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which
REQUIRE
one human being to be
deeply concerned for aoother - to
offer aid - to bear another man's
burden.
These are the "least" of the com–
mandments placed before each man –
commandments each person must
CHOOSE
to obey,
oc
disobey.
Whether you recognize the existence
of a Higher Power - God - or not,
God does exist!
He has set living, vital
la1vs
in motion; not only the laws of
physics and chemistry, but laws regu–
lating human
cond11ct,
laws of decent
and humane
treatment
of, and consid–
eration for, feilowman.
Those
laws are no more casual sug–
gestions than is it a "suggestion" you
remain affixed to good earthly soil by
gravity. God has never made any special
point in your prívate Jife of requiring
you to sleep a few hours each night.
Still - you obey.
You doo't consciously, deliberately,
after a moral struggle, come to such a
marvelous choice. You merely do that
which is
necessary
-
so long as it's
YOU
that benefits.
But try the same principies on for
size when it comes to another human
being - whether your hair hangs over
your collar, and you are known to
frequeotly leer at the "establishment"
and sneer "peace," or not.
Do you literally jump at the chance
to aid, to serve, to help, to offer comfort
and cheer to a fellow human?
Come, now - be honest. At least,
since no one is listening as your own
prívate mind reads these words - be
honest witb
yorme/f.
It's much,
MUCH
easier to become angry, and to "put
down"
a fellow human who looks
askance at your manners and dress -
and far more
appeaJing,
foc that matter,
to join the field of intellectual battle,
than to be fouod squatting ignominious–
ly beside a muddy curb, helping in sorne
small way an injured man with Jack
Daniels on his breath.
Try it out this way: How many of
our enraged young "intellectuals" are
far more excited over various real or
imagined political, social and racial
evils within a flatulent, affiuent society
- the somewhat unsettled fate of the
'Chicago
7,'
for instaoce - than the
The
PLAIN TRUTH
almost unbelievable daily plight of
human suffering beyond any description
in Nigeria, or, for that matter, the local
county hospital, where one of their
own friends may be screarning for the
doctors to make those snakes quit crawl–
ing in and out of his nose, while try–
ing to recover from a bad 'trip' on
LSD?
If
you are one who would gladly
stand, rain-splattered, listening to the
rantings of ultra-Jeft liberals who
would joyously greet the destruction of
America with tears of gratitude - as
opposed to one who could be found
tending to the simplest necessary min–
istrations of merey for an accident vic–
tim -
you've no business reading
further.
But if you
do
truly have a feeling
towards fellow man - if you really
do
' love' humanity, maybe there's an out–
side chance you'll understand the next
few paragraphs.
You see, we
are
under a strange,
symptomatic sort of curse - a last-min–
ute du!ling of humanitarian instincts in
favor of the
"1'11
get mine" syndrome.
Most of us believe, deep in our
bones, that humanity has simply had it.
We not only wonder whether man
WILL
survive - we're beginning to wonder
whether he should.
We can see the cause-and-effect rela–
tionship of calloused spectators watch–
ing helpless victims die. Having viewed
tens of thousands of murders, rapes,
muggings, robberies and assaults vía
novels, comics, television and the
motion pictures, it's almost like
another "scene" - unreal, somehow,
and requiring no personal action on
one's own part. We can readily under–
stand why sorne people would prefer
to remain "uninvolved,'' what with
potential retribution from enraged fel –
low gang members, tiring hours talking
to detectives at police stations, and hav–
ing jobs interrupted for possible court
appearances (and, anyhow, we have
resignedly come to accept the notion
that courts probably won't really punish
criminals - after all, not
ONE
murderer
died for his crime in either
1968
or
1969
in
a11
the United States!).
But
WHAT CONSTITUTES "!NVOLVE–
MENT"?
April-May, 1970
You Are Involved!
When you
see,
with your own eyes, a
bestial, hideous crime being committed,
then, like it or not,
YOU
ARE
involved.
You are
already
part of tl1e "scene" if
you
witneu
a crime being committed!
Turning your back constitutes a
double sin - a terrible crime, in itself!
First, it denies aid and comfort to a des–
perate fellow human being, and there–
fore is a heinous and brutal deed.
Second, it
CIVES
aid and comfort to
the criminal, by guaranteeing him safety
and anonymity in tbe commission of his
crime. But our arguments are endless -
we would probably conjure up all sorts
of bloody scenes which would include
ourselves, standing there helpless
amidst a dozen crooks all armed with
submachine guns, and us saying "but
what could
T
do?"
We
truly
are
living in the very times
predicted by one of the apostlcs of the
early New Testament Church! Paul told
Timothy, "This know also, that in the
last days perilous times shall come, for
meo shall be
/over¡ of their oum
selves ..
."
( II Tiro.
3:1-2).
A dramatic
view into
OUR
self-seeking societies!
And yet
PREDICTED,
centuries ago.
Why? Was this just happenstance - or
was the man actually inspired to see
what the
md remlt
of human beings
"doing their own thing" would be?
He went on to say, "... men
shall be . . . covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents
( never a more prevalent disease of
society than now !] uothankful, unholy,
witho11t nttl11ral affection .
.."
(II Tim.
3:2-3).
And we
are
all of these things, and
more. The truth hurts, of course - and
seeing ourselves as we really
ARE
is
always a very painful experience - but
the grisly statistics are true, fact is fact,
and the incidents of feilow humans
ignoring their neighbor's plight con–
tinue to mount day by day.
Will we ultimately come to the point
where one neighbor, or fellow office
worker, or even the member of the same
family will remark, upon viewing
the heavily bandaged person on the
following day, "Oh , was that
yott
screaming ?" O