Teen suicide is one of the big problems facing America today. The usual "suicide prevention" courses in the public schools are like an attempt to put out a fire by pouring on gasoline. "Suicide Prevention in the Classroom: A Teachers' Guide to Curriculum," prepared for the schools by the American Association of Suicidology, instructs: "Have students write their own death certificates, wills and obituaries." Included in the course materials are these statements: "Some day we may praise people who meet death on their own terms -- at the time, place and manner that they decide." "Suicide is the signature of freedom." Of course the idea of life after death is ridiculed.

Following the suicide of two of its students, a New Jersey high school, fearing a domino effect, brought in a prevention team to give special suicide counseling. Considering the information just north of here, is it any wonder that the school had seven more suicides that year?

The next year the school shifted its emphasis to staying alive. The question the students were to consider was not, "Should I die or not?" but "How can I handle the stress I am experiencing?" There were no suicides that year

Professor Joy Johnson urges that teen-agers be made to understand that they do not have the right to take their own lives. Suicide is an act of cowardice, and not an acceptable option. She recommends the following guidelines for suicide prevention:

Take a suicide threat seriously, and make sure there are no lethal weapons available. Don't debate with young people over whether they should live or die, but help them to find other non-dangerous options. Make sure all teens know that they should never keep a friend's threat of suicide a secret. Offer the loving support needed until the young person has the courage to stay alive.

Documentation: EDUCATION REPORTER, published by Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense fund with offices at Box 618, Alton, IL 62002, May and July issues, 1987.

Recently, I was reading in the Old Testament, II Kings, Chapter 23, about Josiah, the last good king of the Jews. He determined to rid the land of everything that was abominable in the sight of God. There's a pretty awesome list of what was eradicated.

If the people of the United States determined to eliminate all objects and discontinue all practices that are an abomination to God, what would be on the list? It's something to think about!

Can you remember a time when there were so many natural and unnatural disasters -- floods, drought, earthquakes, forest fires, plane crashes, horrible diseases, escalating crime and drug abuse, etc.? Why?

Read the 18th chapter of Leviticus and Romans 1:21-32. Our nation is moving ever closer to an acceptance of behavior which God has classified as abominable. Even some of our national leaders are promoting such behavior, and children in many schools are taught that it is normal and right.

God is saying, "Wake up, America!"

Life is getting scarier all the time. Natural disasters occur with increasing frequency. Man-made disasters, whether affecting individuals or nations, are increasing too. Truly, the earth is filled with violence.

That was the condition in the days of Noah. God sent judgment in the form of a world-wide flood. Only Noah and his family were serving God, so they were preserved, along with other forms of life.

The flood judgment will not be repeated. The next time it will be fire. This may be accomplished by man himself! God is restraining the forces of evil to some extent now. When He turns them loose, earth will be a terrible place.

Before the final judgment God will remove His people to a place of safety. If you are not among that number, there is still time to turn to God in repentance and submission. But do it now. Tomorrow may be too late!

We don't live in a free country any more. Government by, for and of the people has been replaced by government by, for and of the bureaucrats, aided and abetted by the don't-care-o-crats. We're just a step from total slavery.

How did this come about? Gradually, but the pace is accelerating. They took control of the farmland, and now tell the farmers what they can grow. They took control of our businesses and tell us how we can operate and who we can hire. They took control of our rental property, and tell us who we have to accept as renters. They take over the minds of our school children and teach them that there is no God; that their parents' values are outmoded and harmful and that free expression of all their physical urges is normal and right.

Now they want to reach into the home still farther and take control of our children from birth, with government snoopervisors confiscating them if the home does not conform to standards set up by humanistic committees. "A Child's Bill of Rights," as published in MS Magazine for March, 1974, lists some of their goals for children. These include freedom to refuse an education, the right to vote, the right to choose between their own homes and alternate living arrangements, and the right to all sexual freedoms that are legal among consenting adults.

On Tuesday morning while I was putting away the clothes that I had washed on Saturday I thought of a woman I met years ago on a cross country bus. She told me her husband couldn't understand why she had to clean house on the only days he had off from work, instead of going places with him. He would ask her, "Why do you have to week-end clean?" It seemed to be a sacred ritual with her, and she thought I would understand. But I didn't understand it either. She wasn't working, she had all week, so why couldn't she arrange her schedule so that she could spend time with her husband? I wish I had had enough nerve to tell her what I thought. I hope she didn't wait too long to find out that people are more important than things.

I was putting away Saturday's laundry on Tuesday because my husband had wanted to drive around the country taking pictures on Saturday afternoon and all day Monday, which was a holiday. So I took care of the laundry after he went to work on Tuesday. Work will always be there, but we never know just how long we will have our loved ones with us.

A certain period of history has been called "The Age of Reason." Perhaps we should call the present "The Age of the Unreasonable." When a law is passed, good or bad, there is a tendency to carry it to unreasonable lengths.

The law outlawing school segregation was stretched to mean there had to be a racial balance in the schools. Millions of dollars that should have been spent on education have been wasted hauling children from one neighborhood to another, with no evidence of any benefit from it. A ruling that children could not be forced to repeat a prescribed prayer was interpreted to mean that God had to be kicked out of the schools.

When the meaning of the Constitution was distorted to give a woman the "right" to destroy her unborn child, that was bad enough. But laws passed by some states, which mandated that the candidate for abortion be informed about alternatives and also about possible harmful effects to herself, have been struck down by federal judges as unconstitutional. In many states a girl can't legally be given an aspirin by a school nurse without parental consent. But she can be sent to an abortion clinic without even notifying her parents.

