The World and Everything in It: January 13, 2023

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Culture Friday, the self-proclaimed misogynist influencer Andrew Tate—maybe you don’t know about him, but lots of young men do—he was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking. And we’ll talk about the woman arrested on suspicion of praying.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Culture Friday with John Stonestreet.

Also today, Collin Garbarino has a warning about Tom Hanks’s latest film: A Man called Otto.

And Steve West reviews a tribute to the late Christian singer songwriter Rich Mullins.

BROWN: It’s Friday, January 13th. 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: It’s Friday, January 13th. 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: Biden more classified docs » Attorney General Merrick Garland insists President Biden will not receive special treatment as a special counsel investigates his handling of classified documents.

Garland appointed Robert Hur on Thursday to lead the probe.

GARLAND: I am confident that Mr. Hur will carry out his responsibility in an evenhanded and urgent manner and in accordance with the highest traditions of this department.

His announcement followed news that the Justice Department found a second batch of classified materials from Biden’s time as vice president at his personal home in Delaware.

Earlier this week, investigators found classified records at Biden’s old office in Washington.

Biden confirmed that documents marked classified were discovered in his personal library and in his garage next to his car. He told reporters …

BIDEN: By the way, my Corvette’s in a locked garage. Okay? So it’s not like they’re sitting out in the street.

He insisted that he takes the handling of classified documents seriously and will cooperate fully with the probe.

The special counsel, Robert Hur, was a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney who once clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

GOP reaction » Republicans say they also plan to investigate the matter.

Sen. John Kennedy says he wants to know why the discovery of these records was only announced publicly—two months after the election.

KENNEDY: The powers that be have known about all of this since November 2nd. It’s not the middle of January. Was there a coverup? Who was involved?

But the investigations will take place in the House, where Republicans now have majority control. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he sees a double standard.

MCCARTHY: You watched them leak files of sitting out files of President Trump. Where [are] the photos of President Biden’s photos at? He knew this happened going into [the] election, going into interviews.

In September, President Biden called former President Trump’s handling of classified documents—quote—“totally irresponsible.”

Inflation numbers » News of the classified documents cast a shadow over what President Biden wanted to talk about on Thursday, rising costs rising more slowly. He said inflation is down 11% from the first three months of last year.

BIDEN: Even though inflation is high in major economies around the world, it's coming down in America month after month, giving families some real breathing room.

The Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose 6-point-5 percent in December as compared to a year before, but that was down from 7.1 percent in November, making it the sixth month in a row that the inflation rate has declined.

But the Federal Reserve cautions that there’s still a long way to go to bring prices under control.

New Neb. senator » Former Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts will be the nation’s next U.S. senator. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Days after Republican Ben Sasse officially vacated his U.S. Senate seat to become the president of the University of Florida, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen appointed Ricketts to fill the role.

Ricketts was governor before Pillen. He completed his second term in office earlier this month after publicly supporting Pillen in his campaign.

The state will hold a special election for the Senate seat in 2024.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Ukraine » Russia said Thursday that its forces are close to capturing Soledar—a mining town in eastern Ukraine.

SOLDIER: [In Ukrainian - The situation at the front is now tense.]

This Ukrainian soldier called the battle around the town intense with Russians shelling— quote—“wherever they can see.”

But Moscow’s forces are also taking losses. More than 100 Russian troops have died in the battle over the past 24 hours.

NY nurses reach agreement » AUDIO: [Cheers, welcome back]

Thousands of New York nurses are back on the job today after ending a three-day strike on Thursday.

NURSE: We’re so grateful for all the support that we’ve gotten and more than anything, this is a big win for the patients.

Hospitals in the New York City area tentatively agreed to hire more staff, renovate hospital spaces, and raise pay by nearly 20 percent.

Their union says that since the start of the pandemic, nurses are overworked and caring for far too many patients.

Brazil’s Lula accuses guards of letting protesters into buildings » 
Brazilian President Lula da Silva is accusing the military and police of letting rioters into government buildings last weekend. WORLD’s Elias Ferenczy has more.

ELIAS FERENCZY, REPORTER: President Lula said Thursday he hopes to see security footage from when supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro broke into government buildings.

Lula says military and police personnel were complicit in the riots and he is thoroughly vetting his staff members to make sure none of them are Bolsonaro supporters.

The government has issued arrest warrants for several major officials believed to have assisted rioters.

