The World and Everything in It: February 3, 2026

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The U.S. defends progress made in Venezuela.

RUBIO: I get it, we all want like, something immediately, but this is not a frozen dinner you put in a microwave and in two and a half minutes it comes out ready to eat.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk about it with a former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela.

Also today, the battle over gender ideology hits Daughters of the American Revolution.

Later, America’s church drop-off.

LASALLE: The younger generation as a whole aren’t as spiritually interested anymore.

And WORLD commentator Joe Rigney responds to Hillary Clinton calling him out.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, February 3rd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Government shutdown » It’s still unclear when the latest government shutdown will end.

Some House Democrats are rejecting a funding compromise struck by Senate Democrats last week.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blames Republicans for not agreeing to new limits on Immigration and Customs Enforcement — or ICE. That, the wake of federal agent involved shootings in Minnesota.

JEFFRIES: The question for Republicans will continue to be, are you gonna double and triple down on your extremism or try to find a bipartisan path forward.

Republicans say some of the Democrat demands are not reasonable.

Republicans could pass another funding bill without Democrats, but GOP leaders have almost no margin with a razor-thin majority of just four seats.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was asked Monday if they have the needed votes.

SCALISE: We always work till the midnight hour to get the votes and you know, you never start the process with everybody on board. You work through it and uh, you can say that with every major bill we passed.

The Senate compromise would fund Homeland Security for a couple of weeks to allow more time to negotiate changes while funding the rest of the government through the summer.

More St. Paul church disruption arrests » The Department of Justice has announced two more arrests, tied to anti-ICE protests that disrupted a church service in St. Paul.

A grand jury in Minnesota has now indicted nine people on federal charges of conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshippers.

The Justice Department says the group, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon, entered the Cities Church during worship on Jan. 18 and interfered with people’s right to worship. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

 BONDI:  Parishioners were blocked from exiting the church. Don Lemon on video blocked one of them … screaming, yelling at the pastor. That's illegal in this country. When we say, God bless America, we mean it. We're gonna protect America. And if you do that in any house of worship in this country, we're gonna find you.

Prosecutors say that crossed the line from protest into interfering with the congregation’s right to worship.

Lemon says he was documenting the protest and was not part of the group that disrupted the service.

Authorities say protesters targeted the church because its pastor also works with ICE in the St. Paul area.

India tariffs - Russian oil » President Trump says he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have struck a trade deal to cut U.S. tariffs on Indian goods. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER: The president announced an agreement to slash those tariffs from 50% to 18%, effective immediately.

He said that India, critically, has agreed to stop buying Russian oil.

Trump said on social media that the deal—his words “will help END THE WAR in Ukraine… which is taking place right now, with thousands of people dying each and every week!”

India will also increase purchases of U.S. products and lower its own tariffs on U.S. goods.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

Ukraine latest » Russia and Ukraine are again trying to hash out some kind of peace agreement this week.

ZELENSKYY: [Speaking Ukrainian]

Speaking here, Russian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says delegations from both Ukraine and Russia are scheduled to hold trilateral talks with the United States on Wednesday or Thursday. Those talks slated to take place in the United Arab Emirates.

For his part, President Trump again told reporters yesterday that he lobbied Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities during the current cold snap.

TRUMP: Ukraine is a very cold country. It's much colder than us. It's colder than they say on average it's Canada or colder. And on top of that, they have a tremendous cold wave. And I asked him if you wouldn't shoot for a period of one week, no missiles going into Kyiv or any of the towns, and he's agreed to do it.

It was a different picture in Ukraine though.

SOUND: [Cherkasy cleanup]

Firefighters and other first responders worked at the scene of an overnight Russian drone strike in the city of Cherkasy yesterday. Regional officials say civilian infrastructure -- including homes and cars -- were hit. Four people were injured in the strike.

NYC cold deaths » Communities around the country are still digging out following multiple powerful winter storms that swept across dozens of states.

The severe weather has been blamed for more than 100 deaths nationwide, including in New York City, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters:

MAMDANI: Sixteen of our fellow New Yorkers have passed away outside during this brutal stretch of cold in 13 of these cases. Preliminary findings indicate that hypothermia played a role …

Meantime, North Carolina residents are digging out from a foot or more of snow, and Florida farmers need their frozen plants to thaw before they can assess the damage.

