World News and Trends
Beyond Today Magazine
Good News Magazine: July - August 2002
Course Content
A Sunday Times feature article contained an element of surprise.
It was the sort of news one is used to seeing in print about North America and Britain but rarely mentioned about France. It said in an on-the-spot report: "France has a sickness that pervades its politics and corrupts the bourgeoisie. Decadence now rules in a morally rudderless society."
The reporter, Matthew Campbell, observes: "Les Chandelles is the most exclusive boite échangiste, or wife-swapping club, in Paris. Such places have never been so well frequented. Talk around polite dinner tables about which are the best échangiste clubs to frequent is one gauge of how widespread the habit of collective romping has become." There are an estimated 50 such clubs in Paris and perhaps 200 throughout the rest of the country.
Jean-François Mattei, a professor at the Institute of Political Studies in Aixen-Province, recently stated: "There's been a retreat from political life in France in favour of personal pleasure. It's a decadent society dedicated to sex and pleasure. We are swimming in hedonism: nightclubs, wife-swapping, magazines for men, magazines for women. It's the pursuit of pleasure all around."
Once pretty much the preserve of the elite, this sort of behavior has spread to all levels of French society. Novelist and university professor Michael Ermin echoes the general thought: "The country is in the grip of a hedonistic, licentious and frivolous mood. People are as confused in their intimate lives as they are in their politics." (This issue of The Good News contains a special series of articles showing the futility of adultery and promiscuity as a way of life—illicit practices that cause intensive suffering and seriously mar the marital happiness God intended for us.)
Not surprisingly, theft is on the increase as well. As one author put it, "The French crisis over law and order has already cost the prime minister [Leon Jospin] his political career."
Causes are not hard to come by. "Sociologists and criminologists attribute much of the rise of crime in cities and rural areas to youths who have dropped out of the education system and are unemployed. Unlike Britain, where the age profile is more even, France has more unemployed young." Young people with too much leisure time on their hands sometimes get into trouble with the law. The way out of many of these social problems is addressed in our free booklets The Ten Commandments and Making Life Work. (Sources: The Sunday Times, The Sunday Times Magazine [both London].)
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.
Melvin Rhodes is a member of the United Church of God congregation in Lansing, Michigan.
Scott Ashley is managing editor of Beyond Today magazine, United Church of God booklets and its printed Bible Study Course. He and his wife, Connie, live near Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Ashley attended Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, graduating in 1976 with a theology major and minors in journalism and speech. It was there that he first became interested in publishing, an industry in which he has worked for more than 40 years.
During his career, he has worked for several publishing companies in various capacities. He has been employed by the United Church of God since 1995, overseeing the planning, writing, editing, reviewing and production of Beyond Today magazine, several dozen booklets/study guides and a Bible study course covering major biblical teachings. His special interests are the Bible, archaeology, biblical culture, history and the Middle East.
