The World and Everything in It - December 29, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Today we continue with notable people who died this year who made their mark in politics and government.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Plus, our last artist profile for 2021. Today, a worship leader with a desire to reconcile brothers and sisters in Christ.

And your prayers for the year to come.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, December 29th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Kristen Flavin has today’s news.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, NEWS ANCHOR: Airlines again cancel more than a thousand flights » A rash of flight cancellations is becoming its own pandemic.

Airlines cancelled more than a thousand U.S. flights once again on Tuesday.

Ohio resident Sassy Estes was stuck at Boston’s Logan Airport.

ESTES: I’m probably going to sleep because it makes the time go faster. So I’ll just curl up here and sleep.

Airline workers calling in sick with COVID-19 caused a fifth straight day of disruptions.

President Biden said Tuesday that he plans to talk with his top medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci about new safety measures for flying, hinting at possible testing requirements.

And Fauci on Tuesday sought to clarify recent remarks about a vaccine requirement for domestic flights.

FAUCI: I did not say I support mandates on domestic flights. I said that is something that is on the table for consideration. I didn’t say I support it or didn’t support it.

The omicron variant continues to fuel a steep surge of new cases. It appears to be less deadly than the delta strain, but it’s also more contagious.

The 7-day rolling average of new infections is now close to a quarter of a million per day for the first time since the peak of the pandemic back in January.

Five dead, including gunman, in Denver shootings » Several families are mourning in the Denver area after a gunman opened fire in several locations, killing four people.

The attacks spanned more than an hour, beginning in central Denver after 5 p.m. on Monday and then continuing in the nearby city of Lakewood.

The shooter also seriously wounded a police officer. Lakewood Police Dept. spokesman John Romero told reporters Tuesday…

ROMERO: It’s a tough day for the Lakewood Police family, obviously, when this happens to one of our own.

Police pursued and exchanged gunfire several times with the suspect, who was shot and pronounced dead on the scene. It was not immediately clear if an officer killed him.

Investigators say they do not yet know the shooter’s motive.

U.S. to fund border enhancements in Ukraine » The Ukrainian government says the United States will fund multiple projects along its borders with Russia and Belarus to include surveillance cameras and drones. It will also pay for personal protective equipment for guards at the border. The total price tag of the border enhancements is said to be about $20 million.

That announcement comes amid heightened tensions with Moscow with thousands of Russian troops lined up near Ukraine’s border.

Russia and the United States are set to begin security talks after the holidays. Moscow wants guarantees that Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO.

Russia shuts down human rights group » Meantime, the Russian government on Tuesday ordered the closure of a prominent human rights group as Moscow’s crackdown on dissent continues. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The Russian Supreme Court ruled the group called Memorial International has created—quote—“a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state, [and] whitewashes and rehabilitates Nazi criminals.” End quote.

The court concluded Memorial repeatedly violated Russia’s controversial “foreign agent” law. Founded in the 1980s to document repression under the Soviet Union, Memorial now includes more than 50 smaller groups in Russia and abroad.

Russian authorities have labeled several rights groups and media outlets as foreign agents in recent months.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Taliban militants disperse female protestors » AUDIO: [Sounds of protest]

A group of dozens of Afghan women risked imprisonment or worse on Tuesday, marching through the streets of Kabul, protesting the Taliban’s crackdown on women’s rights.

AUDIO: We want our freedom. We want justice. Want human rights. Women’s rights are human rights. 

They also protested —quote—“mysterious murders” of “the country’s former soldiers.”

AUDIO: [Sounds of protest]

The women shouted “justice, justice” before Taliban forces dispersed them, reportedly firing live warning shots toward them.

The U.N. and multiple watchdog groups in recent weeks reported credible allegations of more than 100 extrajudicial killings since the Taliban took power.

Also this week, the Taliban announced more restrictions on the liberties of women in Afghanistan. The ruling government says women are no longer allowed to travel more than 45 miles unless accompanied by a “close male relative.”

Harry Reid, former Senate majority leader, dies at 82 » Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has died.

Reid served four years in the U.S. House and 30 years in the Senate, making him Nevada’s longest-serving member of Congress.

The combative former boxer-turned-lawyer was widely known as one of toughest dealmakers in Congress.

In 2013, Reid used the so-called “nuclear option” to change the Senate rules for votes on federal judges. That allowed Democrats to get around GOP filibusters and confirm President Obama’s judicial nominees with a simple majority vote.

REID: The Senate is a living thing, and to survive, it must change as it has over the history of this great country.

But that also paved the way for Republicans to do the same thing four years later, when the GOP majority changed the Senate rules on Supreme Court nominees. That led to President Trump seating three Supreme Court justices.

