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105 - Religion: Today's
Puzzle? •
Was
James The Step Brother of Jesus? Click For
Answer •
Q&A01aBeliefGodWhy?
10e
-Why Do You Believe •
Q&A01b
- Burial Box Bears Inscription of 'James
... Brother of Jesus' •
Q&A01c
- Discovery Consistent With
Bible •
Q&A01d
IN THEORY - Are archeological findings
relevant in matters of
faith? •
Q&A02a
Priest Scandal Could Set History in
Motion •
Q&A02b
THE
NATION
Billy
Graham Apologizes for '72
Remarks •
Q&A03a
China's Next Challenge: Christians and the
Microchip •
Q&A04b
Do
You Believe In
God?
-
Survey Measures Thoughts on Religion
From Various Wire Reports. In a look at
Americans' beliefs, a new survey shows
that 44% think the Bible, the Koran and
the Book of Mormon express the same
spiritual
truths. SPECIAL:
Billy Graham / Nixon Recording: Subject:
Truth More
at Enoch
02 •
105 - Religion:
The modern day highs and lows of
Religion is regularly featured in this
section. It's about the self-serving
slippery slopes written into God's
instructions to mankind . . .and the fate
of the religious caretakers of souls that
will slip, skip and slid from grace for
failing to practice what they preach. TVI
Magazine seeks the answers to the
connection between race, politics and
religious beliefs. • TVI
Magazine HOLLYWOOD
BEAT LookRadio NBS100 01
Feature Stories - Today's Puzzle -
Q&A •
Q&A01b
- Burial Box Bears Inscription of 'James
... Brother of
Jesus' •
Q&A01d
IN THEORY - Are archeological findings
relevant in matters of
faith? Part
02
/ Television
With No Borders / We Preserve The
Moment •
Q&A02b
THE
NATION
Billy
Graham Apologizes for '72 Remarks •
Part
03
/
"Can
a race or culture maintain itself as a
political party, government and a
religion."
•
04
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Survey
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In a look at Americans' beliefs, a new
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106 -
Government
•10e
Q&A01a-
Why Do You
Believe?
•••A
new study of what Marx was getting at --
not if there is a God and not whether it
makes sense that humans should believe,
but simply why humans
believe.
•••The
study analyzes the results mostly in terms
of political divisions. It found that
politically conservative Christians
described a godless world "as one of
incessant conflict and chaos, expressing
strong apprehension regarding people's
inability to control their impulses and
the attendant breakdown of social
relationships and societal
institutions."
•••Liberal
Christians, on the other hand, had a
different set of concerns. For them, a
world without God would be "barren or
lifeless, lacking in color and texture, an
empty wasteland that would not sustain
them" and in which they would feel
lost.
•••All
of the respondents generally imagined life
without God as "entailing fear, sadness,
interpersonal isolation and loss of
meaning and hope."
•••The
political findings are intriguing, but not
nearly as interesting as the way the
question and the answers it elicited get
at deeper, core issues. It appears that we
do believe out of need, but it's not, as
Marx suggested, primarily because of
material deprivation. Instead, it looks as
if faith answers fear, and many different
kinds of fear, which we can begin to
delineate in some detail.
•••In
the end, even these specifics don't
intrigue me as much as this fact: Zero-sum
arguments about faith and faithlessness
just go round and round, generating heat
and no light. It's better to return to
real knowledge and fundamental questions.
Rather than arguing over the existence of
God, rather than playing
believer-nonbeliever gotcha, we learn a
whole lot more if we just keep asking
ourselves -- in as many new ways as
possible -- why it is that so many of us
feel compelled to pray.
•••The
study, by psychology professor Dan P.
McAdams and researcher Michelle Albaugh,
was aimed at finding out about the
religious sources of political leanings.
They interviewed 128 devout Christians in
and around Chicago, and they avoided the
usual questions of "How do you know God
exists" or even "Why do you believe?"
Instead, they asked their subjects to
describe what their lives and the world
would be like if they did not have faith.
In other words, what would the world be
like if Christopher Hitchens were right
and there were no
God? -
CLICK
FOR MORE BIBLICAL STUDIES
@#Q&A04b.
The finding
could be the earliest archeological
evidence of the of the biblical
figure.
However, scholars say they may never know
for sure.
•••
October 22, 2002 -- A
French scholar has discovered what may be
the earliest archeological evidence of
Jesus a 1,940-year-old limestone burial
box bearing the inscription "James, son of
Joseph, brother of Jesus
•••
The
20-inch-long box for holding the bones
of the dead,
known as an ossuary, dates from AD 63 and
all evidence suggests that it is genuine
and not a forgery, said paleographer
André Lemaire of the Sorbonne
University in Paris, who discovered it in
a private collection.
