The World and Everything in It — April 2, 2020

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Life on the frontlines of healthcare is always tough, but these days, it’s even tougher.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also doctors in Canada are dealing with “conscience rights” decisions during the current health crisis…

Plus seniors both inside and outside of care homes have gone into lockdown. We will hear how they and their loved ones are handling the isolation.

And Cal Thomas on how Washington has taken big spending to a whole new level.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, April 2nd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: W.H.O. director “deeply concerned about rapid escalation” of coronavirus » Director of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Wednesday that he is—quote—“deeply concerned about the rapid escalation and global spread” of the coronavirus.

GHEBREYESUS: The number of deaths has more than doubled in the past week. In the next few days, we will reach 1 million confirmed cases and 50,000 deaths. 

New data out of Iceland suggests that one of the biggest factors in the spread of the virus is that so many people who contract it don’t feel sick. 

Biopharma company deCODE Genetics has handled almost half the roughly 18,000 tests conducted in Iceland so far. And the results are startling. Officials say 50 percent of those tested by deCODE have very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. 

In the United States, the CDC estimates that one quarter of those infected have no symptoms. 

And those who are asymptomatic are often less careful and don’t realize they’re spreading the virus to others. 

New York’s death toll doubles in 72 hours » There are now more than 200,000 confirmed cases in the United States. And more than one-third of them are in New York—about 84,000. Most of those are in New York City.

And the number of coronavirus deaths in the state more than doubled in 72 hours to almost 2,000.

And Governor Andrew Cuomo said New Yorkers are asking when this will end, but he can’t answer them. 

CUOMO: Nobody knows what’s going to happen. And I understand the need for closure, the need for control. We’re at a place we’ve never been before. We’re out of control—I need to know, I need to know—nobody can tell you. 

With hospitals stretched thin, the ministry Samaritan’s Purse has opened a field hospital in Central Park. It’s 14 tents housing a 68-bed respiratory care unit designed especially for treating those infected with the coronavirus.   

This comes days after a makeshift hospital in a convention center began taking patients and a Navy hospital ship docked off Manhattan. 

Georgia, Florida issue statewide stay-at-home orders » The governors of Georgia and Florida are abandoning their county-by-county approach to stay-at-home orders. 

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced Wednesday… 

KEMP: Tomorrow, I will sign a statewide shelter in place order, which will go in place on Friday and run through April 13th, 2020.

Kemp is also closing down all K-though-12 schools for the rest of the school year, though online classes will continue. Georgia has more than 4,600 confirmed coronavirus cases and 139 deaths. 

And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also announced a statewide stay-at-home order Wednesday. That order will expire April 30th. Florida has about 7,000 confirmed cases of the virus.

Cruise ships approach Florida facing uncertain fate » Meantime, some Floridians and hundreds of others are stuck aboard two Carnival Holland America cruise ships, the Rotterdam and Zaandam.

Both ships are approaching South Florida waters today. Governor DeSantis said Florida residents aboard the ship can disembark, but he’s been reluctant to let all passengers into the state. 

Aboard the Zaandam, nearly 200 people have flu-like symptoms, and four people have died. 

DESANTIS: My concern is simply that, we have worked so hard to make sure we have adequate hospital space in the event of a COVID-19 surge, that we wouldn’t want, you know, those valuable beds to be taken. 

But at the White House on Wednesday, President Trump again said the United States can’t simply leave the passengers stranded on the ship. 

TRUMP: We have to help the people. They’re in big trouble. No matter where they’re from; happen to be Americans, largely Americans, but whether they were or not, I mean they’re dying. So we have to do something, and the governor knows that too. 

There are more than 300 U.S. citizens on the two ships combined. The president said they’re sending supplies to the vessels and more announcements regarding the ships are expected soon.

Wimbledon cancelled amid pandemic » For the first time since World War II, the biggest event in pro tennis has been canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s Wimbledon tournament was scheduled to begin June 29th just outside of London.

This marks the first time in its nearly century-and-a-half history that Wimbledon has been canceled for a reason other than war.

