The
Year 2003 in Review: ‘Shock and Awe’
seems appropriate
It’s
been said that the post-modern age is one in which it is no longer possible to
shock or inspire awe. An age characterized by ennui and irony.
NEWS ANALYSIS
That’s
why it may be the ultimate irony that the top news story of the year - the
invasion of Iraq and the toppling of the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein -
was described as “Operation Shock and Awe.” Indeed, it was a year
in which ennui and irony began to seem unfashionable and old-fashioned values
such as patriotism, duty, and honor came back into vogue.
The
Year Begins
In
his Jan. 28 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush emphasized
ideas that would drive news budgets for the entire year. He emphasized his
resolve to deal militarily with Saddam Hussein in the Middle East, while
challenging Congress and the nation to embrace his faith initiatives and compassionate
conservatism at home.
“This
country has many challenges,” said the president. “We will not
deny, we will not ignore, we will not pass along our problems to other
Congresses, other presidents, and other generations. We will confront them with
focus, and clarity, and courage.”
The
president assured the American people that he would defend the nation against
the threat of terrorist attacks, and would aggressively challenge enemies to
its security. “Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is
not a strategy, and it is not an option,” he said. He announced that he
would send Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations Feb. 5 to lay
out the evidence against Iraq. He made it clear that criticism from other
nations would not deter America’s actions. “We will consult,”
he said, “but let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam Hussein does
not fully disarm, for the safety of our people, and for the peace of the world,
we will lead a coalition to disarm him.”
On
the domestic front, Bush spoke about protecting the unborn and reaching out to
the needy through faith-based initiatives. He challenged Congress, “I ask
you to protect infants at the very hour of birth, and end the practice of
partial-birth abortion. And because no human life should be started or ended as
the object of an experiment, I ask you to set a high standard for humanity and
pass a law against all human cloning.”
Bush
also addressed the worldwide AIDS epidemic, calling for a $15 billion program
to battle the disease in Africa and the Caribbean. He proposed the Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief — a work of compassion to the people of Africa.
“This comprehensive plan will prevent seven million new AIDS infections,
treat at least two million people with life-extending drugs, and provide humane
care for millions of people suffering from AIDS and for children orphaned by
AIDS,” he said.
Saying
his first goal was to revive the nation’s sagging economy, the president
challenged Congress to pass the $670 billion tax cut plan he introduced several
weeks ago. That plan includes provisions that would end taxation of most stock
dividends - a move some liberal lawmakers said would only benefit the wealthy.
As
part of his faith-based initiative, the president proposed a $600 million
program that would help 300,000 Americans receive treatment for drug addiction
over the next three years. He also recognized Healing Place Church in Baton
Rouge, La. for its successful faith-based drug treatment program. Related the
president, “A man in the program said, ‘God does miracles in
people’s lives, and you never think it could be you.’”
Challenged Mr. Bush, “Tonight, let us bring to all Americans who struggle
with drug addiction this message of hope: The miracle of recovery is possible,
and it could be you.”
Breakdown
Along The Mainline
Mainline
Christian churches in the United States could only have hoped for as good a
year as the president’s. By and large, the news from the major
denominations was not so encouraging.
The
Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal continued to be a major news item
through mid-year. The New York Times reported that it ultimately involved
nearly every American diocese and more than 1,200 priests. A Times survey found
that more than 4,000 minors said they had been abused by a Roman Catholic
priest over the last six decades. While data shows that most of the abuse
occurred in the 1970s and ’80s, priests were found to have sexually
abused young people as far back as the 1930s. According to the survey,
accusations of sexual abuse by priests were found in all but 16 of the
nation’s 171 Latin Rite dioceses.
The
United Methodists battled not a sex scandal, but an internal fight over the
liberal slide of the denomination. The most significant consequence was in
reduced giving by many of the denomination’s theologically conservative
churches to denominationally run missions projects. The United Methodist Board
of Global Ministries decided not to renew the contracts of 18 Methodist
missionaries whose contracts expired in 2003, primarily for financial reasons.
