Awake!, April 8, 1986

Awake! — April 8, 1986

Source: jw.org

Contents

Page Two

How the World Got Hooked

The Sacred Leaf That Caught On

The Habit Buries the Opposition

Facing the Facts: Tobacco Today

How to Break the Habit

Do You Know What Your Children Are Listening To?

Why Does My Conscience Bother Me?

African Family Life—Industrialization Takes Its Toll

Our Little Linda’s Defective Heart

“Cardiac Operation for Congenital Heart Disease in Children of Jehovah’s Witnesses”

Crossword Puzzle

Tahiti—Jewel of the South Seas

Fetishes—Can They Protect You?

From Our Readers

Watching the World

What Do You Know About the Bible?—“All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial”

A Turning Point—1914

Page Two

Hundreds of millions of people regularly smoke cigarettes. But how and why did this habit develop? What has happened to cigarette smoking since it has been linked to lung cancer and other illnesses? What can be done if one wants to break the habit? The opening articles of this issue will examine these questions

How the World Got Hooked 3

The Sacred Leaf That Caught on 4

The Habit Buries the Opposition 6

Facing the Facts: Tobacco Today 8

How to Break the Habit 10

How the World Got Hooked

THE American senator smokes two packs of cigarettes daily. “I know it is going to shorten my life . . . It will probably kill me,” he told his colleagues in a debate over price supports for tobacco farmers. “I despair the day I ever got addicted to this horrible mess.”

The senator is not alone in his regrets. By some estimates, 90 percent of his country’s smokers either have tried to quit or want to quit. And in 1983 alone, two million Japanese smokers did stop. Says one authority: “Almost all habitual smokers appear to be sorry they ever took to tobacco, and warn their offspring not to follow their examples.”

But how did all these regretful smokers get so deeply involved? Somehow, as researcher Robert Sobel puts it regarding this world, “for whatever good or evil it may bring, we are wedded as a civilization to those paper tubes containing small amounts of granulated weed.” One of the six giants of the cigarette industry has a quarter of a million employees. Each year its sales in 78 countries on six continents total $10 billion (U.S.). How could such a widely unwanted habit create the demand requiring the huge industry that supplies the habit?

Actually, the cigarette story may be one of the biggest surprises of the last hundred years. Sparking the incredible demand of this so-called cigarette century were two 19th-century wars. A newborn industry, advertising, fanned the embers. And a surprising new tobacco—bright yellow, milder, and chemically different—emboldened smokers to inhale its smoke. That noteworthy change in smoking habits, oral inhaling, ensured that most smokers would remain hooked the rest of their lives.

The Wars That Kindled a Demand

Tobacco remained an extravagant luxury until 1856, when cigarettes found their first mass market. That is when British and French soldiers returned from the Crimean War with “paper cigars” and a habit they had learned there. A cigarette fad swept across Europe, creating an unexpected demand for Turkish cigarettes or their English imitations.

The “Crimea fad” established the cigarette as a cheap wartime substitute for pipe or cigar. But the fad died. Furthermore, as Robert Sobel points out, “in the early 1860s, there appeared to be no way that middle-class American men—the prime market for smokes—would take to cigarettes.” Smoke from these early cigarettes was not as seductive as that of the modern cigarette. Like cigar smoke, it was slightly alkaline, and smokers held it in their mouths. There was no comfortable way to inhale as cigarette smokers usually do today. It was time for the next surprise development.

The American Civil War (1861-65) introduced a more addictive smoke, doing so with what tobacco expert Jerome E. Brooks calls “explosive force.” Once more, war brought the inexpensive cigarette to soldiers—first Confederate, then Union. But this time it was no passing fad.

These cigarettes used American tobacco, and something about them was different. American growers had adopted new strains of tobacco that grew well in their nitrogen-poor soil. They also discovered, by a freak accident on a North Carolina farm, a curing process that turned their leaf bright yellow, mild, and sweet. In 1860 the U.S. Census Bureau called it “one of the most abnormal developments in agriculture that the world has ever known.” After a few cigarettes of this novel tobacco, new smokers felt a compelling urge to light up again.

Hooked!

Not understood at the time, this small but relentlessly growing market had become physically dependent, hooked, on a highly addictive substance. “The casual smoking of more than two or three cigarettes during adolescence” almost invariably leads to “regular dependent smoking,” says addiction researcher Dr. Michael A. H. Russell. “Unlike the adolescent who shoots heroin once or twice a week at first, an adolescent smoker experiences some two hundred successive nicotine ‘fixes’ by the time he has finished his first pack of cigarettes.”

Yes, inhaling was the secret. Nicotine, it seems, will penetrate and irritate mucous membranes only under alkaline conditions. Because cigarette smoke is slightly acid, it is the only tobacco smoke mild enough in mouth and throat for routine inhaling. But in the lungs the acid neutralizes, and nicotine dumps freely into the bloodstream. In just seven seconds the nicotine-rich blood arrives at the brain, so that each puff yields an almost instant nicotine reward. Youths who smoke more than one cigarette, reports a British government study, stand only a 15-percent chance to remain nonsmokers.

Thus, in the same decade as the Crimean War, the cigarette industry had spawned a powerful new habit. Within 20 years tobacco merchants hit on the idea of using catchy newspaper ads and testimonials to attract new customers. A machine patented in 1880 mass-produced the cigarette and kept the price low, while pictures of sports heroes and smiling ladies sold the cigarette image to the male public. But what kept them coming back for more? Nicotine dependency! As health writer William Bennet, M.D., puts it: “Mechanization, clever advertising and marketing techniques made their contribution, but [without nicotine] they never would have sold much dried cabbage.”

By 1900 the modern cigarette, already international, was ready to tighten its grip on world society.

[Blurb on page 5]

A new smoker experiences 200 nicotine “fixes” from just his first pack of cigarettes

The Sacred Leaf That Caught On

For three centuries tobacco was medicine to Europeans. Doctors prescribed the herb for ailments from halitosis to corns. It all started in 1492 when Columbus and his crew, the first Europeans to see tobacco, found West Indies islanders smoking crude cigars in tribal ceremonies.

Long before Columbus, nearly all the early peoples of the Americas held tobacco sacred. Originally, smoking was a right and function of witch doctors and priests. They used its narcotic effect to induce visions during solemn tribal rites. “Tobacco was intimately associated with their gods,” reports historian W. F. Axton, “not only in their religious observances but also in their curative or healing procedures, all of which were connected in one way or another with their religion.” But if tobacco’s medicinal use is what first caught the eye of Spanish and Portuguese explorers, its use for pleasure soon followed.

