The World and Everything in It: January 2, 2025

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The new year is here but the struggle for religious liberty continues. We’ll review the biggest cases of 2024 and what awaits us in the year ahead.

Also today: aid workers reflect on the massive effort to help the people of Ethiopia 40 years ago. 

REYNOLDS: They didn't know when they were going to get the next distribution of food.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: We also continue our remembrances of those who died this year, this time commemorating the lives of prominent religious figures.

LINDSEY: We’re that generation, and I believe we are moving rapidly toward the coming of Christ.

And commentator John Wilsey says the past doesn’t determine the future, but it certainly shapes it.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, January 2nd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: New Orleans attack » In the wake of a new year’s terrorist attack in New Orleans, investigators may still have as many questions as they do answers.

The plot thickened on Wednesday with authorities now weighing the possibility that the attack was not limited to New Orleans. New details suggest an explosion in Las Vegas could have been connected. More on that momentarily.

As for the attacker in New Orleans, President Biden said there’s no doubt about the motive:

BIDEN:  Mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill.

At least 15 people were killed in the attack.

The assailant has been identified as Houston native Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran.

Authorities say he rammed a rented pickup truck bearing an ISIS flag into a crowd of new year’s revelers on Bourbon Street a little after 3:00 A.M. Wednesday morning.

One witness told reporters:

WITNESS: After it gets past us, the guy — I didn’t know it was a terrorist, but the guy ends up getting out and shooting people.

At that point, police say officers shot and killed Jabbar.

The FBI says they do not believe he acted alone, and investigators last night were hunting for additional suspects.

Vegas Cybertruck explosion » And then there is that explosion outside of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.

A truck parked in front of the hotel erupted into flames a little before 9:00 A.M. Wednesday. And police say that too is being investigated as a possible terrorist attack. Las Vegas Metro Police Dept Sheriff Kevin McMahill:

MCHAHILL: We are absolutely investigating any connectivity to what happened in New Orleans.

Suspiciously large quantities of firework mortars and camp fuel canisters were found stuffed into the back of a Tesla Cybertruck. The blast killed the unidentified suspect inside the truck. Seven people nearby suffered minor injuries.

The Cybertruck in Las Vegas and the truck used in the New Orleans attack were both reportedly rented using the same app.

MCMAHILL: We do know the truck was rented in Colorado. We were able to trace that truck through the Tesla charging stations.

Investigators are also looking into the possible symbolism of a Tesla Cybertruck in front of a Trump hotel given the connection between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump.

Musk said on his X platform Wednesday that they picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. The body of the truck is made of specially hardened stainless steel designed to stop a small caliber bullet. Police say the truck’s design helped contain the explosion, directing the blast upward. Not even the nearby glass doors of the hotel lobby were broken.

Sugar Bowl postponed, mayor asks people to avoid Bourbon St » The college football Sugar Bowl is expected to be played today in New Orleans after being delayed one day in the wake of the attack.

Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley said yesterday:

HUNDLEY:  Work is fast about to set up a safe and efficient and fun environment.

And New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said authorities are leaving nothing to chance with regard to security for the event.

KIRKPATRICK:  Part of the safety plan is we have bomb dogs out there sweeping the Superdome and all the exterior area and we're locking that down. That will be locked down through the game.

The College Football Playoff quarterfinal between Georgia and Notre Dame is slated to kick off at 4pm Eastern in the New Orleans Superdome.

Germany NYE violence » In Germany, government officials are condemning violent incidents on New Year’s Eve.

In Berlin, at least 30 police officers and one firefighter were injured in confrontations.

NATH: [SPEAKING IN GERMAN]

Berlin police spokesman Florian Nath said officers arrested more than 300 people who threw projectiles and aimed fireworks at police. He said one officer was seriously injured.

German news outlet DPA also reports that five people were killed and hundreds injured across the country after being hit accidentally by fireworks.

Russia rejects Trump plan » Russia says it’s prepared to reject the rumored terms of a proposal to end the war in Ukraine. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: President-elect Donald Trump intends to open negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to end the fighting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week said he doesn’t expect any official talks until Trump takes office.

But … he says he has read American news reports that cite sources close to Trump. … And the Kremlin is not impressed by rumored terms of a forthcoming proposal.

Lavrov said Russia would reject any agreement that would station European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine. He also said Moscow won’t accept Ukraine's entrance into NATO … even if it is delayed for 20 years.

