From Our Readers

Worry About Grades

Thank you so much for the articles “Young People Ask . . . How Important Are Grades?” (March 8, 1984) and “Why Worry About Grades?” (March 22, 1984) I’m in grade 8 and I hate History. I just couldn’t pass History at all with a good mark. Since I’ve read your articles and applied the counsel, I made 25 points higher on my exam, and my teacher is really impressed.

H. C., Canada

Romance Novels Harmless?

It was truly a pleasure to read the article “Young People Ask . . . Are Romance Novels Harmless Reading?” (November 8, 1983) I have personally experienced the hurt that such reading can bring. I often used to dream about the rich, strong, handsome men they described. That was how I ended up marrying a selfish, cynical, pleasure-seeking man, resulting in a marriage that turned out to be a fiasco. No one can afford to dream in life. Two years after my husband’s death I married again, but this time a quiet, hardworking man, so different from the males depicted in romance novels. Our little family now knows what true happiness means.

J. O., France

Gandhi

While I really enjoyed your article on Mahatma Gandhi (April 8, 1984), I must say I was disappointed in your section about the caste system. While Hindu gods are black and white, that is, Krishna is black and Radha, his wife, white, I cannot say Hinduism practices apartheid like Christians in South Africa, nor that it allows the caste system. People who believe in the caste system are losing their respect in society, and there are a lot of doctors and professional people from lower caste in India. We even had a low-caste prime minister​—Jagjivan Ram—​who was a Sudra. Discrimination against caste is illegal in India just as racism is in Britain.

N. P., England

As the Indian journalist who wrote our article stated, untouchability has been outlawed in India since 1950. Yet a recent survey of about a thousand villages throughout India revealed that if you were an Untouchable, 61 percent of other people would not let you use their well; 82 percent would not allow you to enter the temple; you would be refused lodging by 56 percent; 52 percent of the washermen would refuse you their services; and 45 percent of the barbers would refuse you a shave. Further, “The Hindu” of May 4, 1982, reported that The Mandal Commission warned against any assumption that the caste system was on the way out. However, our article was not intended as a criticism of India or of the fact that the caste system still prevails in the minds of many even though it is outlawed. Rather, we wanted to show the problems that Gandhi faced, and that others like him face today. We also wanted to show that men cannot really solve these problems even with the best of laws. Only through the administration of God’s Kingdom by Christ Jesus will all human discrimination, selfishness and violence be done away with. Happily, the time is near when that Kingdom will move to rid the earth of all unrighteousness.​—ED.