The World and Everything in It: April 22, 2025

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Pope Francis has died, but conversations on his legacy are very much alive.

JORDAN BALLOR: He will be seen as a pope who has drawn attention to all the same issues that liberation theology has drawn attention to

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also a farmer who practices earth day, everyday.

SALATIN: In the idea of dominion, it is not dominion to exploit. It is dominion to caretake. And like an overseer. Like a shepherd.

And war in Ukraine created orphans who became refugees. One tells her story.

DAISY CIRLOT: Our train stops like every second because they see where you are. They're gonna do it, bombs.

And the shot heard ‘round the world, 250 years ago.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, April 22nd. 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: It’s time for news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump blasts Powell again, shakes Wall Street » President Trump is stepping up his sharp critique of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, creating a fresh round of jitters in the financial world.

Last week, Trump called Powell “terrible” amid reports the White House was thinking about trying to fire the Fed Chair. Monday, Trump again laid the figurative lumber to Powell for not lowering interest rates, calling him a “major loser” and “Mr. Too Late” over social media.

While critics fear the president’s tough talk on Powell, combined with his new tariffs, are hurting the economy, Trump says:

TRUMP: There’s a little transition, and that’s going to happen. But ultimately we’re going to be the strongest that we’ve ever been as a nation.

Stocks tumbled after the president’s comments.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day down 972 points, losing two-and-a-half percent of its value. The NASDAQ and S & P 500 indices were also each down more than two percent.

And the U.S. dollar index sank to its lowest level in three years.

White House defends Hegseth amid new Signal revelation » The White House is defending Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who’s under fire after a New York Times report that, for a second time, he shared secret U.S. military attack plans in a group chat on the messaging app Signal.

The Times says its reporting is based on four people with knowledge of the chat. Without refuting the content of the report, Hegseth lashed out at the news media.

HEGSETH: They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations. Not going to work with me.

The Times reports Hegseth’s wife, brother, and about a dozen other people were on the thread.

Last month, it came to light that Hegseth and other national security officials accidentally shared U.S. attack plans in Yemen with the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic over Signal.

The president says Hegseth is doing a great job and called reporting on the second Signal chat “the same old stuff.”

SCOTUS hears LGBTQ books case in Maryland » Should parents be able to pull their kids out of elementary school classes featuring LGBTQ-themed books? That’s the question before the U.S. Supreme Court today.

It’s hearing arguments in a case out of Montgomery County, Maryland, where the public school system refused to let parents withdraw their children from a language arts class whose reading curriculum includes a handful of books with LGBTQ characters and themes.

One mother in the school district, Billy Mogess, tells FOX News the reading materials are leaving students in a state of confusion.

MOGESS: And they’re going home asking their parents [why] what they’re learning at school and at home is not lining up.

The plaintiffs in this case, including Mogess, say the school system is violating their First Amendment freedom of religion. Mogess says she’s pulled her own kids out of public school.

Abortions resume at Wyoming’s only clinic » A judge has cleared the way for abortions to resume in Wyoming. WORLD's Travis Kircher has more.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: Wyoming's only abortion business is once again legally permitted to end the lives of unborn babies. That's after a state judge's ruling yesterday.

In his decision, District Judge Thomas Campbell suspended two state pro-life laws prohibiting Wellspring Health Access from performing abortions.

The Casper-based abortion business stopped providing abortions in late February in response to the new legislation.

One law required surgical abortion businesses to be licensed as outpatient surgical centers. The other required mothers to receive an ultrasound before getting a chemical abortion.

In his ruling yesterday, Judge Campbell said the pro-life laws affect a fundamental right to abortion provided by the state constitution. The Wyoming Supreme Court is weighing whether that’s accurate, but its decision is probably several weeks away. Monday’s ruling blocks the laws from taking effect until that decision comes down.

In a social media post Monday afternoon, the center said it is once again taking appointments for mothers to kill their unborn babies.

For WORLD, I'm Travis Kircher.

Ukraine to meet with Western allies » Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country is sending a delegation to London tomorrow to meet with Western allies. The topic of discussion: How to achieve an unconditional ceasefire with Russia.

ZELENSKYY: [Speaking Ukrainian]

That’s Zelenskyy saying Ukraine pledges not to strike civilian infrastructure in Russia and Russia must respond in kind. He goes on to suggest both sides end all missile and long-range drone strikes.

In Washington, reporters asked President Trump about the likelihood of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

TRUMP: There's a chance. There's a very good chance.

