| No. 22 | [ Home Page ] [ Index ] | August 1992 |
Research is more than data collection
For many the challenge of understanding and monitoring the numbers of reached and unreached peoples is simply a matter of amassing large amounts of data in a central location. Here the emphasis is on the collection tools, particularly those on the field. Since missionaries and nationals are right on the scene, they are looked to for the primary source of information. Once data has been secured from these sources it is brought together nationally and then ported to an international collection center. There it sits in a central computer database for anyone who wants to see it. That, for many, is the end of the process of monitoring. But data collection is only the beginning of the research process. Once data has been collected it must be analyzed and interpreted. Most of the time it is necessary not only to go back to the original source but to check the data with other sources. Only then can one be somewhat sure of its accuracy. Much has to be considered simply wrong or misleading. After this, data has to be integrated into larger scenarios that provide context and meaning. For this to happen, the person sitting at the end of the data collection process must be a committed researcher, not merely an administrator or a computer whiz (who are not confident monkeying with figures). When one looks at the unreached peoples movement both presently and historically it is surprising that this type of person is difficult to find. Administrators, mobilizers, writers, preachers, computer experts, and others abound but researchers and analysts are in short supply. This is certainly a major cause of the Christian world's present inability to make sense of both numbers and monitoring in the unreached peoples sphere.
What to do about a sick world_
One of the 300 constituent dimensions of the concept "evangelization" is-"healing". So what does the following quote say to all of us committed to world evangelization_ "One in five-or more than 1 billion people-worldwide suffers from disease at a given time, according to a new report by the World Health Organization. And billions more are not actively sick but are infected with potential ailments, including: 2 billion with hepatitis B virus, 1.7 million with tuberculosis bacilli and 30 million to 40 million with the HIV virus. Of the 50 million deaths each year, 46.5 million are due to disease. Infectious and parasitic diseases are the main killers (17.5 million), followed by heart disease, stroke and other circulatory ailments (11 million) and cancer (5.1 million)" (Newsweek, May 11, 1992:10).
Struggling with the distribution problem
"A Guide for Catechists in territories dependent on the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (CEP)" was the theme of this Mission Department's 16th Plenary Assembly which opened at the Vatican April 27, 1992. CEP prefect Cardinal J. Tomko, looking to John Paul II's "Redemptoris Missio" as a guide stated one of the CEP's central concerns as "the adequate distribution of the missionaries". Though the CEP's activity includes 950 dioceses or other territorial jurisdictions (38% of the world total) these workers are in no way evenly distributed among the non-Christians of the world. Asia is the major need for more attention. Latin America, where 42% of the world's Catholics reside, still receives the attention of CEP in 74 circumscriptions though "it should, if we looked at the matter mathematically, provide 42% of all missionary personnel" (International Fides service, April 29, 1992:NE 164-165).
Missionary recognizes deployment disparity
Awareness seminars on Islam have recently influenced over 5,000 national pastors and many more laypeople. Del Kingswriter, director of the Assemblies of God Center for Ministry to Muslims, observes that although one third of the world's unreached people are Muslims less than 4 percent of the AoG missionary force are working among Muslims. Though this figure is up from 2 percent ten years ago, Kingswriter hopes to soon see one third of their missionary force (33%) working among Muslims (Mountain movers, May 1992:26-27). If all mission agencies would adopt this type of approach, it would not be long before the unreached peoples would receive the sort of attention they deserve.
John Paul II looks to the laity for "ad gentes" mission
On May 14, 1992, John Paul II addressed the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Laity with the following words: "Mission begins where one lives. But the "ad gentes" ["To the Peoples!"] mission is more than ever expected from laity too, from their movements and their associations. May the grace which you have received change you into pilgrims, capable of leaving your homes and your security to go and share the fathomless riches of Christ, there, where the Lord calls you, there where the Church needs you. I am thinking of mission work being done in many countries where Jesus Christ is still unknown, where sometimes the institutional presence of the Church is prohibited and entails real danger. I think of those Christian communities which are working on their own reconstruction after the period in which an attempt was made to suppress their sense of religion and to silence the Good News... It is necessary therefore to increase the awareness that mission concerns all Christians, all dioceses, all parishes, all institutions and church associations" (International Fides service, May 13, 1992:NE 193).