He added that if relations between the US and Russia are to heal … Washington will have to make the first move.

Reporting for WORLD, I'm Kristen Flavin.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: a report on the top religious liberty news from 2024. Plus, aid workers remember what it was like fighting famine in Ethiopia in 1984.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 2nd of January.

This is WORLD Radio and we thank you for joining us today. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

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

First up on The World and Everything in It: standing up for truth. Parents, churches, schools, and ministries have had to defend their right to religious expression and conviction in court quite often this year.

Joining us now to review a handful of the most significant is WORLD’s religious liberty beat reporter, Steve West.

REICHARD: Steve, good morning.

STEVE WEST: Good morning, Mary.

REICHARD: Steve, this year the Supreme Court has not issued any blockbuster rulings in the religious liberty arena. In fact, they have declined to review a number of these cases. Lower courts don’t have the discretion to decline cases, and they’ve been actively hearing religious liberty disputes. Can you hit some highlights from the year?

WEST: I’d be glad to. The main area where we have seen a lot of litigation is that of religious autonomy. Meaning, the degree to which a place of worship, religious school, or other religious organization can govern itself without the government second-guessing their operations. That includes matters of doctrine and who to employ and who can lead.

REICHARD: Who can lead … that makes me think of last year’s ruling in favor of a Fellowship of Christian Athletes FCA student group at a high school in San Jose.

WEST: That was a big win.

COURT: The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is now in session.

In 2023, a federal appeals court upheld the right of a California high school chapter of the FCA to require its student leaders be Christians. But it was this year that the ruling really hit home, as a court settlement required the school district to pay the club nearly $6 million in attorneys’ fees and damages.

REICHARD: So that’s leaders … but what about if a church or school wants all its employees to be of the same faith?

WEST: That’s less clear. There’s good news. A federal appeals court ruled in favor of a Roman Catholic school in North Carolina and said the school had a constitutional right to choose teachers that uphold its religious beliefs. It did so by likening teachers to ministers. But a gospel rescue mission in Washington and youth ministry in Oregon continue to battle state authorities who don’t accept their view that all employees must support the mission’s beliefs and standards of conduct. Not just those in minister-like roles.

REICHARD: I’m assuming that what’s driving most of this is gender ideology.

WEST: That’s right. Many states and municipalities have expanded their public accommodation laws to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Then they seek to apply them to Christian schools and ministries. Mixed results there.

In Michigan, a federal appeals court allowed a religious medical nonprofit and a Catholic parish and school to challenge a public accommodation law. That law was interpreted by courts to cover sexual orientation and gender identity. But that’s not always the case.

NEWS CENTER MAINE: A Christian school in Bangor is suing Maine’s education commissioner and other state officials over an anti-discrimination policy around gender and sexuality.

Authorities in Maine have been very aggressive about their anti-discrimination law. Christian parents there are still embroiled in a dispute over the state’s discrimination over tuition support for private schools.

Eventually, the Supreme Court is going to have to weigh in again on the scope of religious autonomy under the First Amendment.

REICHARD: I know it’s not a First Amendment concern, but there seems to be more emphasis on parental rights. What’s going on in this area?

WEST: This has certainly come to the forefront with the emphasis on so-called gender-affirming environments in schools.

Parental rights have been at the forefront of countering attempts by some public school districts to promote controversial gender ideology. Schools argue that parents’ rights end at the schoolhouse door, while parents contend they have interests that overlap with those of school administrators.

Parents have a constitutional right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children—a right long recognized by the Supreme Court. But the breadth of that right is unclear.

REICHARD: One thing’s for sure: School board meetings are no longer run-of-the-mill, routine affairs, it seems. Lots of community participation.

WEST: There sure is … and often, a lot of contentiousness. Lawsuits show the concerns.

SAINT LOUIS PARK SCHOOL BOARD MEETING: this is our regular business meeting of the Saint Louis Park School Board.

Some lawsuits focus on curriculum.

SAINT LOUIS PARK SCHOOL BOARD MEETING: Our primary concern is that our children are encountering material that’s sexualized and not age-appropriate in a school environment.

After facing a lawsuit, a Minnesota school district allowed Somali American Muslim families—and others with religious objections—to opt their children out of LGBTQ curriculum.

But the Supreme Court is still considering whether to review a federal appeals court ruling that sided with a Maryland school district that refused to allow religious families to opt children out of LGBTQ materials.

REICHARD: I know some of these religious liberty disputes are really framed as free speech issues.

