The World and Everything in It: August 14, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. My name is Bryan and I listen to the podcast every morning while I take my walk here in North Carolina. My wife who's deployed overseas with the United States Navy as a nurse listens every morning while she's getting ready to do her job. We both hope you enjoy today's program.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning! Today on Washington Wednesday, signs of voter backlash against anti-Israel politicians and law enforcement in Chicago prepares to hold the line on protests at the Democratic Convention next week.

SNELLING: So, we will not allow people to come here and destroy this city.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, World Tour. And later a missionary couple work to break a cycle of violence in Brazil.

MATIAS: They can be quite rough, quite rejected by outsiders. And so I thought, yeah, I think I want to work with these kids.

And demographic challenges facing Christian higher education.

MAST: It’s Wednesday, August 14th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

MAST: Up next, Mark Mellinger with today’s news.

MARK MELLINGER, NEWS ANCHOR: U.S. approves weapons sales to Israel » The U.S. has approved $20 billion dollars in arms sales to Israel. But with the threat of an Iranian attack on Israel looming, the new weapons won’t come quickly enough to make an immediate difference.

Missiles, tank ammunition, high explosive mortars, and 50 F-15 fighter jets are among the military supplies included. But the sale is aimed at shoring up Israel for the long term, and the contracts will take years to fulfill.

Meantime, with Israel facing a possible Iranian attack and mired in a war in Gaza with Hamas, the U.S. is working to reduce conflict on all fronts. Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder…

RYDER: The U.S. remains intensely focused on de-escalating tensions in the region, while also remaining focused on securing a ceasefire as part of a hostage deal to bring all of the hostages home, and to end the war in Gaza.

The U.S. has ramped up its military resources in the Middle East this week so it’ll be ready to defend Israel against an Iranian attack.

Russia withdrawing some forces from Ukraine » The Wall Street Journal reports Russia is withdrawing some of its military forces from Ukraine so it can respond to Ukraine’s offensive in Russia’s Kursk region.

A Ukrainian commander says his forces now control 390 square miles in that region.

Senators Lindsay Graham and Richard Blumenthal visited Kyiv this week to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

As he congratulated Zelenskyy for keeping his country strong during the 2.5-year war, Graham called the Kursk offensive bold, brilliant, and beautiful.

GRAHAM: They were predicting in Washington that Kyiv would fall in four days, the whole country would fall in three weeks. Well, (clears throat), they were wrong.

He added the Biden Administration needs to give Ukraine the weapons it needs to win the war.

U.S. officials didn’t say how many troops Russia is shifting away from Ukraine, and they also say they’re not sure yet how significant the move is.

MO, AZ will vote on enshrining abortion » Add Missouri and Arizona to the list of states putting abortion on the ballot this November.

In both those states, proposed constitutional amendments allowing abortion until fetal viability garnered enough signatures to go before voters in the fall.

Contrary to God’s standard that no mother has the right to take the life of her unborn child, Tori Schafer of the ACLU of Missouri told WDAF…

SCHAFER: It’s about who is in charge of your personal medical decisions. We know that Missourians, regardless of their personal feelings about abortion, want these decisions to be with women and families, not politicians.

Similar amendments will be up for a vote in at least a handful of other states this fall, including Florida, Nevada, and New York.

Indiana AG drops abortion privacy lawsuit » It’s the final chapter of a story that got a lot of attention after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. As WORLD’s Travis Kircher explains, Indiana’s attorney general has dropped a lawsuit, accusing the state’s largest hospital system of violating patient privacy.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: Last week a federal judge approved Attorney General Todd Rokita’s request to dismiss the lawsuit he filed last year.

That lawsuit accused Indiana University Heath and IU Healthcare of failing to protect the privacy rights of a 10-year-old rape victim.

That victim traveled from Ohio to Indiana to receive abortion drugs.

Her story was eventually reported by The Indianapolis Star and became a flashpoint in the abortion debate days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The doctor who shared her story maintained that she provided no information that would have made it possible to identify the child.

Rokita’s office says he based his decision to drop the lawsuit on subsequent actions taken by IU Health to resolve the complaint.

For WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher.

SOUND: [Wind in Puerto Rico]

Ernesto ramping up, battering Caribbean » Tropical Storm Ernesto battered the northeast Caribbean, and it’s not over yet.

Forecasters say Ernesto is strengthening to a hurricane today, as the center of the storm passes just north of Puerto Rico on its way to Bermuda.

They’re warning about waves as high as 20 feet in Puerto Rico along with widespread flooding and possible landslides.

Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi:

PIERLUISI: We are particularly warning tourists and our own population to stay away from the ocean. Ocean conditions, particularly in the north and eastern part of Puerto Rico are going to be very dangerous.

The storm sent street vendors scrambling to secure their belongings and maintain generators.

VENDOR: [SPEAKING IN SPANISH]

This street vendor says her shop is open for now. But she doesn’t know for how long.

Puerto Rico’s national guard is visiting flood-prone areas and checking on older people.

Google rolls out Pixel 9 release early » Artificial intelligence is coming to your pocket. And the race to bring it to you first is heating up.

Google rolled out its new lineup of AI-powered Pixel smartphones yesterday.

Here’s Google’s vice president of product management, Brian Rakowski:

RAKOWSKI: The new Pixel 9 phones are the only smartphones in the world built specifically to connect you to Google’s AI models, both in the data center and directly on your device. We have four new phones, including the gorgeous new Pixel 9 and the reimagined Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

The rollout comes two months earlier than expected. Analysts say that’s because Google wanted to get it to you first, before that other smartphone producer, Apple.

I’m Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: Why two radical House Democrats lost their primaries on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 14th of August.

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

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Time now for Washington Wednesday. Chicago is bracing for protests during the Democratic National Convention next week.

EICHER: But first, breaking up the Squad.

Last week, Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush lost in the Democratic primary to St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell. Bush becomes the second prominent anti-Israel House Democrat to lose to a more moderate challenger this year. Jamaal Bowman of New York lost in June.

MAST: What role has anti-Israel rhetoric played in influencing voters in these primaries?

World’s Washington Bureau reporter Leo Briceno has the story.

LEO BRICENO: Harv Citerman lives in St. Louis and voted for Congresswoman Cori Bush twice: first when Bush was elected in 2020 and then in the 2022 midterms. But since then his enthusiasm for her has soured. Citerman is Jewish, and he regularly meets up with a group of guys for breakfast—they like to chat about politics. But when it came to Bush, the group had a mutual opinion on Bush.

HARV CITERMAN: All sixteen of us voted against Cori Bush. Two of them are Catholic, and 14 are Jewish so she probably lost 16 votes there.

Cori Bush is a member of the “squad,” a group of the seven of the most liberal members in the House of Representatives. They oppose Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which Bush has characterized as genocide and a humanitarian disaster.

Here’s Bush at a pro-Palestinian rally in October.

CORI BUSH: …and I know last night I know we heard from the administration (long pause and boos) calling on Congress for more bombs and more weapons which we know will only lead to more violence and more death and more atrocities and absolutely not—absolutely not on our watch.

Just days before last week’s primary, Bush skirted around whether or not Hamas was a terrorist organization in an interview with the New York Times. Her campaign would later walk back those comments.

Citerman wasn’t concerned about Bush’s stance on the war in Gaza until she made it a key campaign issue.

CITERMAN: I mean if you’re going to make that a main focus of your campaign rather than representing the citizens of your district, I guess I’m going to listen to you, and of course I disagreed with everything that she said about Israel.

Back in June, I asked Jonathan Meola, a Jewish voter out of Florida, what he thought about anti-Israel rhetoric in American politics. At the time, we were chatting about the close primary race of Congressman Jamaal Bowman in New York, another member of the squad.

Meola thought that if Bowman lost, it would put more political pressure on other members of the squad.

MEOLA: If he does lose, it’s also kind of given the other members of the squad a bigger fear that they’re going to have to deal with in their elections coming up in November. I think Cori Bush has a strong challenger from what I understand I think you’re going to see that pushback.

With Bowman and Bush both on their way out, Johns Hopkins University Professor Benjamin Ginsberg believes Israel will play a key role in future elections, particularly in the Democratic party.

