Awake!, October 8, 1964

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THE REASON FOR THIS MAGAZINE

News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interest. "Awakell" has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ties; it is unhampered by traditional creeds. This magazine keeps itself free, that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.

The viewpoint of "Awakel" is not narrow, but is international. "Awakel" has its own correspondents in scores of nations. Its articles are read in many lands, in many languages, by millions of persons.

In every issue "Awake!" presents vital topics on which you should be informed. It features penetrating articles on social conditions and offers sound counsel for meeting the problems of everyday life. Current news from every continent posts in quick review

Attention is focused on activities in the fields of government and commerce about which you should know. Straightforward discussions of religious issues alert you to matters of vital concern. Customs and people in many lands, the marvels of creation, practical sciences and points of human interest are all embraced in its coverage. "Awakel" provides wholesome, instructive reading for every member of the family.

"Awakel!" 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 God's righteous new order in this generation.

Get acquainted with "Awake!" Keep awake by reading "Awake!"

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CONTENTS

You Cannot Evade the Issue 3

No Love of Honesty 4

Take a Look at Youth 6

What's Happening to the Family? 8

Business and Government

Set the Face 10

Is Religion Free from Blame? 12

Critical Times Foretold 17

A Sound Guide for Morality 20

Looking to the Kingdom of God 25

Prove Your Love of Righteousness 28

Watching the World 30

THE earth-wide moral breakdown involves everybody. You may wish it were not happening, but it is. You may prefer to think that it does not affect you, but it does. You cannot evade it.

THE ISSUE

One way in which it affects you is by placing you and your loved ones in jeopardy. The extent of the threat to life and property in country after country is shown by reports such as this one from America, where it is said that the average citizen now faces odds 'greater than one in ten that he will be mugged, robbed or otherwise victimized by criminals within the next ten years.'

In the Orient those who handle the news declare: 'We are so near the point of chaos that a sense of insecurity is becoming part of us. We live in the uneasy air of impending violence. Peace and order have not reached a stage where people can walk freely about or feel secure in their own homes.'

In Africa the police say that an increase in crimes and other offenses 'has become a regular feature each year.'

What are the prospects for a reversal of this trend? From Europe comes word that 'these critical situations that are a worry to all are expected to become even more severe.'

Another reason why no one can evade this problem is that each individual is daily faced with decisions that have to do with morality. Does he obey traffic laws, or does he disobey them when no one observes? When he speaks, is it always

the truth, or does he lie about some things for personal advantage? When making purchases, does he pay for everything, or does he take items when no one looks? Are his business practices honest, or does he deceive his customers and competitors to promote his interests? If two persons are living together as husband and wife, are they legally married, or are they really living in fornication? And if they are properly married, are they faithful to each other, or do they flirt with others on occasion? Do individuals live lives in harmony with the religious faith they profess? How would we personally answer these questions?

The pressures toward immoral conduct are strong. You need to know how to protect yourself. Let us look at the facts to determine what it is that you actually face, where the responsibility lies and what you can do about it.

MANY authorities today speak of a "new morality." A professor at Northwestern University spoke of it as "the wholly new standards of honesty" that the world of mankind have adopted. He meant, of course, the new standards of dishonesty.

"It has become the fashion," columnist Walter Lippmann wrote, "to expect cheating and to excuse a certain amount of it. . . The popular standards of morality today allow for much more dishonesty than they did some time back." Oh, yes, truthfulness and honesty are still honored by many as the best policies, but in actual practice one finds lying, stealing and all kinds of cheating.

HONESTY

Cheating at school, for instance, is widespread. In one survey, 90 percent of the students in a Toronto, Canada, grade nine classroom condoned cheating. A recent survey at the University of Pennsylvania showed that 40 percent of the undergraduates admit to frequent cheating.

Parents Encourage Lying

But, then, young persons are taught from an early age to be dishonest. How so? The father who thinks nothing of cheating on his income tax should not be surprised if his son cheats at school. What of the driver who purposely breaks the speed law and who urges his children to keep an eye out for a possible police car in the rear? When someone knocks at the door and the mother tells her daughter to say she is not at home, she teaches her daughter to lie. So also does the mother who pretends she

has a headache, to escape some obligation. Not surprisingly, at a meeting of police authorities from three Scandinavian countries, the chief of police in Norway said: "During

hearings of children I have met with situations where parents were lying just as fast as the children." Where

parents do not show a love for integrity, the children are often accomplished liars before they enter their teens.

Lying by adults has permeated the way of life of mankind so that it becomes acceptable and expected in some cultures; hence parents need to watch that they do not "pick up" any popular custom of lying, thereby infecting their children. In France it is accepted that people "arrange" problems, cooking up a story that they do not really expect the other person to believe, but one that justifies persons in authority for letting others do what they want. "Tell him that your grandmother died," says the book Souvenirs de la France. "He will know it's a lie, but he'll let you leave anyhow."

The "new morality" has no love for integrity. Small wonder, then, that truth-hunting has become a big business! One company offering lie detector service charges 50 a test and reports a yearly gross income of135,000. Such firms thrive because so many have no love for the truth.

Especially when it comes to money and material things do we find that the world has no love for honesty. Writer C. P. Snow has said: "We are more dishonest about money than our grandfathers were." At least 75 percent of auto insurance complaints in the United States are reported to involve fraud!

