The World and Everything in It: January 20, 2023

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk about what it meant and what it means now that Roe is reversed. Andrew Walker joins us for Culture Friday.

Also today, a review of a 70 year old movie coming back to theaters.

And I was glad to hear love for George Grant because he’s back with Word Play for January. This time: the dizzying changes to the English language.

BROWN: It’s Friday, January 20th. 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, Anna Johansen Brown with today’s news.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, NEWS ANCHOR: Debt limit » The Treasury Department is now taking what it calls extraordinary measures to keep the government from defaulting on its debt.

The U.S. reached the limit of what it can legally borrow yesterday. Congress can raise that limit, but not everyone thinks that’s a good idea.

Senator Joe Manchin:

MANCHIN: I think what we have to do is realize that we have a problem, we have a debt problem.

Republican leaders say they will only agree to raise the so-called debt ceiling if Democrats agree to spending reductions. That’s a non-starter for the White House. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

JEAN-PIERRE: It is essential for Congress to recognize that dealing with the debt ceiling is their constitutional responsibility. This is an easy one. This is something that should be happening without conditions.

The Treasury Department’s stopgap financial measures are expected to expire June 5.

Biden tours CA damage » AUDIO: [Official talking to Biden]

President Biden has approved even more federal funding for California’s storm recovery efforts. He toured storm-damaged areas in the state yesterday.

Atmospheric rivers have washed over California since late December, dropping as much rain in that amount of time as many areas see in one year.

FEMA director Deanne Criswell also joined Biden on the visits.

CRISWELL: There’s 20 confirmed fatalities across the state, and that’s just really devastating. We’re talking about homes that are impacted, but we’re also talking about their livelihood, we’re talking about the loss of life.

Biden also met with first responders during his trip and discussed how the federal government could continue to support the state’s recovery.

More than 500 personnel from FEMA and other agencies have deployed to California to help with emergency response.

FBI offers reward for info on pregnancy center vandalism cases » The FBI is offering a cash reward for information about a string of attacks against pro-life pregnancy centers. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The FBI says it will pay $25,000 to anyone who can help them find, arrest, and convict “the suspects responsible for these crimes.”

The bureau is looking for two suspects involved in an arson attack against a pregnancy center in Amherst, New York, back in June.

But attacks on other pro-life centers throughout the country remain unsolved.

Those attacks began after someone leaked a draft opinion pointing to the eventual reversal of Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it has not identified the source of that leak despite an in-depth investigation.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Sec. Austin meets with allies about Ukraine aid » Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is huddling with Western allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany today to talk strategy and military aid to Ukraine.

AUSTIN: We’ll join our partners and allies at the year’s first meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group. And we’ll renew our united commitment to support Ukraine’s self defense for the long haul.

Germany is facing mounting pressure to supply tanks to Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the weapons aren’t arriving fast enough to keep up with relentless Russian attacks.

Kyiv is asking Germany to send its Leopard 2 tanks after the U.K. announced it will send tanks to Ukraine. At the very least, Zelenskyy is asking Germany to clear the way for Poland and others to deliver German-made Leopards from their own stock.

Grossi: We have to protect Ukraine nuke plants » Meantime, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog says his agency is already hard at work in Ukraine hoping to safeguard nuclear plants. That as missiles and shells continue to shake the ground. Rafael Grossi said the plants must be protected.

GROSSI: This is perhaps my challenge because the parties are not negotiating with each other.

The UN nuclear chief also once again called for permanent safe zones around all nuclear plants.

GROSSI: I am very clear about the absolute necessity to exclude nuclear facilities, nuclear power plants from any military action. This is of course a permanent message that I have for everybody.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency this week sent teams of experts to each of Ukraine’s four nuclear plants.

Baldwin charged with involuntary manslaughter » Actor Alec Baldwin is facing criminal charges in New Mexico, stemming from a fatal shooting on a movie set. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has that story.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Both Baldwin and an on-set weapons handler will be charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting of a cinematographer.

A gun that was supposed to be loaded only with blanks instead fired a live round, striking and killing Halyna Hutchins.

Weapons specialist Hannah Gutierrez-Reed also faces involuntary manslaughter charges. She was in charge of supervising weapons on the set of the Western “Rust.”

Prosecutors accused both Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed of “criminal disregard for safety.”

