wfn.org | Churches, parents hold keys to beating social ills, Thatcher says

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Sept. 25, 2000 News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-71B{427}

By Woody Woodrick*

JACKSON, Miss. (UMNS) - Government programs will not solve the social
problems facing the United States, said former British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher.

"It is easier to get the economy right than to cure a behavioral problem,
and you have a behavioral problem," Thatcher told a capacity audience at
Millsaps College on Sept. 20.

Thatcher spoke at the United Methodist-affiliated college to begin the
Millsaps Nova Series. The new program seeks to bring world-renowned speakers
to the college. Thatcher was Britain's first female prime minister and
served from 1979 to 1990.

Thatcher spoke in favor of parents being home when their children arrive
from school and pointed to the problems associated with single-parent
families.

"It is totally unfair to children if they can't go home to a welcome," she
told a sold-out audience at Millsaps' Christian Center auditorium. The
speech was also shown on dormitory televisions and in the 450-seat recital
hall of the Academic Complex.

More and more U.S. children are living in single-parent homes, and federal,
state and local governments spend $15 billion annually subsidizing single
parents, she said. Each 10 percent increase in the breakdown of families
leads to a 17 percent increase in violent crime among teens, she said.

Thatcher, whose father was a Methodist preacher, cited church attendance as
a key factor in keeping families together. "Churchgoers are more likely to
be married. Church attendance is a most important predictor of marital
stability," she said.

"Years ago we would never have thought that when people had more than
enough, their moral standards would not go up," she said.

Throughout her talk, Thatcher praised former President Ronald Reagan, whom
she called her hero. "He had a passion for law-governed liberty," Thatcher
said. "He never, never faltered in his beliefs. ... 
 
"We live today in the world Ronald Reagan created. A world not without
flaws, but a world of freedom and a world far better than when he took
office in 1981."

Thatcher credited Reagan with bringing down communism in the former Soviet
Union, although she said no one really knows what sparked the collapse. She
also expressed disappointment that Russia was not guided into a
free-enterprise economy more slowly. 
She said a great deal of money intended to aid the poor in Russia wound up
in the bank accounts of corrupt government officials.

She used several examples to illustrate how economic and political freedom
complement one another. People living in Hong Kong at the time it was
transferred from British to Chinese rule had an average annual income of
$28,000 (Honk Kong), while those living in mainland China had an average
annual income of $800, she said. She attributed the gap to the difference
between a democratic government and an authoritarian one.

Thatcher predicted that the financial growth in the United States and other
nations would continue because economists better understand what causes ups
and downs in the free market.

During a brief question-and-answer session, she spoke against globalization.
"I prefer to make my own decisions, with my own people, with my own
responsibility, with countries of like minds," she said.

She also urged young people in the audience to prepare for leadership by
joining an organization and working "to take the chairman's job."

"Always take the lead and make your views known," she said. "Leaders can't
hang back. They have an idea of how to go forward."

During her visit, Thatcher met with 60 Millsaps students. Jared Eastlack,
18, and a freshman from Sewell, N.J., praised her appearance and the support
it showed for education. "Her being here shows Millsaps that she cares about
Americans and American higher education in general," he said.

Frances Lucas-Tauchar, who became president of Millsaps in July, agreed.
that Thatcher "is a woman of great intellect who has had a profound effect
on the world. She is a stellar example of a liberal arts education."

# # #

*Woodrick is editor of the Mississippi United Methodist Advocate, the
newspaper of the Mississippi Annual Conference.

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United Methodist News Service
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