The World and Everything in It: April 17, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. My name is Paige Burgess. I am recording this from the airport in Delhi, India. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! President Joe Biden will not testify in the impeachment inquiry investigating him for alleged corruption. So what’s next?

MACE: Nothing is going to change. The DOJ isn’t going to hold Joe Biden accountable, but at least the American people will know the truth.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday. Also today, WORLD Tour. And rebuilding community as the war in Ukraine drags on.

LYSAK: We saw that all these old people who are 65-plus, they don't have a place to live in, and they don't want to go anywhere.

And WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney with words of wisdom for graduates.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, April 17th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

MAST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Good morning!

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

KAREN GIBSON: Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. All persons are commanded to keep silent on pain of imprisonment while the House of Representatives is exhibiting to the Senate of the United States articles of impeachment against Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas, secretary of Homeland Security.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Mayorkas impeachment » The Senate’s Sergeant-at-arms Karen Gibson heard there as House impeachment managers officially handed off the articles to the upper chamber.

That handoff compels the upper chamber to convene a trial. But Democrats are expected to try to dismiss or table the charges this week before arguments start.

GOP Sen. Roger Marshall said Tuesday:

MARSHALL: A vote to stop this impeachment, whether it’s through tabling it or discharging it, is a vote to keep the border open.

Republicans say Mayorkas has breached the public trust and betrayed his oath of office by willfully refusing to enforce immigration laws.

Democrats say the impeachment is a political charade and that Republicans have improperly impeached him over policy disagreements.

Motion to vacate the speaker Johnson » House Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing back against mounting anger from some Republican members over his proposed aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and other allies.

He also rejected a call on Tuesday to step aside or risk a vote to oust him from office.

MIKE JOHNSON: I am not resigning, and it is, in my view, an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion when we are simply here trying to do our job.

Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie says he intends to support Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate. But Johnson said that will not deter him, adding that party needs a “steady hand at the wheel.”

JOHNSON: Look, I regard myself as a wartime speaker. I mean, in a literal sense, we are. I knew that when I took the gavel. I didn’t anticipate that this would be an easy path.

The speaker is pressing forward with plans for voting this week on a series of foreign aid bills which would likely require help from Democrats to pass.

Trump back in NYC court/jurors » Seven of the 12 jurors have now been seated in the so-called hush money case against Donald Trump.

Former federal prosecutor David Weinstein picking a jury in the unprecedented trial of a U.S. president isn’t easy.

WEINSTEIN: It will be difficult, but not impossible, to find 12 jurors who can sit in judgment of this particular defendant. But it is going to be a tall task, and one that will require honesty on the part of everybody in the process.

But Trump’s lawyers say they have doubts that he can get a fair trial in this case. And the former president himself told reporters …

TRUMP:  We think we have a very conflicted, highly conflicted judge. He shouldn't be on the case. And he's rushing this trial and he's doing as much as he can for the Democrats.

He called the trial a political witch hunt designed to benefit President Biden.

Iran sanctions, etc. » The White House says it is readying new sanctions against Iran after its unprecedented direct weekend attack against Israel.

Although President Biden is urging Israel to exercise military restraint in its response to the attack, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the United States will use economic weapons to counter Iran’s ‘malign and destabilizing activity.’

AUDIO: We have been working to diminish Iran’s ability to export oil. Clearly Iran is continuing to export some oil. There may be more that we could do.

The White House says the coming sanctions will also target Iran’s missile and drone program along with entities supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran’s Defense Ministry.

Republicans have been criticizing the Biden administration sharply for not doing more to keep Iran in check.

SCOTUS Jan 6 » Did federal prosecutors go too far in charging some of the people involved in the January 6th Capitol riot?

That’s the question before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The justices heard oral arguments Tuesday in the case of Joseph Fischer. He’s one of more than 300 people facing a federal charge of Obstruction of an Official Proceeding.

During oral arguments, Justice Neil Gorsuch questioned whether Fischer’s actions qualify as ‘obstruction’ under the law the Justice Department is claiming.

