Church of Christ Studies

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Action ~America~Awareness

Action

Adventure

Writing in The New Yorker, January 1954, Dr. R. B. Robertson reported the fascinating experience of accompanying a group of men on a whaling ship. Later he tried to analyze why these highly successful men would leave their businesses, comfortable homes, and loved ones for such a hazardous, yet joyous experience. He concluded they were psychopaths—not in a sick, inferior sense, but in a superior sense! He said they were men whose minds and spirits were so healthy that they could not accept the civilization into which they had been born.

Be Ready

The English journalist, G. K. Chesterton, reminded us of a practice among certain Christian knights of the medieval period. Before leaving for battle, they would receive the sacraments with one foot in the stirrup.

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If you would not be forgotten,

As soon as you are dead and rotten,

Either write things worth reading

Or do things worth the writing.

—Benjamin Franklin

The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.

—T. H. Huxley

The Human Situation

All of humankind is torn between choices for good or evil. The Apostle Paul grappled with this dichotomy, this being torn between good and evil, superior and inferior. He cried out:

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.... I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me (Rom. 7:15, 19-20, RSV).

Focusing the Light

During the days of the American Civil War, Henry Ward Beecher became very unpopular because he was constantly fighting the sins of slavery. On one occasion, two young slave sisters tried to escape and were captured and returned to New Orleans for sale. The price was one-thousand dollars apiece. Since their labor was not worth anything like that amount, their fate was obvious. The father of the girls got word to Dr. Beecher, whereupon the courageous preacher assembled his people and read the auctioneer's bill of sale advertising the girls. It began with their physical qualifications and health. Their moral qualifications were limited to obedience, and finally this supreme compliment, "They are prayin' Methodist niggers!" When Beecher had finished reading the notice, he had bought their freedom.

The church of Jesus Christ must be careful to tend the light of human decency!

Follow the Dream

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, "You could not step twice in the same river." It is never the same. Life is very much like a rolling river. We can never relive a day. Life is forever moving and without a moment's rest. Therefore it behooves us to give a good account of ourselves every moment of every day. Whatever his station, a Christian will strive to give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. He will work as with a dream possessed, for in the words of Gerald Kennedy, "To be human means to be captured by a dream."

Forgetting Self

Lenny Skutnick, twenty-eight, watched while people in a helicopter tried to rescue a stewardess struggling to survive an airplane crash in Washington, D. C. Twice she slipped from the rope dropped to her and fell back into the icy Potomac. Seeing that her strength was gone, Skutnick shed his coat and boots, jumped into the water, and swam thirty yards to her rescue. Questioned by the press afterward about his motivation, Skutnick replied: "I had been there all that time and nobody was getting in the water.... It's something I never thought I would do, but in looking back, I guess I did it because I didn't think about it. Somebody had to go in the water."

Humble Growth

Benjamin Franklin developed a set of disciplines which he hoped would enable him to attain moral perfection. He drew up a list of twelve virtues which he considered essential to achieving the good life. He ruled each page with seven lines. Daily he appraised and recorded his behavior. During a conversation Franklin shared his profile of excellence with an old Quaker, who quietly informed him he had omitted the virtue of humility.

I Owe a Debt

Paul Green, in his Burma Diary, told of an American ambulance driver whose carrier was heavily loaded. En route, Chinese soldiers swarmed all over the vehicle, for it was their last means of escape before the advancing Japanese. The order came that no more men should be taken. Reluctantly, the driver got out of his machine and pushed the wounded off the ambulance. Later the troubled driver went to China, for as he said, "I owe the Chinese a debt."

No one can contemplate seriously what transpired at Calvary without acknowledging his or her own dept.

It Starts with You

Elton Trueblood relates the story of a man who had the crazy idea he wanted to walk a tightwire across Niagara Falls, pushing a wheelbarrow with a man in it. The aspirant erected a simulated practice situation in his backyard. Daily the determined person practiced, first with a balance bar, later without it. Eventually, after long, arduous weeks of hard work, the "wire-walker" became very good. At last the day arrived for the hazardous undertaking. Neighbors and persons from the press assembled. Looking nervously across the rushing water the stuntman said to an admiring friend, "Joe, do you believe I can do it?"

"I absolutely believe you can."

The performer looked out over the falls one more time: "Joe, do you really believe... ?"

