The World and Everything in It: April 19, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. Hi. My name is Liz. I work at a camp and retreat center in East Tennessee called Eagle Rock. We listen to The World every day before work. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! Today on Culture Friday, the reporter who blew the whistle on NPR, and looking for the line between free speech and anti-semitic threats.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk with John Stonestreet in a few minutes. Later, a mini-series dramatizing a bureaucratic scandal.

BATES: I was warned that, even if I won, the post office would just keep on appealing until I’ve run out of money.  

And a musician helping others appreciate the “poetry of prayer.”

COBB: For me, these are meant to be prayers that people can use when they’re feeling anxious.

BROWN: It’s Friday, April 19th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump jury » A jury of 12 people has been seated in the so-called hush money case against Donald Trump in New York.

And the court has turned its attention to filling out its slate of alternates.

Arthur Aidala is a defense attorney not associated with the case. He pointed out …

AIDALA: The judge is asking for a lot more alternates. Normally it’s 12 jurors and 2 alternates. Here it’s 12 jurors and 6 alternates. But I guess the judge doesn’t want to take the risk of having a mistrial if you lose the jury.

The court lost two jurors on Thursday. One was dismissed over concerns about whether he was truthful about whether he had ever been accused or convicted of a crime. And the other backtracked on whether she could be impartial.

The first-ever trial of a former American president will unfold in the middle of this year’s race for the White House.

Trump maintains he’s done nothing wrong and that the trial is election interference … engineered to help President Biden.

TRUMP: I'm supposed to be in a lot of different places campaigning, but I've been here all day on a trial that really is a very unfair trial.

Biden campaigning » President Biden, meantime, campaigned in Pennsylvania where he accepted the endorsements of more than a dozen members of the Kennedy family.

Kerry Kennedy is the niece of former President John F. Kennedy.

K. KENNEDY: I’m joined here today with my sisters Kathleen and Rory, with Joe and Chris and Max. And with my hero, President Joe Biden.

Kerry Kennedy is the sister of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And the appearance of much of the family alongside Biden was a clear attempt to deflate RFK Jr’s candidacy which many Democrats worry will hurt Biden in November.

Iran sanctions » The United States and the UK are hitting Iran with another round of economic sanctions after Iran’s large-scale airstrike against Israel over the weekend.

U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron:

Cameron: Iran's behavior is unacceptable, and it's right that countries come together here at the G7 and make those points, not just because of what Iran has been doing, but also as a message to Israel.

Cameron heard there at a meeting of so-called G7 nations in Italy.

The U.S. and UK are targeting more than a dozen people and entities tied to Iran’s military.

House foreign aid/Johnson job threat » House Speaker Mike Johnson says he won’t push for a change that would make it harder to remove him as speaker even as he fights to keep his job and pass a foreign aid package.

Under current rules, it only takes one person, any single member of the House can introduce a motion to vacate the speakership, forcing a full vote on the House floor on whether to keep or oust the House speaker.

Just six months ago, Congressman Matt Gaetz used the rule to oust then-speaker Kevin McCarthy.

And now Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is threatening to do it again.

GREENE:  I don't know how much longer our members are going to tolerate the Republican speaker that we elected, uh, to pass our agenda in the House. Uh, we, we don't know, I don't know how long people are going to tolerate this because he's doing nothing but serving the Democrats.

Johnson says the current rule allowing a single member to force a vote has harmed the office. has harmed this office.”

But he does not have the votes he’d need to change the rule.

GOP Congressman Mike Turner thinks Johnson’s job is safe anyway.

TURNER: To remove Speaker Johnson, you have to do so with Democrat votes, and they’re not going to be able to garner the Democratic votes this time, because they have really bullied the House and caused chaos in the House. I think people see where this path goes.

Meantime, Johnson is still working to pass the four bills that have upset some of his fellow Republicans. The bills provide funding for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel.

Columbia University protests, anti-semitism » The NYPD arrested more than 100 people Thursday as officers moved onto Columbia University’s campus to break up a pro-Palestinian protest.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams…

ADAMS: This was in violation of the university’s rules. Columbia University has an obligation to protect their students, and the university’s president reached out to the NYPD in writing and asked for support.

