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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 9, 1983
celebrating Christmas and birthdays, so the information in this
booklet hit home. Please keep up the good work: God will truly
reward you.
R.B. (Irvington, NJ)
I received the booklet about Christmas on December 23. Believe
it or not, I have had many hang-ups on Christmas doings for a long
time. Something deep inside of me was causing a terrible rumble
and a lot of doubts, since I have had a lot of religious training
through the years. I really thought I was being possessed by
Satan when my heart was not into all the hullabaloo going on
around me!
Oh, what a glorious discovery--what wonderful
learning from THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTMAS!
ON THE WORLD SCENE
M.F. (Brighton, MI)
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
SPECIAL REPORT, PART II: A NEW ERA BEGINS IN EUROPE--IN CONFUSION! THE
COMMON MARKET REACHES AN IMPASSE; WEST GERMANY'S "MIDLIFE IDENTITY CRISIS"
In last week's report, we observed the growing ramifications of the
decision to place new intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Western
Europe. This decision is leading to a "midlife identity crisis" in West
Germany, especially among members of its younger generation (who are now
flocking to movie theaters all across the country to see the American-made
nuclear destruction epic, "The Day After").
West Germany's dilemma, in
turn, is causing the French to worry whether West Germany might wander off
into a neutral position under Soviet dominance.
But what kind of a West is West Germany supposed to be anchored to? This
week, the European Community (Common Market) faced its greatest challenge
ever--and failed. The EC summit conference in Athens collapsed in total
disagreement. "We were not able to come to any agreement on any single
issue," Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou told reporters after the
eritical two-day meeting.
Papandreou warned, perhaps a bit melodra
matically, that if France, which takes over the Presidency of the 10-nation
Common Market in January, is unable to provide a solution "then the end of
the Community is in sight."
The summit failed to come to grips with the three major issues confronting
it: soaring subsidies for Europe's eight million farmers which gobbles up
two-thirds of the EC's $20 billion budget; Britain's demand for a reform in
the way the Community is financed (to keep a nation from paying in more than
it gets back in subsidies and other benefits): and finally, the need to
expand the Community's revenue base in order to sustain agricultural and
industrial support programs and meet the added burden of admitting Spain
and Portugal as Community members. Papandreou said that as a result of the
summit's failure, "I am sorry for our friends in Spain and Portugal because
they will have to wait.
When we can't even solve our own internal
difficulties, what kind of paradise can we offer them?"
Because the leaders could not agree about the way the virtually bankrupt
trading bloc should be financed, it faces a cash shortfall of several
hundred million dollars next year.
The Community has no mechanism for
dealing with a deficit. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher warned