“I’ll have another cigarette/And curse Sir Walter Raleigh,” sang Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Sir Walter, called the “best-known propagandist among Englishmen for the recreative pipe,” grew tobacco on his estate in Ireland. He did his best to popularize the habit among fashionable society. Ahead of his time, he brings to mind the tobacco industrialist and advertising man of the ‘cigarette century.’

But it was the Thirty Years’ War in Europe, not Sir Walter’s charm, that made the 17th century the “Great Age of the Pipe,” says Jerome E. Brooks. “Chiefly through the agency of war,” he maintains, “smoking spread across the Continent” and into Asia and Africa. A similar development was to kick off the era of the cigarette.

The Habit Buries the Opposition

LIKE a reluctant smoker who will not quit, the cigarette market has at times cut down on its consumption for fear that smoking might be harmful and addictive, only to return more committed than ever. What mechanisms suppress such fears? Advertising and war! These have been “the two most important methods of spreading cigarette use,” according to historian Robert Sobel.

Cigarette use shot upward with the rise of ‘nation against nation’ in the first world war. (Matthew 24:7) What caused American production to go from 18 billion cigarettes in 1914 to 47 billion by 1918? A crusade for free cigarettes for soldiers! The narcotic effect was deemed helpful to combat loneliness at the front.

“Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag/While you’ve a lucifer [match] to light your fag [cigarette],” urged the British wartime song. As government agencies and patriotic private groups provided free smokes for fighting men, not even anticigarette protesters dared criticize.

Tightening the Grip

Newly converted smokers became good customers after the war. In 1925 alone, Americans consumed an average of nearly 700 cigarettes per person. Postwar Greece consumed half again as many per capita as the United States. American cigarettes became popular in many countries, but others like India, China, Japan, Italy, and Poland depended on homegrown tobacco to meet their domestic demand.

To increase their grip on the American market, advertisers aimed at the ladies. “Tobacco advertising in the late 1920’s was characterized as ‘gone mad,’” reports Jerome E. Brooks. But advertising kept Americans buying cigarettes during and after the economic depression of 1929. Huge budgets (about $75,000,000 in 1931) promoted the cigarette as an aid to remaining slim, an alternative to candy. Movies glorifying cigarette-smoking stars, such as Marlene Dietrich, helped create a sophisticated image. Thus in 1939, on the eve of a new world war, American women joined men in consuming 180 billion cigarettes.

Another war! Soldiers again got free cigarettes, even in their field rations. “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War!” ran a well-promoted ad, capitalizing on the patriotic wartime mood. With cigarette consumption in the United States estimated at 400 billion yearly by the end of World War II, who could question the place of tobacco in the world?

Indeed, who could question the importance of cigarettes to postwar Europe, where at one point cartons of cigarettes replaced currency in the black market? American soldiers stationed in Europe bought subsidized cigarettes for as little as five cents a pack and with them paid for everything—from new shoes to girlfriends. Tax-free military sales of cigarettes shot up from 5,400 per capita in 1945 to 21,250 in just two years.

For decades any objectionable aspects of tobacco use were successfully kept out of the public limelight—not refuted but simply overshadowed by the relentless growth of a popular habit. Privately, however, questions remained: Is smoking harmful? Is it clean or is it contaminating?

In 1952 the smoldering question of health suddenly surfaced. British doctors published a new study showing that cancer victims tended to be heavy smokers. The Reader’s Digest picked up the story, and wide publicity followed. By 1953 an anticigarette campaign seemed headed for success. Would the world kick the habit?

The Formidable Cigarette Industry

Publicly, the cigarette industry insisted that the case against cigarettes was unproved, merely statistical. But suddenly—and ironically—it revealed its secret weapon, the low-tar cigarette. The new product furnished an image of safety and health to frightened smokers who didn’t want to quit, while advertising again proved its ability to sell an image.

Actually, the low-tar brands were more soothing to the conscience of the smoker than to his health. Scientists were later to find that many smokers compensated by inhaling more deeply and by holding the smoke in the lungs longer until they got as much nicotine as ever. But another quarter century would pass before researchers could demonstrate this. Meanwhile, cigarettes emerged as one of the world’s most profitable industries, now chalking up annual sales worth over $40 billion (U.S.).

Economically the industry today is stronger than ever. Customers keep buying. Yearly consumption is rising by 1 percent annually in the industrialized countries and by over 3 percent in the developing countries of the Third World. In Pakistan and Brazil, the growth is respectively six and eight times faster than in most Western countries. One fifth of Thailand’s individual income is used to buy cigarettes.

Still, for many thoughtful individuals the tight grip of the world’s 100-year cigarette love affair is by no means the end of the story. Could there be more than meets the eye in this phenomenal increase in tobacco use, especially since 1914, and its almost blind acceptance by so many? What about those questions seldom addressed, such as the ethics of the habit? Is smoking morally neutral or is it blameworthy? Our next article presents some insight.

[Picture on page 7]

Advertising and war—the two most important methods of spreading cigarette use

Facing the Facts: Tobacco Today

SURPRISED that a demand for cigarettes ever developed, an editor of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter asks: “Why did a waning vice, subject [in the 1870’s] to a good deal of mid-Victorian opprobrium, suddenly reestablish itself?” Yes, as a recent ad boasts to lady smokers, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” Historians credit addiction, advertising, and wars with winning public acceptance of tobacco. “After addiction, advertising is the industry’s most powerful ally in its battle for the hearts and minds of the smoker,” reports a recent investigator. True, but is there more to the story?

The Story Behind the Story

For Bible students the significance of the cigarette era cannot be lightly dismissed. Why not? Because the era—especially since 1914—has fulfilled prophecy. First, in 1914 ‘nation rose against nation’ in world war. Then, as Jesus Christ further foretold, human society was disrupted by ‘increasing lawlessness.’ As war disillusioned people and shattered their Victorian values, it paved the way for this unprecedented acceptance of the cigarette.—Matthew 24:7, 12.

In 1914 the world entered an age of anxiety, and the cigarette industry prospered. Many smokers turned to the habit to combat the tensions of what the Bible calls “critical times hard to deal with.” Advertising’s allure and nicotine dependency helped to make self-indulgence the new mood of society. Accurately, the Bible foretold that people in the last days would be “lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God.”—2 Timothy 3:1-5.