JUSTICE GORSUCH: Would a sit-in that disrupts a trial or access to a federal courthouse qualify? Would a heckler in today’s audience qualify or at the State of the Union address? Would pulling a fire alarm before a vote qualify for 20 years in federal prison?

Fischer’s lawyer argues the law the Justice Department is using shouldn’t apply, because it’s intended to prevent evidence tampering, not public disruptions.

Reporters in the courtroom say Justice Samuel Alito also appeared to question the strength of the government’s case, but that it’s hard to read which way the full court is leaning.

A decision is expected by late June.

Copenhagen fire » In Denmark, onlookers watched in horror as flames engulfed Copenhagen’s 400-year-old stock exchange … sending the building’s iconic dragon-tail spire tumbling to the ground. 

LOCAL MAN: I saw the tower with the four dragons fall…and there was flames all over and it was a terrible sight…It is our Notre Dame in Copenhagen. This. And you can never restore, rebuild.

Emergency responders and bystanders rescued historic art, furniture, and other artifacts from the flaming building.

No casualties were reported and investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire.

NPR suspension » National Public Radio has suspended a veteran editor who criticized the news outlet for what he says is a deepening liberal bias. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVN: Uri Berliner made headlines earlier this month when he went public with his concerns about his employer.

In an op-ed piece he accused NPR of failing to abide by its own ethics guidelines. Its handbook pledges that NPR will report with fairness and pursue a diversity of voices.

Berliner says that’s not happening and that instead, the network’s news coverage has veered more to the left and now approaches every story with a rigidly left-wing mindset.

He also criticized the radio network’s handling of the so-called Russiagate scandal and investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop.

In response, NPR has suspended Berliner for one week without pay.

A portion of National Public Radio’s revenue does come from taxpayer dollars.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

West Virginia trans law » A federal appeals court has blocked enforcement of a West Virginia law which shielded female athletes from having to compete against boys and men. More from WORLD’s Mark Mellinger:

MARK MELLINGER: West Virginia passed the “Save Women’s Sports Act” in 2021. It stated that student-athletes must compete against opponents of the same sex.

But a 13-year-old boy who’d been taking puberty blockers challenged the law, saying he should be allowed on the girls’ track and cross country teams at his school.

Back in January, a U.S. district judge upheld the law. But a federal appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a preliminary injunction while the legal battle plays out.

The 13-year-old had the backing of the liberal activist group the ACLU, which claims the law violates the 14th amendment and Title IX.

West Virginia’s attorney general has vowed to continue fighting for the law.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mark Mellinger.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Investigating alleged Biden family corruption on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 17th of April, 2024.

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

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

This week the White House said President Joe Biden will not testify to the House Oversight Committee on his family’s business dealings. Late last month, Committee chairman James Comer invited the President to respond to evidence of corruption. Here’s Comer on Fox News:

JAMES COMER: So we need to hear from Joe Biden because we're at the point now to where we're what I call trying to now provide accountability. We've proven the crimes now it's time to hold people accountable for the crimes. And Joe Biden needs to answer some questions… 

REICHARD: The White House says the investigation’s turned up no evidence of wrongdoing while Biden was Vice President.

So, does the House have evidence to hold the president accountable for misuse of power? If so, what comes next?

Washington Bureau reporter Leo Briceno has the story.

LEO BRICENO: Back in November, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced plans to continue an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.

MIKE JOHNSON: We have a duty to pursue the facts where they lead. John Adams famously said facts are stubborn things and you heard a recitation of that here this morning. These facts are alarming …

Johnson called the corruption “obvious” and “blatant.”

JOHNSON: From 2014 to 2019, Biden Family members and their affiliates received more than 15 million from foreign companies and foreign nationals—these are all facts, facts are stubborn things—that included Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania and China. Biden business associates received an additional 9 million…President Biden of course has lied at least 16 times about his involvement in his family’s business schemes; there are at least 22 examples of Joe Biden speaking with or meeting with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates. The oversight Committee recently released two checks. You see the graphics up here today. These checks are to Joe Biden. One is for $40,000 from China and another is for $200,000 from a now-bankrupt healthcare company that his brother, James Biden, apparently swindled.

