The World and Everything in It — April 28, 2020

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Today a report on how coronavirus restrictions are affecting supply lines for our food.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And we’ll hear how the pandemic is affecting life in Africa.

Plus, WORLD reporter Jenny Rough talks with a landscape architect on planting a unique garden.

And Ryan Bomberger on the new lawsuit facing a familiar Colorado baker.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, April 28th. 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: Now the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: White House announces new efforts to expand COVID-19 testing » The White House released new guidelines Monday on coronavirus testing and reopening businesses. Speaking in the Rose Garden, President Trump told reporters…

TRUMP: We’re deploying the full power and strength of the federal government to help states, cities, to help local government to get his horrible plague over with and over with fast. 

As part of the guidelines effort, the CDC released new priorities for virus testing, including people who show no symptoms but are in high-risk settings.

The White House unveiled an overview of its efforts to make enough tests for COVID-19 available, so states can sample at least 2.6 percent of their populations each month. And the administration says areas that have been harder hit by the virus could double that percentage. 

White House officials outlined the plan on a call with governors Monday afternoon. And Trump announced that businesses such as CVS would expand access to tests across the country.

CDC adds common symptoms to COVID-19 list » Meantime, the CDC has added several new symptoms to watch for in diagnosing COVID-19. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports. 

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has for months told Americans to watch for fever, cough, and shortness of breath as possible symptoms of the illness. 

And the agency is now adding six more symptoms to that list: chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, and new loss of taste or smell.

A study of COVID-19 patients in Europe found that nearly 9 out of 10 patients—quote—“reported olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions, respectively.”

If you’ve experienced any of those symptoms, it’s important to take note of them. Most testing centers don’t have sufficient supply to allow just anyone to test for COVID-19, so they’ll ask about your symptoms before authorizing a test. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin. 

After COVID-19 recovery, British prime minister urges patience » British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged his lockdown-weary nation to be patient Monday. It was Johnson’s first day back on the job in several weeks after recovering from COVID-19. 

Speaking outside his 10 Downing St. office, Johnson said the country was reaching—quote— “the end of the first phase of this conflict.” But he also cautioned that easing restrictions too soon would create a second deadly spike in the disease.

JOHNSON: This is the moment of opportunity. This is the moment when we can press home our advantage. It is also the moment of maximum risk. 

Johnson added, “I refuse to throw away all the effort and the sacrifice of the British people and to risk a second major outbreak and huge loss of life.”

Well over 20-thousand people have died of COVID-19 in the UK. 

Despite the death toll, Johnson’s government is under mounting pressure to set out a blueprint for easing the lockdown that has upended Britain’s economy for more than a month. 

High court rules government must pay insurers for Obamacare losses » The Supreme Court ruled Monday that insurance companies can collect billions of dollars from Uncle Sam to cover their losses from Obamacare. WORLD’s Anna Johansen has that story. 

ANNA JOHANSEN, REPORTER: In an 8-to-1 ruling, justices said the federal government must pay $12 billion to insurers. They’re entitled to the money under a provision in the healthcare law that promised a financial cushion for losses they might incur by selling coverage in Obamacare marketplaces. 

The program only lasted three years, but Congress inserted a provision in the Health and Human Services Department’s spending bills from 2015 to 2017 to limit payments under the “risk corridors” program. Both the Obama and Trump administrations argued the provision means the government has no obligation to pay.

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her opinion for the court that the congressional action was not enough to repeal the government’s commitment to pay. She wrote, quote—“The Government should honor its obligations.”

In dissent, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the court’s decision “has the effect of providing a massive bailout for insurance companies that took a calculated risk and lost.” 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen. 

Trial examines stipulations on voting rights for felons in Florida » Meantime, another high-stakes federal trial opened on Monday that could allow hundreds of thousands of felons to regain the right to vote in Florida. 

The state is home to about 1 million felons, possibly many more.

Florida voters approved a ballot measure in 2018 that gave felons the right to vote.

But Florida’s legislature later passed a bill signed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. It stipulates that felons must pay all fines, restitution, and other legal financial obligations before their sentences will be considered fully served.