GINSBERG: There is a wing of the Democratic party that is very susceptible to this anti-Zionism and, you know, to criticism of America for foolish reasons. That’s become quite an important wing in the Democratic party.

Ginsberg said he is concerned about what support for pro-Palestinian groups reveals about politicians like Bush and Bowman.

GINSBERG: These groups aren’t as much anti-Israel as they are, in my view, anti-American. That is, they have learned from the European left and from the Iranians this idea that America is the “great Satan” and Israel is the “Little Satan” and both of them are equally guilty of racism, militarism, oppression, settler colonialism, you name it. So I think that’s what we’ve been seeing over the past year. What I see when I see Palestinian flags and Hamas emblems, I see anti-American demonstrations more than I see anti-Semitic demonstrations. I see them burning American flags all the time.

For her part, Cori Bush says she is going to double down on her stance on Israel during her remaining time in Congress and beyond. In her concession speech last week, Bush called out AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—a pro-Israel group that had donated more than $8 million dollars to oppose her.

BUSH: AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down. And let me put all these corporations on notice. I’m coming after you too but I’m not coming by myself. I'm coming with all the people that is in here that’s doing the work. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

MAST: Well, the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Chicago next week, and many of those disappointed by Cori Bush’s primary loss will be there. WORLD’s Carolina Lumetta has been keeping an eye on protest activity ahead of the convention and joins us now to talk about it. Carolina, welcome.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: Hi, Lindsay. Good to be here.

MAST: So it’s hard not to draw parallels when you think about the DNC and Chicago–this is the first time the convention will be held in Chicago since 1996. That one came after a long period of avoidance of the city after the 1968 convention that turned violent. So moving to the present, Carolina, what do we know about planned protests?

LUMETTA: Well, the hope is that history doesn't fully repeat itself here, but we do know that there are at least 150 groups who will be bussing activists in to spend the entire week in Chicago. This runs the range of student organizers, different Democratic groups, socialist groups, progressive groups, pro-Gaza, pro-abortion, pro-LGBT. There's a whole gamut here, and they're all descending on the DNC to protest. We also know that some organizers are actually arguing with law enforcement over approved demonstration routes for several different marches that they have planned. And here's this clip that I'd like to play from Chicago Police Department superintendent Larry Snelling in a speech he gave on Monday.

LARRY SNELLING: If people come here to protest, and they want to exercise their First Amendment rights, we welcome that. And not only do we welcome it, we will protect them while they do it. And as long as they’re cooperating with us and there’s a collaborative effort where we understand each other, and you know where to draw the line: you’re not breaking the law. You’re not destroying our city, you’re not committing acts of violence, then this will go off well. The moment that starts, we’re going to intervene. So, we will not allow people to come here and destroy this city.

LUMETTA: Snelling then talked about how law enforcement would respond to different kinds of disruptive protests.

SNELLING: We’ve seen where people attempt to block traffic. We’ve seen people in what’s called sleeping dragons, and we have a response for that.

LUMETTA: He then made a helpful distinction between protesting and rioting.

SNELLING: In 2020, I often hear reporters refer to that as protesting. People were murdered, there were lives lost in downtown. There were buildings and businesses looted, damaged, and destroyed. There was vandalism. That is not protesting. That is rioting. There were felonies committed at that time. So I just want to be clear: we’re not going to allow that. We’re not going to allow you to riot. Protesting and rioting are two different things.

At the same time, though, the Chicago PD is still under a court order to reform practices after decades of scandals and convicted cases of police brutality. So next week is going to be a test for the department.

MAST: Snelling mentioned sleeping dragons there. Carolina, can you explain what he means by that?

LUMETTA: Yes. So this is a common protest tactic where people will lock themselves to an object or each other to make it much more difficult for officers to move them. I've seen it happen sometimes on highways in Washington, where people will glue their hands actually to the road. Other times, protesters will link arms with each other inside PVC pipes using bolts and carabiner clips. This forces police to have to saw through them, but it's very delicate to avoid actually hurting the protesters. While it's technically non violent, the tactic could endanger personal safety if demonstrators use it on, say, a busy roadway to stop traffic.

