World News and Trends

An Overview of Conditions Around the World

by John Ross Schroeder and Jerold Aust

EU draft constitution: a dangerous document

In the words of noted Times’ political columnist William Rees-Mogg, “The draft constitution which is being prepared by the European Convention . . . would be totally destructive of self-government throughout Europe. It would transfer responsibility for foreign and defence policy from the nations to the European Union (EU).”

Mr. Rees-Mogg’s initial reaction to the first draft was even more scornful. He described it as “a shameful document, destructive of democracy, disastrous for Europe, disastrous for Britain and for all the other present and prospective members of the European Union” and as being “drafted in a disorderly and undemocratic way.”

There is no mistaking the constitution’s plans for a single Europe. Michael Barnier, a European commissioner, asked the bottom-line question: “The hour of truth is coming for Europe: Do we want to be only an economic and financial community or do we want to become an independent political power?”

The main feature editorial in The Sunday Telegraph commented: “The proposed European constitution would, if ratified in anything like its present form, mark the moment at which the EU ceased to be an association of states and became a state in its own right” (emphasis added throughout). This would be Britain’s worst nightmare.

Paul Eastham, deputy political editor of the Daily Mail, underscores the dangers for Britain. He says that if the draft constitution were to be adopted in its present form, Britain’s “freedom to decide foreign policy and support the U.S. in facing down dictators such as Saddam Hussein would also be removed”—a frightening thought!

Conservative British observers have already branded the proposed constitution “a blueprint for a European superstate.” The United Kingdom is, however, still considered a serious obstacle to Franco-German plans for a federal union of Europe. The Daily Mail reported that, not so long ago, “Gerhard Schroeder threatened the future of the EU by demanding a new ‘hard core’ of countries, excluding Britain. The German Chancellor . . . wants an elite group, led by anti-war countries Germany, France and Belgium to head a ‘two-tier’ EU.”

Of course, Britain angrily rejected certain key sections of the EU draft document almost before the ink was dry on the final text—demanding significant revisions. But will that really happen?
It is always possible that some sort of compromise will be reached, moderating some of the document’s worst sections. But whatever the eventual outcome, the Channel gap between Britain and the Continent clearly remains and shows no sign of narrowing. U.K. thinking is miles away from Central European thought on many key issues. How much more America’s!

(Sources: The Times, Daily Mail, The Sunday Telegraph (all London).)

American media disdainful of the European Union

Much of the U.S. media generally focuses on three European countries—the United Kingdom, France and Germany. According to Foreign Affairs journal: “There is very little media interest in the European Union, which The Washington Post described as ‘a baroque collection of institutions, regulations and formalism.’ The New York Times, which has five correspondents in Paris, does not have a bureau in Brussels.”

Such shortsightedness is a mistake. It allows changes of great importance to occur in Europe without much public notice. The Good News staff certainly strives to do what it can to counteract such lack of coverage.

Biblical prophecy strongly indicates that what happens in Central Europe is going to greatly affect the future of the United States. You need to know what the Bible says about an emerging final revival of the ancient Roman Empire. To learn more, please request our free booklet The Book of Revelation Unveiled.

(Source: Foreign Affairs.)

Sex explosion in U.K.

Jeremy Laurance, health editor for The Independent, reported that “soaring rates of sexually transmitted infections are overwhelming the NHS (National Health Service) and threatening the health of a generation of young people, according to a committee of MPs (Members of Parliament).”

Mushrooming sexual activity among British youth has seen cases of gonorrhea rise about 85 percent in some five years, the doubling of chlamydia, syphilis making an unwanted comeback and also an increase in the rate of HIV infection. The resulting pressure on the NHS means that those infected often have to wait some two weeks for treatment. Speed of medication in such cases is crucial, because these types of infections are often transmitted to others in the intervening time through further promiscuous behavior.

Young people do not generally understand the principle of cause and effect as well as their elders.

The late historians Will and Ariel Durant commented: “A youth boiling with hormones will wonder why he should not give full freedom to his sexual desires; and if he is unchecked by custom, morals or laws, he may ruin his life before he matures sufficiently to understand that sex is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred restraints if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and the group” (The Lessons of History, 1968, pp. 35-36).