In the same country a man who found a huge sum of money returned it to the owners and was severely criticized by many for not having kept it. In England a report says that "one person in every five indulges in shoplifting."4

Employee Dishonesty

So serious is employee dishonesty in Canada that the president of the Retail Sales Audit Systems, Ltd., asserted: "There is no such thing as an honest person. There are only some more honest than others." The Toronto manager of Pinkerton's national detective agency claims employee stealing has increased steadily in Canada until losses total "at least $100 million a year." He adds:

"In our investigations we've found, as an average, that one out of every three employees is basically dishonest—which means he will seek ways of stealing; that one out of every three employees will be dishonest if given the opportunity and the third employee is the only one who deserves the full trust of his employer."8

In the United States employees are reported to steal from employers an average of 150 per person per year. A manager of a firm that sells insurance to protect against employee dishonesty reports that he bonds employees who are not criminal types but who are respected citizens—yet every working day of his life his company must pay out, because of employee dishonesty, an average of8,000! He found out in a survey of 65 bank embezzlers that virtually every one was a respected pillar in his community and that most of them thought they were honest, regarding their dishonest activities as "borrowing."

"We live in a corrupt society," declares another authority on the "new morality," one Saul Astor, president of a firm called Management Safeguards, Inc., which investigates dishonesty in business. In one case he found a New York City auto dealer losing $75,000 a year. An employee was believed responsible. "An employee?" asked Astor. "This dealer employed eighty men. Sixty were stealing from him. I'd like to say that this was a particularly corrupt organization. But it isn't."

According to his investigation, moreover, there is no difference in the rate of dishonesty of men and women. "They steal with equal abandon," he claims. "But women are more devious. They lie better. It's harder to get a confession from them."7

Though we do not expect to find love for rectitude among thugs, hoodlums and teen-age delinquents, where is the love of honesty among the well-to-do hotel guests who, during the first ten months of operation of New York's new Americana Hotel, made off with 38,000 demitasse spoons, 18,000 towels, 355 silver coffee pots and 1,500 silver finger bowls, and 100 Bibles? And customs inspectors have found that prominent people, wealthy people, world-famous people, insist upon playing the game of cheating, lying to customs inspectors. Yes, the whole fabric of the world is threaded through and through with hypocritical speech, half truths, outright falsehoods, stained by all manner of dishonesty, on all social levels.

Perhaps there is hope that the rising generation will stem the tide of dishonesty, you may say. But what about the youth of today who will be the men, women and leaders of tomorrow? As we observe the young people of our time, what promise do we find of a better, a more stable tomorrow?

REFERENCES

1 Look, March 29, 1960.

2 Politiken (Copenhagen), April 19, 1964.

s Look, September 24, 1983.

What a Hope, by R. H. Green, 1964.

b Toronto Telegram, May 30, 1964.

6 Canadian Weekly, week of September 7-13, 1963.

7 New York Journal-American, June 30, 1964.

Take a Look at YOUTH

IN ALMOST every country juvenile crime and sexual immorality by youths are on the increase. Take a look at what is happening.

In the United States the latest crime rise was an average of 19 percent during the first three months of 1964. More than 85 percent of all cities with a population of 25,000 or more reported crime increases. "Frankly," admitted a New York City police official, "we are losing the battle against crime." Not only in New York but in other cities throughout the world the problem revolves around delinquent youth.

In Britain the annual report of the Home Secretary shocked many. It said: "The percentage of young people between 14 and 17 found guilty of indictable offense is now more than twice the prewar rate for boys and three times the prewar rate for girls." British towns have been plagued by rival adolescent gangs, likened by a magistrate to "rat packs." Such gangs of youths stirring up trouble and violence are a principal part of the crime problem in many lands.

In the Orient, in lands such as Japan and South Korea, crime by youths has reached frightening proportions. The police bureau in Seoul reports more than five hundred acts of violence a month, most of them being committed by teen-agers. "We can't have even one day of peaceful life in Seoul," said a newspaper, "because in the

evening the streets become streets of terror."

It is the same in the Philippine Islands, where a newspaper reported: "Every 30 minutes, a boy under 16 commits a crime—ranging from petty thievery to rape—in

Manila alone." "It would seem that no Filipino is safe in the streets today," it lamented. "The number of youngsters getting their kicks from thrill killing, vandalism, and general mayhem is steadily increasing."2

And who is the victim of this earth-wide juvenile crime? The public. It is the public who are affected, endangered or attacked when youths throw stones at windows of cars, buses and trains; when vandals slash auto tires and steal auto parts; when youths deface or destroy public park or school property; when they snatch women's purses; when they break into homes to commit burglary; when they rob people at the point of a knife or gun; when youngsters take narcotics and go wild; when they drive autos or other vehicles recklessly; and when youths violently attack people regardless of age, women often being assaulted sexually. Yes, it is the public that is daily being savagely bitten by this mad dog of juvenile crime!

Breakdown in Sex Morals

No look at youth can ignore the breakdown of sex morality, for the "new morality" includes sexual immorality. This breakdown involves "respected" youths, high-school and college students. So great is the teen-age promiscuity in England, for instance, that the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases has risen by 73 percent during a period when population increased only 6.5 percent, and "a third of all teen-age brides are pregnant." 2 A British Medical Association committee concluded that this greater promiscuity "resulted from a radically altered attitude toward sexual morality and morality in general."

From Perth, Australia, comes the report:

"There is not enough accommodation in the metropolitan area for unmarried pregnant girls while awaiting the birth of their babies. . . Matron B. Grant said she was alarmed at the increasing numbers of pregnant girls aged 14 or 15."

In Canada the incidence of syphilis in Ontario has risen 1,000 percent in six years. The trend is global, with children not even in their teens contracting venereal disease. Thus many doctors in the United States were sent this information:

"Of 600 teen-age VD patients interviewed, only 10 percent knew what VD is or how it is transmitted. During 1959 the highest percentage increase in early syphilis was in the 10. to 14-year age group."

What a tragic thing it is when children hardly in their teens display loose morals and come down with frightful diseases—and it is happening everywhere! In the Orient a magazine said of youth, "There is no sense of chastity."6 So true is this in many countries that the statistics on abortions are appalling. In France there are 800,000 births a year and an estimated 400,000 abortions. In Latin America, "Uruguay produced a figure of three abortions for every live birth."7 How shattered must be morality when countries supposedly

Christian have such appalling abortion rates!

