The World and Everything in It: August 20, 2025

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

From Obama to Mamdani: Democrats debate how far left is too far left. Where’s the party headed in 2026 and beyond?

NICK EICHER, HOST: Hunter Baker’s standing by for Washington Wednesday. We’ll also talk about semiconductors, state redistricting fights, and the future of voting machines.

Also today, our weekly international news round up, WORLD Tour.

And later: when sports collide with Sunday worship, one youth baseball league makes time for both.

LANNING: We do a worship service at every state we have.

MAST: It’s Wednesday, August 20th. 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, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Ukraine: Push for trilateral meeting » The Trump administration is pressing for a sit-down meeting with both Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to move peace talks forward.

At the White House on Tuesday, reporters asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about Putin’s willingness to meet with Zelenskyy:

REPORTER:  I understand that the White House is working and allies are working to make this meeting happen, but did Putin promise to do a meeting with Zelenskyy, a direct meeting, in the coming weeks?

LEAVITT: He has, and I just answered that question for you.

The Kremlin, meantime, says it has agreed “in concept” and is open to such a meeting but has not signaled any firm intent to a trilateral meeting.

President Trump met with Putin on Friday and then separately with Zelenskyy and European leaders on Monday.

Ukraine: Push for trilateral meeting » The White House also stated Tuesday that Trump understands Ukraine’s need for security guarantees in any new peace deal.

LEAVITT:  The President has definitively stated, uh, US boots will not be on the ground in Ukraine, but we can certainly help in the coordination and perhaps provide other means of security guarantees to our European allies.

Trump said those guarantees may have to come without future membership in NATO. He says Ukraine would likely have to give up its ambitions of joining the alliance as part of any agreement with Moscow.

Kyiv says its need for security guarantees was underscored once more on Tuesday by another major Russian airstrike.

Ukraine’s Air Force says Russia launched nearly 300 drones and 10 missiles striking key energy facilities in central Ukraine.

Israel/Gaza cease-fire latest » Meantime, in the Middle East, negotiators in Qatar trying to broker a ceasefire in Gaza say they’re awaiting word from Israel on the latest proposal. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER: Negotiators say the Hamas terror group has agreed to that proposal. The deal on the table is said to be almost identical to the one put forward by the US earlier this year.

Reportedly a 60 day pause in fighting with Hamas releasing roughly half of the 20 or so surviving Israeli hostages.

Israel hasn't issued an official response.

Fox News reports that an Israeli official, speaking anonymously, says the country's position hasn't changed from recent public declarations that it is now demanding the return of every living hostage.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

D.C. federal takeover / crime data » The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether police officials in Washington, D.C., have falsified crime data. That’s according to the Associated Press, citing two officials not authorized to speak publicly.

That follows reports that a D.C. police commander was placed on leave in May … amid allegations of altering crime statistics in his district.

D.C. police union chief Gregg Pemberton asserted Tuesday that there is evidence that police leadership has interfered with officers’ reporting of crimes.

PEMBERTON:  There'll be a shooting or a stabbing. And if the victim is uncooperative with the police, which is not uncommon in some areas of the city, uh, they'll be directed to take an injured person to the hospital report, which is not even a crime at all. It's an incident report. Uh, sometimes you'll have a robbery, it’ll be reported as a theft.

The District of Columbia has claimed that violent crime is down 26% from last year.

Mayor Muriel Bowser's office declined to comment on the investigation.

News of the probe comes a week after President Trump announced that the federal government would assume authority over D.C.’s Metro Police Department.

Sanctuary cities - Boston » Boston Mayor Michelle Wu says her city will continue to oppose the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.

That comes despite warnings from Attorney General Pam Bondi that sanctuary cities must cooperate with federal immigration enforcement or pay the price.

But the Democratic major said Tuesday:

WU:  Cities are doing everything we can to protect our residents and keep moving forward.  The Trump administration seeks to divide, isolate, and intimidate cities … and make Americans fearful of one another.

But Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin fired back:

MCLAUGHLIN:  Politicians have to take action and stop playing these political games. 70% of the arrests that are made under this administration have been of illegal immigrants with prior criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. So these are criminals that we're going after.

The Justice Department has warned Boston and at least 30 other sanctuary jurisdictions that they face the loss of millions in federal grants. And some officials could even face criminal charges for taking actions to impede federal immigration enforcement.

