Word: plights
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...each have some validity: Mainline churches did not require enough commitment, theologically or evangelistically, from congregants, whose enthusiasm waned accordingly; denominations that started out aggressively courting members turned to other tasks, such as social activism; and mainline birthrates lag behind the national average. Most mainline leaders claim their plight may hold hidden opportunities. The Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, a methodist minister and general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA (whose membership historically has had a strong Protestant presence), notes, "the [Hebrew] prophets never had a majority, and yet they had important things to say. Maybe this...
...easy being a democrat in Iraq. Consider the plight of Uday Abu Tbikh, an aspiring politician in his mid-30s from the holy city of Najaf. Two months ago, the interim government announced plans to hold a national conference to pick 100 members of a temporary national assembly, which would give some public input to the governing of Iraq before a parliament can be elected next year. Abu Tbikh was determined to participate and make his voice heard. "We believed it would be the solution to getting rid of the U.S. puppet government," he said. But when his local caucus...
...plight of North Korean refugees in South Korea has long been a controversial issue, one that the Seoul government would rather keep out of the newspapers so as not to damage ultrasensitive relations with Pyongyang's high-strung dictator, Kim Jong Il. But hiding refugees from the media became more difficult last week, when 468 North Koreans?the largest group to reach the South since the end of the Korean War?stepped off two jets at a military airport south of Seoul ready to take their place in South Korean society. The group, which had been hiding in Vietnam after...
...Henan province Chung to, founder and director of the nonprofit Chi Heng Foundation in Hong Kong, is one of the few outsiders who has penetrated the state-imposed isolation of the so-called AIDS villages in central China. He is all too familiar with the plight of small children orphaned by the disease. On a recent visit to a village in Henan, he watched an 8-year-old boy taking his father out for a walk. The boy was pushing his father along in a creaky wooden cart. The man was dying of AIDS and had been confined...
...government claims two were killed by rocks thrown by their own gangs. The authorities claim the clashes were organized from afar by Kok Ksor, a 60-year-old exile from the Jarai tribe who lives in South Carolina and runs the Montagnard Foundation, which tries to publicize the plight of the Montagnards. His goal, according to Hanoi, is an independent state. It says Ksor and confederates are also reconstituting F.U.L.R.O., a separatist guerrilla force disbanded in 1992. Ksor allegedly persuaded poor farmers to take part. Says Vu Quang Khuyen, police chief of Ayun Pa district in Gia Lai: "They...