Scotland’s Drug Problem
Recent figures published by the Scottish Government show the number of deaths caused by drug misuse in 2018 increased by 27% from the previous year: 1187 deaths compared with 1136 alcohol-related deaths. Scotland’s drug death rate is now three times that of the UK as a whole, more per capita than in the United States, and said to be the highest drug death rate of all the countries in the European Union.
A variety of drugs are responsible for the deaths. Etizolam, a “street drug” being sold as Valium, is thought to have caused more deaths than heroin. The prescription of substitute drugs such as methadone may help wean users off heroin, but sadly overdosing on methadone actually accounts for a quarter of all drug deaths. In other cases, users mix highly-lethal cocktails of drugs. David Liddell, director of Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) said, “the figures show a very significant level of men aged over 35 with a severe drug problem. . . . Research which SDF have previously carried out shows that many are lonely, isolated, experiencing major health problems and have lost hope of ever having a better life in the future.” There are some indications that the number of young people aged under 35 with opiate addiction has fallen, but this is not necessarily a positive sign as support workers say there is evidence that they are turning instead to the use of “legal highs” and alcohol.
The supply of illegal narcotics on the streets and on-line is difficult to curtail and the police and Crown Office acknowledge their lack of success in prosecuting people for drug possession. Addicts are more often imprisoned for the crimes they commit in trying to fund their addiction; a high percentage of muggings and other forms of theft are carried out by those who are trying to feed their habit. Attempts to understand why people abuse drugs focus on deficiencies in the support system, welfare dependency, poverty, peer group pressure, mental health and an empty, hopeless lifestyle.
What is certain is that Scotland, where God was once honoured, has rejected Him and His Word; we have sown the wind and we are reaping the whirlwind (Hos 8:7). Without a moral compass we have no sense of sin and every man does that which is right in his own eyes. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good” (Ps 14:1). There is a void in the heart of man which Satan delights to fill, and the drug users whom he has ensnared with promises of escape from humdrum reality, fear or pain, are being led captive by him at his will – into sin, crime, degradation and death itself.
The Saviour said He had “not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mt 9:13b). What need there is to pray that He would be found of those that seek Him not; “O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy” (Hab 3:2). FRD
A Swarm of Painted Ladies
Painted lady butterflies live all the year round in the tropics, but every few years, when the conditions are right, they swarm north, sometimes in great numbers. The adults live for a fortnight, and the eggs develop to adulthood in about four weeks, so in some years the swarm perpetuates itself and even increases along the way. There have been swarms of painted ladies in Britain for a while now, but they arrived in Aberdeen one Sabbath in July. On the Saturday there were no painted lady butterflies to be seen, and on the Sabbath they were around in their hundreds. In some places they impeded progress because every step sent a small shower up into the air.
The abundance of creation is one of the matters mentioned in Genesis 1 – “Let the waters bring forth abundantly” (v 20) – and both fish and insects have the possibility of multiplying in enormous numbers. This capacity was used for punishment in the plagues of Egypt under Pharaoh, with the multiplication of flies and locusts and other swarming creatures, but the Lord can also use it to a good purpose. A cloud of harmless and beautiful butterflies transforms a drab and uninteresting scene into a cheering and heart-stirring one.
As God has a fullness in outward matters and is able to multiply His natural creation when He pleases, so in Christ He has a fullness in spiritual matters and is able to multiply spiritual life at will: “The Son quickeneth whom He will” (Jn 5:21). The day is surely coming when, not an abundance of butterflies, but an abundance of souls will be found asking “the way to Zion with their faces thitherward” (Jer 50:5). And the people of God will be asking, “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” (Is 60:8). And as the arrival of the butterflies was sudden, so will the arrival of the blessing be: “Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people, for the thing was done suddenly” (2 Chr 29:36).
The arrival of the butterflies brought natural beauty, and the arrival of the blessing will bring the transforming beauty of spiritual life in great abundance: “It shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh” (Ezk 47:9). How desperately the deadness of Britain needs a refreshing visit from heaven of this sort!
