The World and Everything in It - August 19, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

A Christian theater company affirms Biblical sexuality and some of its employees revolt.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also a legal victory for Christian doctors and conscience rights.

Plus praying for the church in Afghanistan.

And commentator Cal Thomas on the debacle of blame for what’s happening in Afghanistan.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, August 19th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

REICHARD: It’s time for news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: U.S. military ramping up Afghanistan evacuations » U.S. Air Force C-17 transport planes have flown thousands of civilians out of Afghanistan since Tuesday.

That according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby who addressed reporters at the White House.

And he said they expect to begin evacuating as many as 9,000 people a day.

KIRBY: 5-to-9,000 is not a goal. As I said, it’s the capacity, the max capacity that we think we’ll be able to reach when we’re at full throttle. The goal is to get as many people out as quickly as we can.

Kirby said U.S. military commanders are communicating with the Taliban in an effort to speed up the evacuation, which faces an Aug. 31st deadline set by President Biden.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Gen. Mark Milley said they’re asking American citizens and certain U.S. allies to make their way to the Kabul airport.

MILLEY: Messages have gone out by various means of communication from the State Department to American citizens and others, and they’re being told to go to those gates.

But those people have to trust that the Taliban will allow them to safely pass. U.S. troops are staying put around the tarmac. They are not escorting citizens to the airport.

Meantime, the political fallout is extending well beyond Washington. In the U.K., opposition leader Keir Starmer said Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government shares blame for the disastrous military withdrawal. 

STARMER: There has been a major miscalculation about the resilience of the Afghan forces and staggering complacency from our government about the Taliban threat. The result is that the Taliban is now back in control of Afghanistan.

The Taliban violently broke up a protest in Jalalabad on Wednesday.

AUDIO: [Sound of protest]

At least one person died and six others were wounded.

U.S. health officials call for booster shots against COVID-19 » As expected, U.S. health officials on Wednesday formally announced plans to offer COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant.

The data show the vaccines still provide strong protection at least six months after the second dose. However, the protection gradually declines each month. And Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said over time, that could be a problem.

MURTHY: We are concerned that this pattern of decline we are seeing will continue in the months ahead, which could lead to reduced protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death.

The plan calls for an extra dose eight months after people get their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The doses could begin the week of Sept. 20th.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday…

WALENSKY: Our plan is to protect the American people and to stay ahead of this virus.

Health officials said people who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will also probably need extra shots. But they’re waiting for more data.

The World Health Organization ripped the plan. Organization emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said those vaccine doses should go to countries that need them more.

RYAN: We’re planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets while we’re leaving other people to drown.

Surgeon General Murthy said he rejects the false choice of fully protecting Americans or helping the rest of the world. He said the United States is committed to doing both.

Biden to require vaccines for nursing home staff » Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, President Biden announced that his administration will require nursing home workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

BIDEN: If you work in a nursing home and serve people on Medicare or Medicaid, you will also be required to get vaccinated. More than 130,000 residents in nursing homes have, sadly, over the period of this virus passed away.

He can’t force nursing homes to adopt the rule, but that will be a condition for those facilities to continue receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funding.

Hundreds of thousands of nursing home workers are not vaccinated, according to federal data.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is expected to introduce the mandate in a new regulation. It could take effect as soon as next month.

Devastating wildfires consume another Calif. Town » Wildfires have largely destroyed another town in Northern California.

Derek Shaves said his home in Grizzly Flats is now a pile of ash.

SHAVES: We were watching orange and grey skies and watching our town burn to the ground.

The Caldor Fire is one of the blazes ripping through the Sierra Nevada region. It feasted on tinder-dry trees as it ravaged Grizzly Flats. It was a forest community of around 1,200 people.

That came two weeks after the Dixie Fire incinerated most of the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville.

Fire officials say the Caldor Fire has consumed at least 50 homes since erupting on Saturday.

Both the Caldor and Dixie fires have grown by tens of thousands of acres in recent days.

