The World and Everything in It - August 20, 2021

NICK EICHER, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Culture Friday, worldview matters and we’ll talk about that as it relates to what’s driving the chaos in Afghanistan.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: We’ll talk about it with John Stonestreet.

Also today, a new buddy cop series featuring man’s best friend.

And George Grant with Word Play.

EICHER: It’s Friday, August 20th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

EICHER: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: U.S. forces struggle to speed up evacuations from Kabul » U.S. forces are struggling to speed up evacuations from Kabul as thousands of civilians try to make their way into the airport.

But Major Gen. Hank Taylor told reporters Thursday.

TAYLOR: In the past 24 hours, 13 C-17s arrived with additional troops and equipment. Also, 12 C-17s departed. These flights contained more than 2,000 passengers.

He said they’re ready to begin flying larger numbers out each day.

But the evacuations are running into a range of issues from armed Taliban checkpoints to paperwork problems.

And despite the Taliban’s charm offensive in the media, reports continue of militants going door to door in Kabul, hunting for Afghans who worked with Western forces.

And Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin conceded that unless they can get to the airport, they’re on their own.

AUSTIN: We don’t have the capability to go out and collect up large numbers of people.

Meantime, US allies continue to lament the handling of the pullout. The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said Thursday...

BORRELL: Let me speak clearly and bluntly, this is a catastrophe. It’s a catastrophe for the Afghan people, for the Western values and credibility, and for the developing of international relations.

Tensions grow in Haiti over slow pace of aid after quake » Meantime in Haiti, tensions have been growing over the slow pace of aid reaching victims of a powerful weekend earthquake.

Relief supplies are arriving in Haiti. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said U.S. forces are delivering aid.

KIRBY: They’ve transported search and rescue responders and 5,500 pounds of medical supplies.

But getting those supplies to people in need has been a challenge.

Torrential rains from Tropical Storm Grace caused mudslides and washed out roads in some areas. And then there’s the problem of gang violence.

United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric…

DUJARRIC: Our humanitarian colleagues are telling us that access to the southern peninsula where the quake hit is challenging because gangs are controlling movements. Local authorities are negotiating access.

A major hospital in the capital of Port-au-Prince was closed Thursday for a two-day shutdown in protest. That after gangs kidnapped two doctors, including one of the country's few orthopedic surgeons.

Saturday’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,000 people and left about 30,000 families homeless.

Convalescent plasma study yields disappointing results » A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday showed disappointing results for a particular kind of COVID-19 treatment. WORLD’s Sarah Schweinsberg has more.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: Researchers gave 250 emergency room coronavirus patients infusions of blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors, while another 250 patients got dummy infusions.

And the outcomes between the two groups were very similar.

Nearly a third of both groups became sick and returned to the hospital. Five patients died in the plasma group, while only one died in the other group.

Regeneron’s antibody cocktail is two drugs that together mimic the antibodies a person might naturally get after having COVID-19. President Trump got this treatment when he had the disease, and now Texas Governor Greg Abbott is receiving it.

Abbott recently announced nine new antibody treatment centers would open in the state.

Florida and Missouri are also expanding access to the antibody cocktail. Some are criticizing the Republican state leaders for expanding the expensive treatment while rejecting mask mandates.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

Man surrenders after claiming to have bomb near Capitol » A man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck near the Capitol surrendered to law enforcement after an hourslong standoff Thursday.

US Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger:

MANGER: Ultimately, we were able to take him into custody without incident. But there were certain things that we saw in his truck, for instance a propane gas container.

The threat triggered a massive police response and the evacuations of government buildings and businesses in the area.

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry of North Carolina. They’re still trying to determine what motivated him to drive onto the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress and make bomb threats.

But relatives of the suspect said he was distraught over deaths in his family and recent events in his life.

Federal appeals court upholds Texas ban on dismemberment abortions » A federal appeals court in New Orleans this week upheld a Texas law banning dismemberment abortions. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The 2017 law seeks to prohibit the use of forceps to dismember unborn babies while they’re still alive inside the womb.

