The World and Everything in It: February 19, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. I’m Dan Sullivan, and my wife Ginny and I live in Fairfax, Virginia where I recently retired after a career in government and in banking. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Say a state improves a highway by diverting water which has to go somewhere, but what if somewhere is yours?

JUSTICE KAGAN: Do you agree that if a state takes a person’s property and doesn’t give compensation, that state is violating the Constitution.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today the Monday Moneybeat with David Bahnsen. I’ll ask about that massive civil fraud judgment against the former president.

And the WORLD History Book: a young American skates for gold.

SCOTT HAMILTON: I think half the reason that I was so emotional on the podium at the Olympics was because I, I felt kinda like, now what am I gonna do?

REICHARD: It’s Monday, February 19th. 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: Now the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

SOUND: [Ukraine war]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Ukraine retreats from front line » Ukrainian troops fought their way out of the eastern city of Avdiivka over the weekend, forced to fall back to avoid being surrounded by Russian forces.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba:

KULEBA: People on the front line, officers, soldiers who are texting and saying, “It’s bad. We need more ammunition.”

IGOR KONASHENKOV : [Speaking Russian]

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Moscow’s forces have taken full control of the city.

KONASHENKOV: [Speaking Russian]

He said the “liberation of Avdiivka” allowed Moscow’s forces to move the front line away from Donetsk, thereby making it safer from Ukrainian attacks.

Washington Ukraine aid » President Biden has told leaders in Ukraine that he’s confident that the United Congress will eventually approve funding for more military aid.

And he said for the U.S. to walk away from Ukraine now would be “contrary to everything we are as a country.”

BIDEN: The Ukrainian people have fought so bravely and heroically. They’ve put so much on the line.

Meantime, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers has unveiled a counter-proposal to a Senate bill passed earlier this month.

The $66 billion dollar package would fund about $48 billion dollars in military aid to Ukraine. But it would leave out the additional economic aid for the country that was featured in the Senate bill. The House version would also exclude funds for humanitarian aid.

It’s unclear if that bill will make it to the House floor for a vote. But GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday:

GRAHAM: I see a pathway forward now for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel. I see a way to secure our border in a more simple fashion.

With regard to the U.S.-Mexico border, it seeks, among other things, to reinstall the Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" policy for asylum seekers.

Mayorkas meets with Guatemalan president » Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with Guatemala’s newly-elected president Bernardo Arévalo over the weekend to talk about the migrant crisis and fighting transnational crime.

The meeting came just days after House lawmakers voted to impeach Mayorkas over what they called a breach of public trust for refusing to enforce immigration laws. The Senate will hold an impeachment trial in the weeks ahead.

Alexei Navalny death / mourners detained » Mourners and demonstrators have gathered outside Russian embassies around the world to pay tribute to the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

DEMONSTRATORS: Navalny was quite a positive man. He was an optimist, and he told us not to give up. So, we need to be optimists and don’t give up.

Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken Russian critic was a symbol of freedom to many. He died in an Arctic penal colony on Friday. The Kremlin said the cause of the 47-year-old’s death was “sudden death syndrome.”

Navalny had been imprisoned on charges that the U.S. government said were works of fiction.

In Russia, police have detained hundreds of people for publicly mourning Navalny. They’re also scooping up flowers laid out in his honor.

Russia threat » The Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Mike Turner spoke with NBC’s Meet the Press about Russia’s development of a new anti-satellite weapon.

TURNER: The threat is very serious. Everyone who’s looked at this used the same language that I have, that it is a very serious threat. I’m very glad that the administration is beginning to take action. I met with Jake Sullivan, and he began to lay out a plan that would hopefully begin to address this.

Jake Sullivan is White House national security adviser.

Turner sounded alarms last week about a new intelligence report which is said to speak of Russian plans to test and launch anti-satellite weapons into space.

Analysts say such a weapon could have the potential to largely cripple U.S. military communications on the battlefield.

Trump, Haley campaign » Less than a week away from the South Carolina Republican primary vote, Donald Trump’s only remaining GOP rival, Nikki Haley is campaigning hard in the state where she was twice elected as governor.

HALEY: We are working every ounce of this state, because I think we have a country to save.

But Trump, with a 25-point lead in recent South Carolina polls, isn’t worried about the state or Haley. He’s focused squarely on President Biden, telling supporters in Michigan:

TRUMP: A vote for Biden is a vote for Biden is a vote to send tens of thousands of Michigan jobs to China and other places that we don’t want them to go.

