Pastoral Bible Institute News
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Date of Annual PBI Meeting

The annual meeting of PBI Members and Directors will be held on Friday, June 24, at the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The General Convention of Bible Students will begin on Saturday, June 25, at the same location and end the evening of June 30. Those who are interested in the Pastoral Bible Institute, whether members or not, are welcome to attend this meeting. Contact the Institute’s secretary for accommodation details.

PBI Directors Elected

The members of the Pastoral Bible Institute have elected these seven individuals to serve as directors for the next twelve months:

A new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that atheists and agnostics tend to report feeling more anger toward God than believers do. According to research by Case Western Reserve University’s Julie Exline, religious people are more likely to view God’s intentions as well-meaning, rather than malevolent, so they’re less angry even when things aren’t going well in their lives.

—CNN, 2/22/2011

A total of 3,600 couples got married en masse in western India on Wednesday, organizers said, in a ceremony designed to raise awareness about poor farmers hit by debt and crop failures. Some 2,433 Hindu couples, 150 Muslims, 749 Buddhists, 15 Christians and 253 tribal people tied the knot in an open-air ceremony in the town of Amravati. Mass wedding ceremonies are relatively common in India—although not on such a scale—with couples in poor, rural areas taking their vows with others to cut down on costs.

—AFP, 2/2/2011

Oregon lawmakers say they will push to end legal protection for parents who rely solely on faith healing to treat their dying children. State Rep. Carolyn Tomei said the deaths of three children of church members in recent years prompted her to introduce the bill. House Bill 2721 would remove spiritual treatment as a defense for all homicide charges.

—Associated Press, 2/23/2011

An Iraqi man in Arizona accused of killing his daughter because she had become too westernized was convicted on Tuesday of second-degree murder. Faleh Hassan Almaleki was found guilty of running over his daughter, Noor Faleh Almaleki, with his SUV in October 2009. He faces 17 to 45 years in prison. Although largely practiced in Muslim countries, “honor killings” have been reported in Europe and South America, as well as in the United States.

—Associated Press, 2/23/2011

The U.S.’s top growing churches, according to the National Council of Church’s Yearbook are the Jehovah’s Witnesses (1,162,686 members, 4.37 percent increase over the past year) and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (1,043,606 members, 4.31 percent).

—Deseret News, 2/18/2011

In November last year, LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson announced in a leadership meeting that membership numbers had passed 14 million in July 2010. [According to] Scott Trotter, a spokesperson for the LDS Church, “This growth continues with about a million new members now being added every three years or less.”

—Deseret News, 1/23/2011

Social

[In Japan] more than 7,200 [are confirmed dead] with many thousands more missing in an area struck first by a magnitude 9.0 quake and then an enormous wall of water that seemed to scrape the earth clean. Police said more than 452,000 people made homeless by the quake and tsunami were staying in schools and other shelters. The tsunami knocked out power to cooling systems at a nuclear plant and its six reactors. In the week since, four reactors have been hit by fires, explosions or partial meltdowns.

—Associated Press, 3/18/2011

Most high school biology teachers don’t endorse Darwin’s theories in their classes, according to a new survey. Instead, 60% of them instruct their students on the principles of evolution only as they pertain to molecular biology, as one alternative among a variety of theories about biology or as necessary to pass national tests.

—TIME, 2/14/2011

Almost half of U.S. undergraduates learn nothing in their first two years of college. Universities don’t make undergraduate instruction a priority. While professors are busy trying to secure research grants, students are spending 75 percent of their time sleeping and socializing. They spend a mere 7 percent of their time studying, according to a survey of 3,000 students on 29 campuses across the country.

—USA Today, 1/18/2011

A woman who lost her voice more than 10 years ago can now talk again thanks to a groundbreaking surgery to replace her larynx. An international team of doctors installed a new voice box during an 18-hour surgery in October, connecting 1-millimeter blood vessels and nerves in the organ with sutures smaller than a human hair. It is the second successful surgery of its kind ever documented.

—Modesto Bee, 1/21/2011

A computer called Watson faced off against two human Jeopardy! champions, and won. Watson ended the contest with $77,147, over $50,000 ahead of both humans. The computer was not invincible, giving answers that sometimes drew a laugh from the audience. Aside from the amusement factor, the machine’s victory signaled a major leap forward in artificial intelligence.

—New York Times, 2/17/2011

The death toll from last week’s earthquake in New Zealand has risen to 154. The 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the central business district of Christchurch on February 22, toppling buildings, buckling streets and ripping the facades off iconic churches. Southern New Zealand has been hit by a series of quakes since September 4 when a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the area. That earthquake [caused] less damage and no deaths.

—CNN, 2/28/2011

Winter-weather records are piling up as 155 daily snowfall records were broken in January—mostly in the Northeast but also in the South, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More than 35,000 flights had been canceled this winter at U.S airports, nearly twice as many as in the year-earlier period.

