Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 53 World Wide Events at the end of the 20th Century
As has been the practice of this author and editor I find it significant to set the stage for events in the local church by taking a quick, broad look at important events that have influenced us locally from a global perspective. The Lord has created a magnificent world that we live in and it is our responsibility, as Christians, to at least share in the caretaking of this planet called Earth and to be concerned for all peoples who reside therein.
Christians world-wide in the 1990’s could look at a number of instances where the walls of evil that separated people from each other were breaking down. There could be a great sense of optimism for what was yet to come as a result of change, a sense that good was in fact triumphing over evil. At least this might be so from the perspective of an American looking at that change.
In Part 46 of this series we mentioned that in Europe the world witnessed a dramatic change in political differences. The Wall that had been erected between East and West Germany was brought down and the two Germanys were reunited in 1990. We also mentioned that through the efforts of Michael Gorbachev and his successor Boris Yeltsen
the Soviet system was abandoned and several countries that had been under Soviet rule were now free to form their own countries. I remember that a group of students from South Portland under the leadership of Social Studies Department Chairman Lorne Goodell took an exciting trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia as study groups were encouraged to see the changes and openness of the new Russian system. One of my students who went on this trip, Angel Swiger, came home and brought me a significant little chunk of cement. On the way home the group had stopped over in Berlin on the way home to the United States. The students had gone to "The Wall" and were able to take chips from the wall that was then being dismantled. What a symbol of freedom! A symbol that was just as valued as the American flag, which all to many of us take for granted. Rarely in the course of World History had something so dramatic as the dismantling of the Berlin Wall been seen or felt by folks living on American soil. The writer, however, does not discount those instances that have taken place on American soil that were so significant for generations of people experiencing past events personally.
One of the first major changes that was seen beyond the Iron Curtain were the changes that were taking place in Poland, a land that had rarely seen its own independence as it had long been an area that would be occupied by eastern rulers as well as the west. Lech Walensa became the President of post-Communist Poland. He had been a labor union leader that led protest marches that eventually was a factor in restoring home-rule to the people of Poland. As a result of this successful freedom movement many of the other eastern European countries that had either been controlled under Hitlerian Germany or later under the Soviet domination again were free to control their own destinies. The Czech Republic and Slovakia which had once been "a put together) settlement of the First World War were now separated. Bulgaria, Rumania and Hungary again were free to do their own bidding. Some historians and political scientists felt threatened by all of the independence especially in Southeastern Europe. Stronger countries had taken advantage of all the small independent states of the area leading up to the First World War and here they were again. Countries such as Bosnia, Serbia, Herzegovinia, Croatia and Macedonia have all been carved out what had formerly been Yugoslavia. As recent history has recorded much fighting has occurred in the area making the political and religious climate in the area shaky at best.
The independence in the area has certainly opened up new fields for missionaries from the Catholic and Protestant worlds of religious thought. Some conflict has arisen because the dominant religion in some nations, however, has been Muslim. From the Christian perspective though all of the independence achieved by these nations is another sign of light in what had been a dark area of the world.
Venturing to the South again the light of freedom has been a very significant part of changes that have taken place throughout the continent of Africa. Primary to this change in the time of the 1990’s was the work of Bishop Desmond Tutu and political leader Nelson Mandella. Jailed for over 25 years, Mandella was released in 1990 as a world outcry finally reached the ears of South African leadership. Once released free elections were soon held and Nelson Mandella was overwhelmingly voted to lead the new South Africa. The bloodshed and slaughter that many whites in particular thought might take place because of atrocities whites had brought to blacks throughout "white rule" never took place and the transition to shared rule went remarkably well from an outside perspective.
In North America the North American Trade Agreement was signed between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Some businesses did not welcome the relationship because profits might not be as great or companies as favored in the buying and selling of goods at home. The long-term effect has been to bring the value of dollars and pesos more closely in line. Some long-term effects for Maine have been to see more visitors in the state from Canada in particular. On the other hand it may have been the cause of some businesses especially in manufacturing to go elsewhere. Some folks even those who have lived locally may have moved elsewhere and effected the number of individuals going to church or seeking membership. To some degree the number of folks that are on the welfare roles may also have increased. Certainly this would not be the single cause of unemployment but could be a contributing factor.
American businesses were not totally concerned with where they could expand in the United States. Companies such as Disney opened sizable amusement parks in both Europe and Japan during this period of time. MacDonalds and its hamburgers even found their way to Beijing, China. Many American corporate logos dot the landscape of foreign countries. Locals do not always like to see those images over and above those of local vendors. Often the image projected by America seems to be one of corporate greed. The same image has sometimes bee laid on the church and missionaries as well. It is not that huge amounts of assistance haven’t been shared with foreign countries around the world as well. As a nation the United States has been unequaled in the amount of sharing that has gone to other countries from the government as well as churches and other charitable organizations. The United Methodist Church as one example through United Methodist Committee on Relief has distributed millions of dollars worth of aid in areas hard hit by devastation. Methodism is heavily involved in mission work in many countries of the world as well as at home. It depends on which image is projected by people on the ground all over the world which image becomes "the record" for all the others. Again the light of the Lord does shine in the human care shared between most Americans especially those sponsored by churches, and those that we need to support on a daily basis elsewhere.
