Key Quotes for 2004

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Last update: Wednesday 25th March




In regards to the new film The Passion of the Christ, some critics accuse Mel Gibson of taking violence too far. But James Caviezel, who plays Jesus, argues: Mel hasn't used violence for violence's sake and it has never felt gratuitous." "Mel Gibson says: One of my greatest hopes for this film is that when audiences walk away from it, they will be inspired to ask more questions.
Entertainment	The War Cry - 27th March 2004



The Salvation Army warns of the effects of excessive drinking on vulnerable people who in ten or twenty year's time could be excluded from mainstream society. Approximately 30 per cent of the population are likely to be vulnerable to excessive and compulsive use of alcohol, with a wide range of adverse effects such as brain, liver and muscular damage and social dysfunction, including relationship or employment problems says Dr Bonner.
Drugs/Alcohol/Addictions	The War Cry - 27th March 2004



The television programme "What the world thinks of God" that was screened on BBC2 in late February found that Britain is one of the most secular nations around. The ICM poll of people in the USA, UK, Israel, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Mexico and Lebanon, showed that only 46 per cent of respondents in the UK have always believed in God. This was 27 per cent less than the average. Only Russia (42 per cent) and South Korea (28 per cent) were lower. Furthermore, only 52 per cent in the UK believed a God created the universe compared to 85 per cent in the USA and 99 per cent in Indonesia, The highest levels of belief were in poorer nations. However, the USA (the richest nation), has a very high level of belief. Also in post-September 11 Britain, almost a third (29 per cent) of people believed that the world would be a more peaceful place without belief in God, but very few other countries agreed. With the possible connections to extreme Muslin groups of the bomb attacks in Madrid on March 10, this anti-God figure in Britain may have increased. The average level of attendance at organised religious services was 46 per cent while in the UK the figure was only 21 per cent, the second lowest behind Russia at 7 per cent. It is interesting that although 25 per cent of people in the UK said they never pray, the programme said that nearly 30 per cent of atheists polled admitted they prayed sometimes.
Religion/Spirituality	Now - April 2004



Women now have twice as many sexual partners as they did ten years ago. More young women, and even underage girls, are using contraception than ever before. Amoung girls under 16 (the age of sexual consent) there has been a tenfold increase in the use of contraceptives over the last two decades. Recent figures in the NHS contraceptive bulletin 2002-03 show that around 85,000 under-age girls are recruited into contraception each year. The sheer scale of the contraception mentality is illustrated by the fact that in 2002 about 52,000 girls aged 15 (17 per cent of 15 year olds) attended family planning clinics. And if that were not bad enough, in the same year nearly 27,000 prescriptions for the morning after pill (now available from supermarkets and local pharmacies without a doctors prescription) were issued to under 16s.
Sex	Now - April 2004



Christian organisations in the UK are increasingly making use of the latest technological developments, according to the 2004 / 2005 edition of the UK Christian Handbook. Most have e-mail addresses and websites and there is a higher percentage with full-time staff, up from 79 per cent in 2001 to 81 per cent in 2003. The number of people employed in Christian organisations has also risen, from 77,500 to 82,100 over the same period. The figures stand against the background of a continuing drop in UK church membership and attendance, from 4,379,900 in 2000 to a projected 4,016,400 in 2005, seven per cent of the population.
Religion/Spirituality	Baptist Times - March 25th 2004



Mel Gibson claims that God led him to make The Passion of the Christ. He stated: This is God's movie. The Holy Ghost was running the show. As to the charge that he was blaming Jews for Christ's crucifixion, Gibson says, We're all culpable. Gibson explained: I have seen so many versions of the story. Those other movies were like looking through the wrong end of a telescope.
Entertainment	Direction - April 2004



Each year the UK's 224 hospices provide care and comfort free of charge, to thousands of patients, their families, relatives and carers, helping them make the most of every moment they have in whatever way they can.
Health	The Scottish Catholic Observer - February 27th 2004



In 2002, UK sales of Fairtrade products reached a retail value of £63 million, which was a whopping 90 per cent increase from the year 2000.
Shopping	The Scottish Catholic Observer - February 27th 2004



Hunger in itself is a weapon of mass destruction - it kills 24,000 people a day and 11 children every minute.
Social Issues	The Scottish Catholic Observer - February 27th 2004



"14 fun facts for Fairtrade Fortnight." 1. In the UK we drink 31 billion cups of coffee every year and nearly 70 billion cups of tea. 2. Around 140 million bananas are eaten in the UK each week - that's more than seven billion every year. 3. The first products to carry the Fairtrade Mark were Maya Gold chocolate, Cafedirect coffee and Clipper fairtrade tea in 1994. 4. Fairtrade bananas were first launched in the UK in 2000. The UK's first fairtrade mangoes arrived in 2001, followed by fairtrade pineapples in 2002 and fairtrade oranges in 2003. 5. The average London coffee shop charges £1.75 for a cappuccino. The grower is likely to receive the equivalent of 5p of this. 6. More than 130 products now carry the Fairtrade Mark. 7. In 2002, the Co-op switched all its own label chocolate bars to fairtrade. 8. More than a quarter of the British public now recognise the Fairtrade Mark. 9. There are fairtrade labelling initiatives in 17 countries, mainly throughout Europe and North America. 10. The UK is the second largest fairtrade markets (after Switzerland). 11. £1.46 is spent on Fairtrade products in the UK each second. 12. Between 2000 and 2002, Fairtrade sales increased in the UK by 90 per cent. 13. Cafedirect, all of whose products carry the Fairtrade Mark, is now the UK's sixth largest coffee brand. 14. Fairtrade benefits 4.5 million producers and their families across the world.
Odd Facts	Baptist Times - 4th March 2004



National Census last year revealed that 75 per cent of British people described themselves as Christians.
Religion/Spirituality	The Church of England Newspaper - 19th February 2004



It is surely a horrifying blemish on the goodness and greatness of advanced societies that we should accept as natural that 20 per cent of humanity have access to 80 per cent of the world's resources and 80 per cent have access to only 20 per cent.
Social Issues	The Church of England Newspaper - 19th February 2004



In Britain it is predicted that we could see at least 200,000 jobs moving overseas in the next five years. In Amercia one organisation estimated in 2002 that 3.3 million jobs will move overseas by 2015. A report from Deloitte Research in 2003 said that the top 100 financial services firms plan to move $356 billion in operations and two million jobs overseas in the next five years. In Britain around 50,000 have probably disappeared.
Social Issues	The Church of England Newspaper - 19th February 2004



The Archbishop of Canterbury called on the Church of England to support the work of Anglican provinces in Africa to deal with the AIDS crisis. He stated " The fact is that in an ever-growing world of wealth and plenty, one in four people alive today lives in abject poverty. That has yet to change. But there can be no argument about the fact that the situation is intensified and made yet more tragic by the issue of Aids.
Church	The Church of England Newspaper - 19th February 2004



The Alpha course has now taken off all over the world. There are now 28,000 courses worldwide in 143 countries, including of course here in Uganda. Eighty per cent of the prisons in the UK are running Alpha, and thousands of people worldwide are discovering the wonder of forgiveness, the joy, the peace of knowing Jesus.
Religion/Spirituality	The Church of England Newspaper - 19th February 2004

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