This makes educating young people about sex absolutely essential, especially in our sex-obsessed age. However, many government efforts clearly do more harm than good, such as current experiments in more than 150 British schools. A shocking report in the Daily Mail revealed that “schoolchildren under 16 are being encouraged to experiment with oral sex as a part of a government drive to cut the rates of teenage pregnancy.” The U.K. rate tops all nations in Western Europe.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health recently stated: “Our Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, the first of its kind, is based on the best available research evidence. That shows that the key to success is an approach involving education, health, social services, the media, parents and young people themselves.”

Notice, however, that religion is not even mentioned. Clearly the Church of England is not providing much help. The Anglican Church is seriously considering changing its traditional position on sex before marriage. Clergy are currently studying a new in-house report called Cohabitation: a Christian Reflection, in which living together is termed “a new path from the single state to the married one.”

This report indicated that the church must come to terms with a world in which “since 1999 more than half of religious marriages have started with cohabitation, as well as more than 85 per cent of civil marriages.”

This controversial report argues that the church needs “to provide a new and what some may consider radical, even heretical understanding of sexual relationships for the 21st century.” Actually, this “new” approach to sex education and practice is not new at all—it’s ancient. This approach advocates breaking God’s spiritual laws concerning sex, as men and women have done since the days of Sodom and Gomorrah and even before. Sadly, the end result will bring much greater unhappiness and suffering, leaving in its wake uncounted broken lives and miserable relationships.

If you would like to understand how we should be educating our children, please write for our free booklet Making Life Work. This publication teaches the real truth about human relationships like child rearing, dating and marriage—using God’s Word as the standard.

(Sources: The Times, Evening Standard, Daily Mail (all London).)

America’s cultural trends threaten further decline

In relating American cultural trends in his book The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators (1993), former U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett cautioned Americans that “unless these trends were reversed, they would lead to the inevitable decline of the American republic.” This is a pretty chilling prediction for the futures of the nation’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Since then, Mr. Bennett says there have been positive improvements in some areas, such as reductions in welfare, violent crime and abortion and an upswing in SAT scores. Still, social regression continues in the areas of illegitimacy, single-parent households and cohabitation. Divorce rates have increased 115 percent from 1960-1997.

Mr. Bennett also notes that even during a time of record prosperity, the United States is becoming a more violent, vulgar, cynical, remorseless and depressed nation. The entertainment media’s presentations of brutal, gruesome deaths rob children of their innocence early on. Men and women abandon each other and their children more readily. Marriage and the family are weaker and less stable.

He does, however, think there is hope for America’s future. But restoring a society is no simple task. “Our capacity for self-renewal is unique and real. We have relied upon it in the past and must call on it again.” That’s the conventional wisdom—but the uncomfortable fact is that human nature can’t change itself, and with time and no outside help societies generally tend to only get worse. Nevertheless, there’s great hope for your future and the future of all societies. Write for our free booklets The Gospel of the Kingdom and Transforming Your Life: The Process of Conversion.

(Source: New Jersey Index of Leading Cultural Indicators.)

Is America turning to religion?

The current war effort and geopolitical tensions in general have apparently boosted the de-mand for Bibles, hymnals and prayer books. Sales were up by nearly 40 percent for the month of January. Publishers are cautiously attributing this trend to the current national and world scene. Bibles are now selling very well in America. One research analyst said that “in the U.S., you would think that religion was on the downturn, but the growth has been in inspirational books and in international sales.”

A recent Harris Poll, published under the title “Good Rules Over Evil” in USA Today, reported that 90 percent of Americans believe in God, 68 percent in the devil, 82 percent in heaven and 69 percent in hell. (We should mention that the United Church of God offers free publications on all of these subjects. You may want to request or download Life’s Ultimate Question: Does God Exist?, Is There Really a Devil? and Heaven and Hell: What Does the Bible Really Teach?)