This breakdown in sex morality is called a "revolution" in many circles. In France the magazine Esprit devoted a special issue to the "Sexual Revolution." Time magazine featured an article on "The Second Sexual Revolution," saying, "The

U.S. seems to be undergoing a revolution of mores and an erosion of morals." Newsweek put out a shocking article on "The Morals Revolution on the U.S. Campus." In England The Sunday Times reported on an international conference: "46 nations share the problem of juvenile sex." Some spokesmen felt the matter would be resolved by greater toleration of premarital sex. As The Sunday Times reported:

"With a fifth of America's brides pregnant (for teenagers the ratio is two out of every five) Dr. Guttmacher forsose a decline in opposition from churches and parent groups. . . . 'Parents themselves are becoming more sophisticated; they know their son or daughter must go to college equipped with contraceptives.'"18

But is that the way to equip the new generation? Such "sophistication" can lead only to more immorality. It is like exposing a patient already in dire condition to a worse disease than he already has!

In North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa, nations seek solutions to the problem of youths' immorality and crime. Many law-enforcement officials believe the remedy lies with the family. But is the modern family equipped to deal with this vicious dog that is inflicting cruel wounds on the public daily? Can the family straighten out the morals of a new generation with a "new morality"? Can we confidently look to the family to remedy youths' delinquency?

1 Chosun Ibe (Chosun Daily)

April 14, 1964.

2 The Weekly Graphic, May 13, 1964.

a Politiken (Copenhagen)

March 6, 1964.

4 The West Australian, June 18, 1963.

5 Toen-Ago VD, published by Wyeth Laboratories.

e Kimajo (New Ideological Trend, monthly magazine) July 1963. South Korea.

7 Look, July 14, 1964.

8 Issue of June 14, 1964.

WHAT'S HAPPENING

THE FAMILY?

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WHAT is happening to youth is directly influenced by what is happening to the family. Indeed, the family exercises the most direct single influence upon the life and future of

the child. A look at families around the world reveals that the family has not escaped the moral breakdown.

Many authorities see the increasing number of broken homes as a distinct aspect of the general moral breakdown. The divorce rate soars in country after country. In the United States it is estimated that 400,000 divorces occur each year, nearly one every minute. Add to this the many separations and desertions. A Canadian report says: "Today, 12,000 deserted wives are getting public maintenance in Canada. . . . The rough estimate is that there are about 60,000 deserted wives in Canada who do not report their plight." In São Paulo, Brazil, marriages are broken on the average of six a day in that one city alone.

Such statistics, from country after country, underscore how one aspect of the moral breakdown leads to another; for if there is a breakdown in the family, it is quickly translated into juvenile delinquency. Study after study has found an extraordinarily high number of delinquents coming from broken homes. Obviously, morally bankrupt homes cannot stem the tide of immorality among youths.

Breakdown of Family Functions

A family suffers a breakdown even when both parents live together if there is a breakdown

in the functions that the family must perform. Here, then, is an even more extensive aspect of the moral breakdown. A home in which the parents do not perform their duties, teaching and insisting on obedience, honesty, truthfulness and upright moral conduct, will quickly breed delinquents. Yet in home after home there is toleration of disobedience, insolence, lies, dishonesty and pack-running by youths. That is where delinquency begins—not with the first time the child is caught by police in an illegal act. Commissioner George B. McClellan of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in an address in Toronto, put it this way: "It is not juvenile delinquency I want to speak about—it is parental delinquency—because, in my humble opinion, the group which is creating the troubles I have referred to is, for the most part, a product of irresponsible homes and irresponsible parents."2

This irresponsibility of the parents is reflected also in the glaring failure of so many parents to supervise their youngsters. Too often, when parents are not with their children, they do not really know where the children are. They may be at a party where they get involved in heavy drinking and sexually stimulating dancing. Or they may be filling their minds with immorality and violence at a movie. Later they find themselves doing some heavy "necking" and "petting" in a lonely "lovers' lane."

This parental failure to watch closely the goings and comings of young sons and daughters has led to much sexual immorality. At St. Charles, Missouri, when a high-school sex scandal broke out, a law officer said: "Poor parental supervision has brought about this situation." And a United Nations report said that, when Australian police investigated gangs calling themselves bodgies and widgies, most of the 300 girls they detained came from better-class homes. The eldest was not more than 17, the youngest was 13. "More than 250 of that 300," says the U.N. report, "had each engaged in 50 separate acts of sexual intercourse." What a frightful lack of parental supervision!

Dishonest, Adulterous Conduct

The moral breakdown is marked by more than a failure to provide proper supervision to children, however. There is another aspect. This is the immoral example of parents themselves. Adultery today is so prevalent that one magazine said: "Adultery seems to be as widely practiced as it must have been in the orglastic days before the Flood. Certainly, in America today, it is an open secret that adultery is prevalent. . . . We are shocked to hear that in the Latin-American countries, in Spain, in France, in Italy, adultery is fully accepted. We are shocked—and yet we practice adultery ourselves."4

Adultery, in fact, is often glamorized, as when certain Hollywood stars indulge in it, with the newspapers giving it a glamorous aura of sophistication. An Australian magazine recently said: "The Hollywood star system has been taken as a warrant for a procession of husbands and lovers. An extension of this trend is seen in the prevalent cult of husband-and-wife swapping in California." Yet wife-swapping goes on

not just in California but in many other places. In one such scandal in Berlin, with wives being "loaned out," a number of prominent German film personalities were said to be involved. And a report from New York State tells of a vast $200,000-a-year call-girl ring made up of wives and mothers, "typical housewives," said the district attorney.