But his comments come on the heels of more Russian airstrikes. According to a report by the Kyiv Independent, three Ukrainians died and seven more were hurt in attacks Moscow launched on Sunday into Monday.

Pope Francis burial plans, replacement process » As Catholics mourn the death of Pope Francis, we’re learning he’ll be buried in Rome’s Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major.

The Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, explains why.

DOLAN: He would always go there before he left on a journey and when he returned to thank Jesus through Mary at that basilica, so that he wants to be buried there kind of in the middle of a Roman neighborhood, kind of at a crossroads of Roman life.

Cardinal Dolan talking to FOX NewsChannel’s The Story with Martha MacCallum.

Pope Francis died Monday at 88 from a stroke and heart failure.

Cardinals younger than 80 will convene at a secret meeting in the Sistine Chapel to choose his successor. That gathering typically happens 15 to 20 days after a pope’s death.

I'm Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: considering the legacy of Pope Francis. Plus, a story about protecting Ukrainian orphans from human trafficking.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 22nd of April.

Thanks for listening to WORLD Radio! Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST:  And I’m Mary Reichard.

First up on The World and Everything in It, remembering Pope Francis.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was the first pope to take the name of the founder of the Franciscan order, characterizing his commitment to the poor and the stewardship of nature. Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, making him the first pontiff from the Americas.

EICHER: Francis will be remembered for his focus on the poor, but his lasting legacy may be the unintended consequences of how he responded to poverty, immigration, and human sexuality, unlocking the door to doctrines and practices the church has long preached against.

WORLD Radio Executive Producer Paul Butler has the story.

PBS: [FIRST APPEARANCE AS POPE]

PAUL BUTLER: On March 13th, 2013, on the fifth ballot, the College of Cardinals elected the Catholic church’s 266th pope…introduced in St. Peter’s Square as Pope Francis:

POPE FRANCIS: [ITALIAN] Brothers and sisters, good evening! You know that it was the duty of the Conclave to give Rome a Bishop. It seems that my brother Cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth to get one…

He says it was the Conclave's duty to give Rome a Bishop. He jokes: “It seems that [they] have gone to the ends of the earth to get one…”

Jorge Bergoglio entered the Catholic order of the Jesuits as a priest in 1969. As the child of Italian immigrants to Argentina, Bergoglio was no stranger to poverty and political violence.

SOUND: [1974 ARGENTINA POLITICAL VIOLENCE]

Bergoglio served Argentinian Catholics during tumultuous years, when the government sought to stamp out communism. Around this time, Catholics in the Global South began to more fully embrace liberation theology—a framework for teachings on poverty and suffering that incorporates economic and political ideas drawn from Marxism.

BALLOR: And so Francis is faced with the kind of a broader discussion about the relationship between rich and poor…

Jordan Ballor is director of research at the Center for Religion Culture and Democracy.

BALLOR: …this movement that is presenting somewhat of a coherent answer to the challenges of wealth and poverty.

Pope John Paull II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI (sixteenth) both took strong positions against liberation theology and censored its proponents. Bergoglio kept his distance, sympathizing with the movement but never formally adhering to it.

BALLOR: And, you know, that kind of, you might say, ambivalence towards liberation theology, I think, has continued into his papacy.

After his election as pope, Cardinal Bergoglio took the name Francis…the first pontiff to be named after Francis of Assisi. He sought to emulate Assisi’s focus on caring for the poor and God’s creation.

As pope, Francis navigated a complicated range of issues, from efforts to legalize and normalize homosexual unions to calls for global action to confront changes in climate.

In 2015 he addressed the US Congress calling for a stronger commitment to environmental protections:

POPE FRANCIS: I am convinced that we can make a difference. I’m sure. [APPLAUSE]

Many saw Francis as a progressive force within the church. And his statements frequently raised concern for people both in and out of the church.

POPE FRANCIS: If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?

When asked about homosexuality in 2013, Francis said, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Some took that to be a softening of the church’s stance towards homosexuality, though others affirm that Francis did not change church doctrine regarding the nature of Biblical marriage.

Just last year the Pope angered many LGBTQ advocates when he warned of the dangers of gender theory—saying it was a threat to society as it sought to erase the difference between the sexes.

SOUND: [VISIT TO CHILE]

Many times during his papacy, Francis came under fire for his handling of the ongoing sex abuse scandals. He seemed to blame victims of slander during a 2018 visit to Chile…though he later admitted to what he called “grave errors in judgment.” He apologized to victims while demanding bishop resignations.