"I really believe you can."

"Fine, you're my man. Get in the wheelbarrow."

The Cross—A Call to Action

"And they crucified him.... And sitting down they watched him there" (Matt. 27:35-36). Like those Roman soldiers, many of us merely lapse into inaction. But the cross of Christ is infinitely more than a showcase, an exhibit to arouse curiousi-ty. It is a clarion call to action, commitment, and discipleship.

Making the Impossible Easy

George Balanchine, the great choreographer, died April 30, 1983, at the age of seventy-nine. "Mr. B," as he was affectionately known by his dancers, possessed a magical power over his performers. "He showed them how to make the impossible seem easy."

Shadow of a Machine?

Helmut Thielicke, noted German theologian and preacher, tells how Lawrence of Arabia handled his crushing disappointment at the outcome of his efforts in World War I. Sir Winston Churchill once cited Lawrence as one of the greatest hopes of the British Empire. Following his brilliant desert campaign on behalf of the Arabs, who adored him, the world-famous colonel, humiliated by the meaningless results of their sacrifices, dehumanized himself by enlisting as a common soldier in the Royal Air Force. "I do it," he said, "in order to serve a mechanical purpose, not as a leader, but as the shadow of a machine. ... It is a blessing to be only a part of a machine. You learn that it doesn't depend entirely on you."

Struggle and Strength

It is claimed that Descartes was not heroic, Leibnitz a fawning courtier, Will Gibbs a recluse, Gauss cold and secretive. Notwithstanding his abilities, Pasteur is believed to have been tainted with chauvinism and racism. A dubious religiosity apparently clouded the magnificent minds of Newton and Pascal.

But the lives of Marie and Pierre Curie were beautifully different. Their supportive and compatible lives were shining examples of purity and productivity.

The story of Marie Curie is not merely that of a poor Polish governess who struggled against adversity and became a triumphant success. The story of Marie Curie lies precisely in the fact that she was happiest during her struggles and least happy when a vulgar world acclaimed her.

Strutting

Vanity is a great weakness of mankind in general, but it seems especially ludicrous when it appears among the professionally religious. The contradiction between human humility before God and human beings strutting before each other is a perfect opening for ridicule, and Jesus employed it to perfection in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew's Gospel.

The Twelfth Man

It was November 23, 1935; the place, Princeton's Palmer Stadium. The snow was falling so heavily that the marker lines were obliterated and a dry ball was needed after each play. Undefeated Dartmouth was playing Princeton for the Ivy League championship. Late in the fourth quarter, with Princeton leading 19-6 and in possession of the ball on Dartmouth's six-yard line, the Indians made their last stand. They held Princeton to three yards in two tries.

Just before the ball was snapped on the third down, a spectator jumped from the stands, sprinted across the end zone, and joined the Dartmouth line before officials could stop either him or the play. Even so, Princeton gained another two yards.

Police hurried onto the field and removed the mysterious defender. Although Dartmouth lost 26-6, to this day no one can be certain who the twelfth man was for the Indians.

"We Had to Get Through"

Jack is a wiry Hebrew whose face bears the marks of suffering and sacrifice. As he drove me from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, on approaching a designated section of road he said, "This is Courage Way." I inquired as to its meaning. He declared that during the war of 1948, the old road to Jerusalem was cut off and a new way had to be found. This road was built by men, women, and children who were unable to take up arms. "A lot of our people," he said, "were killed building this road."

As we neared the sharp, corrugated hills overlooking the Holy City, he said, "This, too, is a reminder of the bitter days of 1948 when a part of our army was sealed in Jerusalem. They needed supplies and food. The Arabs were advantageously ensconced in the hillsides and had every advantage. At last it was decided to organize a fleet of one hundred armored trucks to carry necessary equipment to the marooned soldiers. There was one driver and one gunner in each truck. Our orders were to keep driving. If one were killed, he was left, and if one were severely wounded, he was left to die while the caravan moved forward. It was a long, hard, grueling fight which eventually spelled victory for the Jews."

My driver told me that over the entire campaign he was wounded seven times and seven times returned to action, even with the loss of an eye. Then, with obvious feeling, he said as he pointed to the destroyed trucks, "The drivers of those trucks were strong men.... We had to get through."