This prevalence of adultery leads not only to such extremes as wife-swapping clubs and call-girl rings, but to the even more common sexual immorality of children. Myriads of delinquent youths today have parents with only the shattered remains of a moral code, expressed for many of them in Ernest Hemingway's manifesto: 'What is moral is what you feel good after, and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.' Youth is adrift in a sea of permissiveness.

What is left of the family? The husband has his clubs, the wife has her interests, and the children go their way. Once in a while they meet at the table to eat. But their doing of things together is limited almost entirely to providing physical needs—so much so that the modern home has become a kind of hotel, where youngsters come to sleep and eat.

With the family breakdown, mankind is faced with the breakdown of the basic unit of human society. What can come of it except more fuel for the blazing fire of the moral breakdown?

Many leaders of communities have expressed grave concern about the family breakdown. But can the family look to men who are prominent in this world for the answer to the moral breakdown? Are the leaders themselves setting the right example?

REFERENCES

1 The Globe Magazine, December 9, 1961.

2 The Royal Bank of Canada Monthly Letter, May 1964.

8 The Sunday Times, Perth, August 14, 1960.

4 Pageant, August 1957.

5 People Magazine, May 6, 1964.

Business and Government Set the Pace

A MONG the influences greatly affecting

young and old is that of business and government. "Today," says a report from England, "it is, alas, not the Churches, not the parents, nor the schools, that determine the moral standards of the country, but business."2

And what are the morals of business that are a powerful tool in shaping moral standards of others? Dishonesty is rampant. This is true not only in regard to the customer but among businessmen themselves, when dealing with one another. Many businessmen will steal an idea or design if they can get away with it. Those who work with invention ideas must guard them jealously lest they be stolen by other businessmen.

Mammoth legal fees are paid each year by businessmen trying to collect money rightly owed them by other businessmen who default. Many businesses never collect what is owed them, since some businessmen go into dishonest bankruptcy.

The general dishonesty of the business world plagues the housewife, who must be on guard against being overcharged, against fictitious or inflated prices, adulterated foods and deceptive advertising and packaging. Some firms reduce the contents and keep the box sizes and prices the same. Others put false bottoms in bottles or conceal the contents by tiny print. And at the meat market the housewife will probably need to watch closely lest she be cheated on weight or in some other way. "Court action," says a report from Italy, "was taken against 101 Rome butchers in the largest

courtroom available in Rome. They had been charged with taking old meat and using chemicals to 'rejuvenate' it.' 2

The lack of moral integrity found in business thus affects the entire family in an adverse way. Immoral examples by the millions are set before them in books and movies about gunfighting, murder, sex abuses and violence. A look at movie advertisements makes one wonder about the morals of movie makers who feature violence and illegal and unnatural sex. The editor of the Motion Picture Herald has said: "Efforts are being made to include suggestions—or more than suggestions—of homosexuality, lesbianism, incest. There is even a report that the 'heavy' role in one great screen classic has been rewritten to make the character a homosexual in order to put an extra 'kick' in the new version."

Also, many newspapers have no scruples against providing what is degrading. Britain's Press Council recently said it could find no justification at all for the News of the World's publication of Christine Keeler's personal account of immorality—for which she was paid $75,000.

Immorality pervades the business world even on its highest levels. Note this report:

"The executive world is filled with distrust," says Yale's Prof. Chris Argyris, a specialist on business ethics; executive politicking costs one company he studied $186,000 every year. . . . Other organizations, such as universities and labor unions, suffer from the same immorality. Governor Romney says of labor leaders, "Some are out to win, regardless of what it takes."4 Many high-level jobs today are open only to those who will measure up to the expected amount of cheating, lying and dishonesty involved, to push the products they must sell.

If one stops to think about it, there is a moral breakdown in the business of making and selling toys for children, such as toy guns, machine guns, tanks, cannons and atomic pulverizers and other toys of simulated violence. As a result, one noted writer says:

"We live in times which are so terrible that to kill is not abnormal. . . . That's what we teach our children. That's why we sell so many guns because we want to tell them that that's the way to do it, and we even sell them real guns."

But if such is the moral climate in business, what about the government level?

Violence, Lying, Corruption

Political leaders set the pace by trying to get what they want by violent means, whether it means war, revolution or terrorism. If political leaders can use violence to attain their ends, others feel free to copy their example. Moreover, the political realm is saturated with broken agreements, dishonesty and falsehoods. In 1960 the Soviet Union announced that an American aircraft had violated Soviet airspace and had been shot down. The U.S. State Department said "there was absolutely no deliberate attempt to violate Soviet airspace and never has been." Later, after the Soviet premier said that the pilot admitted he was piloting a spy plane, the U.S. admitted such spy plane flights had been authorized and had been going on for four years!

Both on national and city levels one finds extortion and bribery. Fire and building inspectors in many lands look for a bribe. When New York City recently dismissed or suspended four building inspectors for

extortion and taking bribes, the mayor said he did not know who should be blamed more, "the inspector who takes the bribe or the man who offers it."

If we look at newspaper headings around the world we find such typical ones as these: "Moral Regeneration Drive Falls to Check Rampant Bribery in [Philippine] Gov't Offices." India: "Poona Cops Collect Rs.300 a Month From Each Bootlegger!" 'The Republic of Korea government announced that 576 government officials have been found guilty of corruption.' Japan: "535 government officials (100 more than the previous year) were arrested on corruption charges." "In city after city across Canada, men in public office are found guilty of breach of trust." So it goes around the world.

What is the remedy for the moral breakdown in business and government? Many feel that stiffer and more laws are needed to discourage dishonesty. But is it possible to legislate love of righteousness? Even when there are laws and even when some are arrested, the corruption continues. When people see the ones who are dishonest living in luxury, they feel that is the way to do it. Being caught and punished is viewed simply as a hazard in getting what one wants. And, often, if the dishonest person has enough money, he can get off with little punishment anyway. So the example set in government and business, rather than slowing down the moral collapse, is a prime contributor to it.

