Awake!, April 8, 1962
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SPAIN SUPPRESSES RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
team the facts — page 5
Do You Leave Religion to Your Wife?
PAGE IS
Weekends—a Pleasure or a Plague?
PAGE 20
APRIL 8, 1962
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital Issues at our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. "Awake!" has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It 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 daes not abuse its freedom, it maintains integrity to truth.
"Awake!" uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the-scenes reports come to you through those columns. This journal's viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, 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 “Awoke!”
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CONTENTS
Luxuries—Are They Worth Their Price? 3
Spain Suppresses Religious Freedom
A Letter of Appreciation
Guns and Children
Do You Leave Religion to Your Wife?
Peace Destroyer
Weekends—a Pleasure or a Plague?
World Insanity
Poisons as Medicines
Feathered Monarchs at the Sky
Welding Metal with Sound
“Your Word Is Truth"
Showing Respect for the Procreative Gift
Watching the World
"It is already the hour for you to awake.” —Romon* 13:11
Volume XLIH
London, England, April 8, 1962
Number 7
YOU cannot escape it, everything has its price. Luxuries certainly do. But are luxuries worth their price? Some hold that all luxuries are sinful. Others live for them.
What are luxuries? The word “luxury”
Each government has its own ideas as to what are luxuries and it taxes accord
ingly. If you live in the United States, you pay “luxury taxes” on entertainment, travel, jewelry, luggage, furs and toilet articles such as perfume.
comes from a root meaning “excess.” AU commodities are said to be either luxuries or necessities. The general view of necessities, however, is that they include, not only the bare essentials for existence, but also what custom and rules of decency have rendered necessary. Thus butter on your bread and sugar in your coffee, although not absolute necessities, are, nevertheless, not generally considered luxuries.
The term “luxury” is a relative one. That is, something’s being a luxury often depends upon circumstances. For example, food and drink are necessities, but certain foods and beverages may be luxuries in some localities, while they are everyday fare elsewhere. In France, for example, wine with one’s meals would be considered a necessity; in other lands it may be called a luxury. Likewise, for one person any automobile may be a foolish luxury; another may view the very best as a necessity in his case.
Luxuries are not all to be condemned, as they are by some, for it is evident that the Creator himself is not opposed to luxuries. Consider with what lavish hand he has bestowed upon man the beauties of nature! These may be said to be luxuries, for you could exist without them. If you were dying from hunger or thirst, they would be of little use. But once you have life’s necessities, how much such beauties, such luxuries, if you please, add to your joy of living!
Are luxuries worth their price? Obviously—but only if you keep them in their place. They make enjoyable slaves but wretched taskmasters. Use them wisely, for, as the Bible says: “Luxury is not fitting for anyone stupid.” A stupid person is neither deserving of luxuries nor does he know how to use them. So it is not in the fitness of things that he have luxuries. —Prov, 19:10.
Luxuries are worth the price if not obtained at the sacrifice of necessities and if used in moderation. In ancient times wine, oil and honey were considered luxuries. They were worth the price, provided one did not overindulge: “He that is loving merriment will be an individual in want; he that is loving wine and oil will not gain riches.” “The eating of too much honey is not good.”—Prov. 21:17; 25:27.
Luxuries can also be worth the price if prompted by an unselfish motive. As a husband you may take your wife out to dinner or some entertainment as a special treat. Thp dinner may cost from two to five times as much as it would have had it been prepared at home; but occasionally, as an expression of appreciation of your wife’s cooking, you let her enjoy the luxury of a meal she herself did not have to prepare. That luxury is worth its price. Or you may give a friend a bottle of liqueur, one that you would not think of buying for yourself. A luxury? Yes. Worth the price? Absolutely! Yes, a generous impulse may be a costly luxury and yet fully worth the price.
But luxuries are not worth the price If the motive for indulging in them is rivalry, trying to keep up with the Joneses, seeking status. Neither are they worth the price if they run you into debt, causing you to worry and to work overtime. And when persons resort to illicit means, such as shoplifting, burglary, embezzlement or gambling, to satisfy their craving for luxuries, they certainly are wrong.
Neither are luxuries worth the price if that price is your health. Luxurious living as to food and drink often results in obesity, diabetes, stomach, liver or kidney ailments. Those who live to eat, whose “god is their belly,” suffer for it according to the rule: “Whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap.”—Phil. 3:19; Gal. 6:7.
Luxuries definitely are not worth the
- price if they deaden your concern for others. How much better to forego the luxuries' and to share with oik’s feUowznan! Yes, even when one’s fellow is not in dire need, greater joy may be derived from sharing what you have with him than from saving to indulge in a luxury alone. There is “more happiness in giving than there is in receiving."—Acts 20:35; Jas. 5:1-5.
And, above all, luxuries are not worth the price if they estrange you from your Maker, Jehovah God. Unless you keep luxuries in their place you will find yourself among those who are “lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God." That is why the apostle John counseled: “Do not be loving either the world or the things in the world .. . because everything in the world —the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world.” Unless you are careful luxuries may well cause you to “rob God,” as it were, of the “exclusive devotion” that is due him. They may well cause you to forget that "not by bread alone does man live but by every expression of Jehovah’s mouth,” and to become dull to your “spiritual need.”—2 Tim. 3:4; 1 John 2:15, 16; Mal. 3:8; Ex. 20:5; Deut, 8:3; Matt. 5:3.
The infinite variety and manifold beauties of nature testify to the fact that the Creator, Jehovah God, intended man to enjoy luxuries to augment his happiness. But they are worth the price only if there is a right motive, if wisdom directs and moderation controls, for only then can they make you happy. And since there is “more happiness in giving than there is in receiving'/' why not often turn your ability to have a luxury into an opportunity to share?
regime is publicly criticized by such highly respected persons and organizations? Are Spanish officials as prompt to correct violations of human freedom as they are to protest criticism of those violations?