Viewing History

The biblical writers, because they worshiped a dynamic God, confronted us with a dynamic view of history. They did not interpret history as a theatrical performance to which we can contribute only as an audience. They saw it rather as the arena of the action of the sovereign Lord of "life, death and destiny." They saw it as the sphere in which God accepts and rejects people and nations on the basis of their response to His gracious offer of faith and freedom in fellowship.

Waving to the World

Unless the weather is very inclement, James Snellings, age seventy-two, stands at the corner of Maple Avenue and Bremo Road, Richmond, Virginia, waving good morning to motorists. This self-appointed ambassador of goodwill assumes his station about 7:15 and remains until 9 o'clock. Not as spry as he once was, he frequently rests his right arm on a mailbox while steadying himself with a cane.

Women, he says, return his greetings more generously than do men. One day he reported 180 women waved to him, only seventy-five men. "I do this for the fun of it," he says. "I try to be nice to everybody. Most wave. Some don't. The don'ts don't worry me a bit."

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America

The American Flag

We were going out to dinner with two of our Floridian friends. As we rode along the elderly man allowed: "I had a puzzling experience today." Knowing of his tremendous business background and ministries of compassion, I pricked up my ears and asked, "I'm interested, tell me about it." In a troubled mood he replied, "I went to four prominent stores today to buy an American flag, and couldn't find one"

Bankruptcies

Writing in The Wall Street Journal of May 24, 1982, Thomas Petzinger, Jr. declared businesses that filed for bankruptcy during the first three months of 1982 represented thirty-six for every hour of the business day, a rate that would total 74,676, the largest in U. S. history.

Battles Never Fought

The noted Southern journalist Harry Ashmore wrote a definitive book which he called An Epitaph for Dixie (W. W. Norton & Co., 1957). In it he refers to the South's history as something of a personal tragedy. "It seems to me that the tragedy lies not in the battles we lost, but in the battles we never fought"

Beyond Criticism

Despite caustic criticisms, in 1948 Charles Scribner's Sons brought out a little book entitled Of Flight and Life which told of the heroic and gratuitous services of Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr., to his country in counseling with the builders of fighter planes at Willow Run and testing these sky speedsters. He actually flew combat missions as a civilian.

Business Failures

Business failures reached all-time highs in 1982-1983. Dun & Bradstreet reported that the week of February 17, 1983, hit a post-Depression record of 713 failures. An increasing number of individuals—about half a million—are taking the recovery advantages provided by our present bankruptcy laws. Some of these persons are making in excess of one-hundred thousand dollars a year.

Democracy for Sale?

A new power broker has entered the political arena—Political Action Committees (PACs). Included are special interest groups that contribute to campaigns of political candidates who favor their posture on given issues. This is a relatively new phenomenon which may ultimately dislodge big business as the determiner of many elections.

Media reported that PAC members spent $182 million in the 1982 elections. Senator Jesse Helms' (R-NC) Congressional Club is said to have spent $9.6 million; the National Conservative Political Action Committee, $9 million; the Fund for a Conservative Majority, $2.5. The largest amount raised by a liberal group—the National Committee for an Effective Congress—was $2.2 million.

Economically Speaking

President Gerald Ford once observed that an economist is a person who tells you there is definitely not going to be a hurricane. Then shortly thereafter, he volunteers to repair and rebuild your roof.

The Gun Craze

A handgun is sold in America every thirteen seconds, adding about two million annually to the nation's estimated arsenal of fifty-five million automatics and revolvers. This works out to be one pistol for every four citizens. America has one of the worst murder records in the world. Consider these facts: In the United States there are 9.7 murders a year per 100,000 people; in Japan, 1.6; in Britain, 1.3; and in West Germany, 1.3.

Honoring the Future

No society is smaller than the one that sees no obligation to later generations. A society earns its place in history by respecting the unclamorous claims of the unborn.

Lest We Forget

Visitors to Honolulu usually see Pearl Harbor. Two hundred years ago Hawaiians called it Wae Momi, "Water of Pearl" In 1861 the United States Navy constructed a fueling station in Honolulu. By 1916 it was the tenth most important naval base in the world. Eventually it became the Fourteenth Naval District, center of Pacific operations. However, we chiefly remember Pearl Harbor as scene of the surprise, dastardly air attack by the Japanese on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, at six o'clock. On that infamous day, 2,335 American servicemen lost their lives; 1,143 were wounded.

