The World and Everything in It: December 26, 2024

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Netflix was the first company to stream NFL games on Christmas day. But the story off the field is the one to really watch.

Also today, some state prisons go out of the way to accommodate men who want to be in womens’ prisons. Never mind how the women feel about it.

O'NEILL: The presence of males, no matter how the male acts, is deeply traumatizing to the female inmates…

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Plus, a medieval tradition that one church adopted as a part of its Christmas festivities.

MCFARLAND: It's not about all the presents and, you know, the marketing. It's about this baby who came to save the world.

And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says politicians are giving out way too many presents…with our money.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, December 26th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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

MARK MELLINGER, NEWS ANCHOR: Azerbaijani airliner crash in Kazakhstan »  Tragedy in Kazakhstan.

SOUND: [Airplane crashing]

That’s sound from an amateur video taken Wednesday morning… as an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed in the former Soviet republic. Video shows the aircraft climbing and diving repeatedly, then making an emergency landing at an airport in the city of Aktau…where it burst into flames.

SOUND: [Rescue crews]

Rescue crews rushed to the scene. The airline says at least 38 of the 67 people aboard the plane died. But miraculously, more than two dozen survived.

SURVIVOR: [Speaking Russian]

This man was pulled from the wreckage. He says his wife was sitting next to him when the plane crashed…but he hasn’t seen her since and doesn’t know where she is.

Russia’s civil aviation authority immediately blamed the crash on a bird strike.

ALIYEV: [Speaking Azerbaijani]

But speaking here, Azerbaijan’s president says it’s too early to determine a cause and that the government has launched a criminal investigation.

Russia targets Ukrainian infrastructure in Christmas attacks » Russia launched a blistering Christmas Day assault on Ukraine… targeting the country’s energy and power infrastructure. It left at least one person dead and half a million people in the country’s Kharkiv region were without heat.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack ‘inhumane,’ and California Congressman Ami Bera agrees.

BERA: I do think it’s inhuman to choose this particular day, but that’s not unusual for Vladimir Putin.

The attack involved a barrage of more than 70 missiles and more than 100 drones, according to Ukraine, which also says it intercepted over 50 of both types of weapons and jammed dozens more drones.

Ukraine’s government applied preemptive power outages across the country to keep distribution of electricity going to as many people as possible.

SOUND: [Christmas in Bethlehem]

Pope Christmas message calls for end of fighting in Ukraine, Gaza » Worshippers lifted their voices in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity Wednesday for Christmas morning mass. The church is built on the traditional site where many believe Jesus was born.

Meanwhile, in Rome…

SOUND: [Catholic pomp and circumstance]

Pope Francis gave a special Christmas address.

POPE FRANCIS: [Speaking Italian]

That’s the pope calling for the sound of weapons to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine. He went on to call for the same in the Middle East… characterizing the situation for Israeli and Palestinian Christians as extremely grave, and advocating for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.

Former hostage speaks at D.C. Menorah lighting » A former Hamas hostage was among the thousands of people coming together in Washington D.C. for the lighting of the national menorah. WORLD’s Travis Kircher has details on how they marked the first night of Hanukkah.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: One of those who addressed the crowd Wednesday was 63-year-old Aviva Siegel.

Siegel is one of the 250 hostages kidnapped by the terror group Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks last year. She spent 51 days as a hostage until Hamas released her and more than 100 others during a six-day ceasefire.

Her husband Keith remains in captivity.

Siegel told the crowd...

SIEGEL: I felt it. I saw it. And it should not happen to anybody in the world, and no Jew. I'm standing now for my Keith that is still a hostage, and for all the hostages that are still there. We need to bring them home now.

KIRCHER: She went on to say that those hostages deserve to be reunited with their families...so they can light their own menorah candles.

For WORLD, I'm Travis Kircher.

Trump appoints ambassador to Panama » Christmas is generally a quiet day in American politics, but President-elect Trump made sure to make some news… announcing Kevin Marino Cabrera as his pick for U.S. ambassador to Panama.

Cabrera is a Miami-Dade County commissioner who worked on Trump’s campaign.

His appointment comes at a time when Trump is suggesting the U.S. should take back control of the Panama Canal, claiming Panama is charging excessive fees to American ships passing through the waterway.

