The World and Everything in It - December 3, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The fracture in evangelical circles has some people predicting the end of evangelical churches.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: We’ll talk about that with John Stonestreet on Culture Friday.

Plus: now showing in theaters: Christmas With The Chosen: The Messengers. You’ll hear a review from our Sharon Dierberger.

And the Music of Advent. This time, one of the oldest songs of our faith.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday December 3rd. 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, Paul Butler has today’s news.

Biden announces nationwide COVID response plan » President Biden unveiled his administration’s strategy to fight a winter surge of COVID-19 on Thursday.

The plan adds expanded testing and masking appeals to the ongoing push for vaccine boosters. But it does not include any new mandates … or lockdowns.

BIDEN: My plan I'm announcing today pulls no punches in the fight against COVID-19. It's a plan that I think should unite us. I know COVID-19 has been very divisive in this country. It's become a political issue, which is a sad, sad commentary. It shouldn't be, but it has been. Now, as we move into the winter and face the challenges of this new variant, this is a moment we can put the divisiveness behind us, I hope.

As part of the plan, administration officials are working on a rule that would require private insurers to pay for at-home COVID testing. They say that would make it easier for people to check their status quickly, and frequently.

Biden said rapid testing is especially important for schools.

BIDEN: Which could allow students to stay in the classroom and be tested frequently when positive case in that classroom popped up that wasn’t them. Up to now, you’d go home and you’d quarantine.

The president also issued new testing requirements for anyone traveling to the United States, regardless of their vaccination status. And he extended the mask mandate on airplanes and other public transit through at least the middle of March.

Lawmakers reach temporary government funding deal » Federal lawmakers have reached a deal to avoid today’s looming government shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said gaining even that small victory wasn’t easy.

SCHUMER: This is a good compromise that allows an appropriate amount of time for both parties, in both chambers to finish negotiations on appropriations.

The deal would keep spending to its current level until February 18th, with the addition of $7 billion dollars to aid Afghan evacuees. Lawmakers are still wrestling with the details of the spending bill for the budget year that started in September.

The House approved the funding extension measure on Thursday. The Senate must give its approval before midnight tonight. Sen. Mitch McConnell downplayed concerns that Republicans would block the measure.

MCCONNELL: We’re not going to shut the government down. That makes no sense for anyone. Almost no one on either side thinks that’s a good idea.

But some GOP senators, led by Utah’s Mike Lee, said they don’t want to vote on the measure unless it strips funding from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That in an attempt to block the agency from enforcing the president’s vaccine mandate for private employers.

A federal appeals court has already put the mandate on hold. And earlier this week, a district court blocked the administration from enforcing a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in 10 states.

Biden administration restarts ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy » The Biden administration will reinstate the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy for migrants, starting next week.

That in response to a court order blocking the president’s attempt to scrap the program on his first day in office.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden opposed the move but had no choice.

PSAKI: We are in a situation where we’re under, abiding by a court ruling. And so that is what we are working to implement at this point in time.

Under a revised agreement with Mexico, U.S. officials will send asylum seekers back across the border to wait for their immigration court hearings. But it will first make sure they are vaccinated against COVID-19. The Biden administration also agreed to hear cases within six months, an attempt to address Mexico’s concern that migrants would languish in border towns.

The renewed policy will apply to migrants from Western hemisphere countries—primarily South America. The Biden administration already sends Central American migrants back to Mexico under a Trump-era pandemic policy it kept in place.

Charges in Ohio deputy shooting » Ohio prosecutors have filed murder charges against a former sheriff's deputy who fatally shot a black man nearly one year ago.

Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Meade shot Casey Goodson Jr. in the back five times.

On Thursday, Goodson’s family also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Meade and the sheriff’s department. It alleges wrongful death and excessive use of force.

Sean Walton is the family’s attorney.

WALTON: We now know that based on the facts and the evidence that the grand jury heard, that they believe there’s a probable cause to believe that a murder occurred.

But much about what happened the night of the shooting remains unclear … with no video evidence.

Meade’s attorney says his client followed Goodson after seeing him wave a gun at a passing car. He says he fired after Goodson aimed the gun at him.

Goodson’s family members say even though he had a permit to carry a gun, he was holding a sandwich when he was shot. Investigators said they recovered a gun at the scene but have not offered any other details.

Baseball lockout begins » Major League Baseball entered its first work stoppage in 26 years on Thursday.

Team owners locked out players after they failed to reach an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said he knew the lockout would not be good for the game. But he said the owners could not agree to the players’ terms.