The discovery, which so far has survived
the scrutiny of a variety of scholars and
scientists, could be one of the most
important finds in New Testament
archeology, said Hershel Shanks, publisher
of the Biblical Archeology Review, which
is reporting Lemaire's findings in its
November/December issue. Until this find,
the oldest existing text with the name
"Jesus" was a papyrus fragment of the New
Testament dated about a century after
Jesus' death. One of the major questions
facing historians is whether the James
mentioned in the inscription is actually
St. James, who headed the church in
Jerusalem after Jesus' death, or whether
the inscription refers to another family
entirely.
•••
Although Lemaire said at a news conference
Monday that it is "very probable" the box
held the bones of St. James, P. Kyle
McCarter of Johns Hopkins University told
the same gathering that "we may never be
absolutely certain."
••• "In the work I
do, we are rarely absolutely certain about
anything," he said.
••• "It is real,"
said John McCray of Wheaton College in
Illinois. "The big question is, are we
100% sure that the reference is to Jesus
[Christ]? The answer is no, we are
not 100% certain, but the probabilities
are very strong that it is."
••• The
reservations stem from the fact that no
one knows where the ossuary has been for
19 centuries. The unidentified Israeli
collector who owns the ossuary purchased
it 15 years ago from a Jerusalem
antiquities dealer for "$200 to $700,"
Lemaire said. The dealer, in turn, bought
it from an Arab who said he found it in
Silwan, a Jerusalem suburb that is the
site of thousands of tombs.
••• McCarter said
he was disappointed that there was little
information available about the ossuary's
original location and history. "This
leaves us in the awkward position of
always having doubts," he said. "They will
always be there."
••• Ossuaries were
used by Jews in the 1st century AD,
transferring bones from burial caves to
the boxes after all the flesh had
naturally decayed. The practice was
largely abandoned after the destruction of
the Jewish Temple in AD 70. No one is
quite sure why the practice started or
stopped, but it provides a rare period of
self-documentation in which commoners as
well as leaders left their names carved in
stone.
••• Lemaire is a
well-known epigrapher who specializes in
analyzing texts from the early Christian
era. He was shown the ossuary on a visit
to Jerusalem this year. The owner did not
recognize the significance of the
inscription.
••• The box is
trapezoidal in shape, slightly wider at
the top than the bottom. The lid is
slightly convex. The inscription on the
side is in simple Aramaic, in a cursive
form of writing that was used only from
about AD 10 to AD 70, Lemaire said.
Aramaic was spoken throughout the Near
East from about 300 BC to AD 650, and was
the language of Jesus and his
contemporaries.
••• Lemaire was
suspicious of the text at first because it
had an unusual way of saying "brother
of."
••• But a search
of other documents from the period by
Lemaire revealed similar phraseology,
thereby lending authenticity to the
ossuary. It's unlikely a forger would have
chosen such phraseology, he said.
••• Laboratory
tests performed by researchers at the
Geological Survey of Israel confirm that
the box is made from a porous limestone
from the Jerusalem area. Most important,
the box is coated by a thin patina, or
sheen, indicating that it was stored in a
cave for centuries. That patina covers the
inscription as well as the box, the
researchers found, and it contains no
chemicals indicating that it is of modern
origin.
••• There is "no
evidence that might detract from the
authenticity" of the bone box, the Israeli
Geological Survey wrote.
••• The bones were
missing from the ossuary because they were
probably taken by Jewish Christians who
fled so that James' remains would not be
desecrated by the Romans, speculates Ben
Witherington III of Asbury Theological
Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. The box itself
would have been too heavy to carry, he
said, especially if they were leaving in
haste.
••• Unfortunately,
all three names were very common in the
Jerusalem of that period. Researchers have
already discovered at least two ossuaries
that say "James, son of Joseph," McCray
said. "But to have all three names is
highly significant and extremely unusual,
and indicates the importance of the name
Jesus."
••• Records from
the period allowed Lemaire to estimate how
many men in Jerusalem carried each of the
three names. Using simple math, he was
then able to estimate that there were no
more than 20 men in the city of 80,000 who
were named James, who had a father named
Joseph and who had a brother named
Jesus.
••• The fact that
most people did not use ossuaries, and
most who did so did not name their
brothers on them, suggests that this
ossuary is "very unusual." There is only
one other known example in Aramaic of a
brother being named on an ossuary, he
said. Thus, this particular Jesus must
have been very notable.
••• If the
artifact is genuine, it could raise some
thorny theological issues. Protestant
doctrine says that James is a brother of
Jesus, while Orthodox churches say that he
is the son of Joseph by an earlier
marriage, and thus only a halfbrother to
Jesus.
••• Roman Catholic
doctrine, however, says that Mary was a
virgin all her life and that James is only
a cousin of Jesus, perhaps the son of
Joseph's brother Clopas. If the ossuary is
genuine, it would rule out that
interpretation, Witherington
said.