That’s a lot of numbers. But at the heart of the investigation are two simple questions: Where did these payments come from? And what services were rendered in return?

Republicans say the evidence points to a pay-to-play scheme in which the Bidens traded political influence for money. In one instance during his time as vice president, Joe Biden threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine unless the government fired a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma. That’s the energy company whose board Hunter Biden served on. In the end, the prosecutor was fired.

Democrats are criticizing the investigation, questioning why Republicans haven’t issued any articles of impeachment yet. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from New York, sits on the House oversight committee.

JARED MOSKOWITZ: I want to, with my last couple minutes, show the American people that they’re never going to impeach Joe Biden! It’s never going to happen. Because they don’t have the evidence. Okay, this is a show! It’s all fake!

So if Republicans haven’t issued articles of impeachment yet, does that mean they haven’t found anything criminal?

I posed the question to Adam Carrington, assistant professor of politics at Hillsdale College. He explains that criminal offenses would almost always be an impeachable offense.

ADAM CARRINGTON: The idea was: this includes criminal activity because that would be—especially for a president—almost inherently possibly an abuse of office. Your job is to take care of the laws we faithfully executed and now you’re violating them yourself…

But Carrington also thinks the House’s power of impeachment may be broad enough to take action on something that comes close to—but isn’t explicitly criminal.

CARRINGTON: It has usually been understood, this was debated a bit with the first president and second president Trump impeachments, but generally it’s been understood than even not-provable-in-court in violations—things that are abuses of power or dereliction of duty or things like that—could be impeachable if the House makes that determination. And that’s where, if you get into the federalist papers, 65 and 66 really talk about impeachment, they really talk about the idea that it's almost better that you’re not proving it in a court of law because the nature of those infractions needs something different than the exacting judicial process. It needs the people’s representatives being able to sift through this distinction between criminality and abuse of power, but allowing for both to be open to possible prosecution.

That means Congress could determine that President Biden misused the authority of his office and so warrant impeachment.

Congresswoman Nancy Mace of North Carolina sits on the House Oversight Committee—one of the committees tasked with the investigation.

NANCY MACE: I absolutely believe that Joe Biden is corrupt, that there’s bribery, that there’s pay to play, potential RICO. I fully support continuing our investigation. The American people deserve to know everything that Joe Biden and his family did to get paid off by our adversaries.

Knowing the evidence is one thing…but acting on it is another. I spoke with Rep. John Duarte of California who says he’ll follow the direction of Speaker Johnson. But for his own part, Duarte thinks Republicans already have enough evidence to proceed with an impeachment.

JOHN DUARTE: We have the Foreign Agent Registration Act. If you take money from foreign entities and you participate in government policy, as a lobbyist, as a high-level cabinet appointee, or as an elected [official] at any level, and you do not report that you have taken money from foreign interests, you are an unregistered foreign agent. That is a felony in [and] of itself.

With a razor-thin two-seat majority, it would take near unanimous support among Republicans to approve the articles of impeachment. I asked Duarte if he thinks that’s feasible.

DUARTE: Every last one of us? I don’t think so. And I don’t want to see us waste our time on it if we don’t have the votes.

Neither does Kentucky Congressman James Comer. In a fundraising email last month, he said the Democrat-controlled Senate could not be trusted to fairly handle an impeachment trial. The best course of action, according to Comer, could be to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department.

Quoting from his email, Comer says, “When President Trump returns to the White House, it’s critical the new leadership at the DOJ have everything they need to prosecute the Biden Crime Family and deliver swift justice.”

Congresswoman Mace agrees.

MACE: Absolutely. Whatever we have to do, and even if we do a criminal referral or hold an impeachment vote, nothing is going to change. The DOJ isn’t going to hold Joe Biden accountable, but at least the American people will know the truth.

Carrington thinks that’s not quite the political win Republicans are looking for, but he understands Mace’s position.

