World News and Trends
Beyond Today Magazine
Good News Magazine: September - October 2007
Course Content
"More than 8 in 10 Americans think morality is getting worse," reports the Gallup News Service regarding a recent poll. Among those polled who regard American moral values as very low are senior citizens, women in general and those who attend church regularly.
"More than 8 in 10 Americans think morality is getting worse," reports the Gallup News Service regarding a recent poll. Among those polled who regard American moral values as very low are senior citizens, women in general and those who attend church regularly.
Only one person in six believes that U.S. moral values could be described as excellent. Younger adults, especially those with no overtly religious commitment, tend to be somewhat less negative in their view of morality in the United States.
One category of morality that deeply concerns some of the country's citizens is marriage and divorce. While the American divorce rate is down slightly, the marriage rate has fallen sharply by 30 percent in the last 30 years. "The number of unmarried couples living together [is] up 10-fold since 1960" (Time, May 28, 2007). Clearly there is a widening "marriage gap," with millions simply opting out of traditional matrimony based on the Bible.
Further, more and more college students indulge in premarital sex, sometimes waking up "garmentless after a hook-up" (as The Economist described it), usually preceded by far too much alcohol consumption. The publishers of The Good News offer help in our free booklet Marriage and Family: The Missing Dimension. (Sources: Gallup News Service, Time, The Economist.)
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