•••
According to the Jewish historian
Josephus, James was stoned to death as a
Jewish heretic in AD 62.
••• There are no
current plans to display the ossuary
publicly, but the Discovery Channel is
producing a documentary about it that is
expected to air for Easter.
///
•••
•
Q&A01c
- Discovery Consistent With
Bible
•••
October 26, 2002 -- According to the Times
Wire Service The editor of a conservative
Catholic magazine said the discovery of a
first-century stone box that could have
held the bones of Jesus' brother does not
disprove church teaching on the perpetual
virginity of Mary.
••• Researchers
this week unveiled an ossuary, or stone
box used to hold the bones of the dead,
with the inscription "James, son of
Joseph, brother of Jesus."
••• Experts from
the Biblical Archaeology Society believe
that the chances are strong that the
inscription refers to the Jesus of the
Gospels.
••• Catholics
teach that Jesus' mother, Mary, remained a
virgin after his birth. They also teach
that biblical figures like James, whom the
Bible refers to as a "brother" to Jesus,
were actually cousins.
••• But even so,
the discovery would not prove that Mary
had other children and would not
contradict the Catholic doctrine of the
perpetual virginity of Mary, said Deal
Hudson, editor of Crisis magazine,
••• Hudson said a
traditional teaching from Orthodox
Christianity could help explain the
mystery.
••• Orthodox
Christians believe that Jesus' father,
Joseph, had been previously married, and
that James was a product of that earlier
marriage.
••• That teaching
"might help to explain why
[Joseph] was willing to take on a
young, consecrated virgin as his bride,"
Hudson wrote.
••• "This would
also make sense in light of Joseph's age.
He apparently was much older than Mary and
died before Jesus began his public
ministry."
••• Hudson's views
were shared by the Rev. Joseph Fitzmyer, a
biblical expert at Catholic University,
who was excited by the find but said the
Bible itself is unclear about Jesus'
family relationships.
•••
October 25, 2002
-- A French
scholar has reported finding what he
believes to be the earliest archeological
evidence of the existence of Jesus, a
burial box from AD 63 that is inscribed:
"James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
Although it appears to be an authentic
relic from the period, there is debate
about whether it refers to Jesus of
Nazareth or another family altogether.
There are numerous other examples of
discoveries that appear to support or
challenge basic teachings and stories
found in the various world religions, and
their authenticity often is never
resolved. From a religious perspective,
are such findings cause for discussion and
reevaluation of beliefs or are they
largely irrelevant in matters of
faith?
•••
Archeological discoveries are very useful
in evaluating past civilizations and how
they lived, but they are not intended to
be used as evidence about the life of a
particular individual. The findings show
only a narrow slice of the life that was
lived, and it is easy to come to erroneous
conclusions. Religious beliefs should be
based on what is true, rather than on what
is real, and focus on the message that is
presented, and not be shaken by
archeological evidence.
• Rabbi Leslie P. Bergson,
• ewish chaplain and Hillel
• director, Claremont Colleges
•••
Authentic findings from antiquity are
studied by scientists (archeologists), and
usually confirm the biblical accuracy on
historical, geographical and cultural
matters. This is called external evidence
for the authenticity and reliability of
the Scriptures. The most significant
external evidence that substantiates the
New Testament are the 4,969 manuscripts of
the New Testament that exist in libraries,
universities, museums, etc., around the
world. These manuscripts consist of copies
and pieces of copies of the original
manuscripts of the New Testament. This
abundant and accurate manuscript evidence
for the New Testament exceeds that of any
other book from the ancient world. This
new finding of a burial box from AD 63
serves as another external reminder that
the Bible is reliable and it is still the
indestructible, indescribable,
irrefutable, eternal, living and most
powerful book of books. If your belief
system is based on what the Bible actually
says, then findings like the burial box
are a cause for rejoicing. If, however,
your belief system is based on man-made
doctrines and traditions, findings like
the burial box do little and or mostly
nothing to change systems that blatantly
ignore the plain teachings of God's
word.
• Pastor Brian E. Kennedy,
• Mt. Zion Baptist Church,
• Ontario
•••
The discovery of the ossuary box is a very
fascinating development in the search for
the truth about those ancient days in the
Near East. From my own religious
perspective, however, it is not very
relevant because most people of my
Unitarian Universalist perspective see
Jesus as not a part of a Trinity, but as a
human being, not God. He was a man like
us, but a historical figure we know very
little about. I affirm any valid scholarly
research, but my religion is more of this
day, this time, seeing the divine within
all human beings. We emulate prophets and
heroes and unsung people who are doing
their best in our time to make this a more
compassionate world. It matters little to
me whether or not his mother was a virgin
or whether she gave birth to other
children. We do know this -- there were no
eyewitnesses to any of the happenings in
his life, nothing was written down until
decades after he died. I am well satisfied
to be inspired by Jesus' supposed
teachings -- so often radical and
upsetting of the establishment -- they
inform my hope and work for social justice
and peace. That is enough.