CARRINGTON: The only thing they have, though, constitutionally speaking, to punish another branch or another officer that is within Congress’ exclusive power, ultimately is the impeachment power. So it would be more, does Congress want to be in control of the process? Then it needs to be impeachment. Do they want to merely try to persuade other parts of the government to take this up? Then those other options would be on the table, but then they would not be doing, they would be asking.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Nigeria, Onize Ohikere.

AUDIO: Bring back Rose! Bring back Rose! 

Nigeria abduction anniversary — We start today in Nigeria with campaigners calling out the names of kidnapped schoolgirls still in captivity.

Sunday marked 10 years since Boko Haram insurgents abducted 276 schoolgirls from a boarding school in the town of Chibok in northeastern Borno state.

A decade later, nearly 100 of the girls are still unaccounted for.

Grace, now 27, is one of the freed Chibok girls. She worked as a slave in captivity after refusing to marry an insurgent.

GRACE: [Speaking Hausa]

She says the terrorists destroyed her life by taking her captive.

The girls’ abduction drew global attention to Nigeria’s early insurgency. It sparked the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign calling for their release.

Florence Ozor is a rights activist with the Bring Back Our Girls campaign.

FLORENCE OZOR: We call on the government to focus on the need to bring back our girls and ensure the circumstances that enable their abduction were identified, addressed and documented, so that a future occurrence will not occur.

Insurgent groups and criminal groups in the northwest have continued to stage kidnappings in Nigeria with nearly 1,900 people kidnapped in mass abductions in the first quarter of the year.

AUDIO: [Sounds of rescue workers]

Indonesia landslides — Over in Indonesia, deadly landslides have killed at least 20 people on Sulawesi island. Responders used dogs and shovels to look for survivors.

Heavy rainfall triggered landslides in two villages. The downpours also brought down communication lines, while the ongoing bad weather and unstable soil hindered rescue efforts.

Seasonal rainfall brings landslides and floods to Indonesia’s islands. Flash floods last month killed at least 26 people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

AUDIO: Vote is closed.

EU asylum laws — Over in the European Union, lawmakers have reached an agreement on the bloc’s migration laws.

The Pact on Migration and Asylum will require EU countries to share responsibility for asylum-seekers. The pact also proposes fast-track deportation and using facial imaging and fingerprints for minors in a bid to speed up the asylum process.

Here’s European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen:

URSULA VON DER LEYEN: The pact strikes the right balance between stricter rules against the abuse of the system and care for the most vulnerable.

The pact has faced some opposition.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Protesters disrupted the vote chanting, “This pact kills. Vote No.”

Several rights groups have also said it will lead to increased suffering among asylum seekers.

EU member countries will still hold a plenary vote on whether or not they endorse the pact.

AUDIO: [Countdown]

China skating contest — We wrap up today with racing roller skaters taking off from the starting line in Shanghai, China.

The roller skating and running marathon attracted thousands of contestants nationwide and from other countries. The contest in Shanghai is the first of six global stops.

Participants signed up for different categories—including full, half, and quarter marathons. Some children also participated in the contest.

CHILD: [Speaking Mandarin]

This young contestant says he woke up at 5 a.m. to make it to the race.

Belgian gold medalist Bart Swings won the men’s professional race title while Ecuador’s Gabriela Vargas clinched the women’s championship.

That’s it for today’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Well, it’s been a while, but folks in Leavenworth, Kansas who bought cookies at a local bakery are advised to bite down softly.

That’s because on April 5th the owner of Sis Sweets Cookies and Cafe Sis Monroe thinks she lost something valuable in one of them.

Sound from KMBC nine news:

MONROE: It's 36 years on this hand! I look down at my hand and the center diamond is gone.

The big marquis diamond from her wedding ring that her husband gave her. Gone.

MONROE: I was crying and all he could say is, “You still have me.” So, that made it all better.

Good man! And in case you’re wondering, the shop goes through more than a hundred thousand rubber gloves a year. But things happen. Sis hopes if someone does find it, he or she brings it back. She says she’d make it worth your while!

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Makes sense–A diamond is worth a lot of dough.

