Insight on the News

Promiscuity Risky

● The head of Canada’s British Columbia Cancer Control Agency, Dr. David Boyes, feels that cancer of the cervix ought to be termed a venereal disease. Why? Because of its rapid increase among young women who are sexually active. This proves it is sexually transmitted, he says. “At high risk are those sexually active from an early age and those who have many partners. If a girl becomes sexually active at, say 15 years of age, she has the same risk as if she were a prostitute,” he explained. The press report also showed that cervical cancer is not as threatening to those who are not promiscuous.

How this high price for promiscuity argues for the wisdom of the Bible’s counsel to exercise self-control and ‘abstain from fornication’! Though girls and women pay a physical price, the Scriptures warn that boys and men also should ‘abstain from fornication’ so as not to “go to the point of harming and encroach upon the rights” of another, because “Jehovah is one who exacts punishment for all these things.”​—1 Thess. 4:3-7; Acts 15:20.

Galileo’s “Heresy”

● The Vatican has announced that it is going to review the heresy conviction of the 17th-century astronomer Galileo. What was his “heresy”? He supported the belief of Copernicus that the earth was not the center of the universe, but that it, together with the other planets, revolved around the sun as a center. Observations through the newly invented telescope convinced Galileo that this position was correct. However, Pope Paul V admonished Galileo not to “hold, teach or defend” the doctrine. Later, Galileo felt obliged to publish a work defending the Copernican system. Thereafter, the Inquisition convicted him of heresy, and Galileo recanted his view. He was forced to live the rest of his life under house arrest. Now, after 347 years, a spokesman for the Vatican’s Secretariat for Nonbelievers, as the former Holy Office or Inquisition is called today, said: “According to the wishes of the Pope, research has begun on the case of Galileo.”

The “New Catholic Encyclopedia” concluded from its research on the case: “The theologians’ treatment of Galileo was an unfortunate error; and, however it might be explained, it cannot be defended.” Such an error could have been avoided if the pope had adhered to the principle followed by Christ in steering clear of matters that were of no real concern to him.​—Compare Luke 12:13, 14.

Secular Jobs for Clergy?

● Skyrocketing operational costs in churches moved an Anglican bishop in Canada to suggest that clergymen may be ‘forced to seek secular jobs as lawyers, nurses or factory and construction workers, giving their time to the churches on weekends.’ Addressing a synod meeting, Anglican Bishop David B. Ragg noted that the apostle Paul supported himself by making tents. According to a Toronto “Star” report, he said that “priests may all have to resort to a ‘tent-making’ style of ministry.”

The religious editor for the “Star” interviewed some clergymen for their reaction. A Baptist minister said: “St. Paul worked at making tents and, for the first 300 years, the early church spread by informal missionaries. Secular jobs would bring clergy out of isolation and into greater contact with their flocks.” An Anglican rector observed that it “would put the parson in touch with reality.”

Such admissions are ironic in the light of decades of criticism of Jehovah’s Witnesses by many clerics because the Witnesses have no separate, salaried clergy. For the most part, the Witnesses work at secular jobs to support themselves and their families, while dedicating weekends and other available time to neighborhood evangelism. Does it work? The record of the early Christians and the growth of Jehovah’s Witnesses in modern times affirm that it does.