Does the solution lie elsewhere? Is it religion that has the remedy? How is religion meeting the challenge of the moral breakdown?

REFERENCES

Religion

majority of them must be either deluded or deliberately lying. Differing as they do, they cannot all be teaching the truth. No, it cannot even be contended that most of them teach the truth. They actually obscure the truth.

In regard to truth a Jewish rabbi told a New York audience: "In any conflict truth

RESPONSIBLE religious leaders also agree that our generation is witnessing the death of the 'old morality.' As the archbishop of Canterbury in England said: "General lawlessness is greater—a breakdown of the sense of duty and of obligation and truthfulness." Many other religious leaders both inside and outside Christendom likewise see the pronounced slide toward immorality.

One might logically expect that the religions of this world would promote good morals, that they would be bulwarks against immorality. People may not expect this of politicians or businessmen, but they do expect it of religious leaders. But is religion a force for good morals? Is it working to stem the tide of immorality? Is it free from blame, or is it instead a major contributor to the moral breakdown? Let us examine the facts.

Love for Truth?

As previously noted, a basic reason for the moral breakdown is the lack of love for truth. Where truth is cast aside or watered down, immorality follows. Now, then, do the religions of the world promote a love for truth?

If you wanted truth on religious matters, where would you go? To one of the hundreds of religions of this world? Why, their very divided state shows that at least the

gives way to peace. I would have no hesitation to advise on concealment of truth and deliberate falsification."12 How devastating an influence on the love for truth this will be! The listener will reason that, if the respected clergy feel that way, it must be all right to tell a lie in one's private affairs when it suits one's purpose.

The following information comes from the Philippine Islands: "An official of the National Bureau of Investigation bared today the rampant involvement of religious organizations in 'technical smuggling' . . . to escape payment of taxes and duties causing an estimated annual loss 'running to millions of pesos.'" If religious organizations can smuggle, then why not the ordinary citizen? Once more, his morality suffers a blow as he is influenced for bad by religion.

How do religious leaders feel about lying among nations? A report states: "Spying is shady business, but it's needed for survival in a shady world. That, in short, is the conclusion voiced by a number of religious authorities today. . . . Both Christian and Jewish scholars offer a similar view—that espionage involves questionable behavior, but that it may be warranted by overriding facts of international life." Said one clergyman: "It's an immoral act for what we think is a moral purpose."4 But if the clergy approve of nations' lying to one another in the name of necessity, then why should not an ordinary citizen do the same for personal necessity?

So the cause of truth suffers another staggering blow by religion as it gives lip service to truth, but condones lying for selfish advantage.

Bulwark Against Sexual Immorality?

One might argue that at least the world's religions are a defense against sexual immorality. But here too the truth of the matter is that these religions are not a bulwark against sexual immorality, but are a cause of it! Why? Educator Alan Valentine, in The Age of Conformity, answers: "Organized religion has largely departed from its earlier spiritual absolute and firm disapprovals, in order to make its judgments of human sins more understanding and its creeds more palatable." Note how this is so.

In Sweden the State Lutheran Church's official publication, Our Church, contended that premarital sexual relations should not be condemned so long as the couple involved sincerely planned to marry. In a subsequent interview its editor stated that it was "pointless" for the church to continue to oppose premarital relations when they were indulged in by at least 80 percent of all young Swedes engaged to be married. An Anglican bishop declares: "The decisive thing in moral judgment is not the line itself between marital and extramarital sex, but the presence or absence of love at the deepest level." Religion thus provides a green light for loose sexual conduct!

A United Church minister in Canada, writing in Maclean's magazine of July 1, 1961, states: "I would like to suggest that we refuse to accept adultery as a ground for divorce . . . there are indications that

in some groups extramarital intercourse is carried on without seriously disturbing affection between the spouses. Indeed, some people have histories of discreet extramarital relations extending over many years . . . these relations have not adversely affected the marriages." But such philosophizing certainly eases the way for others to engage in marital unfaithfulness. After all, what could be so bad about it, one might reason, if a "Christian" minister does not disapprove? There is no doubt that this undermines the family unit. Instead of forcefully emphasizing faithfulness, this helps to undercut the foundations of marriage.

Notoriously bad, too, has been the attitude of the world's religions toward the sexual misbehavior of its clergymen. Time and again clergymen who have behaved immorally have only been removed from one place to another. One incident shows the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church in particular. The October 7, 1962, Sunday Telegraph of Sydney, Australia, relates the case of "a priest who eloped with one of his parishioners." But the article notes that he "is still a priest, a Roman Catholic Church spokesman said today." The Church does not recognize the marriage; and it does not affect his priesthood in any way." But it will affect the attitudes of those who read about it! It degrades marriage and diminishes respect for morality. If a highly respected clergyman can violate church law, commit what the church considers to be fornication and not be restricted, then why should church members be expected to do any better?

How often moral principle falls by the wayside for religious expediency! Another example is noted in the New York Times of January 22, 1961: "An American Negro minister who has just returned from a year in West Africa says Christian churches there should accept as full members men and women who engage in polygamy."

On what grounds? He answers: "The churches, by insisting that a man put aside a second wife and family before he takes communion, were losing converts to Islam."

Nor are the world's religions of much help in teaching the truth concerning sex deviates. A group of Quakers in England challenged the view that homosexuality is immoral. In a pamphlet titled "Towards a Quaker View of Sex," published in 1963, it was suggested that society "should no more deplore homosexuality than left-handedness. . . Homosexual affection can be as selfless as heterosexual affection and therefore we cannot see that it is in some way morally worse." Similarly, the Sydney, Australia. Sunday Telegraph of December 6, 1959, relates: "The Church of England . . . joltes us by declaring that homosexuality between consenting adults ought not to be a cringe."