Authorities Spurn
World Protest
On September 8, 1961, the curtain of silence shrouding Spain’s police state tactics was broken by an Awake! expose entitled “Totalitarian Inquisition Revived in Spain.” Copies were sent to government offi
A TELEGRAM became international news recently. It was signed “Eleanor Roosevelt,” widow of the former American president, and sent to New York newspapers. The message condemned the U. S. Secretary of State for hailing Francisco Franco as “an ally of the U. S. in the fight against Communist aggression.” The telegram read: “That a member of this Administration could praise a Fascist tyrant who has violated every basic precept of freedom and decency is indefensible just as General Franco is indefensible.”
Mrs. Roosevelt quickly labeled the telegram the work of an impostor, but added that its sentiments might not be far from her own. Editorially, the prestigious New York Times applied an Italian saying, “Se non d veto, d ben trovato” which, roughly translated, means: “Even if it was not true, it was a good idea.”
Spanish authorities quickly protested these statements against the regime. Spain’s United Nations delegation sent a letter of protest to the Times. Barcelona’s La Vanguardia in a front-page article described the Times as an “aggressive antiSpanish newspaper.”
But why is it that after more than twenty years of rule the present Spanish cials, civic leaders, prominent citizens and newspapers in every province of Spain, alerting them to the crusade against Jehovah’s witnesses. Many newspapers in other lands reprinted the Awake! report As a result Spanish embassies and Francisco Franco, as well as Camilo Alonso Vega, Minister of Government, were inundated by thousands of indignant protests.
To date the Spanish government and newspapers have ignored the protests. The Spanish embassies, however, categorically replied that “there is no persecution in Spain of Jehovah’s Witnesses or of anybody else.” Spain’s Washington Embassy accused Awake! of circulating a biased and distorted report of unproved facts, asserting that there is “complete freedom of worship” in Spain, and by means of its diplomatic free mail the Embassy even responded to some protests by mailing a Catholic pamphlet published by the “Re-demptorist Fathers” attacking Jehovah’s witnesses. The Spanish Em-
at the protests and advised that “there are no ’Jehovah’s witnesses’ in Spain.”
While Spanish Embassies solemly quote Article VI of Spain’s Bill of Rights (“Nobody shall be molested for his religious beliefs nor in the private exercise of his worship”), is religious freedom upheld in Spain? No! Jehovah’s witnesses in Spain have become the object of an all-out crusade designed to stamp and starve them out. Spanish officials have revived the spirit displayed against the Christian apostles Peter and John, reported at Acts 4:17: “Nevertheless, in order that it may not be spread abroad further among the people, let us tell them with threats not to speak any more upon the basis of this name to any man at all.” Consider the evidence.
Arrests Increase
On December 19,1961, Esperanza Amen-gual Canellas, 15-year-old daughter of Antonio Amengual and Esperanza Canellas, was left alone and unprotected in the world when police agents arrested both her parents. Why? Because Mrs. Canellas professes to be one of Jehovah’s witnesses. This was only one of several December arrests in the city of Palma on the island of Majorca, instigated by the Direction General de Seguridad.
Juan Torres Cardona, father of five children, and employed for over twelve years with Palma’s Water and Sewer Department, was ordered to be fired by Mayor Juan Massanet Moragues, after police jailed him and one of his sons for fifteen days for having a Bible study in their home.
On January 13, 1962, in Valencia, Carmen Arenas Marti de Cuso, a 26-year-old married woman, was taken to jail for a month for refusal to pay an unjust fine she had received for speaking about the gospel to another person.
Police agents entered and searched the house of Ramdn Barca Villar in Joane, province of La Corufia, on December 12, because it was said that he was one of Jehovah’s witnesses! Barca and his brotherin-law, Jesus Pose Varela, were taken into custody. Police also confiscated religious books, magazines and a Spanish Catholic Nicar-Colunga Bible for closer examination at police headquarters. Their interrogation lasted from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. On January 4 both men were fined by the civil government.
On December 13 Antonio Alvarez Sardina was conversing with an acquaintance in a hotel at Martinet, in the province of Lerida. The acquaintance brought up the subject of the Bible and asked Alvarez if he knew of any way that he could procure some printed aids for studying the Bible. Alvarez went home to pick up his briefcase in which he always carried a few tracts and booklets on Bible subjects. Upon returning, he was pounced upon by agents of Spain’s Guardia Civil, who ordered him to open his briefcase. As a result, Alvarez received a whopping 5,000-peseta fine from LSrida’s governor Jos6 Antonio Serrano Montalvo, because, to quote him, “you were surprised when you were devoting yourself to proselytism and the sale of publications of dissident sects.”
On December 24 one of Jehovah’s witnesses imprisoned at Burgos' provincial prison for preaching the gospel was scoff-ingly told that she would be thrown in with one of her own kind. There she met Angeles Iglesias, a woman previously unknown to her. The woman explained that she had become interested in the Bible and had come into contact with some Biblestudy magazines printed by the Watch Tower Society. Because of having them in her possession she had been thrown into prison for three months by the Burgos authorities.
Similarly, Patricio Colina Dorado, one of Jehovah’s witnesses who lives in the famous church council city of Toledo, received a fine of 2,500 pesetas from civil governor Francisco EJviro Meseguer. In a written document, the governor stated that the fine was imposed because, during an interrogation by Toledo police, Colina admitted “having received propaganda literature and having been recently baptized as such a witness.”