Panama’s president has pushed back against that claim, saying experts set the fees. He also insists the canal will continue to belong to Panama.

King Charles praises healthcare workers in Christmas speech » In London, King Charles used his Christmas address to express gratitude for the healthcare workers who’ve helped him and his daughter-in-law, Princess of Wales Kate Middleton, in their battles with cancer.

CHARLES: I offer special heartfelt thanks to the selfless doctors and nurses who this year have supported me and other members of my family through the uncertainties and anxieties of illness.

The king added those healthcare workers have provided the strength, comfort, and care he and his family have needed.

He also encouraged people to do a better job of listening to one another… saying good listening is essential for learning to respect differences, defeating prejudice, and opening up new possibilities. As an example, he alluded to Mary the mother of Jesus… listening to the angel Gabriel, who revealed a future of hope for all people.

I'm Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: the Washington State prison system is under scrutiny for its policies regarding male inmates who claim to be women. Plus, a Kentucky church that is keeping a medieval tradition alive as it celebrates Christmas.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 26th of December.

Glad to have you along 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.

Up first: Faith and the NFL!

You were probably just taking your turkey or ham out of the oven when the Pittsburgh Steelers began hosting the Kansas City Chiefs in a Christmas Day matchup on Netflix. It was the first time a streaming outlet had distributed an NFL game globally.

REICHARD: But it may not be the last time. The NFL is already slated to air two more Christmas Day games on Netflix for the next two years.

That’s big news, but it’s not the only football trend turning heads. 

JAKE BATES: I know for a fact that I’m not here without the unconditional love that Jesus gives us and the sacrifice He made on the cross.

MYRNA BROWN: Jake Bates is a Detroit Lions rookie who’s passionate about football and even clearer about his purpose.

BATES: I’m not here to make kicks or miss kicks. I think I’m here to spread the love of Jesus. So however long He gives me at this stage, that’s what I plan to do.

MARY REICHARD: And he’s not alone. Across the league, players like Tua Tagovailoa aren't shy about their faith.

TUA TAGOVAILOA: The best thing about being a believer of Jesus Christ to me is the good Lord up above doesn’t care whether you win a game or you lose a game.

But Tagovailoa, a quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, doesn’t sugarcoat his struggles either.

TAGOVAILOA: For me, it’s been a little tough having to play on Sundays. Having to not be able go to church…having to watch church online.

After a narrow win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year, Houston Texans quarterback, C.J. Stroud went one on one with a CBS Sports reporter.

REPORTER: Well, CJ, there’s a lot to sort through after that game. But let’s start with the game-winning touchdown. What did you see?

C.J. STROUD: First and foremost, I’ve got to give all glory and praise to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Throughout the two and a half-minute interview Stroud kept coming back to his relationship with Jesus.

STROUD: These last couple of weeks have been up and down. Been going through a lot on and off the field. But when you give your life to the Lord, He gives you opportunities and it’s what you do with it. So, He gave me this opportunity to come back in a two-minute drill.

It’s that confidence that inspires fellow-football player, Jake Bates. While the two are on opposing teams, Bates says they’re also brothers in Christ.

BATES: He starts every press conference with, He wouldn’t be here without His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so, he’s been absolutely awesome to watch and I don’t know Him personally, so I don’t want to speak on him. But just what he’s been able to do in the media and spreading Jesus’ love has been awesome to see.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: more men moving into women-only spaces.

A liberal activist group is suing Washington State, demanding it allow an inmate born a man to be sent back to the women's-only facility he was kicked out of in the first place.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: If the ACLU gets its way, this would be a first in Washington State, and perhaps the nation, where an inmate has been housed with men, then with women, then in solitary confinement in a men’s facility, before returning to a women’s prison.

BROWN: If this makes your head spin, we have WORLD’s Relations beat reporter Juliana Chan Erikson joining us now to help explain it all. Good morning Juliana…

JULIANA CHAN ERIKSON: Good morning.

BROWN: At the center of this lawsuit is Bryan Kim. Tell us about this man and how his actions led to where we are today.

ERIKSON: Brian Kim is a man serving life in a Washington state prison for murdering his parents when he was 18 years old. And nine years into his sentence, which he started at Monroe Correctional Complex—in the male side of the facility—he started the process of legally changing his name and sex. So he successfully got his name changed to Amber Fay Fox Kim, and he changed his legal sex to female.