REICHARD: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 17th. You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we thank you for listening. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: rebuilding Ukraine.

More than a million homes have been destroyed in Ukraine since Russia invaded two years ago… and now millions of people are taking shelter with friends or in hotels if they can. And if they can’t, in ruins and subway tunnels. At first, the main concern was food… but as the war drags on, people need a lot more.

REICHARD: WORLD’s Mary Muncy talked to a Ukrainian pastor who’s trying to fill those needs.

MARY MUNCY: About two months after the war started, Ukrainian pastor Sergiy Lysak saw an old woman with her hand on a ruined house. She was crying.

SERGIY LYSAK: I introduced myself and I said, “Do you need a tiny home?” She said, “Sure.”And I said, “we'll bring it tomorrow to you.”

Sasha is almost 100 years old and lives in a village outside of Kyiv. A missile hit her house and a fire destroyed it in the early days. She would have died, but a Ukrainian soldier pulled her out in time.

LYSAK: She was crying and saying “I'm so upset with the soldier—Ukrainian soldier who saved me because I was supposed to be in my house when Russians were attacking.”

She had planned to die in her house, on her land.

When Lysak’s team brought Sasha the tiny home, she still wasn’t sure she wanted it.

LYSAK: She was so upset but I told her, “No, no, no, no, no. God gave you a chance to continue to live because he wants you to see hope.”

Lysak had been repairing a different home in the village when he realized how many people needed homes faster, so he started coordinating tiny homes.

So far, Lysak has helped place 100 tiny homes in Sasha’s village. And more in others. Many of them are for people like Sasha. People who don’t want to leave their land because it’s what sustains them.

LYSAK: We raise our food on our property. So basically staying on your property, it means you will have food to eat. So our grandmas, even when they are 80 years old, they continue to do gardening. They continue to do farming, they continue to just to provide food for themselves.

The Ukrainian flag is blue above yellow. The blue sky over fruitful fields.

LYSAK: Whatever you can imagine grows on our dirt. We have the richest dirt in the world. We have this joke that you can put a stick in our dirt and it will grow.

Now, he’s trying to grow hope.

When the war started, Lysak tried to convince his wife and three kids that they should leave while he stayed.

LYSAK: But she says, “I'm not going to leave you.” And it's very difficult for me to win when I have some conversations with my wife, because her name is Victoria. You know, it's so difficult to win against someone whose name is already victory, okay?

So, they stayed. Lysak says God laid food, medicine, and rebuilding on his heart. So he and his teenage sons started handing out food, medicine, and sleeping bags to the people hiding in metro tunnels while his five-year-old daughter played with the kids.

At first, the war was just outside Kyiv, but Lysak didn’t believe the rumors of atrocities at the front. He thought the reports were blown out of proportion.

That lasted until about a month into the war.

LYSAK: One of my friends called me and he said, “Sergiy, we need to bring food to Bucha.”

Bucha is a suburb of Kyiv—Russia occupied it a few weeks after they invaded. But Lysak’s friend said the Russians had been pushed out. So he agreed to go. But he would go without his team, just in case.

The team loaded food into their van and Lysak and his friend headed out of the city. For an hour and a half, they passed crumbling buildings and craters.

Lysak saw the frozen body of an old man on the side of the road. He had a bicycle beside him. He looked like he had been trying to flee when he was gunned down.

LYSAK: It's just like someone’s grandpa, you know? And he reminded me of my dad who is 80 years old.

As they got further into Bucha he saw Russian tanks abandoned as they retreated.

LYSAK: Russian soldiers' legs and fingers. And you know, it's just like, you'll just see everywhere you can see, you know, Russian boots and and have legs are standing in those boots.

Suddenly, the war was real.

They stopped in the middle of town and opened their van.

LYSAK: Over 300 people, they ran out. They ran to our van, and they started to say, “We want food, just give us food.”

So they started handing out potatoes, bread, and tomatoes—everything they had.

As the war dragged on, other ministries started helping with food and medicine. That’s when Lysak started expanding his focus to rebuilding.