MANFRED: The players association as is their right made an aggressive set of proposals in May and they have refused to budge from the core of those proposals. Things like a shortened reserve period, a $100 million reduction in revenue sharing and salary arbitration for the whole two-year class are bad for the sport, bad for the fans and bad for competitive balance.

Tony Clark heads the players union. He accused Manfred of misrepresentations and said further negotiations were useless when team owners opted for a lockout rather than talk through disagreements.

Spring training is set to start on Feb. 16th, with the first game scheduled for March 31st. The last time contract negotiations halted the game, in 1994, players went on strike for nearly eight months.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Friday, December 3rd, 2021. 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.

We’ll get right to today’s topic: Is the Evangelical church breaking apart?

You can read about it pretty much across the spectrum: In the Atlantic by Peter Wehner and in a column called Mere Orthodoxy by Michael Graham, just to name two.

They argue several points. Contentious elections. Politicizing Covid. A bitter partisan divide.

REICHARD: Well, it’s Culture Friday and John Stonestreet is here to talk about this. He’s the president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Morning, John.

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning.

REICHARD: Well, what’s going on?

STONESTREET: That's quite an open ended question you're asking about what's happened over the last couple of years in evangelicalism! I mean, this isn't the first time in history where people have predicted that evangelicalism is falling apart, or it doesn't have a future or it's being hijacked by politics. I mean, the same predictions were made under the Reagan administration and under the Bush administration and under the Trump administration, as well. So this isn't a new prediction. And part of that has to do with the way that evangelicalism historically has embraced cultural norms. We know whether it was newspapers in the first Great Awakening, whether it was these kind of big meeting houses and social justice causes in the Second Great Awakening, radio under Billy Graham and television. And now of course, the internet and Twitter and even Tik Tok evangelicalism is actually a thing.

But there are very real ways that evangelicalism is being shifted. I also would point to Ed Stetzer, who has also is increasingly trying to give some categories to actually what's what's going on. You can look at the beginning of the 20th century and talk about the conflict within evangelicalism, which is often called the fundamentalist modernist conflict. And it was really over theological points of conviction. Is the Bible true? Did Jesus rise from the dead? And now a lot of times the divide is over ideological implications of that theology.

So people who agree with a same theological position, you know, that the Bible tells me what is true, they might not agree on the nuances of that, but they agree on that point, and then have wildly different conclusions when it comes to some social issue, like abortion, or like sexuality, or, like, you know, political, you know, what, to what level of political pragmatism we can embrace without compromising our faith.

On one side, you've got bad theology, where theology is not really theology; it's ideology that's driving someone's deeply held convictions. On the other hand, you've got the failure to realize that, you know, there's no way to start with really, the Bible is true and get to a pro abortion stance on any in any sort of kind of rational, you know, logical flow. You just can't get there from here. Or look and deny the goodness of the human body as God created it male and female. In other words, you've got an ideology, replacing theology on one hand. You've got the failure of theology to lead to the right worldview conclusions, on the other hand. And then you put that in the tempest. All the things that happened in that one year, you know, an election, right, you know, the capital, a dramatic distrust of the dominant news sources, and good heavens COVID. And you put all that together and mix it up. And now, you go from a situation where the evangelical church in other times of history have been able to weather and navigate really challenging issues, to what it feels like today, which is that every issue becomes a catastrophic issue. Right? Every issue is escalated. Every issue, the volume is turned up, That says far less about the issues it does about, you know, the this stability and the foundation, the health of the foundation of the institutions being so shaken. And I think that's what folks are pointing to in both helpful and unhelpful ways.

BROWN: Author Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition wrote about this, too. He pointed out differences between progressive Christians and conservative Christians. You also wrote about this. What does that mean?

STONESTREET: Trevin had a terrific article in which he really summarized some surprising conclusions from two sociologists: George Yancey and Ashley. And her last name is and this last name is something that I'll promise you I just am going to butcher.. But the new book is called One Faith No Longer. And Trevin pointed out three big conclusions to that book, with a punchline that progressive Christians are more likely to establish their identity in politics than our conservative Christians, which of course, just completely goes against the narrative.

Now, I don't think he's saying that conservative Christians never establish our identity in politics, we've got plenty of examples of that. And of course, you now have to define Christian and conservative and you've got to define, you know, the strange tendency of the larger news media to identify people as evangelical, when there's no real indication that they have a faith commitment, they go to church, or they do anything that is Christian in their way, but because of that, you know, kind of identification.