Bible Study a Crime
On Thursday, December 7, 1961, Felix Hop Anguera, a 36-year-old minister of Jehovah’s witnesses, was peacefully conducting a study of the Bible among a small group of friends in a private home in the city of Oviedo, The group was studying the subject of “Satan the Devil” when suddenly and without warning two squad cars of police were upon them. The house was searched, and the Bibles and Biblestudy literature were confiscated. Felix Llop, the conductor of the study, as well as three other Bible students, was taken to jail.
Police then raided the home where Llop lived and arrested his wife. A 500-peseta fine was levied against the owner of the house, and a 200-peseta fine imposed on the owner’s wife. None of these latter ones had attended the Bible study.
Llop, his wife Maria Teresa, along with another couple, Sergio Cruz Hernandez and his wife Pilar, were fingerprinted and their pictures taken, followed by a stiff four-hour interrogation. They spent ten days in jail before word was finally received from Oviedo’s governor Marcos Pena Royo. He decreed a total of 17,000 pesetas in fines for the four for “acts of clandestine proselytism in Oviedo for the sect called Jehovah’s Witnesses.” When added to the fines that all those in attendance at the Bible study received, the amount totaled more than $300.00 (in U.S. currency). No liberty was allowed the imprisoned ones and they could not start legal proceedings against the unjust fines.
On December 22 it was announced that, while one couple would continue imprisoned in Oviedo, Llop and his wife would be transferred to the province of their birth, 1,126 kilometers away. Authorities paid no attention to the fact that, while Llop and his wife were not born in the province of Oviedo, they were legally registered as residents with the government, and that Spanish law guarantees Spaniards the right to live in the province of their choice. The trip was dragged out for eleven days, during which time Llop and his wife were registered at four different dungy prisons. He was continually handcuffed to common criminals.
Upon arriving in Barcelona on January 2, more police photographs were taken, again fingerprints of all ten fingers were made. Rugged police interrogations continued off and on until January 13, when the couple were finally allowed provisional liberty.
Gospel Preaching Brings Prison
On December 18, 1961, Maximo Murcia Crespo and Juanita Quiles went to visit some of their neighbors in the city of Zaragoza in order to share with them their knowledge of God’s Word, in obedience to Jesus' command. (Matt. 10:27) At one home a secret policeman happened to answer the door. The police agent knew Maximo Murcia well, for he had been present on previous occasions when Maximo was thoroughly interrogated about his Bible teaching activity.
The policeman immediately took the two Christians to the office of the chief of police where they were kept until 8 p.m. Then handcuffs were put on the prisoners to take them to jail. Although Zaragoza has a very cold winter climate, no blankets were offered to them in order to keep warm during the night The interrogation the following morning lasted from 9 a,m. until 12:30. The questions were very similar to the ones that Maximo was asked just a year before, in December, 1960, when he and his wife were jailed for no apparent reason for fifteen days. Next, the prisoners’ fingerprints and pictures were taken.
On Wednesday, December 20, again wearing handcuffs, they were transferred to the provincial prison, to await the disposition of the chief of Spain’s national police network, the Direction General de Seguridad located in Madrid. Meanwhile these Christians were forced to associate with murderers, robbers and effeminate persons. Release finally came at 2 p.m. on December 22.
Children Expelled front School
On October 20, 1961, a teacher at a grade school located in the town of Torral-ba de Calatrava in the province of Ciudad Real gave strict orders for all the children to line up so as to march to church to attend mass. Little Juanito Garcia Villaraco, 9-year-old son of Pedro Garcia Villaraco, stepped aside and again explained to the teacher that he belonged to another religion and therefore did not wish to attend mass. The instructor angrily ordered the boy to take his books, leave school and not come back.
The boy’s father visited the school and tried to reason with the teacher. The teacher retorted that he could not tolerate nonCatholic children in a Catholic school, and that the children must learn obedience in everything, even to the extent of attending mass though not professing that faith.
The child’s father pointed out that the government does not provide anything but Catholic schools and that, furthermore, the government guarantees that every Spanish citizen shall “receive education and instruction” and that “no one will be molested for his religious beliefs.” Certainly, trying to force a nine-year-old to attend a religious service and subsequently expelling him from school for refusal to do so was not only molesting the child and his entire family, but was an outright trampling upon one’s rights as a Spanish citizen. In addition, he pointed out that many other children of Jehovah’s witnesses had attended the school without incident, and that they had always been highly respected because of their good conduct. A subsequent visit to the teacher on November 19 proved to be fruitless. The child is still not attending school.
On October 17, Juanito Belmonte, 11-year-old son of Jose Belmonte of Manresa, province of Barcelona, was expelled from school. The teacher had ordered all the children to stand and salute the national emblem. While little Juanito stood respectfully at attention, he chose not to make any gesture that he considered to be an idolatrous act toward an inanimate object. Hitting the child and trying to force his hand up into position did not change the boy's well ingrained principles. In a furious tirade the teacher ordered the child to leave the school building and not come back.
The boy’s father immediately left his place of employment in order to try to reason with the teacher. He pointed out that it was not the custom for Spanish schoolchildren to salute the flag, that there was no law requiring such an act as a requisite for attendance in a government school. The father showed that it was actually the teacher who had shown disrespect for the flag, for his son had stood respectfully during the ceremony, while the instructor had committed assault and battery on the defenseless child and was now depriving the youngster of needed basic education.
The teacher haughtily retorted that the boy’s father should have his head examined, and then slammed the door in the father’s face. The teacher then filed a complaint with the police against the father and the son, charging that they had shown disrespect for the flag and that illegal [Bible study] meetings were held in their home. Dutifully, uniformed police took the father from his place of employment under armed guard and interrogated him for hours for the purpose of making a “declaration.” On November 25, 1961, the father was presented with an official paper signed by the governor of the province of Barcelona, Matias Vega Guerra. It stated: “Considering the complaint formulated against you, and your minor son, Juan Belmonte Tomes, for manifesting yourself and instigating your son to commit disrespectful acts toward the national flag, in that locality, around the middle of the ■ past month of October, reprehensible facts and contrary to the discipline of every Spanish citizen, in use of the faculties conferred to me by Article 23 of the Decree of October 10, 1958, I have resolved to impose upon you a fine of 5,000 pesetas [$83.33] ... The Civil Governor [signed], November 22,1961.”
