World Scene: September 10, 1990

IRAN

Bible Society Closed

After ten years of legal and open operation, the Iranian Bible Society has been shut down by Iranian government authorities. In recent years, the society and its executive secretary had been coming under increasing restriction and harassment, and the secretary was advised by the society to leave the country.

Six months ago, the Bible society’s files were confiscated and its staff since then has been locked out of its Tehran office. Repeated attempts to gain approval to reopen the office have failed, according to the American Bible Society.

FRANCE

Abortion-Pill Sales

Approximately 4,000 doses per month of the abortion-inducing drug RU-486 are now being sold to France’s nearly 800 abortion clinics, according to the drug’s manufacturer. A representative of the company Roussel-Uclaf said that some 34,000 women had also been given the pill free of charge between April 1988 and February of this year in a program to monitor its effectiveness.

Despite its success in France, the manufacturer has so far decided to expand its marketing only to Britain. Developer of the pill, biochemist Etienne-Emile Beaulieu, blamed the company’s slow progress on fear of a backlash in the U.S. against Roussel-Uclaf. He also criticized the manufacturer for passing responsibility for international approval of the pill to the World Health Organization, which, he said, fears U.S. reaction as well.

“The key to the future of RU-486 lies in the United States,” Beaulieu said in a New York Times article. A manufacturer’s representative said Scandinavia and the Netherlands are most likely the next markets. “Selling in the United States is out of the question at the moment,” she said.

ENGLAND

Fighting Fair

When Kay and Co., Ltd., one of Britain’s largest mail-order companies, opened up a telephone “tarot line” service, a few eyebrows were raised among evangelicals. They were understandably nervous about the potential widespread acceptance of tarot cards, which are generally acknowledged to be associated with the occult.

But instead of a boycott or demonstration, the Evangelical Alliance sent the company a copy of one of its booklets outlining the dangers of the occult, and other Christians wrote letters. The company not only withdrew its tarot line service, but complimented the protest. “I appreciated very much the approach taken by most Christians who wrote us,” said Michael Bridgewater, special projects manager for Kay and Co. “They were firm but not abusive.” Evangelical Alliance spokesperson Mike Morris praised the company for putting concern for customers ahead of profits. “Rarely in my dealings with major companies have I received such a listening ear,” Morris said.

LIBERIA

Despite War, Family Stays

Southern Baptist missionaries Ed and Fran Laughridge and their son, Edward, have been given permission to leave their station in Mano River and depart from Liberia. They have chosen, however, to stay.

For several days during the civil war in Liberia the Laughridges were detained by rebel troops of the National Patriotic Front. The Laughridges met with a rebel commander on August 10 and learned that their detention had been a misunderstanding.

The Laughridges report widespread hunger in their area as well as along the Ivory Coast border where Liberian refugees have gathered. More than 200,000 citizens have fled the country during the seven-month civil war, which has killed 5,000 people.

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Aired: Daily Christian radio programs for Mongolia. Broadcast from the Pacific island of Saipan, the new programs represent more than two years of work by the Asia Communications Team and the Far East Broadcasting Company.

Sent: By Japanese evangelical churches, a total of more than 300 missionaries to date to overseas assignments.

Consecrated: Penelope Jamieson, as bishop of Dunedin, New Zealand, the first woman to head a diocese in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Rededicated: Saint Isaac’s Cathedral in Leningrad, for Christian worship. The cathedral was previously confiscated by Soviet authorities and maintained as a museum. The dedication service was broadcast in part by Soviet television, and was attended by Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Federation.

Expected: A decline in world poverty by the year 2000, except in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a World Bank report. A fifth of the world’s population, 1.1 billion people, live with annual incomes less than $370.

Correction: Bishop K. H. Ting, leader of China’s official church, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, has not been demoted from a top political post and not restricted from international travel, as previously reported (CT, July 16, 1990, p. 43).

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