Bolsonaro has denounced the riots.

For WORLD, I’m Elias Ferenczy.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet.

Plus, remembering the music of Rich Mullins.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s the 13th day of January, 2023. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s Culture Friday!

Joining us now is John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

Morning, John

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning.

EICHER: I have to get a John Stonestreet take on this self-identified misogynist influencer, his name is Andrew Tate. Frighteningly, he is enough of an influencer that he’s built up quite a following. Now, he was arrested in Romania right before New Year’s after he got into an online tiff with the teenage environmental influencer Greta Thunberg. The arrest had nothing to do with that. Evidently, authorities had been looking for him for awhile; he is suspected of, among other awful things, human trafficking, and I guess it’ll be awhile before that’s proven, if it’s proven.

But one of our Opinions writers—Bethel McGrew—calls Tate a “self-styled action hero for a generation of men without chests” to borrow C.S. Lewis’s idea. “Now that the hero seems to have fallen,” she writes, “and may soon become a villain behind bars.” So what’s your take on Andrew Tate?

STONESTREET: Well, I hadn’t heard the name Andrew Tate until he got arrested. So I, you know, that's just not my world. But it's not something that can be understood in and of itself, you know, somebody who's misogynistic, and, and, you know, kind of the example of what might be, you know, rightly considered toxic masculinity, because there is obviously, a masculinity and femininity that God created. And then what the fall does is twist good things into bad shapes and towards bad ends. And apparently, a lot of what he does online, would fit into that category. But look, this has got to be understood in light of all kinds of other examples. I think it was GK Chesterton, who said there's a lot of ways to fall down, there's only one way to stand up straight, if what it means to be a man is what it means to stand up straight as God designed it, we're falling down on that all kinds of different directions, Andrew Tate's an example of one kind of fall and, you know, pretending that one can actually become a woman as another kind of fall, and we could put everything in between. But you can never answer what something should do if you don't know what that something is for. That's an observation of TS Eliot. In other words, what the purpose of something is, what shapes our moral understanding of it. And also not even just moral in terms of whether a particular behavior is right and wrong, but just the overall direction of whether something is headed in the right direction, or is headed in the wrong direction. Now, St. Augustine, by the way, had another observation, I think, is essential here for this particular story. And that is when something goes against its God's given purpose, it normally heads in the opposite direction. But when it's sinful, it curves in on itself. And this is going to be that weirdest illustration you're going to hear all week or your money back, Nick, and Myrna, but I grew up on a farm with horned Hereford cattle as my dad had. And he would dehorn his cattle, for convenience's sake, because when horns really do grow out as bulls in particular get more aggressive and get bigger, then they're really inconvenient. And when you're dealing with closed gates and fences, you have to do something about it. Well, some farmers at the time would put weights on those horns and it would curve those horns down. But if you mess this up, there was a way to mess it up and actually turn that horn into a curve, and would actually grow into the bull's brain and kill it. I told you this is gonna be the weirdest example you've ever heard of your money back? Yeah. This is Augustine in real life, that sin takes us away from a God given purpose. But it curves in on itself, it becomes something that actually doesn't just lead away from God's design and intent for life and purpose, it actually becomes dangerous and dangerous for us and dangerous for others. And so look, that might seem to be a pretty dramatic take on one particular influencer, you know, who happens to I guess, fight in the MMA or something like that. But look, there's so many examples of young men not knowing who they are, not knowing what they're for, and missing out on what's happening. And so there's just a gut level reaction. That is not a way that leads to life but a way that leads to death.

EICHER: OK, so I’d not heard of Andrew Tate either and I’ve only seen a few photos of him, but it doesn’t matter. Now, with the bovine imagery, that’s not far etymologically from the term “boorish,” which is how you have to describe what he displayed online but, that’s just brilliant.

BROWN: John, how quickly the culture shifts. Last week we were talking about a revival of prayer around the country following the Damar Hamlin injury.

This week, an unbelievable “about face.” Maybe you heard about it…

Just before Christmas, a pro-life volunteer and leader of the U.K.’s March for Life was arrested and charged with four counts of praying silently on a public street near a closed abortion facility in the U.K. At least five areas in the U.K. have implemented measures that prevent any person from approving or disapproving of abortion—including through silent prayer—within a censorship zone, and Parliament may soon consider a national ban on expressing opinions near an abortion facility. These measures are a violation of the most basic rights to freedom of speech and thought.