MAST: Well, you mentioned about 150 groups are coming in. Tell us what we know about them?

LUMETTA: Hundreds of groups are organizing the Coalition to March on the DNC. Their goal is to be “within sight and sound” of the United Center, where all the delegates will be. That might be a little difficult, though, given all the security perimeters.

Coalition spokesman Hatem Abudayyeh [HA-tehm A-boo-DIE-yuh] of the U.S.-Palestinian Community Network spoke with the Real News Network about the scale of his organization’s influence.

ABUDAYYEH: Now there are 200, over 200 that have joined the coalition, we have decades of experience organizing these things. We’ve been organizing the lead organizers for RNC and DNC protests since 2008, and we were the lead organizers in the 2012 NATO protest in Chicago. So, you know, we’re professionals at this sort of thing.

LUMETTA: For those who don't know, Abudayyeh is also one of several organizers who helped fund and train student encampments at college campuses earlier this year. Since then, he's lodged several complaints that the route Chicago police approved is too winding and too short because it takes side streets. But yesterday, a judge upheld the protest route police offered and said that it does still comply with their right to free speech.

As for the schedule on the streets, we've got at least three marches on the DNC on the first, third and final day of the convention, which will be Thursday. There will be ongoing rallies at Union Park, a march for Gaza on Wednesday evening, and a pro-LGBT and pro-abortion march on Sunday, right before the DNC starts.

MAST: A lot to keep an eye on there. Carolina Lumetta covers politics for WORLD, and she'll be reporting from Chicago during the DNC next week. Carolina, thanks for this report and stay safe!

LUMETTA: Thanks Lindsay, it will be a wild week, and I'll talk to you later.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour, with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

AUDIO: [Brass band playing]

Rwanda president’s new tenure — We start today’s roundup at the stadium in Rwanda’s capital of Kigali.

Tens of thousands of people watched as President Paul Kagame assumed office for a fourth term on Sunday. The 66-year-old’s victory was widely expected in elections last month.

KAGAME: I Kagame, Paul do solemnly swear to Rwanda that I will remain loyal to the Republic of Rwanda.

Kagame has led the East African country for more than two decades.

Critics have accused him of running an authoritarian regime. Only two out of eight opposition candidates were allowed to run against him.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Serbia mining protests — Over in Serbia, protesters crowded downtown Belgrade and the capital city’s two main railway stations.

They are protesting against the government’s plan to allow lithium mining in a western farming valley.

Authorities paused the plan two years ago, after protesters blocked major bridges and roadways for weeks.

The government restarted the project last month after a court order ruled that revoking the mining permits was unconstitutional.

Serbians who oppose the move argue that the mine would pollute the country’s water and harm public health.

Slobodan Stanimirovic resides in Radjevina, where the mine is expected to operate.

STANIMIROVIC: [Speaking Serbian]

He says here that he joined the protest to defend life in Serbia.

Authorities and state-run media have opposed the demonstrations, describing them as an attempt to topple the government.

AUDIO: [Sound of responders]

Algeria wildfires — And in Algeria, firefighters battled several wildfires in the northeast over the weekend.

Responders evacuated families from parts of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia provinces.

Farid Farih is a volunteer firefighter.

FARIH: [Speaking Berber]

He says here that volunteers worked with members of the Civil Protection team to keep the fire from spreading.

Algeria’s northern region often battles wildfires in the summer. Fires last summer killed more than 30 people and destroyed thousands of acres of forest and farmlands.

Colombia Flower Festival — We wrap up today with farmers and other participants at the colorful flower festival in the Colombian city of Medellin.

During the annual parade, participants carry “silleteros”—an elaborate floral arrangement that can weigh more than 150 pounds.

The historic practice goes back to when farmers strapped wooden chairs to their backs to move their produce.

Maria Luisa Atehortua participated in the parade.

ATEHORTUA: [Speaking Spanish]

She says the magic of life inspired her design, which she saw as a chance to be grateful to God for the little things.