In Denmark a well-known personality of the church says: "It is a widespread mistake that Christianity is morality, and an old-fashioned sexual morality at that. . . Sexual relations before marriage are not wrong in themselves." And religious leaders wonder why there is such a breakdown in sexual morality today!

However, at this point you may protest and say that not all clergymen feel this way. You are right. Not all do. Many oppose such views. But the critical point here is that enough prominent religious leaders advocate these views so that there is a divided opinion within the ranks of worldly religion on sexual morality.

breakdown, because they have clouded the source of truth. All too often they have substituted error in its place.

Downgrade Source of Truth

It should not come as a surprise that most religions contribute to the moral

A minister in the Danish Church writes: "Jesus did not come down from heaven to tell people that they should not have intercourse before marriage. . . . Jesus did not at all come to say what is true morals or is the will of God." This is just plain dishonest. It hides the truth from people. Such fantastically perverted thinking is an encouragement toward immorality, for his followers will feel that, regardless of what they do, they will be forgiven.

British clergman J. Wansey said that the Bible contained "spiritual junk" and "poison" for the people. In the same lecture he urged the reading of Christian literature to help people face "a week of life in which materialism and immorality were rife." 10 First he slanders the Bible with its moral code. Then he recommends literature to help stem the tide of immorality! How inconsistent!

With many religious leaders belittling the Bible and substituting for it their conflicting human philosophy, how can church members be expected to want to study the Bible? When Roman Catholicism places human tradition on a level equal to, or even superior to the Bible, how will Roman Catholics ever be stimulated toward Bible reading? When religious leaders teach that many of the Bible's accounts are myths and legends, is it any wonder that such fantastic ignorance of the Bible and its moral code exists? Yet a Redbook magazine article of August 1961 says that many "student ministers say that a major failure of today's churches is the failure to promote Bible study. Said one of this group, "There are hundreds of thousands of people who have belonged to the Church for ten or fifteen years and can't quote a line of Scripture!

"

What an amazing contradiction! Morals keep getting lower each year. The Bible with its moral code is neglected or ridiculed by many clergymen who substitute their own thinking. Yet they bewail the moral breakdown and wonder why people do not study the Bible more!

To Blame for More

There is more for which religion must take the blame in this world's moral breakdown. Recently newspapers ran the following item: "A top leader of the Cosa Nostra [Mafia] crime syndicate . . . was buried on Tuesday after a Requiem Mass."11 Time and again the world's most notorious criminals have been given honorable church funerals. This suggests to the common man that crime and dishonest business practices are not so bad, just as long as you do not get sent to prison. What a poor example for honesty and for integrity in business!

Church attitudes toward gambling also encourage immorality. Said English Roman Catholic archbishop Heenan: "Frankly, I don't think we Catholics could get along without bingo." 12 Adds Cardinal Cushing of the United States: "Gambling itself is not a sin." 12

What kind of example does this set for others, especially youth? A very poor one. It destroys respect for law and order, since in many areas gambling is illegal. It breaks down moral fiber because it introduces the notion of "easy money" into a person's thinking. The criminals, the hatred, the violence, the murder, the embezzlement, the family distress resulting from gambling all contribute to the moral breakdown. And this has its encouragement from many clergymen, who are supposed to represent morality!

Appropriately, Danish clergyman M. Zeuthen said: "Young people in Denmark hardly expect any help from the Church and if they expect it they very seldom get it. We are giving them stones instead of bread." -Kristeligt Dagblad, Copenhagen, Denmark, May 25, 1963.

Why Not Violence?

Religious leaders express dismay at the increase of violence. But they themselves are a cause for it!

Bishop E. Ilogu, writing in the Nigeria Morning Post of July 10, 1962, urged this: "In so far as our governments, law courts and public services uphold these principles of justice, fairplay and equality, Christians will support them. If they do not, Christians must rise in open rebellion against them." But if it is proper to resort to violence against a government one has a grievance toward, then why not get violent against another person, or against society as a whole for the same reason? And who is to determine whether the reasons for rebellion are valid? Will all see it the same way? In truth, here is an open invitation to crime, violence and anarchy.

When a white mob of 800 ran wild in the United States and injured nineteen Negroes, the New York Times of June 26, 1964, commented: "Most of the mob came from a rally conducted by the Rev. Connie Lynch . . . who has been agitating every night for the local white community to turn on Negroes and integrationists." Similarly, an explanation for a photograph in a Cyprus [Greek] paper, The Battle, of April 7, 1964, read: "The priest of Philousis Papadimitrios Savva with a machine gun and wearing the honored uniform of the forces of the law is pushing back the assaults of the Turkish band of brigands."

Clergy support for violence is not new. They have been giving it for centuries, supporting both sides in warfare, even when persons of the same religion were butchering one another.

Joseph Cardinal Frings wrote of German support for Hitler: "German soldiers did what they considered their duty in accordance with their oaths to the flag. . . . Catholic moral teaching endorses this attitude."* Well did the Auckland, New Zealand, Star of January 25, 1959, conclude: "The truth is that when a Christian Church goes down into the political arena, it ceases to be Christian."

gion that ignores God's Word or pays it only lip service that is to blame for actually undermining morality.

That such worldly religion has been devastating to good morals, the Brisbane, Australia, Courier-Mail of February 21, 1964, verifies: "When it comes to Bishops and Canons . . . writing that extramarital intercourse may be an act of charity that 'proclaims the Glory of God,' . . . that fornication is not bad in itself nor adultery necessarily wrong:

Worldly Religion

to Blame!