All of this should help us sense the urgency of our times. Rather than ‘taking no note,’ as Jesus said some humans have done in a time of crisis, we can learn our lesson from history. The Bible encourages us to hope in God’s Kingdom, not in futile campaigns to reform the world—nor in vain dreams that the nations someday will kick their bad habits.—Matthew 24:14, 39.

Can the World Kick the Habit?

The prospects do not look hopeful for the world to kick its tobacco habit. In 1962 the British Royal College of Physicians first warned against smoking, but 1981 found Britons buying 110 billion cigarettes. The surgeon general of the United States first warned about the health hazards in 1964. But the next year saw record sales. By 1980 Americans were buying 135 billion more cigarettes yearly than in 1964, in spite of the surgeon general’s warning of health risk that appears on every pack! The fact is, the world now buys four trillion cigarettes a year.

Whether you personally smoke or not, the money in the tobacco business these days should tell you that governments and politicians are not likely to end the tobacco trade. In the United States, for example, although 350,000 people die each year due to cigarette smoking, tobacco furnishes $21 billion in taxes. It also supplies jobs, directly or indirectly, for two million people. And tobacco companies are big spenders. Worldwide, they spend $2 billion (U.S.) a year on advertising—dwarfing the combined $7 million that the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association spend on antismoking education.

Or consider two agencies of the United Nations and their embarrassing split over tobacco policy: WHO (World Health Organization) recently announced that stopping the “smoking epidemic” in Third World nations “could do more to improve health and prolong life . . . than any other single action in the whole field of preventative medicine.” But the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) holds that “tobacco growing generates large-scale rural employment” in the Third World. The FAO describes tobacco as “a very important and easily tapped source of tax revenue” providing “strong incentives” for farmers “to produce tobacco” and governments “to encourage its cultivation and manufacture.”

Facing the Facts

Yes, the cigarette phenomenon, especially since 1914, calls for facing some hard facts. Some say, ‘If it feels good, do it.’ But the facts linking smoking with lung and heart disease dismiss such a shortsighted view. In England, cigarette smoking is said to kill eight times as many people as die in auto accidents. Worldwide, the habit “has wiped out more people than all the wars of this century,” says a report in the Manchester Guardian Weekly.

What about addiction? The hard fact is that nicotine creates a state of drug dependency. And many thinking people feel they cannot afford to ignore the moral and spiritual damage associated with it.

Moral Objections

Christians find the moral and Scriptural objections to tobacco use to be of even more weight than medical or health warnings. Tobacco use originated with animism, spiritism, and worship of man-made gods—all condemned in the Bible as degrading practices that lead one away from the Creator. (See box, “The Sacred Leaf That Caught On,” page 4.) (Romans 1:23-25) Smoking is unclean, dangerous, and contrary to Christian standards. (2 Corinthians 7:1) More importantly, addictiveness brings the habit within the scope of “druggery”—a condemnatory term used in the Bible for spiritually damaging and superstitious practices.—See the Reference Bible footnote on Revelation 21:8; 22:15.

Thus, there are serious moral implications in a habit that pleases one’s senses at the expense of one’s health, pollutes the air that one’s neighbor must breathe, and influences impressionable youths to begin doing the same. After some thought and perhaps painful reevaluation, many smokers decide they must quit—for their own sakes and for their loved ones.

Reversing the Process

To break with tobacco addiction, you face pressure from your own body and from your surroundings. As a smoker, your body is dependent on nicotine. You feel the same craving that a century of smokers have felt since cigarette smoke became inhalable. Billboards and magazines dangle the habit before your mind’s eye, always associating it with pleasure, freedom, adventure, beauty, luxury. Your fellow smokers tend to view smoking as normal, safe, innocent, pleasurable, stylish, sophisticated. You have made room for the idea of smoking.

In short, for you to kick the habit, you personally must reverse the process that hooked the world. Practical suggestions like those found on this page can help you buck the world’s trend, but the first step is crucial: Know why you want to quit. “The decision has to be made deep inside,” says Dr. C. F. Tate in American Medical News. “Once this decision is made, the biggest part of the battle is over.”

And what of the world that seems unable and unwilling to make the changes that you personally can make? No, human society is not likely to end by its own efforts self-destructive practices such as its love affair with the cigarette. But be assured that God promises to “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” (Revelation 11:18) And God’s means for bringing this about—his heavenly Kingdom government—is your solid hope for one day seeing spiritual, moral, and physical health restored everywhere on this earth.—Isaiah 33:24.

[Graph/Picture on page 9]

(For fully formatted text, see publication.)

Cigarette advertising’s $2 billion annual budget dwarfs the $7 million budget of antismoking education

Antismoking Education

7 Million

Cigarette Advertising

2 Billion

(each square equals one million dollars)

How to Break the Habit

DON’T try to taper off: It prolongs the agony of withdrawal.

DON’T waste your money on expensive antismoking remedies: “Without exception, the aids currently on the market offer little in the way of real help to the smoker,” reports New Scientist. And World Health says: “The major element in success . . . will always be the smoker’s willpower. The rest is just trimming.”

DO accept your responsibility, but accept help too: Supportive friends who themselves have quit smoking are priceless. Pray. A sincere desire to please God and do his will works wonders.—Philippians 2:4; 4:6, 13.

DO recognize the benefits of not smoking: Reducing your risk of death (from heart disease, stroke, bronchitis, emphysema, or cancer); setting a good example; saving money; getting free from the mess, smell, inconvenience, and slavery of the habit.

DO understand your withdrawal pangs: Within 12 hours of your last cigarette, your heart and lungs begin to repair themselves. Your carbon monoxide and nicotine levels drop fast. But as your body heals, it hurts. You may feel irritable or short-tempered, but you do not need a cigarette to steady your nerves. This temporary discomfort is the start of a healthier life.

DO understand the challenge: Anticipate problems. Avoid self-pity and compromise. But have no doubt, you can kick the habit.

Do You Know What Your Children Are Listening To?

Writer Kandy Stroud’s 15-year-old daughter said, “You’ve got to hear this, Mom!” Then she added, “But don’t listen to the words.” She played a song by a famous rock artist. Her mother listened, and above the beat she heard the words. The song was about a girl sexually abusing herself in a hotel lobby.