Hurricane Erin » Hurricane Erin is causing dangerous swimming conditions along the East Coast.

The storm was still expected to be packing Category-2 winds of 100-plus miles per hour this morning, fortunately, more than 200 miles off the U.S. coastline.

But officials in North Carolina’s Outer Banks ordered evacuations after issuing a storm surge warning. Michael Brennan with the National Hurricane Center:

BRENNAN:  This means there's the danger of life-threatening inundation, uh, of two to four feet of inundation above ground level. And that is, again, life-threatening inundation.

Dangerous currents and storm surge are the main threats on the U.S. East Coast.

Heavy rainfall is possible for parts of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: our weekly conversation with Hunter Baker on Washington Wednesday. Plus, setting faith priorities during baseball playoffs. 

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 20th 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.

Joining us is political scientist and WORLD Opinions Commentator Hunter Baker.

Hunter, good morning.

HUNTER BAKER: Good morning.

EICHER: The Trump administration is proposing to convert nearly eight billion dollars in CHIPS Act grants into an equity stake—possibly around ten percent—in the American chipmaker Intel. Quick background: The CHIPS Act came about in 2022 providing more than $50 billion in subsidies, tax credits, and research funding in an effort to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC this week. Listen:

BESSENT: The last thing we want is a Huawei Belt and Road, where Huawei is selling chips to the rest of the world and U.S. technology is excluded.

Belt and road. He’s talking about China, and so too was Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, same network.

LUTNICK: We need to make our own chips here. We cannot rely on Taiwan, which is 9,500 miles away from us and only 80 miles from China. You can’t have 99% of leading-edge chips made in Taiwan. We want to make them here.

Do we, Hunter, and why?

BAKER: Yeah. So typically if you have sort of a free market orientation, you would say, I don't want this kind of industrial policy. I don't want the United States government, you know, subsidizing or taking a stake in a company like Intel. But this is a little bit different. As you pointed out, Taiwan has become sort of the epicenter of chip manufacturing in the world.

And we all know how important microchips are to everything that we're doing in life today. And so typically even, even the most ardent sort of free market people would accept sort of a national defense kind of an argument that there are certain industries that we have to have viable within our own borders. The steel industry is often one of those that we would talk about. Well, microchips are now in that conversation and there are people who are realizing that we need a company like an Intel not to fail, right? And to be strong in this area.

EICHER: So it’s hard to contradict the national security case, but what about the taking of the equity stake. It’s not totally clear to me how that necessarily helps, especially given Secretary Lutnick’s statement that the White House is not seeking a governance voice within the company. Again, from CNBC, here’s how he positioned the move:

SOTNICK: We want equity for the money. If we’re going to give you the money, we want a piece of the action for the American taxpayer.

He specifically dismissed criticism from The Wall Street Journal that this is Democrat-style “industrial policy” and picking winners and losers. He said it isn’t. He says it’s just an alternative to pumping free money into big tech. But if there’s no governance leverage, how does that advance the national security goal?

BAKER: Well, it helps the company. The United States government taking a stake in Intel shows a certain amount of confidence. And actually, it's better for the taxpayer this way because previously they were going to get something like maybe $8 billion just in grants. This way, the United States government actually has a stake in the company.

And the U.S. government has entered companies before and then exited. I think that's happened with General Motors in the past. And of course, you also have European countries that are involved with Airbus and that partnership has been quite successful and going better than Boeing lately. So I think it's wise to have them do this. It secures the taxpayers' interest much better than a grant because when all is said and done, it's very likely that the government will be able to exit the stake if it wants to and to get its money back and probably with a reasonable return.

MAST: Fourteen months still until the 2026 midterms, but lots of maneuvering around the country in advance. President Trump said this week he wants to do away with both mail-in voting and voting machines.

TRUMP: We're going to start with an executive order that's being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they're corrupt and uh you know that we're the only country in the world, I believe I may be wrong, but just about the only country in the world that uses it because of what's happened, massive fraud all over the place. The other thing we want change are the machines.

The President also claims states are an “agent” for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes and must do what the Government tells them. How far can the President go in changing these systems, Hunter? Are there legitimate concerns here?