Erin Hawley, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom and WORLD Opinions contributor, says this is a wake up call to anyone living in a country governed by elected representatives. How close do you think we are to something like that in this country?

STONESTREET: I think something like this being tried. I don't think we're that far from a state like Michigan, a state like California, but I don't think it'll stand. And I don't know Erin Hawley very well. I'm a fan, big fan. But my guess is there's an awful lot of lawyers like Aaron who are waiting and say, Please do this so that we can smack it now. But I do think we can expect it. And the reason I think we can expect it is because there is a sense in which for the first time, maybe not for the first time but never to this degree, that this whole Critical Theory mood that we're in, that someone is a good guy or a bad guy simply because of a predetermined moral status given based on some people grouping. Of course, when we're talking about a critical theory, moonwalk doesn't matter, race or sexual orientation, or something like that. But I do think there's going to be a pro life versus non pro life smuggling in under the category being pro-woman or not pro-women. And we've already seen that sort of language. But we haven't seen that sort of legal enforcement. But I do think there's more of a way in which being pro life and being pro abortion were two sides of a culture war for a long time. I remember, you know, in his analysis of where Obergefell was going to take us, Ryan Anderson of the EPPC said, you know, something along the lines of the way this is proceeding, there's going to be a cultural war created out of the same sex marriage issue, where it's not okay to disagree. And he ended up being right. But you know, he contrasted that with 50 years or at the time, 40 years of Roe v. Wade, and saying, you know, might be unpopular to be a pro lifer. But you're not dismissed from society, you're not going to be fired from your job, you're not going to be and you know, the courts consistently protected nurses and other things in terms of their rights. I don't think what I expected was, that contrast was a helpful one between, you know, the immediate years after the same sex marriage issue in pro life. But now the this critical theory mood and being so sexually charged and abortion being associated with women's freedom and being able to disconnect from their bodies in this kind of pursuit of sexual autonomy, how the abortion issue is going to be smuggled back in into this way of thinking about the two sides as if there really are good guys and bad guys, and the bad guys are really bad and need to be punished. Now, again, I don't think this holds up. I don't think this holds up past. The first time it gets taken to the Supreme Court. I mean, the court has consistently said, Hey, California, you can't make pro life centers advertise for your services, and hey, California, you can usually it's California, not always California, but it's often California. So I think we'll see something like this, where there'll be a thought control, what the language is behind this bill upon which and I think it was the city of Birmingham in England. Why this leader, UK pro life leader was arrested. I mean, when you look at it, you're like, This is Orwellian. Can't imagine you know, that stance maybe the difference between America and Britain, I suspect we'll have that in a city or in a location, much like speech codes. And, you know, censorship zones were tried on the college campus and ADF smack that around. I would assume that folks like ADF are gonna smack this around. But I do think it'll happen if that makes sense.

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

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, first responders get all kinds of calls, but this may be a first.

Just a few days ago—police, fire, and sheriff’s departments in Noblesville, Indiana all responded to a call about animals on the loose.

But this story is about mistaken identity and, ah, Carl, kill the usual kicker theme.

We need something more appropriate. We need, ah, you know, what we’d planned on.

AUDIO: [Yak theme]

Perfect. Here we go.

What all the officials told residents over social media was to avoid the area, stay away! so they could corral a herd of bison.

But they had to retract. Because these are not bison!

They’re yaks. True.

Police had to admit that animal identification is not part of the curriculum at the police academy.

The good news, though, is that the yaks are safely back with their rightful owners, but no word if they talked back.

It’sThe World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, January 13, 2023. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Tom Hanks has long been considered one of Hollywood’s nice guys, but in his new movie he gets to unleash his inner grump.

A Man Called Otto goes into wide release today, but arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino warns that the movie feels like a politicized bait and switch.

MUSIC: [“Alvin Wrench” from A Man Called Otto Soundtrack]

COLLIN GARBARINO: Tom Hanks stars as the title character in the film, A Man Called Otto. It’s about—you guessed it—a man named Otto. He’s the typical grouchy old guy on the block, complaining about all the other neighbors, but in this story, Otto’s going to learn to let love come in.

That’s how Columbia Pictures is marketing it anyway. The movie is billed as a heartwarming comedy, but don’t be fooled. We might get some heartwarming and comedic scenes, but fundamentally, A Man Called Otto is a very, very sad film. It’s also very, very flawed.