While Jose Belmonte continues the legal fight against the unjust decision of the civil governor, his son Juanito continues to be deprived of the basic schooling guaranteed by the government.
Oppression in Albacete
More than a year ago, on December 10, 1960, police went to the home of Alfonso Cabot Diaz, a 23-year-old witness of Jehovah who lives in the city of Heflin, located in the province of Albacete. The house was searched and the Bible-study literature confiscated, including the Nacar-Colunga version Bible translated by Spanish Catholic priests. While young Alfonso was escorted to prison, the secret police started searching for the owner of the house, Antonio Ruiz, who was out making his daily deliveries of milk. Upon finding him, they did not allow him to finish his deliveries before they took him to jail. Interrogations lasted off and on until 4 a.m. the following morning, when the two prisoners were transferred to the province’s capital city of Albacete, where they were fingerprinted. The interrogations continued until Monday evening, December 12. At 6 p.m. on that day both of them were paraded handcuffed through the streets of Albacete by two armed guards in order to take them before the judge. Finally, on December 14, both received 5,000-peseta fines for “illicit association” and were released.
Upon his refusal to pay the unjust fine, the vehicle used by Antonio Ruiz to deliver milk was confiscated by the authorities and sold at public auction. Since Alfonso Cabot had no material possessions to confiscate, he was constantly hounded by police authorities and sentenced to one month in prison, from June 13 to July 13,1961.
On September 21 “trial” was held concerning the Cabot case. No witnesses were presented by the prosecution. The court-assigned lawyer made a commendable defense. For a character witness he presented a Hellin policeman who had once studied the Bible with Alfonso. On November 22, Alfonso Cabot received the sentence of a month and a day (suspended), plus a three-year probationary period. Cabot took immediate steps to appeal the case to the Spanish Supreme Court. However, he was advised by his lawyer that the lower court had purposely held up the notification of his sentence until it was legally impossible to file an appeal.
This Christian, as well as many others, continues to be constantly harassed by police authorities. Just last November 25 armed civil guards revisited Cabot’s home at 6 p.m. and searched it for any “Jehovah literature.” The knock at the door may come at any hour of any night.
Police Beating in Granada
On September 27, 1961, Miguel Gil Castell along with a young friend paid a return visit on a lady with whom he had spokefl, and who had shown interest in the message of the Bible. At her house they found the lady’s husband, who is a secret policeman, and a Roman Catholic priest awaiting them. The young Witnesses tried to reason tactfully with the two, but the priest said that they were “uneducated” and “ignorant.” As the priest watched, the young ministers were escorted to jail by the secret policeman. The interrogation was extensive. Wrote Gil to a friend: “When I refused to say anything about my [spiritual] brothers they became very angry, and the three of them started questioning me all at the same time. They took hold of my jacket, and the three of them started hitting me in the face with their hands. They said that I should be hit much harder, but that they would be ashamed to do so. Anyway, I did not give one name nor one address of any of my Christian brothers . . . Finally among themselves they began to say, ‘Why, if these people would ever become Catholics, they would absolutely prohibited from speaking about his belief to anyone in the prison. Now at provisional liberty, Gil has been arraigned on the trumped-up charge of mocking the Catholic church.
Mistreatment of Foreigners
Nor have native Spaniards been the only ones continuing to feel the heavy heel of religious oppression. The intolerant attitude of government officials also continues to be practiced against foreign visitors to Spain who happen to profess a religion different from that of the Roman Catholic Church. Several Americans who wanted to pass through Spain while on tours of Europe during 1961 were turned back at the border when it was learned that they were Jehovah’s witnesses.
On October 21,1961, Carl Wayne Warner, an American citizen, was hunted down and arrested by police agents in Barcelona after he had spoken to a Spanish woman about the Bible and had left a small Bible tract with her. Warner spent the night in the Barcelona jail and was informed on the following morning that he would receive a trial for the serious charge of “illegal propaganda.” His home was searched and private Bible literature was taken by the police. Police refused to return his passport and he was required to report daily for further questioning at the central police headquarters located on Via Laye-tana. Interrogators called him a “liar” and a “juvenile delinquent” because he had spoken about the Bible.
be Saints.’ ”
When he was presented for processing, the judge decreed jail "without bail for the moment.” This resulted in twenty-three days in jail for Miguel Gil, twenty of which were spent incommunicado, Strict orders were issued by prison officials that he was
On November 2, suddenly and without warning, Warner was informed that he would be accompanied to the border by police for the purpose of expelling him from the country. Time was not even allowed for his clothes hanging on the line to dry. Pleas that he be allowed to remain in order to complete his plans to marry his Spanish fiancee went unheeded. Held under police guard from morning to nightfall, he was given nothing to eat, and was finally ushered across the border at Cerbere, France.
The Canary Inland Case
On December 24, 1960, Jose Orzaez Ramirez of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and thirteen other Spanish citizens were ■ arrested in a private home where they were participating in a group Bible study. Ten months later trial was held at Las Palmas on Great Canary Island on the charge of “illicit association.” Strangely, no mention of the trial was made in the newspapers, yet a crowd of doctors, lawyers, businessmen, students and members of other religions gathered at the provisional building of the Provincial Court to see if justice would be done.
