The World and Everything in It: April 15, 2026

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

Republicans are back in Washington with a plan to fund border enforcement—without Democrats.

THUNE: We need to keep this process tight and focused so that we can get this done

NICK EICHER, HOST: Washington Wednesday coming up with Hunter Baker.

Also today, WORLD Tour: the far-reaching effects of choking off global oil supply.

Later: college wrestling programs are at risk and the losses could reach beyond the mat.

KISTLER: They essentially heard the gospel because of … CBU wrestling.

And a political outreach effort meets a policy contradiction—Cal Thomas explains.

MAST: It’s Wednesday, April 15th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

MAST: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel-Lebanon talks » Historic talks in Washington as negotiators from Israel and Lebanon met face to face Tuesday — a meeting aimed at ending a cross-border conflict that has only intensified in recent weeks.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter suggested the talks went well.

LEITER: This is an opportunity. This is the first time our two countries are sitting together in over three decades. Let's feel the moment. Let's enjoy the moment. And we enjoyed it together.

But the group at the center of the conflict was not at the table.

Israel’s strikes within Lebanon have been aimed at Hezbollah targets as the Iran-backed terror group continues to fire rockets across the border.

But Leiter said that during the talks, both countries were on the same page and want to see Hezbollah's grip on the southern part of Lebanon loosened.

LEITER: We talked about a number of things, and most importantly, the vision, the long-term vision, where there will be a clearly delineated border between our countries, and where the only reason we will need to cross each other's territory will be in business suits to conduct business, or in bathing suits to go on vacation.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio mediated the talks and says don't expect an agreement to be hammered out right away.

RUBIO: All of the complexities of this matter are not going to be resolved in the next six hours, but we can begin to move forward to create the framework where something can happen, something very positive.

And he says the goal of the talks is to work toward a permanent end to Hezbollah's influence in the region.

Iran » Meanwhile, the U.S. military says it has begun enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports and no ships made it past the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz on the first full day.

Six merchant vessels turned back under orders from American forces.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune says Iran’s efforts to control the strait may have backfired.

THUNE: They probably felt like this was one last, um, you know, leverage point that they could use to try and, and, uh, weaken the US resolve. But the president has met them and uh, and obviously they are now in a position where if they don't get back to the table here, pretty soon they're gonna be feeling a lot of hurt.

Iran has threatened to strike targets across the region, one day after President Trump warned that any Iranian warships approaching the blockade would be destroyed.

However the president also says a second round of talks with Iran could happen within days. The first round ended without a deal over the weekend in Pakistan, which has offered to host another round.

Neither side has said what happens when the current ceasefire expires next week.

Meantime, Democrats are pushing to limit the president's authority to order military strikes without getting permission from Congress. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer:

SCHUMER: Starting this week, we will bring a War Powers resolution to the floor, and if Republicans block it, we will vote again and again and again.

That effort faces long odds in a Republican-controlled Senate.

SOUND: [Typhoon]

Super typhoon » A super typhoon with ferocious winds and heavy rains is battering a group of remote U.S. islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The monster storm slowed to a crawl as it approached the Northern Mariana Islands, home to roughly 50,000 people. And it’s been moving through the U.S. territory at a painfully slow pace.

Super Typhoon Sinlaku is the strongest tropical typhoon on Earth so far this year. Maximum sustained winds reached roughly 150 miles per hour on Wednesday.

Ukraine agrees defense deal with Germany » In Berlin Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed a new drone deal with Germany. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher reports:

BENJAMIN EICHER: The new deal would include advanced drones, missiles, software, and defense systems. And Zelenskyy says their teams are now hammering out the details.

ZELENSKYY: [Speaking Ukrainian]

EICHER: He spoke at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

The Ukrainian president said his country can produce twice as much military equipment as it's currently fielding but lacks the money to scale up.

A key hurdle: a promised 90-billion-euro EU loan held up by Hungary's outgoing prime minister. He said Ukraine needs those funds urgently.

The two leaders also announced a four-billion-euro defense package … allowing Kyiv to buy several hundred American-made Patriot missiles to bolster its air defenses.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

Canada's left gains more power » Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday suspended the federal fuel tax his first act with a newly won majority government behind him.

CARNEY: Today's cut to the fuel excise tax is a responsible temporary measure, consistent with what it takes to build a stronger economy, a more affordable economy combined with sound fiscal management.

The suspension takes effect next Monday and runs through Labor Day, a response to rising fuel prices driven by the Iran war.

