The World and Everything in It: April 4, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. Good day, my name is Ruth Hammer, grandmother and great grandmother listening from Columbia, South Carolina. Whenever I hear the words “good morning” on the program I smile because actually I listen while preparing our dinner meal. Whatever time you or I listen, I believe we all will enjoy today’s program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

A small city gets swamped with homeless people sent to it by the county without warning.

BILL WELLS: I certainly as the mayor of El Cajon feel like I have an obligation…to stand up and try to combat homelessness as much as we possibly can…But those solutions get overwhelmed if the county decides to bring all their homeless problems to us.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk with the mayor today about those solutions.

Also today, as more South Asians immigrate to the United States, some say the discriminatory caste system is coming along with them.

Plus our Classic Book of the Month for April:

PATRICK CURLES: Murray I think would say humility is dependence. God's the creator. We're the creature. We were made for dependence upon Him.

And a book for children to infuse hope into situations that seem hopeless.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, April 4th. 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 with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump » Former President Trump is in New York City this morning, set to be arraigned in Manhattan just hours from now.

Mayor Eric Adams said his city is prepared for possible protests, and that’s fine as long as they’re peaceful.

ERIC ADAMS: As always, we will not allow violence or vandalism of any kind. And if one is caught participating in any act of violence, they will be arrested and held accountable.

President Trump previously called for protests if and when he was arrested.

In a fundraising video this week, he told supporters that the indictment was politically motivated.

DONALD TRUMP: We are now officially a third-world country. No president in the history of our country has been subjected to such vicious and disgusting attacks.

Security will be tight, and Secret Service agents will accompany Trump as police take his fingerprints and mugshot. He is not expected to be handcuffed.

Trump plans to return to his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort after the arraignment, where he’ll deliver remarks tonight.

Finland NATO » The blue-and-white flag of Finland will fly over NATO headquarters for the first time today as it becomes the 31st member of the world’s largest military alliance. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

JENS STOLTENBERG: It will be good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security, and for NATO as a whole.

He also said “all allies agree” that Sweden’s accession should be completed quickly” as well.

Moscow in response threatened to bolster its military presence their joint border if NATO deploys any troops in Finland.

Finland PM » Meantime, voters in Finland just voted Prime Minister Sanna Marin out of office.

Marin’s Social Democratic Party narrowly lost to the conservative National Coalition Party. Party leader Petteri Orpo says Finland’s new government will look to reward the faith of NATO allies.

PETTERI ORPO: I want to show to the other countries, NATO countries that we are an active and good member. We are a security provider, not consumer.

Orpo’s party won what was largely a three-way race, edging Marin’s party by just one percentage point.

China balloon » U.S. officials say the Chinese spy balloon that recently floated across the country collected mostly electronic signals and not images.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh:

SABRINA SINGH: We were able to prevent transmission of certain aspects of our sites to be transmitted just because of what we were the precautionary steps that we were able to take.

But she admits the aircraft succeeded in transmitting information back to China in real time, even as U.S. forces tried to stop it.

Oil prices » Oil prices are up nearly 6 percent after major oil-producing countries announced plans to cut production starting next month.

Saudi Arabia is leading several OPEC members in slashing their oil output by more than one million barrels per day through the end of the year.

The White House isn’t happy about it.

U.S. National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby:

JOHN KIRBY: Look, we don’t think that production cuts are advisable at this moment, given market uncertainty.

Russia is also extending its production cuts.

The global benchmark for crude oil jumped to more than $84 dollars per barrel Monday… And the U-S benchmark is nearly $80 dollars. Both are the sharpest increases in almost a year.

Artemis 2 crew »

BILL NELSON - This is their crew. This is our crew. This is humanity’s crew.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson naming the four astronauts selected to fly around the moon late next year.

The space agency announced Monday it picked Reid Weisman as the mission’s commander. Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will join him.

Victor Glover:

VICTOR GLOVER - I feel like Denzel Washington should be up here talking to y’all. But you just got us. I want to thank God for this amazing opportunity.