Kandy Stroud, writing in Newsweek, continues: “Unabashedly sexual lyrics like these . . . compose the musical diet millions of children are now being fed at concerts, on albums, on radio and MTV [a cable TV channel that specializes in rock music in the United States].”

She added: “As both parent and musician I am concerned about the number of hit tunes that can only be called porn rock, and about the tasteless, graphic and gratuitous sexuality saturating the airwaves and filtering into our homes.”

As a parent, are you concerned about the type of music that is influencing your children, or the type of music that your children are choosing? Why is it important? Because it can tell you something about the way your child reasons and what the heart is set on. As Newsweek reported, Dr. Joseph Novello, director of a drug program, asks teenage patients about their preference in music. “Whether it’s satanic, sexual or drug-oriented—it tells him something about the child’s state of mind.”

Have you checked your child’s state of mind lately? Do you know what kind of music he or she is listening to at home or elsewhere? If you conclude that the music is not upbuilding, how will you handle the matter? With dogmatic denunciation or with careful reasoning and discipline? The apostle Paul counseled: “You fathers, again, must not goad your children to resentment, but give them the instruction, and the correction, which belong to a Christian upbringing.”—Ephesians 6:4, The New English Bible.

There is enough variety of musical expression for one to be able to find pleasing music with clean lyrics. Maybe some might have to change their taste in music, but from a Christian viewpoint that is a normal part of ‘putting on the new Christlike personality.’ With the right desire and motivation, it can be done.—Ephesians 4:20-24.

Why Does My Conscience Bother Me?

Young People Ask . . .

Why Does My Conscience Bother Me?

THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD Soraya kept losing weight—but not because of some fad diet. Explains Soraya: “I got involved with a bad crowd at school. I knew better, but there was constant peer pressure. Soon I had a boyfriend who was using drugs.” And what did this have to do with her weight loss? “My conscience bothered me so much that I couldn’t eat.”

Seven-year-old Alex was found torturing himself. He had poured grains of rice on the floor and was painfully kneeling on them with his bare knees. The reason? Alex had disobeyed his parents and had decided to punish himself.

Both youths were reacting—and rather severely at that—to something the Bible calls conscience, an inner voice that has tormented even servants of God when they have done wrong. “There is no peace in my bones,” wrote David after he had committed adultery. (Psalm 38:3) Joseph’s brothers similarly suffered feelings of guilt after they, in a fit of jealous rage, sold him into slavery. More than 20 years later, they could still recall how Joseph ‘implored compassion on their part.’ What an agonizing memory that must have been!—Genesis 37:18-36; 42:21.

Yes, a bad conscience can bring pain and emotional distress. Conversely, a good conscience brings satisfaction and joy! No doubt this is why, in a Soviet poll of thousands of youths on their values in life, “a clear conscience was rated as the most important.” (Soviet Monthly Digest, July 1983) Of prime concern to Christians, though, is the fact that the Bible says to “hold a good conscience.” (1 Peter 3:16) But how can you do that? First, you must understand what the conscience is and how it works.

The Conscience—What Is It?

Over a hundred years ago, Italian author Carlo Collodi spun his famous children’s tale of Pinocchio—the wooden puppet boy with a knack for getting into trouble. Often there to chastise and correct Pinocchio was the talking insect, Jiminy Cricket. In effect, he was Pinocchio’s conscience. Similarly, you might compare your conscience to a voice or an alarm that goes off before or after you do wrong or right.

One inventor has exploited this concept with a device called the diet conscience. It is a battery-run unit that mounts inside refrigerator or kitchen-cabinet doors. Every time the door is opened, a recording says: “Are you eating again? Shame on you.”

But unlike Jiminy Cricket or some man-made device, your conscience is something inside of you. The Bible describes the conscience as an internal ‘witness bearer’ that testifies to the rightness or wrongness of a deed. (Romans 2:15) But where does this faculty of conscience come from?

An Inborn Faculty

It is true that we learn much about right and wrong from our parents and others. Nevertheless, the Bible indicates that the conscience is inborn. At Romans 2:14, it speaks of how “people of the nations . . . do by nature the things of the law.”

Basic moral standards, therefore, appear to be built into man’s thinking. Remember, man is made “in God’s image,” reflecting to a certain degree godly wisdom and justice. (Genesis 1:27) No doubt this is why nations worldwide have laws against such things as murder, stealing, and incest.

Even in small matters, the soundings of the conscience can be heard. One department store thus appealed to people’s consciences by selling shopping bags in an unlocked dispenser. Above the change slot hung a sign that read: “Your conscience is my only protection.” Yes, the fact that most people have an active conscience works to our benefit. Otherwise, our lives and property would be in worse danger!

Train It!

Though inborn, the conscience is far from infallible. For example, the Bible speaks of those with a “weak” conscience. (1 Corinthians 8:7) Due to misinformation, such ones may tend to overreact to certain situations and suffer needless alarm. On the other hand, some are “marked in their conscience as with a branding iron.” (1 Timothy 4:2) Their conscience is insensitive, like flesh scarred from a branding iron.

Consider Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal who was convicted and hanged for his part in the murder of six million Jews. Did he ever have guilt feelings? Psychiatrist I. S. Kulscar asked him that very question, to which Eichmann replied: “Yes, once or twice, because of skipping school.” How twisted! Apparently Eichmann had learned to tune out his conscience. And says psychoanalyst Willard Gaylin: “The failure to feel guilt is the basic flaw in the psychopath or antisocial person.”

How can you be sure, then, that your conscience is working properly? First, it must be properly educated. How? By studying and meditating on God’s Word. This helps you fine-tune your conscience by learning God’s standards and “making your mind over.” (Romans 12:2) When properly trained, your conscience does more than simply chastise you after you have done wrong. It helps you avoid wrongdoing in the first place—even if there is no one around to approve or disapprove of your actions.

Listen to It!

Simply knowing right and wrong, however, is not everything. For the conscience to help you, you must learn to listen to it! Of course, this does not mean walking around feeling guilty all the time or taking extreme measures to punish oneself. Granted, we are imperfect. But says the Bible at Psalm 103:13: “As a father shows mercy to his sons, Jehovah has shown mercy to those fearing him.” God’s mercy and forgiveness help us live with our imperfections.

However, at times, the cries of our conscience should spur us on to appropriate action. Writes Lester David in Senior Scholastic: “Did you break a promise, violate a rule, break a taboo, hurt somebody, lie, cheat? . . . Apologize if you can, correct the misdeed in whatever way is proper. Talk it over with someone.” This is what Soraya, mentioned at the outset, did. Rather than simply feeling guilty, she talked matters over with her parents. She reports that she “began to feel much better” as she applied her parents’ counsel.

