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Former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing is in the process of drafting a new constitution for the European Union (EU). Pope John Paul II and Vatican diplomats are pressuring EU officials to include Europe's Christian roots in the preamble.
In previous years the pope has envisioned a European Christian superstate stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals. But few observers expect the current lobbying to succeed due primarily to ever-increasing European secularism-and secondarily to multiculturalism that now includes other faiths such as Islam. Muslim Turkey is actively seeking EU membership.
Given these stubborn obstacles, deciding on the exact wording of a constitutional religious reference will prove to be an arduous task indeed. German conservative member of the European Parliament (MEP) Joachim Würmeling submitted a provisional sentence which reads: "The union values shall include the values of those who believe in God as the source of truth, justice, good and beauty as well as those who do not share such a belief but respect these universal values arising from other sources."
There is no way this compromise statement, not even mentioning the name Christian, will ever please the Roman Catholic Church. Nor, for that matter, will it engage the minds of unbelievers. Keith Wood, director of the National Secular Society, recently stated: "A very large proportion of the European population is non-religious. We view with concern the influence of religion in the internal workings of the EU."
Europe's present direction is clearly secular. However, the Bible tells us of a rapid reversal in this ongoing trend when the time becomes right.
The book of Revelation describes a future period when a dominant religion that calls itself Christian will hold sway over the governmental systems of Europe. At that time stunning miracles will transform gullible masses into willing worshipers of a charismatic leader who dares to stand in the place of God. Having had little or no background in solid biblical teachings, and unaware of these prophesied events, most people will easily fall prey to many insidious religious deceptions.
You need to read and study the book of Revelation. It provides an overview of end-time prophecy. As a helpful guide, we also recommend that you request our free booklet The Book of Revelation Unveiled. (Sources: United Press International, The European Observer.)
Drafting a new European Union constitution has brought forth a flurry of proposals from member states trying to influence the contents of what is now viewed as potentially the most important document in Europe.
Not least among these is a Franco-German proposal that would see EU representations and embassies around the world (the European Commission already has offices in 130 countries). As planned, these Union diplomats would report to a European Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Peter Hain, British representative to the EU constitutional convention, recently said: "If George W. Bush wants to phone Europe, he speaks to the President of the Council (of Europe). If Colin Powell wants to, then he dials the new foreign representative." But those who know President Bush will tell you that he is far more likely to contact individual European national leaders directly.
Nonetheless, it is true that Bible prophecy shows that some of these Franco-German imperial dreams will undoubtedly come to fulfillment. (Source: The Times [London].)
Sarah Womack, social-affairs correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, stated that "divorce rates [in England and Wales] rose last year for the first time in five years, leaving an additional 147,000 children [each] with a single parent." Divorcing adults often selfishly don't think of the effects their divorcing will have on their children.
Let's face it. Although there can be many reasons for divorce, the main one is and has always been unfaithfulness to a marriage partner. Western attitudes toward adultery are not that encouraging.
A major feature article in The Sunday Times revealed that "up to 55 percent of people have an affair at some time in their lives . . . One in 10 men admit to an affair in the past five years . . . For men in London the average number of sexual partners over a lifetime has jumped from 12.2 in 1990 to 15.5 in 2000." Statistics about women showed a similar increase.
Of course, affairs don't always result in divorce. The article stated that "new research suggests people are becoming more tolerant of straying spouses and brief affairs. What matters more, they say, is 'emotional infidelity.' Genuine repentance by the offender followed by true forgiveness on the part of the offended is commendable. But in the long run so-called tolerance (mutual or otherwise) of adulterous behavior can lead only to more misery and unhappiness.
Perhaps the most disturbing statement in the article was this: "American studies have shown that religious people disapprove of affairs more strongly than others-but have just as many of them." Such blatant hypocrisy is shameful and embarrassing. The apostle Paul wrote:"Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame" (1 Corinthians 15:34). To better understand why God condemns any sexual relationships outside of marriage, please write for our free booklet The Ten Commandments. (Sources: The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph.)
American colleges and universities pride themselves on diversity and don't hesitate to tout it. So it's somewhat surprising that, when it comes to the political leaning of their instructors, those same institutions are anything but diverse.
Findings from a recent national study of political party affiliations of faculty members at 21 top-name institutions were stunning in the lack of diversity and near-uniform liberal leaning among those who shape the thinking of America's young adults.
What were some of the numbers? At Harvard, only 4 percent of the faculty were from conservative parties; at Cornell, 3 percent; Brown University, 5 percent; Penn State, 17 percent; Stanford University, 11 percent; the University of Colorado-Boulder, 4 percent; UCLA in Los Angeles, 6 percent; and at the University of California-Santa Barbara, 1 percent.
In many university departments such as English, history, sociology, political science and economics, researchers found only one or no conservative-leaning faculty members compared to several dozen on the left.
Many American parents, concerned about the education their sons and daughters will receive when they send them off to college, have to ask the question: Are these really institutions of higher learning, or of ideological programming? (Sources: American Enterprise magazine, Capitalism magazine, The Christian Science Monitor.)
The entrance to the Alabama Supreme Court is graced by the presence of a huge stone monument displaying the shortened but still correct version of the Ten Commandments. Recently a federal judge ordered the removal of this 5,280-pound monument which, ironically, had been installed by the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
The federal judge who ordered its removal described the monument as "an obtrusive display intended to proselytise on behalf of that particular religion." The monument was paid for with private funds and also bears inscriptions with quotes from famous historical figures and documents such as the Declaration of Independence. The removal order is currently on hold while the decision is being appealed.
