Awake!, July 22, 1969
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MOTION PICTURES?
JULY 22,1969
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 interests. "Awake!" no hatters. 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 "Awake!" is not narrow, but is international. "Awake!" 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 "Awakel" 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 passes 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
Motion Pictures "Explode" with Sex and Violence 3
What Motion Pictures Feature Today 4
What Effect Do These Films Have? 7
Why the Rapid Moral Decline of Films Now? 11
Have the Churches Safeguarded the Morals of Their People? 14
What Will You Do? 16
Nuremberg—Assembly City 19
Machines with "Minds"—Automatic Control Systems 21
Learn to Walk—In the Hills 24
Student Violence in Tokyo 27
"Your Word Is Truth"
How Long Were the Israelites in Egypt? 28
Watching the World 30
Motion Pictures
"Explode" with
SEX AND
VIOLENCE
HAVE you noticed what has happened to motion pictures lately? In the last few years there has been an "explosion" of films featuring adultery, fornication, lesbianism, homosexuality, violence and mass killing.
If you look at movie advertisements in newspapers now, you will be struck by their almost pornographic tone. On just one day, some headlines among the eight pages of motion-picture advertisements in a leading conservative newspaper ran as follows, each for a different film:
"One of the most immoral, one of the most subversive . . . movies you will see this year."
"A lesbian affair! Torrid, clawing, backbiting!"
"The wackiest, sexiest film yet!"
"Eerie and erotic! This is strong stuff. It's not for the timid or the straight-laced!"
"A landmark likely to permanently shatter many of our last remaining movie conventions."
On the same day, another newspaper that carried many of these same advertisements added one that said: "Where wifeswapping and minor orgying is just swell."
Some theaters show nothing but this type of film. The New York Times reported: "Eighteen months ago, New York City had 10 theaters that showed sex-violence films on a seven-days-a-week policy. All were clustered on or near 42nd Street and Times Square. Today, 25 full-time sex-violence theaters are scattered throughout the city . . . There have, however, been two significant changes in the films themselves. Now, more often than not, the contents go much further than ever before in living up to the promises of nudity, violence and perversion held out in the titles." Commenting on this trend, Look magazine noted: "The films we are getting and that are to come have no holds barred as far as sex and violence and language go."
This same trend is taking place throughout the world. From Finland our Awake! correspondent reports: "Dr. Jerker A. Eriksson of the government censorship board said: 'What today is unbelievable, not to say horrifying, is tomorrow quite natural. In the "sex market" a liberal and more courageous course will be chosen.'" Our correspondent adds: "Some films even show sexual intercourse and are absolutely pornographic.
Advertisements in Finnish newspapers read: 'The triumphal victory of immorality,' 'Inexhaustible, expressive sex,' 'Would unrestrained, undisciplined and uninhibited be to your taste?' "
Why so many new films on sex and violence now? One reason analysts give has to do with the impact that the advent of television had. Millions of people began staying at home to watch the entertainment on their TV sets. The old expression "Let's go to a movie!" was replaced by "Turn on the TV!" As a result, hundreds of motion-picture theaters went out of business.
Faced with this sharp competition, the motion-picture industry turned to new things such as the wide screen and stereo sound. The next step was to make the films bolder, the scenes more sexual and violent.
But why highlight sex and violence? The Des Moines, Iowa, Sunday Register comments: "Movies with a 'condemned'
rating always seem to draw bigger crowds than the 'family-type pictures,' said a Dubuque theater manager. 'Pictures filled with violence and sex; that seems to be what they want today,' said M. J. Dew-Brittain, general manager of the Grand and Strand theaters here."
Films are produced to make money. Whatever sells is what the industry will produce. And what sells today is sex and violence, drawing people into theaters. Hence, this is given as a main reason for the onslaught of these films.
However, there is another reason for all this, and it is far, far more significant than any other reason. But before analyzing it, let us take a closer look at what many of these new films contain. Also, is there really any harm in them? How do they affect people, especially youths? And in view of the trend, what can you do about it?
MOTION pictures have always contained love stories
and violence. Usually, though, these were kept within moralistic bounds.
Today, this is no longer the case. As The Wall Street Journal observes:
"Scenes of nudity and perversion, once taboo in films financed and distributed by the major studios, are appearing with growing frequency. . . .
"Church groups have adopted a more liberal attitude. . . . The movie Bonnie and Clyde, a violent comedy-drama about a sexually impotent bank robber and his girl friend, was picked by the Catholic office as 1967's best film for mature audiences. . . .
"The attitudes reflected in many of the
MOTION PICTURES FEATURE TODAY
sharp contrast with the old Hollywood pictures. The new ones are less moralistic, and frequently the villain is glorified. In Bonnie and Clyde, the young pair rob and kill, and yet are depicted as happy-go-lucky innocents. When in the end they are gunned down in an ambush, the audience's sympathy goes out to the slain pair."
Sexual Immorality
Many recent films depict, yes, even glorify sexual immorality. Fornication and adultery are sprinkled liberally through them. Indeed, it is often difficult to find an entirely "clean" film nowadays.
When one recent film that originated in Sweden came to the United States, it was impounded by the United States Customs Service. But a United States Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it could be shown uncut. The Wall Street Journal of March 10, 1969, stated of this film:
"The 120 minutes of screening time depict the hero and heroine in abundant midity, various scenes of intercourse (including one in the crook of a tree) and more exotic sexual play. It has a dream sequence in which the heroine castrates her lover. . .
"To quite another group, the film is the final confirmation of a disaster they have long seen brewing. The growing permissiveness of American society, they maintain, has finally reached total deprivation."