Yes, it is when you act upon the proddings of your Bible-trained conscience that you benefit from it. A young man named Bill, for example, became involved with a teenage gang. But then, says Bill, “I saw one of my friends go to prison for murder. My conscience now told me that it was all foolishness—not for me!” But did Bill simply feel guilty and let it go at that? No, says he, “I quit the gang.”

Another young man named Tony allowed his conscience to help him in yet another way. Tony is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. His conscience moved him to volunteer 90 hours a month calling on people in their homes, teaching them the Bible. (Matthew 24:14; 28:19, 20) “I really enjoyed contacting people,” relates Tony. “Plus I had a good part-time job and my own car, and I liked where I was living. Yet I began to feel guilty for not doing more—serving where there was a greater need for young men like me.”

What a noble expression of the conscience! Responding to it, Tony applied to serve at the world headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses, where Bibles and Bible study aids—such as this journal—are produced. He has served there for the past nine years.

Are you listening to your conscience? It can be, as one youth puts it, like “a true friend who takes the time and effort to correct you.” It can also spur you on to fulfill personal and Christian responsibilities. But you must educate it properly and listen to it! Truly, the conscience is a wonderful gift. Respect it and use it well.

[Blurb on page 14]

Though inborn, the conscience is far from infallible. It must be properly educated

[Picture on page 13]

A guilty conscience can cause great emotional distress

African Family Life—Industrialization Takes Its Toll

By “Awake!” correspondent in South Africa

A SMALL cluster of huts surrounds an open courtyard. Chickens and pigs freely roam the corn patch flanking the village. All is peaceful.

For generations, this was the setting in which African families thrived. Rural life bred close-knit families. When children grew up, they did not venture out on their own but simply added their huts to the kraal (village). There they lived under the undisputed patriarchal authority of their father or grandfather. Nevertheless, this idyllic picture has been shattered by the drastic changes that modern industrial development has brought.

True, industrialization has provided African families with some material benefits. The rural way of life was often plagued by droughts and unpredictable markets. Families often subsisted on the barest of essentials. Industrial development, however, has made it possible for African families to obtain better housing and furniture. It has offered better educational and job opportunities. But to take advantage of these benefits, Africans have had to abandon their quiet villages and flock to the cities. There they have found not only hard cash but serious problems.

Crowded Cities

The most immediate problem has been that of housing. As the South African newspaper The Star put it: “The industrial slums in Britain during the Victorian era and the squatter settlements in present-day South Africa have a common origin—people arrived seeking work in big cities which did not have the houses to accommodate them.”

African townships soon became overcrowded, and slums developed. Once peaceful townships became hotbeds of crime and violence. Housing simply could not be built fast enough to keep up with the steady influx of people. Compounds built to house men working at mines or in industry were not big enough to accommodate their wives and children. Governments therefore had little choice but to enforce influx controls to stem the tide. But the laws fostered resentment, and many chose to defy them—even if it meant living in constant fear of being arrested.

The new city-dwellers soon felt the effects of urban life on their families. Men were often forced to work overtime. Wives, too, entered the labour market, leaving children to their own devices. A bumper crop of juvenile delinquents was produced as unsupervised children roamed the streets for hours.

Fractured Families

Of course, not all joined the exodus to the cities. Some two thirds of the black population of South Africa, for example, still live in their rural areas. However, they, too, feel the ravages of industrialization. Many men have left their families behind to serve as migrant workers on a yearly contract basis. The effects of this are devastating. Not only are their children left fatherless but the men and their wives are exposed to the temptations of immorality. Indeed, in many of the huge compounds that house the workers by the thousands, immorality—including homosexuality—has become rampant.

Further, many men are tempted to work overtime so as to augment their income. But does this income benefit their families back home? Not always. Many frankly show little concern for their families and squander their money on themselves. Their headship role is diminished to that of distant breadwinner.

Further family fragmentation takes place when parents, realizing the poor prospects for their children in rural areas, send them to the towns either to work or to gain a better education.

But perhaps one of the greatest evils the family has suffered is the neglect of elderly parents. Traditionally, the aged could always count on family care, and they, in turn, would contribute much to the spiritual and moral welfare of the family. The Western custom of institutionalizing the aged was absolutely unheard of in Africa! But the urban way of life has undermined this traditional respect for the elderly. All too often they are left behind as the young venture out to the cities. Reports The Star: “At a recent meeting in Lagos [Nigeria], health officials said some of the problems of the elderly were a result of not feeling needed and not being part of society.”

How Christian Families Cope

Obviously, industrialization presents serious challenges to the Christian. How have they avoided becoming ensnared in the rat race for material gain? Many have allowed their thinking to be moulded by Jesus’ words at Matthew 6:33: “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other [material] things will be added to you.”

Applying this principle has not been easy. But even observers have noted its practical benefits. Says Norman Long in the book Christianity in Tropical Africa: “Jehovah’s Witnesses, however, do not see their secular style of life as separate from their religious ways. . . . To be a member . . . means spiritual advancement and promise of a new life, but it also implies a certain practical orientation towards life in this world.”—Italics ours.

To illustrate, a Witness in Lesotho was forced by economic circumstances to seek work in the mines of a neighbouring country. Later he married a girl in his native Lesotho but left her behind and returned to the mines. Soon he and his wife, however, realized that such an arrangement did not accord with Christian standards.

So he purchased two used sewing machines and sent them to his wife. Meanwhile, a fellow employee taught him to sew garments. Finishing his mine contract, he returned home to work with his wife, who already had started making a popular type of skirt. This little venture prospered, and in time another five Christian men and women were able to join them. This made it possible for them to stay with their families and help the small local group of Jehovah’s Witnesses to become two flourishing congregations.

But what of Christian families that live in the urban areas? How are they able to maintain family unity? Some have found that it is much easier to obtain part-time work or to be self-employed in urban areas. By taking advantage of these opportunities, Witnesses often find that they have much better control over their time and can give their families the necessary attention. But what of family heads who must work full time? Often they find that by avoiding overtime and not demanding that their wives also work, they are able to care for the spiritual needs of their families properly.

The Future?