Only 1 point separates Trump and Biden in recent national polls.

Lakewood Church » Houston’s Lakewood Church held a service on Sunday dedicated to praise and healing, a week after a shooter opened fire outside the church's sanctuary.

Pastor Joel Osteen:

OSTEEN: Let me tell you, the security plan worked. This person never got into the auditorium — a lot of other things. I won’t go into the details. But we believe in the power of God, but God gives us wisdom and understanding. He gives people skill and expertise.

He thanked the church’s security team.

The shooter, 36-year-old Genesse Moreno, was shot and killed by two off-duty police officers.

Two people were wounded, including Moreno’s 7 year old son. Osteen wiped away tears as he spoke and said he was praying for the boy.

The attacker had a history of mental illness and legal trouble.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the one thing that is really and for true the thing that is straight ahead. Plus, something that’s ahead but not immediately straight ahead.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s The World and Everything in It for this 19th day of February, 2024. We’re so glad you’ve joined us today. Good morning! I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. It’s time for Legal Docket, where we cover every oral argument heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But before we get into the arguments let’s get caught up on a couple of opinions handed down.

The first one is a win for consumers with credit reports. The case involved a man named Reginald Kirtz who’d had a loan with the U.S. Department of Agriculture that he’d paid in full. But to look at his credit report you’d think he hadn’t. You’d have seen past-due loans.

Kirtz notified the relevant parties to try to get it changed, but he got no response. And so his credit score didn’t reflect reality.

EICHER: Having a low credit score is costly and so Kirtz tried suing the government lender for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act but the government claimed it couldn’t be sued.

The Supreme Court was unanimous in siding with Kirtz. You can hear the winning argument of his lawyer Sopan Joshi back in November:

SOPAN JOSHI: The Fair Credit Reporting Act imposes civil liability on any person that negligently or willfully fails to comply with FCRA's requirements. It expressly defines "person" to include any government agency.

Plain-text argument! Now consumers can hold federal agencies accountable if they violate fair-credit laws.

REICHARD: The second opinion in Murray versus UBS Securities, LLC eases the way for whistleblowers.

In this case the whistleblower relied on the protections of the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The argument was over whether an employee must prove his employer intended to retaliate because of protected whistleblowing activity.

EICHER: Last October, lawyer Easha Anand argued the answer to the question of who has to prove what is also a matter of plain-text interpretation:

EASHA ANAND: Congress believed that employees shouldn't have to have evidence of what was in the head of the decision-maker at the moment of the decision before the burden shifted.

REICHARD: Today’s oral argument has all the makings of a landmark property-rights case. Devillier versus Texas was argued last month, and it involves a man named Richie DeVillier. He’s the lead plaintiff in a consolidated case of about 80 other people. They sued the state of Texas for flooding their properties that run along Interstate Highway 10, about an hour east of Houston.

EICHER: I-10 runs from coast to coast, about 2,500-miles from Santa Monica, California, to Jacksonville, Florida. In the early 2000s, the Texas Department of Transportation renovated a stretch of I-10 raising the highway, installing more lanes, and–crucially– adding a concrete barrier that diverted water from the roadway onto adjacent properties.

Ever since, whenever there’s heavy rain, DeVillier’s adjacent property becomes a lake.

REICHARD: I called up DeVillier last week to get some detail::

RICHIE DEVILLIER: We had 23 inches of water in our home. So all furniture, just anything that was that level. But even higher than that because when you go to rip out floors, sheetrock, so you have to go up several feet. It’s a huge undertaking to rebuild.

But it wasn’t just his house damaged. His entire cattle operation was underwater.

DEVILLIER: Our tools. We lost nine vehicles in the first flood. Tractors, equipment, air compressors, welding machines, horse riding tack and supplies, feed, hay bales…it was over a thousand round bales of hay that we put up to feed our cattle during the winter…and then, animals. Both events —between my immediate family, myself, my parents— during the first storm, we lost over 60 grown cows and bulls and numerous calves. We never really got a firm count on the calves and obviously they’re the ones that suffered the most just because they don’t have the elevation that the adult animals do. But we also lost horses and a colt.

Looking out from his property after Hurricane Harvey, Devillier said it was surreal:

DEVILLIER: I mean, it looked like you’re out in the Gulf of Mexico. And right on the other side of that wall, there was traffic going back and forth. It's just crazy.