According to church leadership, missionary service was the last area that the
board decided to cut during budget planning. Translation: the denomination cut
many other areas even more than the missions budget.
But
perhaps the biggest denominational story of the year was the consecration of
the Rev. Gene Robinson as a bishop in the Episcopal Church. The consecration of
the openly homosexual man ended up also being one of the biggest news stories
of any kind — religious or otherwise — in 2003. It was a move that
not only has consequences for the Anglican church, but for other religious
bodies that are in a relationship with the Anglican communion. For example, the
move has already soured Catholic-Anglican relations, a sign of spreading disapproval
among Christian denominations around the world. Two months after Pope John Paul
II warned that the elevation of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire could
mean “serious difficulties” in efforts to unify Catholics and
Anglicans. The Vatican announced Dec. 2 that a February meeting in Seattle to work on a
common statement of faith “would have to be put on hold.” It also
said a new committee will be formed to “reflect jointly” on the
implications of Robinson’s Nov. 2 consecration. The Episcopal Church is
the U.S. branch of the global Anglican Communion. In November the Russian
Orthodox Church announced that it was suspending ties with the U.S. Episcopal
Church, saying that homosexuality is a sin and that it “cannot condone
the perversion of human nature.” The Oriental Orthodox Churches have
suspended their ecumenical talks until the Anglicans settle their internal
disputes over homosexuality. These include the Armenian Church, Syrian Orthodox
Patriarchate, Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt and the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church.
Out Of
The Closet
The
advance of the so-called “homosexual agenda” was plain for all to
see this year, not limited to denominational politics, but increasingly
becoming an important part of the global politics.
For
example, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced Aug. 12 that he would
vigorously support legislation to legalize same-sex marriages. Despite
opposition from church leaders, the public and members of his own political
party, Chretien told reporters that he and his cabinet would move forward with
plans to push legislation through the government that would broaden the legal
definition of marriage in Canada to include homosexual unions. The Canadian
Supreme Court is reviewing the draft of the marriage legislation. If approved,
the legislation moves to the House of Commons, which must approve the bill by
vote. However, this process probably won’t be completed until 2004, after
Chretien retires.
Developments
in the United States included New York City opening a high school specifically
for “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender” students, the first of
its kind in the country. The new Harvey Milk High School (named after a
homosexual San Francisco politician who was murdered in 1978) could have as
many as 170 students.
And
there was what some consider the biggest news of the year in this area:
Massachusetts’ highest court ruled 4-3 Nov. 18 that the state’s ban
on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and gave lawmakers 180 days to come up
with a solution that would allow homosexual couples to marry. “Whether
and whom to marry, how to express sexual intimacy, and whether and how to
establish a family - these are among the most basic of every individual’s
liberty and due process rights,” the majority opinion said. “And
central to personal freedom and security is the assurance that the laws will
apply equally to persons in similar situations.” The Massachusetts case
began in 2001, when seven homosexual couples went to their city and town halls
to obtain marriage licenses. All were denied and subsequently sued the state
Department of Public Health which administers the state’s marriage laws.
A judge threw out the case in 2002, ruling that nothing in state law gives
homosexual couples the right to marry. The couples appealed to the Supreme
Judicial Court. The high court ruled in favor of the couples, but did not issue
marriage licenses to them, leaving the details to the Legislature.
Courts
in Hawaii, Alaska and Vermont have previously ruled that the states did not
have a right to deny marriage to homosexual couples. The ruling stands in
Vermont where homosexual couples can legally form “civil unions.”
But the decisions in Hawaii and Alaska were followed by the adoption of
constitutional amendments limiting marriage to couples of the opposite sex.
However,
the Massachusetts decision, and other events of the year, appear to be fueling
a backlash. Polls in Canada indicate that public support for the legalization
of same-sex marriage has dropped dramatically since the beginning of the summer.
