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Key Bible Verse: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). Bonus Reading: Acts 6:8-10

I didn't assume the position of Surgeon General [1981-89] with the intention of actively opposing tobacco, but after I studied the incontrovertible truths about the health hazards of smoking, I became first dumbfounded and then furious. How could the tobacco industry dare to dismiss as unfounded and unproven the absolutely clear connection between smoking and heart disease; death from stroke; and cancer of the lung, mouth, esophagus and stomach?

[Koop issued a Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health in 1983 and '84, and carried the flag for the cause in the face of administration wavering.]

Next, I went to the heart of the issue, nicotine addition. Most smokers are drug addicts. My 1986 report revealed a surprise to many: The same percentage of heroin addicts as tobacco users are able to quit on their own.

After the public began to recognize me, people seldom smoked in my presence. When the nonsmoking tables in a Reno restaurant were all occupied, my hostess said, "I'll just seat you in the smoking section; they'll all put their cigarettes out." Sure enough, they did.

—C. Everett Koop in Koop

• What should our role be in dealing with issues of public morality? Consider what God might want you to do.

Thought to Apply:This will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.

—ELMER DAVIS (writer and broadcaster)

Credits: Adapted from—Monday: Koop (Random, 1991)

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information click here.

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