Eighteen of the ninety-seven ships along "Battleship Row" were sunk. The Arizona sank in nine minutes with eleven-hundred men aboard. To this day this rusting hulk—now a memorial—continues to give off oil, even as memory of the attack alienates thoughtful citizens.

Living in a Pluralistic Society

In commenting on the pluralism of values in America and how technology is reshaping the status quo, Professor John J. Conger of the University of Colorado says: "What we are moving to are values adopted to new relations. We can't get by with just situational ethics. But if we can be tolerant of each other and also care about each other, I can see a very bright future developing in the 1980s."

The Magic of Freedom

On April 8, 1983, before a live audience and on television, in a dramatic effort to illustrate the tragedy that would ensue should America lose her freedom, David Copperfield, the renowned magician, created the illusion that the Statue of Liberty had disappeared. Following the incredible feat, the young man spoke briefly, spontaneously. He declared that he was a son of immigrants, and that his mother pointed with pride to France's gift of the statue to America. The unveiling was October 28, 1886. That which impressed David Copperfield's mother was not its enormity—the statue and pedestal is 305-feet, six-inches tall and weighs two-hundred-twenty-five tons—but a portion of the poem by Emma Lazarus articulating the basic philosophy of American democracy, especially these two lines: "Give me your tired, your poor, /Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

Mr. Copperfield continued that America would remain free so long as people remembered to communicate, to care, and to show compassion. True freedom, he declared, "is magic."

A Man of Letters

The twenty-fifth President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, was a powerful and resourceful person, a graduate of Harvard (1880) who was intrigued by history and politics. He is most frequently referred to as a controversial, power-loving President who believed in the "big-stick" approach to problems and who earned the name of "trustbuster." He also won a Nobel peace prize. He was a man of written communications. It is declared that he wrote one-hundred-fifty thousand letters.

No Country

Media reported that one Meyer Lansky, seventy years of age, with a shadowy record, went to Israel in 1969. Eventually, he was refused citizenship and deported from Israel. He went to Zurich, but Switzerland did not want him. Then he flew to Rio de Janeiro, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, and Panama. Even though he is reputed to have been willing to give a million dollars for citizenship in a country, no one wanted the disclaimed man being sought for several crimes. Eventually he returned to Miami where the FBI awaited him and where he was placed in a hospital with an ailing heart.

It is amazing how little the best of us regard our country until we desperately need it.

Perception

Toward the close of the Civil War, the Confederate cavalry mounted a desperate charge against Washington. President Lincoln rode out to observe the skirmish, near what is now Walter Reed Army Hospital. At six-feet-four-inches, the Chief Executive was a sizable target. Whereupon a Union Army lieutenant shouted, "Get down, you fool." The next day Lincoln wrote to thank the officer, future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

A Political Phenomenon

It is said that Charles Evans Hughes was governor of New York, justice of the Supreme Court, presidential nominee, secretary of state, and chief justice of the United States without lobbying in his own behalf, without spending so much as a postage stamp. Mr. Hughes never sought an office; the office sought him.

Questionable Justice

"Not guilty by reason of insanity." This was the unbelievable sentence recited by Judge Barrington Parker following each of the thirteen charges leveled against John Warnock Hinckley, Jr., for the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. The trial is said to have cost $2.5 million. As would be expected, reactions to the verdict varied from clever maneuvering of language to a travesty of justice. Arthur Eads, district attorney of Bell County, Texas, declared: "Only in the U. S. can a man try to assassinate the leader of the country in front of 125 million people and be found not guilty." Many echoed the sentiments of Eads that the verdict was symptomatic of a runaway leniency in the justice system.

Room for an Immigrant?

In 1894 a ship of the Holland-American Line glided into New York Harbor. It was laden with immigrants. Among them stood a boy holding his father's hand. The sight of the city overwhelmed the youngster, who began to ask questions. "Father, do you know anybody in America?" The sympathetic answer was, "No" "Do you have a job awaiting you?" the lad continued. Against a soft, "No," the troubled youngster asked, "How much money have you, Father?... If you don't know anybody in America, and if you haven't a job, and only $450, what are we going to do if you don't get a job and your money runs out?"

