The World and Everything in It: February 27, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. My name is Mariah, and I teach English learners at an elementary school in Fargo, North Dakota. I want to thank my mom, Darla, for introducing me to sound, Biblically objective journalism. Ever since I was a child reading the World Kids Magazine. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! Pro-life doctors … on what a recent ruling in Alabama means for in vitro fertilization.

AUDIO: What does it mean to be a human being frozen in ice in a laboratory?

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also, protecting young people online. Canada is taking up the challenge. And, how the southern border crisis is affecting life for border communities like Eagle Pass, Texas.

AUDIO: All of a sudden, we saw the helicopters taking these huge train cars going across.

And a mom-and-pop solution to poverty and pathology. WORLD Opinions’ Daniel Darling comments.

BROWN: It’s Tuesday, February 27th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Michigan preview » Voters in Michigan are set to head to polls this morning in the state’s presidential primary election.

TRUMP: If you want to save America, then you must vote. We need you to get out and vote to set the stage for November.

Donald Trump heard there in suburban Detroit where Nikki Haley also campaigned on Monday taking aim at the former president.

HALEY: If you have a candidate who can’t bring in Independents, if you have a candidate that is driving people out of our party, then that is a sinking ship.

Recent Michigan polls give Trump a 50-point lead heading into today’s vote.

But Matt Grossman with Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy said of Haley: 

GROSSMAN: She does have the advantage that Michigan doesn’t have party registration, so anyone can show up and vote in either primary.

RNC chair to step down » And the head of the Republican National Committee is stepping down. Ronna McDaniel announced she’ll leave at the end of next week after 7 years on the job.

She said she’s stepping aside to “allow our nominee to select a Chair of their choosing.”

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called it a smart move, presuming Trump will be the nominee.

MCCARTY: I like who the president is supporting. I think this is retooling, rebuilding, and beginning that election that we’re going to have in November and beginning what we need right now in resources.

Trump is supporting Michael Whatley, the North Carolina GOP Chair, to replace McDaniel. He also wants his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to serve as committee co-chair.

Pentagon review of Austin secrecy » The Pentagon says it found no evidence that anyone intentionally withheld news of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization last month. Spokesman Pat Ryder told reporters:

RYDER: As the Office of the Director of Administration and Management conducted this review, they found nothing during the review that demonstrated any indication of ill intent.

But the 30-day review did spot holes in standard procedures that should be fixed.

Austin checked into Walter Reed Military hospital on January 1st due to complications after surgery for prostate cancer. But it was days before the White House found out.

SCOTUS social media » Do states have the authority to regulate how social media companies control or censor content? That’s the question before the U.S. Supreme Court right now.

Attorney Paul Clement argued Monday on behalf of social media companies.

CLEMENT: Content moderation to me is just editorial discretion in order to make it less offensive to users and advertisers.

ALITO: Is it anything more than a euphemism for censorship?

Justice Samuel Alito heard there.

Clement took aim at a Florida law that bans content discrimination. The state enacted it after users accused tech companies of censoring conservative views. He called the law unconstitutional.

A lawyer for the state argued that the law protects the constitutional rights of Floridians against Orwellian censorship.

But Justice Brett Kavanaugh responded:

KAVANAUGH: When I think Orwellian, I think of the state, not the private sector, not private individuals. Maybe people have different conceptions of Orwellian.

The justices also expressed some concern that the laws may be overly broad.

Israel Rafah plan » Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the army has presented to the War Cabinet its plan for a ground operation in the city of Rafah.

NETANYAHU: A double plan, one for the evacuation and humanitarian assistance of the civilian population in Rafah, and second, the elimination of the remaining quarter, roughly, of the Hamas terrorists battalions that are in Rafah.

Netanyahu says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold.

But it’s estimated that more than a million people are sheltering there. And the White House has said it would only support a ground operation in Rafah if Israel presents a workable plan to protect them.

Palestinian Prime Minister resigns » Meantime, some world leaders are welcoming news of a major shakeup within the top ranks of the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked for the resignation of Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh and got it.

United Nations Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

DUJARRIC: A strengthened, empowered Palestinian government that can administer the whole of the occupied Palestinian territory is critical as part of a path to achieving the establishment of a fully independent, sovereign and viable Palestinian state.

World leaders have called for reforms in the Palestinian Authority to better equip it to govern the Gaza Strip after the war.