‘Millions more will stream to the cities’ was the prediction of experts in urbanization. They added that the developing nations faced a problem of “even higher migrant influx, a low standard of living, unemployment and housing shortages.” So the future looks bleak for family life in Africa.

While applying Bible principles can help one cope with the pressures of industrialization, a permanent solution will come only when God’s heavenly government takes over the management of earth’s affairs.—Matthew 6:10.

[Pictures on page 16, 17]

Rural Africa is giving way to industrialized Africa

Our Little Linda’s Defective Heart

WHEN our little Linda was born at the maternity hospital in Falun, Sweden, she had a very serious heart condition called transposition. It meant that the aorta, the artery leading from the heart to the body, and the pulmonary artery leading to the lungs had switched places. Thus the oxygen-rich blood from Linda’s lungs was only circulating between her lungs and her heart and was not being carried to the rest of her body.

How can a child like that survive? During pregnancy there are natural connections that stay open for a short time after birth. But then these openings begin to close up so that normal circulation can take over. During this brief changeover period, oxygenated blood can circulate through the body even in a transposition case.

Although Linda was born three weeks prematurely and weighed only 5 pounds 14 ounces (2.66 kg), she seemed quite healthy, apart from a slight bluish color in her face. The doctors at Falun were concerned about this symptom and transferred her to St. Göran’s Hospital in Stockholm for closer examination. They suspected a transposition. At the same time, Linda was given medicine to prevent the passage between the auricles from closing, and she was put in an incubator.

A “Balloon Explosion”

The examination confirmed our fears—Linda did have a transposition problem. In order to save her life, the doctors performed a balloon septostomy, popularly called a balloon explosion. This procedure involves passing a special catheter up through the navel vein to the heart’s right auricle and then on to the left auricle through the hole that is still open in the wall dividing the two auricles. By then pumping up a small balloon at the end of the catheter and pulling it back through the wall between the two auricles, a large enough hole is made to supply the rest of the body with oxygenated blood. This method delays major heart surgery until the child is about nine months old.

Next we were told that the necessary operation could not be performed in Sweden without priming the heart-lung machine with blood. Because of our Bible-based scruples about the misuse of blood, we could not accept this procedure.—Leviticus 17:10, 11; Acts 15:28, 29.

What was our first reaction on hearing of this setback? It was one of despair. ‘What is going to happen to our darling little girl? Will she survive such an operation at all? Will such an operation even be possible without the use of blood?’ Nevertheless, we put our trust in Jehovah God throughout the ordeal, and we were sure that he would make a way out for us.—1 Corinthians 10:13.

The “balloon explosion” was successful. Linda’s blood was oxygenated in a satisfying way, and after a few days we could return home. We were very thankful about how things had worked out so far and really appreciated the kindness and understanding shown to us by the doctors and other staff members at the hospital. We also left with the chief physician a copy of the booklet Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Question of Blood, which explains the reasons for our refusal to use blood.

An Impasse

Then started the long wait to see how Linda would react. At first she seemed quite well and gained weight steadily. Then at four months her appetite started to decline. A new examination showed that she had a bulge on the wall of her heart. The time for the operation now had to be moved up. In order to build up her strength, she was fed by a tube through her nose.

We had planned to have the operation at Sweden’s Royal Caroline Hospital by a surgeon who had previous experience with several of Jehovah’s Witnesses. We advised him that we would not accept the use of blood, only to be told that the operation could not be performed without it. We decided to contact other hospitals.

Even though we were met with kindness and understanding everywhere, nobody seemed willing to perform the operation without blood. The general opinion was that it would not be possible to operate safely on a baby by using a heart-lung machine without priming it with blood.

A Warm Welcome in London

We contacted the National Heart Hospital in London to see if they would operate on Linda. Once again, we met with great understanding. The chief medical officer was positive about the operation, as they had already performed operations on babies without the use of blood. The operation would be performed by the famous heart surgeon Dr. Magdi Jacoub.

We were met by Witness friends in England, who drove us straight to the hospital where we were received with a warm smile. “Oh, this must be Linda from Sweden!” a nurse exclaimed before we even had a chance to introduce ourselves. Straightaway we felt that little Linda was in good hands.

Then came the first time we met Dr. Jacoub. We were extremely nervous, but he was both friendly and relaxed, which immediately gave us a feeling of confidence in him.

A Delicate Operation

During the time until the operation, Linda went through many examinations. Dr. Jacoub was kept informed of her exact condition. Then the day of the operation arrived, and she was wheeled off to the operating theater. Naturally we felt very apprehensive, since we did not know what condition Linda would be in the next time we saw her.

After anxious hours of waiting, we were informed that Linda had just come back from the operating theater and that we were welcome to come and see her. Our darling little Linda was alive! We were filled with thankfulness and appreciation. When we got to see her, she was just like a new baby—with red lips and rosy cheeks—in spite of all the tubes. We were deeply moved and just could not hold back our tears of joy.

Suddenly the doors swung open and in walked Dr. Jacoub. He looked serious. First he cast a piercing look at all the instruments. Then he looked at us, and his face turned into a broad smile. We understood that the operation had been successful.

After all these incredible experiences, it was time for my husband to return to his work in Sweden. I would stay on with our kind friends in England to attend to any further developments.

An Amazing Recovery

On the fourth day after the operation, the respirator was removed, and the next day I had the indescribable joy of holding Linda once more in my arms. Although she was in a lot of pain, it was not long before she smiled for the first time.

Earlier we had been told that it could take up to eight weeks after the operation before we could start thinking about returning home. Yet just two days after the operation, Linda’s blood count was back to normal. Her recovery was so rapid that one of the doctors exclaimed, “It’s amazing!” Yes, Linda’s recovery had exceeded all expectations. Then, one day the chief medical officer said: “That Swedish baby—I think we can send her home soon.” That was like music to my ears. In fact, we went home just 12 days after the operation.

We have lived through a harrowing experience, and yet, as we think back, we can remember many positive aspects. We are most grateful to all the medical personnel who showed such kindness, thoughtfulness, and understanding, especially concerning our views on the blood issue.

Apart from all the support we received from our friends in our home congregation, we feel deeply moved about the way our Witness friends in England helped us. We truly saw an international brotherhood, where love, care, and willingness to give a helping hand are a reality.

Most of all, our thoughts go to Jehovah God, who in a matchless way has sustained us. Often we prayed for guidance in connection with the very difficult situations we faced. On each occasion he opened a way out for us, and our strength was renewed. And often when we look at our little Linda, we give thanks for the skill and patience of the medical world, and especially do we give thanks to Jehovah God for the gift of life.—Contributed.