Sen. Reid retired in 2016. Two years later, he revealed he’d been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment.

On Tuesday, his wife, Laura, said the former senator died “peacefully,” surrounded by friends. He was 82.

Hall of Fame NFL coach, sportscaster John Madden dies » John Madden, Hall of Fame NFL coach turned sportscaster has died.

Madden coached the Oakland Raiders for a decade, bringing home the Vince Lombardi Trophy in 1977 when his team beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI.

But many fans know him best for his work as a broadcaster. Madden won 16 Emmy Awards during his three-decade run in the booth.

In 2003, Madden called his Monday Night Football gig an announcers' dream job.

MADDEN: Every broadcaster that has ever done a football game in their life somewhere would like to be part, would like to have the opportunity to be a part of Monday Night Football.

Madden also wrote three New York Times best-selling books. And he lent his persona to the Madden NFL video game series, which has hauled in billions of dollars in sales.

John Madden was 85 years old.

I’m Kristen Flavin. Straight ahead: notable deaths in politics and government.

Plus, a Christian artist singing a tune of reconciliation.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 29th of December, 2021.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up: remembering those we lost in 2021.

All this week, we are looking back on the lives of those to whom we said goodbye this year.

As we’ve mentioned earlier, some of these names will be familiar to you. But we also want to tell you a few interesting life stories you may not have heard before.

REICHARD: Today we will focus on those we lost in the world of government and politics. That list includes the likes of former Secretaries of State Colin Powell and George Schulz, Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld, Sen. Bob Dole, and Jimmy Carter’s vice president Walter Mondale.

WORLD Radio news editor Kent Covington now picks up that list with a political figure you might not be as familiar with, but his name will forever appear in South African history books.

KENT COVINGTON: F.W. de Klerk was the seventh State President of South Africa and is often referred to as the country’s last apartheid president.

De Klerk began his career as a member of Parliament supporting apartheid. But he would later help to put an end to it.

After becoming president in 1989, he announced sweeping changes to policies that suppressed the majority black population and kept black and white citizens separate.

DE KLERK: The prohibition of the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress, the South African Communist Party and a number subsidiary organizations is being rescinded.

And in 1990, de Klerk released anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, after 27 years in prison.

Three years later, de Klerk received the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Mandela. And when Mandela assumed the presidency in 1994, de Klerk served as his deputy.

Behind the scenes, the two men had a complicated relationship and did not always get along, but their names will be forever inextricably linked.

De Klerk was a divisive figure, and there are darker chapters of his life story that cannot be erased. But earlier this year, he sought to make clear, once and for all, where he stood on apartheid.

DE KLERK: I without qualification apologize for the pain and the hurt and the indiginity and the damage that apartheid has done.

He died on November 11th at the age of 85.

From South Africa, we travel to Iran and then to Washington.

Ardeshir Zahedi served as Iran’s foreign minister for five years until 1971. But for most of the 70’s, Zahedi turned the Iranian Embassy into one of the hippest party spots in Washington.

Until Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979, the flamboyant diplomat burnished his reputation as a globetrotting socialite and something of a notorious womanizer.

He hosted lavish star-studded parties at the Embassy and rubbed elbows with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand. He was even romantically linked with Elizabeth Taylor.

But he was also good at his job. Some say he charmed leaders in Washington, including then-President Jimmy Carter into accepting assurances that there were no serious threats to the power of Iran’s shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

But Islamic revolutionaries seized power a year later, leading to the Iran Hostage Crisis at the U.S. Embassy.

AUDIO: Some 60 Americans, including our fellow citizen whom you just saw bound and blindfolded, are beginning their sixth day of captivity inside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

In the years that followed, Zahedi lived in exile in Switzerland.

And he was later an outspoken critic of President Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. In a 2019 interview, he said sanctions have hurt the Iranian people.

ZAHEDI: They have suffered in the last so many years because of the unjust which the West has done to the Iranian.

Zahedi died on November 18th. He was 93 years old.

To Colorado now, where Democrat Dick Lamm served three terms as governor beginning in 1975. But he’s best known for a controversial accomplishment three years earlier.

Lamm was a firm believer that not all growth is good. In 1972, then a state lawmaker, Lamm led a successful effort to block funding for the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Denver. And that remains to this day the only time an awarded host city ultimately rejected the Olympics.

Lamm prided himself on being a teller of tough truths. In a 1986 interview, he said he was not a religious person, but he studied Old Testament prophets.

LAMM: Politics needs more people telling people certain harsh realities like the Old Testament.

He often warned of fiscal dangers, things like government pensions that he said weren’t sustainable long-term. But he became well known for making sometimes controversial remarks.