• The Rev. Ellen Livingston, Monte
Vista Unitarian
• Universalist Congregation, Montclair
•••
The core of Christian faith depends on the
witness of the disciples of Jesus. Central
events, such as the miracles and
resurrection of Christ, simply cannot be
historically verified. Neither the content
nor the quality of faith depends on
archeological evidence. Nevertheless, the
many finds, beginning in the 19th century,
are exciting because they shed light on
the environment of our ancestors in faith.
The Catholic doctrine of Mary's perpetual
virginity does not depend on whether James
and other "brothers of Jesus" were
actually cousins or children of Joseph by
a former marriage. Of course, if it could
be proven that the ossuary is truly that
of James the Apostle, it would settle that
question.
• The Rev. Thomas Welbers,
• Our Lady of the Assumption
• Catholic Church, Claremont
•••
Archeological findings may or may not be
accepted by religious teachings. The Koran
has already spoken about historical
nations as a lesson to the new generations
so that they know how to act, react and
obey God. Beliefs in Islam have already
been declared in specific and in general.
If there is any archeological finding of
scientists that agree with the Islamic
beliefs, it will be taken for granted. On
the other hand, if the findings contradict
the teachings of Islam, then Muslims will
reject the findings of the scientists and
rely heavily on their religious teachings.
Scientists could be right or wrong in
their research. To the Muslims, the Koran
is the final authority directly from God
through Prophet Muhammad to humanity at
large. The Koran is considered by Muslims
to be the summation, culmination and
purification of all the previous messages
of God to his prophets and messengers.
Islam has spoken so beautifully and
respectfully about Jesus the son of Mary.
She is one of the very few women mentioned
in the Koran and who is very much
respected by all Muslims of the world.
There is Chapter 19 in the Koran about
Mary, the virgin, the immaculate, the
mother of Jesus. Also Chapters 3 and 5 are
about Jesus, Mary and their family.
Muslims love Jesus, Mary, Moses, David,
Jacob, Issac, Abraham, Aaron, Joseph, Noah
and Muhammad. There is no discrepancy
among them even if archeological
scientists find anything here and there.
God bless all.
••• -- Dr. Ahmad
Sakr, director, Islamic Education
Center,Walnut
•••
•
Q&A02a
Priest Scandal Could Set History in
Motion
•••
March
21, 2002 -- Will every one of the 195
Catholic diocese in the United States be
tainted by the priest-pedophilia scandal?
Probably. Will investigators, prosecutors
and trial lawyers pick through every new
and old allegation? Absolutely. Will more
priests end up in jail? Obviously. And
will huge financial settlements push the
American church toward bankruptcy? Quite
possibly.
•••
A huge
historical wheel is turning. The Catholic
Church in the United States, which created
its first diocese in St. Augustine, Fla.,
in 1565, is going to be transformed; call
it the Episcopalianization of the Roman
Church.
•••
What
does that mean? In 1534, Henry VIII of
England, furious at the pope for refusing
to grant him a divorce, took control of
the Catholic Church in his kingdom; he
named himself "supreme head on Earth of
the Church of England." That was anathema,
literally. The organizational essence of
the church is that all believers follow
the guidance of the bishop of Rome, who,
in the words of the Dogmatic Constitution,
is recognized as "the perpetual and
visible source of and foundation of the
unity of the bishops and the multitude of
the faithful."
•••
So Pope
Clement VII excommunicated Henry, and a
minor civil war swept across England for
the next two decades.
•••
WASHINGTON,
March 2, 2002 -- The Rev. Billy Graham
apologized Friday for a 1972 conversation
with former President Nixon in which he
said the Jewish "stranglehold" on the
media was ruining the country and must be
broken.
•••
The
conversation was among 500 hours of Nixon
tapes released by the National Archives.
Most were recorded between January and
June 1972.
•••
"Although
I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply
regret comments I apparently made in an
Oval Office conversation with President
Nixon . . . some 30 years ago," Graham
said in a written statement released by
his Texas public relations firm. "They do
not reflect my views and I sincerely
apologize for any offense caused by the
remarks." In the conversation with Nixon,
the Southern Baptist evangelist expressed
disdain for what he saw as Jewish
domination of the media.
•••
"This
stranglehold has got to be broken or this
country's going down the drain," Graham
said, agreeing with Nixon's comments
earlier in the conversation.
•••
"You
believe that?" Nixon says in response.
•••
"Yes,
sir," says Graham.
•••
"Oh
boy. So do I," Nixon agrees, then says: "I
can't ever say that, but I believe
it."
•••
"No,
but if you get elected a second time, then
we might be able to do something," Graham
says, reassuring the president.