Venezuela rejects U.S. offer to ease sanctions under power sharing plan » Venezuela’s Maduro regime has rejected an offer from the U.S. government to ease sanctions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that offer this week. 

He proposed that President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaidó step aside in favor of a five-person governing council. The United States would then begin rolling back sanctions. 

POMPEO: If the conditions of the framework are met, including the departure of foreign security forces, and elections deemed free and fair by international observers, then all remaining U.S. sanctions would be lifted. 

Guaidó made a similar offer over the weekend as the coronavirus threatens to overwhelm the country’s already collapsed health system and economy. 

Under the plan a five-member council would govern until presidential and parliamentary elections can be held within 6-12 months. 

But Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza made it clear that Maduro will not surrender power and said—quote—“Venezuela does not accept, nor will it ever accept any tutelage, from any foreign government.”

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: healthcare workers share their experience fighting COVID-19.

Plus, Cal Thomas on the government’s emergency spending.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: It’s Thursday, the 2nd of April, 2020. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. First up: the elderly and the coronavirus.

People of all ages have died from COVID-19, but the virus is clearly most dangerous to the elderly. 

One of the first coronavirus outbreaks in the United States happened at a long-term nursing home near Seattle. So far, more than 30 people in the home have died, while many other residents and caregivers have tested positive.

EICHER: So for three weeks now, care centers across the country have been on lockdown. No visitors from the outside can come in and residents inside have to stay away from each other. WORLD reporter Sarah Schweinsberg now on how the elderly and their loved ones are coping.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: Before the COVID-19 lockdown, the Brio independent living center in Johnston, Iowa, was a happening place. 

DELITE: From playing card games to watching movies. We have knitting group. Mahjong group. Oh there’s a book club, I belong to that too. 

Delite Lester and her husband have lived in the facility for two years now. Her time has been filled with these activities as well as Bible studies, meals with friends, and quilting.  

But these days Delite Lester and her husband, Charlie, are confined to their room, except for taking a daily walk. 

DELITE: He is a person who prior to this literally would find somewhere to go everyday. So because he was always out in the world on a regular basis this is a huge, huge change for him. 

Lester says while the lockdown isn’t fun, she understands why it’s necessary. She has an autoimmune disease.  

DELITE: So I’m being extremely cautious about trying to avoid any possibilities. It’s kind of our personal goal that no one at Brio gets the virus. 

And the staff are doing what they can to check in on residents and bring some smiles. 

DELITE: The first time they came around they had these really lucious sugar cookies that were frosted, and they were in the shape of either a bar of soap or a roll of toilet paper. (Laughs) 

Jack Barr serves as Brio’s chaplain. He says for the elderly living alone, the lockdown is especially draining and, in some cases, confusing. 

BARR: You can tell by their body posture, the drooped shoulders and kind of bent over…It’s taking a toll on them physically. Some of the individuals are of course older… They know something is going on and that things aren’t the way they used to be, but I’m not sure they understand how bad it really is. 

Lisa Ryan is the spokesperson for WesleyLife, which owns and operates 11 senior care centers including Brio. 

Ryan says combating social isolation during the lockdown is an important part of keeping seniors healthy. So caregivers are doing what they can to make sure seniors have the technology to stay in touch with family and friends. 

RYAN: They are helping them connect through Zoom, through Facebook Live, through Skype. We purchased extra iPads or for each one of our communities. We have all the means possible for people who didn’t have that technology.

Beyond the social struggle there is the practical, says Paul Downey. He runs the non-profit Serving Seniors in San Diego. It helps low-income seniors access housing, food, and medications.

During lockdown, isolated seniors still need these supplies, but… 

DOWNEY: They shouldn’t be going to the grocery story. They shouldn’t be going to the pharmacy to get their meds. So it’s the logistics of just making sure that they have all the things they need in order to survive. 

For many seniors living independently, that can be a challenge. Downey’s team does what it can, but he says neighbors and communities need to step up. 

