Century marks

Christian Century, April 19, 2003

GOOD SAMARITANS: Christian Peacemaker Teams has had a delegation in Baghdad, visiting hospitals and bombsites and documenting Iraqi suffering. When part of the Baghdad team was expelled from the country, the members took three cars, with Iraqi drivers, across the desert to Amman, Jordan. They drove at a high speed, trying to avoid the bombing. The last car in the convoy had a tire blow out and landed in a ten-foot ditch, injuring several of the CPT members. An Iraqi stopped to help and took them to a small clinic in a nearby town that had been bombed by coalition forces three days earlier, destroying a children's hospital, among other things. The doctor apologized for a lack of medicine, due to the embargo against Iraq, but he did what he could to help, and then refused to accept payment. "We treat everyone in our clinic: Muslim, Christian, Iraqi or American. We all are part of the same family, you know," the doctor said (www.prairienet.org/cpt/).

DOWN WITH DIRTY HARRY: Ample research has demonstrated a correlation between TV violence and aggression in children. Based on a longitudinal study which followed children to adulthood, researchers from the University of Michigan argue that exposure to media violence encourages aggressive behavior in adulthood among both males and females without respect to socioeconomic status or family considerations. Making an enduring impression on children are: violent characters with whom they identify, violent scenes believed to be realistic and scenes of perpetrators of violence being rewarded for their behavior (Developmental Psychology, March).

DRINK TO THIS: From field research in Africa, anthropologist John Blacking concluded that all people have an innate musical ability and that most societies encourage it; it is only in recent centuries in the West that professionalization has suppressed popular musical expression. "Before the professionals came to dominate, all music was folk music in the sense that it was a form of communication and interaction between different members of a society," says Ian Green. Given this innate interest in music, it should not be surprising that popular religious movements use "folk music" (that is, the music popular with the masses) as a vehicle of expression. "Martin Luther keyed into the existing German tradition of folk hymns and secular folk songs, with great success," blurring the line between secular and sacred music: "... soon his hymns were ... being sung in workshops, market places, streets, fields, and even in bathhouses and inns." One bishop complained that the psalms were even being sung in ale-houses (Ian Green in Christianity and Community in the West, edited by Simon Ditchfield [Ashgate]).

CLASH OR CONVERSATION? The Anti-Defamation League says that anger over the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has led to a 24 percent increase of incidents of anti-Semitism on American campuses, compared to a year ago. Acts of Anti-Semitism include name-calling and damage to buildings housing Jewish fraternal organizations. However, the founder of a group that advocates dialogues between those who support Israel and those who support the Palestinians said that "we have never experienced a greater increase in dialogue being initiated between Jews and Palestinians and Jews and Muslims on campuses in North America." He estimated that since the beginning of this school year Jewish and Muslim students have started dialogue at more than a dozen colleges (Associated Press, March 26).

ITS A FACT: A Texan is eight times more likely to serve in the U.S. military, than a New Yorker. In fact, 18 percent of the army comes from the Lone Star State. Two states, Texas and Florida, account for nearly a fourth of the armed forces (Economist, March 22).

EASTER TRADITION: For $15.99 you could buy an Easter basket at Kmart filled with the Combat Vehicle Military Play Set and the Die-Cast Metal Army Force. Or if you were on a tighter budget, Wal-Mart had a smaller basket for $4.88 featuring an Army Tech action figure equipped with an automatic rifle and bazooka--for ages three and up. Just what kids need to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus (Detroit News, March 23).

CENSOR THIS: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia barred broadcast media from covering an address he presented in Cleveland upon receiving the City Club's Free Speech Award (Wall Street Journal, March 20).

KISS YOUR DONKEY GOODBYE: In January a donkey laden with explosives was used in a Palestinian suicide bombing in Jerusalem. In response, Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), wrote to Yasir Arafat: "Will you please add to your burdens my request that you appeal to all those who listen to you to leave the animals out of this conflict?" (Harper's, April).

APOLOGIES: The April 5 Century Marks gave an incorrect Web site for the VICE Fund. The correct address is vicefund.com. Just goes to show that you never know where vice will lead you.

Children of Abraham

            Jews        Christians         Muslims

1900     12,292,000     558,132,000      199,941,000

2003     14,789,000    2,076,629,000    1,265,230,000