That’s it for today’s WORLD Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Bear with me here. You’re a veteran teacher, getting your room ready for the new year. Looking good—new decorations, new flooring. You go to make copies and come back to an unwelcome visitor.

AUDO: There was a bear charging at me.

And a black bear at that.

It happened in the classroom of Elaine Salmon.

S-A-L-M-O-N … a bear favorite.

So she slams the door, calls her husband, a retired police officer. And they make a plan. Audio from KVUE.

ELAINE: He wants to get out.

IAN: I know, but how are we going to do it without being in the way?

Well, here’s how:

She taps on the window to distract the bear. Husband opens the door to coax him out. Eventually, he moseys right past while Elaine hides!

No harm to people and as for damage—just bear-ly any.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, August 14th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: bringing the gospel to children in the slums of Brazil.

More than 60 percent of Brazilian children live in poverty. That’s 32 million boys and girls. Drug dealers often control the slums known in Brazil as “favelas” where many of the children live. Christian missionaries trying to help often find they have to navigate those complex, sometimes dangerous environments.

EICHER: How can missionaries break through and help the children? WORLD senior writer Emma Freire has the story.

AUDIO: [FELIPE ANNOUNCES SNACK TIME IN PORTUGUESE]

EMMA FREIRE: It's snack time in a southern Sao Paulo favela. A group of 25 children sit around plastic folding tables in a tiny shopfront. They've been there all afternoon and they're hungry.

MATIAS: Senhor meu deus Muito obrigado por essa tarde muito legal (Lord God, thank you for this great afternoon.)

Felipe Matias leads them in prayer.

MATIAS: Em nome de Jesus Amen Amen! Amen Amen! Quem gosta de guaraná? (who likes guaraná)

KIDS: eu! (me)

The snack consists of cookies and Guarana, a popular soda in Brazil.

After snacks, it’s time to go home.

MATIAS: Ciao, ciao, gente (bye bye everyone)

The children chant a Brazilian rhyme as they walk.

AUDIO: [KIDS CHANTING]

Brazilian born Matias has been a missionary for 20 years. But he started this outreach, Ministerio Evangelico Lighthouse, about a year ago. It operates after-school programs that include singing, games, and Bible stories several times a week. He and his American wife, Laura, also teach some basic English. The children especially love that.

LAURA: There’s not anything very systematic. But just teaching them English here and there. They like to show that they can remember certain things. God is so good. And then we apply that in other ways like: the soccer team is so good. Corinthians is so good. Sao Paulo is so bad. Things like that. That’s very big here in Brazil, the different soccer teams in the city.

When he first became a missionary, Matias thought he would work somewhere other than Brazil. But then he saw the pressing needs of favela children in his homeland.

MATIAS: And those kids are not very cute. They're not very nice, you know. They can be quite rough, you know. So quite rejected by outsiders. And so I thought, yeah, I think I want to work with these kids. They seem to need the gospel. They need Christ.

Favelas are usually controlled by drug dealers who act like an alternative form of government with their own code of laws. Stealing within the favela is a capital offense.

MATIAS: So several times we have kids that were sentenced to death, and they ran to us and we rushed them out of the favelas. And because they rushed to us first, the drug dealers: okay, you know, like, they're with you. We're not gonna do nothing, as long as you move them out of the favela, and they never come back.

Matias has never had any trouble with the drug dealers himself.

MATIAS: They know that we are against what they're doing. But yet they send their brothers, their sisters, their nephews, to come and participate in our programs.

But he’s still cautious. After the program for the children wraps up, we walk together along a nearby street.

AUDIO: [INTRODUCTION TO BOY]

He asked a teenage boy he knows to walk with us—and help us blend in—as we pass a group of drug dealers.

MATIAS: I called the boy just in case. They were like right there. A big group of drug dealers right there. So I’m like, Ok, walk with me dude. Usually that’s a safer call.

Many of the boys he works with are at risk of becoming drug dealers themselves.

MATIAS: Usually they come from this family. The mother has five, four kids. They all live in the same little room. And most of the kids come from different fathers, so they don't have this father figure in their lives. So the boys are looking for that.