There are still those who hope for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Judging by the unreasonable ways these other laws have been interpreted, what could we expect from this one? Would someone advocate that all American citizens be surgically altered so that we would no longer be male and female?

There have been letters from those who resist any attempt at censoring TV programs. These people say that if you don't want to watch violence or pornography on TV you can simply turn it off or switch channels and what's shown won't hurt you.

It isn't as simple as that. Young people and children--and older people as well, watch such programs and want to copy the things they have seen done on the TV screen. America is paying for it. They pay in loss of life or loved ones. They pay in mental anguish and physical suffering. They pay in loss of property. All taxpayers pay through the pocketbook as crime mushrooms. All buyers pay through the pocketbook as prices go higher and higher because of shoplifting.

What has been shown on TV is bad enough. No, I haven't been watching that stuff, but occasionally I read a review of it to see what's going on. And now they want to dish up worse to cable viewers! I regret that I'm not on the cable so I could tell the cable company to disconnect me, and tell them why.

If enough families would make a stand for decency and have their cables disconnected, it would hurt the cable company in the pocketbook. And they might change their minds about channeling more filth into Fort Smith. Or do we just say we believe in decency, when we don't mean it enough to do anything about it?

Smoke harms children I wonder how many people realize that one of the main destroyers of little children's health is tobacco smoke.

It damages their lungs; it damages their hearts; it makes them more vulnerable to colds and other infections; it hurts them in every way that a lack of good pure air can hurt them.

There's a lot said about the harm that tobacco smoke does to adults But they are bigger and have built up immunities that small children do not have. I wish everyone who "lights up" in the presence of a child would get a mental picture of those little delicate pink lungs which will be invaded by that corrosive tobacco smoke. Smoke clings to clothing, too, and to furniture, draperies, car interiors, you name it!

Most parents claim to love their children. But do they really love them if that craving for a cigarette takes priority over the welfare of the child?

Regarding the tobacco smoke controversy, here are three points to ponder.

1. There probably wouldn't be any controversy if smokers would keep their smoke to themselves.
2. No person's health has ever been endangered by a lack of tobacco smoke in the air.
3. Smoking is optional. Breathing isn't!

I read in the paper that another minister has bit the dust. He and two accomplices are in trouble for molesting young boys.

A minister used to be the one who was trusted by the most people. Not any more! Too many of them have betrayed that trust. Now some people are suspicious of all ministers. But you don't throw out a whole sack of potatoes because some of them are rotten. You just learn to recognize the good potatoes when you see them. And there are ways to recognize a true man of God.

1. Is his whole life and ministry devoted to exalting Jesus Christ? If he is building up a little empire for himself, if he claims that only he and his group are right and everyone else is wrong, watch out! Watch out, too, if he boasts that no one can tell him what to do. A careful reading of the book of Acts will show that even the Apostle Paul recognized that there were those in the Church with higher authority than he.
2. Does he preach holiness, as taught in the Bible, and live what he preaches seven days a week?
3. How does he react to criticism? Does he examine his life carefully to see if it is deserved, and make the needed changes if it is? If it is not deserved does he try to clear up any misunderstanding that could have caused it and then forget it and go about his business? There is cause to be suspicious of a person who is always on the defensive, continually telling how he has been falsely accused and mistreated. An innocent person has better things to talk about.

When my boys were small, they watched with eagle eyes for any sign of favoritism shown their sister. When they imagined they saw such they shouted triumphantly, "Joyce is PC!" PC meant "privileged character."

The letters PC are in common use today, but now they stand for "politically correct." If your attitudes, words and actions harmonize with the current crop of thought police you are considered a worthwhile citizen. To be PC you have to believe in abortion, evolution and a host of other things that it would not be politically correct to enumerate in this letter.

PC still means "privileged character" too. You must be PC if you want to; teach in many universities, have your writing published in the "best" periodicals, or hold certain offices.

Whatever happened to the good old method of formulating our beliefs according to evidence and ethics?

The crop duster flies over, and poison falls like rain.
We're told that it's a blessing, but Doom flies in that plane.

The birds are dead or dying, the bees have ceased to hum;
On river banks the fishes lie rotting in the sun.

The plants store up the poison in leaf and root and stem;
Then fed to living creatures, the poison's passed to them.

Soon all food will be tainted with poison residue.
How long then till all humans are dead or dying too?

My dictionary defines a Christian as one who believes in Jesus Christ and follows His teachings.

Jesus taught about the necessary relationship with God He taught, "Ye must be born again."

Jesus taught about our relationship with other people. "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."

Jesus taught about our attitude toward the suffering. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto Me."

Jesus taught about the infallibility of God's Word. "The Scriptures cannot be broken."

Jesus taught purity of life, which naturally has to begin with the thoughts. "Blessed are the pure in heart."

It is the business of true Christians to take a stand on moral issues. And when politics encroaches on morals, then Christians have to encroach on politics. Would Jesus want us to stand idly by and let the Government take over our families, so that we are unable to train our children for Him as the Bible has commanded us to do? Would Jesus want our children to be taught in school that there is no such thing as right and wrong, that the Bible cannot be taken as our final authority and that it is just as good to be a homosexual as to follow the pattern God laid down in the beginning?

We don't have to worry that our country will be doomed because we follow Christ's commands. The danger comes from those who are trying to eliminate God and substitute godless humanism. Are some of them mistakenly calling themselves Christians?

Could a crew of blind deaf-mutes, without supervision, plans or materials, construct a self-propelling object which could find its own fuel, repair its own damage, build itself a shelter and know enough to come in out of the rain?

Yet that is basically what the theory of evolution is all about!