The World and Everything in It - December 2, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Fears in the West are mounting over Russia’s latest military moves around Ukraine. Just what is Vladimir Putin’s end game?

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also: omicron. We’ll talk about the new COVID variant.

Plus, Thanksgiving may be behind us, but Sarah Schweinsberg returns with one more visit to Plymouth, Massachusetts. This time—a story on how the Pilgrims worshipped.

And the musical genius of composer Stephen Sondheim.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, December 2nd. 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: Up next, Kristen Flavin with today’s news.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, NEWS ANCHOR: Supreme Court hears Mississippi abortion case » Six of the nine Supreme Court justices appeared to side with Mississippi’s new abortion law during Wednesday’s oral arguments.

Mississippi’s law protects unborn babies after 15 weeks, a direct challenge to the viability limit set by the high court nearly 50 years ago.

Lawyers arguing to overturn the law said it infringed on women’s fundamental rights. But Chief Justice John Roberts pushed back.

ROBERTS: And why would 15 weeks be an inappropriate line? So, viability, it seems to me, doesn’t have anything to do with choice. But if it really is an issue about choice, why is 15 weeks not enough time?

Justice Samuel Alito also questioned the longstanding precedent that relies on a limit that’s not clearly defined.

ALITO: What would you say to the argument that has been made many times by people who are pro-choice and pro-life that the line doesn’t really make any sense. That it is, as Justice Blackmun himself described it, arbitrary.

The 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade banned any limits on abortion before the point of a baby’s viability outside the womb. That’s generally considered about 24 weeks of pregnancy.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing against the Mississippi law, said precedent is important.

PRELOGAR: But for the court to reverse course now, I think would run counter to that societal reliance and the very concept we have of what equality is guaranteed to women in this country.

Although the justices are only considering Mississippi’s 15-week ban, they could use it as an opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade completely. That would return decisions about abortion regulation to the states.

And that’s the ultimate goal, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch told supporters on the steps of the Supreme Court after arguments ended.

FITCH: This is a wonderful opportunity to return this to the people. To us. All of us. The people. The Constitution gives us the right. We are ready, and willing, and able to do the job.

The justices could issue a ruling in the case any time between now and July.

Charges filed in Michigan school shooting » A fourth teenager injured during Tuesday’s school shooting in Michigan has died. That brings the death toll to four. Seven students ranging in age from 14 to 17 remain hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

On Wednesday, Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald filed charges against the 15-year-old gunman.

McDONALD: We are charging this individual with one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder, and 12 counts of possession of a firearm in commission of a felony.

Officials still don’t have a motive for the attack. They are combing through the suspect’s social media accounts, looking for clues.

McDONALD: There is a mountain of digital evidence. Videotape, social media, all digital evidence possible. We have reviewed it. And it absolutely, we are confident that we can show it was premeditation.

But McDonald declined to say whether the alleged gunman targeted his victims.

The teen has so far has refused to talk to investigators on the advice of his parents. McDonald hinted they might soon face charges as well, related to the gun used in the attack.

Omicron variant found in California » The CDC has confirmed the first U.S. case of COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant. The patient was diagnosed in California but had recently returned from a trip to South Africa.

Dr. Anthony Faucci made the announcement Wednesday at the White House.

FAUCI: The individual was fully vaccinated and experienced mild symptoms, which are improving at this point.

Although the patient’s quick recovery is encouraging, Faucci said it’s too soon to draw any broader conclusions from one case.

FAUCI: Any declaration of what will or will not happen with this variant, it is too early to say. And I think we need to be careful because I know you’re going to be reading a lot of tweets and a lot of comments about this. We’re really very early in the process.

The variant first reported in South Africa is spreading fast. At least 23 countries have confirmed cases.

The Biden administration imposed travel restrictions earlier this week to help slow the variant’s spread. Now officials are considering more restrictions.

Travelers to the United States must now take a COVID test three days before boarding their flights. That test window could soon shrink to just 24 hours.