When reviewing this film, a New York Times movie critic stated: "The Trash Explosion is here." He called the film "genuinely vile and disgusting . . . pseudopornography at its ugliest," and added:
"Yet the thing which distresses me—and indeed should distress us all—is the way it has been received. Passing one of the two theaters in New York where this rotten little movie was playing last week, I was amazed to see the lines of suckers at the box office. 'Must be somethin' dirty,' said the cab driver. . . . 'Only things people line up for in this town is somethin' free or somethin' dirty.'"
In more and more films now, fornication, adultery and wife-swapping are excused or condoned. Even prostitution has been glorified, for one film was based on the life of a prostitute who sold her body every day of the week except one, which she kept 'holy.' She was portrayed as an honorable person. The film was later shown on television, which prompted this comment from Look:
"Morally, there are getting to be fewer and fewer holds barred even on the small screen [TV]. . . . This is, after all, the television season that has brought us Never on Sunday on a network prime-time basis so that the kiddies who weren't abed by 9 p.m. could get a gander at the happiest prostitute in Piraeus."
Nor does the trend end with films and television. It is very evident in stage plays too. The New York Times of April 1, 1969, said in an editorial: "The explicit portrayal on the stage of sexual intercourse is the final step in the erosion of taste and subtlety in the theater. It reduces actors to mere exhibitionists, turns audiences into voyeurs and debases sexual relationships almost to the level of prostitution."
Many people in the film industry do not think fornication and adultery are bad. But this opinion sharply differs with that of Almighty God. In his Word, the Bible, we read; "Do not be misled. Neither fornicators . . . nor adulterers . . . will inherit God's kingdom." (1 Cor. 6:9, 10) So the trend toward ever greater sexual permissiveness in films goes directly contrary to God's laws. Is this significant? Does it have a greater meaning for our day? Very much so, as we shall later see.
Crime and Violence
Also highlighted in many films now are crime and violence. No, not the kind that saw the sheriff hunt down the outlaw and shoot him. Many films today display a gross, morbid, even sadistic dwelling on killing and bloodshed. At times it is the villain that is glorified, not the innocent victim.
The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner reported of this: "The trend is clear, and already upon us. Sadism is a hot item in films these days." In one film, it mentioned that "as many as 40 men, women and children are shot in cold blood in the first hour of the run." This kind of violence prompted a film reviewer of the New York Times to say:
"Something is happening in the movies that has me alarmed and disturbed. Movie-makers and movie-goers are agreeing that killing is fun. Not just old-fashioned, outright killing, either, the kind that is quickly and cleanly done by honorable law-enforcers or acceptable competitors in crime. This is killing of a gross and bloody nature, often massive and excessive, done by characters whose murderous motivations are morbid, degenerate and cold. This is killing of the sort that social misfits and sexual pervers are most likely to do. And the eerie thing is that movie-goers are gleefully lapping it up."
This kind of violence and killing is now finding its way into television programs. In one survey, it was found that in about eighty-five hours of prime-time and Saturday-morning programing, 372 separate acts or threats of violence were noted. Included were sadistic brutality, cold-blooded killing and sexual cruelty. Of this the 1969 Year Book of the World Book Encyclopedia said: "This is the medium to which the American child devotes more of his time than to any other single activity except sleep."
Again, it is interesting to observe that such glorifying of violence and murder runs directly contrary to God's laws. Psalm 11:5 states: "Jehovah himself examines the righteous one as well as the wicked one, and anyone loving violence His soul certainly hates." And Revelation 21:8 adds: "But as for . . . murderers . . . their portion will be . . . the second death [total annihilation]." As with sexual permissiveness, the trend toward greater crime and violence is also highly significant in our time, as we will see.
Homosexuals and Lesbians
It added: "Scores of producers are scurrying around seeking more scripts that stress unnatural love themes. In the past year alone, more than a dozen movies carried homosexual overtones." Of one film, Time reported:
Never before have so many films on homosexuals and lesbians appeared as are doing so now. The New York Sunday News called it a "flood of homosexual movies."
"The characters are all homosexuals and junkies . . . A couple of sacked-out homosexuals in dirty underwear fondle each other incuriously. Another homosexual does a striptease. One lesbian beats another with a big-buckled belt. Another lesbian who is also a junkie jabs herself in the buttock with a hypodermic. A faggot who calls himself 'the Pope' advises a lesbian to sneak into church and do something obscene to the figure on the cross—'It'll do you good.'"
Even prominent movie actors and actresses now appear in parts depicting sexual perverts.
The onrush of such films has led some performers to accuse writers, producers and directors of being homosexuals who are trying to promote homosexuality. A leading actress recently stated that there were a dozen top writers and playwrights who were more effeminate than the characters they portrayed in their movies. She said: "Apparently, these writers want the public to accept the sub-world of the deviate."
Sexual perversion is now prominent in stage plays too. Concerning this the Sunday News of February 23, 1969, related: "One Broadway veteran said: 'There is more rampant homosexuality in the theater than movies and TV combined. Homosexuals wield tremendous influence. A few years ago, a group of them got together and put out one of the biggest musicals of all time. Every creative man behind the hit was a homosexual. Naturally, their choice of a leading man was a gay boy.'"
Concerning the trend toward condoning or excusing sexual perversion, the film industry once again finds itself at odds with the Creator, Jehovah God. The Bible tells us: "Males left the natural use of the female and became violently inflamed in their lust toward one another, males with males, working what is obscene .
. . those practicing such things are deserving of death." (Rom. 1:27, 32) Along with sex
and violence, this trend toward ever more perversion in films is very significant, and we will comment on this later.
However, some persons consider films featuring sex and violence as mere entertainment, harmless. But is it harmless?