Sub-freezing weather returned last night across many eastern states. And more than 70,000 homes and businesses in Mississippi and Tennessee have started a second week without electricity.

I'm Kent Covington. 

Straight ahead: The U.S. defends progress made in Venezuela. Plus, the battle over gender ideology hits the Daughters of the American Revolution.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 3rd of February.

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

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

First up: Venezuela’s future.

Since the U.S. removed President Nicolas Maduro from power, the country has released more than 300 political prisoners. It’s also rolled back some restrictions on private investment in the petroleum industry.

EICHER: But with former Vice President and Maduro ally Delcy Rodriguez now in charge, the questions concern long-term stabilization. Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He defended U.S. progress in Venezuela and stressed the need for patience.

RUBIO: Objective number one was stability. In the aftermath of the removal of Maduro, the concern was what happens in Venezuela? Is there civil war? Do the different factions start going at each other. Over a million people crossing the border into Colombia. All of that has been avoided.

REICHARD: Senator Jeanne Shaheen expressed concern about reports that Rodriguez is involved in drug trafficking. Rubio answered that those reports are not confirmed, but that if they are true, the U.S. doesn’t intend to leave a corrupt system in place.

RUBIO: In the transition and stabilization phase, we are just acknowledging reality, and that is, you have to work with the people that are in charge of the elements of government.

EICHER: Other senators criticized the administration for not immediately installing opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. But Rubio maintained she doesn’t yet have the support needed to lead the country effectively.

RUBIO: Whether we like it or not, the elements of control in that country, the people with the guns, the people that control the guns and the institutions of government there are in the hands of this regime.

He says the goal is to help Venezuela become so stable that someone without ties to crime–someone like Machado–can lead.

The committee pressed Rubio on how long a transition would take. Rubio had no timeline but said the country would increasingly become better than under Maduro.

RUBIO: I get it. We all want like something immediately, but this is not a frozen dinner you put in a microwave and in two and a half minutes it comes out ready to eat.

REICHARD: Rubio pointed out evidence of progress: the opening of Venezuelan oil to private investments… and plans to create a US-led banking and audit system.

RUBIO: It probably doesn't go far enough to attract sufficient investment, but it's a big step from where they were three weeks ago.

More now on Venezuela from our producer Lindsay Mast.

LINDSAY MAST: Thanks, Mary. The corruption in the Venezuelan government has gone on for decades now and it’s complex. To help make sense of it I called up Charles Shapiro. He held numerous senior positions at the U.S. Department of State, including Ambassador to Venezuela under President George W. Bush. He was also principal deputy assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere, and Coordinator for Cuban Affairs. He joins us now to talk about what comes next for Venezuela. Ambassador Shapiro, good morning.

CHARLES SHAPIRO: Good morning, Lindsay.

MAST: Let's start with where you were when you heard that the U.S. had gone in and taken out Nicolas Maduro. What was your reaction?

SHAPIRO: I was asleep and I started getting phone calls actually from Al Jazeera and Sky News in London wanting me to appear and tell them what was happening and I had no idea what was happening. It happened in the wee hours of Saturday morning. So I was surprised. My assumption was that we would put more and more pressure on Maduro and get him to leave, not actually take the next step and actually, you know, go in with troops and airplanes and special forces and grab him and Celia Flores and bring them out.

MAST: As you prepared to appear and were formulating your initial thoughts, what was going through your head?

SHAPIRO: It was so obvious so quickly how delighted Venezuelans in Venezuela and outside of Venezuela were. I mean, they were surprised, they were delighted, they were celebrating, celebrating more outside of Venezuela than inside because Maduro's police were still arresting people inside Venezuela. So, I mean, it was interesting what was going on.

And then surprised that it ended where it did. In other words, that we, the United States, took out Maduro and the First Lady, who's a member of Congress in her own right, but left everybody else in place. And that just surprised me no end. And still does, by the way. Because the people in place, particularly the individuals who are the Minister of National Security, which would be equivalent to the Homeland Security Secretary, and the Minister of Defense, are like bad guys, who are as bad as Maduro. So if Maduro's bad enough to take him out, why do you leave these two guys in place and leave them in charge of the police and the military so that if you're going to repress people, that's who's going to do it.

MAST: I know you've said that in removing Maduro and supporting Delcy Rodriguez that the U.S. has chosen stability over democracy, I believe was the term that you used. Can you walk us through what are the risks there?