SOUND: [VISIT TO CONGRESS]

Pope Francis also strayed into geo-political debates. In 2016 he visited the US/Mexico border and publicly prayed for those who had died trying to cross into the United States.

AP SOUND: [VISIT TO BORDER]

During the visit he criticized then presidential candidate Donald Trump over his promise to strengthen the border. CNN’s Rosa Flores called Francis “the Pope of Mercy.” A label that stuck.

Here’s Jordan Ballor once again:

BALLOR: He will be seen I think as a Pope of the heart focusing on the piety and the charitable orientation of the Christian heart.

Ballor says this legacy does not conflict with his predecessors, but can be read in conjunction with them.

BALLOR: You've got a pretty robust expression of a social thought that is oriented towards the intellect, the will, and the heart in a way that they complement one another and can correct one another

What remains to be seen is whether the next pope reaffirms the doctrinal defenses of prior Popes, or continues Francis’s ambiguity towards the Left.

BALLOR: In many ways his legacy will be defined by what his successors do just as the legacies of Jean -Paul II and Benedict XVI have in many ways been refined or defined or transformed by by Francis himself.

Last month Pope Francis marked the 12th anniversary of his election while hospitalized.

SOUND: [JD VANCE MEETS WITH POPE]

On Sunday, April 20th, US vice president JD Vance met with the pontiff and thanked God for his improved health.

SOUND: P[APAL BLESSING]

Francis blessed Easter pilgrims from St. Peter's Basilica and surprised the crowd with a trip around the square in his car. It turned out to be his final goodbye.

On Monday morning, Cardinal Kevin Ferrell announced the death of Pope Francis from the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta, where Francis lived.

ASSOCIATED PRESS: [ANNOUNCING POPE’S DEATH IN ITALIAN]:

He says: “At 7:35 this morning, The Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the Father's house. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His church.”

The Vatican officially sealed the Papal Apartment of the Apostolic Palace on Monday, and proclaimed the traditional season of mourning. A conclave of cardinals is expected to convene in the next two to three weeks—where they will choose a new head of the Catholic church.

For WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It… on this Earth Day … we consider the dominion mandate, found in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. Actor Max McLean reads for Crossway’s ESV translation:

MAX MCLEAN: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Subdue it and have dominion. The Hebrew words speak of bringing creation under cultivation: that’s subduing; as well as ruling over and governing: that’s “having dominion.”

REICHARD: Yet, this is no “license to exploit.” Think of it as royal stewardship under Christ. The idea is, man is made in God’s image and we are called to act as His vice-regents: justly, generously, in a way that is lifegiving.

Augustine saw dominion as order. Calvin stressed responsible stewardship. And Kuyper declared, There’s not a square inch over which Christ does not cry, ‘Mine!’”

EICHER: Dominion, then, is a creational blessing and responsibility. So, with that theological framing, let’s consider how one farmer lives out the dominion mandate in practice.

REICHARD: A while back, my colleague Jenny Rough and I spent some time at Joel Salatin’s family-run operation called Polyface Farms. It’s located in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, and it’s known worldwide for regenerative farming: animals, plants, soils— all integrated, in such a way as to restore the earth. Salatin folds his arms on his kitchen table like a philosopher in muck boots.

JOEL SALATIN: What do we do here? So we grow salad bar beef, piggerator pork, pastured poultry, and that’s eggs, broilers, and turkeys, pastured rabbits, lamb, and ducks.

And so we produce all this without chemicals, without vaccines, without medications, no antibiotics, and no mRNA either.

EICHER: Salatin looks to God’s design of the planet for instructions on how to run his farm.

SALATIN: There are principles involved in nature: moving, mobbing, mowing. When you honor all three of those you build soil, you increase pollinators, you increase vegetative diversity, you increase abundance. Everything increases. If you violate one of those, you turn the herbivore which built all the healthy soils on the planet, you turn it into a liability rather than an asset. And in most commercial livestock situations in the world now, they’re violating all three of those.

Moving, mobbing, mowing. Herbivores roam around (move), they bunch up together (mob), they eat the plants (mow). Salatin studied natural herds of the world … the wildebeests of the Serengeti, the bison of North America, and he observed that’s how they live.

SALATIN: A feedlot violates all three. You know, they’re not moving, they’re not mowing, well I guess they are mobbed up. But they’re not moving, they’re not mowing. In the average grazing situation, they’re not moving. They’re not mobbed up. They are mowing, but they’re not moving and they’re not mobbed up.