WHAT EFFECT DO THESE FILMS HAVE?
HOW does the new emphasis on sex and violence in films affect people? Some contend that the ill effects are negligible that these pictures are only "entertainment."
Yet, ask yourself: How have you become the person you are today? Was it not by your environment and education? By what you have been taking into your mind, especially through your eyes and ears, your personality has been forming since you were a child. And the more you were exposed to a certain thing, the more it became part of you.
In this regard, there is what may be called a fundamental law or principle of human behavior. It is this: YOU ARE WHAT YOU FEED YOUR MIND.
"Brainwashing"
The Communist "brainwashing" technique was based on this principle. By constantly exposing the minds of their prisoners to Communist reasoning and discipline, many were induced to do things they would not have otherwise. Large numbers compromised.
want to keep your body healthy,would you eat a steady diet of garbage?
The mind is affected by what it takes in. The more it takes in certain types of information, the more affected along those lines it will be. It is similar to your body being affected by what you eat. If you
What, then, if you continually feed your mind on mental garbage? If you expose yourself to it constantly and meditate on it, it will gradually become part of your thinking. You will allow yourself to be "brainwashed" in that direction. Your personality will be transformed gradually, and not for the good.
But with a diet of wholesome, upbuilding mental food a personality can be molded toward what is right. The Bible shows this by saying: "Quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Rom. 12: 2) Yes, what the mind feeds on is the key to what a person becomes.
What Do You Want?
Some, particularly film makers, contend that there is nothing wrong with watching sex and violence. In fact, more and more people, including clergymen, are now saying that fornication, adultery, homosexuality and even violence are not always bad.
But is that what you want for yourself?
Is that what you want for your wife or husband, for your children? Would you approve of someone committing fornication with your daughter?
Do you think it is all right to let your wife spend the entire night with another man, committing adultery? Would you approve of your son's becoming a homosexual? Would you invite a criminal into your home to beat up your wife and children, perhaps killing them?
You will likely acknowledge that you do not want any of these things to happen. Yet, while you may not want sexual immorality or violence as part of your homelife, remember—YOU ARE WHAT YOU FEED YOUR MIND! If you allow your mind, and the minds of your loved ones, to feed on such things, do not be surprised if in time they begin to do them.
It Has an Effect
Every impression your mind takes in has an effect. In a Columbia Broadcasting System program entitled "Building the
Brain," a scientist stated: "The effects of learning and experience don't just pass over without leaving a trace. The brain is actually transformed."
The Creator of man, Jehovah God, knows far better than anyone else what is good
Computers produce by being programed. You get out of them only what you put into them. So, too, if you program your mind with wrong information, you will get bad results. Now, then, do you consider a steady intake of films that include fornication, adultery, homosexuality, lesbianism, crime, hatred, violence and killing good programing for the mind?
Associations
If you want your children to grow up decently, would you allow them to associate with known fornicators, homosexuals, liars and hardened criminals? Would you invite such persons into your home as companions for your children?
When watching a motion picture, you and your family are, in effect, associating for about two hours with the kinds of persons being portrayed on the screen. And movies are deliberately designed to in-
or bad for the mind. He tells us in his Word that feeding the mind a steady diet of bad information is the foundation of wrong action. The Bible says: "Each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin." (Jas. 1:14, 15) And how is a person's desire built up? By the things he feeds his mind.
Your mind and a computer work on the same principle: you get out of them what you put into them.
The mind is somewhat like a computer.
valve you emotionally with the characters, deepening the impressions made on the mind. Television shows and stage plays are similarly designed. Of one stage play, an advertisement in the New York Times of March 23, 1969, commented:
"Not since classical times and the erotic theatre in ancient Greece, has there been such a frank and honest presentation of homosexual love seen on the stage.
"One cannot help but get deeply and personally involved in the lives of the characters portrayed."
Do you want yourself, your wife, your sons and your daughters to get deeply involved with homosexuals, lesbians, fornicators, adulterers and criminals? That is really what you are doing when you spend hours watching such persons portrayed in motion pictures, television shows or stage plays.
Too, many films now are slanted to arouse sympathy for the wrongdoer—the adulterer, the homosexual, even the murderer. And the fact that the audience's sympathy is aroused shows that the film is having its effect on their minds. They are being conditioned to overlook, condone, or even imitate the very wrongs that God condemns. As Dr. Derek Buchanan warned the British Medical Association: "A constant drip will wear away a stone." And as the greatest authority on the mind, God's Word, warns: "Do not be misled. Bad associations spoil useful habits."—1 Cor. 15:33.
"I Would Never Do That!"
Still, as you watch some act of sexual immorality or violence on the screen, you may think: "Why, I'd never do a thing like that!"
True, right now it might repel you if someone were to suggest that you steal from your neighbor, lie to your friends, or be unfaithful to your wife. But what if you were to keep company with thieves, liars and adulterers long enough to listen to their arguments? In time, you might well become sympathetic toward them.
It may disgust you to think of a male having sexual relations with another male. But what if you lived with homosexuals and listened to their reasoning? What at first seemed repulsive might not seem that way in time. And consider this: How did the majority of homosexuals get that way? By spending time thinking about it and by
associating with others who were that way.
You may feel that your son or daughter would not engage in immorality. But what if you allow them to go to motion pictures with teen-agers of the opposite sex and watch repeated acts of necking, petting and immorality? What will they be more likely to do after such movies, especially if they also have access to alcoholic beverages, which lower inhibitions? You know the answer.
Today's films shout out: "WE'RE GOING TO ENGAGE IN BADNESS! WE'RE GOING TO BREAK GOD'S LAWS!" Is that the kind of influence you want working on yourself and your loved ones?
