Insight on the News

Medical Dictators?

● When a twenty-four-year-old Vietnam veteran was admitted to a New Jersey hospital, he was led to believe that his wish to receive any treatment other than blood transfusion would be respected. He, his wife and his brother all made this clear to the hospital administration.

However, the hospital obtained a court order allowing the doctors to use blood. Then, in the middle of the night, the sick man was told he would be given something to make him sleep. After this, while he was unconscious, blood was administered.

Such a deceptive, dictatorial practice is an affront to persons who value their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of choice. To seize the body of an adult, trick him into thinking he is being given a sedative, and then to administer a treatment that he has expressly forbidden​—is that not a form of dictatorship?

Mental Health and Schools

● Phoenix, Arizona, psychologist Dr. Kenneth Olson says that ‘school can be devastating to the mental health of children.’ Why? While he emphasized a ‘negative intellectual environment,’ in many other ways schools have become more threatening. In recent years schools have seen growing drug abuse, immorality, violence, overcrowding, disinterested teachers and standards that conflict with parental standards.

Also, students see that many subjects have no practical use in life. Yet, as Olson says: “Before he gets to school, a child has mastered verbal and symbolic language without ever having had a course of [formal] instruction. He has been a learning machine.” But much of that potential is wasted in school.

In ancient Israel, which lasted longer as a sovereign nation than almost any other, young people grew up to become skilled in the arts, crafts and agriculture, and they were taught God’s laws for daily living. All of this was done without a formal public school system. God’s law assigned parents the main responsibility to train the young. (Deut. 6:6, 7) They were not turned over to some school system for training.

While circumstances may be different today, much can be done to offset a poor school environment. That is why Jehovah’s witnesses teach their children from infancy God’s laws for daily living, often teaching them to read before they enter school. Such personal attention is continued until adulthood is reached. Also, the children are encouraged to learn practical trades. And they can look forward to God’s righteous new order, where harmful environments will not exist, and where all will be taught what is really useful.​—2 Pet. 3:11-13.

“The Church Is Weak”

● The magazine “Christianity Today” said: “The Church is weak today because spiritual leaders have failed to train a body of believers to do the same kind of work they do.” It observed that Jesus “does not teach simply to give his people a smattering of biblical knowledge. He teaches with a view to ‘multiplying his ministry.’ He trains those who in turn will train others.” But, admittedly, such training among churchgoers is nonexistent.

Furthermore, in Bogotá, Colombia, the publication “El Catolicismo” reported that religious leaders in Spain held a conference where they discussed the weakness of the churches in contrast with the “successes” of Jehovah’s witnesses. It was agreed that the churches were too preoccupied with secular matters and were not communicating truths to others. The conference noted: “Perhaps [the churches] are excessively neglectful about that which precisely constitutes the greatest preoccupation of the Witnesses​—the home visit, that comes within the apostolic methodology of the primitive church. While the churches, on not a few occasions, limit themselves to constructing their temples, ringing their bells to attract the people and to preaching inside their places of meeting, [the Witnesses] follow the apostolic method of going from house to house and of taking advantage of every occasion to witness.”

Not only do Jehovah’s witnesses use the same method of calling on people in their homes as did Jesus and the apostles, but they also imitate the apostolic method of training others to be Bible teachers. Jesus told his followers: “Make disciples of people of all the nations.” A disciple does the same kind of work as his teacher.​—Matt. 28:19, 20.