The World and Everything in It — February 5, 2020

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: Good morning!

Well, that false start in Iowa may have given a political old-timer a jump start and a political newcomer a fresh start.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Ahead today on Washington Wednesday, I’ll talk with WORLD’s Jamie Dean about her story on Pete Buttigieg, and how things are looking for him going into New Hampshire.

Following that, this week’s World Tour.

And a twist on the Good Will Hunting story, but this one has a lot more good will.

PETERSON: After the accident, prayer got knocked out of me. Before I do any of the projects, you know, pray for God’s will and, and then I pray for whoever I’m doing it for.

In journalism, we need to know who-what-where-when-why-how. WORLD founder Joel Belz says figuring out the right “who” makes all the difference.

BASHAM: It’s Wednesday, February 5th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Megan Basham.

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

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump touts economy at State of the Union address » AUDIO: Madam Speaker, the president of the United States!

The traditional welcome for President Trump last night as he delivered his State of the Union Address.  

Amid the acrimony of an ongoing impeachment trial, the address gave the president a chance to tout his successes and make the case of his reelection. Trump told a packed House chamber that under his administration, the union is strong—especially the economy.

TRUMP: The unemployment rate is the lowest in over half a century.

He also highlighted—among other things—trade reforms, a reinforced military, and border policies that have reduced traffic at the southern border. 

The president also recognized a few honored guests. 

TRUMP: Joining us in the gallery is the true and legitimate president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido.

He also honored conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who recently announced he’s battling advanced lung cancer. The president paused his address, while first lady Melania Trump presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

Beneath a veneer of civility in the House chamber, there were a few signs of the current political climate in Washington. Before the address, President Trump ignored Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s offer of a handshake. Multiple Democrats walked out in the middle of his address. And afterward, Pelosi held up a copy of the president’s speech and tore it in half. 

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer delivers Democratic response »  Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer delivered the Democratic response. She said the president’s proclamations about the economy ring hollow with middle class workers. 

WHITMER: What matters is that millions of people struggle to get by or don’t have enough money at the end of the month after paying for transportation, student loans or prescription drugs. American workers are hurting. 

She hailed the healthcare proposals of Democratic White House hopefuls and blasted President Trump’s efforts to dismantle Obamacare. 

WHITMER: He’s asking the courts to rip those life-saving protections away. 

Whitmer also called out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for not acting on legislation passed by House Democrats. 

Senators spar over impeachment ahead of today’s final vote » Before making the walk to the House chamber on Tuesday, Senators again clashed over the president’s impeachment. The Senate will have the final say later today on whether to acquit or convict the president. And once again, members from both sides took to the Senate floor to explain how they will vote and why. 

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer charged that President Trump tried to blackmail a foreign power into interfering in American elections and the Senate should convict.

SCHUMER: If Americans believe that they don’t determine who is president, who is governor, who is senator, but some foreign potentate, out of reach of any law enforcement, can jaundice our elections, that’s the beginning of end of democracy.   

But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell argued that House Democrats never should’ve voted to impeach in the first place. 

MCCONNELL: It insults the intelligence of the American people to pretend that this was a solemn process reluctantly begun because of withheld foreigh aid. No, Washington Democrats’ position on this has been clear, literally, for years. 

The impeachment trial officially reconvenes at 4 p.m. Eastern Time today ahead of the Senate vote on a final verdict. 

Iowa releases partial results from Monday caucuses » The Iowa Democratic Party began releasing partial results from Monday’s first-in-the-nation caucuses yesterday. The data reflected the results from more than half the precincts in the state. 

Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price said while the results were delayed, they were not compromised. 

PRICE: This was a coding error in one of the pieces on the back end, but the raw data, the data that has come in, is secure. And I can assure Iowans of that. 

After Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg all but declared victory Monday night—it appears his optimism was justified. 

With 62 percent of the results counted so far, he has secured the most delegates with 363. That’s about 27 percent.

Senator Bernie Sanders is running a close second with 338 delegates about 25 percent. 

Senator Elizabeth Warren has just over 18 percent to this point, and former Vice President Joe Biden has secured just under 16 percent of the delegates so far. 