SHAPIRO: In the short term, I think it's okay, right? But you've got the same police and the same military maintaining order. And for the first week after January 3rd, I mean, they continue to arrest reporters, arrest people, stop people on the streets and check their telephones to see what kind of messages they had on it. The forces of repression continue to repress.

MAST: Long-term, what do you see?

SHAPIRO: The idea that all this is going to go well in running a government in a country the size of Texas with 30 million people. And I've lived there for years. I know things don't go well there. But you overlay that on top of a country where people don't trust people who are not on their team, you know, on their political team, who expect the worst of each other. Because they've been receiving the worst of each other for 25 years. And so overlay that on top of it.

MAST: Secretary of State Rubio had a long discussion about this last week. He says this is a phased process. How do you react to that? Do you think the U.S. has the stamina to do that?

SHAPIRO: Gosh, that's a great question, I mean, because that's the one everybody's wrestling with. And it's one Venezuelans themselves are wrestling with. At least Rubio mentioned democracy, because when Trump talks about Venezuela, he talks about oil. So it's the phasing in. And how do you phase it in? And how quickly do you phase it in?

Some of it's pretty basic. The five person commission that runs elections in the country is controlled by Maduro's allies. So you can't have an election if those guys are in charge of the election, right? You need to replace them. To get to a democracy, you've got to have police and military that the public have faith in …

The courts are controlled by Maduro loyalists. You would need to replace all the Supreme Court justices and the lower courts as well. Maybe not all of them, but you have to set up a process to decide who needs to go and who needs to stay.

And this is like the headache-iest headache of all, is, the Constitution of Venezuela was written by Hugo Chavez, shortly after Chavez was elected president, he became president in 1999. They wrote a new constitution. The way that you would go to a seamstress and have a dress made for you. It was made to order so that the sleeves fit Chavez just right. I mean, literally a constitution written for Hugo Chavez.

They need to call the statesmen and women and write a new constitution for the country. And just think about that, how big a task that is.

MAST: It would be massive. What else does the U.S. need to be mindful of with this regime change?

SHAPIRO: What the Trump administration is trying to avoid is what we did in Iraq, where we abolished the military and the police, and then there was no military or police and there was huge confusion and chaos as a result. And so they're trying to avoid that. You know, and that's understandable, but how do you manage a country using the same people who've been imposing repressive law for 25 years are still in charge? How long do you leave them in charge? So this is, that means this is like, it makes the Gardonian knot look easy.

MAST: Charles Shapiro is former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere, and Coordinator for Cuban Affairs. Ambassador Shapiro, thank you so much for your time.

SHAPIRO: Thanks, Lindsay. I appreciate it. This was fun.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming next on The WORLD and Everything In It: Daughters of the American Revolution and gender ideology.

When DAR, the Daughters of the American Revolution, was founded in 1890, an applicant had to prove she was a direct descendent of either a patriot or someone who provided aid to a patriot. And, of course, she had to be female.

NICK EICHER, HOST: But that second requirement has now been written out, leaving behind a remnant fighting to preserve the organization’s history. Here’s WORLD’s Myrna Brown.

MYRNA BROWN: Laura McDonald loves the founding story of the DAR. She says it matters—because the organization exists in the first place after women were barred from Sons of the American Revolution.

LAURA MCDONALD: The Sons formed their organization in 1889 and when the women wanted to be a part of that, they were told no because you’re not a man and you’re not a son. Well, the women decided they would form their own then, The Daughters of the American Revolution.

In 2023 she was preparing to give a talk about the DAR for her local Rotary Club in Texas—planning to highlight that very origin story, but had second thoughts.

LAURA MCDONALD: I was going to mess with the men in the audience and say, sorry fellas, the DAR is for women only. And as soon as I was about to type those words out, I thought about the former health secretary.

She was thinking about the man known as Rachel Levine, the assistant health secretary in the Biden Administration who presented himself as a woman.

LAURA MCDONALD: And I thought… what are we going to do when he or somebody like him in a very prominent position decides that he wants to join the DAR.

McDonald had no idea the question of who qualifies for membership had already been broached, debated and voted on.

AUDIO: Good Morning, good morning.

Audio from DAR’s 132nd Continental Congress in Washington, where the vote took place. McDonald did not attend the meeting. Her mother did.