Some of the protesters illegally camped out on Columbia’s campus. Others set fires.

Those who wouldn’t leave face criminal trespass charges. Among them: Irsa Hirsi, the daughter of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

In the past, Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg has not prosecuted similar cases.

The protests began Wednesday as Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, testified on Capitol Hill about the school’s response to antisemitism… after last year’s Hamas massacre in Israel.

Critics say the school didn’t respond strongly enough to several incidents, including when a pro-Israel student was beaten with a stick.

Florida school chaplains, education about communism » Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Thursday that will allow chaplins in public schools.

He said interacting with a chaplain on campus will be entirely voluntary, but he added …

DESANTIS: If these students have the ability to get mentorship, to get counseling from faith leaders, that is something that they should have the right to pursue if that is what they want. And this bill ensures that.

Also, under a new measure, outside organizations, like the Boys and Girls Club and Future Farmers of America will be able to address students on campus, with parental consent.

Under another new Florida law, K-through-12 education will include teaching about the history and the—quote—“dangers and evils of communism.”

DeSantis said that will include teaching about the “current threat” of the ideology in the United States as many students prepare for college.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, a review of Mr. Bates vs. The Post Office.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday the 19th of April, 2024.

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

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

Time now for Culture Friday. Joining us is John Stonestreet. He’s president of the Colson center, and he's host of the Breakpoint Podcast. John, good morning.

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning.

EICHER: Well, John, I'm always fascinated by media stories because they reveal so much. So you had to know that I would be asking you today about Uri Berliner, formerly of National Public Radio. It was about a week and a half ago that he published an essay at Barry Weiss’s The Free Press. It was titled, “I’ve been at NPR for 25 years. Here's How We Lost America’s Trust.” Great headline and he absolutely delivers. The resulting fallout seemed totally predictable. First, a warning, then a suspension, by Wednesday we had a resignation, and on his way out the door Berliner called NPR a great American institution. He said he did not support calls to defund NPR. If you don’t know, NPR does receive taxpayer funding. He said he respects his colleagues, said he wishes that the network would thrive and do important journalism, BUT…

But his last words took us right back to the beginning, I will quote now: “I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO, whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR that I cite in my Free Press essay.” 

So let me try to pinpoint what I think is the one big problem, John, and that's the inability of the newsroom to be fair. And as Berliner said, the root of that problem at NPR, like I would suggest the problem at a lot of places, the root of the problem goes back to 2016 and the election of Donald Trump. So your thoughts?

STONESTREET: Well, I guess it’s so interesting, when you kind of see really the lack of self awareness on the left, or the old idea that there is neutrality still, in mainstream media outlets. I mean Barry Weiss, of course, realized that at the New York Times herself, but awful late still, right. I mean, in other words, was it really up in the air? NPR, it’s just more interesting. I think there really is a way that those on the left that are in the world of media and journalism think that being on the left is the same as being neutral, and being on the right is the only place that has kind of ideological constraints or ideological baggage.

Probably at NPR it’s not just if you’re on the left you’re neutral, but if you use a calm, quiet, boring voice, you’re also neutral no matter what it is that you, you say, but they’re not. And they haven’t been for a long time. So I guess that awareness is what’s so surprising to many of us, or the lack thereof.

EICHER: Well, sure, John. But you know, Myrna and I were talking about this before you came on, and WORLD puts its point of view, proudly upfront: Christian and conservative. But we still try to be fair in our news reporting, and I expect the same thing from other professional journalists. I mean, we cannot even imagine saying, as an NPR reporter said to Berliner about not covering the Hunter Biden laptop story at NPR—this is in his essay again, quoting here:

“one of NPR’s best and most fair-minded journalists said it was good that we weren’t following the laptop story, because it could help Trump.”

Direct quote. We don't talk that way. We don’t think that way. We don’t act that way, trying to help or hurt candidates. It's terrible, and it’s unprofessional. So today, and yes, I cooked this idea up this very morning, John, I have to say, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” Bravo to him.