•••
Friday,
Graham said his legacy has been one of
working for stronger bonds between Jews
and Christians.
•••
"Throughout
my ministry, I have sought to build
bridges between Jews and Christians,"
Graham said. "I will continue to strongly
support all future efforts to advance
understanding and mutual respect between
our communities."
•••
Graham,
83, has been in frail health for
years.
•••
The
friendship between Graham and Nixon began
during the Eisenhower administration, when
Nixon was vice president.
•••
Later
in the conversation, when Nixon raises the
subject of Jewish influence in Hollywood
and the media, Graham says, "A lot of Jews
are great friends of mine.
•••
"They
swarm around me and are friendly to me.
Because they know that I am friendly to
Israel and so forth. But they don't know
how I really feel about what they're doing
to this country, and I have no power and
no way to handle them," Graham says.
•••
Nixon
says: "You must not let them know."
•••
•
Q&A02c
- 911 / Billy Graham / Nixon
Recording:
Subject:
White
House
- Finally, The Truth on National
TV
•••
Billy Graham's daughter
was being interviewed on the Early
Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could
God let something like this happen?" And
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and
insightful response. She said "I believe
that God is deeply saddened by this, just
as we are, but for years we've been
telling God to get out of our schools, to
get out of our government and to get
out of our lives. And being the gentleman
that He is, I believe that He has
calmly backed out. How can we expect God
to give us His blessing and His
protection if we demand that He leave us
alone?"
•••
I know there's
been a lot of an email going around
in regards to 9/11/01, but this really
makes you think. If you don't have
time, at least skim through it, but the
bottom line is something to think
about..
•••
In light of recent events...terrorists
attack, school shootings, etc. Let's
see, I think it started when Madeline
Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her
body was found recently) complained she
didn't want any prayer in our
schools, and we said OK
••• Then,
someone said you better not read the Bible
in school... the Bible that says
thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal,
and love your neighbor as yourself.
And we said, OK
•••
Then, Dr.. Benjamin
Spock said we shouldn't spank our
children when they misbehave because their
little personalities would be warped
and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr.
Spock's son committed suicide) and
we said, an expert should know what he's
talking about so we said OK
•••
Then, someone said
teachers and principals better not
discipline our children when they
misbehave. And the school administrators
said no faculty member in this
school better touch a student when they
misbehave because we don't want any bad
publicity, and we surely don't want to be
sued (There's big difference between
disciplining and touching, beating,
smacking, humiliating, kicking,
etc.) And we said, OK
•••
Then someone said,
let's let our daughters have
abortions if they want, and they won't
even have to tell their parents. And
we said, OK
•••
Then some wise school
board member said, since boys will
be boys and they're going to do it
anyway, let's give our sons all the
condoms they want, so they can have all
the fun they desire, and we won't have to
tell their parents they got them at
school. And we said, OK
•••
Then some of our top
elected officials said it doesn't
matter what we do in private as long as we
do our jobs. And agreeing with them,
we said it doesn't matter to me what
anyone, including the President,
does in private as long as I have a job
and the economy is good
•••
And then someone said
let's print magazines with pictures
of nude women and call it wholesome,
down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty
of the female body. And we said,
OK
•••
And then someone else
took that appreciation a step
further and published pictures of nude
children and then stepped further
still by making them available on
the Internet. And we said OK; they're
entitled to their free speech
•••
And then the
entertainment industry said, let's make TV
shows and movies that promote
profanity, violence, and illicit sex. And
let's record music that encourages rape,
drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic
themes. And we said it's just
entertainment, it has no adverse effect,
and nobody takes it seriously anyway, so
go right ahead
•••
Now
we're asking ourselves why our
children have no conscience, why they
don't know right from wrong, and why
it doesn't bother them to kill
strangers, their classmates, and
themselves
•••
Probably,
if we think about it long and hard enough,
we can figure it out
•••
I
think it has a great deal to do with "WE
REAP WHAT WE SOW."
•••
"Dear
God, Why didn't you save the little girl
killed in her classroom?" Sincerely,
Concerned Student... AND THE REPLY "Dear
Concerned Student, I am not allowed
in schools". Sincerely, God
•••
Funny
how simple it is for people to trash
God and then wonder why the world's going
to hell. Funny how we believe what
the newspapers say, but question what the
Bible says
•••
Funny
how everyone wants to go to heaven
provided they do not have to believe,
think, say, or do anything the Bible
says
•••
Funny
how someone can say "I believe in God" but
still follow Satan who, by the way,
also "believes" in God
•••
Funny
how we are quick to judge but not to
be judged
•••
Funny
how you can send a thousand 'jokes'
through e-mail and they spread like
wildfire, but when you start sending
messages regarding the Lord, people think
twice about sharing
•••
Funny
how the lewd, crude, vulgar and
obscene pass freely through cyberspace,
but the public discussion of God is
suppressed in the school and workplace
•••
Funny
how someone can be so fired up for
Christ on Sunday, but be an invisible
Christian the rest of the week
•••
Are
you laughing?
