A World Waiting To Be Born: International News

• The world is in a state of paradox. Violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere is constantly in the news. On the other hand, there are more democracies in the world than at any time in recorded history. A smaller percentage of people live in poverty. Life expectancy worldwide is growing. In fact, population expert Stephen Mosher said, “The reason the population of the planet is growing is not because we’re breeding like rabbits, but because we’re not dying like flies.”

• Violence in India. India became elevated in the world’s consciousness this year in ways not seen since that nation’s fight for independence in the 1940s. Mob violence in India’s Orissa state continues to escalate. At least a dozen members of Gospel for Asia-related churches have been murdered in recent years, but no one knows the overall death toll. “The Christians in Orissa have fled for their lives into the forests,” GFA President K. P. Yohannan said. Yohannan called the situation unprecedented in his 30 years of ministry in South Asia.

• Abortion in Mexico. The Mexico Supreme Court upheld a Mexico City law allowing abortion that has divided the country. Mexico City legalized abortion in 2007, but 85 percent of gynecologists in the city’s public hospitals have refused to perform abortions over issues of conscience. The federal Attorney General’s Office and National Human Rights Commission appealed the law to the Supreme Court.

• Sharia “Unavoidable” In Britain? Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has generated controversy with a comment that aspects of Islamic Sharia law are “unavoidable” in some British neighborhoods. In a Feb. 7 BBC radio interview, Williams said the 1.6 million Muslims now living in Britain make that prospect all but “unavoidable” and that “as a matter of fact, certain conditions of Sharia are already recognized in our society.”
  The archbishop’s remarks brought criticism from all sectors, both in Britain and abroad. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office said in a statement that Sharia law “cannot be used as justification for committing breaches of English law.” Even Muslims have criticized Williams. Khalid Mahmood, a Muslim member of Britain’s Parliament, insisted that “the vast majority of U.K. Muslims oppose any such move to introduce Sharia here” and that “British law is the envy of the world.” Theologically conservative Anglicans in the United States and elsewhere said the comment was an example of the “muddled thinking” that now dominates the liberal Anglican leadership.

• What About Mum? School teachers in the United Kingdom have been warned against using the words “mom” and “dad” because it assumes all students have heterosexual parents. The new school guidelines, which were produced by a gay activist group for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, are intended to address bullying. Students as young as four are to be taught about same-sex couples to avoid “homophobic attitudes.” To promote homosexual role models, homosexual staff members are encouraged to discuss their private lives with students. The guidelines also advise teachers that telling boys to act like men leads to “bullying of those who do not conform to fixed ideas about gender.”

Benchmarks

• Planned Parenthood Passes $1 Billion Mark. A new annual report from Planned Parenthood shows the nation’s largest abortion business has made over $1 billion in income for the first time in its history. On its web site posting of the annual document, Planned Parenthood says it “highlights our advancements in providing and protecting trusted health care services and medically accurate sexuality education.” Instead, the report finds Planned Parenthood doing more abortions than ever before. The report shows an increase in the number of provided abortions from 264,943 in 2005 to 289,650 in 2006. Planned Parenthood reveals it has doubled “excess of revenue over expenses”—what the rest of us might call profit—from $55.7 million in 2005 to $112 million in 2006.

• For the First Time, Muslims Outnumber Catholics. The number of Muslims has overtaken the number of Roman Catholics in the world, a Vatican official said Mar. 30. Muslims make up 19.2 percent of the world’s population and Catholics 17.4 percent, Reuters reported, citing Vatican numbers.

• Ted Turner Joins Religious Groups to Fight Malaria. Media mogul Ted Turner once called Christianity a “religion for losers.” Now, he is aligning with Christian groups to launch a $200 million campaign to fight malaria in Africa. He also told the United Nations General Assembly “You’ve got to have faith to build a better world.” He also said he regrets his “loser” comments as well as a 2001 incident when he called Christians who worked at CNN “Jesus freaks” who should be working for Fox News instead.

• HIV Rate in U.S. Higher Than Estimated. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said in 2008 that it had underestimated the HIV rate in the U.S. over the past 12 years. The U.S. saw approximately 56,000 new HIV infections in 2006, 40 percent more than the estimated 40,000. The CDC said a better blood test and new statistical methods led them to revise their numbers. Male-to-male transmission accounted for almost 60 percent of new infections in 2006, according to the CDC, while 34 percent occurred among people ages 13-29. “I feel great compassion for these men, because I’ve had different friends who are HIV-positive, friends who have died with AIDS,” said Jeff Johnston, gender issues analyst for Focus on the Family Action. “Outside of a faithful marriage between a man and a woman, there is no ‘safe sex.’ It is irresponsible to teach people that you can have ‘safe sex’ or ‘safer sex’ outside of marriage,” Johnston added.

• More U.S. Women are Childless. One in five U.S. women in their early 40s has no children, according to the Census Bureau. That’s double the level from 30 years ago and a record high. Women age 40-44 who do have children have fewer than ever—an average of 1.9, according to the report. “A lot of women are not having any children,” Jane Lawler Dye, a Census Bureau researcher who did the report, told the New York Times. “It used to be sort of expected that there was a phase of life where you had children, and a lot of women aren’t doing that now.” Carrie Lukas, vice president for policy and economics at the Independent Women’s Forum, said of the statistics: “So much of our culture has made kids seem like big sacrifices and a big inconvenience,” she said. “There is something to being an increasingly secular society and being a little self-absorbed in not thinking about the legacy you want to leave.”