He was once famously quoted as saying elderly and terminally ill people have a responsibility to die and get out of the way.

LAMM: My aging body can prevent your kids from going to college.

But he later said he was misquoted and was not referring to the sick and elderly.

LAMM: What I really said was we all have a duty to die. It was a philosophical statement.

In 1996, he made an unsuccessful White House bid as a Reform Party candidate.

Lamm died on July 29th. He was 85 years old.

To South Florida now where Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings built a 40-plus-year career in government. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. That made him the state’s first black federal judge.

Ten years later he made history again, but in a very different way.

SENATE: The Senate will please be in order…

After the House of Representatives almost unanimously impeached him…

SENATE: The Senate will resume its consideration of the articles of impeachment against Judge Alcee L. Hastings.

Hastings became one of only a handful of impeached federal judges ever convicted by the Senate and the first sitting U.S. judge tried on criminal charges.

He was accused of soliciting a six-figure bribe from two convicted racketeers. Hastings was acquitted, but questions remained about his ethics, and a judicial panel accused him of fabricating his defense.

But voters in South Florida weren’t bothered by his impeachment and elected him to Congress in 1992.

He’s heard here on the House floor in 1998 during a debate about voting to censure then-President Bill Clinton.

HASTINGS: This House can work its will on censure and anything else. I was removed from office after being found not-guilty, and here we are talking can we censure. This House has reached the zenith of unfairness.

Hastings found himself at the center of controversy in 2011, when a former aide accused him of sexual harassment. Hastings denied the allegations and the House Ethics Committee later said it did not find credible evidence of wrongdoing.

Hastings died while still in office on April 6th at the age of 84. 

But Hastings was not the only sitting member of Congress to die this year.

On February 7th, Texas Republican Congressman Ron Wright became the first sitting U.S. lawmaker to die from COVID-19.

Wright was known by colleagues as a staunch pro-life conservative. Here he is on the House floor last year promoting an amendment in support of religious liberty.

WRIGHT: Earlier this year, the Department of Labor took an important step in preserving the constitution and ensuring the civil rights of religious employers. It’s simple, faith-based groups should be on equal footing as they compete with other employers, without having to give up their sincerely held beliefs.

At the time of his death, Wright was already fighting a years-long battle with lung cancer. He was 67 years old.

And finally, we travel to Louisiana.

Governor Edwin Edwards was often referred to as a “New Deal Southern Democrat” with a firebrand populist appeal that helped him win an unprecedented four terms in office.

New Orleans political columnist Stephanie Grace said Edwards—quoting here—“was a bad boy and people loved him for it—just the ultimate rogue of a politician.”

Edwards cemented his “bad boy” reputation in 1999, when he was indicted on federal racketeering charges. Confident in his ability to charm a jury, he told reporters he would serve as his own lawyer.

EDWARDS: I’m comfortable representing myself in this case given the nature of the case.

But his campaign for an acquittal was one he did not win. The court convicted him in 2001, and he served eight years in prison.

Upon his release, he married his third wife, Trina, who was more than 50 years his junior. The couple starred in a short-lived reality TV show called The Governor’s Wife.

In 2014, Edwards attempted a political comeback with a run for Congress but came up short.

He died on July 12th at the age of 93.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kent Covington.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, December 29th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Over the last year we’ve introduced you to some of Christian music’s biggest names—their songs and their stories.

We end 2021 with a glimpse inside the ministry of an independent Christian music artist. WORLD Senior Correspondent Myrna Brown has his story.

DEMETRIUS SINGING ACAPELLA: I sing because I’m happy. I sing because I’m free…

MYRNA BROWN, REPORTER: Demetrius Hicks was 10 years old when he first sang that old hymn, His Eye Is On The Sparrow. He says he inherited those stirring high tenor notes from his grandad.

DEMETRIUS: Roosevelt Hicks… he was a singing machine. My grandmother said he sounded like Sam Cooke. I never met him.

Hicks says most of the patriarchs on his family tree were absent.

DEMETRIUS: My father was not present in my world. He left for the military when I was like 3 years old. One of my uncles was kind of in and out of prison and another one of my uncles moved away when we were really young. But the present, active, authoritative kind of male figure, we really didn’t have it growing up.

Instead, Hicks and his siblings were raised by his mother and grandmother. They lived in low-income housing on the west side of Montgomery, Alabama.

DEMETRIUS: It was just dangerous outside at certain times. I’ve seen drive-bys and I’ve seen the police. But I would also say, like my grandmother always said, it’s not where you live it’s how you live. And she really modeled that because we had a clean house, a great upbringing Christian house.

And a house always filled with music. All kinds of music!