According to a study submitted as evidence in the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, roughly 800,000 felons are ineligible to vote because of financial debts.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the law creates a financial burden that disproportionately blocks African Americans and the poor from voting.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: more rulings from the Supreme Court.

Plus, Ryan Bomberger on the never-ending fight for religious liberty.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: Today is Tuesday, the 28th of April, 2020. You’re listening to The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. 

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down five other opinions over the last few days aside from that Obamacare case we just reported on. 

First up, a 6-to-3 victory for environmental groups. They brought a Clean Water Act lawsuit against a county in Hawaii, Maui County.

It specifically cited the county sewage plant for injecting treated sewage into deep wells, which end up mixing with groundwater before reaching the ocean. 

Environmentalists argued the law requires a permit to do that. The county argued the law applies to direct discharge into the ocean, which it doesn’t do.

Justice Stephen Breyer hinted at the eventual opinion during oral argument:

BREYER: I learned in the eighth grade, and it may be wrong, that water does run downhill—(Laughter)—and that virtually every little drop of rain that falls finds its way to the sea.

The majority wrote that where the “functional equivalent of a direct discharge” occurs, that requires a permit. 

So now the case returns to lower court to determine just how functionally equivalent the county’s sewage treatment process is to direct discharge.

EICHER: Next, a disappointment for Second Amendment advocates. 

New York City enacted a law prohibiting licensed gun owners from taking their guns outside city limits. Three gun owners fought the restrictions as unconstitutional. 

But here’s what happened: After the Supreme Court agreed to hear the dispute, the city rescinded the law—most likely realizing it wouldn’t prevail.

So the city ended up not arguing its gun law. Instead, it argued the case is moot. And in that, the court agreed 8-to-1.

REICHARD: Next, a unanimous court ruled that a trademark owner can recover lost profits from a trademark infringer without first having to show infringement was willful.

The company Romag Fasteners makes things like snaps and clasps that it proved a rival company had copied. The question was whether willfulness is a precondition to recover profits. Answer: No. 

The case heads back down to lower court to determine the money damages Romag should receive.

EICHER: This next opinion will make it harder for green card holders with a criminal conviction to remain in the United States. 

Andre Barton is a native of Jamaica who came here 31 years ago as a teenager. Because of some convictions from those early years, the government began removal proceedings against him. Barton contested those, on the grounds that the law says a permanent resident alien is “removable” only if he is “inadmissible.” And so his argument was that because he was already admitted, then he should be able to contest his deportation.  

This was a five conservatives to four liberals ruling, so a straight ideological divide. It means Barton is likely headed back to Jamaica.

REICHARD: And finally, the court says annotated state laws cannot be copyrighted. 

Here, Georgia sued a publisher that put the annotated laws online, and claimed that publisher infringed the state’s copyright. Georgia entered into an agreement with a private contractor to write those little notes and commentaries on special versions of state law. 

But Justice Neil Gorsuch hinted at the eventual outcome during oral argument:

GORSUCH: Why would we allow the official law enacted by a legislature … equivalent of being approved by a judge in annotations … why would we allow the official law to be hidden behind a paywall?

This one was also a five conservatives to four liberals decision, with the majority saying “no one can own the law.”

MARY REICHARD: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a kink in the food supply chain.

During recent visits to your local supermarket, you may have noticed some shortages. And no, I’m not just talking about toilet paper.

NICK EICHER: Milk and egg coolers are half full. Meat selections are sparse. And you’ll find limits on items in high demand.

That might make you think America is running low on food. But as WORLD reporter Sarah Schweinsberg tells us, the opposite is true.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: Ryan Talley and his family grow a cornucopia of fruits and veggies west of Bakersfield, California. 

TALLEY: We grow lemons and avocados. In our row crop division, we grow cilantro, spinach, Napa, bell peppers.  

This time of year they’re harvesting spinach, cilantro, and Napa cabbage. Ryan Talley says the coronavirus is changing how they work. 

TALLEY: Before COVID-19, we used harvest aides, but now we are harvesting all by hand just so we can keep our social distancing. 

Even with the changes slowing down production, Talley Farms is still reaping an abundance of food to distribute to supermarkets. 

But across the country, other growers are letting crops rot in the fields or donating them to food banks. Many usually sell to restaurants, hotels, schools, and food service companies. With those outlets closed, there’s no one to buy their fruits and vegetables. Talley says even a short harvest delay can be devastating. 

