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PERSONAL
FROM THE PUBLISHER
ABoyfrom
the Inner City
1
didn't
appreciate it at all!
It
was Sunday afternoon in Chicago, baseball
time, and all my friends were expecting me
to play ball. But my father had other
ideas-Sunday afternoon was
reserved
for
the family to listen to the John Charles
Thomas Symphony Hour.
As a musician himself, my father believed it
was good for the fami ly to be exposed to
quality music. The opera hour provided that
opportunity. No excuses. I didn't like it and
longed to be outside playing ball.
[ began to develop resentment toward authority.
"l'll show him," 1 final ly decided. So even though
J
was under age, I ran off and joined the U.S.
Navy! Much to my embarrassment, my dad had to
give bis parental approval for me to remain in.
I found 1 had only traded one authority in my life
for another. Yet 1 clung desperately to the belief that
1 had done the right thing in trying to escape my
father's involvement in my "personal affairs."
When 1 returned from World War 11, 1 went
home thinking the world owed me a living. I'll
save the details for a later " Personal," but suffice
it to say that my dad had a little more to say
about my personal affairs. Tbrough bis love and
direction,
T
was able to make something of my life.
1 started by taking advantage of tbe U.S.
government apprenticeship program for veterans.
1 was later to recognize that without my dad my
life would bave been radically di fferent. He
provided tbe strength, the stability and the
June
1986
direction that a young man
needs
to be a success.
Wben 1 look at tbe conditions of Western
society today, 1 am grieved for the young people it
is producing. There seems to be a crusade
against
the family-tbe very building block of any
successful society.
There is a devil-alive and active. He stands as
the adversary, the
enemy
of mankind and of God.
He has injected bis way of selfishness, greed and
hatred into a deceived mankind. Skyrocketing
divorce rates resulting in single-parent families,
custody battles, shattered dreams, hopes, ambit ions
and lives are disintegrating the fabric of fatherhood
and motherhood. Permissive sexual mores, touted
by the media in every form of entertainment,
produce the agonizing fruit of children destined to
grow up in the care of inexperienced motbers, only
children tbemselves, with no fathers at al l. (Read
"Families Without Fathers" in this issue.)
But tbere is a solution! There is a God in heaven
wbo has given mankind a way of life and revealed
it in bis Word, the Holy Bible. T hat way has
largely been rejected by mankind. But it works! It
produces every good and right result in the lives of
tbose who follow it.
Plain Truth
founder Herbert
W. Armstrong referred to the Bible as "God's
instruction manual" for mankind. And so it is!
God calls on wayward humanity to
change.
To
turn from our own ideas, ways and methods of
solving problems to
God's.
To listen to God's
instruction and do something about it.
Impossible? Not at all. Not if one is willing to
brush aside prejudices, preconceived ideas and
notions and false suppositions about God and the
Bible. Sadly, most people are not. No, utopía is not
impossible. True, lasting happiness and joyful,
abundant living are not impossible. And world
peace is not impossible. In fact,
it is coming!
Each month,
The Plain Truth
points the way to
that coming world tomorrow, based on the spiritual
law of God and the coming rulership over all nations
of the glor ious J esus Chr ist.