Listener Feedback

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, June 4th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Well, right around the corner, we’re starting up our June Giving Drive—that’s coming on Monday. And I’d like to take a quick moment to thank you for your part in creating a pool we can use to match some gifts.

That’ll help us create an extra incentive to reach our funding goal for our fiscal year end.

Maybe you’d like to add to the pool—fill it up a little deeper. There’s still time to do that. If you’re interested, you can drop me a line and I’ll put you in touch with one of our development team to work out the details.

You can email me at Nick@wng.org.

Time now for your Listener Feedback.

BROWN: But first, two corrections. In last week’s story about Portland and Seattle, we incorrectly identified an African American lay leader serving in Portland. Her name is Michelle … but we got her last name wrong. It’s Michelle Jones.

EICHER: And in Monday’s History Book, we talked about when the Roman Catholic church declared Joan of Arc a saint … and we got the date wrong. Rome did not make that official designation until the 20th century.

BROWN: Ok, moving on now to your calls and emails! We’ll start with a call from longtime listener Wes McFall. He’s a physical therapist and said he often talks with patients about things he hears on the program. And, of course, he recommends they listen for themselves, even non-Christians. He says it’s good exposure for Biblical truth.

WES MCFALL: I do, however, get a little bit anxious when the pieces roll at the end of your program. For a program that regularly claims to be Biblically objective, I think it’s necessary to clearly state when something is more of an opinion. Although the majority of the time I can give a hearty “amen” to the majority of perspectives given, it’s not clear Biblical truth but instead a person’s opinion. I think it would be wise to clearly state when something is an opinion piece, if it is one, even if that may seem obvious. Keep up the good work, team!

EICHER: Well, thanks for your boldness in talking with your patients. And I think you hit on it. We do tend to place commentaries toward the end of the program—whether it’s Cal Thomas or Marvin Olasky or Kim Henderson. We do make it a practice to refer to commentators as commentators with the implication that it’s commentary. And you should notice that we introduce a report, we’ll say, for example, “Sarah Schweinsberg reports” and then Sarah will lock the piece out at the end with “reporting for WORLD” which commentators don’t do.

Now, maybe we’ve neglected identifying commentators at times and if we do, that’s an oversight and we sure don’t mean to mislabel our content. So thanks for the reminder.

BROWN: Next, speaking of Kim Henderson, we have some audio fanmail for her. You know, we get quite a bit of that.

EICHER: We sure do!

BROWN: Listener Leta Powell sent this in response to Kim’s piece about Mother’s Day.

LETA POWELL: I just want to thank Kim for her wonderful pieces. She has such insight into how we feel, so many of us. And that piece was just so beautifully written. So I just want to thank you, Kim, for your beautiful writing. I’ve listened to that piece a couple of times. Both times it has almost brought me to tears, so thank you so much.

EICHER: We also got some praise for Whitney Williams. Listener Lee Gwaltney of Chesapeake, Virginia, emailed to say that Whitney’s piece this week gave a whole new meaning to The World and Everything in It. Here’s part of what he wrote:

Just when you think you’ve heard it all and ‘know it all’ you hear a piece about leeches. Thank you Whitney for making me smile, cringe, and more importantly further appreciate this program that I listen to every weekday morning.

BROWN: We also got some appreciative emails about Lillian Hamman’s story on Tuesday’s program about Gold Star mom Elaine Leusink. Listener Rick Porter said he clearly heard the skills of a good journalist in Lillian’s report. And of course he noted that she just completed our World Journalism Institute, which she did with flying colors. He said her story showed objectivity, sensitivity, and faith.

EICHER: It definitely did. You can expect to hear more of WJI graduate work as we continue working with these young reporters to help them grow their reporting skills. We have a summer internship program, so you’ll be hearing some of the pieces the students worked on during their time with us at Dordt University. So, stay tuned!

BROWN: Back to the phone lines now. Next up, Matt Brown from Tucson, Arizona.

MATT BROWN: Just wanted to say that I had heard comments that Paul Butler had been given regarding his voice and interestingly enough if there’s one voice with World that I so thoroughly enjoy listening, it is actually Paul Butler. It’s actually not the tone. It’s actually the cadence and the intonation that are so engaging for me as a former NPR addict. So I consider Paul Butler Cadence and intonation and overall style very much in keeping with that of NPR, which I listened to for so many years and finally gave up due to their absolute, unfortunate political stands. So Paul, take heart man. You really are absolutely the voice that I enjoy the the most not that I don’t enjoy all the voices but yours in particular is engaging for me as a former NPR listener. If you take the right way! I appreciate all y’all do.

EICHER: Thank you, Matt. Now another call from another Matt. Matt Templeton from Dallas, Texas.

MATTHEW TEMPLETON: I just have to say, this season of The Olasky Interview is on fire. The interviews with Mez McConnell and Roland Warren both had amazing thought leadership and I was extremely moved listening to them I am so encouraged to keep giving to WORLD, and give more, specifically hoping that you’ll make more podcasts. And I know you’ve been teasing with new shows coming soon. But please, please, please keep doing what you’re doing and make more. It is excellent in both a journalistic aspect and in a way of influencing our hearts and minds. And we really appreciate it. Thank you.

BROWN: And finally, we’re going to end today with a special blessing from Vicky, who called in from Los Alamos, New Mexico.

VICKY: The World and Everything in It is the perfect compliment to my 35-minute commute. My favorite part is the blessing. What better way to start my day than a positive reminder from God’s Word, followed by, “go now in grace and peace.” So today I would like to return the blessing to all staff at World. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Go now in Grace and peace.

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