•••
Funny
how when you go to forward this
message, you will not send it to many on
your address list because you're not
sure what they believe, or what they will
think of you for sending it to them.
Funny how I can be more worried about what
other people think of me than what
God thinks of me
•••
Are
you thinking?
•••
Pass
it on if you think it has merit. If
not then just discard it....no one will
know that you did. But, if you
discard this thought process, then
don't sit back and complain about what a
bad shape the world is in!
Today's
Puzzle:
Who said that Samson committed
suicide?
•••
•
Q&A03a
China's
Next Challenge: Christians and the
Microchip
•••
SHANGHAI,
October 22, 2002 -- Richard Chang, a
devout Christian raised in Taiwan and
educated in the United States, has opened
a $1.6-billion semiconductor factory here
and plans to build a church for his 3,000
employees.
•••
Chinese officials have displayed a cool,
some would say hostile, attitude toward
foreign religions. But they have put out
the welcome mat for Chang because they
desperately need his expertise.
••• This communist
nation has embraced capitalism and become
a manufacturing power, exporting toys,
appliances and other products to every
corner of the globe. Now, government
officials want China to compete in a far
more challenging arena: the making of
semiconductors, the silicon chips that
power everything from cell phones to
missile guidance systems.
••• The
semiconductor is one of the sophisticated,
high-value products that form the
cornerstone of an advanced economy.
Chinese officials believe that mastery of
the 250-step production process for the
chips will teach factory managers and
engineers the skills needed to lift China
into the top tier of industrial
powers.
••• With the
single-minded determination it once
focused on ideological crusades, the
government has embarked on a crash program
to develop a world-class semiconductor
industry, using tax breaks, free land and
other incentives to attract foreign
companies and know-how.
••• Though
primitive by the standards of the United
States, Japan or Taiwan, Chinese chip
making has taken a big step in the last
few years.
••• A recent
report by the U.S. General Accounting
Office said several of China's factories,
using foreign capital and technology, are
one "generation" or less behind the
world's leading semiconductor makers. Chip
technology undergoes a significant
advance, entering a new generation, every
two years.
••• Chinese
leaders are counting on foreign technology
experts such as Chang to help them make
the next leap.
••• Under tight
security in a cavernous building in
Shanghai's Pudong district, employees of
Chang's Semiconductor Manufacturing
International Corp. work in sterile "clean
rooms," producing silicon chips with
circuits as narrow as 0.18 micron, barely
one-thousandth the diameter of a human
hair.
••• The factory,
among the most advanced in China, makes
semiconductors for companies in Japan, the
U.S. and Europe. The chips are packaged
and sold under those firms' brand names
and delivered to customers in China, which
put them in a variety of electronic
products.
••• "Because of
our proximity, it is easy for us to
penetrate the China market," said Chang, a
53-year-old engineer who is the company's
president and chief executive. "We are not
the price leader, but we offer better
services in China. And performance-wise,
we are first-rate."
••• China produced
$900 million worth of semiconductors in
2000, compared with $11 billion for
Taiwan. But it is not only in volume that
China lags behind the industry leaders.
Sophisticated factories such as Chang's
are rare. Nearly all the chips made here
are of the rudimentary kind used in
microwave ovens and televisions —
"trailing-edge" technology, as it is known
in the industry.
••• China does not
make enough even of these comparatively
primitive chips to meet the demands of its
factories, whose consumption of
semiconductors is growing 30% a year. The
country imports 85% of its chips.
•••
"Semiconductors are the key to the
information technology industry," said Yu
Zhongyu, president of the China
Semiconductor Industry Assn. "If we want
to develop further, we need to have this
skill."
•••
Five-Year Plan
•••
Just a few years ago, China's prospects in
this high-tech realm seemed poor.
••• The United
States restricted Chinese access to the
most advanced American semiconductor
technology out of concern that it might be
put to military use. Air and water
pollution made it hard to create the
sterile environment needed for chip
manufacturing. Skilled technicians and
managers were in short supply, a legacy of
the late-1960s Cultural Revolution and its
purges of intellectuals.
••• China also
lacked the necessary investment capital.
Building a semiconductor factory, or
"fab," involves huge start-up costs more
than $1 billion in equipment alone.
••• To develop a
globally competitive industry, China
needed foreign capital and talent. In
1995, the government set out to get both
with Project 909, a five-year plan with
ambitious goals for building chip plants
and developing technical expertise.
••• China lowered
barriers to foreign investment and set up
high-tech zones offering free land and tax
holidays. To encourage Chinese factories
to use chips made in China, the government
imposed a 17% tax on imported
semiconductors and charged just 3% for
those produced domestically.
