an all-out dance. Their sealskin-covered feet romp to music that may carry on nonstop for three to four hours. The music is provided by organ-like instruments or Eskimo drums.
For centuries the Eskimo has enjoyed an abundance of food, but today this situation is rapidly deteriorating. Big game hunters, commercial fishermen and sportsmen with their modern weapons have reduced game and fish in the far north. This has created a shortage for the native. Because of dwindling caribou herds, seals and fish, it has been necessary for some Eskimos to move to other areas in search of food. The Canadian Government has evacuated some settlements in Canada’s Arctic where the population was on the verge of starvation. Eskimos are confronted for the first time with the problem of having to spend money to acquire supplies they need, instead of acquiring them through hunting and barter. Their diet consists chiefly of fish, moose, reindeer meat and various birds. They waste nothing of a carcass that is usable, and, until recently, never even had to buy meat.
It may seem strange to some that a boat is employed in hunting. A wooden-framed boat covered with sealskin sewed together by sinews is what the Eskimo calls his "kayak.” What can one hunt on the open sea? Aside from the whales, whose raw blubber is a delicacy called "muktuk,” the Eskimo is very fond of seal meat, especially that of the bearded seal called "oogruk.” The meat is high in food value and its skin is primarily used for making the soles of Eskimo shoes called “mukluks.” The mother Eskimo wets the skin and, after letting it stand awhile, she chews it and shapes it for the bottom of the “muk-luk.” This renders it pliable, and it also proves to be sufficiently durable to stand up to the wear and tear of frozen snow and sharp ridges of ice.
Seal oil is a commodity that has many household uses in the Eskimo home. In addition to cooking it is used for flavoring food. This is done in the most convenient manner—merely by dipping raw or frozen fish into the oil and eating it. For dessert, seal oil can be employed to make icecream. This is done by melting pieces of tallow and whipping it with a measure of seal oil. Snow or water is added to bring about a light, fluffy texture. To add flavor and color to this delicacy, they add wild cranberries, blueberries or diced meats. It is very wholesome and the whole family delights in this treat.
Canadian Eskimos, in some parts, are suffering from chills and colds, no doubt because of turning to the white man's clothing, which is not suitable for the Arctic weather. Their own traditional furry garments were ideal for repelling the cold. Concerning their style of clothing the Alaska Sportsman magazine, October, 1958, said: “The recently stylish sack look, which strained many a clothing budget, presented no problem to belles of the Arctic. A thousand years ago the Eskimos achieved the sack look—for all sizes, all ages, both genders—in the parka. Practi-cah though it is, a less revealing garment would be difficult to design. Yet the popularity of love and marriage endures among the Eskimos—a consoling thought for alarmists who fear for the survival of the human species if feminine contours are camouflaged.”
The Eskimo is quite religious. The immortality of the soul is predominantly believed by the Eskimos through the north. Superstition is therefore still strong. Centuries back, a dead man’s possessions were buried with him, and sometimes slaves or dogs were killed and buried with their masters or chiefs.
Segregation or integration
Segregation or integration is the question that some authorities cannot agree on. The decision may largely determine the future of our Eskimos. The Edmonton Journal (November 17, 1958), reporting on comments of Roman Catholic missionaries in the Arctic, quoted from their magazine the following: ‘‘Large-scale activity by the white man in the Arctic during the last few years has resulted in serious problems. Alcoholism, previously unknown among Eskimos, now is making ravages; in many places organized prostitution on a large scale has been witnessed and juvenile delinquency, previously non-existent, has become a problem with which the authorities seem unable to cope.”
If integration wins out, for what will the Eskimo be educated? Can he compete with the white man in securing work? What standard of living will he maintain? Can the Eskimo abandon his dog sled for the tractor and replace seal as a diet for canned foods in a few years? Said the Scientific American magazine of November, 1958: “It is a picture all too familiar to anthropologists: a once-thriving independent people, admirably disciplined for life in a rigorous environment, now impoverished, diseased and spiritually weakened, its ancient culture all but destroyed. The story might serve as a lesson to us. But it is probably too late to save the southern-most of our Eskimos.”
Today, it is heart-warming to see a number of these folk accept the truth and take their stand with the New World society, for, doing so, they have the hope of living forever in a new world (Isa. 65:17), in which they will neither starve nor freeze, nor become the victims of error and neglect.
What Parents I
*3? Writing about a general change of paren- i[ tai attitude that is having an “evil effect'’ on youth, Judge Elijah Adlow, chief justice of '' the Municipal Court of Boston, has said: i[ “There can be no question that the improvement in the condition of the average man, Ji with its increase in earnings, has contributed ■[ radically to the change in attitude of parents. Most of them overlook the part which strict discipline, scanty allowances, and hard work ■[ played in their moral and physical upbringIng. Instead they are determined to give to J, their children what was denied to them. They ■[ buy them better clothes, provide them with larger allowances, enable them to participate in sports, to attend movies, to enjoy summer J vacation, and to do all those things calculated Ji to make life agreeable. They not only relieve [! them of the little tasks or chores which once ij
Way Overlook
I were a part of a boy’s life, but they even 1 frown on the performance of any manual I labor, particularly for hire. The industry that [ was once encouraged in youth as a virtue j is now regarded as an interference with the । right to enjoy life.
i “This generosity on the part of parents । has had an evil effect on the generation upon , which it has been lavished. The little gifts | which once provided the great incentive to ; youth for obedience and industry are now without effect. What was once awaited as an act of kindness and generosity is now demanded as a right. And the kindness of parents which makes occasional work unnecessary has resulted in building up in Young America a pronounced aversion for manual labor and toil.”—The Atlantic Monthly, July, 195S.
CUSTOMS FROM BIBLE TIMES FOUND IN WEST AFRICA
By Watch Tower missionary in Liberia
EST AFRICA, bewildering and fascinating as a storybook, is the home of colorful people with interesting habits. Here ancient customs of Bible times are cherished and practiced.
In Freetown, Sierra Leone, a panorama of tropical freshness and beauty, we make an unusual discovery. While preaching the good news of God's kingdom from house to house one is suddenly arrested by a sharp hissing sound. You look up and on the second floor of a nearby building someone beckons. What a unique way of attracting attention. That hissing sound amidst noise is more penetrating and effective than yelling at the top of one’s voice, “Hey, you.” Hissing is an ancient practice, for Jehovah himself tells us at Zechariah 10:8 that he will hiss and gather his servants in the latter days.
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