Fed chair warns of persistent inflation » Fed Chairman Jerome Powell warned lawmakers on Wednesday that inflation could stick around longer than anticipated.

Powell previously said he expected prices to go down as pandemic restrictions eased and the economy returned to normal.

POWELL: The point is, we can’t act as though we’re sure of that. We’re not at all sure of that. Inflation has been more persistent and higher than we’ve expected, and we have to use our policy to address the range of plausible outcomes.

Powell told the House Financial Services Committee that while inflation is still related to pandemic pressures, it has spread more broadly in the economy. He said that increased the risk for persistent high inflation to continue through the second half of next year.

Sen. Mitch McConnell blamed Democrats for fueling higher prices.

MCCONNELL: The principal driver of that inflation is the American Rescue Package passed on a totally partisan basis earlier this year.

But Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen disputed that. She said the $1.9 trillion spending bill was at most a “small contributor” to higher prices.

I’m Kristen Flavin. Straight ahead: Russia’s latest threats against Ukraine.

Plus, Cal Thomas remembers composer Stephen Sondheim.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 2nd of December, 2021.

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

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. First up: Moscow’s ambitions.

Once again, concerns are mounting about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. The United States has warned its allies about a massive surge in military forces along the country’s eastern border.​​

Nearly 100,000 Russian troops and 50 armored vehicles have amassed near Ukraine’s Donbas region for a second time this year.

BROWN: And that’s not the only Kremlin activity alarming leaders in the West. WORLD correspondent Jill Nelson reports.

JILL NELSON, REPORTER: The 2014 Russian takeover of eastern Ukraine is still a painful subject for Kostya Farkovets.

FARKOVETS: It absolutely devastated our lives. We had to separate with part of my family.

When fighting broke out near his hometown of Gorlovka, Farkovets locked up his apartment and took his wife and three sons to Kyiv. He thought it would only be for a few months. Instead, it’s been nearly eight years.

In the beginning, some Ukrainians made the difficult trek back and forth through border crossings set up by Russian-backed separatists. But nearly two years ago, the separatists shut down all checkpoints. They claim they’re protecting locals in eastern Ukraine from Covid-19. But that’s effectively sealed off the region from any outside influence.

And it’s prevented Farkovets from seeing his dad.

FARKOVETS: And that's a very touchy subject, because three days ago, my aunt passed away and he very carefully but brings up the subject, what if something happens to me?

Now, fears are mounting that Moscow may be planning another land grab.

Ben Hodges is a former commanding general of the U.S. Army forces in Europe and now works with the Center for European Policy Analysis. He’s concerned about the massive troop buildup in the east, but he’s also keeping an eye on the south: the territory near Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.

Russia invaded and illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and increased its troop presence there. But the peninsula is now suffering from a water shortage. Hodges says Russian President Vladimir Putin could spin the situation as a humanitarian crisis that requires Moscow’s intervention.

HODGES: It's all the fault of the evil Ukrainian government and the people of Crimea are suffering. And so the Russians are going to have to step in and do something about it. So that's a textbook Russian disinformation. Create the provocation and then have to send in humanitarian forces to do something.

And then there’s Ukraine’s northern border.

Belarus has been sending hundreds of migrants across its border into Poland as a way to destabilize Europe. At the same time, Russia deployed forces to Belarus last month for what Moscow claims are “snap exercises.”

Hodges says the timing isn’t a coincidence, and the Kremlin is complicit in the migrant crisis.

HODGES: What I don't know is which is which? Is the border situation in Belarus, is that the distraction to draw people's attention away from away from Ukraine? Or is the activity in Ukraine designed to draw attention away from what's happening in Belarus?

Either way, he says Russian troops gathered near Belarus are now dangerously close to Ukraine’s northern border.

HODGES: These Russian troops that are in the Western military district, they are in place. They could either go into Belarus or they could go south into Ukraine, and Ukraine's armed forces are focused on Donbas. And so they don't have lots of troops that are up in the northern part.

All this just months after Putin penned an article claiming Ukraine has never been an independent state. Hodges says the Kremlin is promoting a twisted narrative to Russians and attempting to discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the West.

