SocietyWatch
2020: Deadliest year for U.S. gun violence in decades
More Americans died from gun violence last year than in any other year in the last two decades, according to a March 27 report from the from the Gun Violence Archive. Despite the unprecedented lockdowns, almost 20,000 Americans were killed in gun violence, and an additional 24,000 used a gun to commit suicide.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this was the first time firearm deaths exceeded 40,000 since 1981. In a bid to push through more gun control measures, former President Barack Obama said the “pandemic cannot be the only thing that slows mass shootings in this country.” But the data shows that the pandemic actually increased the number of victims.
These shootings highlight much bigger issues than the possession of firearms: depression, mental illness, gang membership and contempt for law and authority. These triggers of violence can only be solved by obeying the moral laws of the Bible.
U.S. military manufactures maternity jumpsuits
“We need the young women just beginning their careers in the military service to see it and know that no door will be closed to them,” Joe Biden said during a Women’s Day speech on March 8. “We’re making good progress designing body armor that fits women properly; tailoring combat uniforms for women; creating maternity flight suits; updating requirements for their hairstyles.”
The United States spends more on its military than the next 10 nations combined, but it is also softening it. On January 25, Biden signed an executive order repealing a ban on transgenders in the military; he also announced that taxpayers would fund surgeries for men who want to become women or women who want to become men while they are in the military.
Isaiah 3:1-3 describe what is happening in the United States armed forces: “For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.”
Sexualization of British teens is finally a scandal
The National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection said, “I think that there is a huge societal problem with what young men are viewing online, the sexualization of women, and the complete blurring of those lines in terms of what is a healthy relationship.”
In Isaiah’s End-Time Vision, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes: “Anciently the Israelites sometimes physically sacrificed their own children. Today we sacrifice our youth spiritually when we give them no uplifting vision. We sacrifice them to sexual lust and fornication. The Internet alone does $10 billion to $13 billion worth of business in pornography every year just in America! It is the most profitable online business. We also sacrifice our children to demoniac music, drugs and greed.”
Majority of Canadians on the Brink of Insolvency
A survey by MNP Consumer Debt Index published on April 8 found that 53 percent of Canadians are within $200 of failing to meet their monthly bills. This number includes 30 percent who already have $0 left at the end of the month.
Canadians have some of the highest debt-to-income levels in the world. In the fourth quarter of 2019, just prior to government lockdowns, Statistics Canada reported that the average Canadian held $1.71 in debt for every $1 of disposable income. In the second quarter of 2020, many Canadians reacted to the lockdowns by paying down some of their debts, but debt levels in the third and fourth quarters has again increased past $1.61 in debt for every $1 of disposable income.
A survey in December 2020 found that 47 percent of Canadians felt more relaxed than usual about going into debt, and 60 percent said that since interest rates were low, they felt good about going into debt to buy things they otherwise could not afford.