One poll in particular showed that the number of people in favor of homosexual
unions had dropped by ten percent in two months. In the United States, the
story is the same. Gallop says that in May 2003, 60 percent of those polled
stated that “homosexual relations between consenting adults” should
be legal. That number dropped dramatically to 48 percent in a poll conducted
July 25-27.
And
it could end up that the most significant impact of the pro-homosexual activism
will be the mobilization of conservatives to defend marriage. The president
himself weighed in on the controversy during a rare Rose Garden press
conference on July 30. He said that government lawyers are researching the best
way to ensure that marriage remains between a man and a woman. Bush’s
words came in response to a reporter’s question on the president’s
view regarding homosexuality.
“Yes,
I am mindful that we’re all sinners, and I caution those who may try to
take the speck out of their neighbor’s eye when they’ve got a log
in their own,” said Bush. “I think it’s very important for
our society to respect each individual, to welcome those with good hearts, to
be a welcoming country.”
“On
the other hand, that does not mean that somebody like me needs to compromise on
an issue such as marriage,” continued Bush. “And that’s
really where the issue is heading here in Washington, and that is the
definition of marriage. I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I believe a
marriage is between a man and a woman. And I think we ought to codify that one
way or the other. And we’ve got lawyers looking at the best way to do
that.”
A
Defense of Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution will likely be
introduced in Congress, and so far one version of the bill has more than 100
co-sponsors from both the Democratic and Republican parties. And the Vatican
announced the establishment of a worldwide campaign against the recognition of
same-sex marriage. The campaign encourages lay people to speak and act out
against the recent gains that the gay marriage movement has made in Canada, the
U.S. and Europe. Official Catholic doctrine forbids discrimination against
homosexuals but also demands that they remain celibate.
For
The Ten Commandments
In
January, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against a Kentucky county that
posted the Ten Commandments in its courthouse. U.S. District Judge Karl
Forester dismissed the suit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union,
against officials of Mercer County. Foster ruled that the display had a
legitimate secular purpose of educating those who see it about the influence of
historical documents on American law. The display, entitled “Foundations
of American Law and Government,” also includes the Declaration of
Independence, the Bill of Rights, and other significant historical documents.
ACLU officials vowed to appeal the ruling, and discrepancies among federal
court rulings on similar cases may lead to the U.S. Supreme Court’s
eventual involvement in the issue.
However,
Judge Roy Moore of Alabama got a considerably different reception from fellow
judges in his fight over the Ten Commandments.
Before
the smoke cleared, thousands of Christians and hundreds of media
representatives from around the country traveled to Montgomery, Ala., to join
the “Restore the Commandments Rally” and show support for Alabama
Chief Justice Roy Moore. But ultimately the 5,280-pound Ten Commandments
monument was not only permanently removed from the Alabama judicial building,
but so was Judge Moore himself. And in the process, even evangelicals ended up
divided on the issue. Many, including Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family,
publicly supported the judge. Others, including the Southern Baptist
Convention’s Richard Land, said the judge was right in principle but went
too far by refusing to comply with a federal court order. In any case, the net
effect of all the publicity may be that Judge Moore will mount a run for either
the U.S. Senate or the governor’s chair in Alabama. He has also been
asked to run for president by leaders of the U.S. Constitution Party.
40
Million and Counting
2003
actually saw declines in the number of abortions performed in America, but no
one could say for sure why. Is America changing its mind about the ongoing
holocaust of the unborn, or are the demographics of the country simply
changing?
The
passage of the partial-birth abortion ban seems to indicate that it may be the
former. By wide margins in both houses of Congress, the PBA ban passed and was
quickly signed into law by President Bush, as he promised. However, no sooner
than it was signed, pro-abort groups began filing lawsuits against it.