STONESTREET: Well, look, I do think that there really is a lack of self-awareness of ideological constraint. And I think, you know, that’s something that’s been part of WORLD’s DNA from the very beginning is an acknowledgment. But you know, there’s also the presumption that because someone admits a bias upfront, then therefore they, they cannot be truthful. But that’s not true, because some biases are true, and some biases are not. I’m thinking of, you know, the book that was written several years ago In Praise of Prejudice. There are certain things you should not prejudice against, like, for example, other races of people, but to prejudice things that are good and true and beautiful over things that are not, that just acts as if there is a moral flow to the universe. And there’s good evidence that there’s a moral flow and a moral nature to things. So to start with a bias that there is indeed moral absolutes is a better bias to start with than the president of NPR who starts with the fact that there aren’t and completely is unaware of the fact that she’s stating an absolute as she’s trying to argue for relativism. It’s a self-defeating perspective. And there really is a lack of self-awareness, I think, in these entities. So I’m not as surprised when I hear these things kind of come to light, especially if I were I would have been surprised back with Barry Weiss. NPR, you know, I, I know they've got the smooth kind of quiet and calm, silky voices, but the fact that they’re bringing a set of ideas to how they tell stories, what stories they tell, who they feature as so-called experts. And I listen to NPR a lot because I think it’s, you know, at least a place to go and hear another side of almost every issue.

BROWN: Well, John, you mentioned free speech. I want to go back to that for a little bit. The University of Southern California has pulled the plug on its valedictorian's commencement speech. The valedictorian is pro-Palestinian and has written about the complete abolishment of the State of Israel on social media. USC says her speaking poses a security risk for the event, which draws 60,000+ people. Pro-Israel groups are praising the move. Free speech advocates are not happy. Is this a free speech violation?

STONESTREET: Well, I don’t know that I can answer that. But I can answer this, that free speech is something that should be protected, but all freedoms have limits. You know, if the valedictorian’s plan was to stand up and yell “fire!” in a crowded theater, then the administrators would be right to shut it down, because it actually posed a direct risk based on speech that was knowingly not true. If this speaker was coming from the perspective that Israel is acting wrongly in its retaliation against Hamas, if they believe that the State of Israel was illegitimate, and they plan to speak about these things, and just because of those viewpoints, the administration pulled the invitation, then yeah, that is a violation of free speech for an institution like the University of Southern California, as much as I would disagree with each and every one of those positions. However, if the substance of the speech is her calling for the eradication of the State of Israel, calling for genocide, and death to the USA, which we saw in chants on university campuses, then at that point, we’re talking about actual cause for harm and violence. And so you have to be able to make these distinctions. It’s not always super clear, and that’s why I just don’t know.

Like, I mean, if you know, on a college campus where there are different viewpoints, it’s legitimate to have those who think that Israel’s in the right and Israel’s in the wrong in how they do it. But if you have people celebrating publicly and out loud on an institutional platform the massacre that happened on October 7, and calling in an ongoing way for not only death to Israel, but death to America, that’s where you’ve crossed the limits that that speech has. Some of that should be obvious and isn’t always obvious.

So I would be more curious if they have clear reason to pull the plug on this valedictorian’s commencement speech. But the excuse they’re using is it might incite violence. That’s bogus, because their job then is to protect that speech. Now, that doesn’t mean she can say whatever they want about, you know, genocide or anything like that. But that's this new thing. Now we’re measuring freedoms and comparing freedoms. And that’s a very, very difficult thing to do. And honestly, government officials tend to use it as an excuse.

EICHER: Well, John, let me follow up with the other side of this. Columbia University's president this week stepped into the same Capitol Hill hearing room that two other Ivy League presidents stepped into and out of in December, and they ended up having to resign from their jobs. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik really exposed Ivy League tolerance of anti-semitism on campus, and they paid a price – they paid the highest price, losing their jobs.