••• Chip makers
from Japan and later Taiwan began setting
up production facilities in China.
Initially, they had to export most of
their output, so home-grown enterprises
would be protected from competition. But
the government gradually permitted
foreign-invested factories to sell more of
their semiconductors in China. That
attracted more foreign firms.
••• Today,
Motorola Inc. operates a giant
semiconductor plant and a test and
assembly facility in Tianjin, a port city
southeast of Beijing. Even as it slashes
jobs in other countries, Motorola has
announced plans to spend $6.6 billion over
the next five years in China, building at
least 10 more semiconductor wafer
fabrication plants.
••• "Everybody is
making a bold dash into China," said Kirk
Pond, president and chief executive of
Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc.
The American firm is building a
$200-million facility near Shanghai to
assemble and test chips for sale in
China.
••• Taiwanese
leaders feel particularly threatened by
all this. They fear that the loss of
chip-making jobs will hollow out the
island nation's economy and give China
leverage in their long-running political
struggle.
••• For years,
Taiwan barred its semiconductor makers
from doing business on the mainland,
though companies found ways around the
rules. But this year, after lobbying by
Taiwanese companies, the government eased
those restrictions, permitting the
transfer of all but the most sophisticated
technology.
••• Microsemi
Corp. of Irvine, a leading supplier of
chips to the U.S. military and space
programs, is among the American companies
making their way to China. Eager to expand
its commercial and industrial business,
the firm has opened a factory in Shanghai,
its first outside the United States.
••• The factory, a
joint venture with a Chinese company,
makes a specialized line of chips used in
power plants and other industrial
applications.
••• Raw materials
are cheap, and engineers with advanced
degrees and five years of experience can
be hired for less than $500 a month, said
Andy Yuen, Microsemi's vice president of
international operations. The factory
produces high-quality chips at one-third
the cost of a similar product in the
United States.
••• "We chose
Shanghai as a center because everything we
need is within 20 miles of our factory,"
said Yuen, a Hong Kong native who oversees
the firm's operations in Asia and Europe.
"Raw materials, chemicals, tooling —
you name it, they're here. And instead of
just having low-end assembly workers, we
can use Shanghai as a place for
brainpower. My goal is to do 100% here, no
exceptions."
••• Return From
Exile
••• Foreign
technocrats such as Yuen and Chang provide
China with something money can't buy:
extensive experience in the intensely
competitive semiconductor industry.
••• Chang was born
in Nanjing, China, and raised in
Kaoshiung, Taiwan, where his parents moved
before his first birthday. They were among
the thousands of Chinese who fled after
the Communists wrested control of the
mainland in 1949.
••• After
graduating from National Taiwan University
and completing his military service, Chang
went to the United States, where he got a
master's degree in engineering science at
the State University of New York in
Buffalo. He and his wife, also an
engineer, went to work at Texas
Instruments Inc. in Dallas.
••• Over the next
two decades, Chang played a key role in
the company's global expansion, helping
oversee the launch of six semiconductor
factories in Asia and Europe.
••• After taking
early retirement from Texas Instruments in
1997, he decided to return to Taiwan.
Backed by a group of international
investors, Chang founded Worldwide
Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., which
made custom chips for the world's leading
technology firms. In 2000, Worldwide
merged with a Taiwanese chip maker, and
some of Chang's customers and investors
urged him to start another factory.
••• With $1.6
billion in funding from firms such as
Goldman Sachs and H&Q Asia Pacific, a
Palo Alto investment group, Chang went
shopping for a location. Officials in
Shanghai offered him the most attractive
tax breaks, along with cheap land, water
and electricity and a large supply of
technical talent.
••• But for Chang,
the critical factor was spiritual. A
missionary trapped in an engineer's body,
he saw his company as a way to strengthen
Christianity in the world's most populous
nation.
••• "China is a
good place in many aspects. The market is
huge. Manufacturing costs are competitive.
The pool of talent is also very good," he
said. "But frankly, I was thinking about
how I could share God's love with the
Chinese more than how I could help the
economy."
••• Chang traveled
the globe assembling a team of chip
designers, engineers and production
experts, many from the Chinese Christian
community. He offered the classic
tech-company bargain: a chance to be on
the ground floor of a pioneering venture,
with stock options. To ease employees'
culture shock, he is building a housing
development near the Pudong factory, with
a bilingual school.
••• Roger Lee, 43,
gave up a good job at Micron Technology
Inc. of Boise, Idaho, one of the world's
largest memory chip companies, to join
Chang's start-up as a vice president. Lee
also took a substantial pay cut. Chang
pays his employees at prevailing Chinese
rates, which for top executives are 25% to
30% of U.S. salaries.
