OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

While at Princeton I came upon some sobering statistics, some facts that bring home to us how much our world is changing. Americans have less interest in having children than ever before. During the 1970's ten million had themselves sterilized. In the 1950's each woman of child-bearing age had 3.7 children. Today she has only 1.7 children, which falls short of the 2.2 that is required to hold our population at present level. In the 1950's 70% of the families had a stay-at-home mother. Today it is only 15%. The fastest growing category of families is the single-person household. There are now more of them than the "typical" several-persons home. And these days 40% of women with young children work. The number of women in the work force continues to climb while the number of men decreases. And for the first time in our history we now have more women enrolled in college than men! College is no longer the royal road to success, especially to men. Men are allowing women to take over our world. There is more divorce, more porn, more pot than ever before. Any sign of hope? Yes, there are signs of continuity with the past. High school kids are answering some questions the same way their grandparents did in the 1920's, such as believing the Bible to be the best guide for life.

The Orthodox Church is this year celebrating 1,000 years of Christianity in Russia. By official estimates there are 40 million professed believers in Russia, out of a population of 280 million, but the actual figure maybe much higher. Mikhail Gorbachev recently met with leaders of the Orthodox Church in the Kremlin, the first of its kind in 40 years, and promised more freedom for the church.

Churches of Christ are growing at a phenomenal rate in Ghana, Africa. There are now more than 400 congregations and 70,000 members. In 1983 more than 2,000 Churches of Christ from all over the world cooperated in emergency food relief in Ghana, which is one reason for the rapid growth. More recently as many as 5,000 churches have joined hands in feeding masses of hungry people in both Ghana and Ethiopia.

J. James Albert's California Letter (Box 811, Corcoran, Ca. 93212), a mimeographed mailout, is significant in that it reflects changes taking place among our brethren in the one-cup, non-Sunday School Churches of Christ. In a recent issue Dallas Burdette is quoted as saying, "In my advancement in the knowledge of the Scriptures, I soon came to the realization that we are not one in opinion, but we are one in Christ. It is not that we are reconciled to all the views of each other, but that all of us have been reconciled to God through Christ who makes us one body." You can be put on the mailing list for the asking.