WEST: Yes, and again, these are often the result of aggressive efforts to push transgender ideology.

Students, parents, teachers, and professors have raised free speech concerns over school districts’ pronoun policies or policies barring students from “misgendering” or censoring conservative viewpoints.

I expect these kinds of battles to continue into 2025, yet it is promising that a number of cases settled late in the year on terms favorable to teachers or others with free speech claims.

REICHARD: So, looking ahead at 2025, as you were just doing, what’s on your radar?

WEST: Huge for me is religious autonomy and, specifically, the right of religious organizations to employ only co-religionists. That issue is still winding its way through courts of appeal.

The Supreme Court just accepted a Wisconsin case that may flesh some things out. The state has a religious exemption from some state unemployment taxes. The controversy comes from the way it defines who is religious enough to qualify for the tax exemption: it has to be an organization run by a church or church association and it has to be operated for “primarily” religious purposes.

That’s where the questions begin: Can the government decide what’s a church, and what is sufficiently “religious” to qualify? It’s a fundamental question—how much can the government do to define what counts as religion?

APACHE STRONGHOLD PRESS CONFERENCE: First of all I’d like to thank the attorneys for their tremendous work.

And that brings me to Apache Stronghold v. United States, another case the court has agreed to review. The question is whether the government’s plan to allow copper mining in Oak Flat, a site sacred to Apaches and other Native American groups, violates religious freedom protections.

APACHE STRONGHOLD PRESS CONFERENCE: We heard it loud and clear in this country. That anything on federal land is not safe.

The appeals court ruled this wasn’t a substantial burden on religious liberty. That seems problematic. It’s one thing to say the government may have an interest so compelling that it overrides a religious liberty concern, but quite another to say this wasn’t even a substantial burden. For Christians, this amounts to saying destroying a historic church is not a burden on religious liberty.

I think these cases, and others should the court accept them, offer the court the opportunity to better define what counts as religion, what counts as a burden on religion, and how important religion is in the constitutional scheme.

REICHARD: I thought we knew the answer to those questions.

WEST: Apparently not. But I think the real question is: Are we still religious enough as a society to value religion as something paramount in the Constitution, something at the very heart of who we are? We’ll have to see. You know, these are all defensive moves to shore up space for religious expression and witness—all important—but our prayer should be for more, for not only the defense of but advance of the Gospel.

REICHARD: Good reminder. Have to be the change to see the change. Steve, thanks so much.

WEST: Happy New Year Mary.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: on the front line of famine.

Earlier this week we told you about the Ethiopian famine of the mid-1980s, and how journalists and celebrities helped raise awareness and money for the cause.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: But there were also many Christian aid workers on the ground, helping people throughout the crisis that took hundreds of thousands of lives. WORLD’s Lindsay Mast talked to two of them about what it was like.

LINDSAY MAST: When the BBC aired its initial report on the great Ethiopian famine in October 1984, its graphic images of starving men, women, and children shocked the world.

NEWS REPORT / BUERK: Those who die in the night are brought at dawn to be laid out on the edge of the plain, dozens of them, men, women and children…

The report did not shock 25-year-old Steve Reynolds. He had already come face-to-face with the suffering earlier that year, when he went to Ethiopia as a photographer with a survey team from World Vision. They had gotten word that farmers in the agrarian society were selling their hoes.

STEVE REYNOLDS: They would sell everything else before that, and when they sold their hoe, that was pretty much a sign that they were giving up on ever growing anything again.

He describes his first day at a feeding camp, seeing a snaking line of thousands of emaciated people hoping to receive a ration of one coffee can of the cereal grain sorghum.

REYNOLDS: And they didn't know when they were going to get the next distribution of food.

Reynolds saw children with burn marks on their bodies from parents who thought touching a hot stick to the skin would ward off evil spirits and cure them of their malnutrition.

REYNOLDS: They would pull back the Gabby, the garment from their child, and show me their child and the children, every single one of them was just skin and bones like no muscle left.

It wasn’t long before the work overwhelmed him.

REYNOLDS: I remember sitting down under a tree at one point and not even knowing what to pray…And it was an honest like, this is the most godforsaken place I could imagine being…I felt like that was when God said, Look, this is, this is what the work I've called you to do. And are you serious? You know, do you, do you want to do this? Because if you do, this is what it is.

Reynolds picked up his camera and got back to work. Later, he would show his images to a colleague in Kenya, who shared them with a reporter from the BBC. He says it was part of a chain of events that ultimately brought the British BBC TV crew to Ethiopia. Their report spread news of the famine to the world.