"My boy," the father explained, "this is America. It was in this country where a boy, born in a one-room cabin with a dirt floor and lighted by a single window, climbed to the greatest gift within the power of the American people to confer: the presidency. In a land where such a thing could happen, there must be room for a Dutch immigrant who has faith in God and is not afraid to work. There must be a place for us."

And what a place! The little boy who asked so many questions that day later became the powerful preacher and educator of the Reformed Church in America, the Reverend Joseph R. Sizoo.

A Shocking Proposal

In an effort to ease tension between Indians and whites, Patrick Henry, in 1784, proposed intermarriage. The eloquent orator stipulated that when free white males or female Virginians married Indians, the couples would receive ten pounds immediately and five pounds more at the birth of each child. They would also be recipients of tax breaks and free education for their male children up to age twenty-one. With Patrick Henry's persuasiveness the bill passed its first and second readings. However, by time of the third reading, Henry had been elected governor, and without his overt participation, the bill ultimately failed.

How would racial tensions throughout the history of our country been affected had this proposal been approved?

Surviving

In 1959 Dr. Laurence M. Gould, president of Carleton College in Minnesota, gave an address entitled "Why Men Survive" He pointed out that nineteen out of twenty-one notable civilizations had died from within. He asserted that if America is to grow great we must stop gagging at the word spiritual. Our task is to rediscover and reassert our faith in the spiritual, nonutilitarian values on which American life has really rested from the beginning.

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Awareness

Awareness

Exodus 33:14-17; Song of Solomon 6:12; Matthew 16:5-12; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 1:46-49; John 14:25-26; Acts 3:19-21

He who is conscious of a debt that he can never repay will be forever paying it.

—G. K. Chesterton

Listen to voices in the upper air,

Nor lose thy simple faith in mysteries.

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Answering the Critics

In the sixteenth century the Italian artist, Raphael Sanzio, was commissioned to paint likenesses of Peter and Paul. When at last the work was finished, the reviewing cardinals of Rome complained "they are too ruddy." Courageously Raphael replied, "They blush on seeing the Church governed by such men as you."

Awareness of His Presence

Dr. Howard Thurman tells of preaching in the chapel at Tuskegee Institute, where he met Dr. George Washington Carver. Sitting in his usual pew, the great scientist and Christian focused on the preacher. "There was the customary rose in his lapel, a Bible in his lap, and a light in his eyes that seemed to be controlled by some inner dimmer switch."

Can You Hear the Good News?

Lloyd C. Douglas had a friend who was a violin teacher. Although not too successful, the old man was imbued with considerable wisdom. One day Douglas asked his friend, "Well, what's the good news today?"

The music master went over to a tuning fork suspended from the ceiling by a cord and struck it with a mallet. "There is the good news for the day," he said. "That, my friend, is 'A.' It was 'A' all day yesterday. It will be 'A' all day tomorrow, next week, and for a thousand years. The soprano upstairs warbles off key; the tenor next door flats his high ones; and the piano across the hall is out of tune. Noise all around me, noise; but that, my friend, is 'A.'"

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These people, Donatus, are the Christians—and I am one of them!

—Cyprian

Thou hast touched me and I am on fire for Thy peace.

—Augustine

Coping in Crisis

On the day of the premiere of The Nutcracker in 1954, at five in the afternoon, George Balanchine, the master choreographer, discovered that some of the costumes were not ready. Instead of throwing his weight around or screaming orders to the seamstresses, he picked up a needle and thread and began sewing.

Fairness?

Exclusive sweaters by designer Ralph Lauren, retailing in the United States for approximately four-hundred dollars, are knitted by British pensioners for from $10 to $27 per garment.

Keep at It!

During the 1960 presidential campaign, John Kennedy concluded a moving speech with the story of a judge in Hartford, Connecticut, who was presiding in court one morning in the middle seventeenth century when an eclipse of the sun occurred. The courtroom began to panic. Whereupon the judge rapped for order and said: "If this be the end of the world, let us at least be found doing our duty. Bring in the candles!"

Let the Lanterns Glow

The Swedish painter, Hogfeld, back in the sober thirties, illustrated a happy party, with mandolins and Chinese lanterns, joyously floating downstream in their small craft, while from the riverbanks piercing eyes of hungry beasts were waiting for them to step ashore. Surrounded by light and music, the singers were unaware of danger. For better or for worse, most of us go through life this way, giving little thought to danger so long "as the lanterns glow."

