Key Quotes for 2004

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Last update: Wednesday 25th March




More than a thrid of Church of Scotland ministers would accept gay church members according to a recent survey. A poll of ministers and church youth workers published in a new book, Sexuality and Salvation, reveals that 38 per cent of ministers and 50 per cent of church youth workers accept gay and lesbian worshippers.
Church	Evangelical Times - July 2004



Laos Some 35 government agents are currently in Nam Thuam - one agent per Christian household - living with Christian families. The Christian households must cover all the expenses of each agent until they renounce their faith. In the village of Thong Sa Vang, Phinh District, Savannakhet Province, all Christians have been asked to renounce their faith or face arrest. Throughout that Province some 20 churches are routinely forced to close their doors. The underground church has seen significant growth in recent years and may number up to 100,000 professed believers. The years from 1997 until this present day have been the most oppressive for Christians since the communists came to power. Christians have been imprisoned and forced to sign statements rejecting their faith. Many have been put to death.
Religious Persecution	Evangelical Times - July 2004



Researchers found that 47 per cent of ties worn by medical staff at one hospital harboured bacteria and that clinicians were eight times more likely to have bugs in their ties than security staff.
Health	The Guardian - 25th May 2004



Official statistics show that violent crime is stabilising or decreasing, but more than 20,000 South Africans are still murdered every year and the fear of crime is rising, with 23 per cent of people surveyed in a recent poll claiming to have been victims in the past year.
Crime	The Guardian - 25th May 2004



The overall green house gas emissions dropped 10 per cent between 1990 and 2002, the increase from the transport sector as a whole was 50 per cent. The largest increase of 85 per cent was from air transport and even this figure would have risen to over 100 per cent but for the slump in air travel as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Centre.
Environment	The Guardian - 27th May 2004



Obesity in England has grown almost 400 per cent in 25 years, with three quarters of the adult population now over weight or obese (around 22 per cent are obese). Childhood obesity has tripled in 20 years. The condition has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, renal failure, osteoarthritis and psychological damage. The report calculates that the economic cost in England alone could be £7.4bn a year, a figure that will rapidly rise.
Health	The Guardian - 27th May 2004



China's GDP has increased from $362.4bn (£200bn) to $11.9 trillion since 1979. It is expected to double again in the next ten years. GDP grew last year at 9.1 per cent. The number of poor in China is estimated to have dropped from 49 per cent of the population in 1981 to 6.0 per cent in 2002. The poverty line is defined in China as an income of 625 yuan (£42) a year. The World Bank definition of poverty is $1 a day. More than 62 per cent of China's 1.3 billion population live in poor rural areas. Average life expectancy has increased from 35 years in 1949 to 71.4 years.
Money	The Guardian - 27th May 2004



Research from a Government backed survey has shown that nearly one in five (18%) of first babies is born into a home without a father and that 15%, just under one in six of second and third children are born to a mother not living with a father.
Family	Daily Mail, June 18 2004



The European Unions Constitution currently refers only in its preamble to "the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance" of Europe. The Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, and Slovakia wrote last month to the EU presidency demanding that the constitution's preamble carry an explicit reference to Christianity. France, while much of its population is Catholic, has a secular republic and wants an EU based on secular principles. Officials also point out that a reference to God could affect the issue of mainly Muslim Turkey's entry to the bloc.
Politics	The Times, June 18 2004



In 1990 there were 106,669 families in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Thirteen years later there were 92,233, a fall of 13.53 per cent or about 1 per cent a year.
Church	Presbyteran Herald - June 2004



Singer and song writer Stacie Orrico has been quoted as saying - I've been learning that all over the world people need things, people are striving for a better life, for more sense of purpose. Everybody needs to be challenged. Some people need to be challenged simply to tell the truth more. Some people need to be challenged not to be complacent. Some need to be challenged to go to church on Sunday or to think about their faith for the first time. Obviously I'm so thankful for my success that I've had, and I feel I have the right to be excited about that because of what God has done in my life - I would not be here without him. The only things I've found in my life that brings ultimate peace and ultimate comfort, the place where I've found true love and fulfilment, is my relationship with Jesus Christ.
What famous people say	The War Cry - 19th June 2004



Of the people who attended an open air Crusade in Kenya, 60 per cent claimed to be Christians with about 30 per cent being born again.
Religion/Spirituality	Unity - June 2004



Science and ethics clashed as a British scientist officially requested the first licence to clone a human embryo. Dr Miodraq Stojkovic and a team of scientists from Newcastle University made the request to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority as they say it will assist their efforts to find a cure for diabetes, but pro-lifers dismissed the move as dangerous, unethical and unnecessary.
Science	The Universe - June 20th 2004



Alcohol abuse: some sobering facts- Costs the NHS £3.3 billion per year (12 per cent of the budget). 1 in 4 acute male hospital admissions is alcohol related. 21 per cent of psychiatric admissions is alcohol related. Since the early 1970s deaths from chronic liver disease have risen 800 per cent in men and 700 per cent in women in the 35 - 44 age bracket. Costs the economy over £3 billion per year in sickness absense, unemployment, premature deaths, crime and accidents. Alcohol is implicated in 49 per cent of violent crimes, 39 per cent of deaths in fires, 15 per cent in drownings and 1 in 7 road accidents. 60 per cent of police officers said that alcohol had a greater impact on their workload than drugs, and none said drugs had a greater impact. Marriages where one or both partners have an alcohol problem are twice likely to break down as other marriages. 11-15 year olds consumed nearly twice as much in 2001 as they did in 1990. Children of problem drinkers have higher levels of behavioural difficulty, school problems and emotional disturbance. After drinking, 1 in 7 16-24 year olds have had unsafe sex, 1 in 5 had sex they later regretted, 40 per cent are more likely to have had casual sex and 1 in 10 can't remember if they had sex at all! And 40 per cent were drunk or stoned when they lost their virginity.
Drugs/Alcohol/Addictions	Joy - July 2004



The government's declared aim is to reduce teenage pregnancies by 15% by the end of this year, and 50% by 2010. But official figures just released show that year-on-year the number of teenage pregnancies in England rose by more than 800 during the same period that the government spent £15million trying to reduce them. The government's Teenage Pregnancy Unit reported 38,439 pregnancies among 15-18 year olds in 2001, of which nearly half were aborted, compared with 39,286 for 2002.
Sex	The Universe, May 9 2004

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