So all you have to do is violate one and you turn it from an asset to a liability. And so we’re looking at this. How do we mimic moving, mobbing, mowing? Well, we use electric fence as essentially a steering wheel, a brake and an accelerator to move that mower around the landscape to do positively what herbivores have done since the beginning of time.

REICHARD: I remained a tad skeptical, as I’d read some opposing views beforehand. No way this can be done on a large scale to feed the people of the world. So I asked him:

SALATIN: It’s completely scalable. You can do it with one cow. You can do it with 5,000 cows. Has nothing to do with acreage. It’s about management. It’s how you manage. So if you have one cow you might give him 50 square yards a day. If you have 5000 cows, you might give them 100 acres a day. The equity in this is not in infrastructure. The equity is in management.

Salatin sees farming as a kind of living parable.

SALATIN: Well, if I was God looking down on this, how would I feel about a dead zone the size of Rhode Island and the Gulf of Mexico? How would I feel about Eagle eggs that are DDT'd and can't hatch? How would I feel about three legged salamanders due to pesticide contamination or or frogs that can't breed because they're infertile due to chemical contamination? I think as I meditate on that question, I think I'd be upset with, with the folks that I entrusted my, my thing to and said it was beautiful and good in Genesis. I don’t want back a bunch of deserts, a bunch of tainted soil, a bunch of erosion, a bunch of gullies, a bunch of C diff Mersa. E coli tainted, right? I don't want that back.

And so does God care?

Salatin says yes He does, and so he runs this place in such a way as the creatures and land are honored in the way God made them.

How does that play out? Salatin says the marvelous pigness of pigs proves it. (He even wrote a book of that title!) And he walked us over to where his swine live and play.

SALATIN: Watch him lean into me—watch him, he’s wiggling his rear! They love that. (Jenny: Giving him little scratchies!) That’s good stuff, isn’t it? Yeeeeah! That’s good stuff!

EICHER: So, what is this marvelous pigness, this glory of which he speaks?

SALATIN: You don't go down the street and hear people using the word glory very often. Usually, that's, that's something used in church, right, glory. But the Bible doesn't make those kinds of distinctions. It talks about certainly the glory of God. But it talks about the glory of old men is their gray hair. The glory of nations is their kings, the glory of the heavens, the glory of the Earth, I mean, it, it doesn't just spiritualize and kind of academic, the term glory. The glory of something, is its distinctiveness. It's what's special about it that nothing else has. So the glory of God is he's omniscient. He's omnipresent. Well, what is the glory of a pig? Well, the glory of a pig is not to be lanked up in a confinement house on a slatted floor, with a cut -off tail, living in stress all of its days, and treated like some sort of a mechanical blob. The glory of a pig is its ability to respond, to be curious, to sniff in the ground and to dig up roots. And that's the glory of the pig.

AUDIO: Pig snuffling sounds…bucket kicked…”probably gonna eat that…” They’re so cute!

Salatin elaborated on the glory of an integrated farm system, to use another Salatin original: letting the “pigerators” turn waste into life-giving soil.

SALATIN: We add corn to it and the corn ferments ‘cause the cows are tromping out the oxygen and its fermenting…. And so when the cows come out in the spring then we put in the pigs the pigs then seek the fermented corn and in doing so they aerate it, the “pigerators” they aerate and this whole thing turns into a big compost pile.

…which is all part of the overall design:

SALATIN: It fully honors and respects the pig, so now instead of the pig being pork chops and bacon the pig is also a co-laborer in this great land-healing ministry.

REICHARD: This integrative farming method has drawn interest from people all over the world.

SOUND: [Cluck of birds, wings flapping]

Life from life. That’s Salatin’s philosophy, a bulwark against the chemical ag model that he says ignores stewardship. Salatin is reclaiming dominion as he says God intended not in lording it over the earth and its creatures.

SALATIN: Water, soil, air, it’s the stuff that preceded me, and will be here after I’m gone. And so as a result of my footsteps here, I've been entrusted with whatever it is: a square yard, an acre, 500 acres. As a result of my being here is my legacy, am I leaving God a return on investment? What's his ROI?

Here’s the goal. I got this plate sittin’ in front of me. And I’m looking at this food. If I squint my eyes and imagine, and look through the food to the landscape on the other side, that grew it, that processed it, that distributed it, that brought it to me, and look at that landscape. Is that a landscape that lines up with my beliefs? And is it a landscape that I want children to inherit?