So Columbia's president came in at a much different attitude much more humble, less ivory tower and out of touch, but to hear some Jewish students at Columbia tell that Columbia is way too tolerant of anti-semitism. The president in her appearance before the committee the other day did say, although she said it much better than Harvard's and Penn's ex-presidents, but she did talk about this idea of balancing free speech and Jewish students’ well-being. And my question goes beyond Columbia on this question of balancing. Is anti-semitism free speech and and how do you draw these lines?

STONESTREET: Well, I think we’re back to the same problem as in the first question is, is that there's such a thing as viewpoint neutrality, as if there’s such a thing as, you know, truly being open to all views, which is exactly what college campuses claim and can never really pull off. And that’s why when what you see is when campuses actually say we want honest and open debate. And this, by the way, includes an awful lot of evangelical colleges too, it ends up being just one viewpoint is allowed and the other one’s, you know, not tolerated.

This has taken over evangelical publishing houses. I mean, look, I get four or five review copies of books a week. And I can tell you, almost upfront, when a book comes what publishing house it’s from without ever looking at it, because if it is all to the left on certain issues, like First Amendment, Second Amendment things, on women’s reproductive rights, so to speak, and whether we should what it means to actually be-pro life is a pretty squishy thing. And maybe Christians have to limit their own speech and why we should be affirming and this or that, or the other. The blind spots are unbelievable.

And of course, we have them too. I don’t want to pretend like we’re, you know, we’re somehow, you know, in an innocent, you know, sort of place. I think it’s much better to admit that there is a truth, and that you bring a lens that either corresponds to that truth or doesn’t correspond to that truth to your work. And that’s especially true if you’re an educator, this is especially true if you’re a journalist, it’s especially true if you’re trying to be an administrator over an educational place that deals with ideas, like all these Ivy League schools.

Yeah, look, I’m not gonna play it down. They’ve got a very, very difficult job. These are very, very international places, and the international conflict between the West and the rest is bad enough. The international conflict that Samuel Huntington predicted in The Clash of Civilizations, which everyone still says it's not a good prediction, and I’m like he got everything right, which is the clash between Islam and the rest, and the civilizational battles that exist across these national but also international lines, which we’re seeing in full effect with Israel and all of its neighbors. It’s very hard to kind of claim, “Well, we're going to let all views come to bear,” when the wrong views in these contexts where these students are used to, can cost you your life, or cost you your future in some way.

I think that the future of higher education is the institutions that are willing to make a claim and willing to educate according to that claim. And the ones that really have a future are the ones that recognize that there is such a thing as truth, and they teach alongside that. I think they’re just going to be better off.

BROWN: John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint Podcast. Thanks so much, John.

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, April 19th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a British miniseries about the price of justice.

From 1999 to 2015, hundreds of British sub-postmasters were wrongly convicted of theft and fraud, because a computer glitch made it look like their post offices were losing money.

EICHER: A new series airing on PBS tells the story of the long painful road those postmasters had to endure … just to get their good names back.

WORLD arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino now with a review of Mr Bates vs. the Post Office.

ALAN: One first-class stamp there, Megan. 28 p.

MEGAN: How much?

ALAN: I know, daylight robbery. That’s the Post Office for you.

COLLIN GARBARINO: Mr Bates vs. the Post Office is a four-part series on PBS’s Masterpiece that dramatizes the events surrounding the British Post Office scandal. For hundreds of years, British subpostmasters kept their accounts with paper and pen. But in 1999, Post Office Ltd, the government-owned corporation that franchises local post offices, rolled out a new computer system called Horizon. It was supposed to make life for the humble subpostmaster easier. Instead of solving problems, glitches in the system led the computer to report that some post offices were experiencing chronic deficits.

ALAN: They say, money’s somehow gone missing from this branch, which it hasn’t. And I have to pay it back, which I won’t. So I say, prove it. Prove that I’m wrong and you’re right.

Post Office Ltd prosecuted some for theft and fraud, and subpostmasters who couldn’t or wouldn’t make up the deficits out of their own pockets lost their businesses. Hundreds of honest men and women had their finances and their reputations wrecked.