More countries warn against travel to China » More countries are urging citizens not to travel to China, as the coronavirus continues to spread. WORLD Radio’s Anna Johansen reports. 

ANNA JOHANSEN, REPORTER: France has joined the U.K., the United States and others in warning against all nonessential travel to China. Air France has stopped all flights to and from the country, along with many other airlines. France has six confirmed cases of the virus and evacuated hundreds of people from China on two flights.

As of Tuesday, there are more than 20,000 confirmed cases around the world. And 425 people have died, mainly in China.

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Anna Johansen.

COVINGTON: I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: The delay in the Iowa caucuses results shakes up the Democratic primary.

Plus, a former school janitor with a unique talent.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: It’s Wednesday the 5th of February, 2020. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MEGAN BASHAM: And I’m Megan Basham. First up, it’s Washington Wednesday.

Well, political drama is pretty ubiquitous in the nation’s capital. But even with the impeachment trial and the State of the Union address, Washington still got upstaged this week. At a time when politics is often predictable, something very unpredictable happened Monday night in Iowa. And it’s thrown the entire Democratic presidential primary into chaos.

EICHER: Candidates spent months campaigning in the Hawkeye State. They also spent more that $45 million on advertising ahead of Monday’s caucuses. But the long delay in announcing the actual winner took virtually all the return out of both those investments. No one got to deliver one of those coveted election-night victory speeches. So now Iowa is in the rear-view mirror and the campaigns have turned their attention to New Hampshire.

Joining us now to talk about all of this and what it means for the Democratic primary is Jamie Dean. She’s WORLD Magazine’s national editor and primary political correspondent. Good morning, Jamie!

JAMIE DEAN, GUEST: Good morning, Nick. 

EICHER: I saw plenty of funny takes on Twitter, but how would you describe what happened on Monday? 

DEAN: I think it’s safe to say it was the most anti-climactic moment of the 2020 campaign so far. The Democratic candidates had been waiting in their starting blocks for a year, and when the gun finally went off, it was more of a false start than an actual contest. 

EICHER: What effect has this had on the race?

DEAN: It strips any single candidate of having a break-out moment. There’s just something lost in not having that classic, election night victory in Iowa. 

We also should consider the effect on voters. This is really a terrible way to start the 2020 voting season. Iowa officials have said they do not believe the problems on Monday came from any outside interference or hacking. But given how much American voters have been hearing about potential hacking and outside interference for the last four years, this kind of debacle still isn’t good for voter confidence.

Democratic officials in Nevada have scrapped plans to use the same app that created havoc in Iowa. I think it’s safe to say that’s a wise move. I imagine party officials in New Hampshire are busy double checking all their systems ahead of their Democratic primary next week.

EICHER: Let’s talk about New Hampshire. That’s the next stop for the Democrats, as you say. I covered one of these back in 1992, when Bill Clinton proclaimed himself the comeback kid, even in losing both Iowa and New Hampshire. Now, when we think about the value of Iowa, we think about winning so-called “tickets” out of Iowa. Meaning who heads to New Hampshire as a more viable candidate. So, on your list, Jamie, who gets a “ticket” out of Iowa? 

DEAN: It’s neck and neck from what we can tell from the most recent polls: Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, and Pete Buttigieg are at the top of most New Hampshire polls. Sometimes they’re separated by single digits. Sometimes Sanders has a bigger lead.

And remember, lurking in the second tier is Michael Bloomberg. He reportedly plans to double his ad spending in hopes of taking advantage of the chaos in Iowa to focus on winning primaries after New Hampshire. He’s already spent more than $300 million on TV, radio, and digital ads.

One of the really interesting things about New Hampshire is that about half of the states’ voters identify as undeclared, instead of Democrat or Republican. All voters registered as Democrats or undeclared are allowed to vote in next week’s primary.

We’ve seen Pete Buttigieg focusing his campaign in areas of the state where voters lean more moderate or independent. But remember, Bernie Sanders won New Hampshire in 2016. He prevailed over Hillary Clinton by more than 20 percent. So he’s got a history in New Hampshire. It gives him an advantage, but it also gives him a lot to prove. 