Global slavery rises to 200 million
To most Westerners, slavery is an issue of the past-one solved by legislation over 100 years old. But 200 million people are currently enslaved throughout the world according to London-based Anti-Slavery International (ASI). Slaves are "people made to work against their will, for little or no pay, and without the freedom of choice to seek alternative employment." Three categories of slavery are: enforced child labor, debt bondage, and traditional chattel slavery. Landowners and factory operators lower labor costs by making school age children work seven days a week, sometimes 20 hours a day, at hazardous occupations without enough food and little or no pay. This includes Moroccan girls in carpet factories, Indian children in glass and bangle factories, Haitian boys kidnapped for Dominican government sugar-cane plantations, and Thai children in Bangkok sweatshops. As many as 25 million adults and 15 million children in India alone, lacking assets of any kind, mortgage muscle for small loans to survive. Finally, as an example of chattel slavery, members of the Dinka tribe in Sudan are owned by other ethnic groups. Ironically, good anti-slavery laws are on the books of almost every country. But grinding poverty, deterioration in the status of women and children, and social inequity work against legislation. Development strategies must dig deeper to prevent the atrocities of slavery (World watch, Jan/Feb 1992:9, 34).
An unlimited resource will start to disappear soon
Seen from space, one can see that three-quarters of our planet's surface is covered with water. Every year an average of 7,000 cubic meters of water per person flows into rivers and underground passages. Even so, a quarter of the world's countries are dangerously short of fresh water. Diseases associated with dirty water kill over 5 million people a year-most of these being children. Water shortages are worse in the poorest countries where population growth is the highest. In these same countries 90% of the fresh water supply is used for irrigation (the global average is about 75%). Much of this water is wasted. With thirsty urban populations on the rise now is the time to treat water as a tradeable commodity, like oil, coal, timber, and other products (The economist, March 28, 1992:11-12).
Making a desert out of paradise
Since World War II more than 3 billion acres of agricultural land have been damaged by human actions. That represents an area larger than India and China combined, and there may be little humans can do to reclaim it. This is the conclusion of a new United Nations report compiled by 200 analysts-the first ever to chart soil health globally. If topsoil erosion continues at these kinds of rates, the world's population will become impossible to feed. Every year farmers are faced with the task of feeding 92 million more people with 24 billion tons less topsoil. The main culprits are: livestock overgrazing (35%), deforestation (30%), and harmful agricultural practices (28%). Like so many of the problems humanity faces, this can only be solved with international cooperation and planning (Science news, April 4, 1992:215).
Four paths to the future of AIDS
Richard K. Curtis, Indiana University, suggests four scenarios projecting AIDS into the next century. (1) Worst possible case: due to massive under-reporting of present cases and steep doubling curve there are 1.6 billion HIV infections and 320 million AIDS cases by the year 2000. (2) Worst probable case: if WHO is right about 1.2 million cases in 1992, a 24-30 month doubling time leads to 15 million cases by 2000, if treatments and vaccines are not developed there could be 600 million deaths by 2028. (3) Best probable case: effective treatment by 2000 leads to significant reduction by 2010. (4) Best possible case: effective vaccine and treatment have half of the world's population vaccinated by 2006. The question remains: Will the next 20 years produce 50 million AIDS-related deaths-a pandemic unsurpassed in ferocity since the Black Death killed 75 million worldwide in the 14th century_ (Futures research quarterly, Winter 1991:39-45).
Seeking an Environmental Revolution to save the world
State of the world 1992, the ninth in the series, carries more bad news. Deforestation over the past decade has been accelerating; deserts continue to expand, topsoil continues to erode, endangering 1/3 of the world's cropland; the ozone hole is worse than originally expected. If these and other trends continue degradation will lead to global economic decline. The Agricultural Revolution began some 10,000 years ago and the Industrial Revolution has been underway for two centuries. Now an Environmental Revolution must succeed in the next two decades or the future of mankind will be threatened by overpopulation, lack of natural resources, and pollution of vital global assets (World watch, Jan/Feb 1992:2).