Abortion rights advocates argued that babies cannot feel pain during the gestation period affected by the law. They also argued in court that one alternative provided in the law, using suction to remove a fetus, also results in dismemberment.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked enforcement of the law last year. But Texas was granted a re-hearing by the full court, and a majority of the 14 appellate judges who heard arguments in January sided with Texas on Wednesday.

Kimberlyn Schwartz with Texas Right to Life celebrated the decision. She said “Anyone can see the cruelty of dismemberment abortions.” She added, “We’re grateful the judges recognized this horror.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin. 

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: worldview consequences in Afghanistan.

Plus, our affinity for abbreviations.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Friday, August 20th, 2021.

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

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

A reign of terror! That’s how those on the ground describe the situation in Afghanistan.

Things have gone from bad to worse from the time the Taliban captured Kabul, the capital, effectively taking control of the government.

EICHER: Since that time those on the ground report the Taliban are hunting unmarried women, tracking down Shiite Hazaras, and jailing and torturing Christians.

Adding to that, those heartbreaking images of Afghans climbing onto U.S. military planes, risking their lives—in some cases, horrifyingly, losing their lives just to try to get out of the country.

If that isn’t a picture of desperation, then nothing will convey it adequately.

BROWN: It’s Culture Friday. I want to welcome John Stonestreet, the president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Morning, John.

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning.

BROWN: We’re really proud of the work of our colleague Mindy Belz. She’s traveled extensively and she’s been our reporter on the ground. She continues to bring clarity and is helping us understand what’s happening in Afghanistan.

And I know you feel the same about her work—making her your go-to this week on your podcast—and what struck me, as I’m sure it did you, was Mindy’s reporting on national ID cards in Afghanistan where religious belief is stated that Christians there openly stated on those cards that they are “Christian” and now there’s fear they will pay a high price with the Taliban suddenly in charge of the country.

What a spectacular political failure, and to be fair, a long, bipartisan time in the making! But isn’t it fundamentally a consequence of the failure to understand worldview motivations?

STONESTREET: Partially, certainly. It's just a failure on every single level. But the worldview side is really important because, for example, there's from State Department officials that hope that the Taliban will become a kinder, gentler, Taliban. The problem is, of course, that the Taliban are operating off a game plan that goes back thousands of years, not just 10 or 20 years. We remember some of the radical Islamists talking about doing what they're doing in revenge for the fall of Spain. I mean, that takes you back to the very beginning of this whole conflict between Christendom and Islam. Not to mention all the other chapters of this story.

We just don't have that sort of cultural memory. We certainly don't have that sort of framework to understand a religiously motivated point of reference, which is about history. It's not just about what's happening now. It's not about economics. It's not about geopolitics. It's about a complete understanding of the story of the world.

I tell you though—I was really struck, as you were Myrna, with the story of these pastors. As Mindy shared on our podcast, the growth of the church in Afghanistan has set it to be one of the fastest growing churches in the world. Of course, that doesn't mean it's big. It means it's probably small and just doubling and doubling and doubling. But the decision by these Christians to put Christian as their religion on their national ID cards was one of courage, and it was one of wanting to identify a family legacy.

As a dad, I often think about faith being part of my family legacy to my kids. I think about it being the thing that will give them hope and a grounding in truth, and that will give them courage and maybe even joy. These individuals had to know the risks related to making Christianity a part of their family legacy; it would mean that faith ensures suffering and persecution. And as Mindy shared, that's already happened. The government database is now in the hands of the Taliban who are using it to track down people, to let them know they know what they’re doing as Christians. Now we're just waiting for these awful stories that are trickling out to be confirmed. I think it's another example where Christians here will learn from their brothers and sisters in other parts of the world.

BROWN: On your podcast this week, you talked about the eeriness of what’s happening now compared to what happened 20 years ago on 9/11. I think I feel the same way, but what did you mean “eeriness,” what about the parallels are eerie to you?

