CAPT. WALTER F. HENRY
Commanding Officer
CDR. WESLEY E. SKILL
Executive Officer
Published each Monday for all personnel
on Adak by Special Services. Provisions
for NavExos P-35 (Rev. July 58) complied
with. Mimeographed at NavSta Adak. Funds
furnished from non-appropriated sources
at no cost to the government. Articles
contained herein are not to be construed
as representing the official opinion of
the Commanding Officer or the Navy Dep
artment, inasmuch as the Adak Sun is not
an official publication.
EDITOR; H. T. DAVIS, YN1 055J or 365
ADAK
SUN
CHAPLAINS CORNER
One of the first things Communism
tries to do in a country into which it
moves is to knock out the influence of
that country's churches. Incidentally,
Communism moves into few countries by
force. The only way it can move into
a large and powerful country is by
invitation or, and more often, because
the people of that country do not care.
Of course, when the people do not
care, they usually do not care about
their churches either. It is a sample
matter to destroy the churches when
people have ceased to be very much con-,
cerned about them. People have ceased
to be concerned about them when they
are more concerned about "sack tlmo"
on Sunday than they are about attend
ance at a religious service of their
choice. People are not concerned when
they have had such a riotous time Sat
urday night that they just do not feel
like getting up. It is no excuse to
stay away just because a person would
not be alert anyway. God is not going
to smile benignly and be as content
with our excuses as we are. He is not
goingto say, "that's all right, I know
how you feel," nor is He likely to say,
"I know you deserved a little raising
cain even if you could not then get to
God's house to be thankful for the
pleasures of life."
This is making something more im
(Continued next column)
portant than God and God did say, "I
am the Lord Thy God, Thou shall have
no other god's before me.” Nothing is
to be more important than God. Our
feeling of importance about God is
shown by how much time we take to find
out about God and to be where people
are worshipping God. This includes
daily time spent in Bible reading,
prayer,and meditation as well as week
ly reading#
Unless time is spent inthese things,
other things are being put in place of
God. Where this has happened. Commun
ism has come in and become an enforced
God. It happens when the people have
become indolent and uncaring. They
have decided to ”let George doit" when
it comes to cleaning up morals. They• M
have long since become slovenly in ^
speech habits and tend to get beyond -
the slovenly and to get downright fil
thy. There are times when one wonders
if among some individuals the emphasis
is actually to see how filthy language
can be or how vulgar a story can get.
Almost as bad are the "nice” stories
with just a strong overtone of vulgar
ity, by those who want to be worse,
but conscience won't let -them, and they
are usually unhappy because their con
science will not let them.
Those who are in the group of being
unhappy because of battle with consci
ence are perhaps worse contributors to ^
moral decaythan the openly rebellious, V
for these are the lukewarm. They are
on the one hand, afraid of being reli
gious, afraid it is no fun. They are,
on the other hand, afraid of real sin,
afraid of eternal punishment, so they
hover somewhere in between. They are
like-the person on the beach, not will
ing just to laze in the sun and with
out the couraqe to dive out into deep
water where the swimmers are having a
gay tire of it. They just drift along
with their feelings and let opportun
ities pass-they let pass opportunities
to really know and have the assurance
of what their God is and wants to do
for them#
They are not in church because they
are afraid to dive in and really get
interested*
LET'S BE CONCERNED Part 1
-. Chaplain V# Stenberg