Instead of using a jury, the Spanish court consists of three magistrates who make up the tribunal. One magistrate serves as chairman. The court proceeding was held up more than an hour when the appointed chairman of the tribunal apparently decided that he did not want to accept responsibility for the case at question and declined to serve as chairman,
A hush fell over the forty-five persons squeezed into the tiny courtroom. Outside the room twenty, others strained to hear the proceedings when the trial finally got under way on October 27, 1961, at 12:30 p.m. First called to the stand was the accused, Josd Orz&ez Ramirez, followed by several witnesses. All testified that they had paid no money to anyone other that) perhaps a voluntary contribution, that they had never pledged any allegiance to an organizational statute, had not signed anything, nor had they received any orders from the accused. Attendance at their Bible study groups was usually five to ten, but never more than twenty.
In his final summation to the court, the prosecutor explained why he felt that the accused should be condemned to three months in prison for “illicit association": “In view of the facts, there is no doubt that we are treating organized persons. Some of them admitted that they were baptized—proof that something exists among them. The accused invited them to his house, and the accused also ignored the fact that it was necessary to ask permission, but this does not excuse him from the punishment.
“I must add that this belief or religious idea according to the police report [sent from Madrid], which I do not want to cite, but the tribunal can see it, has brought complications in many lands including our own. Also it should be added that he was proselyting his faith.”
The Defense’s Summary
Don Fernando Sagoseta de Illurdos, the defense attorney, made an eloquent plea in the defendant’s behalf: “The prosecution has made in the accusation a mixture of things that make no sense. It has cost much sweat and blood to arrive at this twentieth century where liberty of conscience can be obtained and today we can give thanks that the medieval age has passed.
“The fact that fourteen persons are together, commenting on the Bible, is not an offense, and the Spanish Bill of Rights in its article 16 (1) states: ‘Spaniards can meet together and associate together for licit purposes and in accord with what is established by Law.’ Besides, the law prescribes that for up to twenty persons there is no need to ask permission. For this reason the offense of ‘illicit association’ does not apply to the accused. What is more, on December 24, there were more than twenty people in my own home.
“In addition the tribunal has heard from the mouths of the witnesses that they do not pay money, that they do not recognize the accused as leader, that there are no organizational statutes or associate members. Therefore there is no organization, it does not exist, it is as a fantasy of the mind.
“If you condemn the accused, don’t forget that here in Las Palmas there are Evangelists, a Hindu colony, Anglicans, and Mohammedans. They hold meetings and they are not registered or legalized with the Civil Government of this province. I myself have entered these meeting places and no one blocked my entry. I repeat that if you condemn, you will have to indict them all
“I have before me a case that happened about seventy years ago, on the peninsula, to a certain man dressed as a priest and who said that he belonged to the Spanish Catholic church, not the Roman, and he celebrated mass in Spanish instead of Latin, One day he was surprised, together with others, celebrating mass for a delegate of the government. When the hour came to try him, the tribunal found that he had not committed the offense of ‘illicit association,’ because there were no statutes, no associate members, no paying of dues, that is to say, there was no organization, and for that reason he had not broken any law. My defendant is found in the same situation.
“As to the charge of proselytism mentioned by the prosecution, it is absurd. First of all, persons naturally feel the urge and necessity to communicate to others that which they believe. This right is therefore guaranteed In the Spanish Bill of Rights, Article 12, which permits the free expression of one’s ideas, and after all, to speak about the Bible to others in a Catholic country certainly could not be a crime.”
The lawyer then read a statement made in January, 1961, by an official Spanish government agency, the Delegation National de Organizationes del Movimiento, which endorsed the principles laid out by the European Convention of the Rights of Man, held at Rome in 1950: “Every person has the right to freedom of thought, of conscience and of religion; this right implies the freedom to change one’s religion or beliefs, as well as the freedom to manifest his religion or his beliefs, individually or collectively, in public or in private, by means of worship, teaching, practices, and the fulfillment of the rites.” “The freedom to manifest one’s own religion of beliefs, cannot be subject to other restrictions.” “Every person has the right to freedom of expression. This right consists of the freedom of opinion and that of receiving or communicating information or ideas without any interference of any public authority and without limiting considerations.” “Every person has the right to the freedom of peaceful assembly or to associate with others.”
“Therefore there is nothing wrong in speaking to others about one’s beliefs.”
The attorney then demonstrated to the tribunal that not one law in the Spanish Penal Code prohibits “proselytism.” Only by means of a circular of the Ministry of Government, dated February 23,1948, and not by law, is the subject even mentioned, and its application does not correspond to the case in question. Therefore, if no law exists, there can be no offense of proselytism.
The attorney continued: “As to my defendant’s being the ‘leader,’ the fact does not exist. The witnesses have shown that they refer to the word leader in the way that I might consider a colleague more erudite and qualified than myself, someone to consult. Besides, when he came to the Islands, there were already persons here who read the Bible.
“As to the reference that the prosecutor has made about the police report, and what some publication of the Watch Tower Society might have said against the Spanish regime and its chief of state, my defendant has had nothing to do with it. Just because a Catholic journal criticizes the regime of whatever country, it doesn’t mean that the Catholics of that country are going to be held responsible. What you should do if you wish, is go to Brooklyn and file your complaint against the named Society, but don’t take it out on my defendant.
“In conclusion then, in view of the facts, the organization as such does not exist, and therefore the accusation of ‘illicit association’ does not apply. If it applies to him, then it must apply to all the religious organizations which exist in Spain, There is no doubt as to the innocence of my defendant, and I therefore ask for his absolution.”
The Decision
A few days later the tribunal of three handed down their decision: Condemnation without modifying circumstances for the offense of illicit association, and a prison sentence of three months, with credit given for time already served.
NEXT ISSUE—SPECIAL!
EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND MODERN-DAY RELIGION
—Early Christian Belief*.
—Religious Celebrations.
—Manner of Worship.
—Preachers of the Kingdom at God.
