The World and Everything in It: January 17, 2023

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

A teacher sues a Christian school over whether it can abide by Christian principles. We’ll talk about it.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also, how a Christian aid worker experiences life on the ground in Ukraine.

Plus a pro-life priest is defrocked by the Vatican.

And Joel Belz on following God’s example—being careful with our words.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, January 17th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

REICHARD: Now the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Border » New York City Mayor Eric Adams is calling on the federal government to fix the border crisis.

The Democratic mayor said the record flood of traffic across the southern border is “undermining” cities across the country.

ADAMS: And the people who live in the cities don’t deserve this. We expect more from our national leaders to address this issue in a real way.

Adams heard there during a visit to the border city of El Paso, Texas.

Since last spring, New York City has housed some 40,000 asylum seekers, straining his city’s resources. He said “New York cannot take more” and that other cities are in the same boat.

ADAMS: El Paso does not deserve this. Chicago, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, New York … No city deserves what is happening.

He’s calling for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate a nationwide response.

Fox News, citing border officials reports, reports that when December numbers are released, they will show record quarter-of-a-million migrant encounters last month alone.

Ukraine death toll » In the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, dozens of people are still missing after a Russian missile strike decimated an apartment building.

The death toll has risen to at least 40 people, with 75 more wounded. About 1,700 people lived in the building.

On Monday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged attendees of the World Economic Forum to increase their support for Ukraine following the attack.

KLITSCHKO: Did you see what happens in Dnipro? It's terrorism, it's genocide, to kill unguilty people, children, women, old people, civilians.

Moscow has acknowledged launching missiles over the weekend but denies targeting civilians.

Nepal latest » The search and rescue team looking for survivors from a downed flight in Nepal has retrieved the flight data and the cockpit voice recorder for the crashed plane.

The plane crashed only minutes before landing, killing at least 70 people. 72 people were on the flight.

AUDIO: [Person with their phone on flight]

That audio taken from a video filmed by one of the passengers during the plane’s last moments.

Rescue workers spent yesterday combing wreckage scattered throughout a canyon almost a thousand feet deep.

AUDIO: [Nepalese]

Meanwhile, one relative of one of the victims says authorities should release the bodies of the victims to their families, saying it will get rid of the crowd that has gathered outside a local hospital.

CA weather, Alabama recovery » Rain and snow are still pounding northern and central California after more than a week of storms already battered the state.

Flooding has ravaged roadways and put many communities at risk of flooding, landslides, and avalanches.

Donna Walls works with West County Community Services.

WALLS: Giving out food. We're also giving out supplies. We're also giving out stuff you know, to clean up your house. Pine Sol (cleaning liquid) and stuff like that.

The University of California Berkeley’s field laboratory in northern California reported yesterday that it had recorded almost 50 inches of snow since Friday.

Dry days are forecasted for much of California later this week.

Meanwhile in the southern United States, residents are recovering from a batch of tornadoes that devastated homes and businesses.

Reverend Leodis Strong in Selma, Alabama.

STRONG: It is difficult to wrap your mind around how all of this this city could sustain the damage of this type of this level and that just a few miles from us here, there are persons. They are communities that did lose their lives.

As many as 9 people have died across the region due to the tornadoes.

Calif. Shooting » Six people are dead and police are looking for suspects after a shooting yesterday morning at a central California home.

The victims include a 17-year-old mother and her baby.

Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux

BOUDREAUX: Actually, the report was they believed an active shooter was in the area because of the number of rounds that were being fired.

Boudreaux explained that officers found bodies in the street, and in the doorway of the home and then found even more bodies at the scene.

BOUDREAUX: We have one victim who was alive as deputies arrived and CPR was being given to multiple victims on scene.

However, none of the victims at the scene survived.

Boudreaux added that authorities believed drugs and gang associations factored into the violence.

UGA crash » A University of Georgia football player and a team staff member died in a car crash Sunday morning, hours after celebrating the team’s second consecutive national championship.

Offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting analyst Chandler LeCroy were killed when their vehicle went off the road and struck two power poles shortly before 3 a.m.

Two passengers were also injured in the crash.

UGA Coach Kirby Smart and other university officials expressed their shock and offered prayers for the families following the crash.

Mob boss » In Sicily, Italian police walked a notorious Mafia boss out of a clinic in handcuffs yesterday. They had chased Matteo Messina Denaro for nearly 30 years.

Some believe he was still giving orders to fellow criminals while in hiding.