STONESTREET: Well honestly, the most eerie thing having to do with any of this is that President Biden decided to make 9/11 his new deadline for withdrawal. I mean, it's hard to understand what sort of optics he was going for, what sort of party he thought he was going to have from claiming responsibility for a great victory which has instead probably turned into the defining debacle of his presidency. This will go on his record forever. That's the eeriness that I talked about.

And what's going through your mind, how much do you have to miss the actual truth of the story on the ground and not understand the motivations of this group, which we've now had 20 years to get acquainted with, to try to make that your deadline? If one who can think beyond the last 20 years realizes that the date 9/11, at least for the Islamic world, has significance beyond what happened in 2001. For us, the only part of that story is 2001. But that had something to do with this long history, this long struggle of what they see is an inevitable progress of Islam to take over the world. So that's the big part of it.

I just don't know how many times America can fall asleep in light of this worldview. And I get it. I mean, the last several years, there was the status quo. 2,500 troops were enough to work with the Afghan government and provide air support that they needed in order to hold off the Taliban to some degree. But you know, you can kind of see it as like, “oh yeah, the Taliban.” You could hear it across media. You can certainly hear it across dinnertime conversations. It's, “oh, yeah, the Taliban. I forgot about those guys. They're bad dudes, right?” And all of a sudden, yeah.

And then this is what happens in a world that suffers from chronological snobbery, when a worldview drives us to think about what's newer, and what's bigger, and what's better. And we have this ridiculous notion of progress. I mean, the headlines were just too easy, for example, for the Babylon Bee when they were talking about all the military secrets that were uncovered by the Taliban, and they're reading all these books on wokeness that were left. And it's a joke, I get it. But there's something there where—as one blogger put it—we're not a serious people anymore. We're having conversations about ridiculous things. And we're missing this consistent, constant challenge that's in front of us, now for yet another chapter.

I think, also, I just don't know how many times America can fall asleep in light of this worldview. And I get it. I mean, the last several years, there was the status quo. 2,500 troops were enough to work with the Afghan government, provide the air support that they needed in order to hold at least the Taliban to some degree at bay. But you know, you can kind of see it as like, Oh, yeah, the Taliban. You could kind of hear it across media. You can certainly hear it across dinnertime conversations. It's Oh, yeah, the Taliban. I forgot about those guys. They're bad dudes, right? And all of a sudden, yeah. And then this is what happens in a world that suffers from chronological snobbery, when a worldview drives us to think about what's newer, and what's bigger, and what's better. And we have this ridiculous notion of progress. I mean, the headlines were just too easy, for example, for the Babylon Bee when they were talking about all the military secrets that were uncovered, you know, by the Taliban, and they're reading all these books on wokeness that were left. And it's a joke, I get it. But there's something there where we're not a serious, as one blogger put it, we're not a serious people anymore. We're having conversations about ridiculous things. And we're missing this consistent constant challenge that's in front of us now for yet another chapter.

EICHER: We’re speaking of difficult, desperate situations and we shouldn’t forget about Haiti. Another terrible earthquake claiming more than a thousand lives, followed by dangerous tropical weather coming on top of a political assassination. This is overwhelming to think about, but here again, do we not have worldview issues to consider when we talk about what makes the suffering in Haiti so much worse?

STONESTREET: Well, absolutely. You know, the easy (but inadequate) way to look at the story of Haiti is to say, “good heavens, how unlucky can one nation be?” But the thing is there's a difference between a nation where all of these things come with devastating consequences, and a nation that has the infrastructure and the disaster relief systems in place to be able to navigate these: Where what is an already very calamitous situation doesn't become one that is yet more devastating. But almost everything is devastating for Haiti. And that's because there's already a level of devastation of job insecurity, gang violence, you name it: One after another.