BAKER: Well, I don't totally agree with his characterization of things. I mean, the states are actually sort of the dominant entities when it comes to running elections. It is true that there is room for Congress to act if there are real concerns about the way elections are carried out in the states. But traditionally, the states have been the dominant actors and probably should stay that way.

Now, with regard to these questions about mail-in voting and voting machines, I would say that the Republicans were pretty successful in 2024 encouraging voters to do those things, right? You know, to engage in early voting, to engage in mail voting is actually very successful. I don't think that it's a winning tactic or strategy for Donald Trump to discourage people of the validity of those systems. Now, there are a lot of things you can do to make voting to take care of fraud, right? To have systems that are more reliable, whether mail-in or early voting or other methods. I think voter ID being another one of those. And so I think that the right thing to do is to do everything you can to nail down that process and to make it as free of manipulation as possible.

EICHER: Hunter, also this week, the fight over redistricting has now extended far beyond Texas.

AUDIO: “A quorum is present.”

Democrats in the Texas House have ended their quorum break, returning to vote on congressional district maps that favor Republicans. But the clash has drawn national attention.

Former President Barack Obama weighed in. Interesting statement. Audio from ABC News:

OBAMA: California responding, other states looking at what they can do to offset this mid-decade gerrymandering that is highly irregular and is not what we should be doing to balance out the maps for this upcoming election.

So, highly irregular, not what we should be doing, but I guess suggesting California’s just “responding.” And here’s that response from California governor Gavin Newsom.

GAVIN NEWSOM: We'll be asking for the people on November 4th - a special election coinciding with a lot of local municipal elections - to provide a temporary pathway for congressional maps. We will affirm our commitment to the state independent redistricting after the 2030 census. But we're asking the voters for their consent to do midterm redistricting in 2026, 2028, and 2030 for the congressional maps to respond to what's happening in Texas.

So Hunter, is there really a political imbalance?

BAKER: There's a lot of different ways you can look at this. The case that a lot of Republicans have made is you look at a state like Massachusetts. Massachusetts fairly recently has had a Republican governor. They have had, you know, elected a Republican senator some time ago, and yet the state of Massachusetts has zero congressional members, congressional representatives currently, right? There is not a single district in Massachusetts that is a Republican district. So I think that some Republicans are saying, we need to maximize states like Texas any way we can. The Democrats have sort of fully gerrymandered and redistricted to the maximum amount and that we need to do the same. I'm very concerned. I mean, from my perspective, I think that redistricting halfway through a 10-year cycle is indeed highly irregular.

And now California is going to respond with even greater irregularity, right? They are proposing to redistrict halfway through, and not only that, but to ignore their existing nonpartisan commission that is supposed to draw the lines, right? I mean, really, this is kind of just a thing that continues to escalate and escalate. I wrote a piece in WORLD Opinions arguing against these kinds of practices. I think that nationwide we should seek reform.

And this is the same sort of a question as what we're talking about with voting practices. We all need to feel like we have a principled neutral process, sort of a level playing field upon which our elections take place.

MAST: Hunter, I'm curious, what sort of reforms would you look for for a nationwide movement?

BAKER: Yeah, so first of all, I like the idea of having these nonpartisan commissions that draw the lines. We have a lot of technology that allows us to examine the demographics and to try to achieve that. There are some simple principles saying we don't want any districts that have these bizarre shapes. We want the districts to be relatively compact.

If the district can take in an existing community of interest, we want it to, right? So for example, if a county can fairly easily become a district, let's do that. There are just a number of common sense ways to avoid these bizarre shapes that are designed to maximize party advantage.

MAST: And speaking of Obama, let’s turn again to New York, and the mayoral race there.

“SHOW ME WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE / THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE / WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN"

It seems like it’s shaping up to be as much about national politics as it is the city. Here’s sound from a recent rally with mayoral frontrunner, the socialist candidate Zoran Mamdani.

MAMDANI: We are standing in front of Federal Plaza, the very site where New Yorkers are being stolen, whether from their families, their friends, or from the city that they call home. It is at this very site that we understand the cost of this news that former Governor Cuomo has been conspiring with President Trump about the fate of this city, about the future of this City, about the facts of this race. It is knowledge that is a betrayal of everything that we stand for as New Yorkers.

The New York Times published an Opinion piece last week about the implications of a phone call from Obama to Mamdani. It says many in Obamaworld seem to be embracing him, and that could mean mainstream Democrats will follow.