In case you’re wondering, he didn’t have flood insurance. He wasn’t in a flood plain. He still isn’t. He said his house is around 30 feet above sea level. In the nearly hundred years his family lived here, through hurricanes and storms, nothing like this had happened.

He had to pay for all that damage out of pocket.

EICHER: So Devillier and others with the same kinds of problems sued the state of Texas for money damages in state court. They allege the state took their property without compensation, which it’s not supposed to be able to do under the Bill of Rights—specifically, the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Fifth is brief  and in relevant part says that no person shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

REICHARD: Otherwise known as the Takings Clause.

It’s clear you can sue the federal government for violating it. But here the question is whether a person can directly sue a state under it?

Listen to Devillier’s lawyer at oral argument, Robert McNamara:

ROBERT MCNAMARA: The question presented in this case is resolved by the text of the Fifth Amendment, which, unlike any other provision of the Constitution, imposes on the government an explicit duty to pay money. 

And this right of property owners to sue in inverse condemnation to obtain just compensation for an alleged taking is at the heart of modern American takings law.

EICHER: Let’s talk about that term “inverse condemnation.” That happens when a government damages private property for public use without following a process known as “eminent domain.” For our purposes today all we need to understand is that eminent domain requires compensation.

Arguing on behalf of Texas: state Solicitor General Aaron Nielson.

AARON NIELSON: The Court will be hard-pressed to find any government more committed to property than Texas.

But still, he argued that there’s no specific language in the Fifth Amendment that lets someone sue a state for taking property.

NIELSON: All petitioners had to do was use Texas’s cause of action. Instead, petitioners insist they can bring a cause of action directly under the federal Takings Clause itself. This argument is wrong for many reasons.

REICHARD: One of those reasons, he argued, is that the Takings Clause doesn’t say anything about how “just compensation” is to be paid. Through litigation? Commissions? Or what? 

Now sitting in the courtroom listening to all this was Richie DeVillier, the lead plaintiff. He was thinking Texas can’t unflood my ranch or undamage my lost possessions. I need money damages to make things right.

As DeVillier told me, he was a little uncomfortable at first when the justices began questioning his lawyer, particularly when Justice Clarence Thomas jumped right in with pointed questions:

DEVILLIER: He was … kind of against our, our position. And then justice, Justice Barrett and Justice Gorsuch were the same way, just one, two, three, one after the other and kind of pointed. And it made me a little uncomfortable. I got to tell you, cause I didn't expect that. I wasn't, wasn't prepared for that. 

EICHER: But DeVillier soon learned not to read too much into it.

At oral argument justices are probing to find out the best and worst reasoning of each side.

Once the justices finished questioning his attorney, Devillier began to feel a little better. Listen to this exchange between Justice Elena Kagan and lawyer Nielson for Texas:

JUSTICE KAGAN: But General do you agree with Mr. McNamara that if a state takes a person’s property and doesn’t give compensation, that state is violating the Constitution every day? It’s an ongoing violation. Do you agree with that?

NIELSON: That’s not how the Court has—I believe—I certainly agree that’s a violation of the Constitution. I don’t think this Court’s cases have ever—

KAGAN: But that’s what I want to know. It’s an ongoing violation of the Constitution, right? I've taken Mr. McNamara's property. I haven't paid him. Every day, I'm violating the Constitution, correct?

NIELSON: Yes, Your Honor.

KAGAN: Okay. So aren't courts supposed to do something about that?

Devillier remembers how Nielson answered:

DEVILLIER: And he danced around it and she asked him three times and he finally said, “yes, ma’am.”

REICHARD: Close enough. Nielsen knows court protocol and said, “Yes, Your Honor.”

Anyway, it’s important to understand that this litigation started out in state court. Then Texas removed the case to federal court, its preferred forum. Once there, Texas convinced the federal court to dismiss the case. The grounds for that go back to the term we first encountered, “inverse-condemnation.” The federal court held that the property owners couldn’t bring an inverse-condemnation claim directly under the Fifth Amendment.

The landowners would’ve had to sue under another federal law. But even there, because Texas isn’t a “person,” it can’t even be sued under that law.

Chief Justice John Roberts called foul:

JUSTICE ROBERTS: Well, isn’t that a Catch-22. I mean, you say they have to proceed in—in state court. They can't proceed in federal court. And as soon as they do, you remove it to federal court under 1983, where you say they can't proceed?

EICHER: Nielsen said something about implied rights of action, and there was talk of sovereign immunity for Texas and also that the statute of limitations had already passed.