All the boys dream of becoming professional soccer players. But when that doesn’t work out, they see drug dealing as a way of earning money.

MATIAS: Many of the boys, they end up going towards the life of drug dealing very early ages. Some kids started to work, doing small jobs for them when they are eight or nine, and then later they develop to do more real work for the drug dealing cartel gangs.

The girls follow a different path. They often give birth to their first child early - sometimes as young as 13. And the cycle starts all over again.

The children in the favela have significant practical needs and Matias works hard to help. But spiritual needs come first.

MATIAS: My first priority is to preach the gospel. I've seen a lot of people do that. They want to do social work first and maybe preach the gospel later. If, you know, there's even a place for that, you know. And to me, I enjoy missions, to preach the gospel, to preach Christ and Him crucified and that’s a priority for me. And everything else comes under that.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Freire in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, August 14th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

It’s that time of year when parents typically drop off their college freshmen, but there are a lot fewer of them than in recent years. And Christian higher education is not immune from the effects of the demographic cliff. As WORLD Opinions commentator Hunter Baker says that’s prompting some hard questions.

HUNTER BAKER: In higher education, the demographic cliff of 2026 has been in the front windshield for a long time. What is the cliff? It’s the 18-year mark after the financial crisis of 2008. At the time, it appeared the entire U.S. economy could be headed for a new Great Depression thanks to the cancerous impact of the subprime mortgage lending collapse. While the worst effects of the disaster were averted, it left a mark on the minds of many Americans. When people feel less secure and less optimistic about the future, they tend to have fewer children. That happened. Fertility declined in the wake of the crisis and hasn’t recovered since as the United States has moved below population replacement.

Enrollment in colleges has been down over the past decade, and that’s led to some small and private colleges going under. The latest to close was Eastern Nazarene University in Quincy, Massachusetts. Just before that news hit, Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, announced it was shutting down majors in the humanities. Even institutions on more solid footing have engaged in belt-tightening, with retirement buyouts and other reductions of the workforce.

The demographic cliff is just a part of a general shift in American higher education. During the past quarter century, we have gone from a general view that college is worthwhile on its own merits to increasing skepticism about its value, which has led to increased focus on majors tied to professions. At the same time, many deride colleges as factories of “woke” indoctrination that will send students home to their families with unrecognizable worldviews. Amid the population storm and cultural pressure, how should Christian colleges and those who support them respond?

The first answer is a simple one. Christian families and philanthropists should demand that Christian colleges have a clear reason for their existence. These schools must be recognizably Christian and more in tune with Christian orthodoxy than the shifting contours of American culture. But that challenge cuts two ways. On the one hand, Christian colleges must be Christian, but on the other, being seriously Christian carries a higher cultural cost. The hiring pool for faithful faculty will be smaller. And it may be harder to find students who share Christian core convictions, especially about human sexuality.

The second answer is more difficult, because it comes down to financial cost. Christian colleges, like most private schools, are more expensive than most public institutions. The gap is not as large as many believe due to scholarships and denomination subsidized rates that many Christian institutions offer. However, it is still the case that tuition rose much more rapidly than the rate of inflation during the past 30 years. There is little question that high cost makes higher education less attractive across the board.

This is an opportunity for churches and philanthropists to get more involved. Giving from denominational sponsors has been largely static for decades. What might once have been 10 percent of a school’s budget is now more like 1 to 3 percent. If we want students from all walks of life to be able to have a Christian education in a high-cost environment, we will need to find ways to subsidize the cost through grassroots generosity.

Christian higher education is about to be put to the test in significant ways. Do we believe that the dynamic of the young person being taught and entering into a relationship with a Christian professor has special value? And what about the time those students spend together with iron sharpening iron? Do we believe it changes lives and advances the work of the kingdom? If we do, then we’ll need to work hard to preserve those things for generations to come, regardless of how many freshmen arrive each fall.

I’m Hunter Baker.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Ukraine takes the war into Russian territory, but is that overplaying its hand? And, one year after a devastating fire on Maui, we’ll tell you how the recovery is going. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

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 book of Luke records: “And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’” —Luke 2: 10, 11

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.