Yes, worldly religion is a chief cause for the moral breakdown! As Look magazine of September

ARTICLES IN THE NEXT ISSUE

Is Your Parents' Religion for You?

You Can Improve Your Power of Concentration.

Foreign Aid or a Fabulous Folly?

Our Growth—a Display of Divine Wisdom.

24, 1963, declared: "The churches . . . have failed to supply moral leadership, and because their responsibility is the greatest, their failure is the worst. Harvard Divinity School's Dean Miller says, 'The church

then the ordinary man and woman, and particularly the adolescent boy and girl, become confused between right and wrong. The result of

all this propaganda for the New Morality has been a breaking down of moral fences, so that people scarcely know which side they are on. Also, it must weaken the resistance to temptation of many adolescents who listen to it.

simply does not have a curring edge. It has taken the culture of our time and absorbed it. It's ghastly that the church is run not to serve the reality of human beings, but to conserve institutions.' "

Corroborating this view is clergyman D. Percy of Canada, who says: "The church has rarely been poorer spiritually than it is today." He also adds that the church is "as unlike the apostolic church of the first century, of the Bible concept of the church of Christ, as is possible to

who listen to it.

No, the world's religions are no force for good morals. Just the opposite is true. They must take the greater blame for today's moral breakdown.

This religious failure represents one more feature of the critical times in which we live. But just why are such distressing times upon us? How long will they last? What is the remedy? You need to know the answers to these questions, for they affect your very life.

find." Another clergyman, G. Goth, acknowledges: "A cursory reading of the New Testament would show that we have missed the bus. . . we strain at gnats and swallow camels."—Toronto Star Weekly, March 28, 1964.

So it is not the Bible that is to blame. Nor is it religion that faithfully adheres to the Bible that is to blame. But it is reli-

REFERENCES

1 Look magazine, September 24, 1963.

2 Toronto, Canada, Daily Star, March 18, 1963.

3 Manila, Philippines, Chronicle, May 4, 1964.

Fargo, United States, Forum, May 29, 1960.

6 Houston, United States, Chronicle, May 2, 1964.

4 Toronto, Canada. Daily Star, April 4, 1964.

7 Life magazine, June 26, 1964.

s Copenhagen, Denmark, Kristoligt Dagblad, February 3, 1984.

Copenhagen, Denmark, Rudovre Avis, March 12, 1964.

10 London, England, Daily Express, May 19, 1964.

11 Hobart, Australia, Mercury, March 1, 1964.

12 Sydney, Australia, Daily Telegraph, October 12, 1961.

18 New York, United States, Times, December 7, 1961.

14 New York, United States, Times, June 28, 1964.

CRITICAL TIMES Foretold ERTAINLY

CERTAINLY the critical times facing mankind today are unprecedented!

Never before in history has there been such a deterioration in the relations between men. While no human authority could have foreseen this terrible breakdown of morals, yet over nineteen centuries ago Almighty God inspired Bible writers to foretell the coming of these critical times. He even had recorded what is the underlying cause of the present rash of lawless violence.

Actually there is more to the problem than meets the eye. Although worldly men may blame parental delinquency, bad examples in public life and the failure of religious teaching, God's Word the Bible shows that there is more to it than that. It explains that superhuman, invisible "wicked spirit forces," angels gone bad, are the ones that have prodded mankind toward the present moral delinquency. (Eph. 6:12) Instead of dismissing such an idea as childish or unrealistic, would it not be wise to examine the evidence found in the only recorded account that accurately foretold today's critical times?

Effects of War in Heaven

immediately after prophetically describethe birth of God's kingdom with Christas the king, the Bible book ofRevelation tells about the casting of Satan the Devil and hiswicked angels out of heavendown to the vicinity of theearth. "War broke out inheaven," the Bible accountexplains. "Michael [who isJesus Christ] and his angels battled with the dragon,and the dragon and itsangels battled but it did notprevail, neither was a place

found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him."—Rev. 12:7-9.

Obviously this 'war in heaven' could not be observed by the eyes of men on earth. However, its effects would be felt in a most outstanding way by earth's inhabitants, as the inspired record goes on to show: "Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time." This "short period of time," from the casting of Satan and his demons from heaven until they are hurled into the abyss by Christ the King, falls within what is called in the Bible "the last days," or "the conclusion of the system of things." It is a period of time marked by unprecedented woe stirred up by unseen spirit forces.—Rev. 12:12.

Jesus Christ foresaw this short period of unusual trouble that the abased Devil would cause on earth. So he described it to his disciples, informing them that, during "the conclusion of the system of things," "nation will rise against nation and kingdom again" kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another.

. . . and because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off."—Matt. 24:3-42; Mark 13:3-37; Luke 21:7-36.

The Christian apostle Paul was also inspired by God to write about this period of time. "Know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here," he warned. "For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanders, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power; and from these turn away. . . . But wicked men and impostors will advance from bad to worse, misleading and being misled."—2 Tim. 3:1-5, 13.

Beginning of Critical Times

How accurately that describes the moral breakdown that now grips the world! There can be no doubt that we are living in these "last days" right now! But when did this period of unprecedented woe begin? Bible chronology pinpoints the year 1914 as the end of "the appointed times of the nations," and hence the time when Christ took his kingly power and cast Satan from heaven.* Any close observer of human events will agree that 1914 was a turning point in history.

In recalling the anniversary of the beginning of the first world war in 1914, London's newspaper The Evening Star said: "Nothing could ever be the same again. If we all get the nuclear madness out of our systems and the human race survives,

some historian in the next century may well conclude that the day the world went mad was August 4, 1914." Writer James Cameron devoted an entire book to that momentous year, and, in reviewing it, A. L. Rowe wrote in the New York Times Book Review of June 28, 1959:

"If ever there was a year that marked the end of an era and the beginning of another, it was 1914. That year brought to an end the old world with its sense of security and began the modern age, characteristic of which is the insecurity that is our daily portion. . . so long as I can remember, our world has been conditioned by the events of 1914, which shattered peace and established the war-born and war-threatened twentieth century."

