Watching the World

The Fertilizer Shortage

? Right now there is a shortage of fertilizer in the world. The best energy source for fertilizer production is natural gas. Is there enough natural gas from which to make fertilizer? A New York Times editorial notes: “Experts in this country estimate that if just one-quarter of the natural gas that is now wasted in the Persian Gulf fields were diverted into a fertilizer industry on the spot, the world’s entire current demand for nitrogen fertilizer could be met. Sheik Yamani, Saudi Arabia’s Petroleum Minister, correctly told the United Nations General Assembly last week that it is ‘improper and unconscionable’ that such a readily available fuel supply is not being fully exploited.” Will it be done?

To Heal Ulcers

? What is the most essential factor in treating ulcers? A United Press International article refers to Dr. Walter Alvarez, the syndicated columnist and emeritus professor at the University of Minnesota’s Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, as saying that “peace of mind—not good hospital care or a special diet—is the essential factor in treatment of ulcers.”

Is Today Different?

? ‘Today’s bad conditions are the same as they have always been’—at least that is what some people say. But noted writer and historian Lewis Mumford disagrees: “The situation is different now. In the past when civilizations went downhill it was a relatively local phenomenon. Rome only covered a small amount of territory, really . . . Now, with the world more closely knit and held together by modern communications, when civilization goes downhill, the whole planet goes down. Furthermore, the pace of things was slow then. The decline of Rome was a process that occurred over a number of generations . . . Now decline comes most rapidly in advanced nations.”

A Boxer’s Feelings

? Someone asks California Today the question: ‘Don’t boxers feel bad when they injure an opponent?’ In answer, they quote a former world heavyweight champion: “If I killed a man in the ring, I wouldn’t be happy about it. But I’d be glad I won the fight—and I wouldn’t have a problem sleeping that night.”

The Transsexual Phenomenon

? A hermaphrodite is an unfortunate person whose sex is ambiguous by birth; a transsexual, on the other hand, is one who, for “psychiatric” reasons, decides to undergo surgery and be physically changed from one sex to another. Regarding the latter, the comments of Albert Rosenfeld, science editor of Saturday Review/World, are appropriate: “I have been surprised to hear so little debate or discussion about the ethics of surgical sex change for purely psychiatric reasons . . . The transsexual phenomenon points up our propensity for underrating people’s willingness to accept circumstances they would once have considered outlandish—and for underestimating the speed at which this process occurs.”

Food and Energy

? It has surprised some persons to learn that the food industry is one of the largest users of energy in the U.S. But few persons take their food directly from the soil. Thus a tremendous amount of energy must be expended to get it to them. Says Science: “A typical breakfast includes orange juice from Florida by way of the . . . factory, bacon from a midwestern meat packer, cereal from Nebraska and [the cereal packager], eggs and milk from not too far away, and coffee from Colombia.’’ The U.S. customer, of course, may drive a 300-horsepower automobile several miles to a supermarket and then use energy to refrigerate the food and finally cook it for himself.

Tobacco and Gum Disease

? Research in recent years has connected tobacco usage with a number of ailments. Now a new one has been added to the list: gum disease. A study of 684 male dental patients at a Boston, Massachusetts, hospital found that the formation of calcified particles around the teeth, bone loss in the jaw and the number of loose teeth were much higher in the smokers than in nonsmokers. Incidentally, gum disease, not cavities, is the main cause of tooth loss in adults.

Shaky Peace

? Why is it that, in spite of talk about worldwide peace, there are more devastating weapons of destruction being made? Experts say that this is to prevent “international blackmail” from being brought on by the opposite side; in other words, no one trusts anybody else. Herman Kahn is quoted in Newsweek as observing: “If you have a crisis, both sides say something like this: ‘Look, nothing at issue is worth the serious risk of nuclear war. It’s just crazy for us to continue this terrible crisis. One of us has to be reasonable and it isn’t going to be me.’”

Religious “Horse Race”

? The choice of a new archbishop of Canterbury has interested Britons in more than one way. Some of them have been taking gambling odds on who would win the position in what has come to be called “the Canterbury stakes.” The wife of Bishop Robert Runcie of St. Albans says: “The whole thing is extremely embarrassing. It’s revolting to turn important church affairs into a horse race.” The gamblers have considered her husband only a 6-to-1 middle runner in the race.

Fruits of Involvement

? “Every individual Christian in this part of Africa must involve himself in a political party,” says the Anglican bishop of Botswana, S. Mallory. And what happens when they do? Well, over to the east, in the Mozambique town of Nampula, the residents expelled six Catholic missionaries from the country. Why? Apparently they did get involved in politics. The Rhodesia Herald says they are accused of “subversive activities.”