That new government majority itself is historic. Following a special election Carney's Liberal Party now holds 174 of 343 seats in the House of Commons, the first Canadian government to flip from a minority to a majority between national elections.

Five opposition lawmakers — four of them Conservatives — defected to the Liberals. That means Carney no longer needs opposition votes to pass legislation and could hold power until 2029.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: The Republican plan to fund border enforcement. That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday. Hunter Baker is standing by. Plus, WORLD Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 15th of April.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Time now for Washington Wednesday!

Congress is back after a two-week recess…and Republican leaders are gearing up to use budget reconciliation to end the partial government shutdown and fund the President’s priorities.

WORLD Washington bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta has more from Washington.

LUMETTA: Reconciliation is an obscure mechanism that Senate Republicans are pitching as the solution to Democratic opposition to funding the Department of Homeland Security. It allows Senators to pass legislation on a simple majority vote, rather than 60 votes…as long as it focuses strictly on revenue and spending laws. Here’s Majority Leader John Thune.

THUNE: We need to keep this process tight and focused so that we can get this done.

That means not adding other Republican priorities to this bill. House Republicans previously shot down a similar plan because it would not include a voting reform bill called the Save America Act. Now, Senate leadership is promising to use as many as three reconciliation bills this summer: to pass ICE funding, Iran war funding, and the Save America Act. But that might run up against the Byrd Rule…requiring the Senate Parliamentarian to ensure every provision directly relates to spending. Here’s Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.

HAWLEY: We could absolutely put more ICE money in, and we should. On Save, I would love to pass Save America by reconciliation. Can we? I don't know.

Senate Budget Committee chair Lindsey Graham is more optimistic and has a narrower focus.

GRAHAM: You can make a down payment on SAVE Act later. Okay. We're going to do Border Patrol funding and ICE funding in the reconciliation package. And that way, we won't ever have to worry about needing a Democratic vote for years to fund the border and to fund ICE.

If it passes, it’s up to the House to approve the Senate’s plan to fund the rest of DHS…or send lawmakers back to the drawing board.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta,  in Washington.

EICHER: Joining us now, Hunter Baker. He’s a political scientist and commentator for WORLD Opinions. Morning, Hunter.

HUNTER BAKER:Good morning!

EICHER: So you heard the report. Give us your sense of the strategy—using reconciliation to move pieces of the SAVE Act, immigration enforcement, and government funding. Step back for us: what’s realistic here?

BAKER: Senator Mike Lee, who I think is legitimately a constitutional scholar, somebody who someday could maybe sit on the Supreme Court. He is the author of the Save Act, and he himself has said we can't pass it through reconciliation. Is there some way to to break it and break it down into smaller pieces, or sort of attach something via the federal spending power to be able to get it through? Maybe so. But the bigger thing that is in play here is, are we going to be able to fund ICE, are we going to be able to fund Border Patrol? And of course, I just want to say, I think that had we not had the difficulties in Minnesota, those things would have been passed and we wouldn't have had a problem. So it just shows you how you know a bad situation like occurred there can affect something much larger, which is appropriating the money for those federal functions.

The second thing I want to say is, I just think that this is Exhibit A and why we need to get rid of the filibuster. The filibuster is not in the Constitution. The filibuster is a Senate rule. We do not have to have it. We have checks and balances. We have the separation of powers. I don't think that we need the filibuster. I think that, I think that whoever is in the majority needs to be accountable to govern, and the filibuster and its 60 vote rule makes that almost impossible, and so we end up playing these kind of games, like we're playing with reconciliation, where we try to take something like the SAVE Act and turn it into somehow kind of a budget bill, which it is not.

So in my view, we need to get rid of the filibuster and work with legislation in a more clean and simple way. I do hope that they will be able to pass funding for ICE and the Border Patrol without separating out the rest of DHS for special funding.

MAST: Let’s stay on Capitol Hill—but shift to something more unusual.

Two members of Congress—Democrat Eric Swalwell and Republican Tony Gonzales—say they’ll resign as the House returns to session, both facing misconduct allegations and the threat of expulsion votes.

And they’re not alone. Another Democrat and another Republican are also under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

So at the moment—you’ve got two out, and two more in serious trouble… evenly split between the parties.

Hunter, when you’ve got this kind of symmetry—two leaving, two more under investigation, split between both parties—what does that do, if anything, for instilling confidence that misconduct is being addressed?