OTTO: I’m sorry I didn’t get them here earlier. The whole neighborhood is falling apart these days.

The movie begins with Otto shopping in a hardware store, confident that he knows more about the products than the store’s youthful staff. He’s incredulous when they can’t understand he only wants five feet of rope rather than two yards.

But idiots at the hardware store aren’t Otto’s only gripes. He’s only in his mid-sixties, but the company he gave his life to has forced him into retirement. He also thinks his neighborhood is going to pot—no one follows the rules clearly printed on street signs.

OTTO: You cannot use this road without a permit.

UPS DRIVER: Have a nice day sir.

OTTO: You know, the other guys don’t do this—the guys with the white trucks. How come it’s always you brown guys? And I don’t mean that racially!

And to make matters worse, a clueless, and irritatingly friendly, Mexican family moves in across the street.

[knock on door]

MARISOL: Hi! We wanted to properly introduce ourselves because, you know, we’re going to be neighbors, and so…

OTTO: Okay.

MARISOL: Okay.

OTTO: Bye.

[door closes]

Despite Otto’s insistence that he’s surrounded by idiots, that sweet and funny family across the street will pierce Otto’s crusty exterior with love and kindness.

MARISOL: Are you always this unfriendly?

OTTO: I’m not unfriendly.

MARISOL: Okay, you’re not. Nah. You’re not unfriendly. Every word you say is like a warm cuddle.

So far, so good. But this PG-13 movie is a lot heavier than advertised.

In the opening scene, Otto is buying rope because he plans to hang himself. His wife Sonya died six months before, and now that he’s lost his job, he feels he has nothing to live for. The ceiling mount breaks during his attempted suicide just as the new neighbors pull in with their U-Haul.

Otto attempts suicide three more times during the film, and each time he’s interrupted by someone in need. The film attempts to turn these failed attempts at self murder into jokes, but the undercurrent is too tragic.

MARISOL: Can you please give me a ride? I don’t have a license.

OTTO: You don’t have a driver’s license? How old are you?

OTTO: Clutch in, and break. Break! The car is stopped. Don’t hit the car. Break. Break.

MARISOL: I almost hit the car.

OTTO: It’s alright. It’s a hybrid.

As Otto plots his own demise, the film flashes back to his early life with Sonya. Tom Hanks’ son Truman plays a much younger Otto in these scenes. Director Marc Forster deftly juxtaposes Otto’s despair in the present with the past life he still longs for. The brief transitions between the two lives are the film’s most beautiful moments, and they’re filled with unbearable melancholy.

In some ways, Otto is a timely movie, what with the Canadian health care service recommending euthanasia for the vulnerable and elderly. This movie affirms the dignity and value of each human life. Otto wants to die because he feels useless and empty—the world has passed him by and his wife is gone. But he slowly realizes that people still need and love him.

Death is bad because it robs others of the chance to love us.

LUNA: Hello.

OTTO: Hello.

LUNA: What’s your name?

OTTO: Otto.

ABBIE: Otto?

OTTO: O-T-T-O.

ABBIE: I’m Abbie, O-T-T-O.

The growing relationship between Otto and the young family across the street makes up the heart of the movie, but A Man Called Otto loses its way about halfway through, taking a detour into political preachiness.

First, Otto befriends a transgender teenage neighbor. This movie is an adaptation of a Swedish novel and movie, and in the Swedish version, the neighbor is merely gay. I guess in America today being simply gay isn’t trendy or cool enough. Every interaction between Otto and this teen rings hollow.

We’ve spent an hour watching Otto call everyone he meets an idiot because they don’t understand how the world works. But he immediately accepts this teenager’s gender confusion without protest. Their conversations don’t make sense in the context and are composed exclusively of LGBT clichés.

Then, with the help of his new friends, Otto wages war against the evil capitalists who want to take over his neighborhood. Both the problem and the solution defy belief.

The movie concludes too predictably, trying to elicit a few more tears before the credits roll, but by the end I was merely crying because of a wasted opportunity—another promising story ruined by cheap progressive platitudes.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the legacy of a Christian music icon.

Rich Mullins was one of the most influential figures in contemporary Christian music of the last 30 years. His life was tragically cut short by a car accident in 1997. But his music left an indelible mark on the music industry—some songs even becoming staples of worship music.

