World News and Trends

An Overview of Conditions Around the World

by John Ross Schroeder and Jerold Aust

• The Tragedy of today's British youth
• Parts of Europe lurch to the right
• The era of suburban megachurches
• The real roots of Anti-Semitism
• American teen culture horrifies adults
• Geneva peace plan rocks Israel
• China now in space: Warning to the West?
• The unending quest for God

The Tragedy of today's British youth

Following World War I (the Great War of 1914-1918), novelist Ernest Hemingway termed the returning, war-weary soldiers "The Lost Generation." The British media is beginning to use that phrase to describe the current plight of U.K. teenagers.

Whether it's obesity, alcoholism, drug abuse, illicit sex, illegitimacy, abortions or smoking, statistics generally place these young people at the top of the list.

Recently the British Medical Association (BMA) released a devastating report on teenage health. Times health editor Nigel Hawkes summed up the sad situation: "Britain is breeding a generation of adults that will tend to be infertile, obese and prone to mental illness ... Tomorrow's adults are overweight, smoke and drink too much, and have rising levels of sexual infection and mental illness" (Dec. 9).

Vivian Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, said: "Young people in Britain are increasingly likely to be overweight, indulge in binge drinking, have a sexually transmitted infection and suffer mental health problems."

Further, the number of British girls indulging in underage sex has doubled in 10 years' time. One in four who have reached ages 15 and 16 smokes and about a third have experimented with marijuana. Early teens are consuming alcohol as never before, with more than a third relating that they got drunk for the first time at 13 or under.

No wonder the BMA predicts that "today's teenagers are condemning themselves to years of poor health and an early death" (Daily Mail, Dec. 8).

It was Israel's King Solomon who perhaps first uttered that thought in the Hebrew Bible. He said: "Do not be overly wicked, nor be foolish: Why should you die before your time?"(Ecclesiastes 7:17). The obvious implication in his question is: Why not alter your behavior in advance and live as long as possible? Prevention is far more effective than medical cures. Write for our free booklet Making Life Work. (Sources: The Times, Daily Mail [both London].)

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Parts of Europe lurch to the right

Switzerland is the latest European nation to move right. Christopher Blocher's far-right freedom party (SVP) won an unexpected victory in recent general elections. The SVP garnered 27 percent of the overall vote, outdistancing any other political party.

Switzerland's recent rightward move highlights a gradual trend in Europe. Recent years have seen Austria, Holland, France, Denmark and Germany take a turn to the right in varying degrees. "According to official estimates there are more than 10,000 neo-Nazis active in Germany and about 45,000 members of extreme right-wing organizations" (The Guardian, Sept. 16).

Italy could be next. Interesting indicators of an Italian move to the right are already present. Allesandra Mussolini (the photogenic granddaughter of the fascist dictator who ruled Italy from 1922 to 1945) recently formed a new breakaway party she called "Freedom of Action" or Liberta d'Azione. Used in a political context, the word "action" in Italian is traditionally associated with right-wing movements.

Another party leader, Gianfranco Fini, recently praised Benito Mussolini as "the greatest statesman of the 20th century." Yet on a visit to Israel he also labeled his fascist rule as an "absolute evil." These words apparently motivated Ms. Mussolini to opt out of Mr. Fini's political party.

Reporting from Rome, correspondent Richard Owen simply stated that "Mussolini has been 'rehabilitated' as the country is caught up in a wave of nostalgia" (The Times, Nov. 21). One Italian citizen said: "You just cannot cancel out history. I still remember my parents singing fascist songs." Writing some two weeks later, Mr. Owen related that "there is a growing tendency to 'rehabilitate' Mussolini, with historians offering revisionist accounts of his rule" (The Times, Dec. 1, emphasis added).