Our multicultural age does not necessarily favor the faith of our fathers. Also the rival forces of Christianity and secularism continually clash in American life.
Some judges still consider the Ten Commandments to be the moral foundation of American law, which indeed they are. While Christians are encouraged to write God's law in their hearts through the power of God's Spirit, a physical display also reminds us of the existence of this unique moral code of conduct given directly by our Creator. To better understand this crucial set of laws, request our free booklet The Ten Commandments. (Source: The Daily Telegraph [London].)
European Union ambitions may reach far beyond the borders of Europe. Africa is presently being considered as the next target. Long-range plans apparently include North African nations like Tunisia and Morocco being brought into the EU. Eventually the United States will express its serious concerns about European Union ambitions in Africa. (Source: The Sunday Times [London].)
Some British politicians and Anglican Church bishops aggressively take the position that without an official UN seal of approval, any Anglo-American war with Iraq would be immoral. Other leading politicians from Germany and France (and even some in the United States) insist that the UN must first validate the legitimacy of any American conflict with Iraq.
Veteran British journalist and war correspondent Ann Leslie minces no words with her frank rejoinder. "How can we take any moral guidance from a body as venal, corrupt and self-serving as the UN?" She points out that the United Nations is a political body composed of countries, "a goodly portion of which are run by murderous dictatorships."
Libya is a case in point. That nation's undemocratic leaders routinely deal with political dissenters by beatings, hangings by the wrists, electric shocks, encounters with raging dogs, threatening and abusing family members of the accused and the like. Moreover in 1999 the UN's own "Special Rapporteur on Torture" issued a damning report on Libya's human rights record.
And yet the UN unashamedly voted to award its presidency of the Human Rights Commission to Libya. Typically, one of Libyan dictator Gadhafi's diplomats responded, "By this appointment the UN has demonstrated to the world that our human rights record is exemplary." Perhaps we shouldn't expect more from a commission that includes in its members such noted serial human-rights abusers as China, Cuba, Sudan and Syria. And, lest we forget, the United States was voted off the commission in 2001, though it was later reinstated.
To add to this absurdity, Iraq was chosen to chair the upcoming UN disarmament conference May 12-June 27. Yes, Iraq-the very nation that has invaded four of its neighbors in recent decades and repeatedly defied various UN resolutions calling on it to destroy its weapons of mass destruction as it agreed to do after its defeat in the 1991 Gulf War. The cochair of the conference? None other than Iran, which is aggressively pursuing its own weapons of mass destruction.
In practice the United Nations views all member states as if they had equal moral standing. Interestingly, Libya was elected to this office by a commission vote of 33-3 with some abstentions. Noted American journalist and columnist Charles Krauthammer observed: "They [the UN] will now welcome a one-party police state-which specializes in abduction, assassination, torture and detention without trial-to the chair of the United Nations" highest body charged with defending human rights."
In summing up the Iraqi situation, he concluded: "The United Nations is on the verge of demonstrating finally and fatally its moral bankruptcy and its strategic irrelevance." Ann Leslie adds: "It [the UN] is not a body from which we should take moral or even, indeed, legal guidance." (Sources: The Daily Mail [London], News and Opinion.com.)
World hunger is on the rise again, much of it afflicting the African continent, especially the sub-Sahara. To put the numbers in perspective the Los Angeles Times reports: "Every year about six million children under the age of 5 die as a result of hunger and malnutrition, says a UN study . . . That's as if all of California's children in that age group-more than twice over-starved to death."
This increase in world hunger is primarily because of a combination of wars, droughts, floods and governmental corruption and mismanagement, the latter of which has in turn led to a shortfall in donations from wealthy nations. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) puts the number of undernourished people at 840 million -roughly 15 percent of the world's people. "After some progress in the 1990s, the rate has returned to levels of a decade ago" (Los Angeles Times).
The Independent on Sunday's environment editor, Geoffrey Lean, further explained that "this year's total world harvest will fall for the fifth year in succession, while the global population continues to grow."
More specifically, famine has returned to Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Nearly 6 million people are in desperate need of food supplies to avert starvation. Perhaps another million require immediate help in Eritrea. Also, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Zimbabwe and other African nations are experiencing severe food shortages.
Lesotho is another case in point. Too much rain devastated crops in that country, so people are dying there. Mountainous roads are a barrier to getting aid supplies through to the population. A London Times feature article stated that "crop production has declined sharply over the past three decades and is expected to cease altogether over large swaths of arable land because of soil erosion and declining soil fertility." A 31 percent HIV-AIDS infection rate complicates matters further.
The book of Revelation records the devastation wrought by the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, one of which symbolizes hunger and famine (6:5-6). It appears to already be riding in Africa. (Sources: The Independent on Sunday, The Times [both London], Los Angeles Times.)
The Pew Research Center in Paris recently reported that Americans say that their religion plays a more significant role in their lives than in any other wealthy country. This particular Pew survey, conducted in 44 nations, showed that 6 in 10 U.S. citizens described religion as being very important in their lives. By comparison, even in Roman Catholic Italy fewer than 3 in 10 considered religion as personally significant. This is typical of secular Europe.
However important religious beliefs are to a country, to be truly effective they must be reflected in right ethical behavior. (Source: International Herald Tribune.)
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Keywords: Christian Europe European secularism Revelation extramarital affairs emotional infidelity college faculties diversity United Nations moral guidance
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