Hunter, what do you think: Is this a test to see where the party is? And what would the next couple of years look like with Mamdani at the top?

BAKER: Yes, there's always a tension within a political party. The same exists on the Republican side. And the tension is, is that you have the people who are sort of the real ideological diehards. And those people tend to believe that if we pushed harder in our preferred direction, whether to the right or the left, right, conservatives, if we would just be more conservative, we would develop a better following.

Or on the left, you know, there are many who believe if we would be more socialist, for example, that we would attract a greater following among the American people. And then you have the ones who are in the center who sort of believe that American politics is like a bell curve and most of the voters are in the middle. Right. And so when I look at Obama talking to Mamdani, there are two ways I could interpret it. One is, is that he is trying to protect the Democratic Party from damaging electoral consequences from him becoming too radical. But the other is, is that I've always sort of thought that in his heart of hearts, that President Obama was fairly sympathetic to the socialist viewpoint and that maybe he wants to talk to Mamdani about how he just thinks he can be more effective as he pursues those goals.

EICHER: Hunter Baker is a political scientist and provost at North Greenville University and WORLD Opinions Contributor. Thanks so much!

BAKER: Thank you.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour.

We begin with peace talks in Ukraine and Israel.

Here’s WORLD’s Mary Muncy.

MARY MUNCY: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is speaking out about Monday's meeting with President Donald Trump and several European leaders.

ZELENSKYY: [Speaking In Ukrainian]

Speaking here, Zelenskyy says it's important for the United States to send a clear signal, that it will be among the countries participating in security guarantees for Ukraine...should a ceasefire deal be reached with Russia.

Earlier this week, President Trump said he'd called Russian leader Vladimir Putin to begin arrangements for a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy. Trump says he's hopeful that such a meeting could lay the groundwork for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, but much of that will depend on whether or not Putin is serious about peace.

TRUMP: We're gonna find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks. That I can tell you. And we're gonna see where it all goes. It's possible that he doesn't want to make a deal.

Trump added that Zelenskyy will also have to make some concessions...if a ceasefire is ever to be reached.

Now to Qatar, where negotiators are waiting for Israel to respond to a potential ceasefire deal.

MAJID AL-ANSARI: We have a positive response from Hamas.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majid Al-Ansari.

AL-ANSARI: That positive response, according to what we know, is almost all that was agreed before by Israel in previous iterations of these talks.

Qatar says the deal is almost identical to a previous US proposal. That deal involved a 60-day truce and the release of about half of the remaining 50 hostages, 20 of whom are presumed alive.

Recently, Israel has said it would not accept anything but the release of all of the hostages, Israeli leaders say Hamas is agreeing now because it’s under “immense pressure.”

Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reported this week that the Palestinian death toll has topped 60,000, since the terror group attacked Israel.

Next to Hong Kong, where closing arguments began this week in the trial of Jimmy Lai—founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper.

The government has detained Lai since 2020 on charges of foreign collusion and sedition. The 77-year old pleaded not guilty to those charges but is currently serving a sentence of over five years for fraud related to a contractual dispute.

He has been held in a windowless cell in solitary confinement for most of his sentence. He’s only been allowed to leave his cell for about 50 minutes a day. Benedict Rogers of the U.K.-based rights group Hong Kong Watch believes his treatment is meant to be a warning to others tempted to protest the national security laws.

BENEDICT ROGERS: All of the regime's actions, sadly, are having a chilling effect. And that's, yeah, that's why they're they're doing it,

Lai faces a life sentence if convicted of the current charges.

Republican Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska recently said he and the Trump administration are calling on the Chinese embassy to release Lai before he dies in prison.

SOUND: [RECOVERY EFFORTS]

Next, to India and neighboring Pakistan, where mudslides and flash floods killed hundreds of people. Many more have been displaced following the large-scale flooding, which began last week.

Mohammad Anwar Khan describes the devastation to DW News.

KHAN: The flash flood came from the upper areas and the water entered the city. The rainwater also came into our homes and washed away many vehicles, and some of them have been completely destroyed. It caused a lot of damage to our homes. The situation has become a lot worse.

Jammu Divisional Commissioner Ramesh Kumar says heavy monsoon rain caused landslides in several regions.