Data of more than 40 million exposed in T-Mobile breach » T-Mobile has released more information about a massive data breach. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has this update.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The company says the personal information of just over 40 million former and prospective customers that applied for T-Mobile credit were exposed in a recent data breach.

That information includes names, Social Security numbers, driver's license information, and other other data.

The same data for nearly 8 million current T-Mobile postpaid customers appears to be compromised.

T-Mobile also confirmed that nearly a million active T-Mobile prepaid customer names, phone numbers and account PINs were exposed.

The announcement comes two days after the company said it was investigating a breach after someone in an online forum tried to sell the personal information of cellphone users.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: defending Biblical beliefs backstage.

Plus, taking responsibility for mistakes in Afghanistan.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 19th of August, 2021.

Thank you for joining us for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. First up, Biblical orthodoxy takes center stage.

Last month, a Christian theater company in Chicago took a bold stance. It released a document affirming Biblical standards of sexuality and gender. Now, the group is taking some heat, and multiple employees have resigned in protest.

WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

CHRISTY DILLE: In 2004, I took my two young boys at the time to see a CYT show. And after we watched the show, my oldest son, Josh, said, I want to do this.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: Christy Dille has been part of Christian Youth Theater—or CYT—for 17 years. She’s volunteered in multiple areas, working with props, refreshments, and hair and makeup. And all four of her kids have taken classes and performed in shows.

CHRISTY DILLE: I could not tell you how many shows we've done. But I would guess it would be around 30.

In 2014, Dille noticed something that worried her.

CHRISTY DILLE: We had a directing team, where one of the intern directors who had just recently graduated from CYT and was now interning was starting to come out. And that was during a show while he was directing a show in our county. And one of the ways he did that was by wearing women's high heels and things like that, while he was working with the kids.

Some of the kids in the show started questioning what they thought about homosexuality and their own identity. The intern director encouraged them. Then the lead director jumped on board, too.

DILLE: So that was kind of disturbing to us because first of all, they didn't even know these kids very well, or their families. And it was really hard for for the families of those kids as well. The parents were were pretty angry about what these directors were saying.

Dille went to the CYT board with her concerns. She asked for an official statement of CYT’s position and hiring policy.

The board said it still affirmed traditional Biblical beliefs about sexuality, and it would work on an official statement. But for the next seven years, nothing happened. Then two young directors came to the board and asked for the same thing—a statement of beliefs—but for a very different reason.

SOPHIE MURK: We wanted them to be able to include and accept Christians of all backgrounds, all perspectives, and all lifestyles.

Sophie Murk has been part of CYT for most of her life … as a student, then as a teacher and director. And she’s used that position to encourage students who don’t believe the Bible’s teachings on sexualty and gender. Once, she prayed with a student who was transitioning genders. Another time, she took an opportunity to promote same-sex families.

SOPHIE MURK: I had a yellow team camper who had two moms and like, she was 5, you know? And I remember like one student, like, asked her, like, why do you have two moms? And then, you know, we just had like a frank conversation about like, some people have two moms.

Last year, Murk teamed up with another teacher to ask the board to take an LGBT-affirming stance. She says CYT’s culture doesn’t welcome everyone.

SOPHIE MURK: There's a lot of other, more so micro aggressions, the fact that there's no options for non binary students to have their pronouns listed in their audition forms, the fact that we had gendered dressing rooms for so long.

Murk and her coworker met with the board multiple times. They gave a 45 minute presentation outlining their position, citing Scripture and their own personal experiences. Those meetings prompted the board to make an official decision. But it wasn’t the decision Sophie Murk was hoping for.

In July, the CYT board released a document titled “Employee Faith and Cultural Policy.” It included a statement of beliefs reaffirming Biblical standards of sexuality and gender: God created people male and female, and marriage is between one man and one woman.

The policy doesn’t exclude any students from participating in CYT programs, but all staff members must adhere to the statement of beliefs.

ILER: So CYT from its founding has been based on Biblical values. And those Biblical values are a part of every aspect of our life.

Kevin Iler is chairman of the CYT Chicago board.

ILER: Everyone is welcome to participate in the program. We just ask that if you want to be in a position of leadership or teaching, that you will live in a way that's consistent with the biblical principles that the ministry is run by.