—Known by Their Way of Life.
—No Part of the World.
—Persecuted for Their Faith.
—Christendom and Early Christianity.
—Jehovah's Witnesses and the Early Christiane,
How could such a decision be made In view of the conclusive facts and powerful defense that demonstrated the innocence of the accused? An interview between the attorney and the tribunal’s chairman, Don Luis Vallejo Quero, proved revealing: “If you decide to condemn, you will give the police a carte blanche against these people,” stated the defense lawyer. “And if he is absolved,” retorted the chairman, “we will give a carte to them, and they will inundate us with propaganda, and besides, . what would the authorities say?”
Case Appealed
Spain’s high-ranking authorities will soon have the opportunity to go on record in regard to the persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses because the Orzaez case is being appealed to the Supreme Court of Spain, Will the central authorities dignify their government before the world by upholding the Spanish Bill of Rights and halting the crusade against Jehovah’s witnesses? Or will they add momentum to the persecution by giving it further court sanction?
Freedom-loving Catholics around the world will not be indifferent to what is happening to Jehovah’s witnesses in Spain. In Poland, according to the New York Times of December 20, 1961, Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski has criticized a police raid on a Catholic youth meeting in the Dominican Church in Poznan. According to the report, the Polish government has just modified an education decree authorizing inspectors to look into catechism classes being held in churches. “The decree had been openly defied by the Catholic hierarchy,” said the news report. Yes, suppression of religious freedom is unwelcome in Communist Poland, just as it is unwelcome in Catholic Spain. May Catholic Spain’s authorities do unto others what their Catholic brothers in Poland would like to be done unto them.
The Supreme Court may profitably review the wise precedent set by the ancient Supreme Court at Jerusalem in exonerating early Christian witnesses charged with failure to keep silent about their beliefs. “Do not meddle with these men,” warned Judge Gamaliel, the Law teacher, “but let them alone; (because, if this scheme and this work is from men, it will be overthrown; but if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them;) otherwise, you may perhaps be found fighters actually against God.”—Acts 5:38, 39.
Awake! readers who have received replies from Spanish officials denying the charges made in the September 8, 1961; issue of Awake! in its article “Totalitarian Inquisition Revived in Spain” now have the latest facts. Not only was the totalitarian crusade against Jehovah’s witnesses in Spain a fact at the time that article was published, but it has continued and increased in intensity since then. If you have not written to the Spanish government to voice your protest against its suppression of religious freedom, do so now. Or if you have already written, but feel that you want to answer the dishonest reply given you by the representatives of the Spanish government, you now have the facts with which to do so. Religious freedom is being suppressed in Spain!
gA SEetfe/i cAppfceefatten
A letter recently received by the Watch Tower Society offered this warm expression of appreciation:
“Dear Brothers,
“For some time I have been enjoying the use of the wonderful Watch Tower Publications Index you have made available to us. As a congregation publisher with three Bible studies I can say that it is truly wonderful. Today I wanted to look up some information proving that Paul was the twelfth apostle. With the help of the Index, I was able to find the answer within a few minutes. I was able to give the person with whom I study Scriptural information as well as interesting facts about Paul to clarify the matter.
“It has occurred to me that too many of us take for granted the wonderful work you brothers are doing. Even though we deeply appreciate it, we neglect to tell you so. Many of the publishers in my congregation use the Index constantly. It saves so many precious hours, time that can be used to further the Kingdom message, and helps both the publisher and persons of good will alike to find the answers to help them to maturity. Thank you all on behalf of the many publishers like myself. We really appreciate deeply the work you are doing to help us further the good news of the Kingdom. May Jehovah’s rich blessings continue to be upon all of you in his theocratic organization. It is indeed a privilege to be unitedly praising our loving Father together with you. M.S., U.S.A.”
Guns and Children
AVE you ever had a child approach you S with a toy gun, pointing it directly at you? If so, you have probably found the i[ sensation no pleasant one, especially when J' the child pretends to kill you. All too often j! children really succeed in killing their pre- i[ tended victim. In the United States, for in- !■ stance, in a recent year over five hundred [i children under fifteen years of age were shot i[ to death by accident, seventy-seven of them 5 being under five years of age. Most of the ] । children were shot by other children.
What are the basic causes of these trage- i[ dies? Games in which children play at killing are no small factor. When an elght-year-old was shot by his playmate with a gun that hap- ? pened to be real, he was asked by authorities: )■ “Why did you do it?” The crying youngster, [! who had been playing cops and robbers, an- i[ swered: “I thought he would just jump up 5 and go on again!” 5
Many children who play with toy guns evi-dently do not fully appreciate the consequences I [ of what a real gun can do. The games in [> which children take turns at killing and dying do not teach them that there can be perm a-nent consequences from use of guns. These Ji games do not teach them God’s view on killing and what the Bible has to say about the sane- '[ tlty of human life. Thus Bible principles enter ]i into the matter, and the question arises: Should children of Christian parents play at i[ killing? The world is no example for Chris- ji tians: “Quit being fashioned after this system [! of things.”—Rom. 12:2.
It is surprising how many parents actually encourage children to play at killing and even [> join them in such games. At Johnston, Rhode j! Island, a thirty-three-year-old father joined his i[ two sons in playing a game of cops and rob-bers. In the middle of the game the eleven- ]! year-old son ran into a bedroom and came back i[ with a 22-caliber rifle. The father shouted at his son to put it down, but the boy aimed ]! the gun at his father and, thinking his father was joking, pulled the trigger. The gun fired, [[ and the boy’s father, hit in the chest, died ], two hours later.
It is not surprising that parents who play at dropping dead sometimes really do. A few ]i years ago a four-year-old girl picked up a gun 'J and pointed it at her mother. The gun fired, i[ and the mother dropped—but not in play. The 5 gun was real. Toy guns look so realistic today that real guns are sometimes picked up by very young children as toys. These “toys" kill.