The second thing that Trevon points out is that conservative Christians are more likely than progressive counterparts to defy their own side's political orthodoxy. In other words, go against the narrative. They're more likely to say that this is not enough.

And then third, that progressive Christians, and this is fascinating, tend to think that conservative Christians are the ones that need to be converted, not non Christians. In other words, their most important work is converting conservative Christians to progressive causes, not converting non Christians to Christianity. And one of the features historically of evangelicalism has always been that conversionism, this need for people to actually be converted to Christianity. And this is what happens when politics takes the front seat, and to you know, to theological conviction. But a conservative Christian political engagement doesn't begin with economics. It begins with pre governmental institutions, the significance of the family, and these are things that aren't up for grabs. Because we think that they are built into the world like gravity, they're not social constructs. They're actually real things.

REICHARD: Ok, John, I do want to reserve some time on the big Supreme Court argument heard this week, Dobbs v Jackson Womens Health. The biggest abortion dispute of the term, possibly of the past 50 years. It’s a challenge to Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation. What did you take away from oral arguments?

STONESTREET: I'd say two or three things. Number one, the Mississippi leadership, the Attorney General Solicitor General said we're not trying to ask the question of whether the Mississippi law can pass muster; we're challenging whether or not Casey and Roe were good law, and have they ever been good law? And that this needs to be overturned. That's a remarkable thing. And so when you have both sides saying this is the most important challenge to Roe in our lifetime, one out of panic and other out of you know, hopeful jubilation, this is an interesting moment. Third, I was struck by the arguments by the attorney for Jackson Women's Health, basically bringing up arguments that are kind of I'm going to say trope, I'm going to say that carefully, but, you know, the idea that women cannot be fully participatory in society without the ability to, you know, kill their children. And in here, this is the best argument that that side has! You had another argument from Justice Sotomayor, you know, about, let's nuance brain activity from what we actually know from fetal development. I mean, it was just really a stunning thing to actually hear. You realize what shaky ground Roe was decided on, And I agree with with Ryan Anderson, who said, you know, this went about as well as it could go for those who care about unborn life, and it went about as bad as it could go for those who want to advance abortion. yet. And I think it's very, very important to note that if this goes exactly the way some of us hope, which is a full dismantling of Roe, the pro life movement has not reached any finish line whatsoever. It is a new starting line for what it means for us at the state level, the local level, both in civil society and lives. And legislatively applying. reapplying this new understanding. There's going to be a long tail to this on every level of society. And so now's the time to ramp up, not to to breathe easy.

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

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: You know that feeling when you finally get the Christmas lights up and then realize half the lights don’t work once you plug it in?

Well, multiply that feeling a thousand times to understand what happened last week in Anchorage, Alaska.

Every year a 300-foot-wide star lights up the dark winter horizon of that city. A crew of airmen install the star above Anchorage in the Chugach Mountains.

But this year, a little trouble: half the light bulbs didn’t come on!

Turns out an avalanche took out the supports and wires. So crews contended with below-zero wind chill, 4,000 feet up!... on the slant of the mountain to make it right.

All 350 bulbs are shining brightly now, and they’ll stay lit until March, when the Iditarod Dog Race takes place.

It's The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Friday, December 3rd. 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: Christmas with The Chosen.

Two days ago, nearly 2,000 movie theaters across the country began showing a special presentation of the New Testament streaming series. It’s the first attempt by executive producer Dallas Jenkins to bring an episode of the show to the big screen.

REICHARD: The Christmas special focuses on Jesus’ birth, His mother Mary’s recollections of it—and lots of music. Here’s reviewer Sharon Dierberger.

AUDIO: Music from the longest trailer clip (2:38) : 0:3-0:18 (ends with a bell dinging) fade…

SHARON DIERBERGER, REVIEWER: Christmas With The Chosen: The Messengers isn’t what I was expecting. That’s not a bad thing. But—don’t walk into the theater primed to see two hours of biblical story-telling.

This is a 35-minute episode wrapped in a big bow. The show itself features Jesus’ mother Mary as an old woman, with flashbacks to the story of the first Christmas.

The big bow—or most of the first 75 minutes and the last 10—showcases Christian artists. They sing powerful, modern arrangements of Christmas and worship songs. Between singing, performers give brief monologues about biblical names of God, like Jehovah Shalom. Some make personal observations about Christmas.