On a more practical level, this winter the Italian government infuriated Britain "by proposing that foreign policy powers be ceded to Brussels" (The Guardian). These European political movements bear watching not just due to the massive tragedies of the 20th century, but also because of what the Bible foretells for much of Europe. Please request our free booklet You Can Understand Bible Prophecy. (Sources: The Guardian, The Times [both London].)

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The era of suburban megachurches

Acurious trend in large church construction has been building up in America for the last several decades. First appearing in the 1950s, huge mega-churches began to spread across California and the Bible Belt in the '80s. The trend has continued into the new century, expanding into other areas of the United States.

The concept of super-large churches can include large auditoriums or amphitheaters, giant office complexes distinguished by crosses, gyms and playing fields of various kinds.

A growing number of these megachurches are nondenominational in outlook and embrace a mixture of conservative and liberal religious values. While supporting the Ten Commandments and decrying abortion, they may simultaneously accept Darwinism and reject creation. This modern approach to church construction is apparently bringing in the large numbers. But is bigger always best in the biblical sense? (Source: The Financial Times [London].)

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The real roots of Anti-Semitism

Paul Johnson is a noted British historian and an astute journalist. The American Spectator recently published his insightful feature article about anti- Semitism in its October issue. In it he showed how "anti-Semitism was at the heart of [Karl] Marx's philosophy. He expanded it from a hatred of the Jews into a general hatred of capitalism."

This Spectator article was written to counter the false notion, so prevalent today, that left-wing anti-Semitism is a new phenomenon provoked by the conduct of the state of Israel. Mr. Johnson stated that "anti-Semitism goes back to the third century B.C., and the first incident seems to have occurred in Egypt, in the Greek trading city of Alexandria. It was provoked by the Jewish refusal to make religious compromises in accordance with the prevailing culture ..."

Prior to his concluding remarks, Mr. Johnson observed that "in the early twenty-first century anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism blended together, forming a continuum of hate. This conjunction was not new. Hitler had argued that 'international Jewry' controlled America and justified his 'final solution' after he declared war on the U.S. in December, 1941. This theme was then taken up by Arab extremists after the formation of Israel ..."

For more information, please see "The New (Anti-Semitic) World Order," beginning on page 14 of this issue. (Source: The American Spectator.)

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American teen culture horrifies adults

The disturbing movie called Thirteen shows how media influence has destabilized teenage minds and emotions. The Sunday Telegraph (Dec. 7) recently reported: "A lot of people in America, especially parents, have been horrified by this film. This is because of the harsh reality that is teenage modern life. Today a lot of teenagers ... will try drugs. They will have underage sex. They will wear tight, sexually provocative clothes and have piercings.

"... These have become the outward symbols of a generation desperately trying to finds its place in society." (Source: The Sunday Telegraph [London].)

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Geneva peace plan rocks Israel

An unofficial "Geneva Accord" was recently signed by Yossi Beilin (now a private citizen of Israel but formerly a prime architect of the Oslo Accords of 1993) and former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. This peace plan has gained global attention partially because U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell apparently agreed to meet with these two principal parties. Three million copies were printed with the goal of delivering one to every Israeli home. Israel's government and the Palestinian Authority had no direct part in these proceedings.

One particular aspect of this unofficial accord has inflamed many Israelis, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Mr. Sharon called the whole accord "the Swiss golden calf." The key sore point involved the ceding of the sacred Temple Mount to the Palestinians.

Noted columnist Charles Krauthammer summarized the offending part: "Beilin gives up the ultimate symbol of the Jewish connection and claim to the land, the center of the Jewish state for 1,000 years before the Roman destruction [A.D. 70], the subject of Jewish longing in poetry and prayer for 2,000 years since—the Temple Mount. And Beilin doesn't just give it up to, say, some neutral international authority. He gives it up to sovereign Palestine ... This is not a treaty; this is a suicide note ... That it should get any encouragement from the United States or its secretary of state is a disgrace" (Nov. 28, emphasis added).