NASA intends for this and later trips to the moon to serve as a stepping stone for future trips to Mars.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: A mayor in California debunks the housing first model of fighting homelessness.

Plus, the Classic Book of the Month for April.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday, the 4th of April, 2023.

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

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

First up, homelessness in California and a Christian mayor’s fight to solve it. Bill Wells has been the Mayor of El Cajon since 2013. It’s a small city of around 100,000 people in San Diego County. Back in March, he announced his candidacy for the state congressional district where El Cajon is located.

REICHARD: Before the pandemic, Wells was making progress in fighting homelessness. He partnered up with treatment-based shelters and other programs.

But last year, he noticed a problem. The county had started a lodging voucher program without his knowledge, and that led to an an influx of homeless taking advantage of it.

What the program did was to place homeless men and women in city motels with very little vetting, and back in March that led to criminal acts.

Now, a quick warning to parents: one kind of crime in particular I plan to ask about. I’ll wait until my third question to ask it, just to give you time.

Alright, with that background, I’ll welcome the Mayor of El Cajon, Bill Wells. Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

BILL WELLS: Hi, Mary.

REICHARD: How did you learn about the voucher program, and who facilitates it?

WELLS: Well, we found out that there are a lot more homeless faces on the streets. You know, when you've done a good job of trying to get as many people on the streets as you possibly can, the consequence of that is that we've reached out to everybody on the streets, somewhere between a dozen and fifteen times. And because of that, our police officers seem to know everybody on the streets, usually by name and face. And so when we start seeing new people on the streets, it raises some alarm bells. Where are they coming from? Well, you know, what we found out was, the county, without talking to us about it, had initiated a homeless voucher program, where they take people off the streets throughout San Diego County, they brought them into our city and they gave them a hotel voucher sometimes for up to two years. And what this brought, what we were afraid it would bring was a lot of criminality and a lot of problems, drug problems, assault problems, sex trafficking problems, and all these this came to pass as a result. So that's kind of where we're at today.

REICHARD: Okay, so based on what you learned, was the program actually helping the people it claims to help? If not, what effect on El Cajon?

WELLS: Well, helping is a big question. I mean, it really comes out of this philosophy of the housing first model. And the housing first model says that homelessness is a result of lack of money, lack of housing, and then all you have to do is build houses and get people off the street. And then the problem’s really solved. They're just regular folks that you know, down on their luck a little bit and you give them a step up, and they're going to, they're going to work hard, they're going to go out and interview for jobs, get some job training, and they're going to, you know, they're gonna get off the streets, or they're going to be great. Unfortunately, that's not the reality. And I can tell you as working in mental health, all my adult life since the 80s, I have a doctorate in psychology, I also have an RN, that most of homelessness has to do with drug and alcohol addiction problems, some mental health problems mixed in there, and some criminality problems mixed in there too, especially since they started closing the prisons of California. And what we found out was that even though our community only represents about 3% of the San Diego County, in this program, we were carrying 55% of the burden of this program, meaning most of the people in this program were in our little city. So we had 10 different hotels in this program, whereas San Diego city, which is 13 times larger than us, had two. And so we went back, I think rightfully, and said, you know, why is this just us? Why are you bringing them out to us? Most of these people, we looked at 100 people that were in the program, only one was from our city, the rest of them are from outside of the area. And they don't like that you ask that question, and that kind of set up the animosity.

REICHARD: Two weeks ago, you did call an emergency city council meeting after a violent incident in one of the motels. What happened at that meeting and what do you plan to do about the program?