[Picture on page 19]

Little Linda after the operation

“Cardiac Operation for Congenital Heart Disease in Children of Jehovah’s Witnesses”

Under the above title, The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Volume 89, 1985, published the results of heart operations performed on 110 children of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It stated: “No patient received any blood or blood products during hospitalization.” The patients ranged in age from 6 months to 12 years. Although complications occurred in ten patients, “none of these could be attributed to failure to transfuse.”

Then why are some surgeons reluctant to operate on children without the use of blood? The article states: “One concern in children is that the volume of crystalloid required to prime the extracorporeal circuit [heart-lung machine] would result in a degree of hemodilution [blood dilution] incompatible with adequate oxygen delivery. Another is that blood loss from operation and the coagulopathies [blood-clotting problems] associated with congenital heart disease could not be managed successfully without blood components.”

However, in these cases with Witness children, how was the heart-lung bypass machine primed without blood? The circuit was primed with a crystalloid solution, using at first dextrose in water and then in later operations dextrose in Ringer’s lactate. Blood was not necessary.

What were the findings from these operations on Witness children? “The results demonstrate that excessive hemodilution and postoperative hemorrhage are not major problems, even in small patients, and that failure to transfuse is rarely a factor in the morbidity or mortality of operation.”—Italics ours.

Of course, small children start off with a lower blood volume, which means a higher rate of dilution when the bypass machine primed with crystalloid is used. In spite of that, during the operation and the first 24 hours thereafter, “the smaller patients . . . lost no greater percentage of their total hemoglobin than the larger patients.”

Were the surgeons satisfied with the overall outcome of these operations? “The results were not compared with those in children freely transfused to support our impression that children of Jehovah’s Witnesses usually do as well or better. Nevertheless, the low morbidity and mortality we observed raises the question of whether similar techniques of hemodilution and blood conservation might be used more extensively in children undergoing cardiac operations.”

To what conclusion did the Houston, Texas, team of surgeons arrive? “Our results demonstrate that cardiac operations and cardiopulmonary bypass can be safely performed in children without blood transfusion.”

There are inherent dangers in blood transfusion, such as the risk of transmitting hepatitis, syphilis, and AIDS. The thousands of cases involving Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide who have been treated over the last few decades establish that there is a sound basis for alternative bloodless therapy that avoids such complications.

Crossword Puzzle

Clues Across

2. The first form of idolatry to which the Israelites succumbed [2 words]

8. Used to waterproof the ark (Genesis 6:14)

9. First of a number of constellations mentioned by Job (Job 9:9)

10. Three great festivals to Jehovah were to be held each ---- (Exodus 23:14-17)

11. Both the tabernacle and the temple faced this direction (Numbers 3:38)

12. It enabled the servant girl in Philippi to make predictions (Acts 16:16)

13. This loyal Gittite warrior was made a chief in David’s army (2 Samuel 15:19-22; 18:2)

14. Jesus called him “that fox” (Luke 13:31, 32)

15. Mad King Nebuchadnezzar’s nails (Daniel 4:33)

17. Just before his impalement, Jesus was offered wine mixed with this (Matthew 27:34)

19. Where the seven congregations to whom John wrote are located (Revelation 1:4)

21. This prophet was often referred to as “David’s visionary” (2 Samuel 24:11)

22. Lazy ones will become wise by considering its ways (Proverbs 6:6)

23. Man cannot direct his (Jeremiah 10:23)

26. One of four things whose ways are too wonderful to know (Proverbs 30:18, 19)

29. One of the 12 spies sent to Canaan (Numbers 13:2, 9)

30. A name shared by two of David’s mighty men (1 Chronicles 11:26, 46, 47)

31. Meaning (Matthew 13:51)

32. Son of Lotan and descendant of Seir the Horite (Genesis 36:20, 22)

34. Extreme dislike (Psalm 97:10)

35. Second named descendant from Adam (Luke 3:38, KJ)

36. Father of Shimei, one of Solomon’s 12 food deputies (1 Kings 4:7, 18)

37. The number of Haman’s sons, who were also killed and hanged (Esther 9:10, 14)

38. By means of this, some have entertained angels (Hebrews 13:2)

Clues Down

1. Israelite method of capital punishment (John 10:32)

2. Worth enough in Job’s day to be appraised along with coral and pearls (Job 28:18)

3. Passageway across water (2 Samuel 19:18)

4. Noted Christian at Rome (Romans 16:15)

5. “No man has ---- God at any time” (John 1:18)

6. “The land of [the Egyptians’] origin” (Ezekiel 29:14)

7. Babylonia (Jeremiah 50:9, 10)

15. Painful muscular seizure (2 Samuel 1:9)

16. Hagar (symbolically) (Galatians 4:24, 25)

18. Skill (Titus 1:9)

20. One of the five valiant sons of Bela of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Chronicles 7:6, 7)

23. Simeon’s representative when Promised Land was divided (Numbers 34:18, 20)

24. Land that traded with Tyre (Ezekiel 27:3, 7)

25. Paul said this faithful fellow worker’s name is “in the book of life” (Philippians 4:3)

27. Uprightness (Genesis 20:5, 6)

28. Gift (Proverbs 6:35)

32. Aid (Matthew 15:25)

33. Repast (Mark 6:21)

CROSSWORD SOLUTIONS PAGE 25

Answers Across

2. CALF WORSHIP

8. TAR

9. ASH

10. YEAR

11. EAST

12. DEMON

13. ITTAI

14. HEROD

15. CLAWS

17. GALL

19. ASIA

21. GAD

22. ANT

23. STEP

26. SHIP

29. PALTI

30. ELIEL

31. SENSE

32. HEMAM

34. HATE

35. ENOS

36. ELA

37. TEN

38. HOSPITALITY

Answers Down

1. STONING

2. CRYSTAL

3. FORD

4. OLYMPAS

5. SEEN

6. PATHROS

7. CHALDEA

15. CRAMP

16. SINAI

18. ART

20. IRI

23. SHEMUEL

24. ELISHAH

25. CLEMENT

27. HONESTY

28. PRESENT

32. HELP

33. MEAL

Tahiti—Jewel of the South Seas

TAHITI—the very name conjures up all kinds of mental pictures! French explorer Bougainville called it The New Cythera, since it reminded him of a delightful Mediterranean island also known as Kíthira. Tahiti’s beauty has inspired artists and poets. To some, it is another name for paradise.