NEWS REPORT: People scrabble in the dirt as they go for each individual grain of wheat. For some it may be the only food they've had for a fortnight or more.

By the time it aired, Reynolds was back in California. But within days, the media blackout of the communist Ethiopian government ended. He returned to help facilitate press visits and document the work.

REYNOLDS: There was just a rush of media at that point when I went back, whereas nobody was there in June of that year, like, you know, we didn't see any journalists or anybody.

Soon relief—much more relief—was on its way. And someone needed to organize the distribution centers.

GHISLAINE BENNEY: It was like setting up a small village where everybody was sick and dying, essentially.

Ghislaine Benney and her husband Chuck arrived in Ethiopia in late 1984. She had just converted to Christianity that year, after a lifetime of atheism. She was 40, with a lucrative career as an executive in Manhattan. But now she and her husband wanted to volunteer their energy and experience helping others. World Vision put them to work.

BENNEY: There was absolutely no infrastructure once you got out of Addis, there was no paved roads, there was no trucks, there was no trains, there was, we had no access to a port to receive goods.

They set up an office in a rundown hotel in Addis Ababa and got to work. He managed logistics; she handled finances, human resources, facilities. She felt guilty sleeping. There was so much to do. When she did leave the hotel, the desperation of the people she saw left her in tears.

BENNEY: They would gather around, asking, begging, whatever was for food or whatever, and it was just, I will never forget that. It seared my soul. It absolutely made me feel how can a nation, how can anybody inflict so much suffering on others?

She focused on doing the next thing she could. Things slowly got better.

In the interim, she says she saw God at work: Christians in Kenya helped drive trucks into Ethiopia when they couldn’t access other routes. She and Chuck once flew back from Kenya with two huge suitcases of contraband Christian material. The normally hyper-vigilant airport security guards simply overlooked them.

She says despite the suffering she saw, the famine didn’t shake her young faith in God. It strengthened it.

BENNEY: And it was very obvious that the pain was caused by people, not by God. The fact that Christians were there to help was more of a testament to the effectiveness of God's power in the lives of his people.

She says by mid-1985, their team had established 12 relief camps and 135 development projects, and was feeding about 2 million people.

REYNOLDS: And you can so almost see the desperation on the father's in the father's eyes, he can't really do anything for his family, so he waits.

Four decades later, Steve Reynolds looks back on pictures he took those first days in Ethiopia. The memories can still be emotional: sadness at hundreds of thousands who died. But also delight, remembering believers in Ethiopia:

REYNOLDS: They showed me what real faith looks like when there's nothing else, you know, to fall back on. Their faith sustained them. They worshiped God at risk to their own lives in many cases.

Aid continued to come in, and rain fell again in Ethiopia in 1985. Reynolds went on to do aid work around the world. Ghislaine Benney had a long career with Mission Aviation Fellowship. Both recognize those difficult days in Ethiopia helped save lives. Reynolds once again:

REYNOLDS: The enemy thought he had won in Ethiopia. He thought he had just destroyed these people. But then God came along and said, No, no, no, you're not destroying anything. Let me show you what I'm going to do in the hearts of people who actually believe in Me.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lindsay Mast in Greenwood, South Carolina.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: What began as a picture- perfect romantic photoshoot turned into a holiday story the couple will not forget.

Kim Zaw and Phil Mui visited snowy Park City, Utah for an engagement photoshoot when something rather important went missing.

MUI: Ten minutes into the shoot, we lose the ring. Hearts are sinking. We’re kinda freaking out a little bit.

Yep, you heard him, they lost the ring! The couple, the photographer, strangers, even the Park City Ski Patrol came to look for the ring, even bringing a metal detector. But even after hours of searching, no ring.

When hope was fading, Phil spotted the ring sparkling in the snow.

MUI: The way I found it, I was already on a knee and she was standing over me. I figured take the opportunity to do it again. (she laughs)

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Quick thinking!

BROWN: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, January 2nd.

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

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Notable deaths in 2024.

We know everyone is notable in the eyes of God. Perhaps you’ve lost someone this year who was dear to you. Today, we mark those who died who were notable in a broader sense —who were widely known or who exerted great influence—whether for good or maybe no-so-good.

BROWN: Today, people who were known in the realm of religion. Here’s WORLD reporter Anna Johansen Brown.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: For Benedict Fitzgerald, it all starts out with a call from Mel Gibson.