And so now you can tell where this is going. He applied to transfer to a women's prison. And three years later, he got his wish. He was transferred to the Washington Correction Center for Women, which the locals call WCCW. The WCCW is the largest women's only facility for corrections in the state. He spent three years there until this past March when he was caught having sex with a female inmate. So as a result, he was sent back to Monroe, which is where he was before. The American Civil Liberties Union announced it was suing the Washington Department of Corrections on behalf of Kim. They refer to Kim as a woman and say that placing Kim in a men’s prison threatens Kim’s safety and other transgender prisoners like Kim.

BROWN: Kim is not the first male inmate in Washington state to convince corrections staff that he should be housed in a women’s prison. What makes this case ground-breaking?

ERIKSON: Yeah, he's not the first and he probably won't be the last. But the ACLU says this is the first case where a transgender woman inmate has been moved back to a man's prison. And maybe I should just step back and unpack that for you since this is always so confusing. So Kim is a man and he started in a male facility. He then moved to a woman's facility and there he broke the rules and then he was sent back to a man's facility. So if the ACLU wins this case, Kim would get to go back to the female facility. And all of this back and forth is unheard of from what I can tell. Keep in mind that Kim is a convicted murderer with a history of mental illness. And of course, he's still a man.

BROWN: Absolutely. As more male inmates make this type of request, it makes me wonder about the process. You had the same question and you got some answers. Tell us about that.

ERIKSON: Yeah, I had a lot of questions about this. So this story came on my radar first when I read the account of a woman named Olivia. We'll just call her that. She's using a pseudonym to protect her career and her safety. And she used to work in the King County Jail Health Services. And so we're still talking about Washington State here, but I'm switching to jails briefly.

So this nurse noticed that male inmates were able to easily initiate the process to get transferred to the female side. So she decided to just check the general policy manual for her county's Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. And there it says, “a person's self-identification as transgender, intersex, or gender variant is sufficient to trigger the protections and procedures of this policy.” It means in other words, a male inmate in jail just has to say, I'm female. And that starts the process for applying for housing to a female facility.

BROWN: Just make a statement. Just say its so. Let me ask you this…so are there males in female prisons?

ERIKSON: Yeah, and that's an interesting question and it depends on who you ask. So I asked a spokesperson at the Washington Department of Corrections, Christopher Wright, and he said, and I'll quote, “no, there are transgender individuals housed at WCCW.” But I also spoke with Olivia and others who work on behalf of female inmates, and they say there are 11 inmates at WCCW. And just as we discussed earlier, Brian Kim had been at WCCW. So he was one of those male inmates at the women's facility. And to make the matters more complicated, Brian Kim is actually listed as female. So no one can really know for certain that there are males in the female facility.

BROWN: The ACLU isn’t the only organization that has filed suit. The organization FAIR has filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice accusing the Washington state Department of Corrections of sex-based discrimination. Can you tell us anything more about what’s happening there?

ERIKSON: Yes, last week, the ACLU sued the Washington Department of Corrections, but before that, FAIR also filed a complaint against the Washington Department of Corrections. So it seems like this department is getting hit from both sides with complaints. The ACLU is representing the male prisoners who want to be housed in the female prisons. And FAIR is representing the females who already live there. And FAIR says the prisons are neglecting the rights of women. And they say they're neglecting their needs for privacy and safety and separation from men.

BROWN: So obviously, what’s at stake is the potential harm to women, but what else is at issue here?

ERIKSON: I spoke with Leigh Ann O’Neill, managing director of legal advocacy for FAIR who’s spoken to some of the female inmates incarcerated in Washington prisons. 

LEIGH ANN ONEILL: Outside of the very you know, serious risks of rape and physical abuse, which are greater when there is a larger, stronger male present. The females who are incarcerated are the vast majority of them have been victims of sexual assault, rape, sexual abuse at the hands of a male before becoming incarcerated. And so the presence of males, no matter how the male acts, is deeply traumatizing to the female inmates, and they're really being subjected to re traumatization and psychological harm on an ongoing basis.

BROWN: Wrapping up here Juliana, this is happening in Washington state. Why should someone in Alabama or Illinois or wherever pay attention?