WELLS: Well, I need to go back just a little bit further. So when we found out that this voucher program was happening, I called foul and said, no, we're going to use our conditional use permit process to not let this happen. Because what's going to happen is El Cajon is going to become the homeless dumping ground for San Diego County. And they then went to the Attorney General of California, and they filed a cease and desist order with us, so that we can't use our laws to even mitigate the problem. At that time, I said, Look, somebody's gonna get really hurt as a result of this. This is, we're not playing around with this. This is serious stuff. And they kind of laughed at me and told me I was a bigot and hateful and, you know, all the playbook. So what happened here was that two of the people in this program were registered sex offenders. Now, we have been told way back, that there'll never be a sex offender in this program, that's through a whole different kind of thing. But sure enough, these two men were sex offenders. And they had got caught having sex with teenage girls in their hotel rooms. And they admitted to having done this multiple times over the week before. So we don't even know how many victims there are. And I think most people just found this was just a bridge too far. So we went to the city council, we asked them to disregard the cease and desist letter from the state of California and to look at the process of ending this program, even though they're saying it's against the law to end it. That's kind of where we are in the process doing right now.

REICHARD: If the state takes your advice and replaces the voucher program with something else, what would you recommend that would address the problem of homeless men and women in your town and protect your people?

WELLS: Well, you know, that's a major problem. So people ask me, Can we solve homelessness? And the answer is yes. But it would take a lot of effort, a lot of political will. For 25 years now, the state has lived and died by this concept that homeless people are just like you and me. They're just regular folks who are down on their luck. And we know from mountains of data, and almost $10 billion spent on this program, that the problem is worse today than it was before we started spending any of this $10 billion. So it's gonna be a really hard lift for the state of California to admit they've just been 100% wrong about their approach to homelessness, and that their problems are destroying cities, they're getting people killed. And they've got to abandon that and start a new program, which would include lots of treatment. But if you refuse treatment, then some kind of incarceration, whether it be a state hospital or a prison, because you're not allowed to sleep on the streets.

REICHARD: Bill Wells is mayor of El Cajon, California. Bill, thank you for your time today.

WELLS: Thank you.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: caste discrimination in California.

NICK EICHER, HOST: In recent years, the Supreme Court has heard arguments about sex as a protected class extending to homosexuality and transgenderism—meaning that employers can’t discriminate on the basis of sex in their hiring decisions. Well, now the West Coast is experimenting with a new form of a protected class, and this one has to do with race and religion.

REICHARD: The caste system is a hereditary social hierarchy most common in Indian and Hindu societies. It determines what jobs someone can get, who they can marry, and even what they can eat. Now, as more South Asians immigrate to the United States, some say discrimination on the basis of caste is coming with them.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy has the story.

MARY MUNCY, REPORTER: Sujatha Ramni lives in Seattle. She’s a volunteer for the Coalition of Seattle Indian Americans.

SUJATHA RAMNI: I'm from the dominant caste community, I'm an ally, and I can definitely corroborate a lot of the casteist practices within my community.

Ramni has never been the victim of caste discrimination herself. As a Brahmin, she’s part of the highest caste, but she sees it all around her.

RAMNI: You will see on the Indian Facebook, social groups people asking, saying, hey, I want the I want a Brahmin nanny for my kids. Oh, I'm looking for you know, someone who a Brahmin who will come and cook two to three times a week.

She worked at Microsoft in the 2000s when affirmative action was first starting to cover oppressed caste communities in India. She says Microsoft workers who belonged to dominant castes derided the decision in a social chat.

RAMNI: The conversation was at such—such an egregious level, that many oppressed cast members who were in the social discussion group actually complained to HR. 

But Microsoft didn’t have any policies to deal with caste discrimination. HR didn’t know what to do.

RAMNI: All they did was shut down that social discussion group.

But that’s starting to change.

Over the past few years, a handful of universities from across the country started implementing anti-caste discrimination policies. Then earlier this year, Seattle became the first city to specifically add caste to its non-discrimination ordinance. It went into effect last week, and now California could become the first state to outlaw caste discrimination.

RAMNI: Caste happens across religion, and within religion as well. So it this isn't, you know, the case of a religious discrimination. This is a case of caste discrimination.

The Pew Research Center says the caste system started within Hinduism about 3,000 years ago. But now, a majority of Indians identify within a caste, regardless of their religion.

ANIL WAGDE: My name is Anil Wagde I am a spokesperson for Ambedkar International Center USA.

There are four main castes in the system, and those can be divided into more than 5,000 sub-castes. People considered to be the lowest of the low are outside the caste system altogether. Think of it like a pyramid.