FITZGERALD: He just called me up out of the blue, basically and said, “Why don't you come and see me, something I want to talk to you about.”

Fitzgerald is a screenwriter. His father was a former poet laureate of the United States. Flannery O’Connor was his childhood babysitter.

He’s written a few successful scripts, but none have made much money. So when Gibson calls, Fitzgerald listens.

FITZGERALD: We just talked as two fellows talk, and he just said, why don't you just go and try and write a first draft.

It’s the first draft of The Passion of the Christ.

Fitzgerald steeps himself in the Gospels. As he writes, he says the Catholic faith he learned as a child slowly returns and transforms his life.

CLIP: [Eloi, lama sabachthani]

The Passion becomes the single most successful independent film of all time. But it also draws controversy. The Anti-Defamation League denounces it as antisemitic.

Fitzgerald never makes it big as a screenwriter, though he continues to write smaller projects.

He died in January at age 74.

Next, a soldier turned theologian.

MOLTMANN: When I was 16 I was drafted into the German army.

It’s 1943 and Jurgen Moltmann is stationed in his home town of Hamburg, Germany. He’s manning an anti-aircraft gun, as the British Royal Air Force bombs the city into devastation.

MOLTMANN: And I was in the midst of it. And I cried out to God for the first time.

In 1945, Moltmann surrenders to the first Allied soldier he meets on the front lines. He spends the rest of the war as a POW, where he reads the Bible for the first time.

After returning home, Moltmann studies theology. He teaches at multiple universities and writes more than 40 books.

He comes to believe that God doesn’t just have compassion on human suffering—he actively experiences that pain along with us.

Much of Moltmann’s theology emphasizes hope and the kingdom of God.

MOLTMANN: …Hope in the coming Kingdom of God, the new creation, can influence our behavior here, how we deal with social questions, political questions.

Moltmann is heavily influenced by Marxist thought—classes of oppressor and oppressed.

Many Evangelicals question his theological method. Moltmann calls Scripture a “stimulus” to his own theological thinking, not “an authoritative blueprint and confining boundary.” He often uses personal experience as a litmus test for theological truths.

Nevertheless, Moltmann becomes highly influential in the 60s and 70s, shaping the theology of a generation.

He died in June at the age of 98.

LESSON: Well, before we close today…

Next, Taiwan’s godmother of English education.

LESSON: Did you learn any new words today, Sally? Yes! I learned the word contest. Contest [Translation]

Doris Brougham died in August at age 98. She spent over seven decades in Taiwan, teaching English and sharing the gospel.

Brougham is 12 years old when she first feels God calling her to Asia.

She turns down a full scholarship to study music and instead goes to Bible college to prepare for missionary work. In 1951, she arrives in Taiwan.

BROUGHAM: I thought, how can we reach these people? Because every day, people dying, and moaning and crying and going to the temple, and I said, we’re not reaching them fast enough. So I said, why don’t we use radio?

Taiwan is a Buddhist country. Christians make up one tenth of one percent of the population.

Brougham starts the first Christian radio station in Taiwan. The program includes sermons, choral music, skits, and Brougham’s trumpet playing.

AUDIO: [Brougham playing trumpet]

The show is an instant hit. Brougham later starts Studio Classroom, a TV and radio program specifically for teaching English.

Her approach impresses some of Taiwan’s top leaders. The island’s president even sends members of his cabinet to learn English from Brougham. She becomes a beloved household name across the country.

Brougham never retires, working in the studio until the age of 97.

Next, an apocalyptic prophet.

LINDSEY: This generation will not pass away until all these things are fulfilled. We are that generation!

It’s the 1960s. The Cold War, the new state of Israel, communism in China, cultural revolution—Hal Lindsey sees all of those recent events as sure signs that Jesus is coming back—soon. By 1988, in fact.

LINDSEY: We are that generation, and I believe we are moving rapidly toward the coming of Christ.

Lindsey has been leading Bible studies with Campus Crusade for Christ, focusing on the end times. In 1970, he publishes a book: The Late Great Planet Earth. It introduces wide audiences to concepts like the Rapture, the Antichrist, and the mark of the beast.

It becomes the non-fiction bestseller of the decade.

Lindsey soon launches a TV program, making specific interpretations of Biblical prophecy.

LINDSEY: So that's how the war goes. The first sequence is an all-out invasion of the Russian Muslim confederacy. They’re counter attacked by the west led by the revived Roman Empire.