The policy drew immediate backlash from many teachers and directors within CYT. Because even though a lot of people suspected that was the board’s position, it wasn’t ever official…and CYT frequently hired young staff members who had very different values.

But many parents are grateful for the clarification. Here’s Christy Dille.

DILLE: I do believe that treating people with love and care and respect is important. However, I don't think the loving thing to do is to encourage someone to, to do something that's unbiblical and sinful, you know, whether it's, you know, having sex outside of marriage, whether it's homosexuality, you know, like, those aren't things that are healthy or good for a person and so encouraging that is only causing them more harm in the long run.

CYT might have some rough waters ahead. Classes and performances may be a little smaller for a while as people who disagree move to other programs. But Christy Dille hopes it lays a better foundation moving forward.

DILLE: Loving and supporting somebody who's going through a struggle, and trying to find what God says about an issue is the best thing. How can I help you to grow in your knowledge of God, and what does he want for your life? You know, that would be the direction I think it should go.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a legal victory for the conscience rights of doctors.

Last week, a federal court in Texas blocked a federal policy known as the Transgender Mandate. That would force religious doctors and hospitals to perform sex change procedures on their patients—including children.

This latest ruling is the second court decision to block the administration from enforcing this very controversial policy.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The ruling stems from a lawsuit that the Christian Medical and Dental Associations filed on behalf of several hospitals to protect their conscience rights.

And joining us now to talk more about that is Dr. Jeff Barrows. He’s an OB/Gyn and executive vice president for bioethics and public policy at the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. 

Dr. Barrows, good morning!

JEFF BARROWS, GUEST: Good morning, Mary, thank you for having me on.

REICHARD: Glad to have you here. So would you please explain in a bit more detail what the Transgender Mandate would require of physicians.

BARROWS: Well, in 2016, Health and Human Services changed the definition of sex discrimination within their regulations, and expanded it to include gender identification, and also, by the way pregnancy. And we recognize that what that meant was that if a healthcare professional refused to provide gender transition procedures to a patient, they could be accused of being discriminatory and a suit filed against them, charging them with discrimination. And so we began right away fighting that legally in the federal district court of northern Texas. And we're very thankful for this victory.

REICHARD: So this policy was introduced under the Obama administration in 2016—what happened after that?

BARROWS: Well, after the policy was introduced by the Obama HHS, we immediately filed suit in federal court. And then after that, the Trump administration came into power and HHS took a completely different view of this particular provision within their regulations. And so on October 15, 2019, the Federal Court issued a final judgment vacating that rule. But then in June of 2020, HHS under the Trump administration finalized that rule—rule 1557—returning it essentially back to its long standing meaning. Then shortly after that was put out by the Trump HHS, a federal district court out of New York issued an injunction against the new HHS rule, they filed suit, and we ended up back in court fighting for our conscience rights. So it was a long drawn out process that went to the Fifth Circuit, and then back to the federal district court, which just earlier this month did release their final ruling and giving us permanent protection from HHS against practicing medicine against our conscience.

REICHARD: What is the Biden administration’s justification for trying to force this on physicians?

BARROWS: I really don't have a good answer for that, because I want to make it clear to all your listeners that all of our members serve all patients, regardless of their race, their gender, their sexual orientation, or gender identity. We oppose anybody that would discriminate against somebody simply on the basis of their gender identity. And I know that there are many specialized clinics around the country that these patients can go to, so I really don't understand why Health and Human Services would try and force us as conscientious Christian health care professionals to practice against our conscience.

REICHARD: I wonder what have you heard from doctors about efforts to coerce them into performing transgender procedures?

BARROWS: Our members are very concerned about this. They're worried that they may be forced to prescribe puberty blockers. So any pediatrician, any family physician, may be put into a position where they have a patient that brings in a daughter or a son that is suffering from gender dysphoria. And they're asked and forced to place that patient on puberty blockers or, even worse, cross-sex hormones. So many of our members have been very concerned about this since this first came out in 2016. And I'm sure all of them are now feeling very relieved that we have this permanent injunction that's granted to our members.