Yes, it is apparent that the change in the course of human history since 1914 has been that caused by an angry Devil and his demons who know that they have but a short time to live. Consider the evidence that Satan the Devil and his demons are the ones who are largely responsible for the present violence and terrible breakdown of morals.

The Ones Responsible

Honesty and truthfulness are basic to morality, but in recent years there has been a complete rejection of such standards by a large portion of the population. The world shows no love for the truth, and deception and dishonesty have become a common, almost accepted practice. This mirrors exactly the disposition of the Devil and his demons. They are cunning at telling lies and deceiving. Craftily Satan induced Eve to break God's law, so that she confessed: "The serpent—it deceived me and so I ate."—Gen. 3:13.

Many years later Jesus Christ referred to this incident in the garden of Eden when describing the disposition of the Devil. He left no doubt as to the source of lying and dishonesty when he explained: "That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him.

When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie." (John 8:44) So with the casting of this original liar from heaven in 1914 and confining his activities to the vicinity of the earth, it is understandable why there has been such an unprecedented increase of deceit and lying in the earth.

This pervading spirit of dishonesty has penetrated every segment of this system of things, especially being manifest by worldly governments. Certainly they do not follow the straightforward and truthful example of Jesus Christ when dealing with one another, or even with their own people! But, rather, they imitate the spirit of Satan the Devil, whom the Bible calls "the god of this system of things," and "the ruler of this world."—2 Cor. 4:4; John 12:31.

At the same time it is apparent that neither have the religions of this world escaped his influence. The wickedness and condoning of immorality by the religious systems reveal them to have the same relationship as in the case of the Jewish religious leaders. You may recall that Jesus said to those religionists: "You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father." When churches sacrifice righteous principles, winking at dishonesty and sexual immorality in order to remain popular and avoid ridicule, they show that they too are children of the Devil.—John 8:44.

As might have been expected, a breakdown of family relations has accompanied the collapse of the morals of worldly governments and religions. Just as the Devil was able to divide the first human family, causing Adam to complain to God about his wife, so he has been able to cause discontent and discord in an ever-increasing number of homes today. (Gen. 3:12) This has resulted in sexual abuses, adultery and a skyrocketing divorce rate. There certainly is plenty of evidence that Satan has come down to the earth having great anger!—Rev. 12:12.

Consider, for example, what happened just prior to the flood in Noah's day. At that time, the Bible informs us, angels left their assigned duties in heaven and materialized to dwell as men for the purpose of satisfying passionate desires. Those disobedient angels craved female flesh for unnatural use, and so they took good-looking daughters of men as wives. (Gen. 6:2; 2 Pet. 2:4, 5; Jude 6) But how does that relate to our day? In that the Devil and these same dematerialized demons have now been hurled to the earth, and, although they cannot materialize human bodies as they did before the Flood, they find great delight in stirring up violence and urging the population to commit sexual abuses.—Gen. 6:11.

The demons incite men to violence today in many ways, often by injecting thoughts into their minds or by speaking so that people report hearing "a voice" telling them to do a violent thing. Often the "voice" tells them to commit suicide. Do not be misled by voices pretending to be dead relatives, good spirits and the like; they are lying spirits, demons, and they will lead you, if you listen to them, to crimes of violence, insanity or suicide.—Isa. 8:19.

Faced with these foretold critical times and the influence of the Devil and demons, what should we do? Give up in despair and hopelessness and not even try to live morally upright? Not at all! Rather, we should take in knowledge from God's Word that will show us how to conduct ourselves so as to remain morally clean in God's sight. This will lead to our everlasting blessing.

a ship that has neither fuel, compass, rudder nor pilot. He knows it cannot be guided successfully but will drift almlessly and be at the mercy of heavy seas. In time it will be battered to pieces and sink.

Because of the lack of sound moral guidance, humanity, like an ill-equipped ship, is drifting and being battered to pieces by every wave of doctrine, sinking into immorality.

Morally, mankind is in a similar position in these critical times. It is just as English clergyman Patrick Ashe recently said: "The early Christians were not as mealy-mouthed [about immorality] as we are today. . . . We have put youth on a ship with no sails, no fuel, no rudder, no compass, no pilot, and not even an anchor."—London Daily Express, October 23, 1961.

Honest-hearted men and women need a sound standard of moral integrity. They need a true guide, a right code, one that is certain and dependable. This will enable them to be guided safely through these stormy times.

True Source

As evidenced by the moral breakdown, man cannot provide this sound guide for himself. But his Creator can, and does. It stands to reason that the Almighty God knows what is best for his creation. To

himself he accounted just like the clay? For should the thing made say respecting its maker: 'He did not make me?' And does the very thing formed actually say respecting its former: 'He showed no understanding'?" -Isa. 29:15, 16.

Yes, man's Maker understands the necessity of giving man the knowledge he requires for moral integrity. This knowledge that comes from God is indispensable. Without it human society drifts aimlessly and morals sink lower. Those who rely on the wisdom that comes from God stand firm, though the world's morals crumble about them. As the proverb states: "Many are the plans in the heart of a man, but the counsel of Jehovah is what will stand." —Prov. 19:21.

When men discard the wisdom from God as their guide they become like the scarman who rejects his trusted compass, who refuses to take aboard his pilot, and who puts to sea in a ship that has no rudder or fuel. The inevitable consequence is what we see in every land—the tragic moral breakdown. It has happened as the prophet Jeremiah said: "Look! They have rejected the very word of Jehovah, and what wisdom do they have?"—Jer. 8:9.

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