••• Lee worried
about tearing his wife and three sons,
ages 7 to 15, away from their five-acre
spread in Boise and the friends and family
they had known all their lives. But Lee,
who was born in China and educated in the
U.S., shared Chang's conviction that their
native country was poised to become a
world center for chip manufacturing.
••• At Micron,
where Lee worked for 15 years, the
Princeton graduate played a critical role
in developing products and had 115 patents
to his name. He hopes to replicate that
record at Chang's company, where he is
head of memory technology development.
••• "When I joined
Micron, it was a start-up company," Lee
said. "When I left, there were 12,000
employees. It is hard for one person to
make a difference."
••• Shou Gouping,
a 40-year-old engineer for Chang's
company, left Beijing for the United
States two years after the 1989 Tiananmen
Square massacre and did not expect to see
his homeland again. After obtaining
advanced degrees in electrical
engineering, Shou worked for technology
firms in Silicon Valley. He met Hai Ling,
a Chinese immigrant who had come to the
U.S. to study physics. They were married
in 1998 and had a son the next year.
••• Early last
year, Shou's aging mother grew sick, and
the couple returned to China with their
son. After a decade in the United States,
Shou said, it felt good to be surrounded
by family and the culture and language of
his childhood. Though people were poor by
U.S. standards, he sensed an optimism
about China's future.
••• Three weeks
later, Shou and his wife reluctantly
returned to Sunnyvale, Calif. But they
left their son with Shou's mother and
decided to look for a way back to China.
Through a friend in Florida, Shou heard
that Chang was hiring. He took a job as a
technical manager in the firm's design
service department, providing computer
support.
••• Shou, a
Christian, said that Chang's spiritual
message resonated deeply with him.
••• "I had a
feeling that my life should be in China,
serving people and God," he said.
••• Chang and his
employees have had their share of
frustrations, including tussles with local
officials over taxes, delays in getting
sophisticated U.S. equipment because of
export controls, and a shortage of
experienced personnel.
••• But analysts
say the company's prospects are bright.
Chang has cut deals with industry giants
such as Toshiba Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and
Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor
Manufacturing Ltd. to obtain leading-edge
technology. In return, Chang gave them an
ownership stake in his firm or agreed to
produce chips for them.
••• Chang's
company "is successful because it has
outside connections," said Dorothy Lai, a
Hong Kong analyst with Gartner Dataquest,
a technology research firm based in
Stamford, Conn.
••• Seven months
ago, Chang began holding religious
services in a rented building near his
factory. He hopes to start construction
soon on a church for his employees.
••• "Every time we
have done something successful, I openly
mention that this is done with the Lord's
blessing," he said. "At first, some people
felt awkward about this. But as they
realize we really practice our beliefs,
they accept us."
•••
•
Q&A04b
Do
You Believe In God? - Survey Measures
Thoughts on Religion From Various Wire
Reports. In a look at Americans' beliefs,
a new survey shows that 44% think the
Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon
express the same spiritual truths.
•••
October
12, 2002 -- The survey by the Barna
Research Group also found that
three-quarters of American adults believe
in the Trinity, agree that "every person
has a soul that will live forever, either
in God's presence or absence," and reject
the idea that only well-trained
theological scholars can correctly
interpret the Bible.
•••
Though 44% of those surveyed said "the
Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon
are all different expressions of the same
spiritual truths," 38% disagreed.
•••
Fifty-one percent of Americans agree that
"praying to deceased saints can have a
positive effect in a person's life" and
39% disagreed. But the difference of
opinion is more striking between
Protestants and Catholics, with 80% of
Catholics agreeing, compared with 41% of
Protestants. Sixty percent of Latinos
agree with the statement.
•••
Thirty-five percent of American adults
believe it is "possible to communicate
with others after they die," compared with
55% who dispute that idea
•••
Fifty-nine percent of those polled said
Satan, or the devil, is not a living being
but rather a symbol of evil, compared with
34% who believe Satan exists.
•••
Americans are divided over whether Jesus
sinned when he lived on Earth, with 42%
saying he did and 50% saying he did
not.
•••
Respondents also were divided about
whether a person who "is generally good or
does enough good things for others" while
on Earth will earn a place in heaven.
Fifty percent agreed and 42%
disagreed.
•••
Asked whether "the Bible does not
specifically condemn homosexuality," 27%
agreed and 53% disagreed.
•••
George Barna, president of the
Ventura-based marketing research firm,
said the results reflect an increasing
inclusiveness about faith among many
Americans.
•••
"Christians have increasingly been
adopting spiritual views that come from
Islam, Wicca, secular humanism, the
Eastern religions and other sources," he
said in a statement.
•••
"Because we remain a largely
Bible-illiterate society, few are alarmed
[by] or even aware of the slide
toward syncretism--a belief system that
blindly combines beliefs from many
different faith perspectives."
•••
The results are based on a telephone
survey of 630 American adults in August
2002.
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