WAGDE: As you move up, the upper caste is increasing order of reverence. And as you go down, it's an increasing order of contempt.

The Brahmin are the priests at the top of the pyramid, followed by the warriors, the traders, and the workers. Those four general castes make up about 30 percent of India’s population.

Anyone outside of that system belongs to the Dalit caste. Dalits are sometimes called “untouchables.” They make up the rest of the population.

WAGDE: Women actually do not have a place in the caste system. They have to procreate and so on, so they have to have the women with them, and women are treated as property. They have no choice.

Individually, women are in the lowest class—just one above the untouchables. But as members of a family-centric culture, they are associated with their father’s caste until they marry, then they become associated with their husband’s caste.

So, though Ramni is associated with the highest caste, historically, she wouldn’t have been able to get an education or work outside the home. She also couldn’t have participated in many of the religious ceremonies that Brahmin men perform.

It’s a watertight system where people must marry within their caste.

Ramni says to imagine a multi-story building where every floor is a caste.

RAMNI: You are born into that particular floor of a multi-story building and you live there all your life and you die in it.  

In 2018, the Pew Research Center found that almost three million people from India lived in the United States, making them the third-largest immigrant group in the country.

But despite the growing presence of Indians in the U.S., experts don’t agree on whether caste discrimination is a problem that needs to be legislated.

SUDHA JAGANNATHAN: My name is Sudha Jagannathan. I am a board member at COHNA.

COHNA is the Coalition of Hindus of North America. The group says caste discrimination is not as big of a problem as some people say.

JAGANNATHAN: My personal experience is that I have not faced caste discrimination ever.

Meanwhile, a civil rights group advocating for lower castes called Equality Labs found that two out of three Indians known as untouchables experienced discrimination in the workplace, and a quarter of them said they’d experienced verbal or physical assault.

But a Carnegie Endowment survey found that just 5 percent of Indian Americans have experienced discrimination, and it criticized the Equality Labs Survey for its small sample size.

There is even debate over whether caste discrimination is a problem in India itself. A Pew Research Center survey found that only about 20 percent of people in India have experienced caste discrimination in the last year.

Pushpita Prasad is also with COHNA.

PUSHPITA PRASAD: When you pass laws, they need to be based in data, systemic data, there is no data that shows that it’s caste discrimination in the U.S.

Prasad goes on to say that the laws harm Hindus by characterizing the group as discriminatory. She says while caste discrimination may happen on an individual basis, it’s not systemic.

In any case, there are people who report casteist attitudes in their communities and workplaces, and they want American law to start prohibiting it.

Here’s Wagde again.

WAGDE: And as the as the immigration from the—from the oppressed community increases, this problem is going to increase. And it's better to have solutions for the problems before the proper problems kind of blow up.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

NICK EICHER, HOST: More than 100-thousand Americans go to the emergency room every year because of carbon monoxide poisoning. And that’s why C-O alarms are mandatory in most American cities:

SOUND: [ALARM]

Just last week a family in Ohio heard that sound and got out of there.

Upon investigation, experts found the cause: a large owl that had gotten stuck inside the chimney. They called animal rescue which was able to free the owl unharmed.

Now, we're not sure what he was doing in the chimney. Although on second thought, maybe it was Woodsy Owl, remember him from the 70s, the TV campaign?

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Yeah, I remember him! So cute.

EICHER: Yeah, he was environmentally conscious before it was cool. Maybe Woodsy Owl was taking it to the next level, personally inspecting chimneys. And maybe just fell in, got stuck.

WOODSY OWL: Give a hoot, don't pollute.

It’s The World and Everything in It

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 4th. 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: two book reviews for Holy Week.

Some Christians like to give meaningful gifts at Easter for friends and family. So today, we bring you two special book recommendations we hope will enrich your observance this weekend.

REICHARD: First, a book recommendation by one of the pastors at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville. WORLD’s Emily Whitten attends that church, and Covenant is the same one in which six people lost their lives last week.

