Christendom’s Clergy and Morals
THE clergy’s views on adultery and fornication often appear in the newspapers. Their expressions show that ever-increasing numbers of them condone that which Jehovah God emphatically condemns. (1 Cor. 6:9, 10) Do you uphold the Bible’s standard of morality? Does your church? The following experiences illustrate what some persons have done when confronted with the facts:
An elderly man in England writes: “My wife and I tried various denominations, hoping to find a religion that would bring us closer to God. None gave us the spiritual food and strength we needed. Finally, we invited a Church of England clergyman to our home with the thought of going to his church.
“To our disgust and surprise he did not condemn present-day sinning, blasphemy, adultery and trial marriages. He said blasphemy was a present-day form of expression and not to worry about it. As to unmarried couples sharing the same bed, his reply was, ‘Well, if they do not see things our way, then we must be understanding and see things their way.’ In other words, agree with their sinful conduct or condone it.
“During this time, two witnesses of Jehovah had been calling on us. So after dispatching the clergyman promptly, my wife declared, ‘I know where our religion lies. It is with Jehovah’s witnesses.’ And now we too are Jehovah’s witnesses because they respect God’s high moral standards outlined in the Bible.”
An Illinois woman writes: “We were active members of the Methodist church. My husband served twice as president of the Sunday-school class. He was on the official church board and a trustee. I was a Sunday-school teacher for two years.
“When Jehovah’s witnesses called on us, I became very interested in their message about God’s Kingdom promises. I had no intentions of becoming one of them, but I was very interested in the Bible, and I wanted to know more about it. So I accepted their offer to study it with me. After a few months of study, we realized that we had learned more about the Bible than we had in all our years in the Methodist church.
“We decided to get out of false religion as fast as we could. Two things helped us to do this. One was that one of the Methodist Sunday-school books actually taught evolution, which directly contradicted the creation account in Genesis. The second was that a Methodist minister from Morton, Illinois, gave a sermon on the advantages of adultery. He has since written a book advocating it. He was not excommunicated but continued in good standing with the Methodist church. Now we attend the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses regularly and share what we are learning with others.”
From Canada another woman writes: “I attended the United Church for nineteen years. Often I asked my minister and others about the meaning of Revelation, but no one could explain it. When Jehovah’s witnesses called, I asked the woman calling to explain portions of Revelation. I was overjoyed to hear her answers to questions that had bothered me for eleven years.
“At this time the United Church had brought out its new curriculum. In the teacher’s guide the Bible was discredited as containing myths. It denied the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and downgraded the first eleven chapters of Genesis.
“The minister in the church said that one could engage in premarital sex as long as it did not bother one’s conscience. One Sunday-school teacher left her husband, and even though she was living with another man she was welcomed with open arms at the church.
“After reading in the Watchtower magazine of the need to abandon false religion, I no longer felt comfortable in the church. So for two months during the summer I made a deep, personal study of the Bible with the aid of one of the Watch Tower publications.
“When I returned to church that fall I felt like an outsider. I was asked to teach the new curriculum, but my conscience would not allow me to do this. I made my decision to leave the church for good. I told the minister that I could not accept the church’s teaching and that I was leaving. He told me not to go to another church because what I found in his church I would find in all churches.
“Today I am enjoying the wonderful spiritual food as served in the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I dedicated my life to Jehovah and symbolized it by water baptism in January 1967.”