Do you still think that you and your loved ones are above being corrupted by bad influences? Then remember, millions of decent, hardworking German citizens were "brainwashed" by Nazi propaganda to commit or support the most heinous crimes against humanity. So do not underestimate the effect that the corrupt propaganda belching forth from motion pictures on sex and violence can have on you and your family.
Youths More Affected
The adult mind has more experience in life. It may therefore be better prepared to resist suggestions to immorality or violence, although it too will be affected in the long run.
But the minds of youths do not have that experience or resistance. The young person's mind is like a jet airplane. It has great energy and potential, but it needs to be guided by experienced hands. Without such guidance, a young mind is like a jet airplane that has a child at the controls. Too heavy a pressure of sex, perversion and violence on the child's mind will be too much for it to handle. It may even go completely out of control.
When two brothers, aged ten and twelve, terrorized an Oklahoma town in a shooting spree, killing and wounding people, they were asked why. They told police they were motivated by motion picture and television crime stories. Another boy who had beaten up a girl said he got the idea after seeing the same thing on the screen. A twelve-
Without guidance a young mind can be like a jet plane out of control.
year-old boy wrote to a bank manager ordering him to hand over $5,600 "or you will die." He got the idea from a crime film, stating: "I saw how people got money by writing to bank managers saying someone would get killed if they did not pay up. I thought I would have a go."
Multiply such examples by the thousands and you can see why FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover warned against the "dangerous trend" In movies and television, a trend that he said is glorifying crime and violence.
Similarly, an editorial in the Columbus, Ohio, Citizen-Journal noted that such deteriorating standards "are destroying parental influence with a hit as powerful and smooth as the three-inch jab made famous
by Joe Louis." It noted that children are taught "by repetition, repetition, repetition to expect violence and to seek it." The editorial added: "And remember, again, the villainy they're taught they are performing. Nothing is more dangerous than to assume your own children will remain exempt."
Analysts report that the average child in the United States spends 500 to 1,000 hours a year watching television! Add to this the many hours a year they spend watching motion pictures. Together, this represents far more time than they spend at any other single activity except sleep! With much less time spent each year, they learn mathematics, language, science, and other skills. What,
then, do you think the far greater time spent being "brainwashed" at motion pictures and TV sets is doing to these young minds?
We do not have to guess. Child psychiatrist Dr. Arthur R. Timme warned that such mental conditioning has "a very deleterious effect on the mind of growing children. . . . they grow up with a completely distorted sense of what is right and wrong in human behavior."
As proof of this, careful experiments have revealed that children exposed to violence in films were twice as violent as children who had not seen the films. Concerning such experiments the 1969 Year Book of the World Book Encyclopedia states:
Did you know that children spend more time watching TV and movies than on any other single activity?
"In contrast to the heretofore popular belief that filmed violence can adversely affect only children already inclined toward violent behavior, a growing number of scientists now insist it may have a far broader harmful impact.
"In a series of tests, Bandura [Albert Bandura, psychologist at Stanford University] and his associates exposed nursery school children to brief films showing adults violently abusing inflated life-size dolls in unusual ways.
When these boys and girls were later observed in play situations, a majority tended to imitate precisely the strange behavior of the adults."
Whether young or old, we cannot escape the truth about today's motion pictures emphasizing sex and violence, as well as similar television and stage shows. They are indeed having a profoundly negative effect on the minds of people. Reported the Los Angeles Times of February 16, 1969:
"America is living in 'the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, the days of the lowest ebb of civilization in all of history', according to a Southland college president. . . .
'The freedom allowed in the making and showing of modern moving pictures,' Dr.
Sutherland said, is one of the most damaging influences in modern-day life.'
And what is true of America is also true of the other nations of the world today.
But why is all this happening? Why have motion pictures reached such a low state that they heavily contribute to transforming society into a modern Sodom and Gomorrah? Why is there such an explosion of films that highlight things that go directly opposite to God's laws? Why is there such a downgrading of what is moral, decent and right?
All this is no accident! It has been deliberately designed! It has to do with the real reason for the "explosion" of sex and violence in films today. Let us now examine that reason.
the rapid moral decline of films now?
WHAT is the real reason for the "explosion" of sex and violence in motion pictures now? Why have we witnessed such a rapid decline in the moral tone of films in recent years?
The reason usually given, as noted previously, is that these films make money for the film industry, and also that the public wants to see such pictures anyhow.
Far More to It
But there is far more to the matter than just that. Actually, a wholesale degeneration of all human affairs has been going on for several decades.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, former president of the United States, pointed the time when the rapid decline began by stating: "A deterioration has been going on since the first World War." Many authorities confirm this fact. As the Newark News reported: "Since 1914 civilization has constantly deteriorated. Nowadays it is on the verge of collapse."
This process of decay has greatly picked up speed in the last few years. An indication of this can be noted in an advertisement for a new book that was carried by the New York Times of April 7, 1969. It said:
"The world it predicts has already started taking shape. Look around. Teen-agers, high on drugs, experimenting with every possible form of sex . . . pornographic magazines sold openly on newsstands . . . movies that show the sex act in full detail . . . plays that offer the same thing, only live. What will be the next step?
Audience participation? Sex in the streets? Are we headed for a time of total freedom, or total destruction?"
This world, with its increasing emphasis on sex and violence, is definitely headed for something. Of that there can be no doubt. But toward what is it rushing headlong?
Where This World Is Headed
No, this world is not just headed for more sex and violence in motion pictures and elsewhere, although that is sure to come. It is much more serious than that.