SUZANNE: No job, no income, nowhere to live. All our hopes, dreams, all our savings down the pan.

Mr Bates vs. the Post Office begins with stories of hardship and loss. We see people disappointed because they expect that they’ll be able to solve their problems if they were just open and honest about what’s happening. Auditors from the central office merely demand they pay their debts, and the Horizon helpdesk isn’t any help at all, telling each subpostmaster that no one else is having problems.

JO: It, it, it’s just doubled right in front of my eyes. Now, now it says I’m 4,000 pounds down.

CALL CENTER: It’ll sort itself out—these things do.

While hundreds of lives are ruined, the executives at Post Office Ltd only seem to care about protecting their brand and quashing any criticism of the outrageously expensive Horizon system.

But one disgraced subpostmaster named Alan Bates wouldn’t back down. He found others who had been wronged by Post Office Ltd, and together they formed the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance. But getting justice isn’t easy when you’re dealing with a government-owned corporation with limitless funds to pay expensive attorneys.

ALAN: You know, when I first got legal advice, right at the very beginning, I was warned that if I tried to take them to court, even if I won, the Post Office would just keep appealing till I run out of money.

Mr Bates vs. the Post Office, along with a documentary featuring the story’s real-life participants, is airing on PBS all month, and can also be watched via the PBS app or website. And I think it’s a terrific David vs. Goliath story, especially because it's true. Also, The show is pretty family friendly since PBS mutes two bad words that are in the British version. However, there are a couple of depictions of self-harm.

Toby Jones, whom Marvel fans will recognize as Dr. Zola from the Captain America movies, plays Alan Bates. It’s a perfect bit of casting. Jones projects the just right amount of righteous curmudgeonliness for a man stubborn enough to fight the Post Office for 20 years.

ALAN: We, we’ve all lost our businesses and our savings. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

In some ways it’s hard to believe the extent of the miscarriage of justice in Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office, but in other ways, this true story will feel all too familiar to those of us who’ve dealt with organizations that wish only to absolve themselves of blame rather than correcting any mistakes.

Despite the hardships, the series has its feel-good moments. Alan and his fellow subpostmasters find some allies along the way, and a measure of the story’s wrongs get righted. But the British people still await a full reckoning of the damage done.

BOB: No, it’s just the more of you people I meet, the less, uh, I know how you’re all still standing.

The series asks the question of whether the leadership at Post Office Ltd was incompetent or evil. The answer is both. The central office put too much faith in a faulty computer system, and probably didn’t realize until too late what was going on. But then once they did know they obstructed, delayed, and circled the wagons—anything to avoid admitting error. They said they were trying to maintain the brand’s good reputation, but by engaging in bullying tactics and a coverup, they were really just trying to cloak their own ineptitude. That’s the evil part.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Up next: the poetry of prayer.

Reviewer Caleb Welde says two recent albums by a Texas-based singer-songwriter will have you singing along with God’s Word.

MUSIC: [Psalm 1]

CALEB WELDE: Singer-songwriter Caroline Cobb is clear on her mission: “To help people remember and rehearse God’s big story.” The Texas wife and mother writes in between track meets and soccer games.

COBB: The heart is that everyone would be able to rehearse this story as they're driving around town or changing a diaper or driving to work.

Cobb began walking with… and trusting God… her junior year of high school. She began writing songs around the same time. Over the years, Cobb produced a string of Bible-based albums with titles like A King & His Kindness, A Home & A Hunger, and The Blood & the Breath. Thirteen years later, with her 30th birthday on the horizon, she set a goal to write a song from every book of the Bible.

COBB: And that year, as I was writing, always from Scripture, and trying to tell these stories as faithfully as I could, I realized that this is really a sweet spot for me because it marries these two loves: of God's word and of songwriting.

Her two most recent albums about the Psalms share that approach. In her 2023 album, Psalms: The Poetry of Prayer, she includes this song titled “Shepherd Walk Beside Me.” It draws from Psalm 23.