The Democratic candidates are slated to debate in New Hampshire on Friday night, so we’ll see how they respond to the whirlwind of events this week.

EICHER: Speaking of Pete Buttigieg, you recently wrote a story for WORLD Magazine called “the gospel according to Pete.” Out of all the candidates before the Iowa results, why the interest in him?

JAMIE: Well, Pete Buttigieg has been a dark horse candidate. But he has gone farther and been more successful than a lot of pundits expected. For weeks, he polled near the top in the Iowa caucuses, and it looks like he’s in pretty good shape in New Hampshire.

EICHER: Hey, do a quick hit on the resume. 

DEAN: He’s a 38-year-old Harvard graduate, who just finished an eight year stint as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. For most of his campaign, people have introduced him as Mayor Pete. 

EICHER: Kinda like Mr. Smith goes to Washington. 

DEAN: Yeah, I think he’s trying to take that lane. But as you can imagine, this is not the typical profile for a likely presidential nominee.

EICHER: No, no, not at all. So why do you think he was able to take off in the race? 

DEAN: I think a couple of things are going on: For months, Joe Biden really wasn’t lighting much of a fire on the campaign trail—even though he was leading in the polls. He just wasn’t generating the kind of enthusiasm that a presumed frontrunner usually would generate.

Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders have been generating a lot of buzz, but there seemed to be a chunk of the Democratic base that wondered if they are way too far left to challenge President Trump in the fall.

So, here comes Pete Buttigieg, and he is articulate and young, and very upbeat on the campaign trail, and he sort of started positioning himself as the moderate alternative to Warren or Sanders. And I think that’s part of why he took off.

EICHER: And, I mean, he’s touted as a moderate, but is he really?

DEAN: I think the answer is no. He has criticized Warren and Sanders on their proposal of Medicare for All, but his proposal is Medicare for All who Want It. That’s a slightly more moderate position than dooming the private insurance industry outright, but it’s still a massive government spending proposal.

When it comes to social issues, he’s not moderate at all. He came out as gay a few years ago, and he’s in a same-sex marriage with a man who has appeared with him quite a bit on the campaign trail.

On abortion, he doesn’t call for any restrictions on abortion, even up until birth. And he doesn’t really seem to see a place for pro-life Democrats in the party, which would be a very sensible move if you’re positioning yourself as moderate.

EICHER: It’s interesting headline language, Jamie. You called your story “The Gospel According to Pete,” so he does try to frame up his appeal as a religious candidate. 

DEAN: He does. He’s a regular church-goer at an Episcopal church in downtown South Bend. That’s where he held his wedding ceremony. Obviously, that’s a complete departure from Biblical teaching about marriage and sexuality.

Many Episcopal churches made that departure a long time ago, and Buttigieg is part of one of those congregations. 

His interest in religion seems very genuine, but he has a very subjective understanding of Scripture. He does not talk about the Bible being the inerrant Word of God. And he applies that subjective view to a range of issues. On a radio program, he said the morality of abortion is really up for interpretation because the Bible sometimes talks about life beginning at breath.

Most Christians recognize that there are famous passages of Scripture that talk about life beginning at conception.

The really sad part is that he’s taking in false teaching that is probably giving him a false sense of security. And I think the danger of all this is that a likable, articulate, young candidate can make that kind of teaching appealing—and seemingly normal—to maybe a younger audience that might be confused about all sorts of things.

So whatever his prospects going forward in the race, I think Christians need to keep an eye on this.

EICHER: Alright. Yeah, they do. Jamie Dean is national editor for WORLD Magazine. She is heading up coverage of the 2020 election for WORLD. Thanks so much for joining us today.

DEAN: You are welcome.

NICK EICHER: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with Africa reporter Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Visa ban extended to Nigeria—We start today here in Africa.

The Nigerian government promised over the weekend to address security issues that led the Trump administration to temporarily ban immigrants from the country. The White House announced the new policy last week.

It imposes restrictions on would-be immigrants from Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan, and Myanmar. But it’s not a total travel ban. Students, business travelers, and those seeking medical care can still apply for short-term visas.