ERIKSON: So listeners should know, of course, that this gender debate has been going on across our country. We hear about female athletes. We hear about students in bathrooms. But what whistleblowers like Olivia are saying is that women in prison are the most vulnerable when it comes to this debate. They're incarcerated and often they have to share rooms, bathrooms, showers and other spaces with potentially male inmates who have not had surgery or had cross-sex hormone treatment. So, as Olivia and others are saying, these women are at the most risk and they are imprisoned across the country.

BROWN: And they are fellow image bearers.

ERIKSON: That’s right.

BROWN: Well, Juliana Chan Erickson is WORLD’s Relations beat reporter. We’ll post a link to her digital story in today’s transcript. Thank you for your work on this. Happy New Year!

ERIKSON: Happy New Year to you, Myrna.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: A Christian radio station in Atlanta managed to pull together a heartwarming reunion last week.

104.7 The Fish sponsors a program for listeners to send in their Christmas wishes. So Jessica Rivera thought she’d ask listeners to send her 21 year old son Logan Christmas cards to Travis Air Force Base, 2000 miles away. It would be their first Christmas apart.

She got her wish, and thinking she’d be a guest on the station’s live broadcast, showed up to express her gratitude. Little did she know the station worked out in advance with the base to get Logan home in time for Christmas!

Mom turned around, and there was her son in uniform. Then, hugs and tears.

RIVERAS: We wish you a Merry Christmas!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 26th.

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

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a Christmas celebration of a different kind.

The Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival is a Christmas tradition that dates back to the 14th century. Its roots are connected to the winter solstice but some Christians have adopted it as their own.

BROWN: WORLD’s Travis Kircher visited a church in Louisville that celebrates the festival. Here’s the story.

AUDIO: [Choir singing]

TRAVIS KIRCHER: It’s past 9 o’clock at night, but the sound of singing echoes through the halls of St. Paul United Methodist Church. On the second-floor of the nearly 100-year-old stone cathedral, about a dozen choir members are singing of good tidings and figgy pudding.

The music director is leading the choir in another late-night rehearsal for the church’s annual Christmas event…the Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival.

MUSIC: [Deck the Halls]

What do a boar’s head and a yule log have to do with the true meaning of Christmas? Well, when the festival first originated, nothing, according to choir member Cathy Miller.

MILLER: The actual serving of the boar goes back to Roman times, where it was the first dish served at a feast.

That tradition continued into the Middle Ages when the killing of the boar became a cause for great celebration. That’s because the people saw boar as a representation of evil. Here’s Director of Music Jim McFarland:

MCFARLAND: In medieval England, they were quite the menace to the average person, because they could come out of the woods and knock you down and, you know, root through your trash and all kinds of stuff.

But then came the Norman conquest and by the 14th century, some Christians had adopted the festival as their own. To them, the boar’s head was no longer merely a symbol of victory by an honored lord providing a great meal for his guests. They claimed it pointed to another triumph.

MCFARLAND: It's about honoring the Christ child, the baby who was born to save us all. This child who grows up and conquers evil for all of us and gives us life eternal!

Over the years, Christmas carols were added and in the 19th century, a family of French Hugenots brought the festival from England to New York. It came to Louisville in 1981 when St. Paul’s music director at the time, Michael Beattie, led the first performance. The church has made it an annual celebration ever since and they’ve only canceled it twice—both times due to COVID.

MCFARLAND: It's pretty much remained the same since the beginning, as far as the music is concerned and the pantomimes. So it's a really, a really wonderful continuing kind of tradition.

The festival begins after a twenty-minute choral prelude It starts with bagpipes played by members of the Louisville Pipe Band. Audio here from a performance nearly 20 years ago.

MILLER: It's wonderful to sit in the choir loft and watch the audience when the organ comes in with the pipes on Amazing Grace. It's really wonderful.

MUSIC: [Amazing Grace]

After that, the Boar’s Head Fanfare and Carol is performed…

MUSIC: [The Boar’s Head Fanfare and Carol]

…as a mounted boar’s head is brought to an altar at the front of the sanctuary—ostensibly as a gift to honor the Christ child. McFarland says the head is real.