DOWNEY: If you have an elderly neighbor even now, go check on them. Go knock on the door and stand back. Talk to them, or leave them a note, or call them, but we definitely need to look out for each other more than we do, certainly have been doing for the last number of years. 

In some cases, being on the outside of a lockdown is more difficult than being on the inside. 

Jane Waln lives near Sacramento, California. Her husband is in the end stages of dementia. He lives in a memory care home and is in hospice. Waln misses their daily visits. 

WALN: It’s been several weeks since I’ve been able to see him. And it’s hard. I miss him. 

Waln says it’s scary not to see his health condition for herself everyday. She depends on caregivers to be her eyes and ears. With the lockdown, the staff are stretched thin and can’t give her updates as often as she’d like. 

WALN: I can’t see him and participate in his life to the extent of the time that I’m there. I don’t know what his activities are particularly.

Waln understands why the lockdown is necessary. But the sad irony is, in the meantime, she will only get to see her husband when he’s about to die. 

WALN: If he is close to passing away then I’ll be allowed to see him and there is a certain tragedy to that. There is something really terrible about that. 

Despite their current separation, Waln knows she and her husband are guaranteed a future reunion, even if it’s not in the memory care home. 

WALN: Because of my faith and because of his faith, I know that I’m going to see him later.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

NICK EICHER: Coming next on The World and Everything in It: life on the frontlines of the COVID-19 fight.

Here’s WORLD reporter Anna Johansen.

KLEINSASSER: These last few weeks have felt like years to me.

ANNA JOHANSEN, REPORTER: This is Jackie Kleinsasser. She’s an emergency room nurse in South Dakota.

KLEINSASSER: It’s the thing of nightmares. It’s something—again, it’s just something I never thought I would experience. 

And this is Eric White. He’s an ICU nurse in California.

WHITE: Things had changed so drastically in 48 hours, I couldn’t believe it. I realized, oh, oh shoot, this is going to be bad. 

Fighting COVID-19 is unlike anything he’s ever experienced.

WHITE: Most of the time, you know, on a day-to-day basis, healthcare’s extremely wasteful with all of our stuff.

Now they ration face masks and repurpose equipment.

WHITE: To the point where I had to shave my beard of 10 years in order to utilize a certain type of mask, much to my wife’s sadness. I had to do that on Friday.

Jackie Kleinsasser lives in a rural farming community. She says that has actually been a blessing.

KLEINSASSER: A lot of the supplies such as N95 masks that are recommended to be worn, um, when being exposed to COVID-19, our farmers, our ranchers, our ag businesses, they have those. And so they have donated tons of them to us. My husband went out to our shop where he keeps his N95s that he uses to clean out his grain bins and he found 50 of them for me.

When she goes to work, she has to operate as if every patient she encounters has COVID-19.

KLEINSASSER: So when I meet a patient for the first time in the ER, even if they’re in with an ankle sprain, I’m putting on my N95 mask, my eye protection, and a face shield at a minimum.

But extra protection takes extra time—time Eric White says he doesn’t have.

WHITE: The whole reason people are in the intensive care is because when something goes wrong, they need to have an intervention right away.

That means he might not have the 90 seconds it takes to put on the extra protective gear.

WHITE: In the intensive care on Friday, we had two code blues, which is where somebody, either their heart stops or their breathing stops.

Two code blues—at the same time—on different sides of the unit. And almost no extra hands.

WHITE: So it was just, you know, running in without any protective stuff to start, you know, saving somebody’s life. And then only to come to find out, Oh, we need to test them for the COVID virus. It just it doesn’t allow you to protect yourself as much.

His work hours have doubled, but everyone is still scrambling to keep up. They need more hands simply because they can’t get to places as quickly.

WHITE: When you are stuck in another room and the door is closed and you’ve got this hood on sometimes blowing air and you can’t hear anything, you need other eyes on your other patients.

But COVID-19 isn’t just something they have to deal with at work. It changes home life, too. Kleinsasser is still living in the same house with her husband and three young daughters, but she’s keeping her distance.