KUMAR [HINDI]: Because of the landslide seven people died. Rescue operations are underway, and the army, state disaster response force, national disaster response force, civil administration and police are collectively carrying out the rescue operation.

Kumar says here that India’s disaster response forces are carrying out major rescue operations, alongside relief agencies such as the Indian Red Cross. Hundreds are still missing, with rescue efforts ongoing.

SOUND: [PLANE IDLING ON TARMAC]

And finally today, we head to Budapest, Hungary, as family members and well-wishers welcomed home astronaut Tibor Kapu after a three week visit to the International Space Station.

Kapu's mission marks the country's first human spaceflight since 1980.

KAPU: [HUNGARIAN] Today, our backs are a little straighter, we raise our gaze a little higher, and our faces shine a little more. I just want to say that space exploration suits you well.

The 33-year old engineer thanked all those who supported his mission, saying that after 45 years the country can raise its gaze a little higher, and that its “faces shine a little more”, adding that space exploration looks good on the country.

When asked about a possible moon mission, Kapu said perhaps someday, but there are many more qualified astronauts who should have the opportunity to do so first.

That’s this week’s World Tour, I’m Mary Muncy.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: At the ripe old age of 14, Pearl the Texas hen is officially the world’s oldest living chicken.

She’s got the battle scars to prove it, too. Here’s her owner Sonia Hull on CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:

HULL: She’s been through a lot…a raccoon massacre when she was probably ten, she broke her leg trying to get away, then chicken pox, then pneumonia….

Hey, sounds like hen-durance to me!

Pearl’s spending her retirement in the laundry room, where she’s become besties with a mop.

HULL: As a matter of fact, maybe it’s the news of being so famous…last week she laid an egg. The first time in three years.

Haha, good for you, Pearl, she probably thought she was done with all that!

Well, she’s no spring chicken, but definitely a record-breaking one!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, August 20th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: where Sunday worship is still part of the game plan.

Now that summer’s drawing to a close, Little League teams are facing off across the country on their way to the World Series. For teams that make it this far, that means travel, and lots of it. And of course, weekends.

MAST: But one league tries to make sure families don’t have to choose between sports and Sunday worship.

WORLD Correspondent Elizabeth Shenk reports.

ANNOUNCER: Y'all ready to play some baseball? [Cheers]

ELIZABETH SHENK: Around 800 children and their families have converged on Dunn, North Carolina for the Diamond Youth Baseball World Series.

AUDIO: [Kids singing, “Two down one to go. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go”]

The players, all 8 years old or younger, have come from states as far away as Louisiana and Texas. Not even a heat index of 107 can dampen their enthusiasm.

SOUND: [Ball hit and cheers]

Terry Lanning is the league’s state director for North Carolina.

LANNING: We're focused on local children to learn to play.

Lanning has volunteered with the league for over 40 years. She started when her kids were young enough to play.

LANNING: Yeah. You're going to get me emotional. Um, the love of kids, you know, we want to do something to make it better.

For this league, “making it better” means making time for prayer and church, even at the World Series. The league’s motto is Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

LANNING: We definitely believe in God and we do feel like He oversees us.

ANNOUNCER: The team, South Carolina and Louisiana. Get that team together and you can choose to go to the pitching mound to say a quick prayer, and then we'll play another…

The league encourages coaches to lead their teams in prayer before every game, even if it means cutting the National Anthem to save time.

LANNING: We announce every ball game, “We have church services.” Not all states do that.

The Sunday service is organized by the Dunn Area Recreation Booster Club. The same club gave Bibles to every coach and player at the tournament.

ANNOUNCER: There will be a non-denominational worship service…

Nearly 4,000 people came to town to play, coach, and cheer for the league’s World Series. But on Sunday morning, only about 60 show up for the service. Many are coaches and their families. Some are local.

Beth Elmore is the principal of Plainview Elementary, just down the road from Dunn. As she welcomes the players and coaches to the Sunday service, she calls it like she sees it:

ELMORE: We could have had this place filled up with 11, 11 states in here, but I understand not everybody plays early and I think the first game's at three, but you chose to come and for that good job, parents and grandparents.

Lanning hopes every family who participates in the league is connected to a church at home. But when they travel, she wants them to have somewhere to worship together. She admits that’s sometimes a challenge.