REICHARD: But do you think the legal battle is really over? What do you see coming down the pike?

BARROWS: We know that the Biden administration has 60 days to appeal this decision. And if they appeal, it will go back to the Fifth Circuit. And we've already had this case before the Fifth Circuit and we received a favorable ruling from them. So we're feeling very hopeful that if in fact the Biden administration should choose to appeal that we would again be victorious at the circuit court level. That is our hope and, of course, our prayer.

REICHARD: Dr. Jeff Barrows with the Christian Medical and Dental Association has been our guest. Dr., thanks so much!

BARROWS: My pleasure, Mary. Good to be with you.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Police officers in Germany—hailed as heroes after performing life-saving CPR.

It all began when a little girl ran into the police station clutching her dog. As it turns out, the girl had dropped her Chihuahua and the little dog had stopped breathing. She was desperate.

Police of course receive training to improvise where necessary—and this certainly seemed one of those necessary situations—and CPR training doesn’t typically include this sort of veterinary resuscitation.

Undeterred, the officers cupped the dog’s nose and gave their version of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation—more like mouth-to-snout—and massaging the dog’s heart while transporting the dog to a vet clinic nearby.

Good news: the clinic reports that the pup is going to be okay, the Chihuahua’s in stable condition.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 19th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: praying for Afghanistan.

MONTAGE: There are scenes of panic and pandemonium at Kabul airport today, as desperate people try to flee the country...Pictures from earlier of Taliban fighters behind the desk of the presidential palace...The Taliban fighters carrying guns entered into the branch, women there were forced to quit immediately...I left from the Taliban like 20 years ago. Now we go back to the first step again.

With so much heartbreak unfolding in Afghanistan right now, many Christians around the world are asking the question: “how should we pray?” 

WORLD’s Emily Whitten brings this report.

EMILY WHITTEN, REPORTER: It’s not hard to see that Afghanistan needs prayer right now. But it can be hard to know how to pray. Many individual Christians and organizations have stepped in recently to answer that question on social media and other outlets. For instance, more than 7,000 people have already viewed Emma Mae McDaniel’s August 16th youtube video, Pray For Afghanistan.

MCDANIEL: There is encouragement knowing that even whenever you’re not in a physical place where danger and chaos is happening, you can still have spiritual impact and bring help where it is needed even when you’re millions of miles away because of the power of prayer.

On Twitter recently, I especially appreciated a thread by K.A. Ellis, the Director of the Center for the Study of the Bible and Ethnicity. She tweeted, “Pray for the preservation of fragile lives, and for the softening of hardened hearts. Pray that seeing eyes would be struck blind, and the innocent would be hidden from their pursuers.”

Those are all good suggestions.

For my report, I managed to track down someone else with an ear to the ground of the persecuted church: David Curry, President and CEO of Open Doors USA.

CURRY: What we are encouraging people to do is to pray for Afghanistan. We're asking them first to pray for an end of the violence and for God to give wisdom to leaders in the midst of this. I think, also, we have to be honest, we got to pray for the Taliban, we got to pray, both for their salvation, but also that God would intervene in the midst of the situation.

Beyond political peace and security, Curry says there’s a critical need for basic necessities.

CURRY: I pray for for those that are hungry, because food is going to be an issue, infrastructure issues are going to be an issue and getting people the care that they need.  I mentioned COVID because the medical situation is you know, going to be severe.

Afghanistan is number two on Open Doors’ World Watch List. Next to North Korea, it’s the most difficult country to be a Christian. That means the country definitely needs prayer for Christian revival.

So, what do believers need to grow, even under persecution?

CURRY: The ability to meet, to share, to learn from each other, to commune together, to learn based on scripture, I think these are critical elements.

To help believers pray more consistently, Open Doors offers many helpful resources on the org website and prayer app. But they aren’t the only ones helping Christians step up their game. A number of organizations, missionaries and churches offer resources like email newsletters, podcasts and vlogs to encourage and equip prayer.