PSALM 23: Oh, Lord, you’re my shepherd, and I am your sheep.

Though Cobb doesn’t sing Psalm 23 word for word, the lyrics remain deeply Scriptural. She sometimes includes New Testament insights, such as references to Jesus.

PSALM 23: Oh Jesus, good shepherd, you laid down your life. To find your lost lamb you would leave the 99. The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. But you’ve come to raise us to lasting joy…

Cobb says studying the Bible always felt comforting. But she sometimes struggled to know how to pray. That led to her to try singing the Psalms.

COBB: So I just pray and I'd get distracted. I tried to journal my prayers, and I was just like, Am I just dumping on you, like all my feelings? And so and that's fine, but I just have been really helped by praying God's word back to him.

Cobb’s 2023 album is composed of 11 songs. They aren’t quite as produced as other songs topping the Christian music charts–and their soundscapes are fairly simple. Still, the melodies are catchy, and with contributors like Wendell Kimbrough, the vocals, give the album authenticity.

PSALM 92: [With Wendell Kimbrough]

She wrote several songs during COVID lockdowns.

COBB: For me, these are meant to be prayers that people can use when they're feeling anxious, or when they're not sure of God and his sovereignty, and he'll be good in a hard situation….

“Don’t Hide Your Face”, inspired by Psalm 102, was written for a family in Cobb’s neighborhood grieving over the death of their young daughter. Cobb was friends with the mother.

COBB: And she had posted about Psalm 102 being a big comfort for her, and kind of talked about how raw it was, and how it really put words in her mouth for what she was feeling. You know, tears are my food, I'm lying awake in bed, I don't want to eat, you know, just that deep, deep sorrow.

MUSIC: [Don't Hide Your Face (Psalm 102)] And I cannot sleep.

CHORUS: But You, You are on your throne / Help me to remember You 

MUSIC: [Like A Tree (Psalm 1)] 

Cobb aims at a musical style that reflects the idea of a Biblical passage. In January of this year, she released an album of companion instrumentals, a collection of the same songs, but without lyrics. It’s titled The Poetry of Prayer: Instrumentals.

COBB: I hope it's a good companion for the Psalms album where you can listen to the Psalms album and sing those words and pray and then maybe you have the instrumental album where you're actually just praying your own words and being still and quiet with God.

Cobb said she does struggle with the busyness of life, and her desire to make music can sometimes conflict with her desire to be with her family. Nevertheless, she seeks to be faithful through each season of life. Her Psalms albums can help listeners, do the same.

MUSIC: [Like A Tree (Psalm 1)] I want to be like a tree by the river, plant me down by the deep deep water. When the sun gets hot, my leaves wont wither. Oh plant me down like a tree by the river.

For WORLD, I’m Caleb Welde.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, now it’s time to thank the team who helped to put the program together this week …

Mary Reichard, David Bahnsen, Anna Johansen Brown, Lauren Dunn, Grace Snell, Andrew Walker, Leo Briceno, Onize Ohikere, Mary Muncy, Janie B. Cheaney, Juliana Chan Erickson, Will Inboden, Bonnie Pritchett, Cal Thomas, John Stonestreet, Collin Garbarino, and Caleb Welde.

Also, a new voice on the program this week: World Radio News reporter, Mark Mellinger.

Special thanks to our breaking news team: Lynde Langdon, Steve Kloosterman, Kent Covington, Travis Kircher, Lauren Canterberry, Christina Grube, and Josh Schumacher.

Thanks also to our breaking news interns: Tobin Jacobson, Johanna Huebscher, and Alex Carmenaty.

And the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Our producer is Harrison Watters.

Our Senior producer is Kristen Flavin, and Paul Butler is Executive producer.

Additional production assistance from Benj Eicher, Lillian Hamman, Emily Whitten, and Bekah McCallum.

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 Psalmist writes, “For the Lord builds up Zion. He appears in his glory. He regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer. Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.” —Psalm 102:16 -18

Worship with brothers and sisters in Christ in Church this weekend…and Lord willing we’ll meet you right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

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