DEMETRIUS: I would hear things like Aerosmith and country music.. Reba McInTyre, then Anita Baker. It framed my world to have, like an open mind when it comes to, like diversity in music.

But Hicks says that diversity he loved in his music was missing in his church and that bothered him.

DEMETRIUS: I’ve always known that the Lord was for all people. My high school experience was a very diverse experience. We had Asian, Black, White, Hispanic and so I was always confused, why does my church not look like that?

The first time Hicks worshiped with people who didn’t look like him, he was a college graduate working as a banker.

DEMETRIUS: And it wasn’t until I moved to Birmingham that I started venturing into the multicultural church space. And it’s been so beautiful to me because I’ve been able to live in both sides.

In 2005, Hicks left the world of banking and became a full time worship leader, traveling across the Southeast.

WORSHIP: Well Good Morning Grace New Hope. Let’s put our hands together and celebrate King Jesus…

It’s 9 a.m. on Sunday morning. Hicks is leading worship in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

DEMETRIUS: It’s just so beautiful to see the age diversity and the cultural diversity.

The church is a good three-hour drive from Birmingham, Alabama. At least twice a month, Hicks gets on the road at 4 a.m., just to make the 7 a.m. rehearsal. Then he leads worship at the church’s two services before heading back to Alabama that afternoon.

DEMETRIUS: You know worship is about God but it’s also so beautiful to help model what happened in Revelation, where all the cultures and nations are joining around the throne of God declaring his holiness. And we get a chance to kind of have a foretaste of that now. So I love it.

In 2015 Hicks began expanding his reach.

SONG -DESIGN: 1,2,3 go… we were never designed to be famous…

As an independent Christian music artist, the single, 38-year-old just released his fourth project, under his childhood nickname: Mecho.

Each of the five songs on the EP have one-word titles. This song for instance is simply called Design. Hicks says he wasn’t trying to be clever, but there is an air of novelty to his approach and his take on Galatians 2:20.

SONG: DESIGN It’s no longer I but Christ who lives in me. It’s no longer I but Christ who lives….

Along with the Biblical hook, Design will likely appeal to younger listeners for what Hicks calls the “bop” factor.

DEMETRIUS: My little nephews they talked about, that’s a bop. And I’m like, what’s a bop? You know, I felt old. I want to know what a bop is. And so, it’s like a little slang, young folks term of this song is pretty hip and cool.

SONG: HUMANITY

Completely opposite in tone is the thoughtful Humanity. Written with his love for folk music in mind, Hicks sketched out the lyrics after the sudden death of his younger brother in 2020.

DEMETRIUS: And I remember just journaling this idea of at the blink of an eye, everything can be different and how none of us really have any control. But then you have the chorus, you said you’ll never leave me or forsake me.

Eleven months later, Hicks would need to be reminded of that truth after the COVID- related death of his beloved 53-year-old mother.

DEMETRIUS: And one of my favorite parts of that song is the beat of it is foot stomps. It is me physically stomping with my feet. And so I wanted that to almost give a picture of walking in the steps of my shoes.

If you’re a keen listener, you’ve probably already noticed that every voice you’ve heard so far on this project, including the background vocals, belongs to Hicks.

DEMETRIUS: Normally, I have friends around me and I always like to incorporate my friends in projects. But this one, I had some specific sounds and things in my head and I was like, you know what, it would just be easier if I did it. And it saved me some money, too!

As an independent Christian music artist, Hicks doesn’t have big budgets, promotional tours, or exclusive marketing deals. Only early morning drives across state lines, fueled by a posture of obedience.

WORSHIP: There is no greater love than the love of King Jesus. So this morning…

DEMETRIUS: But I really had to settle in my heart as an independent artist that it was about the ministry that it was about what the Lord wanted to do with the music. And I could not make it about anything else...

Reporting for WORLD I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, December 29th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Time now for scripture readings for the new year. Today, selections from the book of Daniel, Paul’s letter to the Colossians, and from the book of Psalms.

BRAGG: Hello, my name is Dan Bragg. And as a Christian school administrator at Calvary Christian in Ohio, I want all Christians and the church to live out what I work hard to teach, and respond to the Christian story with Ephesians 5:15. Be very careful then, how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand the Lord's will. Not drunk, but filled with the Holy Spirit.

JACKSON: My name is Brett Jackson and I'm reading 1 Corinthians 10:13. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common demand. God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

VARNER: Adrian Varner reading Romans 8:31- 39. What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died, more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution, or famine or nakedness or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake, we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the president nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: more notable deaths. We’ll remember those who made their mark in sports and music.

And, a story of a providential rescue.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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

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The Bible says: Look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

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.