It
was frustration over his inability to stop abortion that caused Paul Hill to
murder two people at an abortion clinic, or so he said. Florida authorities
ended Hill’s frustration by executing him on Sept. 3. The execution of
Paul Hill created some unusual alliances. Both pro-life groups and a typically
liberal anti-death penalty group are opposed to Hill’s execution, but for
different reasons. The anti-death penalty group said they do not support
Hill’s efforts. Rather, they were concerned that the pending execution
could make Hill a martyr and spur more abortion clinic violence. Hill was
convicted for the fatal shootings of Dr. John B. Britton and clinic escort
James Barrett in July 1994 outside of The Ladies Center in Pensacola. When he
signed Hill’s death warrant in July, the pro-life governor Jeb Bush
dismissed concerns that Hill’s execution might spur violence.
“He’s a murderer and he was sentenced to death and I have the duty
to carry out that sentence,” Bush said.
Also
in 2003, the worst fears of many pro-life advocates came to pass when an
18-year-old girl who had concealed her pregnancy from her family died from
complications after taking the RU-486 abortion pill. Holly Patterson visited a
Planned Parenthood clinic in San Francisco on Sept. 10 where she was given the
abortion drug. She followed the prescribed procedure for using the RU-486 pill,
taking two more pills at home in the following days. Patterson’s
boyfriend rushed her to the hospital after she experienced bleeding and cramps
so severe she was unable to walk. Emergency room doctors gave her painkillers
and sent her home. A few days later, Patterson returned to the hospital with
more pain and bleeding, and died on Sept. 17. Hospital officials said Patterson
went into septic shock caused by a massive infection from pieces of the unborn
child that were left in her uterus. The RU-486 abortion pill was invented in
France in the 1980s, and approved by the FDA in America several years ago.
Danco Laboratories, which makes the pill, estimates that 150,000 women in the
U.S. have taken the drug.
Finally,
some religious leaders are wondering whether they can use church membership as
a weapon in the fight for life. Roman Catholic bishops in the U.S. said Nov. 10
they are considering whether to recommend sanctions for Catholic politicians
who favor policies contrary to church teaching on abortion and other issues. A
task force of bishops is considering the idea of church punishment and plans to
develop guidelines on how church leaders should respond to Catholic lawmakers
who do not uphold church values in their work. One member of the task force,
Bishop Joseph Galante, said some dioceses already impose a ban from church
property on elected officials who support abortion. Abortion has long been a
practice opposed by the Catholic Church. Galante also said that under church
law, Catholics who have a direct role in an abortion can be excommunicated. He
said that a task force of theologians will have to decide whether a Catholic
politician who votes for abortion rights consequently helps facilitate the
procedure and should therefore be excommunicated.
News
of the Bizarre
Not
all of the news in 2003 involved presidents, kings, and great armies. Some
stories - and often the stories that tell us the most about ourselves and our
world - were not reported on the front pages. Among the bellwether stories of
2003:
—The
nation’s high court in June struck down a Texas sodomy law, ruling that
homosexual men and women have the right to do anything in the privacy of their
homes without government intervention. Now convicted polygamist Tom Green says
that it should be no different for him. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-P.A.) warned
earlier this year. “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to
consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have
the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to
adultery. You have the right to anything.” Santorum was ridiculed by
those on the left for this argument. But Green’s attorney, John Bucher,
argued just that in an appeal to the Utah Supreme Court on Dec. 1. “It
doesn’t bother anyone, (and with) no compelling state interest in what
you do in your own home with consenting adults, you should be allowed to do
so,” he said. Green, who is not affiliated with any church, was convicted
of four counts of bigamy and one count of criminal nonsupport of his 30
children in August 2001.
—Outspoken
family values advocate William Bennett, a former U.S. education secretary, says
he now considers his casino gambling a sin. He adds that he swore off casinos
in May following stories by Newsweek and The Washington Monthly that detailed his
gambling. In an interview aired on CNBC’s “Tim Russert” show,
Bennett rejected reports he lost $8 million at casinos over 10 years. But he
acknowledged in an interview with World magazine that he played with
“a big amount of money.” Bennett, author of the best-selling Book
of Virtues, told the magazine that he struggled with self-control, the
first virtue listed in his book.
—A
small Kentucky Bible college has had an embarrassing problem for years.