HODGES: The number one objective for the Kremlin is to present Ukraine to the West as a failed state, to limit or dissuade Europe from further integration of Ukraine into the European Union, for example, and certainly to prevent Ukraine from ever being able to join NATO.

The Kremlin is also trying to alter the demographics in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. Moscow has issued more than 500,000 Russian passports in the region as a political tool.

Ukrainians in the Donbas region no longer have access to their country’s banks or government pensions. Kostya Farkovets says separatist leaders have given ultimatums to some people: either get a Russian passport or lose your source of income.

FARKOVETS: It’s very hard to say how many people out of those hundreds and thousands of people voluntarily chose to be Russian citizens. For many, it's not an option. It's the way of survival.

Russia last year transported many of those new Russian passport holders across the border to vote in Russian parliamentary elections.

FARKOVETS: And that gives even more power to Putin to say, “These are my voters. They voted for my parliament. So whatever happens, I have the full right to come and invade that part of land and come and protect them.”

Ukrainians are also concerned about religious freedom. In the occupied eastern territories, the Russian Orthodox Church is the only accepted religious institution. Other faith groups have experienced significant restrictions.

Farkovets says the small church he used to attend in Gorlovka still meets on Sundays, but they are discreet.

FARKOVETS: There is no sign on the door or any announcements when the meetings are held. But they regularly come, whoever is left there. They lock up the door behind them and come to service.

Ukraine’s resources are no match for the Kremlin, especially now as the country battles a deadly wave of Covid-19. Retired Lieutenant General Hodges says the West should be sending a strong message to Putin that an invasion of Ukraine would be costly.

HODGES: I think if he sees that the West, including the United States, is not totally unified and holding them accountable, and if we don't work together with our European allies, then I think the risk of him making that terrible calculation goes up.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jill Nelson.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: omicron.

The United States is one of many nations that have announced travel restrictions to help slow the spread of the new COVID variant. Omicron was first identified in South Africa, where it’s currently spreading fast.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The White House is hoping to at least hold off the spread of the variant in the United States a little longer. U.S. officials are also hoping to buy time to answer some still unanswered questions.

Here to help explain what we do and don’t know about omicron is Zach Jenkins. He is an associate professor of Pharmacy Practice at Cedarville University. Professor, good morning!

ZACH JENKINS, GUEST: Good morning.

REICHARD: What has caused global health officials to sound alarms about this variant when other strains have more or less come and gone. That is, they didn’t materialize into major threats. Why the concern over Omicron?

JENKINS: Thus far, most of our experience with variants we've heard about have all been from a single lineage. So there are a lot of mutations that are happening that are pretty related. What's really different about Omicron is that it's a very different lineage. It's its own set of mutations, its own generated pathway to those mutations. What's particularly concerning about it is that it has several mutations on the spike protein, which a lot of our vaccines have been targeting. And natural immunity can be impacted by that as well. And it's a large number of mutations that we're seeing. So we don't know necessarily what all of that means just yet.

REICHARD: Do we have a sense yet of exactly how infectious this is as compared to the Delta strain or too early to say?

JENKINS: Well, if we can look at just the data from South Africa, what we're already seeing is rising cases, which is not necessarily alarming on its own. But when you combine that with a higher positive rate of tests in an area that may not be testing as highly as we might be,  and then also when you combine that with the fact that they're looking at wastewater and seeing a significant spike in cases, that trajectory of all those things, it's a very sharp incline compared to what we've seen in previous waves in South Africa. And so that may mean it's more infectious than delta potentially. We don't know whether that's true or not with 100 percent certainty. But it seems to be indicating that that's the case.

REICHARD: Zach, what do we know about how virulent or destructive this virus actually is as compared to previous strains like Delta?

JENKINS: Yeah, that's a great question and, honestly, one of the big challenges with mutations as they occur. They can actually harm viruses in their ability to spread farther, but also, they may actually cause less damage potentially. What we can't say right now is whether or not it causes more damage, more severe disease or less severe disease, based on these mutations. So the jury's still out on that there are only about 250 cases that we're aware of in the world at this point in time and that's what we've identified through testing. There very well could be more cases out there. So until we have more data, there's not a lot we can say.