LAURA MCDONALD: She left feeling uneasy and confused about what happened. Of course, she did not vote for the amendment.

The amendment changed the organization’s bylaws to prohibit discrimination against otherwise eligible applicants, including on the basis of sexual orientation.

Her mother’s uneasiness prompted McDonald to find the recording of the meeting. She's listened to it over and over, trying to make sense of what happened that day in 2023.

AUDIO: And adding NSDAR and its chapters may not discriminate against an eligible applicant based on race, religion, sexual orientation…

First, a motion to amend an article that had been part of the organization’s bylaws for more than a century. Then a discussion led by the president general.

AUDIO: Is there any debate?....

Jennifer Meese, a delegate from Pennsylvania, was first at the microphone.

AUDIO: With the proposed change in wording to the bylaw, would our chapters be able to still vote not to admit into our chapter a person whose birth certificate has been altered by their state to indicate they are female, even though they were born a male?

PRESIDENT GENERAL: If a person’s…if a person’s birth certificate..certified birth certificate states female, they are eligible for membership.

Judy Lindsey, from Wyoming, also spoke against the change.

AUDIO: I think the Daughters of the American Revolution should be able to define what a woman is, scientifically with two X chromosomes. Not one with an X and a Y.

But the majority of delegates, like Mary Hayes from New Mexico, supported the amendment.

AUDIO: The legal counsel has strongly advised this by law because currently we’re vague. This 501c3 designation by the IRS would be revoked. We would be revoked if we discriminate against protected individuals and that DAR’s history of past discrimination would be taken into account when evaluating current discrimination.

The amendment passed, allowing men membership into the Daughters of the American Revolution.

AUDIO: There being two thirds in the affirmative, the amendment is adopted and the bylaw is amended as specified…applause

Laura McDonald says she later questioned DAR leaders about conflating the organization’s past racial discrimination with so-called “trans” discrimination.

LAURA MCDONALD: They try to liken it to discrimination against black women, which to me is offensive to try to compare men who claim to be women to black women.

She also questioned the organization’s legal rationale.

LAURA MCDONALD: We tried to dig a little deeper… who was the legal counsel and what was their advice? That’s when we get absolutely no answers.

WORLD also reached out to the current president general of the organization. But no one responded. So we contacted Randall Wenger, chief counsel for the Independence Law Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

RANDALL WENGER: An organization like the Daughters of the American Revolution is not at risk of losing tax exempt status by refusing membership to men. Even if those men identify as women.

Wenger says because the DAR was founded as a sex-separated organization, it has legal protections that allow it to limit membership accordingly. He says organizations that have lost tax exemption took extreme positions on public policy:

RANDALL WENGER: …but women’s groups, especially those involved in expression of women’s issues are not contrary to public policy.

Since that vote three years ago, McDonald has been on a mission.

LAURA MCDONALD: We have a Facebook group, called Daughters Advocating for Restoration.

McDonald says she’s tried multiple times to get the national bylaws amended. Each failed effort has been costly.

LAURA MCDONALD: We have essentially been accused of being hateful and bigoted and spreading vitriol.

But in August of 2025, McDonald made a discovery. Thirty chapters in ten states can compel the president general to call a special meeting.

LAURA MCDONALD: We will vote on a resolution that will define a woman.

McDonald says even if this effort fails:

LAURA MCDONALD: My faith rests in Jesus Christ and all of this is in service to Him ultimately. None of this matters if it’s not to ultimately glorify and honor God.

Out of nearly three thousand DAR chapters nationwide, McDonald says thirty-eight have so far joined the call for a special meeting. It’s scheduled for October in Washington. But she does not expect the president general to confirm it any sooner than the bylaws require—in September.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown

AUDIO: [Crowd chanting “Phil! Phil! Phil! Phil! Phil!”]

NICK EICHER, HOST: Before sunrise in Western Pennsylvania.

AUDIO: It’s Punxsutawney Phil!

Tens of thousands made the trip, many of them first-timers, all of them waiting on a forecast.

AUDIO: Six more weeks of winter!

Most of the crowd took it in stride

AUDIO: Six more weeks of winter, unfortunately—but Groundhogs Day, woo!/Tradition is everything… to be here at 2 in the morning with everybody… that’s unreal./Yeah, truly unreal.