Kentucky Mountain Bible College, located in the Appalachian Mountains, has had
the numbers “666” as the beginning of its phone number. The
numerical figure, which the Bible connects with the anti-Christ and calls the
“mark of the beast,” has been a source of confusion and concern to
callers for years, and school officials attempted to have the number changed to
693, a prefix that was added to the area. The local phone company offered the
school an alternative phone number, but by the time the college agreed to it,
the number had been reassigned to someone else. The school was ultimately
offered some other alternate numbers, and the college was soon rid of its old
number - and the unsavory connotations.
A Look
Across The Culture
The
third and final installment of the movie epic “Lord of the Rings”
opened around the world this year to box office success and critical acclaim.
But the cast and crew seemed to care little for Tolkien’s Christian
worldview. The movie’s director, Peter Jackson, was candid even with the
religious press about not sharing Tolkien’s Christian worldview, but
added that he and the rest of the people involved in the project strove for
faithfulness to the books and Tolkien’s vision. “We made a
commitment early in the process that we were not going to introduce themes that
were not a part of the book,” Jackson said. “We worked hard not to
bring our personal baggage” to the production.
Television,
on the other hand, continued to spiral downward. Thirty years ago, Americans
spent their nights watching television shows like “The Waltons,”
“Happy Days” and “The Six Million Dollar Man” - a
veritable family affair. Cable had just arrived on the scene - offering the
then-unheard-of capacity of 35 channels. And about half of the television sets
in use were still black and white. During the month of December - the first
“sweeps” period of the new television season - there was nothing
very family-friendly about much of what danced across the dial. Cable and
satellite systems offer as many as 400 channels - from cooking networks to
round-the-clock pornography. Every television set is not only color, much of what
it receives is off-color: sexually explicit, violent and loaded with coarse
language.
The
Parent’s Television Council’s Melissa Caldwell said, “You get
to a certain point where viewers become inured to certain kinds of content, and
so, in order to illicit the same reaction, they keep pushing the
envelope.” One of the more disturbing trends in television in 2003 was
its promotion of the homosexual lifestyle. “Queer Eye for the Straight
Guy” on the Bravo cable channel, featured five gay men coming to the
style-rescue of hapless heterosexual men. The show was such a hit that
Bravo’s sister station, NBC, broadcast several episodes. Steven Isaac, of
Focus on the Family, believes “television is the biggest avenue for
mainstreaming and normalizing homosexuality that we have in our culture, much
bigger than film, much bigger than music. Television is the thing that is
driving a young generation to embrace and accept homosexuality as
‘normal.’” But there may be a backlash in the works. ‘Coupling’
(a racy NBC sitcom featuring a bisexual character) was supposed to be the hit
show for the year on NBC, and it turned into a huge failure. ‘Skin’
(a Fox series about a pornographer and the district attorney bent on shutting
him down) was heavily promoted. That show was cancelled too.
And
many were encouraged when a “blatantly Christian” song, “I
Can Only Imagine” by the band MercyMe, crossed over to the pop charts and
in some parts of the country hit the number one spot. MercyMe’s keyboard
player Jim Bryson told EP News that he thought it was a sign that the
mainstream music industry was more open to Christian artists, and that
Christian bands should record what they have a passion for, not what they think
will sell, because, as the success of this song indicates, “You never
know.”
Survey
Says
And
with all of this going on, what direction is the American church and American
culture headed? No one knows for sure. In recent years, American Christianity
remains perhaps the most surveyed and least understood of American cultural
phenomena. Among some of the surveys released in 2003:
—College
students show broad interest in spirituality, but their involvement in the
church sags while on campus, a new study by UCLA’s Higher Education
Research Institute says. The institute, known for surveys of student opinion,
tabulated questionnaires from 3,680 juniors on 46 varied campuses as part of a
multiyear project on campus religious and spiritual development. Only 29
percent of the students said they regularly attend religious services, compared
with 52 percent when these same students were freshmen. Few said their
spirituality or “religiousness” had greatly increased during
college years. Despite their purported interest in spirituality, 62 percent
said professors never encourage discussions of religious or spiritual matters.
