Insight on the News
Disruptive Children
● Retiring Chief Juvenile Court Judge Thomas Gill says that, in the last twenty years of work in Connecticut courts, he has observed the emergence of a more dangerous group of children. He says that their antisocial behavior is such that they now constitute an “extremely disruptive group” that is having “a chilling impact on people.”
Because of their viciousness, these youths have gone beyond what was once regarded as juvenile delinquency. Gill noted that in a previous period of thirteen years his court had only one charge of homicide against a child in some 55,000 cases that it handled. But in a recent period of only one year it had three such cases. And the same increase in youth crime is noted nearly everywhere.
Bible prophecy foretold that in our times children would indeed be “disobedient to parents,” and that people in general would increasingly lack self-control, becoming fierce, without a love of goodness.—2 Tim. 3:1-5.
Ominous Trends in Italy
● In last summer’s Italian national elections, the ruling Christian Democratic party, backed by the Catholic Church, won a narrow victory over the Communist party. But the Communists continued to make gains.
This was also reflected in the municipal elections held at the same time. For example, in the Rome city government the Communist party won 35.5 percent of the vote, compared to 33.1 percent for the Christian Democrats. Hence, for the first time Rome came under the control of a Communist-led coalition. The New York “Sunday News” said that this “was a setback to the Vatican and the Pope, who reigns as the Catholic bishop of Rome.” With the Rome vote, the Communist party now dominates the governments of every major city in Italy, the “News” observes.
Also of great concern to the Church is the decline of religious practice in Italy. The Catholic periodical “Commonweal” reports: 53 percent of the Italian people were regular Church communicants in 1956; 40 percent were in 1960; 35 percent, in 1965. The most recent figure is only 30 percent. There is no indication that the decline will be reversed. The Jesuit magazine “Civiltà Cattolica” says that 72 percent of the people it questioned felt that the Church had no real interest in, or understanding of, the working class.
These trends in Italy and other lands toward more radical-type governments and the drift away from “orthodox” religion are ominous for the churches of Christendom. Yet this was foretold in Bible prophecy at Revelation chapters 17 and 18. There God’s Word reveals that religions which have ‘played the harlot’ with this world are to be suddenly destroyed in the near future, causing great shock to supporters of those religions.
Were Nazi Leaders Insane?
● It has been a common belief that the leaders of Nazi Germany must have been demented, madmen. Hence, many have thought that by keeping insane people out of office, Nazi-type atrocities would not be repeated. But after decades of study, personality tests given Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg trials seem to reveal otherwise.
According to psychologist M. Harrower of the University of Florida, “the Nazis who went on trial at Nuremberg were as diverse a group of people as one might find in our own government today, or for that matter, in the leadership of the PTA [Parent-Teacher Association].” Of eight high Nazi leaders studied, six “showed no serious mental disturbance, and two of them were exceptionally well-adjusted. Their crimes cannot be blamed on mental disorder.”
On what, then? Unchecked power by humans tends to corrupt. Hence, blind obedience to any leader who asks people to break God’s laws can lead to all kinds of corrupt acts. That is why true Christians are told: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) In addition, those who break God’s laws leave themselves open to control by “wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places”—demons. (Eph. 6:12) Thus, human leaders and those who blindly follow them can become tools of Satan the Devil, whom the Bible calls “the god of this system of things.”—2 Cor. 4:4.