Watching the World
Unitarians Endorse Homosexual Marriage
The Unitarian Church has become the first U.S. denomination to officially endorse same-sex marriages, reports the Christian Century. Delegates attending the religious group’s annual convention voted overwhelmingly to “proclaim the worth of marriage between any two committed persons.” The religious magazine says that “under church rules, each of the church’s 1,040 congregations can decide for itself whether it will endorse the marriage of gay and lesbian couples and whether it will host such weddings.”
Predetermining a Baby’s Sex
According to Popular Science magazine, “it’s now possible to predetermine a baby’s sex by sorting the father’s sperm, since sperm type determines gender.” First, sperm is stained with a fluorescent dye. Then, a laser beam is used to identify X (female) sperm from Y (male) sperm. A computer notes the difference, and a laboratory tool that is generally ‘used for blood work gives a positive electric charge to the X sperm and a negative charge to the Y sperm. Sperm are then sorted using terminals of the opposite electric charge to attract them.’ According to the scientist who originally developed the technique for the livestock industry, the sorting is about 90 percent accurate. Thereafter, the selected sperm are used to fertilize egg cells, and “embryos of the desired sex are then implanted in the womb.” Thus far, however, only one human birth has resulted from this process.
Harmful Baby Talk
Children’s early efforts at speaking are often considered cute, and many parents respond affectionately with baby talk of their own. This, however, may put children’s speech development at risk, writes Brazilian speech specialist Eliane Regina Carrasco in Veja magazine. When parents repeat a child’s wrong pronunciations, it “reinforces a pattern that is not correct,” says Carrasco. She says that this may cause speech problems. It can also affect a child’s social relations, she adds. “Often, such children become isolated, timid, and insecure, avoiding situations in which they have to expose themselves [to ridicule].” It is normal for small children to mispronounce words, and it is not necessary to correct them constantly, Carrasco points out. But it is important to talk to them correctly and to remember that “they are intelligent and have the capacity to learn.”
China to Reduce Water Pollution
“Water pollution is an enormous problem in China, and reducing water pollution is an urgent task,” says a spokesperson for China’s National Environmental Protection Agency. The Chinese government is therefore taking steps to reduce water pollution in China’s most polluted rivers and lakes, reports China Today magazine. For example, to control waste entering one of the country’s most seriously polluted rivers, the Huaihe, the government has “closed down 999 small paper-making factories in the Huaihe valley.” Approximately 154 million people live in the Huaihe Valley, which is one of China’s major grain- and energy-producing regions.
“Holy” Terrorists
In an effort to “re-establish itself as the national church,” the Romanian Orthodox Church has “launched an insidious campaign of denigration against other denominations,” reports the journal Compass Direct in an article by Willy Fautré. Fautré adds: “Top leaders and local priests of the Orthodox church in Romania” have set up a number of groups to “terrorize religious minority groups and deny them basic religious rights.” Calling evangelical radio broadcasters “defilers of our forefathers’ faith,” the archbishop of Suceava and Rădăuţi wrote to the president of the body that supervises radio and television broadcasts in Romania, saying: “We beg you to stop them or to set a limit, because they are utterly shameless and they have openly set out to make proselytes in our very homeland.”
Mammals More Endangered Than Birds
“Mammals are at even greater risk of extinction than birds,” reports New Scientist magazine. These findings, based on figures released by World Conservation Union’s Red List, reveal that while 11 percent of bird species face global extinction, 25 percent of all mammal species are now threatened. Primates are the most endangered group, with 46 percent of the species threatened with extinction. Next come insectivores with 36 percent, followed by pigs and antelopes with 33 percent. The most threatened group of birds is the crane, with 26 percent of the species facing extinction. One reason for the mammals’ higher rate of decline is that, unlike birds, they cannot easily move to a different area when their habitat disappears.
Reading Program Helps Reduce Crime
In Bradford, England, a government-funded program designed to improve schoolchildren’s reading ability is having dramatic results, reports the British newspaper The Independent. Not only has the reading program helped to improve reading skills but it has also received credit for helping to reduce crime! “We have related the number of young people breaking into houses directly to the truancy rate,” says John Watson, head of the Better Reading Partnership. “If the children are able to read they are more likely to be interested in what goes on at school and less likely to play truant. Because they are not on the streets they are less likely to be breaking into houses.”
The Olympics and Poverty
“The number of medals won by some countries at the Olympics and the amount of money invested on facilities and corporate sponsorship at the games raise questions about the world’s commitment to ending poverty,” reports the ENI Bulletin, of Switzerland. “This is not to say we shouldn’t celebrate excellence or applaud extraordinary feats of human skill and endurance,” says Greg Foot, from the World Vision agency of Australia. “But,” he adds, “we do have to ask whether we are quite getting the balance right when we spend so much on perfecting the diet of our elite athletes when millions of our neighbours have barely enough food to be able to walk.” It is estimated that during the two weeks the Olympics were held in Atlanta, 490,000 children died of hunger and preventable diseases worldwide.
Extended Coffee Breaks
Some employees really go out of their way for a mid-morning cup of coffee. In fact, many are leaving the workplace entirely. With coffee bars offering gourmet coffees, workers are dashing out of the office to get their favorite blend. As a result, “the coffee break is becoming the coffee escape,” says The Wall Street Journal. But employers are concerned about the length of trips to local coffee houses. In an effort to stem the tide of disappearing coffee aficionados, the Journal says, some businesses are fighting back by installing their own cappuccino machines.
Heat-Producing Plants
Two Australian researchers have found that lotus flowers have the amazing ability to regulate their own temperature. Previously, only warm-blooded animals were thought to possess this ability. Working in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Dr. Roger Seymour and Dr. Paul Schultze-Motel attached sensors to blooming lotus flowers to record their temperature and other physical characteristics. What did they find? Even when the air temperature dropped to 50 degrees, the lotus blossoms’ temperature remained between 86 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Researchers have not yet found an explanation for this phenomenon. However, according to The New York Times, Dr. Hanna Skubatz, a plant biochemist at the University of Washington, U.S.A., said that “heat-production [among plants] might, in fact, be widespread, just difficult to detect.”
Evangelicals Admit Shortcomings
“The evangelical world today is losing its biblical fidelity, moral compass and missionary zeal,” states the “Cambridge Declaration of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.” Where did this harsh criticism come from? A rival church group perhaps? No, it came from the evangelicals themselves. The document was issued by more than 100 evangelical leaders who met recently in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The writers of the document acknowledged that they and the religious leaders needed to “repent for their willingness to be dominated by the norms of popular culture.” The document also admitted that “therapeutic technique, marketing strategies, and the beat of the entertainment world often have far more to say about what the church wants, how it functions and what it offers, than does the Word of God.”