Magyar Egyház, 1981 (60. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1981-01-01 / 1-2. szám
VAGYAK CGYfrAZ 10. oldal “FROM DARKNESS, BRINGING LIGHT” A Poem----------------------------------------- Honoring the Returned American Hostages from Iran --------------------------------------From the dark incarceration of an alien prison camp To the brilliant light that comes alone from freedom’s flaring lamp; From the cold control of those to whom a human life is cheap To the warmth and love that absence only serves to make more deep; From monotonous hours in empty days stretched taut across two years To the full and rich renewal in the family’s joys and tears; From uncertainty of when their torment finally would cease To the assurance that with Tehran we mercifully have peace, Comes our brother, comes our father, comes our husband, sister, friend In a jubilant procession marking separation’s end! And across a watching nation sweeps a penetential sigh As we quietly give thanks to God that men no more must cry. But the knowledge of the moment can't erase what’s gone before, How these men and women have sat for months behind a prison door; How their families have been waiting for a word, a note, a hope That for yet another day they could somehow try to cope. These men and women, coming home, who risked their very lives; Their families, patient parents, cheated children, waiting wives: They are the ones to whom this nation owes its gratitude. They are the ones to whom we look to change this country’s mood. For we’ve fallen in these weary days into mutual denigration As we’ve lashed at one another in a sad recrimination. We have said that nothing’s sacred, nothing’s worthy of our dream, That all apparent charity is someone’s selfish scheme. We have vilified our leaders as corrupt or stupid men. We’ve pronounced our country’s guilt and shame by brush and tongue and pen. But now from out of Iran’s snare come our sisters and our brothers Into the waiting, loving arms of children, wives, and mothers. They more than all the rest of us know the blessings of the free. They more than all the rest of us know the joy of liberty. For they bring back the honor that we have lost a while. For they redeem the promise of the travelled second mile. For they, and they who watched for them, have shown the deepest peace: A peace which prison can’t disturb, or loneliness dismay, A peace which can neither give, nor ever take away. From the faces, in the words of these women and these men, The peace which passes understanding shines forth once again. Their faith in God, their trust in us will be an inspiration. It calls us all to answer back with a deeper dedication To that same God, that common nation: the ideals that have sustained them. For the doubts we’ve shared, the fears we’ve had have nothing but profaned them. So let us use their bright return for our resuscitation As we give ourselves in one accord to national consecration. May the faith that brought them through the months of all pervading dark Leap joyously from heart to heart as a life-enriching spark. With the President inaugurated as our prisoners gained release. May we join our hands and lift our eyes to the golden goal of peace. May we put behind divisions of party and of strife As we seek to raise for everyone the quality of life. So say we to our hostages, “You’ve done more than just your part. You’ve not just triumphed in your test, you’ve restored a nation’s hearth.” Modern Creationists Seeking Equal Time In U.S. Classrooms Larry Salyer devotes one week to the origin of the Earth. For two days, he teaches his seventh-grade science students at Holmes Junior High the tenets of Darwinism —that the Earth is billions of years old and that man, through natural selection, descended from earlier animals. In midweek, Mr. Salyer switches from evolution to an older theory, one that he himself believes in. Many scientists, he tells the class, believe that the Earth was the work of a Creator a mere 10,000 years ago. Moreover, he says, “these ‘scientific creationists’ say that a man was always a man, a dog was always a dog, and the frog didn’t turn into a prince.” The dual approach is well-received in this Eastern Iowa town of about 33,000 persons. “We want to know all the facts, ” one student says, “not just the ones the evolutionists want us to hear.” Parents haven’t complained either. Elsewhere there is concern, though, because the creationist gospel echoes well beyond the secular halls of Holmes Junior High. In states from New York to California, moves are a foot to give the old-time theory of Creation equal time in science classes. State legislature have been flooded with bills. STATUTE STRUCK DOWN In 1975, a Tennessee statue ordering equal time for Creation was struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. John Whitehead, a Cleveland lawyer who works for the creationists, says the statute had required equal time for “Creation as taught in the Book of Genesis.” The Tennessee law was “rightfully declared unconstitutional,” he says, “because it was teaching the Bible.” Today’s bills, he says, seek to teach “the Creation as reveled by science. ” So far, no state has passed any of the new bills, and creationists don’t think their viewpoint is getting a fair shake. Teachers do tend to shy away from Creation—even in Holmes Junior High not all teachers teach it —because they feel that to teach Creation would be to teach religion and that that would be unconstutional. In addition, many teachers simply view the theory of Creation as discredited. “It‘s the Scopes trial reversed," says Ronald Lee, a creationist who heads the Iowa State University chapter of Students for Origins Research. “Before, they restricted evolution,” he says. “Now they’re restricting Creation. ” Two thousand miles westward, nestled in an administration building on the campus of Christian Heritage College in San Diego, is the Creation Research Institute. The institute has seven full-time employees, a $470,000 annual budget and a goal of “bringing about a revival of belief in special Creation as the true explanation of the origin of the world. ”