What you see taking place today is certain evidence that world affairs are reaching a climax, a climax the Bible clearly foretold. What all the "exploding" sex, perversion, violence and
Will this world continue to degenerate swiftly until it dies of its own badness? No. True, the Bible emphatically shows that wickedness will "advance from bad to worse," and that there will certainly be a continued "increasing of lawlessness" in the immediate future. (2 Tim. 3:13; Matt. 24:12) But the Bible also emphatically shows that before long Jehovah God will bring to a sudden halt this world's downward plunge. The Bible describes it this way in a prophecy that will have its major fulfillment in our day: "There is
rush downhill in an orgy of sex and violence, speeding to its end.
ARTICLES IN THE NEXT ISSUE
Unselfishness—a Key to Successful Marriage.
Protecting Young Children Against Accidents.
A Bible Student Visits the Louvre.
Aluminum—from Curiosity to Versatility.
other chaos really means was long ago prophesied in God's Word, where we read:
"But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. 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, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, . . . wicked men and impostors will advance from bad to worse, misleading and being misled."—2 Tim. 3:14, 13.
Yes, all the evidence today in fulfillment of such Bible prophecies, including the ones that Jesus Christ gave, stamp the period of time in which we live as the "last days."—Matt. 24:1-42.
The "last days" of what? The "last days" of the entire wicked system of things on earth! This means that human society alienated from God is in its final
a controversy that Jehovah has with the nations. He must personally put himself in judgment with all flesh. As regards the wicked ones, he must give them to the
sword." (Jen. 25:31) So before this world dies of its own badness, God himself will give it a death stroke!
Thus, the fantastic increase in sex and violence in films is significant in that it is one of the many evidences that we are living very near the end of this system of things.
Who Is Responsible?
Who is really responsible for the corruption being belched out of films today? Well, what are these films condoning or promoting? Are they not the very things that God's laws condemn?
Ever so many films today pervert the things that God created to bring wholesome joy to man. For instance, God united male and female in holy marriage to bring forth children in an honorable way. (Gen. 1:27, 28; 2:24) Yet, so many films now make sex ugly, dishonorable, dirty. They condone sex relations outside marriage; yet, marriage is the only sphere in which God says sex relations are lawful!
(Heb. 13:4) In addition, films have condoned homosexuality and lesbianism, both condemned by God—Rom. 1:26, 27, 32.
Clearly, the prime instigator responsible for perverting things that God created for honorable purposes is one who is working against God. And we do not have to wonder about this opposer's identity. The Bible clearly tells us who the mastermind is behind the onrush of sex and violence in films.
Not only does the Bible identify him, but it also tells us why this corruption has vastly increased in recent times. In Revelation (the Apocalypse) chapter 12, verses 9 and 12, we are informed:
"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 [the demons] were hurled down with him.
"On this account be glad, you heavens and you reside in them! 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."
God's Word identifies that spirit creature, Satan the Devil, as the great rebel who has worked for nearly 6,000 years to corrupt mankind. But in recent times,
which the Bible indicates to be from the year 1914 onward, Satan has been denied access to God's heavens. He has been cast right down to the vicinity of the earth and confined there. The heavens have thus recently been cleansed of his corrupting influence.
Satan knows what the next step is that God will take. This will be to
cleanse corruption from the earth. This includes putting Satan and his demons out of action. So the Devil works frantically to corrupt as many humans as he can in his twisted rage, knowing he has only a short time left. This explains the increased tempo of wickedness, even in motion pictures.
Hence, it is Satan the Devil that is responsible for the corruption on earth. And he has used willing tools on earth, humans, to build up a wicked system of things. That is why the Bible calls Satan "the god of this system of things." (2 Cor. 4:4) The majority of humans, not just a few, have allowed themselves to come under his evil influence: "The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one." (1 John 5:19) That is why Satan, his demons and the entire corrupt system of things on earth are to be executed by God.
Therefore, when you see the flood of motion pictures now that feature sex, perversion and violence, you can be sure of their source: Satan the Devil and his demons. They are interested in sexual perversion and violence now, just as they were before the flood of Noah's day.—Gen. 6:1-5, 11, 12; Jude 6, 7.
This brings up a point of great importance. When you spend your money to see motion pictures that highlight sex and
Who are you really supporting when you buy a ticket to see films featuring sex and violence?
violence, what are you really supporting? Are you not actually giving support to what works against God and against decent people on earth? Are you not, in fact, supporting what is being sponsored by Satan the Devil? Does it make sense to support what God says he will annihilate soon? It is something to think about, is it not?
THE churches of Christendom claim to represent God. They claim to be guardians of God's truths and of their people's morals. But have they safeguarded their people from the corruption of our time?
Have the Churches Safeguarded the Morals of Their People?
Recall what The Wall Street Journal said in regard to church attitudes toward films that feature sex and violence:
"Church groups have adopted a more liberal attitude. . . The movie
Bonnie and Clyde, a violent comedy-drama about a sexually impotent bank robber and his girl friend, was picked by the Catholic office as 1967's best film for nature audiences."
ber of clergymen advocate this "new morality" than is generally realized.
As was previously noted of this film, "When in the end they are gunned down in an ambush, the audience's sympathy goes out to the slain pair."
Do you think it works for the moral good of people for church groups to praise films that build sympathy for those who break God's laws? Would you say this is what God wants?
The "New Morality"
Time magazine quoted a psychologist who said of many churchmen today:
The churches in recent years have been among the foremost to excuse, or even promote the "new morality." This "new morality" is the basis of many new films, TV shows and stage plays.