One of the interesting analyses comes from my friend, Darrow Miller, in his book (which is now years old) called “Discipling the Nations”, in which he looks at the difference between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. If the story of the world is one of natural resources, and that wouldn't make any sense whatsoever, there would not be such a dramatic difference between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but you can see it from space. You can see it from Google Earth. You can see it from an airplane. It's worldview. It's not just what resources are available, because this is the same island. It's what you do with those resources, and how you understand the value of people. What you think will bring you success and a nation captivated at so many levels by corruption, by voodoo, and just all the worldview challenges that that brings is one where these sorts of disasters are made that much worse.

BROWN: John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

EICHER: John, thanks so much.

STONESTREET: Thank you.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Well here’s something you already knew, but now there’s a scientific study to prove you were right.

The study at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan evaluated nearly 300 undergraduates, who all interacted with dogs.

And what they found is that cuddling with your dog will likely improve your mood.

Researchers found that not just interacting with a dog, but actual physical touch has the greatest impact on mood. That’s everything from a behind-the-ear scratch to a good ole belly rub.

Associate professor Dr. John-Tyler Binfet said “be sure to make time for a canine cuddle.” He added, “that’s a surefire way to reduce stress.”

Good advice!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, August 20th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: More good news for dog lovers. 

Here’s reviewer Collin Garbarino.

COLLIN GARBARINO, REVIEWER: Turner and Hooch, the new series airing on Disney+, is a spin-off of the 1989 film starring Tom Hanks. Hanks played Scott Turner, a small-town policeman who solves a big case with the help of a slobbery French Mastiff. In this new series, Scott Turner’s son, also named Scott, is a U.S. Marshal based in San Francisco, played by Josh Peck.

Scott: I—You know, when I was little, my dad was like a local hero. You know, he solved this big case before I was born. So yeah. Of course. Yeah. I wanted to be just like him. But he never did anything like that again, you know? He was just like this small-town cop. And—and I wanted to chase bad guys. That’s what the marshals do. So… I joined.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Just like his dad, Scott likes everything neat and tidy. But also just like his dad, his life is thrown into chaos when he’s forced to adopt an unruly dog named Hooch. The elder Turner dies before the start of the series, and he leaves this latest French Mastiff to his son. Needless to say, he’s not thrilled with the gift.

Jess: You do know what happens to dogs at the pound, right?

Scott: Yeah, some—many get adopted, right? To wonderful, loving families. Shouldn’t Hooch be with a wonderful, loving family? Who, I don’t know, loves slobber?

Young Scott is on the trail of bank robbers, kidnappers, and jewel thieves. Hooch just keeps tripping him up, sometimes literally. But no one in his life will let him get rid of the dog, so he starts looking for ways to work with him.

Erica: Hi, I—I’m Erica Mounir.

Scott: Uh, Scott Turner. This is Hooch.

Erica: Hi, Hooch. I run the K-9 explosives detection training for the Marshal Service.

Scott: I know this is an unusual situation, but if there’s anything you can do, please. Please, I—I’m desperate.

Cue the romance. Just like his dad, who married the local vet, it looks as if Scott’s going to find love when he finds someone to help him with Hooch. Erica’s obviously smitten from the start, but Scott seems oblivious.

Scott comes across as a little naïve, a little insecure, and a little too eager. But don’t worry, Hooch will help him find the right path. Of course, each episode features a bad guy of the week, and a mystery lurks in the background. Was Scott’s father working on a secret investigation when he died?

Hooch: [Barking]

But the big question is, does this new series live up to the 1989 movie? I’m going to go out on a limb here and warn you the original probably isn’t as good as you remember it being. Even so, this series doesn’t have anyone who can rival Tom Hanks. Remember this scene, when he tells Hooch the house rules?

Scott: All right, these are the simple rules: No barking. No growling. You will not lift your leg to anything in this house. This is not your room. No slobbering. No chewing. You will wear a flea collar. This is not your room. No begging for food. No sniffing of crotches. And you will not drink from my toilet. This is not your room.

The new series contains some broad slapstick moments, but it doesn’t have a scene anywhere near that funny.