When young people play at killing with toy guns, it is not to be expected that when they get their hands on real guns they will suddenly stop such play. In July, 1961, two eighteen-year-old boys at Thomaston, Long Island, New York, were playing. One picked up a hunting knife and playfully lunged at the other. The unarmed youth then took out a fully loaded revolver from a dresser and pointed it jokingly at his knife-wielding companion—but the weapon went off, killing the boy.
Joking with real guns has caused many a death. This is what apparently happened to a sixteen-year-old boy of San Diego, California. He was returning home from a hunting trip along with his four teen-year-old brother. The rifle went off by mistake, and the fourteen-year-old fell dead. In a frenzy of remorse, the sixteen-year-old boy put another shell in the rifle and shot himself.
Whenever a real gun Is within the reach of children, there is peril. A six-year-old girl in Little Silver, New Jersey, found an automatic pistol in her parents' bedroom. Her nine-year-old sister came in and took the weapon from her, but while doing so somehow the trigger was pulled and the six-year-old girl fell back on the bed, shot between the eyes.
Even when parents do not have guns in the house, their children may someday handle a real gun, perhaps one belonging to a playmate. So parental training should include counsel on guns, especially this counsel: Never to point any gun at any person, no matter whether it be loaded, unloaded or just a toy. When parents bring up their children by Christian principles, it is not likely such children will play at murder.
Quite understandably, any person can feel uneasy when a child points a real-looking gun at him. Many persons rightly feel indignant at the parents of such gun-toting children. Parents who train children never to point any kind of gun at 'a person, not even for a joke, win the respect of true Christians—and they may save their own lives.
66TUST one mo-J ment, sir,” said a man to the minister who called at his door. “You' want to speak with my wife. She takes care of all the religion in our home.”
Before the minister could reply, the man called out, “Honey, here’s a minister who wants to talk with you.”
“What does he want?” asked the wife. “I don’t know. You talk to him.’1 This man’s reaction to religion is typical of many husbands in America. They
when it is properly presented to them.
Why Men
Shy Away
When asked why many men shrink from Bible discussion or why they do not participate more fully and more enthusiastically in religious programs, these so-called irreligious husbands and fathers answer quite freely and frankly. And what they have to say should be worthy of thoughtful consideration,
attend church periodically, enjoy religious music occasionally, think religion is fine for their wives and children, but as for themselves, they want no part of it Why do these men feel that way about religion?
They seem to be of the opinion that religion was meant for women and children but not for men; that the job of instructing children in religion, like dishwashing and housekeeping, belongs to the women. But is that so? Are not husbands under divine command to lead their wives in worship and fathers commanded to inculcate the ways of God in their children? Why, then, all this aloofness on the part of some husbands toward religion?—Deut. 6:4-9.
It is common knowledge that there are more women than men taking part in religious activities, more women than men attending religious services and more women than men who are registered members of religious denominations. Nevertheless, many men and women who do not attend religious services regularly do express a keen delight in a study of the Scriptures because they represent a sizable percentage of the population in need of religious comfort and guidance.
For example, they state that religious sermons are far too frequently based on emotion rather than reason, that the clergy too often sound like politicians and psychiatrists rather than spiritual leaders and that the authorities quoted for support are more often worldly than the Word of God. Their complaint about religious rituals and doctrines is that many of them smack of idolatry, superstition and mystery instead of established truth; that religious sanctimoniousness is but a hypocritical veneer.
- Other reasons given are love of physical privacy and mental freedom. To these husbands and fathers religion presents a threat to their homemade peace, because it calls for vigorous action and participation. They care for neither. Others admit to being afflicted with guilt complexes. Their occupations may force them into dubious transactions and deals during the week; therefore, on weekends they do not feel right about drawing nigh to a God who Is righteous and just. So they steer clear of religion altogether.
Still others withdraw because they are not avid readers, and religion does call for a certain amount of reading and studying. Even those who do enjoy reading do not ordinarily relish a diet of religious books and periodicals. Religious reading has a reputation for being dull and too often is overloaded with its unconvincing testimonials and speculations of men.
What is perhaps a greater deterring factor is the constant appeal for money in the churches. The frequency with which the collection plates are passed around in some churches tends to remind some husbands of the oft recurrence of television commercials on the late, late show.
Others dread the spotlight. And to become an active member in a religious denomination almost inevitably means being dragged into social activities, giving speeches at church dinners, taking part in group discussions, all of which means sharing the spotlight.
Sympathize as we may with these men, yet are these justifiable reasons for them to shrink from the responsibility laid upon them by God? What husband or father has the right to transfer the load that is his to carry? Does not the Bible say: “Each one will carry his own load”?—Gal. 6:5.
His Load to Carry
Religious responsibility is delegated by God; therefore, it is not a charge to be taken lightly. The first man Adam received his religious instructions from God and he, in turn, was commissioned to instruct his wife Eve in the way of life. Eve rebelled at that arrangement as so many women today do. But they have not altered God’s way. Adam should have corrected his wife, he should have branded the serpent a liar, as Jesus did. He should have stood up for his religion and asserted himself as head, but he, hke so many men today, abandoned the lead in religious matters to his wife. He was delinquent toward God’s law and to his responsibility as a husband and head of the wife. Instead of refusing to be led in the wrong direction, he followed his wife into rebellion against God. Adam confessed his breakdown regarding his husbandly headship by saying: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree and so I ate it.” Many husbands are still following Adam’s infamous example in allowing their wives to take the lead in matters of religion. —Gen. 3:12; 2:15-17; John 8:44.