REICHARD: Health officials are trying to figure out exactly how effective current COVID vaccines are against this variant. How will they go about determining that?

JENKINS: Well, one of the big things that they'll be looking at is identifying individuals who have been previously vaccinated and have contracted this particular variant. And one thing that's going to be important is the period that vaccination may have occurred under so we know if someone's been recently vaccinated even against Delta as an example, there's less likelihood that they will actually contract Delta, if it was recent, compared to someone who maybe had it months ago. So that's going to be one piece of data that they're looking at, in addition to just tracking whether or not these outbreaks are occurring in large vaccinated populations.

REICHARD: Supposing health officials make a determination that omicron-specific vaccine shots are needed, what will that entail?

JENKINS: So, if Omicron shots are necessary, there's going to be a lag time when we're going to have to produce a new type of vaccine that's tailored to this particular variant. It's going to take about three months on average. The CEO of Maderna has said that, I think the CEO of Pfizer has indicated that, and I'm not sure whether Johnson & Johnson has made any comments and those of course are the three vaccines that we have in the United States. So about a three month time period is a rough estimate. The other thing that will be different about this—so right now, we have booster shots that are available. This is an entirely new variant specific shot. Booster shots are not variant specific. And so because this is a new lineage, as I kind of mentioned before, there's more concern that maybe we won't have as much activity that's maintained. So they know they're going to have to ramp up production. Then distribution is a whole other problem. You've got to get it out to the community and then you have to think about a worldwide distribution as well. So time is going to be a big issue. It'll look more similar to when we first started rolling out vaccines than what we've had lately would be my guess. And in the interim, what that means is we're going to have to rely on the therapeutics we have available if we start to have these kinds of outbreaks occurring, and people do get sick from it. What we don't know, too, with our therapeutics is whether they'll hold up because our monoclonal antibodies, for example, target a specific part of a protein, and natural immunity vaccines, they create what we call polyclonal antibodies, which tend to hold up a little bit better. And even against Delta, we lost a little bit of activity there. So our ability to treat this—if it does spread quickly—could be a problem. And there's going to be all the more rush on trying to push out that vaccine quickly if that is the case.

REICHARD: Zach Jenkins is Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Cedarville University. Professor, thanks so much!

JENKINS: Thank you!

MARY REICHARD, HOST: What do you think of when you hear terms like: Global cartel? Federation? Supply and price controls? Strategic reserves?

Nope. We’re not talkin’ OPEC. Not even the flow of spice off the planet Dune. Granted, Dune’s fictional spice can facilitate intergalactic travel, but you can’t top a stack of hot, fluffy buttermilk pancakes with it.

AUDIO: Good things in life never change. “Syrup, please!”

Only maple syrup will do. And it’s in short supply.

Quebec, Canada supplies 73 percent of the world’s sappy sweetness, earning the federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers the not-so-sweet nickname the “Maple Syrup Cartel.”

An abbreviated harvest this year slowed syrups’ flow to market. Making matters worse, all those remote workers in pajamas all day demanded even more!

Maple syrup sales soared by more than 36 percent over last year. That put Canadian producers over a barrel – or, rather, thousands of barrels – and forced the federation to tap into its strategic reserve.

MYRNA BROWN: Did you say “reserve?”

REICHARD: Yes. There is a Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve. And you know what? America imports 63 percent of Canada’s maple syrup production.

BROWN: I’m grateful for that! And pass the syrup.

REICHARD: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 2nd. 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: worshiping like the Pilgrims.

The Pilgrims were really known as the Separatists when they first left England in 1608 for the Netherlands. They wanted to separate from the Church of England in order to worship simply, as they believed the New Testament taught.

REICHARD: When they came to America in 1620, they brought their worship-style with them. WORLD’S special correspondent Sarah Schweinsberg attended the 400th celebration of the Pilgrim’s arrival at Plymouth to find out what a Pilgrim church service looked like.