However, the true test is not whether the United States may be returning to religion, but whether the country is getting back to and really finding God. One key reference point is the state of Americans’ moral behavior. Is the nation both teaching and observing God’s spiritual law, summed up by the Ten Commandments? We have an 80-page booklet on the Ten Commandments, freely available on request or download.

(Sources: The Financial Times, USA Today.)

SARS: When germs have no enemies

As of late April, more than 200 people were known to have died from the fatal disease called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The World Health Organization (WHO) strongly warned world travelers to avoid Hong Kong and China’s Guangdong province due to the flu-like sickness. Dr. David Heymann, executive director of the organization’s Communicable Disease Program, offered this precaution: “This is the first time that we have recommended people avoid an area and this is because we do not understand the disease completely, because there is no vaccine and there’s no drug.”

The disease seems to spread easily and quickly, in part because of international travel. Although the mere idea of a runaway germ without any known natural enemies is frightening, those who have died constitute about 6 percent of the 3,400 who have been diagnosed with SARS in 27 nations. Remarkably, 90 percent of patients recover within a week. The United States has reported 35 cases of SARS illness that fit the WHO definition of the disease, but as of this writing none have proved fatal.

SARS is very difficult to isolate; the sickness does not appear to be transmitted by intimate contact alone. Those infected are being quarantined. Surgical masks are seen on Hong Kong streets, and commercial airlines are disinfecting their planes. Symptoms include coughing, shortness of breath and fevers of more than 100 degrees.

The Bible speaks of pestilences that follow on the heels of war, but like the scourge of the bubonic plague in the Middle Ages, diseases can crop up unexpectedly. Apparently more will come in the troubling years ahead. Write for our free booklet Are We Living in the Time of the End?

(Source: The Washington Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer.)

Is Russia a U.S. ally?

Vladimir Putin’s Russia has covertly and systematically undermined U.S. interests, particularly in the Middle East, yet continues to purport to be America’s ally in the war against terrorism.
Russian companies provided Iraq with high-tech military equipment, including advanced antitank missiles, night goggles and GPS jamming equipment, putting coalition soldiers’ lives at risk. Russia denied that they were responsible for such sales, claiming that they might have been sold to the Iraqis through third countries. Yet they can’t explain why Russian specialists were discovered in Iraq training Saddam’s troops to use the high-tech weaponry.

Even worse, coalition forces discovered documents showing that in recent months Russia had provided the Iraqi regime with secret information on Western leaders and had helped train Iraqi agents.

This kind of political underhandedness is not new to Russia. Throughout the 1980s, while the Cold War was at its hottest, U.S. President Ronald Reagan often called the Soviets’ bluffs. He went on the attack and labeled them as the “evil empire,” thereby keeping their feet to the fire.

Consider this: Russia is building a nuclear reactor in oil-rich Iran, thereby supplying Iran with technology that can be used to produce nuclear weapons. They also continue to arm North Korea in spite of the fact that North Korea has threatened the United States with nuclear attack.

It appears that Russia is pursuing an agenda of seeking to deprive America of its leading role in world politics. Apparently the Cold War is heating up. How can America respond? A temporary answer might be to follow Ronald Reagan’s lead. After all, didn’t the Soviet Union break up at the end of President Reagan’s eight-year term? Obviously, Russia can’t aid and abet America’s enemies and say it is an ally.

Scripture has the best answer to political intrigue and man’s inhumanity to man. One day there will be only one government on earth, and that government will have as its goal the welfare, security and peace for all of mankind (Daniel 2:44). To better understand these trends, request our free booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy and The Book of Revelation Unveiled.

(Sources: The Washington Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Telegraph (London).)

Read World News and Trends Every Day

With so much happening so quickly in today’s world, how can you keep up? The Good News staff reviews dozens of news sources every day to bring you what’s truly important. Visit Current World News & Trends at www.ucg.org/world-news-and-prophecy/ to find links to the most important news stories from across the globe.

Also, to get a biblical perspective on major events, visit www.ucg.org/commentary/ for a weekly commentary on the trends shaping our world.

 

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