Also, according to an article in The Times (Nov. 30), this new unofficial peace bid even has the tacit support of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Columnist Jeff Jacoby of The Boston Globe (Dec. 4) further commented: "The international applause greeting the so-called Geneva Accord—the unofficial Israeli-Palestinian 'peace' agreement formally presented in Switzerland this week is a vivid illustration of the world's contempt for the Jewish state." This astute journalist compared the unofficial agreement to the Munich Accord of 1938 when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proclaimed "Peace in our time" after appeasing Germany's Adolf Hitler by ceding Czechoslovakia to the Nazis.

The Middle East is sstill the earth's principal source of petroleum and, since 1948, home to the state of Israel—a primary target for world terrorism. This area is central to the fulfillment of many major biblical prophecies. You cannot afford to be in historical or prophetic ignorance of this part of the world. For further understanding, please request our free booklet The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. (Sources: The Times [London], The Boston Globe.)

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China now in space: Warning to the West?

Some astute observers believe that China's recent space shot has far more symbolic significance than just the first Asian entry into outer space. If ultimately successful, it's another feather in the Chinese cap—like that of hosting the 2008 Olympics.

British historian Andrew Roberts says that this space venture is another strong indication of "the dawn of a Chinese century" (The Sunday Telegraph, Oct. 19). To this historian, "It is high time that we woke up to the threat that an awakened Chinese empire poses for our present [English-speaking] global hegemony."

Napoleon once referred to China as "a sleeping giant" and then predicted that "when she awakes she will shake the world."

Beijing's $100 billion trade surplus with the United States is not the only economic concern about China worrying the Western nations. In the last 10 years the Chinese economy has grown by an annual average of 10 percent (The Times, Oct. 20). Present growth patterns indicate that it is poised to overtake France in 2004 and Britain in 2005 (The Sunday Times, Oct. 12).

If by mid century (as some are predicting) China should replace the United States as the leading global superpower, the world might be staring into the face of a new dark age of oppression reminiscent of the Third Reich.

The 2003 annual report of Amnesty International comments about China's performance: "Serious human rights violations continued and in some respects the situation deteriorated. Tens of thousands of people continue to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association or belief. Torture and ill treatment remain widespread" (The Sunday Telegraph, Oct. 19). Of course, some China watchers pin their hopes on potential political and cultural reforms.

As we go to press, we may be seeing a substantial American policy shift towards China in the wake of China's new prime minister's visit to the United States. A front-page feature article in the International Herald Tribune tells us: "The Bush administration announced Monday that it was dropping the long-standing American policy of 'strategic ambiguity' about relations between China and Taiwan and clearly warned Taipei not to hold a referendum that could fuel the island's independence movement" (Dec. 9). (Sources: The Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Times, [all London], International Herald Tribune.)

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The unending quest for God

According to a September 2003 Harris Interactive nationwide survey in America about how people view God, 48 percent thought of Him as a spirit that is able to take on human form; 27 percent as a spirit power that doesn't take on human form; 10 percent didn't believe in God at all and 9 percent thought of Him as a human being with a body (USA Today, Oct. 24, Atlantic edition). Although Americans are 10 times as likely as Europeans to attend religious services on a regular basis, there is still no general consensus about His nature in the United States.

Across the Atlantic, the British are generally much less precise in the way they express their views. In Britain we hear and read about the term "devout skeptics" as people steadily turn away from organized religion in the thousands. The personal God of the Bible seems very far from their thinking.

And yet famous pollster George Gallup Jr. explains: "People are reaching out in all directions in their attempt to escape from the seen world to the unseen world. There is a deep desire for spiritual moorings—a hunger for God" (U.S. News and World Report, special edition). This is true even of the secular world of Britain, Scandinavia and Europe—not only in America, which "has more churches, temples and mosques than any other country in the world."

But what does the Bible actually tell us about God? To find out, please be sure to request our free 72-page booklet Who Is God? (Sources: The Times [London], U.S. News and World Report, USA Today.)

 

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