BAKER: I was listening to Bloomberg Intelligence earlier today, and they had a commentator who was very upset, because this situation gives the impression that we can only expel a wayward lawmaker if it will not upset the balance of power in the Congress. So so, you know, clearly, that's that's how it appears, right? It's like, okay, you know, you guys, you guys, get rid of two, and we'll get rid of two, and then it will be okay. And I understand why that would upset people and why that looks bad. It is bad. But at the same time, I also think that there is kind of an injustice in potentially upsetting the knife's edge of government power based on the bad behavior of one or two or three or four people in Congress. You know, voters don't deserve to get a bad public policy or to have good public policy blocked based on somebody misbehaving. I think that what we really need is some kind of new mechanism to replace somebody when they have to leave. That puts in kind of a good proxy for the person who was already there. You know, we all know that you could put an R jersey on anyone, and they basically could vote with the party or a D jersey with somebody on the other side. So it's just, I understand why Congress wants to resist blowing up their party's position because of this kind of thing, but again, it's a terrible look for voters, and all I can say is that I don't know how to make it better.

EICHER: One sentence, answer, are these guys just sacrificial lambs here? Is that what you're saying?

BAKER: Yes, there's that too. I mean, how many, how many people in Congress are misbehaving sexually and otherwise, we have no idea, but yeah, these are the ones who are getting the attention.

EICHER: Well, now on to a growing clash between the White House and the Vatican, one that is beginning, of course, to ripple into American politics. Thus we discuss it here. President Trump's criticism of Pope Leo is drawing some pushback from Catholic leaders in the U.S. are raising concerns about Republicans as well, who are counting on Catholic voters in this year's midterms.

Notably, the two leaders have not even met yet. The Pope has already declined an invitation to visit the United States this year. The United States this year 2026 being the “quarter mil,” as you like to call it, Hunter, or the semi-quincentennial. So kind of an interesting snub, if indeed it is a snub for an American Pope not to visit his home country in this important year.

So let's start with kind of the big picture here. How unusual is this kind of tension between a U.S. president and the Vatican?

BAKER: I think it probably is somewhat unusual. I think that typically, if you're the Pope, you want to meet a president in a very statesman like sort of a way, right? We remember that the Pope is not only the leader of the worldwide Catholic church, but also is in charge of this sort of small nation state, which is the Vatican. So they don't want to be dealing with an American president in a pugilistic way. You know, even when it comes to a policy like abortion, where there's very clear divide. The Catholic popes have have been content to issue their statements right and to promote their moral teaching without really engaging into a kind of combat with American presidents. I think it's a little bit sad that Pope Leo doesn't want to do something for the semi quincentennial. I think it would be great to have the first American Pope arrive and, you know, and have an official sort of a state visit for that celebration. But otherwise, I do understand why he's holding himself at a little bit of a distance.

MAST: Well, Hunter, we've only had two Catholic presidents, and that question always comes up, who's influencing whom? But here it's almost reversed, the pope weighing in on U.S. policy, and a Catholic vice president responding, is it appropriate for the church to speak into political matters like this? And where's the line?

BAKER: I think it is appropriate. It's always one of the big debates, though. So I'm a, I'm a church and state guy, and, you know, there are all these debates about, Does it ever make sense for this church to speak into political matters, you know. Or is it simply the case that the church should only confine itself to kind of broader, more nebulous sort of statements that relate to morality without ever specifically engaging policy. I tend to be on the side that says that that Christianity, the Lordship of Christ, applies to essentially everything, and so I'm always looking to integrate that into how I look at almost anything in life where it could be applicable. So I think that it is valid. Now there's a separate question of prudence. So for example, Billy Graham was once a very big supporter of Richard Nixon. And then when Richard Nixon had his big difficulties over Watergate and other things, you know, Billy Graham felt himself to be somewhat stained by that, and he and he kind of withdrew. And so he became kind of a general counselor to American presidents, but never in the same way of being a big supporter, as he was with Nixon. And so I think that Catholics and Protestants generally want to retain some distance, so as not to just sort of totally embroil the church in politics. And J.D. Vance is kind of trying to take that same sort of position. He's talked about how well he thinks that the church should speak to morality, but he doesn't want the church to dictate a position on prudential politics.

EICHER: Hunter Baker is provost at North Greenville University. Thank you, Hunter.

BAKER: Thank you.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour.