KLEINSASSER: I have my own bathroom. I’m not cooking for them anymore. When I’m around them, I’m trying to wear my mask. Which is pretty alarming to your 3-year-old when you try to tell them that I can’t hug her, I can’t kiss her…She can’t sit on my lap. That things are just different right now.

White usually has evening devotions with his wife and five kids. But these days, he doesn’t get home until late. So they’ve had to change the routine.

WHITE: When I have a break that I can call, um, call the house…FaceTime and kind of lead us in some Scripture reading and some hymns during my break.

The virus has also forced many healthcare workers to grapple with some tough questions.

KLEINSASSER: I did have a coworker that has young children like mine…and she talked about how she had told her husband that this weekend when she was off from work…she was going to fill out her will, something that they’ve been putting off for quite some time. And you know, he didn’t really want to hear that. And she said, no, this is serious. We’re going to do this. We need to be ready. Those are the things that, um, healthcare workers are doing on their days off.

So how do they cope?

KLEINSASSER: I have no words for how grateful I am for my relationship with the Lord. I truly do not know what I would do if I could not go to the Lord in prayer, spend some time reading my Bible, getting my mind right before I go into work.

White agrees: Being a Christian makes all the difference.

WHITE: And especially knowing that I have no fear of death, like death was conquered in Christ. You know, I’ve got nothing to be afraid of.

Of course he wants to take precautions and he doesn’t want anyone else to get sick. But he knows healthcare workers are the last line of defense. And for him, that gives each day extra purpose.

WHITE: We need to be willing to set aside our own concerns and say, I am trained specifically to do this and if I don’t do it, nobody will.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen.

NICK EICHER: Well, CNN and MSNBC may have put some social distance between their audiences and the White House coronavirus briefings. In other words, the networks stopped airing the briefings live.

But those editorial decisions are not depriving the president’s medical point-man Anthony Fauci of lots of face time. Dr. Fauci’s mug is showing up at bakeries from upstate New York to Wisconsin, as a decoration for cookies and the tops of doughnuts.

SEMERARO: We want to give thanks to the people that really are educating us and letting us know what’s out there.

That’s Nick Semeraro and he runs Donuts Delite in Rochester, New York—just wanting to give credit where it’s due. So he created the Famous Doc Donut, featuring the infectious disease expert’s image printed on wafer-thin edible paper, resting atop an artery-clogging layer of buttercream. And then some more frosting with red-white-and-blue sprinkles.

Of course Dr. Fauci is a long-time expert on public health and if he didn’t have bigger issues to deal with he’d probably advise dialing back the buttercream.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: Today is Thursday, April 2nd. You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we are so glad you are! Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard.

As the number of coronavirus cases around the world continues to rise, doctors in overwhelmed medical systems face agonizing choices: like who’s admitted into the intensive-care unit and who isn’t. 

Here’s the head of an ICU in Italy, Antonio Pesenti, on how frequently he faces that choice.

PESENTI: What we had to decide twice a week, now we have to decide 10 times per day.

EICHER: Now, add doctor-assisted suicide into the ethical mix.

Since 2016, euthanasia has been legal in Canada. But even before the coronavirus outbreak, some Christian doctors there were considering leaving medicine altogether—to avoid the risk of sanctions for refusing to participate.

Well, now doctors in the country’s most populous province, Ontario, are facing a pandemic just as officials are stripping away their conscience protections.

WORLD’s Les Sillars has our story.

WORTHEN: If we don’t take drastic precautions, our healthcare system is going to be overwhelmed, and then we get into these very difficult decisions both for practitioners and for patients…

LES SILLARS, REPORTER: Larry Worthen is executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations of Canada.

WORTHEN: I think once you allow for euthanasia, in the patient’s mind is the question, is it better for me to die or take up a hospital bed, or to die than have to go on a ventilator…

A few years ago that wouldn’t have been a question in Canada, no matter how serious the pandemic. It is now.