Just what is this "new morality"? Actually, it is not very new at all. In fact, it is simply the rejection of God's laws. It is the excusing or approving of fornication, adultery, homosexuality, lesbianism and violence. And a much larger num-
"They are no longer shaking their finger because the boys and girls give in to natural biological urges and experiment a bit. They don't say, 'Stop,
you're wrong, but 'Is it meaningful?' "
W. Gustin, minister of a Methodist church, said: "I say loudly and I say clearly, there are advantages of
adultery." And Presbyterian minister G. Clanton writes:
"The Old Testament prohibition against nonmarital intercourse was a good rule for its time . . . And in the time of Jesus . . . the teaching that sex should be reserved for marriage was sound, since the begetting of children outside of marriage was (and is) socially undesirable. But such a sweeping rule is no longer needed."
Do you feel that all this safeguards morals? Does it not weaken morality instead? True, not all clergymen teach these things. But if the churches represented by the many who do teach these things did not approve, why would they allow such clergymen to continue in good standing?
Even a British medical magazine, The Practitioner, noted that moral standards are being undermined by the churches. It said: "The publication of the British Council of Churches, 'Sex and Morality,' was a disappointment to those who had looked to the churches to give a firm lead against promiscuous behaviour both before and after marriage."
Can one look to younger clergymen to stem the tide of moral decay? A former professor at a seminary in New York said: "Theological students . . . are insistent on a radical revision of the sexual code. It is they who believe that the old ethic of divine commandment or the natural moral law will not work . . . Their sympathies are all with the 'new morality.'"
Homosexuality
Are the churches at least safeguarding their people against the detestable practice of homosexuality? Of this God's law clearly states: "Those practicing such things are deserving of death." (Rom. 1: 21-32) Yet, consider the result of a survey of 3,000 clergymen published in McCall's magazine in February 1968:
"To follow a single thread through 3,000 letters is not easy; but one such thread was so clear as to be unforgettable—the surprising compassion extended to the homosexual."
The New York Post of July 5, 1967, stated:
"There is also a strong movement within the Roman Catholic priesthood to consider homosexual relationships in the same light as those between members of the opposite sex."
Is this what God's Word teaches? Romans 1:27 says: "The males left the natural use of the female and became violently inflamed in their lust toward one another, males with males, working what is obscene." And 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 states: "Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men . . . will inherit God's kingdom."
How true is what God's Word says of these religious hypocrites: they have "exchanged the truth of God for the lie"! —Rom. 1:25.
Teaching Peace?
churches promoting peace to counteract it?
Just about every corner of Christendom today is filled with violence. Are the
At the World Council of Churches assembly in Sweden, a main speaker said: "If we believe in progress and development let us not flinch at disorder and instability. . . I would not condemn those who resort to violent action in order to bring about justice in society." Also, an encyclical of Pope Paul VI in 1867 approved "revolutionary uprising . . . where there is manifest long-standing tyranny." And revolutionaries in South America now are using his very words to promote violent revolution!
Is it teaching peace when clergymen lead marches, riots, protests? Is it teaching peace when they support both sides in the wars of our time, which wars have taken tens of millions of lives? Compare their activity with God's viewpoint. Jesus said his followers were "no part of the world." (John 17:14) He told them: "Return your sword to its place, for all those who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Matt. 26:52) The apostle Paul said: "Be obedient to governments and authorities as rulers, . . . [do not] be belligerent." (Titus 3:1, 2) The apostle Peter counseled the sincere Christian: "Seek peace and pursue it." (1 Pet. 3:11) And the apostle John said: "If anyone makes the statement; I love God," and yet is hating his brother, he is a liar."—1 John 4:20.
True, Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple at Jerusalem. But that was God's house. Jesus did not do the same at pagan temples. Nor did he go down into the arenas to stop the gladiator fights. Instead, he educated his followers in the ways of peace, giving them the moral and mental strength to do what was right.
Churches Have Failed
Thus, while motion pictures, and the world in general, deteriorate in moral standards, the clergy, instead of teaching people the truth about God's righteous standards, give active or silent support to the immorality, perversion and violence that break God's laws.
Truly, the churches have utterly failed to teach their people the truth in regard to sex and violence. They have become just as guilty in corrupting people as have those who produce the filth and promote the violence. Hence, the words of Jesus to the religious leaders of his day apply with equal force to the religious leaders of our day: "Woe to you, . . . hypocrites!
because you resemble whitewashed graves, which outwardly indeed appear beautiful but inside are full of dead men's bones and of every sort of uncleanness. In that way you also, outwardly indeed, appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."—Matt. 23: 23-28.
Since the film industry descends into depravity, and the churches follow, what can you do? How can you protect yourself and your loved ones from the tidal wave of corruption now sweeping the world?
WHAT WILL YOU DO?
IF YOU lived by the shore of an ocean and knew that a tidal wave was approaching, what would you do? Would you stay by the ocean? Or would you flee to safe ground?
In these "last days" there is a tidal wave of immorality, perversion and violence sweeping the globe. It is to be seen everywhere as crime and immorality sky-rocket without letup. This world is being engulfed by corruption that has turned it into a modern Sodom and Gomorrah, and worse.
Motion pictures that feature sex and violence are part of this corruption. What will you do about them?
Protect Loved Ones
Well, would you pay hard-earned money to hire fornicators or adulterers to perform immoral acts right in your home, in front of your family and friends? Would you pay homosexuals, lesbians or prostitutes to perform perversions in your living room? Would you pay to have sadists or murderers shed the blood of other humans in your home while your loved ones watched?
If you are interested in the welfare of yourself and your loved ones, you will want to protect them from corrupting influences. But how?
You would not do these things any more than you would pay to have garbage for dinner! Why, then, pay hard-earned money to sit for hours watching the mental garbage now being dished out by the film industry? Films that highlight sex and violence are not designed to promote what is moral, honorable or right. They do not build faith in God's purposes and requirements. They are like bad seeds that grow in a person's mind if he waters them by exposing himself to their influence.