MELONI: [Italian] tell our children...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is saying here that Italians can tell their children that the Mafia can be defeated. She says they have not won the war, but they’ve struck a blow to organized crime.

Messina Denaro went into hiding in 1993 after a series of bombings across Italy in which two anti-Mafia prosecutors were killed.

AUDIO: [Italian] Thank the prosecutors....

This Italian citizen says Italians can thank the prosecutors who were murdered.

Messina Denaro was convicted of the bombings in absentia and is set to serve multiple life sentences.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: a clash with Christian principles at a Christian school.

Plus, how aid groups are ministering to the people of Ukraine.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 17th of January, 2023.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up, religious rights in Christian schools.

The largest Christian school in Arizona is locked in a battle with a former teacher over its stance toward LGBT would-be students. The teacher, Adam McDorman, says Valley Christian School ought to accept students who identify as homosexual or transgender.

School administrators say that students and teachers advocating for a sexual morality inconsistent with scripture or for a gender-identity inconsistent with biological sex cannot remain at the school.

Steve West recently wrote about this case, and he joins us now to talk about it. Steve’s an attorney and writes about religious liberty issues for WORLD.

REICHARD: Good morning, Steve!

STEVE WEST, REPORTER: Good morning, Mary!

REICHARD: Let’s start with a recap of what’s going on in this lawsuit?

WEST: Well, this school is just outside of Phoenix. It’s Valley Christian in Chandler, Arizona. And just like most schools that follow Christian principles, Valley Christian requires teachers and students to abide by a standard of conduct derived from the Bible. That includes a belief that it's sinful to reject your biological sex or act in any way inconsistent with it, or to advocate sexual immorality, which includes homosexuality.

REICHARD: Well, there’s nothing new about that?

WEST: Right. But, as this case demonstrates, that’s not culturally popular. This case arose in the fall of 2021 when a female student posted on social media that she was “pansexual”—that is, someone attracted to both sexes. As you would expect, she was called in for a discussion about the post. She recorded it. Principal Josh LeSage, along with a female student wellness coordinator, talked to her about why homosexual behavior was sinful and about how, with the Lord’s help, this could be dealt with. Nothing unusual there either. But McDorman objected, saying the school was intolerant and discriminatory. After a long discussion with the head of school, he was fired in November 2021. He went on to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which chose not to pursue it, and gave him a right to sue letter in late September, which is exactly what he did.

REICHARD: McDorman claims he was fired due to intolerance and discrimination. What are his lawyers saying?

WEST: His attorneys are throwing everything in that they can think of, hoping that something will stick. First up they argue that the school violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against McDorman on religious grounds.

REICHARD: But there’s an exception for religious schools and institutions per Supreme Court precedent…

WEST: There is–the idea being that to retain their religious character they have to be able to hire “co-religionists”--that is, people of the same faith. So what McDorman is saying is that this is different. He says yes, I am a Christian, but the school discriminated against me because of my different view of how LGBT-identifying students should be treated.

REICHARD: Do you think that tack will work?

WEST: I don’t know if that argument will fly, but it is a way that gay rights activists are attempting to whittle down the religious exemption contained in Title VII. In March 2021, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a gay lawyer who claimed he wasn’t hired by a Christian legal clinic in Seattle because he disagreed with its position on sexuality and marriage. The Washington Supreme Court had ruled against the mission. That court has issued rulings hostile to religious rights in the past. So, there is some reason to be concerned, though when one of these cases reaches the Supreme Court, I think it is likely a court majority will not read the religious exemption so narrowly.

REICHARD: OK, so Title VII, employment discrimination, is one legal argument. What other arguments does McDorman have?

WEST: The complaint mentions how McDorman teaches secular subjects, not religious subjects. He’s an English teacher, not a Bible teacher. So it appears he’s also trying to avoid a “ministerial exception” defense by the school. That’s a doctrine that protects religious institutions from being second-guessed by courts about employment decisions… where the employee serves a “vital religious function.” Back in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, that the ministerial exception extended to elementary school teachers at two Catholic schools. The court found that each served a “vital religious function.” The boundaries of the defense remain unclear, and we don’t have the benefit yet of the school’s response, but I suspect that McDorman's job description is not as limited as he argues. All teachers are expected to support the school’s religious mission.

REICHARD: Is that it? Title VII and the ministerial exception?

WEST: Not yet. There’s at least one more argument, and this one I have not seen before.