LANNING: Well, you can tell we don't have as many people here as we would like to have, but we do a worship service at every state we have. We have prayer, we have a worship service. Sometimes we might have 80, we had one we had 250 people at. So it just depends on if we get our message out…

With guitar strapped on and fingers pressing the strings, Solomon Machado pauses to encourage the group who came before leading them in Sunday worship.

MACHADO: It's important for the little ones here and the players to show them by example, what is most important…

All the players here identify with their teams. That’s what’s on their T-shirts, their hats, and their jerseys. But Machado reminded them that’s not where they get their identity.

MACHADO: It's the name of Jesus Christ. And so being here is a wonderful example of what is top priority in life.

Andrew Pope and his boys are sitting near the front row, waiting for the Sunday service to begin. They’re local, so they could have stayed home this morning.

POPE: If we were able to go other places, we definitely, for sure would try to lock in somewhere for a service to make sure that's present for the boys and for our coaches. And just to kind of get our mindset right before we, before we take the field.

MUSIC: [Keep us awake to what’s important, Just like Mary chose the better thing]

Gentry Turner brought her 9 year old son to the service. They came from Amelia, Virginia to compete. Her son’s coaches lead the teams in prayer before every county game, so they feel right at home here.

TURNER:  I know in our area that they're trying to keep God the focus because without him we wouldn't be where we're at.

Even though the Sunday service attendance is lower than she would like, Lanning believes it’s important to encourage kids in their faith. And she’s convinced having the option of church services on the road will help.

LANNING: I think these kids will remember this, really I do.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Elizabeth Shenk in Dunn, North Carolina.

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

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Up next, commentator Janie B Cheaney on living with dignity, especially in the midst of incredible suffering.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: Novelist Lionel Shriver came to my attention years ago when she delivered a speech about “cultural appropriation” while wearing a sombrero. A little too in-your-face for my taste, but it took nerve.

Shriver’s nerves were the subject of a recent article for The Free Press, titled “I Lost Control of My Body.” After back surgery last summer, she developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, or GBS, a rare autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks its own nervous system. For months she was completely dependent on others for every bodily function. It was torture to type. She couldn’t sit up or even turn over in bed. Even today, after months of boring and exhausting therapy, she’s barely able to hobble with a cane. She may yet rejoin the ranks of the mobile, but it’s a hard road ahead with uncertain rewards.

Shriver has no use for subjecting to divine will. She writes, “There’s something passive and wussy about lying back and taking it, defeatedly making your peace with an abruptly wretched existence.” I’d like to introduce her to Joni Eareckson Tada, who has managed both immobility and frequent pain almost as long as Shriver has been alive. A less passive, wussy, and defeated soul would be hard to imagine. Still, could any functional person read Shriver’s article without an uncomfortable reminder of how vulnerable we all are?

The New York State Assembly recently passed a Medical Assistance in Dying Act, designed to help people in such conundrums make a so-called “dignified exit.” Dignified, as opposed to dependent on strangers to feed them, clothe them, and dispose of their bodily waste. I think of dignity often in connection with my husband, now approaching the final stages of Alzheimer’s Dementia. He can still walk, sit, stand, and feed himself—sometimes even with a fork—but is dependent on me for everything else. It’s a mercy that he could not have foreseen where he is now. But often, while changing pullups or undressing him for bed, I remind myself: This could be me someday.

Along the sea of Galilee after the resurrection the Lord told Peter in John 21, “when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” Thus he predicted “by what kind of death [Peter] was to glorify God.” Not a dignified death, if tradition is true. Yet, by what Matthew Henry calls “the strange alchemy of Providence,” a glorious one.

Because Christ stretched out his own hands and let strangers take him where he dreaded to go. He knew what was coming when he prayed, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son may glorify you.” Glory began with ignominious death.

I kneel to towel off my husband’s legs after a shower and remember Jesus kneeling to wash his disciples’ feet. I am obliged to treat Doug with dignity, but God has a greater goal in mind for both of us. If humiliation is the seed of a glorious bloom, how can I complain?

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: comparing U.S. illegal immigration numbers with the EU and what might be behind the difference. And, one man’s story of how art therapy paints a new picture after surviving cancer. 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 Psalmist writes: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” —Psalm 46:10

Go now in grace and peace.

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