To prevent a seed from sprouting and bearing fruit, do not water it. So while a person can be well informed about the trend the world is taking, it does not mean he has to dwell on what is corrupt and expose his family to it. That would be watering bad seed.
Ratings
This is not to say that no films are suitable for family entertainment and enjoyment. But what kind are?
In various lands there are official agencies that rate pictures according to their suitability. In the United States, for example, there are four ratings: G—for general audiences without regard to age; M—for mature audiences, with parents advised to exercise discretion in taking children; R—for restricted audiences, with children under sixteen not permitted unless accompanied by a parent or guardian; and X—for adults only, with no one under sixteen admitted.
However, who determines the ratings? Are they all persons who are guided by high Bible principles? That is not likely. So while it is almost certain that the last three ratings would be objectionable in view of the trend today, even a top rating may not always be what you want your family to see. Hence, it would be wise to investigate a film before seeing it. Check with others who may have seen it. Read reviews of it in the press.
When reading reviews, though, remember that movie critics may not agree with your standards. In the film from Sweden that contained so much sexual immorality, one film critic in a reputable magazine said: "For me, it was a refreshing and happy experience."
Is there any general principle you can follow to keep yourself and your loved ones
from spending hours at useless, demoralizing films? First of all, it is safer to choose from the highest rating. Then, where there is a doubt even there, as will often be the case, why go until you find out if it is acceptable?
View of Bible Christians
Bible Christians, in making their decisions on the types of films they will see, are guided by Bible principles. Some of these principles are recorded at Philippians 4:8, where it states: "Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are of serious concern, whatever things are righteous, whatever things are chaste, whatever things are lovable, whatever things are well spoken of, whatever virtue there is and whatever praiseworthy thing there is, continue considering these things."
Some, knowing that the film industry is not guided by Bible principles, realize that there will really be very few decent films. So they have decided not to attend motion pictures anymore.
Others carefully scrutinize films and go only a few times a year when there is a film especially recommended as entertainment for the family. Yet, at times highly recommended films have proved to be great disappointments. One that had a very high rating in the press turned quickly from a noble theme to one of adultery. The rest of the film centered mainly on the intrigues concerning this sexual immorality, with the main characters lying and cheating to protect their adultery.
This is why some walk out of films that do not measure up to their standards. They are keenly interested in their spiritual welfare and feel it would be better to walk out than to continue viewing what they object to.
What for Recreation?
Yet, if you limit the kinds of films you see to very few, and carefully regulate television viewing, what can you and your family do for recreation? Children particularly may object, saying: "We're not allowed to see most films or television programs. Well, what can we do to have fun?"
God created man and woman, and especially children, with a need for recreation. But he never purposed that it should center around moral filth or violence, around the breaking of his laws. Parents, then, have the responsibility of planning wholesome recreation for the family.
There are really many things a family can enjoy doing together. They can take trips to scenic spots such as lakes, mountains and beaches. They can visit museums and other places of interest that both entertain and inform. They can play various outdoor sports. Why, many folks have hours of enjoyment just pitching horseshoes! Too, what about inviting over friends whose children can get together with yours? Families can also listen to
good music, go to concerts, and, yes, carefully pick quality motion pictures and television shows to watch. All such recreation, properly supervised by parents, can have a good influence.
Jehovah's witnesses do something else that works for their upbuilding. They arrange their affairs to attend meetings at their Christian congregation several times a week to study God's Word. This provides both a spiritual uplift and a chance to get together with others whose lives are governed by high principles. Here, children not only learn God's purposes and laws but also have opportunity to meet other children in an upbuilding atmosphere.
So, really, there are any number of things a family can do to substitute clean, enjoyable activities for the rubbish now pouring out of the motion-picture industry.
What Will You Do?
Very soon now, this system of things with its debased standards will come to its day of reckoning with God. Its time will have run out. Where do you want to be when that time comes?
There are many persons who want to do what is right. They want to survive the end of this wicked system. They want to live forever in God's clean, righteous, paradise new order. So they heed the counsel of the psalmist who said to God: "Your orders I have not forgotten. Your righteousness is a righteousness to time indefinite, and your law is truth. . . Make me understand, that I may keep living."—Ps. 119:141-144.
Hence, they do not get caught up in today's explosion of sex and violence in films. They avoid them. What will your choice be?
ASSEMBLIES of significance are not uncommon in Nuremberg, Germany. In 1356 Emperor Charles IV rewarded the hospitality and loyalty of Nuremberg's inhabitants by decreeing that each future German ruler should hold his first Party Congress here.
Later, in March of 1525, the so-called "Nuremberg religious meetings" were held here. On this occasion political and intellectual leaders of the city met together in the large Rathaus (town hall) to discuss the religious upheaval then going on. Due to the activity of Martin Luther the protest movement against Catholicism was spreading rapidly throughout Germany.
On March 17, 1525, the city council voted by an imposing majority to accept
the new religious teaching. Thus Nuremberg became the first imperial town to embrace Protestantism. Instructions were issued to the three Catholic monasteries inside the city to refrain from their public "preaching and confessionals" until such time as they could back up their teachings and actions with the Holy Scriptures. Nuremberg is to this day predominately Protestant.
Modern Assemblies
In the early 1930's a new National Socialistic government under Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. One of its goals was the restoration of the ancient Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Attention was drawn to Emperor Charles IV's decree regarding party congresses, and Nuremberg became the 'City of annual Party assemblies.'