—Wall Street Journal, 1/28/2011

The global food price index hit a new record high for the third straight month—2.2 percent higher [in February] than the previous all-time high set in January. February’s monthly high is 36 points higher than the average for all of 2008, when soaring prices sparked rioting and food-export bans in some developing nations.

—New York Times, 3/3/2011

Mourners who can’t make it to a funeral may be able to attend virtually, thanks to a growing trend in the funeral business of streaming funerals online. The number of funeral homes offering the service has skyrocketed in recent years. In the past, Webcasting has been used to broadcast memorial services for prominent members of the public, like Michael Jackson and Richard Holbrooke. Increasingly, however, everyday families are opting to Webcast their ceremonies.

—New York Times, 1/25/2011

Beijing has the worst traffic in the world. It is not uncommon for trucks headed into the city to be backed up for days. Under pressure to fix the [gridlock] problem, the government is now limiting the number of new license plates in Beijing to 240,000 per year—about one-third of the number of plates issued in 2010—to be allotted through a lottery system. In 2009 China surpassed the United States as the largest automobile market in the world.

—Los Angeles Times, 11/24/2011

Last year was the biggest ever for shutting down efforts to scam federal health care programs. Prosecutors recovered a record-setting $4 billion from hundreds of crooks, big and small. Federal officials also announced new rules to make it harder for would-be criminals to defraud the government in the future. Among the new rules: Medicare may stop all payments to a provider the moment a credible complaint about fraud has been received.

—ABC News, 1/24/2011

Political

Iran managed to rehabilitate its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz quickly after it was attacked by the Stuxnet computer worm. In a six-month period between late 2009 and last spring, Iran dismantled more than 10% of the  plant’s 9,000 centrifuge machines used to enrich uranium. Then, just as remarkably, hundreds of new machines arrived at the plant to replace the ones that were lost. An initial report written by nuclear experts from the Institute for Science and International Security concluded that the damage caused to the nuclear facility as a result of the cyber attack was relatively minor.

—Ynetnews, 2/16/2011

The space shuttle Discovery was launched for the last time, marking the beginning of the end for the U.S. shuttle program. During its 39th and final mission, Discovery will complete a supply run to the International Space Station. Discovery will return to Earth after 11 days and become a museum piece. Two more shuttle flights are scheduled before the 30-year shuttle program comes to an end.

—Associated Press, 2/25/2011

According to 2010 census data released Thursday, “U.S. racial minorities accounted for roughly 85 percent of the nation’s population growth over the last decade.” Most states that are picking up more congressional representation owe their new seats to growth in their Hispanic populations.

—Washington Post, 2/3/2011

Syria may build its first nuclear power plant by 2020 to meet growing energy demand, a document showed, despite international concern over Syrian stonewalling of a U.N. probe into allegations of covert atomic activity. Any bid by Syria to launch uranium enrichment, like its ally Iran, would probably further alarm the United States and its Western allies about Syrian nuclear activities as such material can also be used to make bombs if refined much more.

—Reuter’s, 2/15/2011

The number of federal judicial vacancies has doubled since President Obama took office as judges retire without being replaced. The result is delayed trials and heavy case loads in courts across America. As a result it has taken up to three years for cases to be heard as courts grapple with an overwhelming number of cases. The situation is particularly dire in the Southwest, where immigration and drug cases have clogged courts.

—Washington Post, 2/8/2011

Jordan’s King Abdullah fired his government and prime minister as thousands of protestors took to the streets calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Samir Rifari. Rifari has been blamed for rising food and oil prices, and for failing to address the 14 percent unemployment rate.

—Associated Press, 2/1/2011

Egypt’s top prosecutor instructed his office to ask foreign governments for help seizing ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s assets. The move comes at the behest of protesters, who demanded the president be held to account for the corruption that riddled his government after forcing him to leave office on Feb. 11. Mubarak is said to hold billions of dollars abroad.

—Washington Post, 2/22/2011

Policymakers are determining whether it might be possible to let states go bankrupt in order to free themselves from crippling debts. States aren’t allowed to go bankrupt under federal law, but some advocates say a GM-style bailout might be the only way to save states like Illinois from slashing basic services. Pension funds for public workers place a particular strain on struggling states. State bankruptcy might allow a state to change its pension obligations, which has public worker unions very worried.

—New York Times, 1/21/2011

Wisconsin’s Assembly passed limits on the collective-bargaining power of government workers’ unions. The bill requires government employees except police and firefighters to pay 5.8 percent of their salaries for pension costs, up from nothing now, and to cover about 12 percent of their health-care premiums, up from 6 percent. They would be able to collectively bargain only for wages, and voters would have to approve raises that outpaced inflation. The bill would require workers to vote each year on whether to retain their unions.