Umm, hmm, “unreal” is probably the right word.

Because for all the pageantry, the record shows Punxsutawney Phil gets it right only about a third of the time.

And he is not the lone weather rodent … only the most famous.

More than seventy fellow groundhog prognosticators weighed in. A quick survey found just over half agreed with Phil. The others did not.

So six more weeks of winter—let's just say, confidence high, consensus optional.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, February 3rd.

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

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: going to church.

U.S. church attendance has dropped steeply over the past 50 years. Back in the 1970s, more than 2 in 5 Americans said they went to church each week.

Today, that number is closer to 1 in 5 among Gen Z.

BURGE: Every successive generation seems to be less inclined to go to a house of worship compared to the prior one.

That’s Ryan Burge, a political scientist and former pastor who keeps a close eye on religious trends. He says the rate of decline has slowed lately. But there’s no sign of numbers bouncing back yet.

EICHER: With fewer young people filling the pews, thousands of American churches are on the brink of extinction. Particularly in parts of the US where the population is already falling.

WORLD’s Grace Snell traveled to one of these communities and brings us the story of one small church still surviving.

AUDIO: [Congregation singing]

GRACE SNELL: On a frigid Sunday morning in upstate New York, a small congregation stands singing about the great, big love of God.

Calcium Community Church has stood on this corner since 1853. It’s weathered a lot over the years: leadership departures, dwindling membership, and tightening budgets.

Today, only about 30 to 35 people attend regularly. Calcium exists in a fragile tension: drawing in enough members and money for today, but lacking a substantial safety net for tomorrow. It’s like many other small, historic churches in that way.

Still, folks here don’t let fear of the future keep them from caring for each other like family and chipping in to keep the lights on and the doors open.

LASALLE: This is a world where we face a lot of problems. That’s just the way it is. A sin-cursed world. What would we expect?

Milton LaSalle is Calcium’s pastor, and he first started attending here in the 1940s. He remembers getting saved as a 10-year-old after his Sunday school teacher gave a lesson on the rapture.

LASALLE: I realized that I had never asked Jesus Christ to be my Savior. I had just kind of taken it for granted…

Six decades later, LaSalle heard they needed a preacher and stepped in to pastor his childhood church. Calcium looked a lot different from when he was a boy.

LASALLE: When I got here eight years ago, I think everybody here was probably over 50.

And it wasn’t just Calcium. LaSalle hears more and more pastors talking about the generational drop-off.

LASALLE: The younger generation as a whole aren’t as spiritually interested anymore.

Plenty of neighboring churches haven’t survived that trend. But here at Calcium, they’ve managed to add a few younger members recently.

A few minutes into the service, LaSalle dismisses the children for Sunday school. Three kids scamper off. Two teachers follow right behind. Normally, they have a few more students. But today, numbers are low due to a winter storm warning.

AUDIO: [Sounds of Sunday school]

In a basement classroom, a space heater works overtime to ward off the cold. Here, Ruthie Rafus’ pupils are busy cutting and coloring paper sheep.

RAFUS: I just finished reading them the story about the lost sheep, the one lost sheep.

Rafus has been teaching Sunday school here for almost 30 years. And she says her classes have been steadily shrinking over the past decade.

RAFUS: The young people now just don’t feel like it’s that important. They, I think they’ve seen a lot of things that made them feel like, ‘Well, I don’t think I really have to go to church to learn this. I can read my Bible at home. I can pray at home.

Rafus says that breaks her heart. She knows many seeds of faith first take root in Sunday school. And she remembers what this church was like when it was overflowing with kids—sponsoring bowling nights, camping trips, car washes, church lock-ins.

RAFUS: This is back in the day. These pictures here, that there was my assistant. This is my daughter and I was doing Sunday school.

Rafus gestures to the concrete hallway walls. Here, she’s taped photos of her Sunday school classes over the years.

RAFUS: She had a baby. She’s a policeman now in South Carolina.

Her oldest students are approaching their 40s now.

Back upstairs, the congregation has shifted its attention to the annual budget.

Just a few years ago, a local news station reported Calcium Community Church was on the brink of closing, citing budget concerns and dwindling post-pandemic membership. But, after that headline, a flow of donations and a few new members kept the church afloat.

TREASURER: Our budget is going to generally be the same as it was last year, a bare bones budget.