This interview took place before that terrible day. Pastor Patrick Curles talked about his book and Emily prepared this review for us before last week.

It’s a serious invitation not to wait until hard times begin, but to draw near to the Lord now.

EMILY WHITTEN, REVIEWER: Our Classic Book of the Month is titled Humility: The Beauty of Holiness. It’s by Christian author Andrew Murray, who was born in 1828 and died in 1917. Murray spent much of his early career traversing South Africa by horse and wagon, ministering to isolated farm families. In the documentary Andrew Murray: Africa for Christ, missionary Peter Hammond explains how these farmers influenced Murray’s writing:

ANDREW MURRAY FILM: They’re not interested in this dry theology and hypothetical. They want practical theology. Put feet to your faith. The kind of message that makes sense. So Andrew Murray was forced to revise all of his teaching.

Later, Murray preached in the bustling city of Cape Town. He also served as a moderator for the Dutch Reformed Church, a position which required him to fight some of the academic heresies of his day.

ANDREW MURRAY FILM: This was no doubt the most traumatic part of his life. He was torn into church politics, and legal battles. All the clashes between the theological liberals and those who were attacking the integrity of Scripture.

Sadly, Murray himself fell into some theological extremes. So, I don’t recommend all of his books. He was associated with the Higher Life movement and held some radical views on faith healing and perfectionism. But Murray’s roughly one-hundred page book titled Humility is a treasure, combining simplicity and Biblical wisdom.

PATRICK CURLES: I think that’s that's one of the reasons I enjoy reading Murray so much, and all of the folks in the higher life movement, despite their their errors, what they seem to grasp better than a lot of people is the Christian life is Christ living in me.

That’s Patrick Curles. He’s a pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He’s actually one of my pastors, and he recommended the book to me a while back. When I listened to the audiobook last fall, I was struck right away by Murray’s idea of humility. Curles explains with a quote from author C.S. Lewis.

CURLES: The famous line from Lewis is ‘Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.’ And I think that's what a lot of people would say humility is, but Murray I think would say humility is dependence. God's the creator. We're the creature. We were made for dependence upon Him.

Murray explains that humility isn’t a result of the fall. Realizing our sinfulness can help us see our pride, but godly humility isn’t caused by sin—it’s part of how God made us.

CURLES: So I love this line, where he says humility is often identified with penitence and contrition. As a consequence, there appears to be no way of fostering humility except by keeping the soul occupied with its sin. We have learned I think that humility is something else and something more. We have seen in the teaching of our Lord Jesus and in the Epistles how often the virtue is earnestly taught without any reference to sin.

If you want to know what humility looks like in everyday life, Murray says look at Jesus. He never sinned, but he speaks over and over of his dependence on the Father. Murray quotes Jesus on this point.

CURLES: My doctrine is not mine, I've not come up myself, I do nothing of myself. He says, I don't seek My own glory, the word which you hear is not mine. And all of those is, he’s pointing to Jesus, as an example of what it looks like to be in that dependence, where he's willing to be God's instrument.

Sometimes, Jesus’s behavior fits the American idea of humility, and sometimes it doesn’t.

CURLES: Jesus was always humble. But sometimes he was turning over tables and, you know, rebuking Pharisees and calling sin sin. It's not just being small, it's not being mousy, it's not being quiet.

Clearly, a Biblical kind of humility doesn’t come naturally to fallen people. That begs the question, if we don’t have humility, how do we get it? Murray says we need Christ’s presence and power in our lives. Here’s Curles reading Murray again.

CURLES: We see that only by the indwelling of Christ in His divine humility do we become truly humble. We have our pride from another, from Adam. We must have our humility from another, too.

Murray says humility is one of the least understood virtues—and because we don’t understand it, we miss many Christian graces that flow from a humble, Christ-filled heart. Graces like courage to say I’m sorry when I blow it as a parent. Or power to keep loving a coworker or spouse who doesn’t love me back. Humility opens the door to a thousand kinds of spiritual fruit.

Murray’s insights also speak to the critical question today of identity.