But Lindsey’s work begins to draw criticism. 1988 comes and goes and the world doesn’t end. Theologians point out inconsistencies in Lindsey’s interpretations. Lindsey begins to shift and qualify his statements.

But even denounced by many, he continues connecting biblical prophecy to current events for decades—right up until a few months before his death.

Lindsey died in November at the age of 95.

Finally, we remember George Sweeting—evangelist, chalk artist, and former President of Moody Bible Institute.

Sweeting was 15 years old when he gave his life to Christ, in a summer tent meeting. It was August of 1940, and the guest speaker was preaching on James 1:22.

SWEETING: Be doers of the word and not hearers only. And that night I said, Lord, with your help and by your grace, I will be a doer of the word of God and not just a hearer.

Sweeting later goes to college at Moody Bible Institute and also gets a degree in art.

At the age of 20, he’s ordained as a pastor. Sweeting begins traveling as an artist-evangelist, drawing illustrated sermons with his portable easel. In 1971, he becomes president of Moody.

Under his leadership, Moody’s campus grows from covering just two city blocks to ten. After his time at Moody, Sweeting returned to pastoral ministry. He continued writing and drawing until he died in September at age 99.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, January 2nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. As we mark the ending of one year and the beginning of another, WORLD Opinions contributor John Wilsey says understanding our relationship with the past is key to the future.

JOHN D. WILSEY: “What’s past is prologue.” Those are the words inscribed on “Future” … a statue that stands in front of the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. The quotation comes from William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” The idea is that the past sets the context for the present and the future. Who our ancestors were and what they did establish the setting in which we move and have our being in the present. Our actions, attitudes, beliefs, and wishes will also make up the setting for the world our children and grandchildren will inhabit.

The year 2024 is now past. A new year dawns. I was born in 1969, and for 30 years the 21st century was a figment of my imagination. Now, this century is nearly a quarter of the way completed. What happened?

The great 20th century champion of Western civilization Richard Weaver wrote in his book Ideas Have Consequences, that the past comprises all our knowledge, the present is a thin line, ever advancing, and the future is what we imagine about days to come. It’s made up of images from our past playing on the screen of the mind.

We often think of history as an abstraction. We look at old photographs of people who are now dead. They often seem to stare back at us with expressionless faces. The dead seem so distant from us, inhabiting a world so different than our own as to seem almost unreal.

But history is not abstract. History is made up of real people who lived in real places facing real circumstances at real times. They laughed, worked, loved, hated, played, planned, hoped, feared, lived…and died.

History matters a great deal, not because those who don’t learn from it are doomed to repeat it. Guess what, we will repeat our mistakes of the past, no matter how much knowledge of it we possess. History matters because those who inhabited past time had a nature like ours—on the one hand, possessing great dignity as divine image-bearers, and on the other hand, fallen in sin.

The Hungarian-born historian John Lukacs took human nature seriously in the way he thought about history. Human nature, he said, is not half good and half bad. Rather, it is a mixture of real dignity and real fallenness, which when mixed together makes a third thing. He writes: “In mathematics, with its rigidly fixed and immobile numbers, 100 plus 100 makes 200; in human life 100 plus 100 makes another kind of 100.” When we think about the dead, we have to remember that they were complex, and casting them in simple good-versus-evil narratives does little to give us real understanding.

Some people find history irrelevant. Some find it entertaining. Others think it’s a dull exercise in memorizing dry-as-dust details like names and dates. But everyone ought to love history, because God made each of us with an awareness of our place in time. A person may not enjoy every historical subject, but who doesn’t love to tell stories about how they met their spouse, how they became a Christian, or what they did on last summer’s vacation?

Historical thinking is central to who we are as divine image-bearers. Adjacent to the statue “Future” in front of the National Archives is the statue “Past.” That statue is inscribed with the simple exhortation: “Study the Past.” As one year dies and another is born, let us remember that we who live today will die tomorrow. Therefore, let us examine ourselves. Study the past to get knowledge and wisdom, which begins with the fear of the Lord.

I’m John Wilsey.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet returns for Culture Friday.

And, an introduction of sorts during this month’s Ask the Editor.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Myrna Brown.

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.

A reminder to step outside tonight for a spectacular meteor shower! It’s going on from about 12:45 a.m.eastern into the early hours tomorrow. After all, the heavens declare the glory of God!

The Bible says: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:2.

Go now in grace and peace.

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