The launching of the Hubble Space Telescope by NASA in 1990 was not without difficulty and for some not without trepidation. A number of flaws in design led the Telescope to be less than effective when it was first placed in orbit. God has given men great wisdom and through computers and wireless communication with the telescope many of those errors were correctable. On later space flights men were able to make those final adjustments and because of that we have a much more accurate view of the heavens beyond us. By studying what is beyond we know more about ourselves as well. We know that God is much greater than we could ever imagine. He is the creator of all the universes that the Hubble has been able to locate. We also have reason to than the Lord more for what we do have on this Earth. Knowing that I hearken back to the first paragraph of this edition of Roots to again emphasize the need for preserving what we do have, taking responsibility for making the most of what the Lord has provided and not just take advantage. We have a legacy to preserve for future generations what God has already revealed to us and see that confirmation is given through his allowing us to study our history and past and to use our minds to create a better life for those that follow.
Another rapid expansion of the 1990’s that has brought both its good and bad elements to us is in the area of communication. With the invention of the computer and its linkage to fiber optics today we can communicate vocally and on-line with little regard to where we are on the globe. AOL was the first of the Internet e-mailing systems that introduced us in the early 1990’s to a whole new way of communication. It is easy, with the addition of other electronics devices to communicate in writing and orally to almost any location you can think of on the face of this earth---and beyond. Getting humanitarian aid and developing understandings between disparate peoples has resulted from that initial introduction to intern-continental communication. Certainly the means of sharing these pages through a Blogspot was not even thought about when AOL was introduced in 1992 and by 1994 had over a million subscribers. We do know, however, that Internet communication has to continuously be "on guard" for illegal use of the systems. As subscribers we need to have Anti-virus protections on our computers so we are not taken advantage of. Terrorists in recent years as well as abusers of people have taken advantage of computerization and communication to place in effect their insidious plots. As Christians we to need to be protected in what is often the unfriendly world even of communication. We need to be able to use that communication to promote the good.
While we find many instances in the life of the world that have brought change for the good, worldwide folks still struggle with thoughts and ideas of how we all should look and work with each other. It seems to be the focus of discontent among some nations especially involving the United States centering on differences of opinion that involve politics, economics and religion with various nations in the Middle East. This is an area of the world where even within religious thinking of the same religion there are violent confrontations, often fatal for some, between its believers. The threats of exporting the violent aspects of some groups linking religion with politics have led to several years of struggle among neighbors and with distant outsiders. Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm have kept the United States and other countries as police forces especially in Iraq.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait, an ally of the United States, in 1991 it signaled the United States that swift action needed to take place. That action was short-lived, but the ramifications of that involvement simply led to the deeper involvement of Desert Storm.
Religion is a piece of that continuing difficulty which should have led Christians to spend time looking at the religion of the majority in the area to understand differences as well as similarities in the beliefs of Islam.
One bright spot again that took place in the 1990’s in the Middle East was the awarding of Nobel Prizes jointly to Itshak Rabin and Shimon Peres of Israel and Yassar Arafat of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Formerly these folks were at war against each other. Over a long period of time served as a mediator led these men to come to a respectable agreement over the division of territory and a joint attempt to restore peace to the area. During the same period of time the long-standing conflict between the Irish and Protestants in Northern Ireland came to an end after Mainer, George Mitchell brokered a settlement between warring forces.
We may look more optimistically to the future because some of what we have seen, heard and witnessed in the 1990’s . We need, however, to be continuously reminded that the past is littered with instances where the armor of the Lord had to be worn by Christians in order that right might be restored with or without might. In 1993, a film of major impact on any one who saw it was released. "Schindler’s List" produced by Steven Spielberg portrayed important elements of the Holocaust of the 1930’s and 1940’s. What Oscar Schindler did to try and save friends who were Jewish was symbolic of the sacrifice people, Christians included have needed to take against evil in the past. My wife and I saw the film on a snowy night in either January or February. What was so dramatic to me with the timing of having seen the film was that the snow when we came out of the theater reminded me of the ashes that floated over the countryside at Aushwitz. A reminder of the ashes of thousands of folks who had been sacrificed simply because of the religion they professed. The Holocaust of that era was certainly not the only one in the course of human history nor the only one that occurred in this century. People of Armenian background or Cambodian upbringing have been a part of our heritage or are own recollections. Even the 1990’s saw genocide occurring in Africa in Rwanda. We are not so far from the past afterall. Even American religious cults have seen their end in horror. Jim Jones and his followers in Guinea and the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas are reminders of how religious groups have sometimes misinterpreted words from the Bible and have not encouraged others of the love that emanates from the living God, Christ Jesus.
Terrorism, however, in 1993 raised its ugly fangs on American territory. Some of this terror was instigated from beyond the shores of the United States and other incidents were bred at home. In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed for the first time. This attack was an omen of things to come. In 1995 the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed with the loss of lives being 168. It was an American by the name of Timothy McVeigh that was tried and convicted of instigating this shock to America’s heartland. In 1999, Columbine High School in Colorado was the scene of slaughter of students and teachers as a result of two dissatisfied students who disapproved of school policies and the beliefs of some students. They in turn killed themselves, but again part of a community that was thought safe was no longer so. Tragedy and shock have continued to part of American life in spite of the fact that so many merciful acts had taken place at times in the 1990’s.
This is certainly not the whole story of the 1990’s but what we have reported does give the reader a picture of joy and sadness all rolled into the period of ten years.