He also makes a claim under Title IX. That’s a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination for publicly funded schools. So McDorman claims that he was retaliated against for sex-based discrimination in the school.The school accepted $1 million from the federal Paycheck Protection Program in 2020, during the pandemic. So he presumably contends that it brings the school under the umbrella of Title IX. I’m not sure about that. But at least it’s a cautionary note for religious institutions. It’s for that reason many churches and religious institutions declined to take government loans–loans ultimately forgiven–during the pandemic.

REICHARD: Sounds to me like there are some lessons in all this?

WEST: I think so. Lawsuits aren’t only about winning in court; sometimes, they are meant to sway public opinion. The narrative here is that Christian schools are bigoted, intolerant, and even hateful. It’s a challenge to counter. But we have to remember that we have a beautiful story about sexuality and marriage that we need to be telling. So, let’s tell it.

REICHARD: Steve West writes about religious liberties for WORLD Digital. You can read his work at WNG.org. You can also subscribe to his free weekly newsletter on First Amendment issues, called Liberties. Steve, always good to have you on. Thank you!

WEST: My pleasure, Mary.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: serving — and ministering to — the people of Ukraine.

NICK EICHER, HOST: As Moscow began losing ground to Ukraine on the battlefield, Russian President Putin adopted a new strategy: Try to break the will of the Ukrainian people.

Russian missiles, drones, and shells continue to target the nation’s power grid and other civilian targets.

At least 40 people died in a weekend attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

But Christian aid groups are stepping up to serve the people of Ukraine in their hour of need.

Joining us once again is the head of one of the groups working to help. Sergey Rakhuba is president of Mission Eurasia. He is originally from Ukraine.

REICHARD: Sergey, good morning!

SERGEY RAKHUBA, GUEST: Hi Mary, it’s so nice to be on your show.

REICHARD: Russia just launched a fresh round of missiles at the capital of Kyiv in recent days. I know you’ve been in that area. What have you seen and heard?

RAKHUBA: I was in Kyiv when that large missile targeted the power grid, one of the power distribution stations. We've heard the explosion for far from the distance, you know, we've heard lots of sirens going off. So but it was quite away. I think we were about four or five miles away from the explosion. But those explosions happen periodically, you know, actually, every day, the same day, as you already mentioned, a Russian Air Force targeted Dnipro, one of the larger industrial cities in southern Ukraine, which is next door to my hometown of Zaporizhzhya. So that's what's happening here now and we are in Kherson, a liberated area of Kherson. And, you know, seeing how people are little by little coming back to their villages, coming back to their—in many cases have destroyed homes—trying to start rebuilding their life. And that's what Mission Eurasia is doing, trying to help them. Help them with basic things. The biggest need is to give them food, so then medical assistance, but give them encouragement.

REICHARD: Absolutely. We spoke with you back in September. And since that time, how have things changed on the ground for the people of Ukraine amid the Russian attacks on infrastructure?

RAKHUBA: You already mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, so that Russia has changed the strategy. They are trying to demoralize people, and especially when winter months were coming and now it's mid of January, and it's cold here in southern Ukraine, but it's cold. Temperature is below zero in Celsius. And you can imagine people in half-destroyed places and without heat without power. And so that's what happening. They're targeting the most essential power grid, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, so keeping people in their homes or want people to move somewhere else. And Putin probably succeeds to a certain degree, but I see the spirit, the determination, the resilience of Ukrainian people. So they say, No, we're not going to give up and we believe that we will take victory. So their spirit is a little probably shaking, but Ukrainians are not broken. They say we will continue defending our freedom till the last blood, till the last drop of the blood as they say it literally in their language.

REICHARD: Describe for us again what Mission Eurasia is doing in Ukraine?

RAKHUBA: Mission Eurasia, first of all, so we provide food for, I mean, people are trapped or displaced here. And so we provide those food packages. One food package contains enough food for a family of three or five for at least one week to help them to sustain their life. We provide wood burning stoves. I've seen so many villages, you know, with half-destroyed homes, people just try to cover their windows, you know, or put plastic over their roof. And we help them to install that wood burning stove, provide supply of wood, at least people have some food and they have a warm place to survive. We also provide medical assistance. We provide warm coats for children, blankets, and we provide enough scripture for all who are in need as a source of eternal hope.

REICHARD: Final question, Sergey. How, specifically, Christians should be praying in this situation?

RAKHUBA: Prayer is so essential, Mary, and just even now I'm here on behalf of all these people that live in constant concern. They say, pray for victory, pray that Ukraine will win in this terrible war. So pray for the Ukrainian nation. Pray for their leaders, pray for the churches that provide so much spiritual leadership in this crisis. Pray for families, pray for children who are so much traumatized because of all this what's happening here during this war. So pray for Ukraine.