TALLEY: The crops that we grow are highly perishable. So even a week or two, or three weeks to a month, a little hiccup in the process can be detrimental to us in the specialty crop business…  

Lane Cohee is a professor of business management at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He says the coronavirus has caused a big hiccup across the whole food supply chain.

COHEE: You’re seeing a supply chain try to adapt and it’s, I’ll use the word choppy. And so you see uneven availability.

Before COVID-19, on average, Americans ate out nearly six times a week. Now, people are buying more groceries. That means food producers have to transition from restaurants to supplying supermarkets. Not a fast process.

COHEE: That wholesale supplier relationship may not exist directly with the grocer, so it’s also a new supplier relationship that needs to be established. 

And probably the biggest hang up? Packaging. 

Mark Stephenson is a dairy policy analyst at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He says dairy processing plants are usually geared toward creating a very specific product. For some that’s 50 pound bags of shredded cheese, stacks of sliced American cheese, or large blocks of butter… all for restaurants.

It isn’t easy for those factories to change to supermarket-sized portions.

STEPHENSON: Consumers don’t wanna buy 10-pound bags of cheese in the grocery store. We want maybe a pound or a half pound. 

And it isn’t easy for factories that do supply grocery stores to quickly ramp up production. 

STEPHENSON: Beverage milk sales just shot up, took off. But those are completely different plants, and they aren’t located in the same places, so we had to do a great deal of shuffling to move milk from one kind of plant, and into new or different kinds of plants.

The drop in restaurant sales really hurts. Right now the dairy industry can’t use 10 percent of the milk it produces. That hits dairy farmers in the wallet. 

Meat producers are also struggling. Dozens of meat packing plants are closed or have reduced production because of coronavirus outbreaks among employees. 

Lee Shulz is a livestock economist at Iowa State. He says with the closures, there is 25 to 30 percent less pork being processed. 

The plant closures and decreased demand is walloping hog producers. 

SHULZ: This is a dire situation. We haven’t seen these price levels in decades really…. 

But Shulz says consumers don’t need to worry about a pork shortage. Processing plants put a certain amount of product into freezers. Some of that meat is now being distributed for sale. 

SHULZ: You might not be able to find a particular cut or the particular product that you’re used to buying but you’ll be able to find pork, you’ll be able to find beef. You’ll be able to find poultry. 

John Robinson is with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. He says restaurants used to buy nearly half of the beef in the United States. That meat production is still happening, but it isn’t ready for the grocery store. 

ROBINSON: It’s not labeled for retail sale, it’s not cut for retail sale. It doesn’t have nutrition information on the package. So it definitely takes some doing to redirect products. 

In the meantime, ranchers are also taking a price hit. 

Everyone I spoke with agreed COVID-19 could change the food supply chain for a long time to come. The University of Wisconsin’s Mark Stephenson says it may need to become more flexible. 

STEPHENSON: So maybe these plants begin to think about diversifying their line up or their customers a little bit. The other thing is that we’ve discovered all of our supply chain is “just in time” inventory. Works great when everything is normal, but as soon as we get a hiccup like we’ve had here… that exposes some of our weaknesses.

Iowa State’s Lee Shulz says the coronavirus outbreaks at packing plants could lead them to use more automated machinery.

SHULZ: This may spur some research and development into more automation at the processing level.

But industry insiders also agree that there’s no need for consumer panic.

Palm Beach Atlantic’s Lane Cohee insists we don’t have food shortage. Just a supply chain in flux. 

COHEE: If I were to make an estimate over the next year to 18 months, we’re gonna see this supply chain continue to try to adapt to this new model.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

NICK EICHER: Up next, how the pandemic is affecting Africa.

The virus has been much slower to take hold in Africa, but cases there are growing. According to the African Union, infections now top 32,000, and the death toll stands at about 1,500.

MARY REICHARD: Joining us now with a firsthand account is our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere. She’s based in Abuja, Nigeria.

Good morning to you, Onize!

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Good morning, Mary!

REICHARD: Well, why don’t you start by telling us what daily life is like in Abuja right now. What kind of restrictions are in place, that kind of thing.