That’s the question.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 22nd.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: an orphan’s dilemma.

Two weeks ago, we introduced you to a family hoping to adopt seven siblings from Ukraine.

Today, the oldest of those siblings shares her gripping story—a dramatic escape from a war zone. WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson has the story.

DAISY: We sleep in the third floor. If you hear the sirens, you need really fast, pick up and go to down from three floors . .

KIM HENDERSON: That’s Daisy Cirlot. She was 17 when Russians invaded the Ukrainian city where she lived in an orphanage. People were dying right outside her building.

Daisy had been separated from her six siblings a few years before the war began. They were living in a different orphanage. They escaped to Poland. But it took Daisy’s orphanage director a full month after the war started to secure a bus.

DAISY: Drive like two hours, and you hear the bombs falling down from the sky.

After the bus ride, the orphans boarded a train. For two days and two nights, they inched their way toward Italy.

DAISY: Our train stops every second like because they can see the light, and the Russians can see the light. You never turn the lights on when it's war, because they see where you are. They're gonna do it, bombs.

They made it to Italy. Three teachers and hundreds of refugee orphans, including Daisy.

DAISY: It's just beautiful, beautiful place. Have lots of big mountains.

But Daisy still didn’t feel safe. 

DAISY: I don't feel safe because you never feel safe everywhere, because everywhere has bad people.

She speaks from experience. Her parents were abusive alcoholics who left Daisy and her sisters and brother for months at a time. Townspeople intervened. The kids went to live in an orphanage.

DAISY: Kateryna, Mykola, Liza, Masha, Nastya, Varya.

Daisy, as the oldest, had to fight for their survival. She remembers crying out to God.

DAISY: I feel like praying to Him is hopeless, like He doesn't hear me.

But it wasn’t hopeless. Some of the siblings came to America through a hosting program in 2021. Daisy was not a part of that trip. A Baptist pastor, Bryan Cirlot, and his wife, Anna, decided to adopt the whole set of siblings. Even Daisy, who they hadn’t met.

ANNA: They kept telling us, “She is so good. She has taken care of us, and we love her, and we need her home. We will come to America and live with you, but we have to bring our sister.”

That’s Anna Cirlot. Their adoption process was rolling until the war shut it down. But they managed to stay in contact with the kids. The Cirlots went to visit Daisy in Italy, and the others at the refugee orphanage in Poland.

But something seemed off with Daisy. She and 12 other orphans were living in a regular home with a man who was paying Daisy special attention.

DAISY: When my birthday was, he got me a really expensive restaurant, and we go there. And he buy [ANNA: an expensive dress?] Yeah, he buy flowers, yeah.

The Cirlots suspected abuse.

ANNA: I was actually hysterical when I left Italy. To leave your child in an abusive situation and know that you have no way to get them out of it. There's nothing to describe that level of despair and desperation.

The Cirlots got busy contacting their congressman, their senators, anybody who would listen.

ANNA: I just knew that God and His goodness had not brought us into the situation to leave her in despair and to leave us helpless. Somehow, there had to be a way to rescue her out of that. So we started fighting for her and fighting to find a way to bring her home.

But behind the scenes, the Italian man was trying to take guardianship of Daisy. The Cirlots hired a Christian attorney in Ukraine. It took time, but one morning he arrived in Italy to lawfully remove Daisy from the man’s home.

DAISY: I just scream, like, “Praise the Lord. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” And what I remember he speak, “Pack your pack your suitcase. You go with me.” And it's just so nice, so smooth, and everything was so happy.

The Cirlots worked to bring Daisy home as a refugee through the United for Ukraine program. She flew into the New Orleans airport on a cold November night in 2022.

The next step was keeping Daisy here permanently. She was 18 now, too old for adoption. Or maybe not.

ANNA: In Mississippi, when a child is up to 21 years old, it gives you more leeway in the legal system than a lot of the other states in our country. So we didn't know we were living in the perfect state to do something that was very unconventional, but we were…

The Cirlots got legal custody, and Daisy has a path towards citizenship in the future.

But it’s been a tough adjustment. When Daisy arrived, she was malnourished. Inflammation racked her body. Her teeth were rotten and broken.

She also needed counseling, and time to heal.

ANNA: She had regressed a lot in her mental age, where she was very much like a small girl. We were just told it was from the trauma.

Two years passed. Daisy is sitting in her new home with her new family, the Cirlots and their three biological kids. Daisy looks vibrant, happy. She’s holding a Holland Lop therapy bunny.