DWBS
China’s Stranglehold on the Modern Bible Industry
The recent trade war between the USA and China has highlighted the extent to which the modern Bible industry is based on China. The major Bible publishers went to Washington to plead with the US Government for exemptions to tariffs being imposed on goods from China.
Christianity Today1 reported that “China is the world’s largest Bible publisher, thanks to Nanjing-based Amity Press, which has printed almost 200 million Bibles since 1988 in partnership with the United Bible Societies”. The largest Bible publisher, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, spends more than three-quarters of its production costs in China. Similarly LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, which publishes the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), spends 31% of its total printing costs in China. Irrespective of a “Bible tax”, the modern Bible industry is hugely dependent on the economic stability and co-operation of China.
1Article, “Bibles Threatened by US Trade War with China, Christian Publishers Warn”, in the issue for June 21.
The world’s biggest Bible factory is based in China; more Bibles are printed there than in any other country due to their specialisation. These are significant ironies given the way that the Chinese government seeks to control official publication of the Chinese Bible in China, including its wording. Indeed, The Guardian recently reported a Chinese Government plan that calls for “retranslating and annotating” the Bible, to find commonalities with socialism and establish a “correct understanding” of the text. One wonders whether the Bible Society will deem it politic to comply with Beijing’s demands. Christian bookstores are often subjected to regular inspections by the Ministry of Culture and “foreign” books forbidden.
Publishers say that they have guarantees on the working conditions of staff printing and manufacturing these Bibles in China, but they have not made any impact on the degree of persecution of Christians there. The reality is that the whole modern commercialisation and customisation of the Bible is based on the economic partnership with China. Bibles are targeted to every conceivable taste and consumer. HarperCollins offers hundreds of different editions for different ages and interests, even as specialised as the Stock Car Racing edition, or the Ultimate Bible for Girls FaithGirlz edition. It is a kind of profiteering from religion that Tetzel and medieval Romanism could only have dreamed of. When the publishers predicted a Bible shortage in alarmist terms they were in fact speaking about an easing of the deluge.
But it is no wonder that publishers were concerned. A few years ago Phyllis Tickle, a former longtime religion editor at Publishers Weekly, observed that “Bibles are in many ways a cash cow; the Bible is the mainstay of many a publishing program”. Hence the constant proliferation of additional modern versions of the Bible in English.
These publishers are concerned for the value of their profits rather than the inestimable value of Scripture itself. We fear that they come under the judgement of those “supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself” (1 Tim 6:5). MV
Abortion in New Zealand
Andrew Little, the Justice minister in the New Zealand Government has announced plans to relax the law on abortion. The existing law demands that women prove to a doctor that to continue with their pregnancy would endanger her physical or mental health. The present proposal is to remove this requirement for women whose pregnancy is under 20 weeks and decriminalise abortion, making it perfectly legal to kill unborn children up to an age when they can almost survive outside the womb.
This change in NZ law would change abortion from potentially being a crime to merely a “health issue”. There may be health issues for the mother and, if these are sufficiently serious to threaten her life, it may be necessary to remove the child to spare the mother’s life, but such cases are a minute proportion of the abortions that take place. But what about the child’s health? Abortion is not a mere health issue for the child; it is certain death.
Such is the inhumanity of today’s supposedly advanced generation that helpless human beings can be disposed of at a whim. One fears that the requirement to demonstrate danger to health is likely to be as easily satisfied in New Zealand as it is in the UK, where abortion seems in practice to be available on demand. But every move away from a scriptural position indicates a callousness about human life that bodes ill for the future. Already euthanasia is legal in a number of countries and present trends suggest that it will be allowed in other parts of the world before long, as God and His law (given for the good of mankind) are increasingly disregarded. How much we need a return to the Bible and its principles in New Zealand, the UK and elsewhere! How much we need an outpouring of the Holy Spirit!