OHIKERE: Yeah, Abuja is one of three states currently under a federal lockdown, although several other states have adopted similar measures. For us here, that means only essential workers are allowed to go out daily. But for the remaining people, the government set up Wednesday and Saturday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. as the only time for shopping and other necessary movements. So, it’s quite restrictive. 

I was out over the weekend and I passed several police checkpoints and roadblocks along the way. Along the roads, you have vendors who sell fruits and vegetables and they were all absent. And all that was visible there were their wooden tables piled on top of each other.

REICHARD: Oh, that is restrictive. Only half days on two days of the week. Wow. Well, what’s the media coverage of the coronavirus like in Nigeria? It’s really all-consuming here. Is the virus getting that kind of focus where you are?

OHIKERE: Yeah, we’ve had similar reporting. As the cases have continued to climb—right now in Nigeria we have more than 1,000—we’ve also seen a steady rise in the news coverage of the developments across different states here.

But one interesting trend has been, we’re starting to see a little more stories of people who have recovered from the virus, sharing all they’ve gone through. And that has been one encouraging trend.

REICHARD: What level of concern are officials showing about the virus and the effect it might have on, say, African health systems, the economy, and food supplies?

OHIKERE: Yeah, there’s no denying the situation here is dire: This month, World Bank said Sub-Saharan Africa could suffer its first recession in 25 years. And the Afriacan Union has also predicted that the pandemic could wipe out nearly 20 million jobs across the continent. And so here in Nigeria, the Central Bank extended the moratorium for existing loans, but they also announced a $128 million stimulus package. Now, the goal for that is to provide loans to households and small business owners who are most affected by the pandemic. We’re seeing several states, too, also stepping up to assist people, although we know that the needs outweigh the current assistance. So, for instance, Lagos state is the most affected here and this month it targeted 200,000 households in the first stage of its response. And from what we’ve understood, a lot of them received food packages and items that could last them for about 14 days. 

REICHARD: So that’s in Lagos. What about elsewhere in Africa? What are you hearing from your contacts, say, in South Africa, where they’ve had one of the largest outbreaks on the continent?

OHIKERE: Yeah, South Africa currently has the highest infection rate in Africa. They’ve recorded more than 4,000 cases. People there are still staying indoors as the lockdown continues, although the government is trying to slowly restart the economy. But it’s encouraging to hear people are still looking for ways to help, even from their homes. One of the ladies I visited with in Johannesburg last month just sent me a link to her YouTube video that she made to help people learn how to make cloth face masks from home.

REICHARD: Same thing here. It’s so heartwarming. Well, Onize, what about you? Let’s hear what’s happening with you and your family?

OHIKERE: Yeah, we’re doing well. The lockdown means everyone’s at home now, so it’s been an interesting change. But on the bright side, it’s given us a lot more time to spend together. There’ve been a lot more shared laughters, movie times, more family prayer time, and even more time baking. We’ve made bread, scones, and a lot more pastries. So it’s been really good. 

REICHARD: That’s wonderful to hear. I’m glad. Onize Ohikere is WORLD’s Africa reporter, based in Abuja, Nigeria. You can hear her every Wednesday on World Tour, that’s a roundup of international news. And you can read more of her work at wng.org. Thanks so much for joining us today, and stay safe!

OHIKERE: You’re welcome, Mary. Stay safe, too!

NICK EICHER: With so many of us sheltering behind closed doors and many businesses closed all around the world, a small town in the UK has been having trouble with a group of looters not subject to restrictions.

These particular bandits had no interest in things like jewelry or electronics stores. 

Nope, they were looking for something else…

AUDIO: A shrubbery!

AUDIO: [SOUND OF GOATS RUNNING]

OK, so it wasn’t a Monty Python sketch. But you can hear the actual evidence: the hooves of a herd of goats wandering the barren streets of a Welsh town on the Irish sea.

The goats, about 120 of them, had the run of the town, chewing up hedges and other garden plants—with impunity.

A local official told the BBC, “There isn’t anyone else around so they probably decided they may as well take over.”

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: Today is Tuesday, April 28th. We’re so glad you’ve joined us today for The World and Everything in It. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. Next up: gardening. 