The immigration restrictions come as Nigeria is struggling to contain an increase in jihadist violence.

Suspected herdsmen killed at least 32 people and burned down a church building during two nights of attacks in central Plateau state last week. It’s the latest in a spate of attacks targeting predominantly Christian villages.

Meanwhile, in the northeastern part of the country, two young girls detonated suicide bombs near Maiduguri. Three boys at an Islamic seminary died in the attack. No group has claimed responsibility, but local officials suspect Boko Haram.

Second Kenyan president dies—Next we go to Kenya.

Former president Daniel Arap Moi died on Tuesday at the age of 95. He was the country’s second president—a strongman known for creating a brutal one-party state marked by corruption and oppression.

Moi took the oath of office in 1978.

AUDIO: [Sounds of ceremony]

Moi ruled for 24 years—finally agreeing to return the country to multiparty elections in 1992. He eventually conceded defeat to a political opponent 10 years later.

The biggest scandal of Moi’s presidency involved the loss of $1 billion from Kenya’s central bank through false gold and diamond exports.

Current President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered a period of national mourning ahead of a state funeral.

Syrians flee renewed offensive—Next we go to the Middle East.

AUDIO: [Syrians flee]

More than half a million people are fleeing Syria’s Idlib province as Russian-backed government forces push to retake control of the country’s last rebel enclave. It is one of the biggest waves of displacement in the 9-year-old civil war.

AUDIO: [Syrian plane and bomb]

Syrian forces attacked Turkish troops in the region after a large Turkish military convoy crossed into the country. Turkey says it is trying to push Syrian-based rebel groups back from its border. U.S. officials counted 200 Russian and Syrian airstrikes in the area over the course of three days.

Russia and Turkey agreed to a ceasefire for the region in mid January, but the agreement has not stopped the violence.

Medical flight evacuates patients from Yemen—And finally, we end today in Yemen.

AUDIO: [Sound of plane engine]

A United Nations plane evacuated patients from the country’s capital on Monday. It was the first medical flight to leave Yemen in three years.

Altaf Musani is with the World Health Organization.

MUSANI: Today is the first flight of many, there are 16 passengers on the plane, over half of them are urgently seeking healthcare, many young boys and girls, and we know there are more than 30,000 patients still in Yemen seeking healthcare. Today is an important step to get the process moving.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels have controlled Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014. But Saudi Arabia controls Yemen’s airspace and has prevented any flights from leaving Sanaa since August 2016.

Three more medical relief flights are scheduled for later this week—carrying a total of 30 patients.

That’s this week’s World Tour. For WORLD Radio, I’m Onize Ohikere reporting from Abuja, Nigeria.

NICK EICHER: An unusual work of art is expected to fetch big bucks when it hits the auction block in Paris this month. 

How unusual? Well, it’s not a banana duct taped to a wall, but it’s still pretty unique!

It is a recreation of the Mona Lisa, but French artist Franck Slama didn’t use oil or canvas. No, he crafted the portrait out of Rubik’s Cubes. 330 of them, to be exact.  

Slama is already famous for creating ceramic Space Invaders figures. Now, if you are a millennial, you need to know Space Invaders was an early video game, OK? 

Anyway, if you happen to be in Paris on February 23rd and have a few extra bucks to spare, you can bid on this one of a kind creation.

But if you think you’re going home with this, it’ll take more than a few extra bucks. Art experts say the “Rubik Mona Lisa” could sell for as much as 150,000 euros. At the current rate of exchange, we’re talking $166,000 U.S. dollars.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: Today is Wednesday, February 5th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MEGAN BASHAM: And I’m Megan Basham. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a mystery artist. 

Some of you may be familiar with the 1997 drama Good Will Hunting. In the movie, a professor writes extremely difficult math problems on chalkboards in the halls. Overnight the problems are solved, but nobody knows who the mystery mathematician is.