On the other hand, the new Turner and Hooch might work for family TV night. There's plenty of gun fire—it is a police show, after all—so it might not be good for small children. But despite all the whizzing bullets, no one dies in the first four episodes. And unlike the original movie, the love story has remained chaste, so far.

Scott: Hey, buddy. We’re going to go out there in a second. It’s gonna be dangerous. But I’m gonna be with you the whole way, because I know you have my back. I have your back too. Because you’re my forever dog.

The show takes some time to warm up, but by the third episode it starts to come into its own, rather than following the original movie’s setup. It also helped when I stopped comparing Josh Peck to Tom Hanks.

Scott: Good boy.

Hooch: [barks]

But let’s be honest. Even though many viewers will enjoy the nostalgia of this buddy-cop series featuring man's best friend, I can’t imagine Turner and Hooch ever running with the big dogs.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Friday, August 20th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Time now for Word Play. Or, as we like to call it around here, W-P. Here’s George Grant.

GEORGE GRANT, COMMENTATOR: In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius famously observes, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” He might have as easily asserted that brevity is likewise the soul of language. It seems that our common parlance is impulsively, incessantly inclined to shorten and simplify—thus, our fondness for abbreviations.

Abbreviations are abridged, condensed, compressed, or abstracted versions of the words or phrases we use every day. They can take a myriad of forms. Contractions, for instance, are abbreviations in which we omit letters from the middle of a word or a pair of words. He’s, she’s, and its, can’t, don’t, and won’t, I’ve, we’ve, and they’ve are all common contractions, as are the abbreviated titles for mister, missus, doctor, and saint.

Acronyms are taken from the first letters of a group of words where they are pronounced together to form a new abbreviated word. For example, NASA is the abbreviation for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; NATO is the abbreviation for the North American Treaty Organization; and OPEC is the abbreviation for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. There is radar for radio detection and ranging; and there is laser for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

Another abbreviated construction, similar to an acronym, is an initialism. It is also formed from the first letters of a group of words, but in this case each letter is pronounced individually. Thus, there is AM for ante-meridian and PM for post-meridian; or PS for post-script and RSVP for répondez s’il vous plait; there is FBI for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, CD for compact disc, CEO for chief executive officer, FAQ for frequently asked questions, NCAA for the National Collegiate Athletic Association, scuba for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, and UFO for unidentified flying object.

Initialisms are common in computing and social media slang with USB, CPU, JPG, ATM, AOL, and LOL.

Of course, the simplest form of abbreviation is shortening—cutting off the end of a word: app instead of application, vet instead of either veterinarian or veteran, limo instead of limousine, ad instead of advertisement, and flu instead of influenza. We have rehab instead of rehabilitation, admin instead of administration, ammo instead of ammunition, and rum instead of rumbullion. Bedlam is the abbreviated name for London’s Bethlehem Hospital for the mentally ill. Pakistan is an abbreviation taken from the names of the northern provinces of the British colonial Raj: Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan. Alaska is an abbreviation of Unalaska, a name derived from an Aleut word meaning, “the shores where the sea breaks its back.”

Everywhere we look, abbreviations abound. Of course, the irony is that there is no abbreviation for that very long word: abbreviation.

I’m George Grant.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It is time to thank our team in order of appearance.

Mary Reichard, Kent Covington, Katie Gaultney, Kristen Flavin, Sarah Schweinsberg, Kim Henderson, Steve West, Onize Ohikere, Joel Belz, Anna Johansen Brown, Cal Thomas, Collin Garbarino, and George Grant.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz are our audio engineers who stay up late to get the program to you early! Leigh Jones is managing editor. Paul Butler is executive producer. And Marvin Olasky is editor in chief.

And you! Thank you, because your giving makes possible independent Christian journalism.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, the Bible says, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

That passage from Hebrews goes on to exhort us not to neglect meeting together, so I do hope that this Lord’s Day you enjoy corporate worship and don’t forget your Afghan brothers and sisters in Christ. Lord willing, we’ll meet you back here on Monday.

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.