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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 21, 1983
PAGE 10
United Nations, to have felt in virtually all the arenas of that
body our lack of influence..•.
Today there are some 157 members of the United Nations. There
have been three members admitted during my eighteen months there.
Most of the nations that have been admitted since the U.N.'s
establishment are new nations, former colonies. The big influx
of the former colonies into the U.N. occurred alongside the
beginning of the decline of U.S. influence. Someone noted that
1964 was � watershed year.
During that year seventeen �
nations� admitted to membership, some fifteen of which were
African nations. Many of these new nations have unstable bound
aries: their whole national history has been lived out in the
post-war period during which the United Nations has been an im
portant arena of international action. They have never known a
world without the U.N. Most of these nations are, to paraphrase
my friend Dick Scammon, unrich, unpowerful and unhappy. Most are
miserably poor, most of them are also non-democratic, in the
sense that they do not enjoy democratic political institutions.
The year 1964 was also a critical one for the United States on the home
front as .well. On June 19 of that year the U.S. Senate passed the Civil
Rights bill which greatly increased the federal government's power to com
bat racial discrimination. However, despite its clearly defined intent and
purpose, the legislation unfortunately gave ideas to certain non-racial
"minorities" seeking relief from what they claimed was "discrimination."
Causes such as gay rights, the "fem lib" movement, the right of abortion on
demand, even "kids rights," began to show strength.
One wonders what 1983 will bring, after 19 years of America's ascendancy
followed by 19 years of steady erosion of national power and moral integ
rity. Perhaps the beginning of real troubles?
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau