Watching the World

Death from Stress

◆ When the deer population of a small island off the east coast of the United States grew too large, more than two-thirds of the animals died in two years. Yet, food was adequate and there were no attacks from predators. British ecologist Gordon Taylor said of the dead animals: “The adrenals (glands located near the kidneys) were much enlarged.” He explained: “Abnormal cell structure in the adrenals of these deer confirmed the idea that they had died from stress, for adrenal glands enlarge in response to continued stress conditions.” Taylor predicted a similar rise in the human death rate due to increasing population pressures, particularly in large cities.

Cities Deteriorating

◆ Experts in city affairs from fifty-two nations were told in Toronto that unless drastic measures were taken, the world’s cities would be doomed as decent places to live. The quality of life has already deteriorated, as most city dwellers can observe. The mayor of Munich said: “What is the point of having an adequate income. . . if one is obliged on the other hand to live in a city in which the traffic creeps forward, where one does not feel safe on the streets at night, where one has to plow his way through garbage?”

Noise Affecting Homelife

◆ In a series of experiments it was discovered that members of average American families spent only 20 minutes a week talking to one another. This included even very simple commands and responses between parents and children. The dying art of family conversation is attributed in part to the growing bombardment of noise from man’s technology. Stereophonic music, television sets, a host of appliances and machines interfere with effective conversation and increase nervous tension.

Economic Policy Provokes Reaction

◆ The drastic economic measures taken by President Nixon in August included a 90-day freeze on wages and prices. This was resented by many workers. Some felt that they were being called on to make sacrifices when the country’s economic woes were caused primarily by excess government spending. That spending resulted in huge deficits in both domestic and overseas accounts, bringing on inflation. The president of a large union stated: “If this Administration thinks that just by issuing an edict, by the stroke of a pen, they can tear up contracts, they are saying to us they want war. If they want war, they can have war.”

Another Famine Warning

◆ “Man is hurtling into a hunger crisis that science alone cannot stop,” declared Dr. G. Borgstrom, food expert at Michigan State University. He said: “We are living in a dream world. The average person stands in awe of technology. People forget about reality. They don’t want to hear.” He noted that earth’s resources are diminishing so rapidly that no amount of ‘scientific trickery’ can meet the food demands of the exploding population. Borgstrom stated: “We simply don’t realize the dimensions of our difficulties. Because of our attitude, with more than half the human family desperately short of life’s necessities, I think we’re already in a disaster.”

“Prison Population Explosion”

◆ London’s Daily Mail reported that the past year “saw an ‘unprecedented’ prison population explosion” in Britain. The Home Office Prison Department noted a particularly high increase in the number of young people going to jail, 17 percent over the previous year. The prison situation as a whole is grim, with about a third of the men having to sleep two or three in a cell designed for one person.

Police Cannot Cope

◆ The increase in crime, particularly burglaries, is so great in New South Wales, Australia, that the “police force cannot cope” with it, says the Sydney Morning Herald. It is said that residents are now three times as likely to be robbed as they were five years ago. One homeowner declared: “Somehow you have the feeling that your home is no longer quite your own any more.”

Heroin Big Business

◆ Officials in the province of British Columbia, Canada, say the illegal heroin market there is worth about $160 million a year. That ranks it among the province’s ten top industries. So widespread is the heroin addiction and trade that Vancouver’s mayor says: “We would need an army to clean it up.”

Boat Thefts Soaring

◆ In just seven months thieves have stolen 1,500 boats in Dallas, Texas, alone. Often they simply back their cars up to the rigs, left outdoors by their owners, and tow the boats away. A police official called the problem “unreal” because it was so bad and said it was nearly impossible to trace a stolen boat, since it was usually taken far away and sold.

Clergy View of Homosexuals

◆ In a poll taken by the Texas Methodist on the question of acceptability of homosexual behavior, 60 percent of the clergymen responding said that a practicing homosexual may be a Christian at the same time. Yet, God’s own Word clearly shows that this is impossible, that homosexuals “will not inherit God’s kingdom.” (1 Cor. 6:9) However, it also shows that “that is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean.” (Vs. 11) Thus, the repentant, former homosexual who accepts God’s standards and desists from that practice may become a Christian. How different God’s standards are from the debased philosophies of such clergymen!

Church Disappearing

◆ A Methodist leader in Britain warns that if the present swift decline in church membership and in the number of clergymen continues, the organized church in Britain will disappear completely within forty years. Kenneth Greet, secretary of the Methodist Conference, pointed out that the slump in the number of ordinations would already have been catastrophic had there not been a parallel slump in membership, which resulted in fewer churches. However, will the complete disappearance of the churches wait forty years? Evidently not.