EICHER: Well a Christian school in Minnesota had its own kind of Good Will Hunting story, but for this school, it involved Yoda, a ship, and a deer. Here to unveil the mystery is WORLD Radio’s Sarah Schweinsberg.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: It’s the end of the school day at Christian Heritage Academy. Before some students can head home, they walk up the hall emptying trash cans and pushing paper into recycling pins

AUDIO: [SOUND OF CRUNCHING PAPER]

Principal Joel Koski follows behind. 

KOSKI: All of our classrooms are down the wing here. 

Koski says the school days can pass in a hurry—busy days turn into busy weeks that turn into busy years. But last school year, when Koski was a history teacher, something brought unexpected excitement to the school day. 

KOSKI: I noticed some artwork in my classroom and I thought, um, you know, like what is this? 

One morning, Koski entered his classroom to discover a detailed sketch had appeared on his whiteboard overnight. It was a ship with wooden masts and sails. All of his students denied doing it.

KOSKI: I was confused because normally I didn’t think anybody had been in there or anything.

Soon drawings began showing up in every classroom. Pictures of Yoda or a deer in a forest. But for weeks, the teachers couldn’t figure out where they were coming from. 

KOSKI: As soon as we would erase one, the next day there would always be a new one that would appear… 

The head principal, however, had a suspicion. Who else could have access to the classrooms during off hours besides teachers? 

PETERSON: And then I got called down to the principal’s office, my boss, and she goes, We have a mystery. Are you drawing on the whiteboard? And I go ohh I’m sorry I forgot to erase them. 

Last year, Myron Peterson was the school’s six-foot-four-inch janitor.

Before coming to work at Christian Heritage, Peterson had spent his career in facility maintenance. 

PETERSON: Just fixing things, whatever, uh, from electrical, plumbing, whatever it was to just helping other people out, uh, in their times of need.

Then, three years ago, his life changed dramatically. While Peterson drove down the interstate in a snowstorm, another car hit him. 

PETERSON: All of a sudden I just heard metal crunching and white flashes and the car spinning. Then I hit my head on the beam between the two doors.

At first, it seemed Peterson had escaped the accident unscathed. Initial X-rays and a CT scan came back clear. But then, two weeks later, he developed debilitating migraines. 

PETERSON: I couldn’t watch TV, turn the computer on. It was just too, too much. 

Peterson suffered a traumatic brain injury. Soon he also couldn’t walk without a cane. 

PETERSON: The floor is moving all the time too, like lava.

Peterson began two years of intense physical and emotional therapy. He relearned how to walk, tie his shoes, read and handle new intense feelings. 

PETERSON: The first year uncontrollable laughing or crying episodes for like 15, 20 minutes. 

As he improved, his wife suggested that he take the part-time janitor job at Christian Heritage. While he mopped and vacuumed classrooms, there was one thing Myron Peterson missed about therapy: drawing. 

PETERSON: Laurie one of my therapists…she suggested that I try that. I started drawing out the garden on it, and then I started drawing birds and sketches. 

Before his accident Peterson had never attempted to draw anything. And now, to his surprise, he was actually good at it. He started doing watercolors and spending hours in his art studio at home. 

So while he cleaned at Christian Heritage, he paused to draw on the white boards. 

PETERSON: For migraines and anxiety, it’s just, it was, it’s nice to focus on the artwork, and that’s it. 

Another side effect of Peterson’s brain injury is short term memory loss.

So he forgot to erase the ship and then a few more drawings. But far from being in trouble, the principal and teachers asked for more.

AUDIO: [Myron talking as he walks down the hallway]

As Myron Peterson walks down the now-empty school hallway, he remembers some of his favorite whiteboard drawings. 

PETERSON: So this room, she is the English teacher. They were studying Shakespeare. So I put up a portrait of Shakespeare up there on the board. Barb, the math teacher, she likes dogs. So I drew some dog or puppy pictures on her board. Most of the girls in there like puppies. 

Andrea Hopkins just locked up her first grade classroom. As she passes by, she recalls how Peterson would draw things from their conversations on her board. 

HOPKINS: All of a sudden I would come in and see something that we had talked about… maybe a bird or some kind of flowers because we both enjoy gardening.

Myron Peterson says besides calming his anxiety, his whiteboard art helped him pray for the school. 

