Greetings,
Greeting to you from a bachelor for the week—my wife left me Tuesday morning! So, if this report sounds like I am a grouchy old man with a sore toe, well, forgive me.
Mr. Meredith is back in the swing of things now, after suffering the usual symptoms of jet lag. He had a very enjoyable and profitable visit at every stop. I expect Mr. Meredith will include information in his letters in the near future.
Mr. Meredith recently announced that Mr. John Ogwyn will be guest presenter on the Tomorrow's World TV program beginning next season. Mr. Ogwyn is scheduled to do his first taping in our studio May 15th.
CAD
Passover attendance reports are nearly complete. Preliminary indications are that we had a small attendance increase this year. If the report is finalized in time, Mr. Meredith may comment about his trip in his next member letter.
International
Mr. Jonathan McNair reports on his recent public lecture in Jamaica, and Mr. Fitzroy Greeman's public lecture in Trinidad.
"I just concluded a very successful trip to Jamaica. On Friday, April 5th, I arrived in Kingston, but, unfortunately, my luggage didn't until the next day! On the Sabbath, we had an excellent turnout at services. Quite a few people came from out of town to join us for services, which brought the attendance to more than sixty people. We spent the afternoon enjoying snacks and fellowshipping, at the church hall. We just recently began using this particular hall, as we needed to move from our previous hall. This hall has worked out very well after some refurbishing—re-carpeting and air conditioning work.
A public lecture was scheduled for Sunday, April 7th. About 480 letters were sent out, and we were hoping and praying for a good response. Much to our surprise organizers of the annual Carnival (similar to Mardi Gras in the U.S.) changed the date of the celebration from before Easter to April 7th! The parade route just happened to run within a block of the hotel where we had scheduled the public lecture! City streets were clogged with traffic and bus service was disrupted. One lady told me that she had to get off the bus and walk over a mile to get there! As we began the lecture, people were still arriving. In spite of the adversities there were 31 new people in attendance, in addition to our local church members. It was a very encouraging evening!"
Fitzroy Greeman recently conducted a public lecture in Trinidad. He wrote:
"On Friday morning Mr. Joseph Wharwood collected me at the Guest House to go visiting those who requested a ministerial visit. While we were able to visit with only seven of twenty-three persons on our list, I was able to calls all other persons and speak with them by phone. On Sunday morning Mr. Sheldon Ramdath visited me at the Guest House. After looking over the homework that he had done (the assignments you gave him) and counseling with him for some time, I baptized him that morning. Shortly after we left Port of Spain rain began to fall and continued all afternoon and into the night. We had to drive through rain on our way back to the Guest House that evening. There was flooding in San Fernando, but despite the adverse weather conditions the total attendance was sixty-five (65), thirty-seven (37) of whom were new persons.
The Lecture was well received. One lady has committed to start attending services. After the lecture, snacks were served, and several persons stayed around chatting for more than two hours. When I got back to Alicia's Guest House it was almost nine o'clock."
MEDIA
Mail Processing Department reported that we now are sending the Bible Study Course to 86 countries—from Antigua to Zimbabwe. That is literally from "A" to "Z!"
A report of a visit by Mr. Rajan Moses to INDONESIA will be in the next issue of the Living Church News. Watch for it!
COMMENTS
This week Supreme Court Associate Justice Byron White died. Justice White stands out as a man of principle and foresight. He was one of two Justices who dissented in the 1973 "Roe vs. Wade case," that opened up the floodgate for an estimated 40 million abortions in America. In his dissenting opinion on that case he decried, "those recurring pregnancies that pose no danger whatsoever to the life or health of the mother but are, nevertheless, unwanted for any one or more of a variety of reasons—convenience, family planning, economics, dislike of children, the embarrassment of illegitimacy, etc. The common claim before us is that, for any one of such reasons, or for no reason at all, and without asserting or claiming any threat to life or health, any woman is entitled to an abortion at her request if she is able to find a medical advisor willing to undertake the procedure" (townhall.com article by Cal Thomas, April 18, 2002).
Thomas then compared Justice White's dissenting opinion to that of two dissenters in the Dred Scott case of 1857—when the U.S. Supreme Court (by a vote of 7 to 2) "discounted the value of black slaves who, the Court said, were not fully human under the Constitution and so were not guaranteed the same rights enjoyed by whites" (ibid).
Cal Thomas compares the position of the major newspapers and the two major political parties' regarding the Dred Scott decision to the their stance on the Roe vs. Wade case—and concluded, "interestingly, Democrats supported the Court's decision in Dred Scott (as they did in Roe), while Republicans vigorously opposed it (as at least conservative Republicans did in Roe). Newspapers, divided between Republican and Democratic ownership, fell editorially along party lines on Dred Scott."
Politics is serious business. Politics is determining the will of the people—and too often, in accommodating them for personal gain. The Supreme Court should adhere strictly to the law without regard to political influences, and Justice White seems to have lived up to that rule in the Roe vs. Wade matter.
Thanks to a member in Wisconsin who forwarded the following anecdote this week:
There was a little elderly lady in the church who would never say anything bad about anybody, ever. Knowing this, the pastor one day asked her, "What do you think about the devil?"
He thought that surely she would say something negative about the devil!
Her simple reply was very polite: "He's very good at what he does."
I am sure we would agree with her; "He's very good at what he does!"
Have a great Sabbath and keep safe.
Carl McNair