Soon after the start of the war with Iran, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz dropped by 90%. That cut off some 20% of the world’s supply of oil and set off global supply problems. Here’s how one politician from the United Arab Emirates put it:

SULTAN AL JABER: When ​Iran holds Hormuz hostage, every ⁠nation pays the ransom ​at the gas pump, at ​the grocery store, at the pharmacy.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Those relying on oil passing through the Strait have had to find different energy solutions and may not see a return to normalcy for many months.

WORLD’s Emma Eicher has the story.

EMMA EICHER: Control of the Strait has become a focal point for the war. Iran quickly restricted access, then began a process to impose a toll system, pressuring oil producers to pay as much as $2 million per vessel.

Now the U.S. blockade targeting vessels traveling to and from Iranian ports ups the economic ante for Iran.

With the Strait still tightly controlled, it’s unclear how long it will take to get back to regular oil production.

DAVID STRASSNER: The spigot has been turned off at the Strait of Hormuz.

David Strassner is a longtime independent operator and producer in the oil and gas industry.

STRASSNER: Even if the Strait is open tomorrow, it's still going to have repercussions over the next six months to 18 months in terms of oil pricing.

For now, the six week squeeze has left many countries facing supply shortages.

The International Energy Agency recently recommended energy-saving measures, such as working from home, lowering speed limits on highways, and opting for public transportation.

Fatih Birol is the executive director of the Agency.

FATIH BIROL: But the biggest problem today is the emerging, developing countries, they are hit the worst. Especially now starting with Asia, Africa, Latin America …

Countries in Asia have been hit hard by the shortfall and some have turned to coal.

India ramped up its already heavy use of coal, and its energy plants are burning at max capacity. But it imports LPG—Liquefied Petroleum Gas—for cooking. Much of the LPG comes through the Strait, and the country has prioritized sending it to households.

That’s left hotels and restaurants scrambling for ways to prepare food.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s government is also burning coal, while criticizing its use. President Lee Jae Myung urged the country to move away from fossil fuels.

LEE JAE MYUNG: [KOREAN] If we continue to leave our current economic and industrial structure which depends on fossil fuels, we will remain exposed to these kinds of geopolitical risks in the future as well.

He says it’s time to turn to renewable energy sources and limit reliance on the Middle East for fuel.

Japan also delayed planned shutdowns at its coal-plants to continue energy production. Price hikes in household electricity bills are on the horizon.

Over in Africa, fuel prices for vehicles have skyrocketed.

South Africa heavily relies on imported fuel, and prices at the pump have reached record-highs.

Kenya is also feeling the pinch, though its government recently said it has adequate fuel supplies on hand.

BEN HALL: Every couple of days there's fuel and then there's not.

Ben Hall is a missionary located near Nairobi, the nation’s capital. He says the availability of gas has become a calculation in daily life.

HALL: I had to drive from the town where we live down to Nairobi, and along the way, I probably stopped two or three different times in the three hour drive before I finally found a gas station that had something.

The Western Hemisphere has felt the effects of the closure, but may also be part of the global solution.

The United States is the world’s leading exporter of both Liquefied Natural Gas and crude oil. President Donald Trump promoted oil and gas exports to other countries to help alleviate the global shortage.

TRUMP: The United States has never been better prepared economically to confront this threat.

The U.S. released millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in mid-March, which is a modest reduction of its total stockpile. But with the national average of gas topping $4 a gallon …

TRUMP: Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home.

And they might face higher food prices as well. Oil producer David Strassner again.

STRASSNER: A significant component in creating fertilizer comes from oil and gas, and higher price for fertilizer means people are going to use less of it, and so you may end up with lower crop yields.

Strassner says it will take months for oil supply chains to return to normalcy. And the worst is yet to come.

STRASSNER: There's not going to be an instantaneous crisis, because what people needed was already on the sea. We may see repercussions 60 or 90 days from now in terms of energy costs.

But he’s optimistic that supply chains can restart soon, depending on some factors.

STRASSNER: I think that there is a likelihood of return to normal, particularly if the Venezuelan crude starts flowing again.

If Venezuela kicks up oil exports, it may prove key to filling in the gaps.

STRASSNER: With the new change of regime in the Venezuelan theater. I think there's a pretty good chance in the next year or so that we could see increased exports to the world from Venezuela.

Even after the Strait reopens, analysts predict a slow recovery. Many ships have already been rerouted from the Strait of Hormuz and need time to resume course. Producers will wait to start up operations again until travel is secure. And attacks have damaged at least 40 energy assets in the Gulf. Repairs could take weeks to months.