• Most Children Still Live in Two-Parent Homes. Of the nation’s 73 million children, nearly 45 million (62 percent) live with their biological parents, according to a Census Bureau report released Feb. 20. Another 19 million live with their unmarried, biological mothers. The report, collected from 2004 surveys, also shows cohabiting families are on the rise, with 3.7 million children living with one biological parent and an unmarried partner.

• Jehovah’s Witnesses Grow and Episcopalians Decline. Jehovah’s Witnesses are the fastest-growing “church body” in the U.S. and Canada, now with more than 1 million members, according to new figures released by the National Council of Churches. Jehovah’s Witnesses ranked 24th on the list of 25 largest churches, and they reported the largest growth rate—2.25 percent—of all churches. The scandal- and controversy-plagued Episcopal Church reported the largest drop, at 4.15 percent. The Roman Catholic Church, with 67.5 million members, remains the largest U.S. church body, with a 2006 increase of 0.87 percent. The second largest church, the Southern Baptist Convention (16.3 million) has more than twice the number of members as the United Methodist Church, the third largest, which documented 7.9 million U.S. members. Only the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Catholic Church, Southern Baptists, Mormons, the Assemblies of God (2.8 million) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (1.4 million) reported increases. All other church bodies posted declines or flat membership.

• A Global Population Bust? As the media tell it, the world is running out of resources and space. But according to a new documentary called Demographic Winter: The Decline of the Human Family, the world is actually running out of people. Worldwide, each woman of childbearing age needs to have an average of 2.1 children for the population to break even. But, according to documentary spokesman Don Feder, global birth rates have declined by 50 percent in the last half-century. Many countries in Europe are hovering at a birthrate of 1.3 children per woman of childbearing age. Demographic Winter claims this is the first time in history that social forces have led to a global decline in population. “They include secularization, abortion, widespread use of contraceptives, late marriage, cohabitation (and) people choosing lifestyles or careers over children,” Feder said.

• TransFigurations. Goldman Sachs, ranked No. 9 on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For, has decided to “indulge the confusion” of its employees and pay for sex-change surgery. As part of a push last year to recruit and retain a more diverse work force, the company added complete health-insurance coverage of sex-reassignment surgery, which can cost as much as $150,000. “The American Psychiatric Association lists ‘gender identity disorder’ as a classifiable and treatable condition,” said Caleb H. Price, Focus on the Family research analyst. “Rather than paying for people to indulge their confusion and undergo mutilating sex-change surgeries, Goldman Sachs should demonstrate ethical prudence and pursue mental health treatment options instead.”

• More than One Road to God? More than half of self-identified evangelical Christians believe there is more than one path to salvation, according to a poll released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. More than 35,000 Americans were surveyed. Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, said Christians may be reinventing their beliefs. “Americans seem to be fashioning their own beliefs on many of these things,” he said, “because it doesn’t seem to correspond to the official teachings that they’re getting from their own church.”

Abortion

• In Remembrance. Thousands of life advocates gathered Jan. 22 in the nation’s capital for the 35th March for Life to remember the more than 45 million preborn babies who have died since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973. Yet, polls show most Americans want more limits on abortion. Twenty-six states provide women seeking abortion with information about its risks and alternatives. Thirty-five states have laws providing for parental involvement in a minor daughter’s abortion decision. But Barack Obama promised he would overturn these regulations if elected president.

  • Paying the Piper. Obama may have made that promise in part because Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, spent $10 million to help elect pro-abortion candidates to Congress and the White House, the Wall Street Journal reported. Emily’s List, a group that supports pro-abortion female Democrats, raised more than $46 million for the election. Another pro-abortion organization, NARAL Pro-Choice America, planned to spend $10 million. “Pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood recognize that the pro-abortion message continues to lose ground in the culture,” said Carrie Gordon Earll, senior bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action. “They also know that the outcome of the presidential race, coupled with the composition of the U.S. Senate, will determine the direction of the U.S. Supreme Court for the next two decades.”

  • Another One Bites The Dust. But all is not growth in the abortion industry. In fact, both the number of abortion facilities, and the number of abortions, are in decline. Not long ago, Dallas was home to 13 abortion clinics. Today, there are five. Aaron Women’s Health, one of three late-term abortion clinics in the state, was scheduled to close over the weekend. “This is a huge blow to the pro-abortion efforts here in Dallas,” said Jonathan Saenz, an attorney with the Free Market Foundation. “Pro-lifers helped close this abortion clinic—pro-lifers exercising their free-speech rights and having the confidence to continue to stand up for life.” Saenz said life advocates need not be intimidated. “They have a constitutional right to be on public sidewalks in front of these abortion clinics,” he said. “They can contact us and other organizations to find out what their rights are.” Overall, the number of abortions has fallen from a high of about 1.3-million per year, to the current level of about 900,000 per year.