SocietyWatch
Americans’ worries about race relations at record high
More Americans are worried about race relations than at any time since Gallup started tracking this trend in 2001. Forty-two percent said they were concerned a “great deal” over race relations, according to a poll published on March 15.
Leading up to the presidential election in 2008, Americans were hopeful that candidate Barack Obama would heal race relations in the United States. A Gallup poll taken a day after the election revealed that only 10 percent of Americans were worried that race relations would worsen under his presidency, while 70 percent were optimistic that race relations would improve. It is now clear that race relations have not played out as expected.
Participants were asked if they were worried a “great deal,” a “fair amount,” “only a little,” or “not at all” about the state of race relations in America. Forty-two percent responded that they were worried a “great deal,” and 27 percent said they were concerned a “fair amount.” This means the ratio of Americans troubled over the state of race relations in their country has reached almost 70 percent. Americans are equally as worried over race relations today as they were optimistic of them nine years ago.
This spike in concern is not without cause. And biblical prophecy shows that incidents of race-related tension, social unrest and violence will increase on a huge scale in America. For more information, read Chapter 5 of Gerald Flurry’s free booklet Great Again, “Where America’s Race Riots Are Leading.”
Religious freedom is declining
Freedom of religion is declining across the world. A report released on April 26 by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom noted that “the state of affairs for international religious freedom is worsening in both the depth and breadth of violations.”
This report calls on the U.S. State Department to again designate 10 countries as “countries of particular concern” based on high levels of religious persecution: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The report also calls on the State Department to designate six new countries to the Tier 1 list: Central African Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Syria and Vietnam.
Russia was added to the Tier 1 list for the first time this year. Its inclusion was due to new Russian laws effectively criminalizing private religious speech not sanctioned by the state, a nationwide ban on the Jehovah’s Witness denomination, and Russian attempts to impose repressive religious policies on areas of Ukraine “by means of military invasion and occupation.”
A Pew Research Center study published on April 11 found that 23 of 198 countries assessed had “very high” levels of government restrictions on religious practices in 2015. That compares to only 16 countries ranked as having “very high” government restrictions on religious freedom the previous year. The Middle East, North Africa and Asia had worse restrictions on religious freedom than the Western world, yet 31 of 45 European nations increased government restrictions on freedom of worship between 2014 and 2015. Even the United States was assessed as having more government restrictions on freedom of religion in 2015 than in 2007.
‘Give your transgender student a cake’
British schoolteachers have been told to send an “upbeat” message to students who want to change their gender. Give them a cake, was the suggestion of activist Terry Reed to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers on April 11.
“It doesn’t have to be cake; it’s just making it an upbeat, ‘we’re absolutely behind you and with you’ message immediately, so that it doesn’t get downbeat,” said Reed, a campaigner for transsexual interests.
Also, all students will get an “education” about same-sex couples as part of their mandatory relationships curriculum that begins in 2019. The National Union of Teachers says that children should begin learning about same-sex relationships at age 2.
Teachers were told that although opinions have shifted and a “huge” surge of “transgender” and “non-binary” students are coming forward, there is still a “lack of policies which promote lgbt+ [Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender, plus] within schools.”
The phrase “non-binary” can mean any of the following: identifying with both genders, between both genders, no gender, varying between genders, only a partial gender, or a culturally specific gender.
This embracing of immorality and radical departure from reality is destined to have catastrophic consequences for American society.