That’s this week’s World Tour. I’m Emma Eicher.

MAST: Strassner is a member of the nonprofit board that governs WORLD and this program.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Call it a bump in the road. or a glitch in the system.

In Chicago, delivery robots are drawing attention—

SOUND: [Glass shatters]

—after a couple of them crashed straight into glass bus shelters.

AUDIO: I actually felt bad for the little guy. A little bit.

The small, cooler-sized robots are part of a pilot program—testing whether AI-powered deliveries belong on Chicago sidewalks. They’re designed to bring food to your door, and the company is doing its best to humanize the bots:

AUDIO: Over time, it just becomes a normal occurrence … you’re walking down the street, it’s like, ‘oh, there’s Jolene.’

But along comes Josh Robertson and his petition drive to impound Jolene and all her buddies.

ROBINSON: Sidewalks are for people.

I’d hesitate to call this a pilot project, these robots are autonomous. And yet, looks like this is one pilot headed for a grounding. 

It’s The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 15th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: College wrestling at a crossroads.

MAST: The post-match interviews at the NCAA National Wrestling Championships this March are a testimony to the effectiveness of intentional discipleship. But recent changes in the NCAA have left many D1 wrestling programs in danger of closing.

WORLD correspondent Elizabeth Shenk has the story.

ELIZABETH SHENK: In the fall of 2024, All-American wrestler Taye Ghadiali was in his apartment, tripping on drugs and overwhelmed by darkness. He had been grappling with questions about spirituality and purpose for years. He’d tried drugs and New Age practices. But those were taking him down.

GHADIALI:  I was praying, praying to God to save me.

That night, Ghadiali experienced a spiritual reversal. Instantly, he got sober. He felt a different presence in the room.

GHADIALI: The spirit overcame me, like of love, peace, like I started breaking down and crying and just joy, like I couldn't run from this feeling that was in this room.  I couldn't stop saying, ‘Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.’

Before this moment, Ghadiali had never regarded Jesus as God.

But after getting arrested and kicked off the Campbell University team, Ghadiali’s coach had paired him up with a mentor: retired wrestling coach, Jerry Hartman.

GHADIALI: When I got in trouble, he was the first person that took a hold of me. We ended up doing Bible studies. He gave me a job.

Ghadiali says it was the first time he felt loved unconditionally.

GHADIALI: I trusted him and I was thankful that he was there for me. So he's teaching me about God, and so I'm just respecting him and listening to him, and he's just planting seeds.

Mentorship became discipleship when Ghadiali gave his life to Christ. His baptism sparked a revival on the wrestling team.

GHADIALI: Fifty people gave their life to Christ at my baptism.

Ghadiali transferred to the University of Michigan. He qualified for the Big Ten Championship and won.

GHADIALI: Jesus came for the weak, and not the strong. Put your trust in Jesus.

Ghadiali wasn’t alone in his post match testimony.

AUDIO: [Sound of wrestler testimonies]

Champions from multiple schools praised God after winning their matches.

AUDIO: [Sound of wrestler testimonies]

Christian coaches working in the field say wrestling programs are white for harvest and view themselves as key laborers. Mike Moyer, Executive Director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association, has a favorite quote by Billy Graham:

MIKE MOYER: Many coaches will impact more people in one year than the average person will in a lifetime.

But the teams themselves are being defunded or dropped based on one driver—revenue. Now that the NCAA is allowing each college to share up to $20.5 million of their revenue with their athletes, colleges invest dollars where they see the biggest return in order to stay competitive.

 MOYER: What everybody knows is the best athletes are gonna go to the schools that share the most money.

Staying competitive becomes the goal, often at the cost of non-revenue sports.

MOYER:  Unless Congress provides the antitrust protection, the NCAA, it's hard for them to govern. And as a result, you have this uncontrolled arms race, which will just accelerate the defunding and or elimination of Olympic sports.

The collegiate system is the biggest feeder of Olympic sports. Like Ghadiali, many wrestlers are the first in their families to get a college degree, made possible through athletic scholarships.

GHADIALI: That was like my first introduction to who Christ was. It, and it's like crazy that it's a Christian school, so that was the only school that gave me a full ride and gave me a shot to wrestle.

Moyer studies NCAA research. He says it’s significant that wrestling has the second largest percentage of college bound students of any NCAA sport.

MOYER: When you start defunding these programs. It's not just access, but because we have a large percentage of first generation college-bound students, they can't afford to go even if they want to.