DAISY: I don't know if he needs more therapy than I… (crowd laughs)

She loves her church. And inviting people to church.

AUDIO: [Sound of family singing hymn]

She loves singing with her new siblings . . .

AUDIO: [Sound of family singing hymn]

. . . while her dad plays the guitar.

But it’s been five years now since she saw her Ukrainian sisters and brother. They do get to Facetime.

DAISY: “Every time they call, “Let me see the fridge, and they see everything the same. Wow.”

But it’s not just the refrigerator full of food. It’s the family they long to join.

DAISY: They wait so long, and they have faith, and they’re never upset at me that they're not home. I'm home. “I'm glad you're home, and I'm glad you're safe.”

Anna Cirlot admits it’s been a tough journey. The long wait for the other six children. Daisy’s difficult rescue. Sometimes it’s hard to talk about it. But they do.

ANNA: There's power when we share our story, when people unite against things that are wrong and stop pretending like they don't exist. We see God move.

AUDIO: [Sound of family singing hymn]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Gautier, Mississippi.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 22nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. This past Saturday, April 19th, marked 250 years since the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord. That clash launched what would become America’s War for Independence. WORLD Opinions contributor and historian John Wilsey says there are many reasons to remember it.

JOHN WILSEY, COMMENTATOR: One week after the momentous events in 1775, the president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress Joseph Warren wrote these words to his fellow colonists:

“We profess to be [the king’s] loyal and dutiful subjects, and…are still ready, without lives and fortunes, to defend his person, family, Crown, and dignity. Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel Ministry we will not tamely submit—appealing to Heaven for the justice of our cause…we determine to die or be free.”

Less than two months later, Warren was killed by the British at the battle of Bunker Hill. His body was dumped into a common grave by his enemies. Later, Paul Revere recognized the body from a set of false teeth he had made for Warren.

Sixty-eight years later, a young undergraduate named Mellen Chamberlain interviewed a 91-year-old veteran named Levi Preston, who saw action at Concord on April 19, 1775. Chamberlain wanted to know why Preston fought the British. He said it was not due to the Stamp Act. It wasn’t over the tea tax. It wasn’t even John Locke’s political philosophy. Preston had only read the Bible and the catechisms. “Young man,” Preston exclaimed to the baffled questioner, “what we meant in going for those redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to.”

Stories like these from 1775 have captured the imaginations of generations. Remembrance of the people, the ideas, and the occurrences of the American Revolution give us wisdom and inspire gratitude in the present. Also, stories like Warren’s and Preston’s powerfully engage our emotions and appeal to our sense of nobility. While these good effects are caused by remembrance and reflection, ultimately, they are not the primary reasons why we remember.

We remember the past because it is in our nature to do so as image-bearers of our Creator. Unlike any other creature under heaven, human persons know our place in time, as well as in space. We comprehend the passage of time as the thin line of the present continues to advance into the future. We carefully chronicle the past, learn from those who have gone before, and conserve the best of tradition as a stewardship to pass down to children and grandchildren. We look to the future with expectation for the fulfillment of hopes and aspirations for ourselves and those we love. As Christians, we look to the day when Christ will return to usher in the eternal age.

As divine image-bearers, we possess great dignity, but as sinners, we have the tendency to forget the past and thus become fools. Proverbs 26:11 says, “Like a dog that returns to its vomit, so is a fool who repeats his foolishness.” When we give in to forgetfulness, we become neglectful of our traditions, our origins, and what makes us who we are. Forgetfulness leads to thanklessness; thanklessness leads to prayerlessness; prayerlessness leads to atheism. Paul identified the reason for the degeneracy of unbelievers when he said this in Romans 1:21—“For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened.”

When we remember the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution, it is not for the sake of vacant sentimentality, transitory amusement, or pedantic immodesty. We remember because we were created to do so. And in remembering the events that brought our nation into being, we give acknowledgement and thanks to the Father of lights, the Giver of every good and perfect gift. As our home and our heritage, America has been, and remains, a good gift that God has given to us. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

I’m John Wilsey.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Washington Wednesday, a WORLD Tour special report on how governments are responding to international calls for assistance and aid.

And how tariffs are reshaping daily life in towns along the U.S.-Canada border.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Harrison Watters and Mary Muncy wrote and reported our story on the pope’s legacy.

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 Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome: “[For] I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” —Romans 1:16-17

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.