Modern “Crucifixion”

? For the sixth Good Friday in a row the “crucifixion” was actually reenacted in San Fernando, the Philippines, as Juanito Piring was nailed to a cross and held aloft, blood dripping from his hands. Piring considers his actions an atonement for his sins and “a sacrifice for the extension of life of my mother and my sick child.” Over 4,000 persons watched the spectacle, dozens flagellating themselves with scourges and broken glass.

Pierced Ears and Hepatitis

? A medical research team headed by Dr. Carl Johnson of the Jefferson County Health Department in Colorado has found that hepatitis can sometimes be contracted when ears are pierced for earrings. The group says that some physicians still use “cold sterilization” methods in an attempt to destroy the hepatitis virus on soiled needles before these are used on another patient. Johnson observes that instrument sterilization should be done in an autoclave or by boiling for twenty minutes to destroy the virus.

Someone Agrees with the Pope

? Pope Paul VI recently spoke of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a model for women’s liberation. Thereafter a unit of NOW (National Organization for Women) in the U.S. stated that it shared the pope’s views. However, Joyce Mitchell, national coordinator of the group, says NOW does not agree with someone else’s views on the subject. Who? “The NOW task force on women and religion will no longer accept St. Paul’s statement” on the position of women, as stated in the Bible. Does the pope “accept St. Paul’s statement”?

Catholics and Genesis

? There was a time when the Catholic Church at least outwardly claimed to believe the Bible. And now? Well, consider the statement by Msgr. Raymond Bosler printed in The Florida Catholic: “The first chapters of Genesis do not give an historical account of the beginning of the human race . . . Previously Christians interpreted the Genesis account more literally. Councils of the church, such as Trent, assumed that Adam was the father of the human race.” But obviously the Catholic Church views the Bible differently now.

Catholic Evangelists

? Catholic evangelizing successes, they themselves admit, are limited. When five U.S. parishes in Mississippi took part in a 12-week evangelizing experiment, the National Catholic Reporter says the result “was not overly satisfying.” “Evangelization,” says Italy’s Il Giorno, is “the main crisis of the Church, at the root of everything else.” The pope has called a synod of bishops to deal with the problem in September. Meanwhile, a Jesuit editor of America magazine, R. Blake, thinks the Church can learn from Madison Avenue advertising techniques: “If the television industry can motivate people more effectively with cat food commercials than we can with the sermon on the mount, then it stands to reason we have a lot to learn from them.”

Is This Living?

? Some grown-ups in the ‘developed world’ have been sick only on rare occasions in their life. They may conclude that medicine has “conquered” man’s fundamental ailments. But that is not so. A current issue of World Health, the magazine of the U.N.’s World Health Organization, describes a “typical example” of a two-year-old South American infant from a poorer family. This child, the report says, “has had six attacks of infection of the eyes, five attacks of diarrhoea, ten infections of the upper respiratory passage, four attacks of bronchitis, measles followed by broncho-pneumonia and an episode of stomatitis. In 24 months, this child has had nearly 30 attacks of illness and has had one infection or another for about a third of his life . . . he is almost a year behind in physical development.”

Lutherans Want Help

? Members of the Lutheran Church of America (LCA) admit that they seem unable to apply Christian principles in their daily lives. The organization’s Consulting Committee on Study of Theological Affirmations, after receiving more than 10,000 written responses and conducting hundreds of hours of personal interviews, says: “As LCA members, we have faith in God and we have an involvement in the world, but we have difficulty putting the two together. We sometimes see Christ in the heavens on Sundays, but we do not know how to recognize him in a brother or sister on Monday. We need help in moving from the heavens above to the earth below.”

Grain for Whiskey

? North Americans consume a tremendous amount of grain both directly, as, for example, flour in bakery products, and also indirectly, as feed for cattle and other meat animals. But they have used grain in another way too. Says the Milwaukee Journal: “The amount of grain used in distilling [whiskey and other spirits] in the US would keep 500,000 people in south Asia alive for one year at their present diet levels.”

‘Clergy Are Worldly’

? Why are so many people forsaking the “Christian Churches”? In London’s Daily Telegraph Magazine, journalist A. Lejeune offers one explanation: “Such clergymen are worldly . . . they have consciously chosen to concern themselves mainly with the affairs of this world . . . Not surprisingly, a lot of young people are turning away from this welfare state version of Christianity towards mysticism and the religions of the East . . . Men thirst for a kingdom which is not of this world: and, if the Christian Church no longer offers it, they will seek it elsewhere. Increasingly, I remember the advice given by Professor Jowett, the great Master of Balliol, a century ago: ‘You really must believe in God, my dear, in spite of what the clergy say.’”