Listen for Your Tune

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions" declared Henry David Thoreau, "perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away" The temptation, of course, is to do the opposite. The Christian, like everyone else, lives under constant pressure to conform, to do what others do, and to have no real individuality.

Living with a Duty

Dag Hammarskjold's staff gave him a surprise birthday party in April of 1958. After a statement of gratitude, he concluded with a line from the Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelof: "Will the day ever come when joy is great and sorrow small?" The secretary general added these trenchant words: "On the day we feel we are living with a duty, well fulfilled and worth our while, on that day joy is great and we can look on sorrow as being small."

Nonsensical People

In his play, Our Town, Thornton Wilder described the atmosphere in a New Hampshire village at the turn of the century. Observing all the pettiness, personal idiosyncrasies, and tragedies of normal life, he wrote: "Wherever you come near the human race, there's layers and layers of nonsense..."

Personal Attitude

In A Practical Guide to Transactional Analysis —I'm OK —You're OK., Thomas A. Harris, M. D., projects this emotional stance which is worthy of review:

I'm not OK—You're OK

I'm not OK—You're not OK

I'm OK—You're not OK

I'm OK—You're OK.

These attitudes reflect the delicate balance, the psychological ticking that goes on in an individual. Hopefully such an analysis will lead one to a more open self-accepting, self-permitting, healthy, I'm OK-you're OK emotional stance.

Realization

Dr. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., shares an experience at Idlewild Airport. He was having breakfast in one of the small diners, when suddenly there appeared a disheveled, desperate-looking Cuban, waving a beer bottle. In a rasping voice, and in broken English, he harangued his audience to pay more attention to Cuba. He was so obnoxious that finally a waitress said, "This is a business establishment. We don't want no trouble. Now get out!" Obediently, the crestfallen man left. All returned to their breakfasts except an American sailor, who sat staring at his coffee. He said to the waitress, "Look, he wasn't trying to make you no trouble. He was trying to tell you, you got trouble."

Rejection of Labels

Chaplain Howard Rice, who is professor of ministry at San Francisco Theological Seminary, himself a victim of multiple sclerosis, says, "Persons with disabilities are not disabled. ... We are people who are unable to do something which others consider normal.... Part of what society means when it calls someone 'normal' is independent.... People who are not independent are defined as abnormal." Professor Rice continues, "For people with disabilities, the beginning of freedom is the rejection of the labels and stigmas which others put on us."

Unaware of the Apparent

Paul's defense before Roman Governor Festus and Jewish King Agrippa was mind-boggling to the Roman. But Paul felt that surely Agrippa, being a Jew, should have understood. "For the king knows about these matters, and I speak to him also with confidence; since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a corner" (Acts 26:26, NASB).

Self-Awareness

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

—Albert Camus

Symbols Of Wholeness

Three objects in the study of the late John Baillie depicted his Christian character: the desk where he wrote, the chair where he read, and the pad where he prayed.

Take Care of Your Parents

There's another, selfish side of taking care of your parents when they're old. If we put our parents away, our children watch and remember. The example we live out before them in treating our parents with love and regard is the example they will follow in treating us when we reach old age. If we mistreat our parents or ignore them in their time of need, our children notice that as well. The example we set may be our own doing.

Take off the Mask

Sven Killsgaard, an enlisted man in the Marine Corps stationed at Camp Pendleton, California, met with a horrible accident while driving through a fog bank, leaving him paralyzed for two months. He has made remarkable progress, but must live with disabilities the rest of his life. Even so, he graduated from seminary in 1983. Sven says, "Those of us who live with disabilities must learn to take off our mask of bitterness."

World Anger

Anatoly Shcharansky, a prisoner of the Soviets accused of being a CIA spy, reminds us of "the universal gravity of souls." He maintains the existence of a bond between persons and the influence of one soul on another.

This declaration was universally confirmed by the reaction of civilized souls to the barbaric shooting down of the Korean Airlines Flight 007 by an alleged Soviet SU-15 August 31, 1983, with 269 persons aboard. Instantly, thoughtful persons asked: How can America, indeed any peace-loving nation, hope to achieve peace with the paranoid Soviets?

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