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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, September 11, 1979
Page 6
I can't express how grateful, peaceful, relieved and full I feel,
and all because of what reading I've done lately! The booklets you
sent to me have helped me realize more deeply that God does love
me and care for me. Your work is wonderful. I received it just
when I had sunk to the lowest levels of depression, loneliness and
complete disinterest or apathy.
--Lou Jaramillo (Las Cruces, NM)
ON THE WORLD SCENE
THE HEROES HAVE LEFT US: On September 5, the most elaborate funeral took
place in London since that of Winston Churchill in 1965. Earl Mountbatten
of Burma, Britain's naval hero of World War II and the last viceroy of
India before it became independent in 1947 was honored in a deeply moving
funeral ceremony in Westminister Abby. Present were all members of the
Royal Family (Mountbatten was the cousin of Queen Elizabeth and the uncle
of Prince Phillip) ,as well as many reigning and non-reigning royalty of
Europe to whom he was also related.
It was a fitting tribute to the man who was variously called "the last
great Englishman" and "Britain's last hero." Bis tragic death came at the
hands of men of far lesser character, guerrillas of the Irish Republican
Army, who blew up Mountbatten's yacht in Donegal Bay off the Irish coast.
In another area of the Commonwealth, Canada suffered in late August the
loss of John Diefenbaker, its 13th Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963. The
much loved, flamboyant "Dief the Chief" was still a member of Parliament
(in his thirteenth term) at the time of his death at age 83. He was, said
Maclean's, Canada's leading news magazine, "Canada's most colorful prime
minister who remained a political giant and active parliamentarian to the
end." On all important affairs of state, Mr. Diefenbaker was consulted
by both public officials and the news media for advice.
No Leadership in America
The deaths of Mountbatten and Diefenbaker come at a time of a true dearth
of leadership among the leading powers of the free world. Time magazine,
in a special report in its August 6, 1979 issue titled "A Cry for Leader
ship," said this: "It is a comment on the state of temporal power that
the world's most impressive and natural leader is the Polish Pope."
Certainly there is precious little in the way of leadership these days in
the free world's biggest power, the United States . Nothing exemplifies
this more than the nationwide "energy" address delivered by President
Carter earlier this summer.
At the end of it Mr. Carter appealed to
Americans, one and all, to "help" him lead the nation through what he
termed its crisis of confidence. Eugene Kennedy, writing in the New York
magazine of August 5 quickly took the president to task for his remark,
saying, "Americans do not want the burden of leading their leader."
Of.course, Mr. Carter is now facing his biggest test of all--will he demand
that the Russians take their newly discovered combat division out of Cuba?
One wonders. Mr. Carter's first public utterance on the crisis was to
counsel the American people to remain "calm."