But then Justice Sonia Sotomayor chimed in, listen to this:

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: This seems to me like a totally made-up case, because they did exactly what they had to do under Texas law. It's you who are telling me—it's almost a bait and switch.

REICHARD: Wow! When you have both conservative and liberal justices sounding so skeptical of Texas? I think it’s safe to say Devillier will get a chance to set out his case for money damages at a trial in lower court.

After so many years, Devillier told me he is hopeful, even though the road is still very long:

DEVILLIER: Again, you know, we're from Texas and private property rights, I think is a big part of what this state was built on. You know, I mean, farmers and ranchers homesteaded it and built it, created wealth for the whole state, for the country. I mean, we pay a lot of taxes to our local state and federal governments. We're a big part of keeping this machine rolling. And if the state, any state, can take from us at will and know that they're not going to have to pay for it, they can just take what they want? We know what that is. That's tyranny. We can’t stand for that. We won’t stand for that.

REICHARD: We will learn whether the Supreme Court will stand for that by the end of this term, within four short months.

And that’s this week’s Legal Docket!

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: The Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s time to talk business, markets, and the economy with financial analyst and adviser David Bahnsen. He’s head of the wealth management firm The Bahnsen Group and he’s here now.

David, good morning!

DAVID BAHNSEN: Well, good morning Nick, good to be with you.

EICHER: All right. Well, let’s talk about the latest data point on consumer inflation. David, the January CPI, the Consumer Price Index, it came in at 3.3%, higher year on year. And that's a good bit more than the 2% target the Fed considers desirable. The day that the report came out, David, we talked about this and you think that it’s relying on old data, and that the inflation picture is better than advertised? Talk about the January CPI.

BAHNSEN: Well, I think that there were two issues that came out of that report, that one was they thought it was going to drop more. And one is “Oh, look, it's still showing something above 3%.” You know, the Fed has not totally got this thing under control. And this has been a story that I think has gone on now for at least six months, probably closer to a year, where inflation has been dropping, but that headline inflation number is showing in the ‘Shelter’ component, which is 34% of the weighting of CPI.

Shelter is attempting to capture what people pay for their monthly shelter, whether it's a house payment, or a rent payment. And when it's such a large portion of CPI - 34% - it's a big deal. And they're showing CIT over 6% year over year growth still, because they're measuring leases that were in many cases signed a year ago. Well, how do I know they've started dropping?

There are about half a dozen indicators that I look at every single month. There are over a dozen out there, but I've decided there's about half a dozen that are really credible, really accurate. In some cases, they're showing out and out deflation, you know, price contraction. In most cases, it's about flat, but it isn't 6%. And the other thing that I want to objectively point out is a lot of leases renew, they're not new leases. And they may be renewing with a two to 3% inflation kicker. So I'm willing to pretend it isn't 0%, because there is an increase for a lot of people, but it isn't 6%.

So the Fed knows that this lag effect is there, and if you tell the model it's 3% in shelter instead of 6%, well, then lo and behold, you take a full percentage point out. Then your 3.3% goes to 2.3%. And so that's kind of the way I'm viewing it. And I think that's the way the Fed is viewing it too. But Nick, they have a sort of optics here that enables them to not cut at the March meeting, and kind of keep this thing going a little more. They're not fearful that unemployment is about to go up. They do want to start pulling down and I believe they will at the May 1st meeting. But this bought them a little more time. And yet at the same time, it isn't indicating to me that there is a substantial persistence of additional inflation.

EICHER: I’ve got a little bit of economic memory lane here. I was in college and studied the Japanese economic miracle in econ class. So go ahead and remind me just how long ago that was. But I do think it's noteworthy that last week, Japan got bumped from its perch as the world’s number three economy. It’s now number four behind Germany. Talk a little bit about Japan falling out of the number three spot.

BAHNSEN: Nick, let's be clear, when you heard stories about Japan being the ascendant economy, this was a long time ago when Japan was in that ascendant case. And I frequently talk about how the old movie Die Hard that became such a classic centered around Japan, you know, having this huge economic value and presence and activity, and it would be totally crazy for people to make a movie now about Japan being a threat to U.S. economic positioning.

President Trump famously wrote an op-ed that was published, I can't remember if it was the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal in 1987, talking about how Japan was eating Americans lunch. And so it was 89, in which Japan kind of peaked and they began a 30 year period of deflationary spiral on a relative basis. It's true you get a ranking and Japan now fell behind Germany. But what's interesting is that this comes with their nominal GDP growing 5.7% last year, and it's only because Germany's grew 6.3 But Japan's nominal GDP grew more than China, more than America last year, more than number one and number two, but their total size of economy has shrunk so much.