CURLES: I think it was Lily Tomlin, that old comedian. She said, ‘I always wanted to be somebody, I should have been more specific.’ Everybody wants to be something. And I think that's God given, right?  So sin was my failed attempt to be that apart from you. Humility is my willingness to acknowledge that and come back to Christ, who is now my only hope for being what you made me to be.

I’m sorry to say that Our Classic Book of the Month, Humility by Andrew Murray, won’t make you humble. But it can help you think more deeply about the subject—and that’s a good place to start.

I’m Emily Whitten.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 4th. 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. Up next, our second book review for Easter week, this one for families.

The novel is set during World War II. It shows how dangerous this world can be–even for kids. But it also provides a picture of rescue that can help Christian readers savor our ultimate Rescuer, Who is Christ.

Here’s World commentator Whitney Williams.

AUDIOBOOK: “Parents can’t go,” says my dad, “but you’ll have escorts–a whole staff of doctors, nurses, teachers, priests who are volunteering. Yes, son, you’re one of the lucky ones.”

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, COMMENTATOR: That’s a clip from Lifeboat 12, a gripping historical fiction for ages 9 and up by Susan Hood.

When I read it recently with my son, it took us back, more than 80 years ago to September, 1940. 13-year-old Ken Sparks and 89 other British children bid farewell to their families and set sail on the SS City of Benares from Liverpool, England. Their destination: Safety. A.K.A. Canada, far from German air attacks and the rage of World War II.

But these 90 children never made it to their overseas host homes. Instead, four days into their ocean journey, a German U-Boat torpedoed the luxury steam vessel on which they were sailing.

AUDIOBOOK: “Bells sound the alarm–emergency! Emergency! 

Sparks and the other children ran to their muster stations just as they’d practiced. But as the ship sank, many of the lifeboats flipped and tipped down at extreme angles, dumping their passengers into the dark, frigid Atlantic.

AUDIOBOOK: “SOS! SOS! Twenty-foot waves cresting, crashing, smashing. Rain turning to sleet. It hurts to look.”

Within 31 minutes, the SS City of Benares sank to the bottom of the ocean; the attack ultimately claimed the lives of more than 250 people, 81 of them children.

Though tears often filled my eyes as I read aloud to my 9-year-old, the text isn’t overly graphic. And the author’s unique poetic writing style with short, to-the-point sentences, makes the book a quick and easy read.

Sparks was lost at sea for eight grueling days in lifeboat number 12. Suffering and shivering alongside him with little to eat and even less to drink were five other children in nothing but their wet pajamas and 40 adults–all of them presumed dead. Until, after eight days adrift, a pilot scouting for U-Boats happened to spot them.

AUDIOBOOK: Please, God! Hear our prayer! Please God, let that pilot see us. The pilot zooms down, swoops around, and WAVES! Oh, heaven, he’s seen us! “HE’S COMING!” I shout.

Lifeboat 12 is a great rescue story for families. It’s a Teacher’s Pick on Amazon.com, and it won numerous awards in 2019, including being a Junior Library Guild Selection. The text does deal with scenes of war and death, which may not be appropriate for younger children. There are also a few vain exclamations of the Lord’s name and some brief mentions of the Muslim faith, though prayers to the One True God are far more abundant.

It’s not a Christian book, by any means, but as my son and I took in the historical photos at the end, I couldn’t help but think about all of mankind’s sinking situation, the lifeboat we have in Jesus, and the joy that awaits us when, after suffering for a little while, we see our heavenly father face-to-face.

AUDIOBOOK: “Then I hear my name. ‘Ken!’ It’s my dad, MY DAD! I hobble as fast as I can into his outstretched arms. He hugs me hard and try as I might, I can’t stop the blasted tears.” 

I’m Whitney Williams.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Washington Wednesday, we’ll talk about the charges in the indictment against the former president and what’s next for his trial.

And, Isaiah 53 set to music. We'll have a review.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: 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.

The Bible warns against idolatry of the nations, saying: “You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.” Deuteronomy chapter 12, verses 31 and 32

Go now in grace and peace.

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