In a beautiful setting in Nuremberg, Hitler erected imposing and colossal structures for these annual meetings. These included the tremendous colonnade of 144 columns
and the Steintribuene (Stone Tribune). Here observers gathered to watch the military parades on the Zeppelinwiese (Zeppelin Meadow).
It was at one of these mammoth meetings in 1935 that the "Nuremberg Decrees" were adopted. These decrees forbade Germans to marry Jews and deprived Jews of citizenship. In this way the German rulers laid a legal basis for their anti-Semitism.
Jehovah's witnesses, too, felt the hatred of the National Socialists, or Nazis. During the next few years about 10,000 of them from all of Germany, including the city of Nuremberg, were thrown into prisons and concentration camps. Why? Because they refused to compromise Christian principles by giving worshipful honors to a man and joining his political party.
With the end of World War II in 1945 came the collapse of Hitler's political system. This meant the liberation of Jehovah's witnesses from concentration camps. That summer, after years of oppression,
about twenty of them gathered together in a private home in Nuremberg to reorganize their activity there.
Then, in 1946, Nuremberg again came into the limelight of world attention. The surviving leaders of the defeated Nazi political system once again gathered in Nuremberg, but not in triumph. Rather, they appeared before an international court to be tried for their war crimes.
Actually God's name is closely linked with the city of Nuremberg. As a "free imperial city" Nuremberg in its earlier days was permitted to mint its own money. And stamped upon a coin minted in the year 1680 are the four Hebrew letters for God's name (JHVH or YHWH), commonly called the Tetragrammaton. This name of God is usually pronounced today "Jehovah."
Stamped upon a Nuremberg coin of 1680 are the Hebrew letters for God's name
Ironically, Jehovah's witnesses, whom these Nazi leaders had attempted to destroy, were at the same time having an assembly at the former Party Grounds of their onetime persecutors! On Monday, September 30, when death sentences were being pronounced upon many of these Nazis, Jehovah's witnesses were listening to the assembly chairman speak on the subject "Christians in the Crucible."
The Nurnberger Nachrichten of October 3, 1946, took note in its headlines of "the judgment rendered in Nuremberg." However, in its very same issue, it carried a fitting report of the "First Theocratic Assembly of Jehovah's witnesses" attended by about 7,000 delegates from all zones of then occupied Germany. The assembly was a topic of discussion for some time among Nuremberg's inhabitants. God's name "Jehovah" was upon many lips.
The former Party Grounds of the National Socialists, largely still intact, offer an ideal place for assemblies. For here there are lakes, forests and parks removed from the stir of the city. Thus in 1953, 1955 and again in 1966 Jehovah's witnesses have used this place for assemblies. At their international gathering in 1955
over 107,000 persons were in attendance at the main lecture!
Over the years modern suburbs have grown up around Nuremberg, and transportation facilities have been extended. A fine system of superhighways lead to Nuremberg, some of them going directly into the center of the city. Also, there is a well-equipped airport. And instead of only twenty Witnesses, who met here in a private home after World War II, there are now almost 1,500 Witnesses in Nuremberg and the adjoining city of Fürth.
So from August 10 to 17 Nuremberg is ready once again to play host to an international assembly of Jehovah's witnesses. Some 120,000 persons are expected, making this the largest assembly ever held here. If that many are present, this will make one visitor for about every four Nuremberg inhabitants. Will you be one of them?
-automatic control systems
THROUGHOUT man's history, he has constantly been seeking to improve his lot in life. By his ingenuity, he invented machines that freed many from much of the physical burdens. Not being content with this step forward, he went on and developed other machines that would do even part of his mental chores for him. By putting to work these newer inventions on the more conventional machines, man has now at his service machines that appear to govern themselves and which do the job at speeds far exceeding anything that has previously been possible. The result of the application of these control systems is what has long been man's desire AUTOMATION!
Now, there is hardly a day that goes by in the lives of many of us that we have not had the services of automation. From the thermostat that keeps your house at a comfortable temperature to the alarm clock that so punctually wakes you up, to the toaster that browns your bread to a golden crisp, you are benefiting from one automatic device after another.
An understanding of the basic principles involved in automatic devices will help dispel from our minds the aura of science fiction. While the application of control systems may range from home appliances to the intricate guidance system on a space satellite, the fundamental elements of such systems are relatively simple. An understanding of the operations of some of the simpler systems will give us some
insight into even the most complicated ones.
Open-Loop Control Systems
To get a closer look at how a control system works, let us take the familiar example of the automatic toaster. Having in mind the kind of toast you want, you set the indicator dial to the proper position. This is the command signal, or input, to the toaster. By this command input, you are telling the toaster what kind of toast you want, that is, what kind of an output you desire from it. The dial that you turn, which actually operates a timer, controls the function of the part of the toaster that really does the work, that is, the heating elements. Here, then, we have the basic elements of the more elementary type of control systems, which the engineers call open-loop control systems. This may be diagramed as follows:
FIG. 1 AN OPEN-LOOP CONTROL SYSTEM
</div> The two main parts of the system are the reference selector and the dynamic unit.
The job of the reference selector is to "translate" the command input into terms that the dynamic unit can "understand" and "obey." In the case of the automatic toaster, the reference selector is the selector dial that operates a timer that regulates the length of time the heating elements are turned on. The command input is in terms of the type of toast desired—light, medium, dark. The command input in this form has no meaning to the dynamic unit. The reference selector, then, "translates" this command input into a predetermined length of time and feeds the command input in its new "language" to the dynamic unit. In this way, the reference selector "refers" the command input to the dynamic unit in terms that are meaningful to it in fulfilling its function. The heating elements make up the dynamic unit in that they actually carry out the action or do the work of this particular system, that is, toasting bread.
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