Listener Feedback: September 2025

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, September 26th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Time now for Listener Feedback for September.

First up, listener Shannon Sutton on our reporting on the Catholic School shooting in Minneapolis:

SHANNON SUTTON: I wanted to comment today on the piece following the terribly tragic shooting at the school …and just say that it felt insensitive to follow that piece by just layering on another journalistic piece about the shootings that happened a couple years ago at the Christian school in Nashville. … it was just a bit of an emotional overload. … Again, overall, I appreciate so much what you all do. Rarely have anything at all, even the slightest bit negative to say. So keep up the good work and I hope these comments will be helpful.

EICHER: Well, they are. Just by way of explanation: The first story was intended to be more informational, covering the latest facts about the shooting. But we wanted to think beyond the immediate aftermath by bringing on a veteran reporter who’d been through the aftermath of the Nashville shooting to help listeners think about what’s likely to come next for these heartbroken families in Minneapolis.

It was not our intent to emotionally overload any listener—but for this one and any others who did feel overloaded, we’re certainly sorry about that.

Next, we return to Tuesday’s segment on Israel’s allies saying they were ready to recognize a Palestinian state. Listener Alan Skiles was hoping for the arguments to be more rigorously engaged with, and he makes an excellent point here that we need to do better.

ALAN SKILES: You've interviewed and given the perspective of two audiences. One is our brother, a Palestinian Christian, who's basically saying, "Don't forget about us. We're caught in the crossfire." And then You have the American foreign policy experts who represent a pro-Israel position in the matter. And what I see is them all articulating their positions as a starting point. And I feel like it might be helpful to those of us listening if we actually then heard them take it a step further and address the arguments being made by one another.

So for example, our Palestinian Christian friend, I would love to see his argument being interacted with by the American foreign policy expert who's pro-Israel. I would love that particular expert to be asked: “What about the Christians in Palestine?” I think his answer would also be something I'd like to see our Palestinian Christian friend engage with which is that we have serious doubts as to whether or not Palestinian Christians would be safe in an independent Palestine that has full recognition in the world scene and so it would be wonderful to see those two ideas interacted with. Right now we just have the two parties arguing past each other.

BROWN: Next, an appreciation. Many families this month have dropped off young students for college, and we’ve featured a couple commentaries on the topic the last few weeks.

BRIAN ETCHISON: I'm Brian Etchison from Brentwood, Tennessee. Thanks to Ted Kluck for bringing back so many wonderful college memories. Like worrying about how many minutes I was racking up on the phone bill calling my girlfriend long distance. Turning down the heat in our apartment to save money and sitting in sleeping bags while we studied on olive colored vinyl upholstered chairs. We never knew we had it so rough.

Beside Ted Kluck’s humorous look at college dorm rooms, we also featured a story this week from associate correspondent Rachel Coyle. She had a very different angle from the perspective of a mother dropping off her first. That got the attention of Edith Marrero, who found Rachel’s story “delightful and encouraging”, agreeing with the sentiment that “it’s God who keeps them safe.” Our listener said she hopes the piece encourages more mothers and grandmothers to pray that He will.

Dan Johnson from Chicago enjoyed Rachel’s piece, too. And he caught an Easter Egg in the production.

DAN JOHNSON: I just wanted to give a shout out to the audio team for the great work they did on Rachel Coyle's reflection on college 30 years later after she brought her own daughter to college. The Wayne Watson music: Class of ‘95 at the very end was really appreciated. I caught what you were doing there…Keep up the great work. I love the show. I love listening to it every day.

The last few weeks have included coverage of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. We’ve received a lot of feedback from listeners. We’d like to share two of those comments with you.

First from Celisse Ellis. She lives in Leavenworth, Washington.

CELISSE ELLIS: I've been listening to The World and Everything in It for a few years now, and I was recently encouraged as I realized how, when I hear about news being discussed around me, I no longer have the urge to go search for that story and hear the latest updates. Instead, my first reaction is, "Oh, I'll look forward to hearing about that tomorrow morning on The World and Everything in It."

Your excellent reporting on Charlie Kirk's assassination was a perfect example of that. Instead of getting sucked in to minute-by-minute updates, my confidence in knowing you'd report on it thoroughly and with a biblical perspective freed me up to focus on the things that the Lord has for me in my day and has kept me from the temptation of neglecting those things to search out news. I so appreciate how your ministry is helping me in my ministries. Thank you.

EICHER: One more voicemail today. This from a listener in Loveland, Colorado:

BRITTANY: I just wanted to reach out about your coverage on the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I felt like just having Mary talk about her personal experience was really powerful. And the young man…his firsthand take was just really powerful. And was just really impressed by his level of maturity. And also really appreciated his--yeah, just his encouragement at the end of just how, we live in a fallen world and ultimately, like, “vengeance is mine, I shall repay, says the Lord.”. It doesn't make it any easier, but just so thankful for you all and just how you report on things and how tactful you bring truly horrific and tragic stories to life and not glorify the evil that was done. … so tthank you.

BROWN: Thanks for that. We can tell how you were struggling with the loss, the call having come in the very next day, so the hurt was obviously very fresh. Thanks for calling in.

EICHER: You know Myrna, I really liked the interview you did with Matthew Ward last week; the worship musician, talking about how he was processing the news. His reflection on that verse in Psalm 34 was poignant, “the Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Good job on that!

Well, we thought we’d end the week with another song inspired by Charlie Kirk.

This one is from Brian Curl. He’s an independent record label owner and an American Society of Composers and Producers songwriter. As he reflected on the life of the Turning Point USA founder he also put his thoughts to music, and for him it was a patriotic anthem of faith. Paul Butler and I got on the phone with him the other day after he reached out to us. This is just a demo record at this point but he gave us the go-ahead to play it for you.

And I wanted to because as I watched the hundred-thousand people gathered at Kirk’s memorial service last weekend, I was struck with how this moment isn’t just a historical event we’ll never forget, but it may very well be a turning point for many.

BROWN: Right, I really resonated with what John Stonestreet had to say about that today.

EICHER: As did I. So as we end today, here’s a little bit of Brian Curl’s demo song titled: Prove me wrong.

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