AUDIO: [MARCHING DRUM BEATING]

SARAH SCHWEINSBER, REPORTER: Men, women, and children dressed in thick wool skirts, pants, and tall narrow-brimmed hats… slowly march up a hill to the beat of a drum.

AUDIO: [MARCHING DRUM BEATING]

This may sound more like a military exercise, but it’s actually how Sunday mornings began for the Pilgrims in Plymouth. A drummer would go door to door collecting families who would join and walk toward the church.

At the top of the hill here today, the congregation sits in folding chairs. Men on one side of the aisle and women on the other.

This is an outdoor reenactment of a traditional Pilgrim church service. Hundreds of onlookers have come to watch under a gray sky.

JEHLE: We welcome you here to the National Monument to the Forefathers for the American Pilgrimage 400 and a reenactment of a Pilgrim church service. You may be seated.

The Pilgrims’ church service began with prayer. But not with a liturgical, written prayer like a priest or bishop in the Church of England would have made. The Pilgrims prayed extemporaneously or in the spur of the moment—a big departure for the time.

A member of Plymouth’s historical society offers up a prayer like what the Pilgrims might have prayed soon after landing at Cape Cod.

SOUND: Maker of Heaven and Earth. Thank you for blessing us even though we are here losing half our population but here we are. We thank you for who you are, we thank you for blessing us.

After prayer, there was Scripture reading.

AUDIO: Acts Chapter 17 vs. 11. These were also more noble men than they which were at Thessalonica…

The sermon made up the bulk of the service. Preaching could last up to two hours.

A tall man wearing a black Pilgrim suit and a tall top hat takes the stage. This is Paul Jehle, the president of the Plymouth Rock Foundation. Jehle gives a sermon he’s recreated from the notes of the Pilgrims’ pastor, John Robinson.

Robinson gave this sermon in 1620 as a farewell to the 52 members of his congregation who would soon leave for the Americas.

JEHLE: Fellow congregants, we have no guarantee that we will ever see one another’s face again like this. You all have chosen not only a courageous step of faith, but you’ve chosen the potential consequences as well…

Robinson went on to warn the Pilgrims to always put Scripture first.

JEHLE: And I urge you let Scripture interpret Scripture. Do not let ideas come outside of that book, and then tempt you to change its meaning.

Paul Jehle says the Pilgrims believed in simple, practical sermons.

JEHLE: They believed that we should study the Bible as it is, and not bishops telling us what it meant.

A Pilgrim church service also included plenty of singing.

JEHLE: Let’s stand together as we sing.

The Separatists sang Psalters. That’s a Psalm set to music.

JEHLE: Bow down thine ear. Jehovah answer me.

CONGREGATION: Bow down thine year. Jehovah answer me.

And they could sing for up to an hour.

AUDIO: [SINGING]

HUFFMAN: Worship itself was central to the Pilgrim’s endeavor. They came because they wanted purity of worship...

Mary Huffman is the editor of a new edition of The Pilgrim Psalter by Henry Ainsworth. These songs became a key way the Pilgrims stayed grounded in their faith.

HUFFMAN: They wanted to sing the words of Scripture, just as they wanted to pray according to Scripture, they wanted to preach according to Scripture.

She says the Psalter set all 150 Psalms to music.

HUFFMAN: Even the long Psalms, Psalm 119, Psalm 78.

The Pilgrims’ church services also included taking a voluntary offering.

Paul Jehle says that was another departure from the Church of England.

JEHLE: You would give money, but the Church of England sent it as a bill. It wasn't voluntary. So in this case, it was voluntary tithing.

So prayer, Scripture reading, preaching, and corporate worship. Today, that sounds like a pretty typical Sunday morning in most American churches. But Paul Jehle says at the time, this Scripture-centered, Congregation-driven form of worship was revolutionary.