When my kids were young, we used a map from Voice of the Martyrs to guide our daily prayers. All of these resources can make it easier to pray for your suffering brothers and sisters in Christ.

For his part, Curry says he often sees prayer have a huge impact.

CURRY: We had one story about a pastor in rural Vietnam, who was totally overwhelmed, had been imprisoned. And we posted his prayer requests on our app. Meanwhile, we had a team member in Vietnam, who happened to be meeting with him. And right in the midst of that, this team member was able to pull up and see all of the prayer requests that were coming from around the US for that individual person.

Prayer encouraged the pastor to keep going. Soon after, things turned around for him.

CURRY: I can tell story after story after story, how prayer changes things. These are situations, whether it be North Korea or anywhere else that they seem intractable, but things do move.

To close today, I wanted to go beyond talking about prayer. I asked David Curry to offer a prayer so we could pray along with him.

CURRY: Father, we pray for those people right now in Afghanistan, who are hungry, who are sick, who are now displaced, who are suffering. And we pray for the future. We pray for the leaders there, we pray for those, even those people who seize control who have evil intent, we pray God that you would intercede miraculously in their hearts, their mind. We pray that you would frustrate those who seek to do wrong and to hurt, that you would make their way so difficult. God, we want everybody to know Jesus, but we pray for protection, peace. We know the pain, we know the brutality, we know the history, but yet we are going to speak hope into the midst of darkness, as dark as it gets, then that means our little light is going to be seen all the better. And Lord, that's what we pray for this situation and for persecuted believers everywhere, those who are hurting and in prison, hungry because they've decided to call themselves by your name. Be with them today. Miraculously, your presence be with them. May they know others are praying for them. And I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emily Whitten.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 19th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Here’s commentator Cal Thomas now on “the buck stops here” versus “passing the buck.”

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: After searing criticism from Democrats and Republicans about how he has mishandled the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Biden interrupted his Camp David retreat to return to the White House earlier this week. There he made a speech in which he blamed the Trump administration for the problem.

The only time he came close to admitting culpability for the scenes playing out on American TV screens was when he paraphrased Harry Truman’s iconic line “the buck stops with me.” Except that for Biden, the “buck” never arrives in the Oval Office. Any failure—whether at our southern border, or in Afghanistan—is someone else’s fault.

In his address, the president blamed Afghan forces for not fighting hard enough. What morale and fighting spirit that remained surely evaporated when they realized Biden no longer had their back. Corruption in the Afghan government didn’t help. The Taliban used that to persuade many to come to their side. The consequences for Afghan girls and women will be enormous. Likewise for Afghan interpreters who helped Americans. Reports of Taliban fighters going door to door searching for them does not bode well for their future.

U.S. military leaders recommended at least 2,500 troops remain in Afghanistan, along with support from intelligence personnel and contractors to keep the Taliban at bay. As recently as July 8, Biden twisted their advice, saying, quote—“Our military commanders advised me that once I made the decision to end the war, we needed to move swiftly to conduct the main elements of the drawdown. And in this context, speed is safety.”

Clearly, speed has been the opposite of safety. “Walk, don’t run to the nearest exit” is good advice in a movie theater fire and it should have been our strategy for withdrawal from Afghanistan.

That there was a complete intelligence breakdown is beyond dispute. As recently as June, “intelligence briefings suggested it would be at least a year and a half before Kabul was threatened.” It turned out one weekend was enough.

Afghan troops apparently concluded Biden was not in it to win it.

We need to rethink not only our foreign policy, but how to respond to threats of terrorism in a rapidly changing world. We are still approaching these threats with strategies modeled after World War II.

A quote from former Secretary of State Colin Powell seems relevant: “Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment.”

At the end of his speech, President Biden immediately left the White House without taking questions. He returned immediately to Camp David. It seemed a metaphor for his shameful and rapid retreat from Afghanistan.

Surrender will only encourage our enemies. They see America as increasingly weak, led by a president who appears even weaker.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet is back for Culture Friday.

And, cops and dogs. We’ll tell you about a new family friendly show featuring an unlikely crime-fighting duo.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Myrna Brown.

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

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

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