In Brief: Global Political Trends Threaten America's World Leadership
Americans appear to be very edgy these days. According to a Gallup Poll sponsored by USA Today, "Almost three-fourths of them...don't like the way things are going in the country. Given economic deprivation and political division, plus war [and] terrorism..., who would?" (Jan. 6, 2010).
Gideon Rachman, a regular columnist for the Financial Times, provides us with some specifics. "Ever since 1945, the US has regarded itself as the leader of the 'free world.' But the Obama administration is facing an unexpected and unwelcome development in global politics. Four of the biggest and most strategically important democracies in the developing world—Brazil, India, South Africa and Turkey—are increasingly at odds with American foreign policy.
"Rather than siding with the US on the big international issues, they are just as likely to line up with authoritarian powers" ("America Is Losing the Free World," Jan. 5, 2010, emphasis added throughout).
For a short time following the collapse of the Berlin Wall in late 1989, the previous bipolar world of the United States and the Soviet Union became the undisputed unipolar world of an economically and militarily unchallenged America.
This didn't last long. British journalist Bryan Appleyard observed in The Sunday Times Magazine: "Japan, having grown rich since 1945 under the umbrella of American security..., began to look to China for its trading future. And auto-cratic regimes are realising they may not have to listen to Western lectures about human rights any more. They can turn to the pragmatic Chinese" ("The Gathering Clouds," Dec. 27, 2009).
During the past 100 years, the United States has been accorded a singular opportunity to provide leadership in the world at large. Now, American influence is rapidly beginning to wane in the world. Why?
One pivotal reason, often discounted by a largely secular media, involves our disappearing moral standards. Paradoxically this most prosperous of the nations also ranks among the most immoral. Larger numbers of Americans increasingly ignore the plain teachings of the Bible—casting aside the Ten Commandments as a basic moral code and guide to our national conduct.
The essence of the whole American story—historically, morally and prophetically bound up in its legacy as one of the major modern descendants of the biblical patriarch Joseph—remains relatively unknown to the general public. To understand the implications of this intriguing truth, read our booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. WNP
An Article from:
World News and Prophecy: January - February 2010
Course Content
Fred Nance
Fred Nance is a pastor at the United Church of God and has a B.A. in History from Ambassador College. He is originally from Lansing Michigan having moved to Arkansas in September of 2009. His wife Lidia is originally from Argentina.
John Ross Schroeder
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.