JEHLE: The Church of England emphasized the protocols of the individual who was the leader, the focus was on the leader, and the leader doing everything in front of the people. Now, the Pilgrims emphasized they wanted the congregation to be participants. So they wanted a preacher to open the Bible, they expected everyone else to open the Bible. They wanted their Psalm singing, they wanted the congregation to be the choir.

The Pilgrims also spread the idea of local church governance—or Congregationalism—instead of taking orders from the top.

JEHLE: We can conduct our own worship service. We can change it as we see fit. Local churches can govern themselves. I think all those things are blessings from the Pilgrim tradition...

Paul Jehle and Mary Huffman say Protestant worship services in America are still influenced by the form of the Pilgrims’ worship. But sometimes the substance of what the Pilgrims were trying to do gets lost.

Huffman suggests American churches would benefit from focusing more on pure Scripture, especially in their worship.

HUFFMAN: The Pilgrims were looking to the Bible for how God commanded to worship. And to sing the Psalms exactly as God has given them to us. It changes us. My hopes are that we will understand the history of the Pilgrims better but also that we will rekindle that same desire for biblical worship.

And Paul Jehle says the Pilgrims can remind us that like the disciples—a small group of lowly people living out the gospel—can make a lasting mark.

JEHLE: I think for the church, you don't have to be large. You don't have to be wealthy, you don't have to be famous. You can just live out your faith and that testimony alone will have influence. I think that's a message that specifically Christians today can learn from.

MUSIC: [Record Psalter]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 2nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Here’s commentator Cal Thomas on the genius of the late Stephen Sondheim.

AUDIO: “Being Alive” from Company

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Composer Stephen Sondheim died last week. He was 91 years old. His passing marks more than the end of an era. It is the end of a chain of great Broadway musicals dating back to the 1920s. That’s when Jerome Kern’s Showboat first dazzled theater audiences.

I met Sondheim only once. It was at a friend’s apartment in New York. When I walked in, he was sitting on a couch, talking to someone. When that man left, I sat down next to him. “Mr. Sondheim,” I said nervously, “I can’t think of anything to add to all of the wonderful things that have been said about your work, so I will just say thank you.” He smiled and said, “thank you” and uttered a pleasantry I have since forgotten, because I was in awe of him.

In 2008, Sondheim and Frank Rich, the former chief drama critic for The New York Times, conducted a series of interviews in several theaters around the country. In Portland, Oregon, Rich asked Sondheim how he at the tender age of 25 was chosen to write the lyrics for West Side Story.

The story is a long one, but the basics are these: He knew playwright and director Arthur Laurents, who told him he was about to start work on a musical version of Romeo and Juliet and Leonard Bernstein was going to do the music. Sondheim had written a show called Saturday Night that “died” for lack of financial backers before it could be produced. But he had a folio of songs, and he shared them with Bernstein. After hearing them, Bernstein offered him the job.

Lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, Sondheim’s great tutor, advised him to take Berstein’s offer. He did. And Sondheim’s lyrics, combined with Bernstein’s melodies, became songs for the ages.

I have often wondered where such genius comes from. Clearly, it’s a rare gift. I once asked Steve Allen, the first host and creator of The Tonight Show, about this. Allen wrote over 3,000 songs, played the piano, acted, was a comedian, and wrote mysteries. “Did you go through the gift line more than once?” I asked him. He said he couldn’t explain it. Practice helps, but I couldn’t do what these creative geniuses did with any amount of practice.

People who create beauty stand out in an increasingly dark culture, even when their creations seem dark, as do some of Sondheim’s lyrics. It’s difficult for me to pick a favorite. Some songs are well known, like “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music. Others, not so much, like the ones from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

One of my favorites would have to be the one I used in a proposal letter to my wife. It’s called “Being Alive” from Company. The line that touches my heart and touched hers is “alone is alone, not alive.”

AUDIO: “Being Alive” from Company

Thank you, Mr. Sondheim.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: the evangelical fracture. Is this something new or something else? John Stonestreet joins us to discuss on Culture Friday.

And, a new Christmas special from the team behind The Chosen.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

VERSE:TKTKT

Go now in grace and peace.

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