Such irresponsibility toward divine requirements and order on the part of both Adam and Eve has had far-reaching effects. To Eve it meant childbirth with increased pain, a craving for her husband and being dominated by him. For Adam it meant loss of paradise, a cursed earth and a life in sorrow and finally death for both of them. Today’s consequences are equally as great.—Gen. 3:16-24.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the apostle Paul should remind the young overseer Timothy about this responsibility of headship. Paul wrote: “I do not permit a woman to teach, or to exercise authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve.” This order must be strictly obeyed by both the male and female if happiness is to result.—1 Tim. 2:11-14.
In ancient Israel fathers, not wives, were the masters of their families and they took the lead as instructors of religion. The wife, being her husband’s property, followed his religious guidance. However, often in the Scriptures the mother is linked with the father in the training of their children. For example, it is written: “Listen, my son, to the discipline of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother." “Observe,
O my son, the commandment of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother.” While mothers joined in the training of their children, they always di'd so under the direction of the father as their head.—Prov. 1:8; 6:20.
This does not mean that honor was not accorded the wife and mother, for accounts of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel show that they were held in high esteem. Some Hebrew women even reached positions of peculiar prominence, such as Deborah the judge, Huldah the prophetess and Esther the queen. But it is significant that such women as attained positions of importance did so by working with and through men and never by usurping authority over men.
The Modern. Trend
However, over the passing years and especially so in this twentieth century there has been a major shift in both authority and functions in .the family. Today the wife and children have come into places of greater power in decision making, primarily because many fathers have abandoned their duty as family head. In an interview of fifty upper middle-class Protestant church families it was discovered that “the men rejected decisively the traditional patriarchal, authoritarian father role; they would neither own it for themselves, nor would they tolerate the associate who would try to reclaim this idea of headship for himself.” Another study of 131 men and women, representing social levels from the lower economic class to the upper middle class, revealed that among the younger persons interviewed the man still assumed headship. But it was found that in the older group, including men and women between 55 and 70 years, “the woman was the head of the household.”
Illis shift of authority has had serious effects on the husband, wife and children. Hiose who study human behavior say that the man is no longer the masculine, strong-minded soul who pioneered and conquered continents, that he has changed as a husband and as a father. The effect of his collapse has been that the wife has lost respect for him. Dr. Margaret Mead in Male and Female says: “When American women do rise to positions of power and status, they have great difficulty in treating their male subordinates with any decent sensitivity—for aren’t they failures to be there?” So take note, you husbands.
Female dominance becomes even more damaging when husband turns father. Worldly authorities no longer are positive that they know what a father’s role should be. Anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer writes: “In few societies is the role of the father more vestigial than in the United States,” Worldly experts ask, “Does the American father have any role at all, beyond procreation and moneymaking?” Can this be applied to you? Do you know that in order for your boy to grow into a masculine man, he needs to see what masculinity is like, he needs to feel father’s authority and see his headship? What, then, are you as a father doing about your responsibility?
To Husbands and Fathers
Therefore, you husbands and fathers, assume the authority and headship entrusted to you by God, for he holds you responsible as heads even as he held your forefather Adam responsible. Jehovah has set himself up as an example for you to follow. As a Husband he cares daily for his “wife’s” spiritual and material needs. He does not shirk this responsibility by passing it on to her. As a Father he disciplines his children and takes a keen interest in their everlasting welfare. Therefore, you fathers, take hold of your duties before God. Imitate him.—Matt. 4:4; Prov. 3:ll,12;Heb. 12:5-11.
Jehovah also gives to you the perfect example of his Son Jesus Christ to follow. Do not spurn this loving provision. Christ loved the congregation, his bride, and delivered himself up for it. Why? “That he might sanctify it, cleansing it with the bath of water by means of the word, that he might present the congregation to himself in its splendor, not having a spot or a wrinkle or any of such things, but that it should be holy and without blemish.’’ “In this way,” the apostle Paul says, “husbands ought to be loving their wives.” Are you husbands doing that? This means exercising a vigorous headship, lovingly caring for the wife’s spiritual needs so that she will be "holy and without blemish.” It means having her everlasting welfare at heart and so instructing her in the way of life, counseling her in religious matters so that she with you may gain salvation. Following Jesus’ example will be a blessing to you.—Eph. 5:22-29; 1 Pet. 2:21.
As Jesus cared for the “young children” whom Jehovah gave to him, so, too, you fathers, care for your children. (Heb. 2: 13) He did not shift the responsibility to others, but carried it alone faithfully. He lovingly cared for them, prayed for them and diligently instructed them. Do you care that much for your children? They desperately need you. They need to feel your firm guidance. They need to experience your authority, your discipline, your love and your care. They need to hear you speak spiritual things so that they may grow in spiritual values. They need to hear you pray so that they, too, may learn to draw nigh to God in times of need. They need to be understood and disciplined. Therefore, Paul instructs: “You, fathers, do not be irritating your children, but go on bringing them up in the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah.” (Eph. 6:4) Children need you to give them advice and discipline.
If religion is going to mean anything at all to them, you fathers must contribute your share toward building their conviction in God, his Word and his organization. It is not enough just to send the wife and children off to religious meetings for instruction while you stay at home and read the paper or join your buddies on the golf course. You must live your life so that your children may note that your practices are in accord with your beliefs. Otherwise, when the occasion arises to discuss with them serious religious and ethical values, they will be bound to take what you have to say to them with a very large grain of salt.
Yours is a serious charge that is non-transferable. Therefore, meet it with the zeal set before you by your Examplars, Jehovah God and Christ Jesus. Remember, Jehovah holds you responsible as head. If you do your duty, your wife and children will honor and respect you. They will seek your advice, not shun it. Then together as a family you will not only reflect the wisdom of following the perfect pattern, to your own happiness, but also reflect a life of praise and glory in worship of God. —Lev. 19:32.
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