themselves are obliged to make an exception, stating that “the worship of the Semitic peoples, the Hebrews and the Arabs, as history knows them, is remarkably free from ancestor deification,” although these profess to detect a similarity between the law of Moses and ancestor worship, much as the evolutionist professes to see a similarity between the simians and man. The Jewish Encyclopedia lists the arguments for and against the modernist view that ancestor worship was the predecessor of the law of Moses, and, while holding that the Bible does not settle the question (which it does, as we have seen above), states that it is a matter for anthropology and that its evidence is against ancestor worship as being the primitive form of religion.

As regards ancestor worship as being folly it might not be amiss to observe that it has also done much harm in a material way. For example, consider China. Why does it present the paradox of having one of the oldest civilizations and yet being one of the most backward of countries? Simply because of the blight of ancestor worship, a curse affecting its arts, economics and politics. It might therefore be stated that the onus for the war in Indo-China and for China’s being Communist can be laid squarely upon this form of religion. And the role that Japan played in World War II can likewise be blamed squarely on ancestor worship, for it is the very soul and basis of Shinto. And is not the caste system with which India is afflicted simply another form of ancestor worship?

Incidentally, let us note that in avoiding the folly of ancestor worship we need not go to the other extreme, so marked in Western lands, particularly the United States, where the public press almost daily tells of youths’ not only being disobedient to their parents but of their beating, robbing and even murdering them. “Honor your father and mother” is still one of God’s laws, and so long as children and youths are dependent upon their parents they should obey them, provided, of course, the commands of the parents are in harmony with God’s will.—Eph. 6:1, 2, NW.

What we have seen regarding ancestor worship certainly bears out the accuracy of Paul’s words that when man turned away from the worship of the true God Jehovah ‘he became empty-headed in his reasoning and his foolish heart became darkened.’ In striking contrast with the folly of ancestor worship is the fear and knowledge of Jehovah, which is the beginning of wisdom and which wisdom is demonstrated by the members of the New World society throughout the earth in both word and action.—Ps. 111:10, AS.

“Holy Horrors” and “Pious Junk”

● Selling religious ware to the devout and pious has become an exceedingly profitable business. There are St. Christopher money clips, St. Anthony key chains, “rosary clickers,” beads that contain water from a so-called miraculous fountain and even glowing-in-the-dark crucifixes. A few Catholic authorities have had the courage to come out and admit that selling religious gadgets is a “good racket.” Recently the Archbishop Richard J. Cushing, in a radio address, strongly warned against purchasing “holy horrors.” He went on to list as “pious junk” and “pious rubbish” such articles as “crosses that glow in the dark, religious pictures with eyes that follow you around the room, water from a holy hydrant, vials of miracle anointing oils.” The archbishop added: “It’s an insult to your intelligence; it’s money spent for holy horrors. These things belittle Catholic devotion and encourage superstition.”—New Bedford, Massachusetts, Standard-Times, March 23, 1954.