Watching the World
TB—A “Global Emergency”
Every year tuberculosis (TB) kills more adults than AIDS, malaria, and tropical diseases combined, states the World Health Organization (WHO). Every second, someone somewhere is infected with TB. The TB bacillus can be transmitted by a cough or a sneeze. WHO expects that during the next ten years, 300 million people will become infected with TB and 30 million will die from it. Worse still, the emergence of drug-resistant strains of TB threatens to make the disease incurable. According to WHO, “only 5-10% of people who are infected with TB actually become sick or infectious themselves, because the immune system ‘walls off’ the TB organisms.” Nevertheless, the pandemic is so serious that WHO declared it to be a “global emergency”—the first such declaration in WHO history.
Digging for Sodom and Gomorrah
Swedish archaeologists claim to have found ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. In cooperation with the Amman Department of Antiquities, the scientists made their findings at El Lisan, east of the Dead Sea, in Jordan. The Swedish newspaper Östgöta-Correspondenten explains that finding the remains of buildings destroyed some 1,900 years before Christ is amazing. The archaeologists are convinced that they have found Sodom and Gomorrah. After analyzing pottery, walls, graves, and flint, their conclusion was that the cities were destroyed by a natural disaster. However, the Bible shows that God himself brought the destruction because of the gross immorality of those cities.
The Danger of Loud Music
Rock concerts can cause permanent hearing loss, reports New Scientist magazine. French hearing specialist Christian Meyer-Bisch studied 1,364 people between the ages of 14 and 40 and discovered that a large percentage of regular concertgoers suffered from temporary hearing loss. Meyer-Bisch warns that because of the popularity of rock concerts, these damaging effects are “no longer a problem for the individual but one of public health.”
Increase in Bad Conduct Among Women
• The Brisbane Sunday Mail reports that in increasing numbers young women in Australia are using foul language. Professor Max Brandle, director of the Australian Institute of Modern Languages, explains: “You find that women now drink more, smoke more than they used to in comparison with men. They are also using profane language more. Unfortunately, one result is that some of the traditional courtesies between men and women have declined. When both sexes use profane language, the romantic spirit of the past rapidly disappears. The language of romance used by earlier generations has no place in society at the moment. I find that gutter language is very common among the young today.”
• In Brazil the rate of crimes committed by women doubled during 1995. According to police official Francisco Basile, more women are getting involved in assaults, robberies, and even drug dealing, reports the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. Many women begin their criminal life by smoking crack at parties where drug dealers give away the crack. The women not only develop a drug dependency but often become drug dealers themselves. According to the newspaper, chief of police Antônio Vilela explains: “It is amazing how the number of women selling drugs has increased . . . , and there is no specific age bracket.” Many are young women in their 20’s, but some are in their 50’s.
Some Nonchurchgoers Still Pray Privately
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia is generally regarded as a secular society with church attendance dropping year by year to record lows. However, a recent study revealed that some Australians still pray regularly. The survey shows that 1 in 5 adults prays at least once a day and, further, that 11 percent pray at least once a week. In its report on religion in the 1990’s, the Christian Research Association explains that while church attendance is falling alarmingly, “many people have a continuing spiritual dimension to their lives,” says The Herald.
The World’s Second-Largest “Industry”
With an annual turnover exceeding $400 billion (U.S.), the illegal drug trade is thriving, states World Health, the magazine of the World Health Organization. This makes it the fastest growing “industry” in the world. It is also the world’s second-largest industry—second to the arms trade but ahead of oil. During the past 30 years, the availability of illegal drugs has increased sixfold. Abuse of legal substances, such as solvents, prescription medications, and alcohol, is increasing at a similar rate.
Baptism for Sale
For over 300 years, the Swedish Lutheran Church has enjoyed a Church-State relationship with the government. Recently, however, church officials announced that by January 1, 2000, this Church-State relationship will be virtually terminated. For centuries all Swedes have automatically been affiliated with the church at birth. However, since the beginning of 1996, church membership has been based on baptism. The newspaper Dagens Industri reports that the archbishop is announcing a tough marketing program, which will include house calls by clergymen ‘selling baptism.’ One female cleric in Stockholm is reported to be carrying on “an aggressive sales campaign” in which “one of her best-sellers is baptism.” The magazine Må Bra reports that one parish will give each baby brought in for baptism a bankbook with a deposit of 100 Swedish kronor ($15, U.S.).
Premature Motherhood
In Brazil in 1994, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, 11,457 girls under the age of 15 gave birth. Such premature maternity has increased by 391 percent in the last 18 years, while the population growth has increased by only 42.5 percent during the same period. The number of girls between 15 and 19 years of age who gave birth increased by 60 percent. Dr. Ricardo Rego Barros of Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University explains that “premature sexuality is induced by surroundings, television, books, and magazines,” says Veja magazine. Another expert commented that parents and schools still find it difficult to educate children in such matters.
TV Standards Decline
Television viewers are more indulgent toward TV sex and nudity than they were ten years ago, reports London’s Independent newspaper. According to a survey for the British Broadcasting Corporation, middle-aged women’s tolerance for TV sex and nudity has increased. About 41 percent of older women also now find this type of TV program unobjectionable. Among young people, about 75 percent tolerate bad language compared with 69 percent a decade ago. The greatest change in attitude has been toward homosexuality. Forty percent of women over 55 years of age, 56 percent of men ages 35 to 55, and 70 percent of young men 18 to 34 years old now find the display of the homosexual life-style on television inoffensive—a 20-percent increase in the last ten years.
Bishop Questions Bible Wisdom
Speaking at a seminar in India on “Laws Governing Marriage and Divorce Among Christians,” Nestorian bishop Poulose Mar Poulose stated that one could not go to the Bible as a code of ethics. As reported in the Indian Express, he said that to insist that the Biblical teaching on divorce was irrevocable was to deny the progress modern man has made in his understanding of the relationship between husband and wife. According to the Express, the bishop quoted a Hindu scholar as saying that every scripture has two sides, one temporary and perishable, belonging to the ideas of people of the period and the country in which they were written, and the other eternal and imperishable and applicable to all ages and countries. “In the Bible,” said the bishop, “we must distinguish the kernel from the shell. We should determine permanent truth and cultural bias . . . and decide the direction of our own life.”