The United States supports the authority leading Gaza, but Israel has not yet agreed to any such arrangement.

Shtayyeh is staying on as the Palestinian Authority’s caretaker until his replacement is found and a new government is formed.

California abortion travel anti-pro-life campaign » California Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking aim at pro-life states with a new ad campaign. One ad pictures a girl handcuffed to a hospital bed.

AUDIO: HELP! Trump Republicans want to criminalize young women who travel to receive the reproductive care they need.

The ad campaign is launching in Tennessee where lawmakers are weighing a bill that seeks to protect girls from being trafficked across state lines for abortions without their parents’ consent.

Tennessee Representative Jason Zachary filed that bill.

ZACHARY: As a Christ follower, it’s a mandate that I have to protect life. I was literally involved with that conversation with crying guardians that couldn’t stop what was being done to facilitate an abortion with a child under their care.

Audio courtesy WATE.

Newsom meanwhile has positioned himself as a potential replacement for Joe Biden on the Democratic presidential ticket if Biden bows out for any reason.

Sweden NATO » Sweden is one crucial step closer to joining NATO.

Hungary’s Parliament has voted to ratify Sweden’s bid to join the alliance. That ends more than 18 months of delays as the Nordic nation worked to overcome the objections of Turkey and then Hungary.

U.S. State Dept. spokesman Matthew Miller said a few formal steps remain, but …

MILLER: We certainly do welcome the vote in the Hungarian Parliament today. We look forward to it being finalized and are ready to receive the instruments here and welcome Sweden as the 32nd member of NATO.

Sweden is ending a generations-long policy of remaining neutral on military matters. Neighboring Finland did the same, joining NATO last year after Russia invaded Ukraine.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: When unborn life begins in the laboratory. Plus, making a home in Eagle Pass, Texas.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 27th of February, 2024.

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

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

First up today: pro-life doctors and the frozen-embryos controversy.

The Alabama Supreme Court decision last week to extend the protection of law to frozen embryos has sent Alabama officeholders scurrying to protect in vitro fertilization.

And it’s sent shockwaves well beyond Alabama.

EICHER: The White House is talking about it, insisting that only a reimposition of Roe versus Wade will save the day. Former President Trump is saying he wants a legal carve-out for IVF, even pro-life governors like Greg Abbott in Texas are saying the same thing without getting into the details.

Republicans warned their Senate candidates to be on guard, saying the Alabama case is “fodder for Democrats hoping to manipulate the abortion issue for electoral gain.”

Top advice to GOP candidates, No. 1: “Express Support for IVF.”

BROWN: Many pro-life groups celebrate the legal ruling as a victory for human life at its earliest stage, but what do Christian IVF doctors say?

Here’s WORLD’s Lifebeat reporter Leah Savas.

LEAH SAVAS: Dr. John Gordon’s phone blew up with text messages from friends and family when the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision came down.

JOHN GORDON: They were sort of texting, you know, frozen embryos are now children and, you know, question mark, question mark.

The Alabama ruling doesn’t affect Gordon where he practices as the medical director at Rejoice Fertility in Knoxville, Tenn. But it brought up questions fundamental to his field. He’s a Presbyterian and recognizes that IVF doctors have glossed over important questions about the work they’re doing in their attempts to make a perfect product.

GORDON: That's the thing is, a child is not a product, right? A child is a gift.

His practice approaches IVF differently than the rest of the industry.

JEFFREY KEENAN: We don't genetically test embryos, because it destroys some of them.

That’s Gordon’s partner at Rejoice Fertility, Dr. Jeffrey Keenan.

KEENAN: We only—if you will—discard embryos, if they've died. And even those we don't discard in a usual fashion. We send them to a place called Sacred Heart Guardians, and they provide a service and a burial for these embryos.

Keenan is a Roman Catholic. He’s also the president of the National Embryo Donation Center in Knoxville. The center matches couples with embryos that parents didn’t want or could not implant so that they have a chance to be born.

Gordon and Keenan’s values are more in line with the Alabama ruling than most of the industry. But they still have reservations about it. Here’s Gordon.

GORDON: it's hard because we all agree, human embryos are something unique, right? They’re the only thing in the universe that turns into, has the potential to turn into it, a human being. So, when do they gain that ability? I know, many of them will not. And we don't know which ones will and which ones won't.