AUDIO: Clip from extended trailer: 1:36–1:56: Phil Wickham: “There’s this call to the listener…everybody who wants to come to the story, can.” Female singer: I’m starting to recognize and understand the gravity of what happened.” Male singer: “I don’t have words. I just have feelings.” Female singer: “People must know that his love is real.”

At first I was surprised by all the singing and commentary. I was eager to get to the unwrapping—that is, I wanted to see the biblical characters and re-enactments. After all, these authentic-feeling re-creations are what have made the show such a smash hit and engaged audiences worldwide.

But as musicians like Phil Wickam, For King and Country, and Maverick City Music sang—and as other performers explained why Jesus came—I found my Christmas spirits rising. The Bonner Family’s powerful rendition of “How Great Thou Art” keeps the emphasis right where it should be.

At times I was tempted to close my eyes to focus only on the music and lyrics, not the performers.

AUDIO: What Child is This from Dropbox: 0:29-fade just after children join in, or around 0:60 or so

For several arrangements, like that one, enthusiastic children sing alongside the artists. They stand on stone steps and stroll cobbled streets. Most scenes—including these musical performances—were filmed in a replica of Jerusalem built in Utah.

When the account of Jesus’ birth begins, we hear realistic conversations between a calm, grateful Mary and a protective, responsible Joseph. They’re about to enter Bethlehem. As Mary’s birth pangs increase, Joseph reassures Mary and reminds her of what the angel told each of them:

AUDIO: Note: Volume needs to be loud enough to understand—from extra clip: 0:28-0:57 (brief fade—could go to 0:59, but this clip ends abruptly there):
Joseph: “Remember what your messenger said—the first thing your messenger said—It was the first thing my messenger said to me. Remember?”
Mary: “Don’t be afraid.”
Joseph: “Don’t be afraid.”
Mary: “I love you.”
Joseph: “I love you.”
Mary: “Thank you for taking care of me. God gave you to me.”
Joseph: “He has been our help. And in the shadow of His wings, we will sing for joy.”

If possible, watch The Chosen’s pilot episode, “The Shepherd,” prior to seeing this special. Both depict the first Christmas from different viewpoints and blend well together. They heighten our wonder of those miraculous moments—the angels appearing to the shepherds, God’s provision for Mary and Joseph, and the virgin birth.

But the special stands just fine on its own, too. And you can feel comfortable inviting someone who’s curious to learn what Christmas is really about.

The short dramatization begins by introducing a plausible storyline and adding a bit of tension.

We see a man guiding a horse-drawn wagon full of goods to sell, smuggling someone into an undisclosed city protected by Roman guards. He’s brought a special, secret visitor to see Jesus’ aging mother, Mary. Before she dies, she wants a message carried to Luke, who’s in Rome recording Jesus’ story through eye-witness accounts.

AUDIO: from one minute trailer: 0:0-0:07 Mary talking: “Do you know where Luke is? I didn’t tell him everything.” quick music fade of Go tell it on the Mountain…

As scenes flash between Mary as an old woman, then back to her giving birth, she recites the Magnificat.

AUDIO from one minute trailer: 0:36-0:41: Mary: “My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.”

Mary shares her story, she says, because “People must know.” This is the film’s theme: “People must know”—about Jesus. It’s the message of the angels, the shepherds, Mary, the disciples, Luke, and Paul, though not all appear in this film. Executive producer Dallas Jenkins says that’s what the musicians are singing and speaking about.

AUDIO from 38 second trailer: 0:11-0:27 Jenkins: “When you know and love Jesus more, what do you want to do? You want to tell about it. You want to sing about it. You want to worship. What’s our response to all that? To the great songs? To the story of what actually happened on that simple night? People must know.” (Music fade.)

I’m Sharon Dierberger.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, December 3rd. 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.

Time now for Ask the Editor. Here’s WORLD Radio managing editor Leigh Jones.

LEIGH JONES, MANAGING EDITOR: This month, we have two questions from listeners about the way we put the program together. The first is from Reid Trenhaile.

TRENHAILE: Hey WORLD team! First off, great work. Keep it up. Love every morning that I get to listen. I just wanted to ask if there was a way that when you have a show that is not suitable for young children, if there was a way that we could possibly say skip to, and then leave the time stamp that it would be good to skip through. A lot of times we’re driving when we’re listening to the program and it just says, this story isn’t suitable. And I’ve still got 20 minutes in the car with my kids. It would be nice to just quickly skip to a certain time stamp where we could pick back up. Just a suggestion. Love the program! Thanks so much. Have a good day.

