Watching the World
Governments versus Clergy
◆ Clergymen in many parts of the world are in trouble for their political activities. Paraguay, in its running feud with the Catholic Church, has ordered several clerics from its borders. Peru and Brazil are among the lands that have removed the welcome mat for foreign-born clergymen. Two Catholic priests in the Philippines were arrested because of violating a martial-law decree. One of them was charged with “inciting to rebellion.” Armed revolution in Africa has received clergy support. Colin Morris, Methodist minister, claims: “Violence can be a Christian vocation as a tactic of the last resort.” He said: “You can’t tell people to love their enemies. There are occasions when you must first have justice to make any kind of loving possible.” As a result of such views and actions, clerics are finding that in an increasing number of lands their profession no longer provides a privileged sanctuary.
Christendom’s Bible Illiteracy
◆ Dr. Harrell F. Beck, Boston University School of Theology professor, bemoans the lack of Bible knowledge in the churches today. He says that “the biblical and theological illiteracy of the parish is the greatest single impediment to Christian ministry in our time.” But Beck himself also claims that the Bible offers little in the way of specific answers to today’s problems. Ministers, he says, must be trained “to interpret the meaning of the kingdom of God for political life.”
U.S. President’s Pledge
◆ After reelection, American president Richard M. Nixon pledged to work to end “the whole era of permissiveness” in the United States. He declared: “We have passed through a very great spiritual crisis in this country,” and says that the Vietnam war was “only part of the problem.” It was also reported that Mr. Nixon intends to restructure the Federal government. Many believe that the moves the president intends to make could increase his power while diminishing that of the Cabinet.
U.N.’s Financial Woes
◆ In October the United Nations published a financial statement revealing that 23 member nations had not made any payment toward the $213-million budget in 1972. All member countries are notified in January about their annual dues, which, it is hoped, they will pay within eighty days. Some lands, such as the Soviet Union, have refused to pay for certain things they feel are against their interests. Communist China has offered to raise its contribution to the U.N. budget within the next five years. But it has demanded extra services that would virtually wipe out any benefits that might come from the increased payments.
Noise Pollution
◆ Legislation against excessive noise has been enacted in many places in the United States. Jet airplanes, outdoor machinery, motor vehicles and factories are being monitored as to sound levels. Further, people are being warned against too much noise in the home. Noise pollution can raise one’s blood pressure, contribute to heart disease, and cause nervous strain, tension, stress, gastrointestinal illness and exhaustion, as well as hearing loss. Medical authorities say that a noisy industrialized environment is partly responsible for a person’s hearing worsening with age. Studies conducted with a primitive African tribe living in quiet surroundings show that 75-year-old men of the tribe hear as well as a 25-year-old American.
Attempt to Force Transfusion
◆ A Kentucky father of a newborn girl was told by the doctor that his child had an “Rh incompatibility” and needed a blood transfusion. The father, one of Jehovah’s witnesses, refused to allow this. The physician obtained a court order to force the transfusion. However, the father rushed his baby to another doctor, in Texas. The second doctor said that the child’s blood was healthy and that no transfusion was needed. “The baby looks good and is eating well and is active,” were his observations.
Offspring of Incest
◆ Medical circles have long known the adverse mental and physical effects befalling offspring of incestuous unions. A recent study in Czechoslovakia shows how much risk is involved in such near-relation unions. Women who had relations with their brothers, sons or fathers frequently gave birth to children that were severely retarded mentally, had heart and brain deformities, and were afflicted with dwarfism, deaf-mutism and other bodily abnormalities. Thousands of years ago, God’s law to Israel strictly prohibited incestuous marriages.
Science “Despised”
◆ A number of Nobel prizewinners feel that the general attitude of people today toward modern science threatens its future. One physicist says that the “antiscientific movement” that began in America has now spread to Europe. As for the United States, Murray Gell-Mann observed: “Some of our most successful institutions are in trouble, under attack, and even despised, sometimes by intellectuals and frequently by educated young people. . . . In our country, in particular, science is in ill repute.” Why? The benefits resulting from it have been offset by the devastation of war and pollution of the environment, for which science also shares responsibility.
Christian Science and Medicine
◆ The Christian Science Mother Church in Boston, Massachusetts, recently ruled that all Christian Science children in school could receive polio vaccine. This decision on polio immunization came after nine Christian Science youngsters contracted a “polio-like disease” in Connecticut. Three of them had come down with crippling polio and suffer partial paralysis. Christian Science teaching, however, is that spiritual treatment without medical aid can eliminate disease.