NICK EICHER, HOST: A fan-funded project released late last year pays tribute to Mullins’ music. Here’s WORLD Reporter Steve West.

MUSIC: [“Creed”]

STEVE WEST, REPORTER: Rich Mullins was memorable…both as a songwriter and a performer. He had a penchant for obscure instruments like the hammered dulcimer. In concerts, he often appeared barefoot on stage, and he mixed his songs with honest, heartfelt reflections on a life of faith.

Last year, old friends and younger admirers gathered to record an album of Mullins’ songs. They met in his old house in Bellsburg, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville. Let’s listen in, as author and musician Andrew Peterson kicks things off.

MUSIC: [“Hello Old Friends”]

If the songs on Bellsburg sound intimate and less produced than Mullins’ recordings, that’s intentional. Producer Chris Hoisington compared the songs’ spare renditions to the last demos Mullins recorded shortly before he died.

Hoisington also wanted to recapture the feel of those musical evenings that Mullins regularly hosted at his home, when he and other Nashville musicians would hang out and play music together.

HOISINGTON: We thought, well, what if we take it a step further and try to get ahold of the lady that lives in his house now and see if she’ll let us record ‘em in his living room where he probably wrote a bunch of songs and kind of record these songs in a very communal style,

MUSIC: [“Both Feet On the Ground”]

Ashley Cleveland toured with Mullins. She remembers those Bellsburg gatherings.

CLEVELAND: He had all these friends, and they would all come for extended weekends, and you couldn’t even get in that room because there were so many instruments in there. And I thought, OK, this is my kinda crowd.

Mullins was known for his lightning fast playing of the hammered dulcimer. But he composed most of his songs on the piano. His songs convey the tenderness and affection that Mullins had for Jesus, even in the midst of struggles. That’s something Sara Groves—a songwriter influenced by Mullins— captures in her rendition of Mullins’ song, “Hold Me Jesus.”

MUSIC: [“Hold Me Jesus”]

Bellsburg is a testimony to the affection many musicians held for Mullins.

MUSIC: [“If I Stand”]

Veteran musician Phil Madeira didn’t appear on Bellsburg, but he recollects Mullins well from a tour with him in 1994.

MADEIRA: Every night he would say this: ‘There is nothing you can do to make God love you more than He already does, and there’s nothing you can do to make Him love you less.’ And two years after that, those words would actually get me through some difficult times of my own.

MUSIC: [“Bound to Come Some Trouble”]

The last night of the tour, Madeira went to Mullins’ hotel room to thank him and to ask about that nightly reminder of God’s grace.

MADEIRA: And I said, you know, every night you said this remark. There's nothing you can do to make God love you more. There's nothing you can do to make God love you less. And that really means something to me. I said, I was just wondering if you hold that to be true for yourself. And he just looked at me with this really weary expression. And he just said ‘it's hard man. It's really hard.’

MUSIC: [“Bound to Come Some Trouble”]

Mullins achieved a lot during his short career—both chart-topping songs and albums. Yet he had little regard for fame. He paid himself the average salary for a laborer in the U.S. every year, and gave the rest to charity. He challenged any notion that following Jesus was easy.

MUSIC: [“Holy Pretenders”]

Mullins spent the last two years of his life on a Navajo Indian Reservation, teaching music. He wasn’t a holy pretender. What he preached in concerts about God’s steadfast love was what he preached to himself—and to us.

MUSIC: [“Here in America”]

I’m Steve West.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, it’s time to say thanks to the team members who helped put the program together this week: David Bahnsen, Mary Reichard, Leo Briceno, Whitney Williams, Steve West, Onize Ohikere, Lauren Dunn, Joel Belz, Leah Savas, Collin Garbarino, Janie B. Cheaney, Cal Thomas, Emma Freire, and John Stonestreet.

Thanks also to our breaking news team: Kent Covington, Lynde Langdon, Steve Kloosterman, Josh Schumacher, Lauren Canterberry, Mary Muncy, and Anna Mandin.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And our guys who stay up late to get the program to you early: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz. Our producer is Kristen Flavin with production assistance from Emily Whitten, Lillian Hamman, and Benj Eicher.

Paul Butler is our Executive Producer.

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

The Bible says that by the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:2-4 ESV)

Be sure to worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ this weekend! Lord willing, we’ll be right back here on Monday.

And 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.