Medical researchers estimate that anywhere from 40 to 70 percent of naturally fertilized eggs either don’t implant or end in miscarriage. For example, fertilization errors can result in an empty gestational sac but no baby. And in complete molar pregnancies, noncancerous tumors grow from the incorrectly fertilized egg. Keenan points to other chromosomal abnormalities that lead to early miscarriages.

KEENAN: We have to say that life starts at conception, because for those of us that do make it through that, you know, embryonic stage, yeah, it started for us at conception. But how about for those embryos that don't make it through?

Unlike Gordon and Keenan, the Alabama Supreme Court ruling does affect Dr. Brett Davenport. He practices IVF in Huntsville, Alabama.

BRETT DAVENPORT: I'm pro-life when it comes to the abortion issue. But this is not that issue.

As a Protestant Christian, Davenport says he had to think through the question of when life begins when he started in the field. Learning more about IVF helped him feel more comfortable with it. And while he can’t say conclusively when life begins, he’s confident about when it does not begin.

DAVENPORT: All we have to be concerned about is do we think it's, it has begun by day five to seven of an embryo? Because that's all we're dealing with in IVF. And no, I do not personally believe that life has begun by day seven of an embryo’s growth, and even more so when it is outside of a woman's uterus.

He plans to continue IVF mostly the same as before the ruling: genetically testing and freezing embryos. Davenport usually discards embryos and does not have an issue with it. But he’s pressing pause on that for now because of possible repercussions from the ruling, even though he disagrees with the state Supreme Court.

DAVENPORT: You have embryos that wouldn't have been created had we not used the tools that God has given us to create them. These are simply products of the tools that he's put in our hands, which are day five to seven embryos, and it's not at all a living child in utero.

But Christian ethicist and theologian Matthew Lee Anderson says the whole process of IVF puts doctors into a position they should never have to be in. He compares it to the cases of people who conceive naturally and then miscarry.

MATTHEW LEE ANDERSON: The difference is that we don't know in those cases, whether those were incomplete fertilizations, or whether those were persons made in the image of God. The fertility doctor has to make a judgment about that. They have to make a determination: is this an incomplete fertilization? Is this a complete embryo? And then what they’re going to do is they’re going to grade embryos, whether we think they are viable or not, how viable do we think they are.

Because of the position these doctors are in, Anderson says their struggle to see embryos as human persons makes sense.

ANDERSON: Because they have ripped these humans from the ordinary context where God had intended them to grow and develop and brought them into a very different context. What does it mean to be a human being frozen in ice in a laboratory?

Anderson hopes the ruling in Alabama will make Christian doctors in particular think twice about the implications of IVF, and, perhaps, abandon it altogether.

ANDERSON: The burdens of judgment that it places on reproductive doctors is just way too high.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leah Savas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Protecting kids online in Canada.

A quick word to parents this story has to do with online exploitation.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Some U.S. states have passed laws requiring so-called “adult” websites to verify the age of users. Rather than comply, many of the operators of those sites have cut off online access in those states and filed lawsuits.

Conservative and Independent lawmakers in Canada have been working on similar age-verification laws nationwide. The Canadian Senate passed a bill last year, and its House of Commons is now reviewing it.

But then yesterday, Liberal Members of Parliament introduced the Online Harms Act. It would set up a regulating body to hold online platforms accountable for harmful content.

BROWN: Same goal, so why the different approaches?

Joining us now to talk about it is Arnold Viersen. He’s a Conservative MP from the province of Alberta.

Arnold, good morning!

ARNOLD VIERSEN: Good morning, and thanks for having me, Myrna.

BROWN: Glad to have you. So we're talking about Bill S-210, the age verification legislation. How would it protect kids online?

VIERSEN: Yes, so this is a bill that was brought in by my colleague, Senator Miville-Dechêne, and it would ensure that platforms that are operating for a commercial purpose are ensuring that kids aren't getting onto their platforms. So it would basically just demand some sort of mechanism of age verification. Now, the bill doesn't lay out what that mechanism is, it just says you have to use one. In Canada, you can gamble online, you can buy alcohol online, you can buy marijuana online, so there's already a number of companies that offer age verification services. And we suspect that these platforms would start to use one of those services.

