The 22 million people who visited Expo ’86, which ended last month, encountered religious messages almost everywhere they went.
The most obvious religious presence at the Vancouver, British Columbia, world’s fair was the $6 million Pavilion of Promise, sponsored by Crossroads Christian Communications, producer of the Canadian television program “100 Huntley Street.” The pavilion offered a 40-minute presentation called “The Scroll,” which covered Creation; the life, death, and resurrection of Christ; and Christ’s final encounter with Satan. It utilized ballet dancers, multimedia wide-screen technology, lasers, and narration by Malcolm Muggeridge. Some 750,000 of Expo’s visitors witnessed the presentation, and 9,000 of them discussed the Christian faith with pavilion counselors.
Expo ’86 was not designed to communicate religious ideas. The fair’s theme, “Man in Motion, Man in Touch,” focused on transportation and communications. In the early planning stages, fair organizers said any permanent religious presence at Expo ’86 would be limited to an interfaith pavilion. An early effort by an interfaith group to sponsor a pavilion failed, however, and Expo ’86 organizers approved the application of Crossroads Christian Communications to sponsor the Pavilion of Promise.
The pavilion was just one of a number of Expo ’86 exhibits and presentations that highlighted religion in various forms. The General Motors—sponsored Spirit Lodge featured a ten-minute presentation on North American Indian religion and culture. The Saudi Arabian pavilion had strong Muslim overtones. And Japan’s pavilion hosted a series of actual Shinto weddings. Seventy-five volunteer chaplains, organized by Expo ’86 and representing several major religions, assisted world’s fair visitors who needed their services.
Other fair activities communicated an exclusively Christian message. World Vision displayed one of the hundreds of 12-foot bamboo vessels it built to replace fishing boats lost in floods in Bangladesh. Sail and Life Training Society, a Canadian organization that uses sailing trips to teach Christian values to young people, constructed a sailing ship on the Expo ’86 site. And each Sunday, a 3,100-seat facility was turned into a sanctuary. Several denominations took turns holding worship services, drawing crowds ranging from 200 to 1,500.
By Lloyd Mackey in Vancouver, British Columbia.
NORTH AMERICAN SCENE
DRUGS
A Lecture at Church
The California teenager who captured nationwide headlines when she turned in her parents for possessing illegal drugs went to the police after hearing an antidrug lecture at a Lutheran church.
Deanna Young gave police a bag containing marijuana, pills, and cocaine belonging to her parents. She told authorities her parents had refused her requests to stop using drugs.
The Lutheran Council News Bureau later reported that the girl acted against her parents’ drug abuse after hearing an antidrug lecture at Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin, California. Although Young is not a member of the church, she is active with its youth group.
“I doubt that Deanna even vaguely comprehended the amount of publicity her act would generate,” said Lloyd Strelow, pastor of Peace Lutheran Church. “She only expressed that she wasn’t happy with the way things were at home, and she wanted to make a change.”
The parents, Bobby and Judith Young, were charged with felony possession of cocaine. They pleaded not guilty to the charge and requested admission to a drug counseling program.
“As concerned Christians, we uphold [the Young family] in prayer,” Strelow said, “and we trust that they will be able to iron out their problems as a family unit.” Bobby and Judith Young were reunited with their daughter after being released from police custody, he said, adding that Deanna Young “has been back with the [church] youth group.”
FAMILY PLANNING
Contraceptives at School
The number of school-based health clinics that provide family-planning services has risen from 12 in 1980 to 61 today, according to the Center for Population Options, a group that seeks to prevent unwanted pregnancies among teenagers.
At least 17 school-based clinics dispense contraceptives, and 32 others provide prescriptions for birth-control pills or devices. Clinic officials say most of the services they provide involve first aid, physical examinations for school athletes, laboratory tests, immunizations, and drug-abuse counseling. But they say family-planning services constitute an integral part of their work.
“We offer comprehensive health care, but our bottom line is that we want to address the crisis of adolescent pregnancy,” said Geraldine Johnson, supervisor of two school-based clinics in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
In Chicago, critics have made known their opposition to the clinic at DuSable High School, including organizing pickets at the school (CT, March 7, 1986, p. 42). In New York City, where the state funds nine school-based clinics, two school board members have spoken out against the practice of dispensing contraceptives to students.
U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett also opposes the practice. “This is not what school is for,” he said. “… [Dispensing contraceptives] tends to legitimate the very behavior whose natural consequences it intends to discourage.”
Otis Bowen, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said every day nearly 3,000 teenage girls become pregnant. Of those, he said, more than half will give birth, 40 percent will obtain abortions, and the rest will have miscarriages.
TELEVISION
Links to Teen Suicides
Two studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine indicate there may be a link between televised accounts of suicide and a temporary increase in the number of teenagers who take their own lives.
One study found that the number of teenagers committing suicide increased by about 7 percent in the seven days after each of 38 nationally televised news reports about suicide. A second study examined the number of New York-area teen suicides in the weeks surrounding the broadcast of four made-for-television movies on suicide. Teenage suicide rates climbed during the two weeks following the broadcast of three of the four movies. If the New York-area pattern held true across the country, more than 80 suicides could be linked to the televised movies.
Television network spokesmen questioned the methods used in the studies. George Schweitzer, of the CBS Broadcast Group, said the second study was unable to measure “the tremendous positive effects these movies had” in generating awareness of the suicide problem and in prompting suicidal youths to seek help. A spokesman for NBC said neither study demonstrated a cause-and-effect relationship between television programs and suicide rates.
The number of teenagers who commit suicide has tripled since 1950, making it the number-two killer, second only to accidents, of Americans 15 to 19 years old. Some 1,700 youths in that age group take their lives every year.
PEOPLE AND EVENTS
Briefly Noted
Elected: Allan Boesak, a leading opponent of South Africa’s system of apartheid, as head of that country’s mixed-race Reformed Church. Boesak, 39, won the election over the conservative incumbent, Isaac Mentor.
Lionel R. Louw, a black South African clergyman and lecturer of social work at the University of Cape Town, as the next moderator of the World Vision International Council. The 97-member council determines the objectives and directions for the international Christian humanitarian agency. World Vision’s international president, Tom Houston, said Louw’s election “reflects our commitment to the post-apartheid era in South Africa.…”
Ordered: By a federal judge, a halt to public prayers at the beginning of athletic events at Douglas County (Ga.) High School. William Jager argued that the rights of his son, a member of the school’s marching band, were violated because he was forced to hear prayers at the beginning of athletic events.
Passed: By the Texas legislature, a bill legalizing parimutuel gambling, pending a statewide referendum. If Texas voters approve the law in a statewide November 1987 referendum, individual counties will be able to hold referendums to establish legalized betting on horse races.