Nolan Kisler is heading a coalition of alumni, coaches, parents and students to keep the wrestling program at his alma mater, California Baptist University, or CBU.

KISTLER: Four wrestlers this last season gave their life to Christ and were baptized because of the opportunity to wrestle at CBU. And that's the treasure that I think is being ignored by CBU and in this pursuit of fool's gold.

This July, CBU will compete in the Big West conference and is dropping their wrestling program after this season to justify the move.

AUDIO: [Sound from CBU protest]

KISTLER: Giving up these testimonies and these opportunities for young men to encounter Christ with the hope of having success in the championships over these schools that are just massively overfunded and where we're at a huge financial disadvantage. That's a foolish pursuit, especially if your mission statement is the Great Commission.

The D1 athletes whose programs cut scholarships or fold are in danger of losing the opportunity to wrestle and to get a college degree.

KISTLER: We want to protect opportunities. Like the four men who gave their life to Christ, like Taye. Examples like that where you have wrestlers coming from non-Christian homes and being exposed to the gospel because of the opportunity that wrestling on a division one program brings. I mean, and CBU is the only division one program in Southern California.

With the loss of the CBU program, only four remaining Christian colleges have D1 wrestling programs. While D2 and D3 wrestling programs are springing up all over the country, they don’t offer full-ride athletic scholarships. Opting-in to revenue sharing means adopting roster caps and making scholarships optional.

MOYER: As you eliminate these college opportunities, it's gonna impact the number of teachers and coaches at every level below it. And so there's absolutely a domino effect. That's gonna occur, that is already occurring, that our society is gonna regret if we don't turn this around.

As D1 programs stand at this crossroads, Kisler believes the long-term gain is obvious.

KISTLER: They're at this juncture where they can choose to honor their mission, honor their virtues, the things that they've held true or they can choose this worldly pursuit and seek things that are non-eternal.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Elizabeth Shenk.

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

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

In an election year, both parties talk about expanding their coalition.

For Democrats, that has included a renewed effort to appeal to religious voters—especially those who may feel politically homeless.

EICHER: But critics say there is a disconnect between that outreach, and what’s happening in policy.

Here’s WORLD commentator Cal Thomas.

CAL THOMAS: Consider an order of Catholic nuns in Hawthorne, New York.

They care for the terminally ill—quietly, faithfully—for more than a century.

Now they are facing a new state mandate.

A New York law requires nursing homes to use pronouns, assign rooms, and grant restroom access based on a patient’s gender identity—or face fines, even jail time. It also requires facilities to create communities that affirm patients’ sexual preferences and accommodate requests for extramarital relationships.

Penalties start in the thousands. “Willful violations” can bring fines up to $10,000—or a year in prison.

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne say those mandates violate their religious beliefs.

So they are pushing back—suing the state.

Their response, though, is simple.

They serve everyone.

Mother Marie Edward, who leads the order, put it this way: We treat each patient with dignity and Christian charity. We have never had complaints.

Apparently, that is not enough.

Which raises another question: What exactly is the standard now?

Have Democrats forgotten the Little Sisters of the Poor?

In 2011, the Obama administration required employers to provide contraceptives in their health insurance plans. Some large secular corporations were exempt.

Religious nonprofits like the Little Sisters were not.

They faced massive fines if they refused to comply.

They fought—and lost—case after case. Until the Supreme Court finally ruled in their favor. Later, an executive order under President Trump reinforced those protections.

That episode made something clear: religious liberty now depends, in large part, on who holds power.

Which brings us back to a deeper issue.

If standards keep shifting, are they really standards at all?

Those who believe God created us male and female have an answer rooted in Scripture.

But what about everyone else?

Is government now the final authority—something to be obeyed, even when it conflicts with conscience?

The late Bishop Fulton Sheen warned about what happens when moral standards become untethered from anything permanent.

He called it “false compassion”—a sympathy that erodes truth.

His warning still stands: If you do not behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave.

Remove objective standards, and society drifts into confusion.

That may be where we are.

Based on the Little Sisters case, the Hawthorne nuns have a strong argument.

They may even win.

But if history is a guide, their opponents aren’t likely to quit.

For WORLD, I’m Cal Thomas.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Tomorrow: AI schools promise big results and raise big questions. We’ll have a report. And, a Christian physician says a career in healthcare can mirror biblical stewardship. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says, “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” —Joshua 1:7-9

Go now in grace and peace.

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