BROWN: Based on reports from the Canadian media, it sounds like the primary objection to this legislation comes down to data privacy. Here’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday responding to comments made by Conservative Opposition Leader, Pierre Poilievre:

TRUDEAU: He's proposing that adults should instead have to give their ID and their personal information to sketchy websites. We think we need to responsibly protect kids, but we need to do it in a way that is acceptable to all Canadians.

Arnold, how would you respond to Trudeau’s argument that this approach is unacceptable for Canada?

VIERSEN: Yeah, I wish that he would read the bill. First of all, the bill doesn't do any of those kinds of things. It ensures that people's age is verified, not that their ID is verified. And that's a clear distinction that I want to make. I always compare this a little bit to like Captcha, which is a human identifier, or a human verifier. It's not identifying you, but it is verifying that you're not a robot, you're a person. We think the same kind of mechanisms or similar mechanisms will be used to identify your age or verify your age, but not identify who you are necessarily.

BROWN: Arnold, you’re not only on the record in support for Bill S-210 to protect kids from internet pornography, you’re also the sponsor of Bill C-270, a proposal to amend Canada’s Criminal Code. What would that legislation do?

VIERSEN: So currently in Canada, it is illegal to post under-aged videos or content, and it's currently illegal to post non-consensual images in Canada. The trouble with our law in Canada is that the police have to prove both of those each time. So they have to prove that the person is underage, they have to prove that they didn't consent, and that's onerous. My bill would make it so that companies that are hosting this kind of content have to maintain a record of both consent and age. And if they fail to keep those records, there would be a criminal code offense associated with failing to keep records. The interesting piece as well with my bill is that it allows for people to revoke their consent. And that's something that survivors of sexual exploitation across the country or from around the world have said, "At some point in my life, I did consent to that video being up, I no longer consent to it being up and I would like to take it down." And this would help them to do that. So if a company fails to remove content, after people say, "Hey, I revoke my consent," they would be found criminally responsible.

BROWN: Interesting feature. The current government has different ideas about protecting kids from online predators. What do we know so far about the Online Harms Act that was introduced yesterday?

VIERSEN: Yeah, so what we know is that we've been waiting a long time for this. So I don't know if your listeners remember, we had an article come out almost three years ago from the New York Times called The Children of Pornhub. And after that came out, the Liberal government of the day said that within three weeks, they were going to have an Online Harms Bill presented. It's been just over three years now, and here we go with their Online Harms Bill. It basically puts in place a regulatory body that will then oversee this. So it's kind of scant on like, what will actually be the impact of it because it puts together a commission and an ombudsman and an office to deal with complaints. And after that, it allows those bodies to set the guidelines going forward. As I always say, the devil's in the details, as they build out this office and commission and ombudsman, we will then get to see what the regulations actually are.

BROWN: What do you see as the fundamental differences in how Liberals and Conservatives are seeking to protect kids from pornography…based on these bills?

VIERSEN: Probably the fundamental differences is that conservatives believe that there is evil in the world and that and that our children need to be protected from that. That's fundamentally that difference, understanding that evil exists or that everyone’s just misunderstood. That’s the kind of the binaries between the liberals and conservatives.

BROWN: Arnold, is there any aspect of this story that you think warrants more attention?

VIERSEN: I'm excited that all of it's getting the attention that it's getting. I would point out that the UK kind of started this back in 2007. When I got elected in 2015, I put a motion on the House of Commons floor to study the impacts on pornography. The last time anybody had studied is before I was born. But just watching this slowly build as we see several—I think it's up to six—American states now have brought in some sort of age verification. The thing that I think most people need to know is that there's broad consensus for tackling this issue.

BROWN: Arnold Viersen is a Member of Parliament for Peace River and Westlock in Alberta, Canada. Arnold, thank you for your time and your service!

VIERSEN: No problem at all, Myrna. Thanks for having me.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Perhaps you’ve heard of the Florida man meme made possible by some of the most colorful arrest reports in the country.

And to be fair, Florida Man is no more reckless than Missouri Man. It’s just that the Sunshine State has such wonderfully open public-records laws.

Nevertheless, Floridians seem to have embraced the notion of “Florida Man,” and some have taken the trope up a notch.

AUDIO: So this is it, the Florida Man Games.

That’s right. Olympic-style games based on the crazy things we hear about.