However, for many years now, a group of people has been speaking in Tahiti about a coming paradise. This same message is being preached in every inhabited country in the world. But is it needed in Tahiti, of all places? To help you understand, allow us to tell you a little about this island.

Tahiti the Beautiful

Is Tahiti as beautiful as people say? No doubt about it! It is not a big island—just 402 square miles (1,041 sq km). But its highest mountain reaches 7,339 feet (2,237 m). The whole island is ringed by a road 75 miles (121 km) long.

One of the glories of Tahiti is the turquoise-colored lagoon that surrounds it. Farther out, the sea is a deep blue color, and forming the barrier between the deep sea and the lighter-colored lagoon is a coral reef on which crashing waves form a garland of white foam. Thus, from the air Tahiti looks like a jewel nestling in a turquoise-colored jewel box. Some even call it the jewel of the South Seas.

The climate? Warm and humid but tempered by refreshing trade winds. From November to March is the rainy season, when the temperature and humidity are both high. The vegetation is dense and exuberant. Especially along the coast and in the valleys will you find an abundance of coconuts, mangoes, breadfruit, avocados, and bananas—everything you would expect in a tropical paradise!

And the flowers? Close your eyes and imagine breathing air scented with sweet frangipani. Now open your eyes and be delighted by a profusion of hibiscus and bougainvillea. Try to visualize the unusual waxed flamingo flower and, especially, the tiare tahiti, the white, sweet-smelling flower that Tahitian men and women wear in their hair. Yes, Tahiti is blessed with an abundance of flowers.

There are seabirds in Tahiti, but there are few animals native to the island. However, the surrounding seas more than compensate. Beautiful corals shelter a wide variety of shells and shellfish. Both in the lagoon and in the deep ocean beyond, the eye is delighted by colorful parrot fish, wrasse, surgeonfish, perch, loach merou, and red mullet. Lurking in rock crevasses and also watching the show—although not to admire its beauty—is the hungry muraena and, farther out, the ominous form of the shark.

The Tahitians

This beautiful island was first discovered by those master navigators, the Polynesians, sometime around the fifth century C.E. They learned to enjoy its wild beauty and live off its fertile soil and well-stocked waters. They worshiped a god called Taaroa, who was said to be attended by secondary divinities. Religious ceremonies took place in quadrangular enclosures called marae, at one end of which was an altar for the sacred Tiki idols, where human sacrifices were offered.

For more than a thousand years, these first inhabitants lived undisturbed. In fact, their descendants are still there today. They are called the Tahitians. But in the 18th century, the island was “discovered” again, this time by the European navigators, such as Wallis, Bougainville, and Cook. Tahiti became world famous. The newcomers brought some benefits to the Tahitians, such as metal, new fabrics, writing, and, especially, the Bible. They also brought problems. Tahiti became involved in conflicts, and finally, in 1880, the Tahitian king Pomare V gave Tahiti to France. Today, it forms the administrative center of a group of islands known as French Polynesia.

The golden skin and the long raven hair of the Tahitian women has often been popularized by artists such as Paul Gauguin. Nowadays, as Tahitians marry Chinese, Europeans, and other peoples, the race is becoming quite cosmopolitan. The Tahitian language spoken by the original Tahitians is still widely used. It is a beautiful tongue but lacks many words needed in modern life. Hence, in everyday conversation, you hear Chinese, English, and other foreign words mixed in with Tahitian. French is also spoken here, since Tahiti is under French administration.

Things Are Changing

The land and the people are delightful. Tahitians are still skilled in the traditional Polynesian craft of carving mother-of-pearl and wood. They use the local shells to make beautiful necklaces and hanging ornaments, and they know how to weave coconut and pandanus leaves into mats, baskets, and hats. But their outstanding skill is singing and dancing. They seize every opportunity to enjoy themselves with delicious food, beautiful flowers, music, songs, and dances (as well as, unfortunately, much alcohol and tobacco).

Nevertheless, Tahiti bears the unmistakable marks of the 20th century. Much of its beauty is being exploited. Commercial interests scour the seas for shells, and hunt sharks for their teeth and turtles for their shell. Meanwhile, the seabirds, once so numerous, are gradually being crowded out by an expanding human population along the coast.

Pollution is a problem too. Tahiti has some beautiful beaches, many of them—surprisingly—of black sand. But the seas wash up unpleasant garbage on some of the beaches.

For many years Tahitians have had a legendary and well-deserved reputation for friendliness, generosity, and hospitality. Unhappily, however, colonization and the tourist trade have diminished this natural impulse, sacrificed to some degree to the realities of the modern world. There are also other problems that started in the ’60’s with the French nuclear testing in the South Pacific and the installation of an international airport. Since then, material prosperity has led to some corruption.

The Coming Paradise

Of course, Tahiti has never really been a paradise in the fullest sense of the word. In spite of the island’s beauty, Tahitians have always suffered from the problems common to all mankind, such as sickness and death. In addition to that, many look at what Tahiti was and what it is becoming, and fear for the future. Thinking people hope that the deterioration will not continue, but where can they look for reassurance?

At the end of the 18th century, the first missionaries of Christendom arrived in Tahiti. They translated the Bible into Tahitian, and this remains the most widely respected book in the island. Today, though, there are many religions in the country, most claiming to be Christian. Yet, at the same time, there is much crime and violence, as well as racial discrimination and nationalism. It seems that Christendom has been unable to point the way to a solution to these problems.

That is why Jehovah’s Witnesses have been telling Tahitians about the coming of the true Paradise. They are explaining the purposes of the God whose name, Jehovah, appears thousands of times in the Tahitian Bible. They show how this God prophesied that mankind would begin to ‘ruin the earth,’ even the more remote and more beautiful parts of it. (Revelation 11:18) And they are delighted to show that Jehovah will not allow this to go unchecked. Rather, his Kingdom under Christ Jesus will bring a real paradise not only to Tahiti but to all the islands and continents of the earth. (Psalm 98:7-9) God’s Kingdom will also solve those problems, such as sickness, suffering, and death, that affected Tahiti even in its more idyllic days. (Revelation 21:3, 4) Thus, Tahitians are being encouraged to exercise their legendary hospitality to welcome the incoming rule of God’s Kingdom, to their everlasting blessing.

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Awake!, April 8, 1986