Here’s the background. The Canadian Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that patients have a constitutional right to “Medical Assistance in Dying,” or “MAiD.” Parliament passed a federal euthanasia law a year later.

Between 2016 and 2018 about 1 percent of all deaths in Canada—3,000 per year—were by euthanasia. But anti-euthanasia activists say the government’s figure is far too low, and MAiD case are rising. It’s now considered normal for late stage cancer and certain diseases like ALS.

Worthen says in the Netherlands it took 50 years for euthanasia to become culturally entrenched. It’s only taken four years in Canada.

WORTHEN: We’re on a rapid, rapid descent here in Canada, for sure.

It’s likely to get worse. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government recently proposed legislation to wipe out some key limitations in the federal law. Among them are the requirement that the patient be conscious at the time of death to consent. That the patient’s death be “reasonably foreseeable.” The 10-day waiting period.

That bill is on hold during the pandemic so the limits remain—for now. But the bill almost certainly will return later this year.

That’s because last year the Ontario Supreme Court struck down conscience protection for doctors in the province. Doctors must provide a, quote, “effective referral” for euthanasia. That is, Ontario doctors have to make sure patients who request it can get help committing suicide. The ruling was explicit: the patient’s constitutional right to die outweighs the doctor’s conscience rights. The Ontario court says doctors who object can find another job, or some field of medicine where the issue won’t come up.

“Such as?” wonders the CMDA’s Worthen. Pathology? Weight loss?

WORTHEN: We wanted to tell government how many doctors had been displaced because of this within a 48 hour period we had 40 stories…

Some are headed to the States. Others, including his own wife, have retired.

WORTHEN: …two doctors moved to Alberta already, a ton of doctors who have just up and left palliative care. Palliative care is too risky for them, they can’t be involved in that…

DOBSON: I always thought medicine was the best way to serve the Lord and serve others.

Jane Dobson has been a physician since 1983. She’s appalled at the Ontario ruling.

DOBSON: That the patient’s right to life, liberty, and security were being more violated if we didn’t refer. Can you imagine? Life, liberty, and security of the person by not referring for their death!

Dobson recently gave up her family practice in Hamilton, Ontario. She loved it, but worried about the euthanasia issue. And she felt pressure to accommodate requests for chemical abortion and transgender treatments.

Dobson left her practice before anyone filed a complaint with the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. That would have put her through a years-long and emotionally draining process that may, in the end, have revoked her license.

What’s more, she’s not sure her medical insurance would have covered her if a patient had sued. Her policy says that she must follow her conscience and comply with the Ontario College’s expectations. But what if those conflict? She phoned to ask.

DOBSON: I said but if I follow my conscience I cannot follow the College’s. And they said, well you have to.

In short, Dobson was worried that if sued, she could lose her license and her money. So she took a one-day-a-week position at a long-term care facility where she won’t face these issues.

Some Christian doctors wonder if the risks have been overstated. 

REILLY: One of my concerns in all of this is that the fear is larger than it should be…

Dan Reilly is an OB/GYN in Fergus, Ontario. He said those who leave the country or the profession over the issue preemptively revoke their own licenses. God might call Christian doctors to run some risks, he adds.

REILLY: From a faith perspective, the question at the end of the day is: “Are you where God wants you to be in terms of practice?” Not: “Are there dangers where I am?”

Worthen says Canadians seem blind to the dangers. Euthanasia already pressures the elderly and vulnerable to avoid being a burden. Then along came the coronavirus and the possible rationing of medical resources.

WORTHEN: It’s a very disturbing confluence of two different things happening at the same time.

The whole thing is deeply troubling, he said.

WORTHEN: No system can exist where it is both a value to kill a patient and to keep a patient alive, a Christian doctor cannot survive in a system where it is a virtue to kill someone.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Les Sillars.

MARY REICHARD: Coming up next, an excerpt from tomorrow’s Listening In. This week, Warren Smith talks with author Brian Kluth. 

For the past four years, Kluth has been working with churches to identify practical ways to be more generous with their pastors—spearheading a movement called “Bless Your Pastor.” Here’s Warren Smith.