Events included mud wrestling, a mullet contest, and evading arrest in an obstacle course.

SOUND: [3-2-1 and cheering]

Organizer Pete Melfi told ABS-CBN News all the way out in the Philippines

PETE MELFI: I wanted to do an event where you could live a day in the life of a Florida Man without going to jail for it.

Yes, going viral without going to the pokey. Best of both worlds.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, February 27th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown, briefly taking off my WORLD Radio cohost hat. Now I’m going to slip on my WORLD Watch reporter hat to spread some exciting news!

it's FREEBIE WEEK! Yeah!! There’s a literal free-for-all going on at WORLD Watch which means full access for everyone.

You can press play on any and all episodes now through March 3 at worldwatch.news/freebie.

So, spread the word!

EICHER: Well, coming next on The World and Everything in It: life in a border town.

Illegal immigration continues to overwhelm towns along the U.S.-Mexico border. With millions of people passing through, what’s it like for people who live there?

WORLD’s Bonnie Pritchett recently visited Eagle Pass, Texas, to find out.

JOSE ARANDA: My name is Jose Aranda. But you can call me Pepe…

BONNIE PRITCHETT: Aranda is a real estate broker in Eagle Pass. Before that he worked two decades in border towns for a Texas-based grocery store chain. He also owned a small business. And, served as Eagle Pass mayor and Maverick County Judge.

He knows this town. He knows this neighborhood.

ARANDA: I grew up just a block and a half from here, which is 600 feet from the river…

The Rio Grande flows below the bluff this neighborhood rests on. The houses here are a mix of modest, well-kept homes, abandoned buildings and everything in between. Aranda points to the shell of one building.

ARANDA: Juan Rodriguez, he was a butcher, he had a little store here, and then Celso Garcia had a grocery store over here. Moncho Hernandez, had that white building is another store...

He remembers other people from this neighborhood.

ARANDA: I can remember, you know, men running down the street here on Ferry Street, and asking my mom, “What is this? What's going on?” And she said, “Oh, no, don't worry, they're just crossing illegally, and they're coming into the United States. They’re looking for work. So, we've all our lives we've been exposed to people crossing and running…

AUDIO: [Metal door, Greetings]

Sofie Gallo and Anna Santleben grew up with their parents and two brothers a couple of blocks from Aranda’s neighborhood. Their father still lives in their childhood home. The sisters are retired educators, like their dad.

Santleben’s home sits on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande and Mexico beyond. In the living room the sisters reminisce about growing up in this border town. Santleben begins.

ANNA SANTLEBEN: We grew up in the downtown area. And back then downtown was the place to be. We had a blast down there. All our cousins would come and park their cars at our house and visit and then we'd all go downtown and you know, hit the stores…

Every Saturday the family went to dinner in Mexico.

GALLO: But as far as illegal crossing, I mean, it's always happened—just not to the extent that we have now…

Santleben and her husband, Al, a retired Border Patrol agent, often witness the problem from their backyard. After photographing the sisters for this story, we turned to admire the view and saw four people walking among the desert scrub near the river.

Border Patrols agents weren’t far behind. Al Santleben phoned in location information as he kept tabs on the group from his birds-eye view.

Near the sister’s childhood home is a popular bakery and café.

JENNIFER CHACON: My name is Jennifer Chacon. And we are in Eagle Pass at Sweet Tweets. I am the owner…

The lunch crowd is arriving and Chacon spares a few minutes to talk about her hometown.

CHACON: We are just blocks away from the whole chaos…

The chaos is Shelby Park: a green patch of land on the banks of the Rio Grande and the epicenter of the national debate over illegal immigration.

Chacon recounts, matter-of-factly, seeing people crossing the river from Mexico when she was a kid.

But now, she’s a business owner. And a mom. And the historic number of people crossing illegally, gives her pause.

CHACON: It becomes somewhat of a fear of your staff being safe, of your business being safe, and family and our customers being safe…

So, as a precaution, she adjusted her business hours to avoid high traffic times when illegal immigrants made their way through town.

CHACON: To be honest. We've never had a scare here at the business. I feel safer here than I do sometimes in my own home. There are nights that we see a lot of traffic in groups of like 10 to 20 or 30 people with kids and non-kids. But for the most part in that area, you see a lot of males, men, men passing by…

In March 2021, Customs and Border Protection reported a 71 percent increase in illegal immigration on the Southern border over the previous month.