LYSAK: We saw all these old people who are 65-plus. They don't have a place to live, and they don't want to go anywhere. They just stay on their property. And it's crazy. They say, “I’m going to die here. I'm not gonna go anywhere.”

At first, they used what they had on hand to repair existing homes. They brought bricks and tarps in, but it was going too slow. It took days or weeks to help one person. So they started looking for other options. That’s when they found a company that makes tiny homes—all they would have to do was come up with funding to buy and place them.

So they did.

And as they placed more and more, they started getting to know the people in them.

LYSAK: We even didn't tell them that we are Christians. We just at the beginning started to help them. And later on, I said, “But you need to know why we do that. So let's get together.”

So, about a month after they placed the first tiny home, they gathered almost 20 people at a house they had just finished repairing.

LYSAK: I started to tell them that we’re Christians. We love Jesus, and He told us to come here and help. And all of these people, they came to the Lord. They all gave their life to Jesus.

When they placed the 100th tiny home in Sasha’s village, they started a church there and Lysak says it’s growing.

LYSAK: I would say that we have the biggest Christian revival in the world in Ukraine. It's just very bloody, but it's so powerful.

Lysak says giving someone food, medicine, or a tiny home, is extending faith, hope, and love in a very tangible way. It’s all things they need to survive and grow. A small stick planted in fertile soil.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday April 17th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

MARY REICHARD, HOST:  And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: wisdom for graduates. Summer’s almost here, and that means students will put down their pens, toss their caps, and head into the workforce and new challenges. WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney reminds them what it takes to be truly wise.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: I belong to a group of former homeschoolers who like to think of ourselves as pioneers—we all began in the 1980s when the movement was just getting off the ground. Apparently, though, there’s another P word to describe us. Last week, one of our daughters texted it from the homeschool conference she was attending: prehistoric.

I prefer pioneer, as in blazing a path for our children to follow. But those children have their own ideas. Every generation has their own path to blaze.

Proverbs 6:20-22 says this:

My son, keep your father’s commandment and follow your mother’s teaching.
Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck,
When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you,
And when you awake, they will talk with you.

I think this passage can be applied to more than parental advice on car maintenance or mortgages. It’s about Wisdom. Wisdom is personified in Proverbs as a woman who calls out in the street and sets a generous table—she’s not a block of marbled principle, but someone who walks and talks and watches. “And when you wake, they [or she] will talk with you.” Talk with, not at.

Graduation season is almost here again. If I were giving a commencement address, it might go something like this.

It’s your parents’ duty to introduce you to wisdom. It’s your duty to get to know her for yourself. This will be an ongoing conversation, for as you grow and change, you should become better and better acquainted with her. Wise parents know this. She has been good to them; naturally they desire that she be good to you. And for that to occur, your parents may assume that you will follow their example in most things–financial matters and entertainment choices and personal tastes. As much as possible.

But for wisdom to be truly wise, she must talk with you, and you with her. Inevitably, you will face challenges your parents didn’t. And their solutions to problems may not always work in your day. This can mean differences, or even disagreements, with your own family, friends, teachers, or anyone you consider wise. But remember that Wisdom is the application of truth in various circumstances. She will always reflect the truth of Scriptural revelation, which doesn’t change. But Wisdom’s outward appearance may change: her clothes, her terminology. It may be difficult to recognize her at times.

“Challenge authority” is a common commencement speech theme, and I wonder what you graduates understand when you hear it: Maybe…put everything you’ve just learned on the shelf while you reinvent your own wheel? Yet there’s a grain of truth in it. All the life lessons you’ve been taught must be tested and owned. Truth must be studied and experienced and tried and proved, each one of us for himself. Truth can stand up to critical thinking—that’s one way it proves itself true. But I would add: Don’t challenge wisdom. Talk with her. With the Holy Spirit’s help, she’ll challenge you.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: We’ve heard about mail-order abortion drugs. But what about mail-order hormones for people attempting to change their sex? We’ll have a report. And, the story of a rancher finding peace after devastation from a wildfire. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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: “Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his, we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture…For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” —Psalm 100:3-5

Go now in grace and peace.

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