Thanks, Reid. That’s a good suggestion. But because of the way we put the program together, we can’t really give you an exact timestamp. We don’t know those until after the hosts have already recorded their introductions and our night owls are putting everything together. But most segments are between 5 and 7 minutes long, so if you want to skip something, that's a good starting point. Though, I would also encourage you to make sure you go back and listen to that segment later!

Our second question comes from listener Martha Borders. She wants to know whether the guests we have on the program know in advance what we’re going to ask them.

The short answer is, no. We don’t share questions in advance. Guests do know the topic, of course. And we’ve made sure in advance they’re comfortable and knowledgeable about what we’re asking them to talk about. We’re not trying to do any “gotcha”-style interviews. Our goal is to get expert analysis on topics from people who are thoroughly familiar with what they’re talking about.

We do collaborate a bit more with WORLD reporters when we have them on to talk about their work. Often they’re sharing information about a story they’ve already written, so our questions are based on that.

Now for my special request. Many of you will remember the election week prayers for the nation that we aired last November. We’re going to do something similar this year, for the last week of December. This time we’re asking you to share Scripture and/or prayers for 2022.

If you want to participate, send us an audio recording of yourself reading the passage or praying. You can use your smartphone’s voice memo app to do that. If you need instructions on recording a voice memo, you’ll find them at wng.org/preroll.

But before you hit that little red button, here are a few guidelines: First, start your recording by saying your name. Second, if you’re reading a passage of Scripture, tell us which passage you’re reading. And third, If you want to record something as a family, that’s great. But please only have one person speak at a time.

We’ll try to use all the recordings we get, but that may not be possible if we have more than we have time to air. We’ll also try to avoid any repetition of passages.

Last thing: a deadline! We need to have these in a week from today. That’s December 10th. Thanks in advance, and we can’t wait to ring in the new year with you.

I’m Leigh Jones.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Last week we began our annual Advent music series with O Come O Come Emmanuel. The song was written about 15 - hundred years ago. And its author’s identity is lost to time. But not so for this week’s much older song. We even know who first sang it.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And just a reminder that we’ve created a Spotify Playlist again this year with all of Bonnie’s selections. We’ve put the link in today’s transcript at wng.org/podcasts. Here’s Bonnie Pritchett.

BONNIE PRITCHETT, REPORTER: Two thousand years ago, in a little town in Israel, a teenage girl named Mary was told by an angel she would bear a son. And the father would be, not Joseph her betrothed, but God Himself.

MUSIC

The angel also said that her much older, childless, yet godly cousin, Elizabeth, was six months pregnant. A visit between the two women confirmed the angel’s message.

Overwhelmed by God’s miracles and mercies, Mary began to sing.

Luke chapter 1 records her song. And for 2000 years musicians and singers have offered their interpretations of the Magnificat, or Mary’s Song. This 2012 version by the band Koine, offers a simple arrangement of Mary’s praise.

WOMAN SINGING: My soul now glorifies, my spirit sings in God my savior, for he is mindful of the humble state of his servant from now on all generations will call me blessed…

And then there’s Bach.

MUSIC

In 1723 Johann Sebastian Bach was serving in St Thomas’s Church in Leipzig when he composed The Magnificat in D for Christmas vespers. Modern recordings are often pair it with Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria in D, a telling of the shepherds’ angelic encounter and the Messiah’s redeeming work.

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields recorded this album in 1991.

MUSIC

The Magnificat reveals the faith and humility of a young girl. Perhaps her trust in God was rooted in her knowledge of his word.

WOMAN SINGING: For he who is mighty has done great things for me…

The musical collective Rain for Roots produces what they call “singable scripture” especially for kids and produced this version in 2015.

CHILD’S VOICE: His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him. He embraced his chosen child Israel. He remembered and piled on the mercies. He piled them high. It’s exactly what he promised beginning with Abraham and right up until now.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Time now to thank the dedicated team that made this week’s programs possible:

Kent Covington, Nick Eicher, Jenny Rough, Katie Gaultney, Kristen Flavin, Josh Schumacher, Lauren Dunn, Kim Henderson, Whitney Williams, Onize Ohikere, Emily Whitten, Janie B. Cheaney, Jill Nelson, Sarah Schweinsberg, Cal Thomas, Sharon Dierberger, and Bonnie Pritchett.

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

And thank you … because your giving makes possible independent Christian journalism.

I hope you’ll worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ this weekend.

Lord willing, we’ll meet you back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.