It would only get worse.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott called out the Biden administration on its lack of action and took matters into his own hands.

ABBOTT: Texas is not going to shy away from stepping up and filling the gap that the federal government has left open…

Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, a state-funded effort to supply personnel and barriers all along Texas’s southern border. He concentrated security in one particular spot on the state’s 1200-mile border with Mexico – Shelby Park in Eagle Pass.

That caught some residents off guard. Gallo and Santleben describe what happened.

SANTLEBEN: All of a sudden, we saw the helicopters taking these huge train cars.

GALLO: Yeah, you could hear the helicopters carrying those. Especially at night, we could hear them, you know, flying over the house. It was crazy…

The helicopters with cargo containers dangling from their undersides flew low over Eagle Pass toward Shelby Park where they were placed along the banks of the Rio Grande. Then came the concertina wire on the ground. Then the more dangerous razor wire topping the containers and other fences.

The expansive green space with its baseball fields and boat ramp is now a national political, legal, and ideological battlefield. And Eagle Pass residents are caught in the crossfire.

SANTLEBEN: It’s awful. It’s awful. Nobody likes it. 

GALLO: Shelby Park was a really nice place. Now, it looks like we're in some kind of war.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett in Eagle Pass, Texas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Tuesday, February 27th, 2024. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next, marriage and social justice. WORLD Commentator Daniel Darling says a new book is reframing the debate on how to bring prosperity to poor communities.

DANIEL DARLING: Imagine you are a young Christian burdened by the state of the world. You see headline after headline about rising crime, addiction, and deaths of despair. What should you prioritize in your efforts to engage in genuine social justice? You might be surprised to learn one scholar suggests marriage.

Professor Brad Wilcox is director of The National Marriage Project at The University of Virginia and a fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. He says many of the biggest problems across America are rooted in the collapse of marriage and family life. In fact, marriage and family are often better predictors of outcomes for people than the topics that currently dominate our public conversation—like race, education, and government spending.

Wilcox’s new book, Get Married, makes the case that traditional marriage and family are the lynchpin to a flourishing life. Consider one stunning fact: “The best community predictor of poor children remaining stuck in poverty as adults was the share of kids in their communities living in a single-parent family. Not income inequality. Not race. Not school quality.”

Wilcox’s work reveals an opportunity for the Church to lean into what we already know and believe: the Biblical vision for marriage and family is not only right, it is good for our neighbors.

Local churches are uniquely situated to help alleviate this crisis. In our communities, there are shattered families, trapped in despair, lied to by cultural institutions that have made false promises about the sexual revolution. This is especially true among poor Americans with the least resources and social capital. Churches are the kinds of communities where the broken can find a new family. Imagine if our churches took a two-fold approach: they could strengthen marriages and families within their congregations. And in the wider community, they could address marriage as a social justice issue, bringing marriage retreats, counseling, and other innovative approaches to their neighborhoods.

Ironically, this is coming at a time when many commentators and influencers urge pastors and church leaders to talk less about marriage. Some seek to avoid offending those called to singleness. Others tire of being harangued about so-called “idolatry of the family.” But how can we withhold truth about the one human factor with the greatest chance of lifting communities out of despair?

Scripture tells us that marriage is a creational good, embedded in God’s world as a mystery that points to the kingdom of God. (See Ephesians 5:32.) We can show our neighbors that in the longing they have for stable family life there is a deeper longing for the love of their Heavenly Father and their new family in the Body of Christ.

A healthy Christian community can stabilize families through difficult times. Christian families aren’t immune to despair or divorce, but this new research from the University of Virginia shows that faithful church attendance significantly reduces the incidence of family breakup.

All of this means that in an age of despair, churches that take the call of justice seriously will take marriage seriously and not be afraid to champion what God declares to be good.

I’m Daniel Darling.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: On Washington Wednesday, we’ll talk about this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference and a shake-up in Republican National Committee leadership.

And, part two of our story about how border security decisions made in Washington affects the lives of people in Eagle Pass, TX. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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

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

The Psalmist writes: “Behold God is my helper. The Lord is the upholder of my life. He will return the evil to my enemies. In your faithfulness put an end to them. With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.” —Psalm 54:4 - 6

Go now in grace and peace.

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