REICHARD: Sergey Rakhuba is president of Mission Eurasia. Sergey, thank you for the work you do and thank you for joining us.

RAKHUBA: Mary, thank you so much, and I will be praying so that your listeners will respond as always faithfully and generously continue supporting people in Ukraine.

NICK EICHER, HOST: A man in California says a phone call saved his life.

During a recent rainstorm, Mauricio Henao was sitting in his car at the bottom of a hill outside his Malibu home when his girlfriend rang—and asked him to grab something she’d left behind.

He got out of his Toyota Prius, crossed the street, and entered his front door, moments later he heard a loud crash. He told KTLA TV what happened next:

HENAO: And I ran out and saw my car...it was just crushed.

His driver’s seat was filled with a four-foot boulder, right where he'd been sitting seconds earlier.

HENAO: The rock is the size of the whole hood. The windshields are all broken and like the frame of the car is just all twisted.

The rock slide comes as Southern California continues to deal with the aftermath of recent storms.

HENAO: I'm really shook up, honestly, I don't think I'll park here again after this. I’m a little traumatized from this whole ordeal.

But not too traumatized evidently, as he snapped a smiling selfie in front of the totaled car. He must have good insurance.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, January 17th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Priest dismissed.

Just before Christmas, news broke that the Vatican had defrocked a high-profile Catholic priest. The priest’s name is Frank Pavone, and he’s well-known in pro-life circles. WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson has our story.

INGRAHAM: A well-known priest who also served as a co-chair of Pro-Life Voices for Trump has been kicked out of the priesthood by Pope Francis . . .

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR WRITER: Fox News and lots of other outlets were quick to cover the defrocking of Catholic priest Frank Pavone.

But if you’re not Catholic, you may be wondering what defrocked really means. Literally, it’s the removal of vestments, ceremonial clothes. A stripping of priestly privileges and functions.

Church leaders meted out this most severe punishment in part over Pavone’s social media use. Pavone disputes the way those posts were characterized.

PAVONE: Blasphemous communications on social media? Well, I can tell you it's blasphemous to the abortionists, because I condemn abortion. It's blasphemous to the Democrats, yeah, because I condemn the Democrats. Not to condemn them in the theological sense, but I condemn them.

That wasn’t all. The Vatican also accused Pavone of persistently disobeying his bishop. But Pavone says he was targeted for his pro-life work.

PAVONE: You see a pattern, and it's a disturbing pattern of they just want to push us out. I think what's going on here is they want to push us out of the influence we have over the Catholic pro-life people.

Some say Pavone’s influence isn’t the problem. It’s his pull-no-punches style. It’s combative. And Pavone does hold a lot of influence in his role as director of Priests for Life. Priests for Life is a large international organization—separate from the Catholic Church. It encompasses a variety of pro-life ministries.

Alveda King serves on the board of Priests for Life. She’s Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, and she’s a longtime friend of Pavone’s. She sees their work together as a continuation of the fight for civil rights.

KING: Life begins in the womb. It goes to the tomb and beyond. And so civil rights should be for human beings, whether they're in the womb or in the arms or walking around themselves.

King is concerned for Pavone, especially since his father died just days after the defrocking announcement.

KING: All of that is happening, and yet he's trusting the Lord. He prays, he loves the Lord. He has good friends, not just me, but many of us, and we fully support him.

Bradley Mattes is one of those good friends. He’s president of Life Issues Institute. He and Pavone have been in the thick of the pro-life work together since the ’90s. So what’s the temperature right now?

MATTES: Well, it's red hot . . . the just amazing breakthrough that we've worked and prayed for for almost 50 years.

The breakthrough, of course, is the overturning of Roe v. Wade. But Mattes says there’s been fallout from that victory, and he believes Pavone is part of it. He believes the Vatican favors liberal politicians like President Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.

MATTES: . . . aggressively do all they could to keep the wanton killing of unborn babies throughout pregnancy the status quo. And yet it's a direct violation of Catholic doctrine. But there is silence from the Vatican.

Mattes believes church leaders made a mistake.

MATTES: I think they've overplayed their hand, which is evidenced by all of the people coming to support Father Frank. The priests, the lay people, Catholics and non Catholics alike, pro-life organizations.

Even so, Mattes thinks the defrocking has a silver lining. It’s enabled Pavone to speak more freely.