MCFARLAND: In fact, last year, I had to take it to a taxidermist and had it touched up because there was a little spot on the nose and the ear was kind of getting a little thin. So the taxidermist, you know, made it look like it just died! [LAUGHS]

MUSIC: [Good King Wenceslas]

From there, the choir sings more carols as church members dressed in costumes bring their gifts to the altar. There are sprites, peasants and bakers, along with King Wenceslas, and members of his royal house. Choir member Nan Tate says even St. Nicholas makes an appearance.

TATE: He’s got a bunch of kids that come in with him, and they're yelling and screaming and bouncing all around and then he comes and sits down and he reads the Bible to them.

Miller says there’s a theology behind the laying of gifts at the altar. She says it’s meant to honor what Christ did through the incarnation.

MILLER: It's not bringing gifts to the Christ child. It's bringing gifts in honor of the Christ child, and represents the gifts that we've received from God that each one of us has to offer.

It ends with an appearance of wise men and shepherds—what’s meant to be the festival’s retelling of the Christmas story.

MILLER: It is pageantry, glorious music. It's nothing like anything else.

The Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival represents an example of the church through the centuries trying to Christianize what was once a pagan event—much like C.S. Lewis’ efforts to Christianize mythological figures in his Narnia series.

AUDIO: [Chatter in choir room]

McFarland says there are only about three or four churches in the U.S. that hold a Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival. This is St. Paul’s 41st year.

MCFARLAND: We've got adults who are still singing with us, who were children and sang some of those roles. One of the ladies who did one of the solos tonight was a child and sang the role—the Wenceslas page role—way back when she was little.

It takes about 300 people and costs about $20,000 to hold the festival—that includes hiring musicians and bagpipers.

MUSIC: [In the Bleak Midwinter]

But tickets are free and after the performance, attendees are treated to wassail and cookies. They hold the festival the weekend after Christmas. That’s because McFarland says people need to know the true meaning of Christmas doesn’t end on December 25th.

MCFARLAND: It's not about all the presents and, you know, the marketing. It's about this baby who came to save the world.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 26th. 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. Up next, WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on a bad Christmas tradition in Washington DC.

CAL THOMAS: When Washington politicians speak of a Christmas tree this time of year, they are not referring to an actual tree. It means they’ve loaded up a bill with another kind of “green,” the kind that’s decorated with money.

The “bipartisan” bill passed just before midnight last Friday, minutes before a government “shutdown” would be an embarrassment to anyone but the politicians who voted for it. Like Christmas, this scenario gets played out almost every year with no regard for the growing debt.

The first bill was more than 1,500 pages. Elon Musk denounced it and suddenly it shrunk to over 100 pages, but that was too little for the big spenders. What passed last week at 118 pages may take days to digest, but you can be sure of one thing: pork is part of it. Always is.

For the last ten years, Republican Senator Rand Paul has published what he calls a “Festivus” report on just some of the wasteful spending in which our Congress is engaged. His latest – and you should Google it to see it all – includes the following:

Some of the highlights – or lowlights as I like to call them -- include funding for the National Endowment for the Arts to subsidize ice-skating drag queens and promoting city park circuses. Additionally, the Department of the Interior invested in the construction of a new $12 million Las Vegas Pickleball complex. Interior also allocated $720,479 to wetland conservation projects for ducks in Mexico. This year, the Department of State is featured eleven times, with expenditures including $4.8 million on Ukrainian influencers, $32,596 on breakdancing, $2.1 million for Paraguayan Border Security (what about security at our border?), $3 Million for ‘Girl-Centered Climate Action’ in Brazil, and much more!

Hey, it’s not their money, it’s our money.

At least this time a pay raise for members didn’t make it to the final bill. Members should be having their pay cut, not raised, for under-performing.

Perhaps Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk can do something about the misspending that has led to the unsustainable $36 trillion dollar debt with interest of $1 trillion dollars just this year.

Others have tried and failed to break the spending habit. Maybe they will succeed this time, but the odds are not good. It’s not called “the swamp” for nothing.

I hope you had a Happy Christmas. Your politicians did.

I'm Cal Thomas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet is stopping by for the final Culture Friday of 2024. We’ll consider some of the biggest cultural stories of the year. And, Collin Garbarino has a review of a new biopic of Bob Dylan. Plus, your listener feedback. 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. WORLD’s mission is Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says: “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.” —Nahum 1:7.

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.