—The
National Study of Youth and Religion, based at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, found that families that are involved in religion are more
likely to get along with their 12 to 14 year old teens. Families who attend
church, read scripture, and pray together are more likely to get along with
their teenagers, and the teens are more likely to get praise from their
parents, according to Christian Smith, principal investigator of the study and
professor of Sociology. These families also share meals more often and parents
are more aware of the teenager’s friends and activities. The teens in
these families are also less likely to run away from home. In contrast, teens
from families that do not participate in religious activities during the week
tend to have weaker relationships with their parents.
—A
poll released April 23 by Barna Research Group showed that Americans’
views about life satisfaction are heavily influenced by the role of faith in
their lives. The poll found that 73 percent of those who attend church, read
the Bible and pray during a typical week strongly agreed that they were happy
with their lives. Only 64 percent of those who were less active in their faith
reported a strong agreement with a high level of life satisfaction. The study
also showed that those highly active in their faith were more likely to report
that they were in excellent physical condition — 42 percent,
compared to 34 percent of the less active group.
—
A study conducted at a South Carolina prison confirmed what many have suspected
for years - that transforming the heart can transform behavior. The study found
that inmates who regularly participated in religious programming were not
re-arrested after being released. “High rates of recidivism (re-arrest,
re-conviction, re-incarceration) continue to cost American society dearly in
terms of pain, trouble and community funds,” says the study by Larry
Navey and Dr. Stephen Farra. Navey, a senior psychology student at Columbia International
University (CIU), leads Bible studies at Broad River Correctional Institution.
Farra, head of CIU’s psychology department, sponsored Navey’s
study, which was funded by S.C. Independent Colleges and Universities. For the
study, Navey and Farra tracked 50 prisoners, chosen because they regularly
participated in four out of every five religious activities offered; and of
those, not a single one of them has returned to the prison system in three
years.
Persecution
Continues
As
persecution of Christians continued in India, a Roman Catholic organization on
Nov. 29 demanded a ban on Hindu nationalist groups that spread religious
fanaticism and violence in the country. The demand came a week after Hindu
nationalists attacked a priest’s home, hurled abuse at a nun and flung
stones at a church in Deogarh, a town 175 miles west of the Orissa state
capital of Bhubaneshwar. There were more than 200 reported attacks on
Christians and Christian organizations in 2002 in Orissa state, according to
Indian authorities. 2003 figures are still incomplete, but they are expected to
be nearly the same.
The
leader of a rebel faction on the Solomon Islands informed Anglican church
leaders in the region that six priests of an Anglican order originally taken
hostage by the rebels are dead. The six, all members of the Anglican Melanesian
Brotherhood, left the capital Honaria on April 23 to investigate the fate of
another member of their order. In mid-August, rebel leader Harold Keke provided
information to the church that Robin Lindsay, Francis Tofi, Alfred Hilly, Ini
Ini Partabatu, Patteson Gatu, and Brother Tony, along with the Melanesian
brother missing earlier, had been murdered by his group. An Australian
peacekeeping force arrested Keke on Aug. 13 and held him in Honaria on charges
of robbery. A murder investigation into the deaths of the priests has begun by
authorities. Keke’s arrest is an important move for the Australian
military, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Australia’s
parliament. “A full investigation of crimes including murder allegedly
committed by Harold Keke and his group in recent times can now proceed,”
Downer said. Keke allegedly told members of the Australian peacekeeping force
on Aug. 8 that his troops had killed the priests.
Christian
belief and practice is dangerously close to being outlawed in Sri Lanka.
According to a recent report from the National Christian Evangelical Alliance
of Sri Lanka, support for anti-conversion legislation is gaining ground within
the ranks of nationalist Buddhist groups. Supporters of the legislation said it
was necessary to curb the religious conversion of the poor to Christian groups.