WARREN SMITH: Pastors really are struggling in this country right?

BRIAN KLUTH: Yeah, they really are. Unfortunately, what people see, is they see celebrity pastors on T-V and they think they’re all rolling in the dough, which is far from reality. The reality is that 80 percent of pastors are in churches of under 200 people. Fifty-five percent of pastors serve churches under 100. Fifty percent of pastors in America make less than $50,000 dollars a year, though they’re working 50, 60, 70 hours a week. Sixty percent: no retirement, no healthcare. 

And so, 90 percent feel financial stress, and yet they’re not free to talk about it, they’re, you know, if they say something it’d be very awkward for the church board or even the congregation.

SMITH: Well, yeah, that’s right. I mean if they talk to their board or their elders or their congregation, it would be like, you know, “all my pastor cares about is money. He’s trying to get me to give more money.” 

KLUTH: Exactly. In America, the average church budget is $125,000 dollars total. So that’s to pay the pastor, take care of the building, give to missions, to have a children’s program. So $125,000 for the whole church doesn’t leave a lot of money to go around for the pastor or staff. 

SMITH: So what’s sort of the long game here? If you could wake up five years from now, or 10 years from now, 15 years from now, what would you want to see different about the church?

KLUTH: Yeah, I think what I’d like to see is generosity being joyfully lived out. Pastors being loved and cared for and supported. Churches having resources to do outreach, and ministry, and take care of their buildings, and take care of their programs, missions increasing—because people are living in the joy of generosity—and that’s my heart. 

Generosity is not about guilt, it’s about grace. The Bible says: “excel in the grace of giving.” And so everything we’ve done is really about letting God be your provider. Learning to share what God’s given you, and being a blessing to pastors, or people in need, or people on the other side of the world.

REICHARD: That’s Brian Kluth talking to Warren Smith. To hear their complete conversation, look for Listening In tomorrow wherever you get your podcasts.

MARY REICHARD: Today is Thursday, April 2nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Commentator Cal Thomas has some thoughts on Washington’s free-spending ways.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Cognitive dissonance is when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs simultaneously. 

I would argue it does not apply to those of us who support the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill Congress passed while at the same time worrying about the increasing national debt. If you’re keeping track, it’s $23 trillion and counting.

It’s fair to ask: Are we mortgaging our future for the sake of temporary relief from the economic side effects of the coronavirus pandemic? If our elected representatives and unelected bureaucrats can effectively order the U.S. Treasury to print more money and borrow in continuing excess, what happens when the next crisis hits? Where will it end? 

Historically, debt has been a major contributor to the decline of great nations. It is why James Madison warned—quote—“If Congress can employ money indefinitely, for the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of the public treasury. Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America.” End quote. 

We are ignoring the prophetic nature of Madison’s statement at our peril. The philosophy of individual freedom is under assault. 

If Madison’s warning isn’t warning enough, how about this one from 18th-century Scottish lawyer, writer, and historian Alexander Fraser Tytler. Quoting now: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” End quote. 

Government is growing ever bigger with no spending cuts—even when the economy is booming. Our leaders seem incapable of doing away with any program or agency—no matter how useless or outmoded it has become. 

Republicans used to consider national debt their issue. They are now joined at the pocketbook with Democrats and can never again argue against debt with any credibility.

America, you have been warned by the ghosts of the past, but how many are listening and heeding those warnings? 

If uncontrolled and unlimited spending continues, we might have to change the nation’s abbreviation from USA to ATM.

I’m Cal Thomas.

NICK EICHER: Tomorrow: Coronavirus fears are driving new and unique gospel opportunities. We’ll talk about that on Culture Friday.

And, we’ll review a new PBS Masterpiece series set during World War II.

That and more tomorrow. 

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Remember what the Psalmist says, that the LORD is my strength and my shield. 

That tells us, God is trustworthy and deserving of our songs of thanksgiving. 

Go now in grace and peace.

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