For some people,  the shelter-in-place mandates have fostered an interest in gardening. Maybe to grow your own food, or plant some cheerful flowers. Sometimes a garden will have a theme like butterfly garden or native garden.

EICHER: WORLD reporter Jenny Rough recently spoke with a landscape architect and writer who suggests ideas on starting a Biblical garden. 

JENNY ROUGH, REPORTER: Shelly Cramm of Irving, Texas, has what she calls a normal-sized backyard: 40 feet by 40 feet, half of which is lawn. The other half is a garden—a Biblical garden.

CRAMM: Leeks, onions, garlic, cucumbers, melons. So that’s one of the classic plant lists in the Bible. 

The list comes straight from Numbers 11—a great place for beginner Biblical gardeners to start, especially the cucumbers. 

CRAMM: They are delicious! And they’re fun, they kind of hide behind, underneath their big leaves. And so all of a sudden there’s like a six-inch cucumber hanging there. You don’t even see it start, you know? So it’s very surprising. 

An herb garden is another good idea for beginners. Dill, cumin, mint, and mustard are a few of the many herbs named in Scripture.

HAYS: There’s a ton of plants that are mentioned in the Bible, all kinds of herbs. Cinnamon is mentioned, and those kinds of things.

Landscape architect Doug Hays lives in Reston, Virginia, and says herbs are easy to grow and fun to cook with. 

Shelley Cramm notes they’re also very forgiving. 

CRAMM: You don’t have to prune them a certain way. You hardly have to water them once they’re established. They love the full sunshine. They don’t need fertilizer.

A yard isn’t necessary. Herbs can also be grown on a deck, a patio, or inside.

CRAMM: I get as much enjoyment of the little pots on my windowsill above my kitchen sink as I do the ones in my yard. So I think that any patch of green is worthwhile. 

A Biblical garden is simply made up of plants and herbs specifically named in the text. 

HAYS: You know, the story of mankind really begins in a garden and it really ends in a garden. And then in between there’s a very, very famous garden. 

The idea is to take the elements mentioned in the Bible, and work with them—even if only in a loosely connected way. For example, Cramm wasn’t able to plant Lebanon cedars in the clay soils of Texas, so she improvised. 

CRAMM: I’ve planted what I call the glory of Lebanon garden. 

She has Eastern Redcedar instead, among boxwood, cypress, and other varieties of juniper. 

CRAMM: Isaiah just has the wonders of the evergreens and the majesty of God. Isaiah 55: 12 and 13, the forest clapping its hands and praise of God, all these wonderful things. 

Isaiah also speaks of God’s promise to replace the thorn bushes with the softer branches and beauty of myrtles. Cramm’s husband happens to love boysenberries, so—

CRAMM: So we’ve got little pots of myrtles in front of our brambles of boysenberries to represent that verse.

Doug Hays worked on a Biblical garden in the Mid-Atlantic, a region with a climate nowhere near that of the Holy Land. Here’s how he stretched the plant palate of the Bible to emulate its horticulture half a world away:

HAYS: For example, I tried to utilize a grass because I also was thinking of the 23rd Psalm, you know, in terms of green pastures and things like that. We used a festuca mairei, which is a type of fescue that grows around the northern parts of Africa and the Middle East as one of the plants that’s still hearty here. 

A placard next to the ornamental grass quotes Isaiah 41: “The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.”

Both Hays and Cramm believe that by knowing plants you will in turn know God more intimately. 

CRAMM: When the Lord says taste and see that the Lord is good, that taste also equates to smell. So just surrounding yourself in those fresh smells and that vibrant smells.  

In Matthew 6:28, Jesus says: “Consider the lilies of the field.” Other translations say irises, or simply wildflowers. The exact flower isn’t the point. 

CRAMM: The flowers growing in a field, and those are there to remind you not to worry, about what we’re going to eat or drink or the clothes or the needs of our daily lives. He’s watching over everything. And how can you remember that that what’s the Lord says to you? By planting flowers!