Buddhist nationals described two Christian groups trying to register for
incorporation as “fundamentalist cults” who enticed people to
convert by offering them medical care and food. In another blow to religious
freedom, the Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance
stated that Sri Lanka’s supreme court recently ruled that Buddhism is the
state religion of the nation and that Christians who wish to participate in
evangelism must first be incorporated according to government regulations. The
court also ruled that Christians do not have constitutional rights to own
property. About one percent of Sri Lanka’s population identifies itself
as Christian.
Also
in India came the resolution of one of the most tragic and well-publicized
cases of persecution of the past decade. After more than two years at trial, an
Indian court convicted 13 suspects of the 1999 murder of Australian missionary
Graham Staines and his two sons. Judge Mahendra Nath Pattnaik read the guilty
verdict on Sept. 15. The convicted included a radical Hindu leader with ties to
nationalist and anti-Christian, anti-foreigner groups, who hid from authorities
for over a year before being arrested for the crime. Staines, his wife Gladys
and their three children lived in Baripada where they performed medical
missionary work for the poor and ill in Orissa state. Staines had worked as a
missionary in India for over 30 years. And in a statement of grace and charity
that has reverberated around India and the world, The All Indian Christian
Council (AICC) — with the support of Graham’s widow Gladys Staines
— released a plea for the lives of the killers. “While there is a
sense of satisfaction that justice has at last been done, the Christian
community agrees with Graham’s widow Gladys Staines, that neither
vengeance nor vindication matter any more.”
At
the funeral of Staines and his two sons, Gladys publicly forgave the killers
and vowed to continue the work with victims of leprosy that her husband had
launched decades ago in Orissa’s forest areas, still not reached by
modern medicine. John Staines, Graham’s brother, also publicly asked
India’s courts to spare the lives of the guilty men. In an interview with
Australian Associated Press, John said death sentences would endanger other
lives. “Anything that man does in these things doesn’t really count
for very much because God is the final judge,” Staines said on Sept. 15.
“We have forgiven them in Christ’s name. I think that these men
have to face up to what they’ve done. By the same token, I don’t
want to see them put to death over it.”
The
bottom line on the persecuted church in 2003: Open Doors USA estimates that
there are more than 200 million Christians suffering for their faith in the
world today, and most of them are women. A 2003 recent report from Open Doors
USA, an organization that supports the persecuted church, states that,
“because they are Christian and born females, [women’s] troubles
are compounded.” Cultural and political conditions cause Christian women
to be “belittled, despised, murdered, abused, denied basic human rights
and often barely recognized as human beings.”
Ending
With A Bang
Amazingly,
by year-end President Bush had made significant progress on all the fronts he
had outlined in his state of the union address in January. A major tax cut had
been passed and the economy began a recovery. Indeed, by mid-December
economists were reporting significant gains in retail sales, and the Dow Jones
Industrial Average was back to the 10,000 level.
Significant
portions of the president’s faith-based program had been approved and
funded. A partial-birth abortion ban had been passed by Congress and signed
into law. It was the first time an abortion procedure had been limited since
the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973. By Dec. 1, World AIDS Day,
hundreds of millions of dollars had been appropriated to the AIDS crisis and it
had become obvious that the United States had become the most generous nation
in the world when it comes to funding AIDS research, prevention, and care, with
the “first dollars” from Bush’s $15-billion multi-year pledge
to fight AIDS already appropriated.
And,
of course, Saddam Hussein had been toppled from power in Iraq. For some, the
real “shock and awe” was that this president - whom many had
derided as not very smart during the campaign - had been able to accomplish so
much in so short a time.
Of
course, all this has come at a cost. The United States faces its largest
deficits ever, and even some of Bush’s staunchest supporters are
concerned about his policies toward China, and his penchant for talking about
pro-family values one day and appointing openly gay staff members the next.
In
the end, 2003 provided yet more evidence that we live in a fallen world. No
shocks there. And if gambling is legal in your state, you can bet that
we’ll even have more evidence of that as we welcome in 2004. —
E. P. News