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What Our Readers Say
Energy Crisis
In the December [1979)
Plain Truth,
Mr. [Hcrbert W.] Armstrong makes fhis
significant comment about the automo-
bile:
·
"Whoever you obey is your god. What–
ever you serve is your god.
lt
might be
your automobile."
The annual survey by Hertz Corp.
found that the auto claimed 25 percent of
the average family income in 1978. Most
of the driving is nonessential pleasure
driving. Average car life is six years when
it could and should be much more than
12 years.
l t is now generally known that the oil
of the world will last only a few more
decades, but our country continues to use
it at a rapidly increasing rate. The con–
tinuing waste of time, money and scarce
natural resources to support the auto
habit shows that we are virtually a nation
of oilcoholics whose No.
1
ido! is the
automobile.
Earl W. Mutch
Chardon, Ohio
"How can the West come to its
senses? Only by recognizing that
'detente' was always a one-way
street.
lt
allowed Russia to move
forward, ratchet-like, while the West
lost ground. l t was ilever a two-way
process. T he West must stop losing,
before it has lost too much. This
involves more than building up mate–
rial strength-though that is essen–
tial.
' ' l t also means finding a voice,
which can be heard again throughout
the world. Where that voice is to
come from at present cannot be
clearly seen. T he most obvious place
- Washington- is in sorne kind of
palsy. But come it must. Millions
want to hear it ."
Pcrhaps that voice just might be
March
1980
Papal Visi t
Having read your editorial comments
on Pope John Paul's visits to Poland a nd
the U.S., 1 draw your attention to Greek
sentiment on his recent visit to Turkey.
Greeks remember the nearl y
400
years
of religious repression under the Ottoman
Empire. When Greece gained its inde–
pendence with the help of the great
powers-England
m
particular- from
Turkey on March 2 1, 1821, immediately
after, Greece formally readopted Chrjs–
tianity, after having suffered severe reli–
gious repression from the Turks.
Since then the Greeks , as a whole,
have remained very strong in their
Orthodox faith. They have never asso–
ciated themselves with other nations'
religious sects and , above all, they have
never obeyed one infallible higher au–
thority. This is a major point of dis–
agreement.
The patriarch of Constantinople, in the
person of Demetrios
1,
js a most highly
respected church personality, with ecde–
siastical power vested in him by the
church hierarchy and also by the state
found in a political figure beginning
to stir in West Germany--chancellor
challenger Franz Josef Strauss (c.f.
Plain Truth,
September, 1979). In
Dr. Strauss's view his government, as
well as the entire Western world, has
pursued a policy, which, step by step,
"has fulfilled all Moscow's wishes."
That policy, he reckons , has only
encouraged Soviet expansion in the
Middle East and Africa. In his view,
it now has to be made clear to the
Russians that they have reached the
same point as Adolph Hitler when he
marched into Prague in 1939.
The policy of detente says Dr.
Strauss, was shortsighted. l t failed to
recognize that the West's life-lines
were threatened, and to sorne extent
already cut short, by the Soviet
government. At the same time, however,
he remains quite a distant 'figure who has
no active participation in the life of the
common man.
The traditional conservative Orthodox
believer views the pope's visit to Constan–
tinople asan effort to establish suprema–
cy over the Greek Orthodox Church and
to rule his personal life. That is .some–
thing Greeks find difficult to comply
with.
T his traditional view is not by any
means the prevalent one since the coun–
try is being swept by socialist principies
which discourage the people away from
religion, especially the younger genera–
tion.
The point of view most preva lent
among middle-of-the-road folks is apathy
toward religion. Many have given up
their previous belief that the Greek
Orthodox Church is the true Church of
God and they couldn' t care less what is
happening in the worldwide field of reli–
gion.
George Kovanis,
California
Union's global, long-term offensive
strategy.
Dr. Strauss, the British newsweek–
ly
Economist
notes, is thinking seri–
ously about how to counter the long
range Soviet threat. "So Mr. Strauss
is strongly supporting senior col–
leagues in the Christian Democratic
Union and his own Bavarian Chris–
tian Social Union who would like
NATO to extend its defense commit–
ment beyond the borders of the
North Atlantic pact. T hey want a
NATO presence in the Gulf, and are
talking vaguely about the need for
the alliance to counter Soviet in–
fluence in southern Africa."
Continue to watch Soviet inroads
in the Middle East-and especíally
the European reaction to them. o
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