PETERSON: After the accident, prayer got knocked out of me. Before I do any of the projects, you know, pray for God’s will and, and then I pray for whoever I’m doing it for. 

But just as soon as Peterson had adjusted to life with a brain injury… his symptoms worsened. His vision began to narrow and blur.  

PETERSON: I have like 12 percent vision field.

At the end of last school year, he had to quit the janitor job. He now spends most of his time quietly at home… drawing. 

PETERSON: It hasn’t changed a lot except I was trying to work on doing faces and more detailed work and that’s kinda gone, and I just had to accept it. 

Peterson says even though he may lose his sight and his ability to draw, He trusts that God will have another gift for him. Right now it’s drawing and someday, if he has to, he’ll find something else. 

PETERSON: There’s hope. Don’t, don’t give up. Um, it’s not just about the drawings about, it’s about the whole thing, about life. Something happens in your life, you know, stub your toe, you know, you get used to it. Um, just keep going, trudging on. God has something else in plan.

For WORLD Radio, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg reporting from Lakeville, Minnesota.

MEGAN BASHAM: Today is Wednesday, February 5th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Megan Basham.

NICK EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. One of the big religious-freedom cases at the Supreme Court right now, you heard about on Monday’s Legal Docket. 

Today, we’ll tell you another angle of the story in a way that will also touch on what the First Amendment protects—except in this case, not religion, but the press. Here’s WORLD founder Joel Belz.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: Last month AP reported on the so-called “Stillwater School”—a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court. For the most part, the report was even-handed and adequately covered the five “w’s” of news reporting: who, what, when, where, and why.

But AP reporter Mark Sherman missed his opportunity to highlight and clarify the first “w” in the story. It’s true that Stillwater Christian School of Kalispell, Montana, is a player in this drama. But the real focus belongs on a couple of students at Stillwater and their parents.

Here’s what happened: Five years ago the Montana State Legis­lature passed a measure providing modest scholarship assistance for all students—regardless of where they enrolled. These particular parents signed on.

But soon Montana’s Supreme Court negated the scholarship program. It ruled the program countered long-standing provisions of Montana’s constitution. The parents’ appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard the case on January 22nd.

AP’s reporter Sherman wrote—quote—“Advocates on both sides say the out­come could be momentous because it could lead to efforts in other states to funnel taxpayer money to religious schools.” End quote. 

Here we go again. The bogeyman is always the faceless “schools.” But the Montana plan specifically designated the parents as recipients of the scholarship benefit. That should be the focus.  

Here’s why that matters. Montana is one of 37 states that have provisions in their state constitutions saying religious schools aren’t eligible for state aid.

Many of those provisions are so-called “Blaine amendments.” The Wall Street Journal described those amendments as “late 19th century language, amid that era’s anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic fervor.” Most of these provisions said what Montana’s bluntly spelled out: The state can’t spend public funds for “any sectarian purpose.”

Most efforts to dilute that prohibition for much of the last century have ended up heightening the “walls of separation” between church and state. It’s been only in the last 20 years that a few cases have begun empha­sizing the “free exercise” side of our First Amendment rights instead of the “no establishment” emphasis.

The Stillwater parents who heard their case argued before the Supreme Court want the point made in simple, human terms. They’re encouraged by the 2017 Trinity Lutheran case—when the high court ruled 7-to-2 that a Missouri ban on financial aid to a school like Trinity couldn’t stand. 

The issue: if public money was being made avail­able to secular schools to resurface playgrounds, it had to be available to all schools. Period. 

If the court stays consistent here, it could finally level the playing field for Christian parents all over the country.

For WORLD Radio, I’m Joel Belz.

NICK EICHER: Tomorrow: A tiny country in Eastern Europe wants to seize property from the Serbian Orthodox Church. We’ll tell you why and what church leaders are doing about it.

And, we’ll introduce you to a woman who’s cared for orphans in Mississippi for 30 years.

That and more tomorrow. 

I’m Nick Eicher.

MEGAN BASHAM: And I’m Megan Basham.

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

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

Psalm 27 encourages us: Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

I hope you’ll have a great rest of the day. We’ll talk to you tomorrow!

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.