—Bloomberg, 2/25/2011

Finance

China passed Japan in 2010 to become the world’s second-largest economy after the U.S. Japan’s full-year GDP was $5.47 trillion—about 7% smaller than the $5.88 trillion China reported in January. The news marks the end of an era. For nearly two generations, since overtaking West Germany in 1967, Japan stood solidly as the world’s No. 2 economy. The new rankings symbolize China’s rise and Japan’s decline as global growth engines.

—Wall Street Journal, 2/14/2011

Home prices dropped 2.6% nationwide during the last three months of 2010, pushing more borrowers underwater. Now 27% of homeowners with mortgages owe more than their homes are worth, up from 23.2% a quarter earlier. More than one-third of all homes were sold at a loss in December.

—CNNMoney.com, 2/9/2011

General Motors just had its best year in more than a decade. The company hadn’t turned a profit since 2004 and almost collapsed in 2008, when it was bailed out by the federal government. But GM announced that it made $4.7 billion in profits last year. In addition, 45,000 of its union workers are in for profit-sharing checks averaging $4,300, the most in the company’s history.

—Wall Street Journal, 2/24/2011

Despite the presence of a fleet of international warships in the waters off Somalia, pirate attacks reached record levels in 2010. [There were a] reported 445 attacks, the vast majority linked to Somali pirates. By some measures, piracy costs the global economy up to $12 billion a year.

—TIME, 1/31/2011

Israel

The government in Lebanon led by West-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri was brought down politically when 11 of the 30 cabinet members stepped down. The resigning members said the step was due to a political crisis stemming from the State Tribunal for Lebanon which is investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the father of Lebanon’s current leader.

—BFP Israel, 1/13/2011

A public opinion poll carried out by American Pechter Middle East Polls for the Council on Foreign Relations, showed that if Jerusalem were divided as part of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, East Jerusalem Arabs would prefer to live under Israeli sovereignty. The poll, which comprised the residents of East Jerusalem’s 19 Arab neighborhoods, also pointed out that their opposition to Jerusalem’s division is so intense that they would rather move to a new home within Israel’s borders than live under the authority of a Palestinian state. Some 35% of them said that Israeli citizenship is their preferred citizenship.

—Ynetnews, 1/13/2011

The Ministry of Tourism said that a record number of almost 3.5 million visitors came to Israel last year, a 14% increase in the previous record set in 2008. In 2009, tourism numbers declined due to the world’s economic crises. In 2010, more than two-thirds of visitors were Christian and 23% were Jewish.

—Intranet, 1/14/2011

Dramatic changes may be coming in Israel: Demographers now estimate about a third of last year’s Jewish babies were born into the ultra-Orthodox community, an insular and devout minority that has long been at loggerheads with the rest of the increasingly modern and prosperous country. Ultra-Orthodox Jews have a birthrate far higher than that of other Israeli Jews, with 10 children in a single family not uncommon. About half of ultra-Orthodox adults do not work, and many men are full-time Torah students with government stipends that anger the secular majority but are nonetheless quite meager. Of the estimated 700,000 Haredim in Israel—around 9 percent of the population—just under 60 percent live below the poverty line.

—Associated Press, 1/14/2011

Intel announced in January that it will invest $2.7 billion in its Israeli plant in southern Israel, which will produce next-generation 22-nanometer chips. Intel Israel, operating since 1974, was the company’s first development center outside the United States.

—Israel21c, 2/6/2011

One of the greatest beneficiaries of the unrest in Egypt has been the Muslim Brotherhood. Banned but tolerated for decades by successive Egyptian regimes, the Islamist movement is now emerging as a central player in the country’s resurgent opposition. A translation of a 1995 book by the movement’s fifth official leader sheds light on just how Egypt’s Brotherhood views itself and its mission. It details the Brotherhood’s objectives of advancing the global conquest of Islam and reestablishing the Islamic Caliphate, the public and private duties of jihad and the struggle Muslims must wage against Israel.

—Jerusalem Post, 2/9/2011

Since 2008, Dr. Amal Bishara has traveled to 60 Arab villages in search of cheek-swab samples for the world’s only Arab bone marrow registry, housed at Jerusalem’s Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center. She has gathered 9,000 samples for the registry, resulting in six life-saving donations. Since Arabs frequently marry relatives, at least 60% of those needing marrow find genetic matches within their own extended families. All potential donors are made aware that because Arabs and Jews have common ancestors, sometimes an Arab might be a match for a Jew and vice versa.

—Israel21c, 2/15/2011

The portion of the brain responsible for visual reading doesn’t require vision at all, according to a new study by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and France. Brain imaging studies of blind people as they read words in Braille show activity in precisely the same part of the brain that lights up when sighted readers read. The findings challenge the textbook notion that the brain is divided up into regions that are specialized for processing information coming in via one sense or another.

—Hebrew University, 2/24/2011