Now, keep in mind, their stock market was up 28% last year. Their stock market is up the most this year. There are other things that are playing out that are more positive, but they're not in any position to be a world leader with low, slow and no growth as a byproduct of 250% debt to GDP. I mean, they still have as basically a 0% interest rate to facilitate the monetization of their debt at a central bank level.

It's a total disaster. They have an aging senior population, and they had no kids for decades. You can't get economic growth without population growth. That's how production works. You need more productivity for more people, and Japan doesn't have it.

EICHER: Well, quickly before we get into “defining terms” for this week, David, I do want to get your reaction as a New York businessman to the judgment last week against former President Trump - the eye popping $355 million judgment, and then you have to add interest in so we’re looking at another roughly 100 million dollars. What do you say about that?

BAHNSEN: Nick, that issue of President Trump and the Friday ruling, I first of all, just want to point out that I have been extremely objective for years and years here when he does things I like, I say so; when he does things I don't like, I say so. Nobody could accuse me of being either a cheerleader or an irrational critic of President Trump. But this ruling is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen. It has no chance of holding up on appeal. And I don't say that lawyerly, I'd say that just with basic common sense.

Everybody is laughing about this, who has ever done any real estate in New York or anywhere else. Nobody lost any money. All the lenders were paid. The lenders did their own due diligence and approved loans based on the valuations. Did he submit in loan apps valuations of his other properties that were exaggerated and higher than would have played out? Of course, everybody is trying to show the highest net worth possible to get a loan, and then relying on the banks to decide what they think things are worth. But if you default on a loan, because you gave fake data and you were not qualified, then there's a fraud and wrong that was done.

Nobody defaulted on these loans. He just simply submitted documents of high values that are totally subjective, that were accepted by the banks that then went on and did their own due diligence. And now assessing a $350 million fine with no damages. Nobody in their right mind can take this seriously. That's what I have to say about it.

EICHER: Well, David, last item here: defining terms. I want to circle back to Japan. This is not necessarily a conventional textbook economic term, I’d say it’s a “Bahnsenism.” You've used it here quite a bit to describe the phenomenon that affects highly indebted, slow growing national economies. And the term is “Japanification.”

BAHNSEN: I do use the word Japanification a lot. I want to define that for WORLD listeners this week. Japanification is a term that I made up. And I frequently say, I think I stole it from someone else. But I don’t remember, and it isn’t a formal term. So we’ll just allow for it, in our purposes.

When I talk about Japanification, I’m referring to downward pressure on a country's economic growth, the downward pressure that is caused by and reinforced by the things they’re doing to create growth. So it’s a negative feedback loop that comes when you use fiscal policy, more government spending, and monetary policy, easy central bank rules to try to stimulate economic growth, but it ends up having a diminishing return. And then that creates a negative feedback cycle. That’s what we mean by Japanification. And it was essentially what took place over decades in Japan, and a form of it is now playing out in the United States and in Europe.

EICHER: Okay. David Bahnsen is founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group. His personal website is Bahnsen.com. His weekly Dividend Cafe is found at dividendcafe.com.

David, thanks, have a great week!

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, February 19th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: the WORLD History Book. Today, an American men’s figure skater brings home the gold. But first, a missionary to Spain begins using radio to broadcast the gospel—and launches a worldwide media ministry. Here’s WORLD Radio executive producer Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER: In 1953 a young father sells his car and his North Carolina home, packs up his young family and heads to Tangier, Morocco to start a gospel radio station. Audio here from the Towers to Eternity audiobook:

PAUL FREED: I had never been a radio enthusiast. I knew a lot more about ten dozen other things than I did about radio. And it seemed rather strange that, with so many radio hams in the world, the Lord would put His finger on me for this broadcasting venture into Europe.

Youth evangelist Paul Freed first visited Spain in 1948. Dictator Francisco Franco ruled the European country with an iron fist. Spanish protestants were forbidden to evangelize or distribute Christian literature. But the church was vibrant and committed. Everywhere he went, Spanish Christians pleaded with Freed to help them. He believed he had more to learn from them than the other way around, but he promised to do what he could.