Hays says use your imagination to incorporate design features that symbolize Bible passages. A singular main tree in the middle of the garden can represent the tree of life. A water wall shimmering on glass can bring to mind the walls of Revelation. A spiral design on stones can acknowledge God’s awe-inspiring creation:  

HAYS: If you look at, throughout nature, if you look at even galaxies, they are spiral curves. You look at the frond of a fern, that’s a type of spiral curve, you look at even weather patterns, you know, hurricanes and low-pressure systems, they kind of have this spiraling character about it. 

No doubt, gardening is hard work. But it’s work we were made for.

HAYS: God is a gardener by heart. And, you know, put Adam in the garden to help tend it. So that was really our first chore, our first job, our first task as man, was to tend the Garden of Eden. 

Cramm agrees.

CRAMM: It is the best way to learn the Lord and His beauty and the underlying poetry and mystery and genius of His word really comes through when you tend the plants you have to see for yourself, you have to try it. I can’t say that enough. 

Hays says that just as soil must be cultivated to get a plant to grow, our souls must be cultivated to get the word to grow. Planting a Biblical garden does both at once.

CRAMM: It really connects you both to the ground and the joys of gardening, but even deeper into God’s word and his spirit and His, just His knowledge and wisdom and the way He does things.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough in Alexandria, Virginia.

NICK EICHER: Today is Tuesday, April 28th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. Some Christians endure a lot for the rest of us. And the rest of us need to stand with them. Here’s WORLD commentator Ryan Bomberger.

RYAN BOMBERGER, COMMENTATOR: I wish we all were a little more like Jack Phillips. Jack is a gifted cake artist who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado. He’s had to endure what most of us will never have to—national persecution, state-sanctioned discrimination, and mainstream media distortions. 

Why? Because he doesn’t create messaging that conflicts with his faith. As a creative professional, I don’t either. 

Jack won’t make items that celebrate Halloween, divorce, or anything that is unpatriotic. He’ll gladly refer customers to other businesses but chooses not to artistically provide cakes for weddings or other events that are contrary to his religious beliefs.

Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission, which clearly ignored that free speech and religious liberty are actual constitutional rights, relentlessly pursued suing Jack. One of the commission’s members outrageously compared Jack to Nazis and slave owners for not wanting to create a cake for a gay wedding. 

On June 4, 2018, the Supreme Court did what it seems to do best: rule on an issue of its own making. When the High Court conjured up a right to gay marriage in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, the majority pretended that these new same-sex marriage “rights” and the First Amendment can co-exist. So Jack’s case was entirely predictable. 

Although he won 7-2, the Supreme Court ruled narrowly, citing the commission’s “religious hostility.” That left the door open for subsequent attacks.

Now, Jack is having to defend his name, his faith, his rights, and his very financial livelihood—for the third time. Autumn Scardina, a transgender activist and attorney, is suing him—again—in an effort to shut down Jack’s business. Scardina demanded that Masterpiece Cake Shop create a cake celebrating his perceived transition from male to female. 

Funny thing, that First Amendment. You can’t force people to express your viewpoint. Jack, who serves everyone and is one of the kindest souls you will ever meet, declined to create something that violates his beliefs. This one is a belief that hundreds of millions of Christians hold sacred and science proves to be true: we are made male and female. 

That reality isn’t stopping Scardina, who also asked for a cake featuring Satan engaged in a sexual act while smoking marijuana. 

I stand with Jack. Every American should. When the First Amendment is protected, we all win. His victory is a license to celebrate freedom. 

Jack never wanted to be involved in what some deride as a “cultural war.” This battle is so much deeper than that. His courage should be an inspiration to many that you can love those who oppose you, yet firmly decline to create something that diminishes your faith.

We are called to love every human being. We are not called to love every human doing. 

I will always affirm the broken. I will never affirm the brokenness. 

The first two rights enumerated in our Constitution are religious liberty and free speech. There is no America without them. Everyone should be free to create according to his or her conscience. And even with this third time of activist harassment and unlawful challenges, there should be a rising remnant who will say: We got your back, Jack!

I’m Ryan Bomberger.

NICK EICHER: Tomorrow: China’s role in the coronavirus pandemic has prompted many nations to reassess their ties to Beijing. We’ll talk about how that might affect U.S. policy in the region.

And, we’ll introduce you to a family of cousins growing up and making music together.

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.

Take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 

Thanks for listening today, and go now in grace and peace.

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