The mother of all global plans_
A new global monolith has suddenly emerged! Denouncing denominationalism with its 23,000 denominations as "a spent force and historically on the way out," more than 100 megachurches of various denominations in the U.S.A.--Baptist, Charismatic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, Reformed, etc--have gathered together since October 1990 to form Churches Uniting in Global Missions (CUGM). The chairman, Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in California, U.S.A., and "the most watched TV preacher in history", emphasizes that this is not a new council of churches or denomination but that CUGM has been formed "to evangelize the world more effectively" and help the church "to create new ways to carry out the Christian mission" (Charisma, April 1992:86). So far it is unclear exactly how this new group will impact the unevangelized world, World A. This move does point toward a trend to bypass denominational lines in addressing the mission challenge presented by today's violently-changing world.
Comments on Global Diagram 52
Every year some 10 million pastors and other Christian leaders fill out complex statistical questionnaires and return them to their parent bodies. To understand and interpret this mass of new statistical data, we create a new global diagram every month; and the major backdrop we use is the definitive United Nations Demographic Database (all countries, 50 variables, AD 1950-2025). This is our starting point because the major statistic against which any progress must be measured is-population size. Now the United Nations is challenging us to make concrete investigations involving not only the 21st century, but the 22nd as well. Its new study Long-range world population projections: two centuries of population growth, 1950-2150 does this by extending its future projections to AD 2150 on 6 different scenarios, and to AD 2200 for its main scenario, the familiar Medium Variant (bold column 4 in Table 1 opposite). Over the next few months, the Monitor will analyze the implications of these new demographics for religion, religions, global Christianity, and the Christian world mission. This first diagram opposite is the starting point. The center graphic reveals a startling shift in the age makeup of the present and future globe. We're all familiar with today's world in which 32% are under-15s. How do we react to the news that by 2150 this will have dropped to 18%_
Neil Postman argues that our social institutions are being dominated by technology resulting in determinism, in Technopoly (Knopf, 1992, 224 pp., $21.00).
Wolfgang Zuckermann advocates a global effort to deal with the environmental, social and economic difficulties related to the automobile in End of the road: the world car crisis and how we can solve it (Chelsea Green, 1991, 320 pp., $21.95).
J. Gordon Melton has produced Religious leaders of America: a biographical guide to founders and leaders of religious bodies, churches, and spiritual groups in North America (Gale, 1991, 604 pp., $79.95) which contains more than 1,000 entries, of persons mostly living, with brief biographical sketches.
John M. Weeks has produced a valuable new reference tool for anyone interested in Anthropology--Introduction to library research in anthropology (Westview, 1991, 281 pp., $24.95).
The heart of World A is examined in The modernization of inner Asia (M.E. Sharpe, 1991, 405 pp., $49.95) edited by Cyril E. Black et al.
A model for future African urban studies because of its depth and insight is Lagos: the city is the people by Margaret Peil (G.K. Hall, 1991, 213 pp., $35.00).
Brief bibliographical sketches of 1,500 prominent religious leaders are given in the Who's who of world religions edited by John R. Hinnells (Simon & Schuster, 1992, 656 pp., $60.00).
Maureen F. McHugh has outlined a 22nd century dominated by China following the life of a 26 year-old American-born Chinese in New York, the Arctic Circle, and China in China Mountain Zhang (Tor, 1992, $19.00).
A planetary civilization 40 million years in the future is the setting for an artificial intelligence called the Oversoul which is slowly losing its grip on millions of years of guided peace in The memory of Earth by Orson Scott Card (Tor, 1992, $21.95).
British author Jonathan Porritt (Seeing green) covers the world, from arms spending to population, to effectively outline the green movement in Where on earth are we going_ (Parkwest, 1992, 241 pp., $19.95).
Peoples and cultures edited by Alisdair Rogers (Oxford, 1992, 256 pp., $45.00) provides new insight in anthropology.
Nations: a survey of the twentieth century edited by J.E. Spence (Oxford, 1992, 256 pp., $35.00) chronicles changing national borders.
Walter Wickremasinghe provides a "concise source of up-to-date information" for those interested in international education in over 100 countries in Handbook of world education: a comparative guide to higher education & educational systems of the world (American Collegiate Service, P.O. Box 442008, Houston, TX 77244, 1991, 898 pp., $98.00).