Five years later, Freed is back. He sets up a small Christian radio station 26 miles off the coast of Spain from Tangier, Morocco, and beams the first gospel broadcast into the closed country on February 22nd, 1954:

FREED: We started with a little tiny 2500 Watt war surplus transmitter, went on the air there in two languages, in Spanish and English. I'll never forget those broadcasts were so simple, so small, so tiny in every way, but God was a part of it.

It isn’t long before the radio ministry spreads to neighboring countries, expanding to 26 languages within two years. No longer focused on just Spain, the ministry eventually becomes known as Trans World Radio.

FREED: But right then and there, I said, this is not enough. We're reaching certain areas by God's grace, we shall reach the whole world with the gospel.

Paul Freed’s first humble radio station has now grown into a global media ministry. Today, 70 years later, TWR reaches into nearly 200 countries, with programming in more than 300 languages and dialects. And not just using radio, but the latest internet and mobile app technology as well.

TOWERS TO ETERNITY INTRO: This is purely and simply a setting forth of what God has done and I want to give all glory and praise to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Next, a short athlete, with a tall goal: winning Olympic Gold.

1980 OLYMPIC COVERAGE: And that's it for Scott Hamilton. Nice going. 21 years old, from Bowling Green, Ohio.

American skater Scott Hamilton discovered the sport after a puzzling illness as a child. From age 4 to age 9 Hamilton stopped growing. Doctors couldn’t figure it out. In 2021 he told TBN’s Kirk Cameron how his illness introduced him to skating:

SCOTT HAMILTON: Just sort of wondering who I am, and all of this and how am I, how do I fit in with the rest of my kids my age and, and I started skating. And I realize after a few weeks that I could skate as well as well kids. And then after a few more weeks, I realized I could skate as well as the best athletes in my grade. And then my health started to improve. And it was miraculous.

Hamilton began competing in 1976. He made the 1980 U.S. Olympic team—ending the games in 5th place overall, a strong finish for the young skater. Then from 1981 to 1984, Hamilton was undefeated, easily qualifying for the 1984 U.S. team.

HAMILTON: Once that four years was over and I was going into the Olympics, all of a sudden, it became so important. It wasn't a competition anymore. It was like, this life’s goal.

SOUND: [HAMILTON’S 1984 SKATING ROUTINE]

Years of intense training and competition made Hamilton the hands down favorite, but the pressure was immense.

HAMILTON: I have this guilt thing. I don't want to disappoint anybody. I want to I want to be everything everybody wants me to be and that's that can drive you crazy.

Hamilton started the Olympics strong—winning the compulsory figures and placing second in the short program. The gold medal was within reach. But then on February 17th, 1984, he completed only three of the five planned jumps in the long program.

SOUND: [HAMILTON’S 1984 LONG PROGRAM]

Hamilton finished second in the long program, but his performance was just enough for him to eke out a gold medal.

SOUND: [MEDAL CEREMONY]

His victory ended a 24-year gold medal drought for U.S. men in Olympic figure skating. During the medal ceremony, Hamilton struggled to keep it together.

HAMILTON: I think half the reason that I was so emotional on the podium at the Olympics was because I, I felt kinda like, now what am I gonna do? There’s nothing left to accomplish in the sport. And I felt kind of lost.

Hamilton turned pro following his gold medal performance. He was at the top of his sport and became a popular broadcast analyst. Audio here from CBS coverage of the 1992 Olympics:

HAMILTON BROADCAST:This is it. Everything you’ve ever wanted and dreamed and hoped for happens tonight in four and a half minutes.

But in 1997, Hamilton faced a new challenge: testicular cancer. And it was through this fight, Hamilton found Christ. Audio here from his “I am second” video testimony…

HAMILTON: (I AM SECOND VIDEO) You have to understand that Christianity is is a faith of history. These things actually happened.

Hamilton has had three bouts with brain cancer since then, but through it all, the skater sees God’s hand at work.

HAMILTON: (I AM SECOND VIDEO) When I look back, and I see all those little moments in my life where I needed a great deal of strength. I understand that through a strong relationship with Jesus, God was there every single time. Every single time. Hm. My name is Scott Hamilton and I am Second.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Israel’s push against the final strongholds of Hamas in Gaza, and the not-so-mysterious death of an opponent of Russian president Putin. We’ll talk with an expert. And, a man who opens his front door and finds a cross-cultural mission field right there. 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. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible records, “A lawyer stood up to put [Jesus] to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ [The lawyer] said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’ And [Jesus] answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’” —Luke 10:25-27

Go now in grace and peace.

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