A deacon raises his hand.

KELTNER: With everything going up, it seems impossible that we can make ends meet again this year.

But, at least for this year, the treasurer says things are looking alright.

LASALLE: All those in favor of accepting this budget as presented for the upcoming year, please say ‘Aye.’

CONGREGATION: Aye!

The budget passes unanimously.

LASALLE: Thank you folks. Go enjoy the potluck.

Inside the fellowship room, members chat and laugh like it’s a family reunion. LaSalle says church numbers still fluctuate—especially as older members die or retire and move South. But he doesn’t lose sleep over that.

LASALLE: When they leave, the Lord brings somebody else in. He just, he’s been good, very good.

LaSalle says he’s just grateful to be here today, trusting in a God who doesn’t despise the little things.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Grace Snell in Calcium, New York.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Next up: Empathy untethered.

Former first lady Hillary Clinton wrote an essay this month in The Atlantic magazine singling out WORLD commentator Joe Rigney by name—for objecting to a sermon delivered at the National Cathedral on Inauguration Day.

Here’s part of it, by Episcopal bishop Mariann Edgar Budde:

AUDIO: In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families—some who fear for their lives.

REICHARD: Clinton called Rigney an “extremist pastor,” citing his book Leadership and the Sin of Empathy. She accused him—along with Allie Beth Stuckey—of waging what she called a “war on empathy” and rejecting Christian virtues like mercy and compassion.

EICHER: Rigney says that charge misunderstands his argument. Here now is his response.

JOE RIGNEY: When I read an article by Hillary Clinton accusing me of being a bad Christian for waging a “war on empathy,” I realized it was an opportunity to clarify something important.

Set aside for the moment whether Hillary Clinton is the right person to lecture anyone on ethics, morality, or what it means to be a Christian.

No, conservative Christians are not against compassion, mercy, or dignity. Quite the opposite. The question is how our love of neighbor is ordered, governed, and directed.

In today’s debates, empathy has taken on a very specific meaning. Empathy now means emotional identification—feeling what others feel—and treating that feeling as a moral authority.

That is where problems begin.

One of the central arguments I have made is that empathy, untethered from truth and justice, becomes highly selective. It acts like a spotlight. It highlights the suffering of some people while leaving others entirely in the dark.

In Hillary Clinton’s article, we are urged to feel empathy for families afraid of immigration enforcement. But you’ll find no empathy for families whose loved ones were raped or murdered by people released into the country by so-called empathetic policies. Empathy pulls our attention in one direction—and trains us to look away from others.

This selectivity matters, because empathy does not simply describe suffering. It directs moral outrage. And once outrage is activated, empathy often functions as a veto over law, reason, and responsibility.

If someone is afraid, that just means the rules must no longer apply.

If enforcement causes distress, that means it’s cruel and needs to be abandoned.

If order requires boundaries, that means they’re unloving and need to be torn down.

But untethered feelings cannot be the standard for justice.

Christianity has never taught that compassion means suspending moral judgment. Lawbreakers should fear law enforcement. That’s not heartless. It means we recognize that love of neighbor requires order, limits, and truth.

Throughout these debates, empathy is constantly contrasted with cruelty. But one of the most uncomfortable realities is that calls for empathy often mask actual cruelty.

In the name of empathy, you can release repeat violent offenders back into communities.

You can excuse policies that harm children.

You can abandon the vulnerable to chaos and lawlessness.

And all the while, you can reassure yourself that you’re the kind one—because you feel deeply.

This is not Biblical compassion.

Biblical compassion is not sentimentality or emotional manipulation. It does not allow fear to override justice, or guilt to override truth. It sees suffering clearly—but it also sees responsibility, consequence, and the common good.

When empathy is elevated above all else, it becomes a tool of emotional pressure. It trains people to believe that resisting certain policies makes them bad Christians. It suggests that obedience to God must give way to obedience to feelings.

That’s not mercy. It’s moral confusion.

Weaponized empathy helped get us into this mess.

Biblical compassion—anchored in truth, governed by justice, and strengthened by courage—is the only thing that will get us out.

For WORLD, I’m Joe Rigney.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: Hunter Baker is back for Washington Wednesday. And, extending hospitality to travelers. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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:

“I had said in my alarm, ‘I am cut off from your sight.’ But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride. Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!” —Psalm 31:22-24

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.