MATTES: In the past, he would not condemn or speak against the hierarchy . . . he was a loyal priest, he would not turn on the Vatican . . .

Not everyone agrees with that assessment. Sam Lee is a deacon in the Catholic Church, and he makes it clear that he admires Pavone’s zeal. But for Lee, Pavone’s 2016 video involving the body of an aborted baby crossed a line.

LEE: Some of his behavior has been highly inappropriate . . . we are always public persons, we are always out there representing the Church.

Lee also disapproves of Pavone’s political activities.

LEE: To endorse or promote or to denigrate . . . in the sense of, to lambaste consistently a party or a person in that way—as opposed to just pointing out the error of what they're doing or proposing—is highly inappropriate . . .

But the now-defrocked Pavone stresses he’s not political.

PAVONE: Our platform is clear. It's the platform of Jesus Christ. It’s not Republican, not Democrat. We're on the platform of Jesus Christ . . .

He says other platforms are circumstantial. They can change at any time. Pavone wants to stay focused.

PAVONE: ​​I want to give my life for the unborn.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson.

EICHER: To read the full print feature story on Frank Pavone, look for the January 28th issue of WORLD Magazine and we’ll post a link to the digital version of the story in the transcript of this episode.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, January 17th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Time now for a classic commentary. Four decades ago, WORLD Founder Joel Belz argued in WORLD Magazine that Christians should watch their language.

EICHER: Here’s a recording of that commentary now, tightened up just a bit to fit our available time.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: It's important to remember that Christians are people of the Word. It is not just incidental that when God comes to man, he comes as the Word. As he reaches out to us, he does not do so with ambiguity, but with words, the tools of communication best designed to avoid ambiguity and lack of clarity.

For his fullest revelation, He did not come as the song or as the rainbow, even though he did not hesitate sometimes to enhance his revelation with such art forms. Instead, he spelled out with specificity who he is, and what he is about by coming to us as the Word.

Looking at the way God uses words suggests at least these three principles. One, God writes down his agreements. It makes him and us accountable. Good managers appreciate people who spoken word they can trust. But good managers also regularly insist on written records of important transactions and agreements, just so that trust can be enhanced instead of jeopardized when they make such requirements. They are imitating God's way of doing things.

In our public lives, some important things do get written down. But we only play at it. Both the Republicans and the Democrats every four years write down their platforms, spelling out what they agree to offer society. But whoever checks back to hold them accountable?

Second, God is never tricky with his language. You don't have to worry about the fine print. It was Jesus who said let what you say be simply yes or no. Most Americans think that if something is in the Congressional Record, it has to be true. But it isn't necessarily the case that what is quoted in the high sounding document is according to fact, since a member of Congress can place anything he or she jolly well pleases into the record. God made words to exalt the truth, not to play games with it. People who claim to follow him should be diligent to do the same.

Third, God is always as good as his word. Students of language will remember its performative function. Using it, a person makes something happen just by saying so. Kings and presidents do it when they decree something. But so do ministers when they say, “I now declare you to be man and wife.” Saying so makes it so.

God is the ultimate user of the performative function of language. Since that incredible moment when he said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, he has always brought to pass his holy will simply by saying so. It's one thing to be powerful. It's something a good bit more awesome to have a powerful word.

Now, of course, even those people who aspire to imitate God couldn't begin to walk in His steps in this respect. And yet, there is an important lesson to be learned and a warning which shapes our behavior. We will be more like our God if we are careful to ensure that our behavior matches our words.

Glib words are everywhere. Words that aren't accountable. Words that are overly tricky. Words that aren't matched by performance. Such words don't belong among Christians. Our witness in the world will be more potent when we learn to leave them behind us, using words instead in the same way that God uses them.

REICHARD: That’s Joel Belz, reading his column titled “People of The(ir) Word” from his book, Consider These Things. The column originally appeared in the January 18, 1988 issue of WORLD Magazine.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow, Washington Wednesday: we’ll discuss the growing scandal involving President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.

And we’ll introduce you to WORLD’s newest podcast project, helping families develop news literacy and cultivate biblical discernment.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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

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

This year, we will follow the ESV Daily Bible Reading Plan. We hope in doing that to encourage all of us to read through the Bible together. We’ll choose a short passage from the scheduled reading for each day.

Today, we look to the Psalms, where the Bible says: “I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words. Wondrously show your steadfast love… O Savior… of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.” (Psalm 17:6-7 ESV)

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.