For information on the Kurds see Mehrdad Izady's The Kurds: a concise handbook (Crane Russak, 1992, 160 pp., $15.95). Izady, himself a Kurd, covers history, ethnography, geography, culture, and politics.
One Europe--100 nations by Ray Pedersen (Multilingual Matters, Ltd., 1992, 170 pp., $27.00) highlights stateless ethnic nations seeking linguistic freedom, cultural expression, and political self-determination in the midst of a move towards greater unity.
A leading factor in the development of China, India, France, and many other countries was the production, distribution, and taxation of salt according to S.A.M. Adshead in Salt and civilization (St. Martin's Press, 1991, 429 pp., $39.95).
Look for Historical tables 58 BC-AD 1990, 12th edition by S.H. Steinberg, updated by John Paxton (Garland, 1992, 352 pp., $60.00).
An excellent resource for research is Religious information sources: a worldwide guide compiled by J. Gordon Melton and Michael A. Kszegi (Garland, 1992, 581 pp., $75.00).
The theoretical and practical basis for world citizenship is examined in Passport to freedom: a guide for world citizens by Garry Davis with Greg Guma (Seven Locks Press, 1992, $12.95).
A new reference work on the deaf focuses on medical topics and technical terms that pertain to the deaf community as a separate culture. Carol Turkington and Allen Sussman are the authors of The encyclopedia of deafness and hearing disorders (Facts on File, 1992, 320 pp., $45.00).
Jeremy Rifkin writes of how the cattle culture has wrought devastation throughout the earth in Beyond beef: the rise and fall of the cattle culture (Dutton, 1992, 304 pp., $21.00).
One of the few sources of statistics on worldwide food and agriculture is The state of food and agriculture, 1990 from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Rome, 1991, 223 pp., $50.00).
Michael Carrithers and Caroline Humphrey describe and analyze the Jains of India in sociological terms in The assembly of listeners: Jains in society (Cambridge, 1991, 328 pp., $54.50).
The Bedouin of Libya are examined in light of sociological issues by the late Emrys L. Peters (edited by Jack Goody and Emanuel Marx) in The Bedouin of Cyrenaica: studies in personal and corporate power (Cambridge, 1991, 310 pp., $47.50).
The poverty of nations: a guide to the debt crisis--from Argentina to Zaire edited by Elmar Altvater et al. (Zed Books, 1991, 282 pp., $19.95) covers trends and underlying causes of the debt crisis, accompanied by many tables, figures and maps.
The skill and knowledge of rural African peoples is the key to their survival in Development from within: survival in rural Africa edited by D.R. Fraser Taylor and Fiona Mackenzie (Routledge, 1991, 304 pp., $19.95).
The world of learning 1992 (Gale Research, 1992, 1,980 pp., $330.00) includes information on 26,000 academic, cultural, and scientific institutions in more than 160 countries.
Larissa J. Taylor explores religious values and practices in 1,600 sermons given by leading French preachers from 1460 to 1560 in Soldiers of Christ: preaching in late Medieval and Reformation France (Oxford University Press, 1992, 368 pp., $55.00).
Bill McKibben (The end of nature, 1989) believes we don't know the Earth is in danger because our main source of information is television. He labored through 24 hours of programs on 103 cable channels available in Washington D.C., U.S.A. His conclusions are set forth in The age of missing information (Random House, 1992, 261 pp., $20.00).
Global computer initiative
Can a computer network be used to help a global body of concerned organizations and individuals tackle difficult issues_ Yes, if that network is EcoNet. Started in 1984, it is operated by the nonprofit Institute for Global Communications (IGC) out of its headquarters in San Francisco, California, U.S.A. EcoNet is the first computer network designed for organizations and individuals working on environmental preservation. Imagine an activist in Harare, Zimbabwe sharing information via modem with a colleague in Australia. Or Papua New Guineans getting vital tips from Latin American colleagues on how to save rain forests. These and other applications are daily fare for the 2,300 organizations and individuals currently using EcoNet. For more information contact EcoNet at 18 DeBoom Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, tel. (415) 442-0220 (World watch, Jan/Feb 1992:5-7).