Church Magazines in Trouble
◆ Official denominational magazines are in financial straits. Production costs, limited circulation and rising mail rates threaten many. To continue publication, two of the largest Protestant church denominations have combined their official magazines. Presbyterian Life and United Church Herald have now been merged into one magazine entitled “A.D. 1972.”
Fat in Heart Attacks
◆ The fatty substance acting as a clotting factor in heart attacks has reportedly been isolated and identified by Tasmanian medical researchers. According to their findings, cholesterol may not be the primary cause of heart disease. What puzzles them is that, while cholesterol inhibits the dissolving of already formed blood coagulants, it also slows down the rate of blood coagulation. The researchers found that the most important factor in avoiding heart attacks is controlling the fatty substance that builds up when a person is under stress. Researchers say that keeping people from undergoing stress would be the solution, but today’s pressures make this difficult.
Maggots Save Woman’s Life
◆ For five days a woman lay pinned under a wrecked automobile, unconscious most of the time. She had sustained multiple injuries, yet did not die. Maggots, swarming over her shattered limbs and face, prevented blood poisoning from setting in. The doctor attending her said that her wounds were “loaded” with maggots and her discomfort must have been “beyond imagination” when she was conscious. The doctor observed: “She lived through an ordeal which many people could not have survived.” interestingly, maggots were at one time used to clean wounds, and the doctor feels that their work saved this woman’s life.
U.S. Mass Attendance
◆ An increasing number of American Catholics are neglecting weekly Mass. Two Catholic sociologists report that 71 percent attended Mass regularly in 1963. Today only 55 percent do so. Also, a decade ago 76 percent of Catholics aged 20 to 29 would be at Mass several times a month or more. Now only 46 percent of this age group are there. Probably most disconcerting to church leaders is the fact that the number of Catholics attending Mass once a month or less is increasing—from 21 percent in 1963 to 33 percent today.
Sermons Boring
◆ The Anglican Church in Australia ran a survey on what church members think of sermons they hear. Sermons were criticized as being ineffective, boring and out of touch with life. Churchgoers complained that many ministers preached at them instead of to them. One comment was that “the sermon the minister preaches in the majority of cases is irrelevant. They don’t have any real message.” Another churchgoer said: “Sermons are not made interesting. They are just garbage from beginning to end.”
Australian Micro-Surgery Needle
◆ An almost invisible microsurgery needle has been developed in Australia. This type of surgery employs a microscope so that tiny blood vessels can be handled with delicate precision. Dr. Bernard O’Brien, a Melbourne surgeon, says he has successfully replaced 21 fingers, a foot, two hands and an arm on patients of ages from 10 to 50.
Sound Waves at Work
◆ London dentists are using ultrasonic vibrations to descale teeth. Recently, a surgeon there successfully employed a modified dental ultrasonic probe to remove calcium deposits from hearts, instead of operating to replace the diseased heart valves with plastic artificial ones. In the Soviet Union an ultrasonic device has successfully been used to weld bone fractures. It also plugs bone cavities when tumorous matter is removed and serves as a precise scalpel, surgical saw and chisel.
Whisker Sonar System
◆ Marine biologist Dr. Thomas C. Poulter has found that sea lions “hear” through their whiskers by means of a highly sophisticated sonar system. Evidently they emit echo pulses or inaudible clicks that bounce off any object within 25 feet of them. Their sensitive, long and highly mobile whiskers pick up these slight echoes. Amazingly, by this means sea lions can tell the difference between a piece of horsemeat, which they refuse to eat, and a herring, which they relish.
Reducing Devices
◆ “The nation is being swept with gadgets and pills and body wraps that claim to take inches off a person’s body without the difficult regimen of diet and exercise,” recently observed Woodrow Wirsig, president of the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York. Dr. Morton Glenn of the Obesity Clinic at Knickerbocker Hospital warns about the harmful effects that body wraps can cause sufferers of diabetes or vein diseases. “All fat in the body is inside cells, and there is no way you can push it, squeeze it, compress it or jiggle it to get it out of the cells. For that, you need a metabolic reaction,” he said. The medical consensus for successfully losing excess weight is “not putting so much food in [the body], and putting more energy out.”
Night Driving
◆ In 1971, 53 percent of all traffic fatalities in the United States occurred at night, even though traffic is not as heavy. Figured on the basis of the number of miles traveled, the fatality rate in cities was three times as great at night as during the day.