Assistant director David Halls, who handed Baldwin the gun, has signed an agreement to plead guilty to negligent use of a deadly weapon.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Welcome Corps » The U.S. government has announced a new program called the “Welcome Corps” that will allow private donors to sponsor refugees arriving in the U.S.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

BLINKEN: Providing a safe haven and a new home for people fleeing war, violence and persecution is one of America's noblest traditions dating back to the founding of our nation. And throughout our history, our country has benefited from the energy, the ingenuity, the hard work of refugees.

The State Department says its goal is to have at least 10,000 Americans sponsor at least 5,000 refugees from around the world.

I’m Anna Johansen Brown. Straight ahead: Culture Friday with Andrew Walker.

Plus, 70 years since Roman Holiday hit theaters.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s the 20th 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.

Two days from today—Sunday, January 22nd—marks the 50th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. Since that Supreme Court decision in 1973 legalizing abortion in all 50 states, more than 60 million unborn children died by abortion in America.

BROWN: This summer, the Supreme Court reversed Roe in a case called Dobbs versus Jackson Women’s Health Organization. That decision did not make abortion illegal once again, but instead turned the issue back to the states to decide.

Today in Washington...

AUDIO: Are y’all ready to march?

… a much different March for Life than last year.

EICHER: Right, it was filled with anticipation that Roe versus Wade would fall before its 50th anniversary and that’s exactly what happened.

The march goes on, though—in the words of organizers—because the building of “a culture of life is not finished.” March for Life estimates that 900,000 abortions are likely this year and that the annual decrease at best will be about 200,000 in a post-Roe America.

So, says March for Life, the work to change hearts, minds, and laws is now much more a state-by-state, community-by-community issue.

BROWN: So as tens of thousands of pro-lifers gather in Washington to mark the 50th March for Life on a much-warmer day in the Nation’s Capital than it was last year! We will devote our Culture Friday today to pro-life issues.

EICHER: We will—and joining us now for that conversation is Andrew Walker. He’s a professor of Christian ethics and apologetics at Southern Seminary.

He is also managing editor of WORLD Opinions.

Andrew, glad to have you.

ANDREW WALKER, GUEST: Hey, Nick and Myrna. Always good to be with you.

EICHER: Before we get started, really grateful for your part in last night’s WORLD Opinions livestream. Great panel you put together. And we’ll link to it in the transcript so WORLD listeners can re-watch on YouTube and share it with others and I’ll also mention now that tomorrow morning, we’ll have produced an audio podcast of the Livestream. So you’ll hear that tomorrow in your podcast feed right here.

But Andrew, this is a momentous day, lots of grateful pro-lifers marching thankfully to the Supreme Court versus hopefully last year, versus 2021, when it was more like other years, in mourning or in protest of what the Supreme Court had done.

Let me begin by asking about consequences. We know the consequences by the numbers. We’ve mentioned the statistics. But I want to ask: Do you think Roe and the abortion-on-demand regime it brought in changed us or do you think America was headed down this road eventually—abortion really came along as a result?

Maybe, in other words, was abortion a catalyst or was it a consequence of something else?

WALKER: I think it's definitely the case that abortion was a catalyst that kind of produced what one of the popes referred to as a culture of death. And what we saw happen in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade, was, as you mentioned already, over 60 million deaths of fellow human beings. To reckon that as anything other than a human rights atrocity and human rights tragedy, would be to fail to reckon with what it truly is. And as we are at this new stage in the pro-life movement, we want to be really clear and mournful about the life that has been lost, while at the same time being grateful for the work that was accomplished over 50 years of people organizing—often at great cost of themselves financially, with their social reputations. And so I think as the culture of death marched on from 1973 onward, we saw the very best of what happens when Christians and Americans rally around a cause that I think ultimately brings us back to the very foundations of both our faith and our own Constitution. A faith that says that we're all made in God's image born and unborn. And also a Constitution that says we're endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights—among them life. That's the very first of those enumerated rights that we have a right to act upon and fulfill. We should be so thankful that in 2022, 50 years of organizing brought Roe to its end. Now, we obviously have a lot more work to do, as you said. But if I'm optimistic for anything, it's because the good work that was once previously done is still continuing. And I think that, once again, you're going to see the very best of Americans and the very best of Christians step up and care for women, and care for women who find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy.

EICHER: When you think of political polarization, do you blame abortion for that? Is that too simplistic a view of politics?

WALKER: I think there's a confluence of reasons that polarization happened. I think one of the biggest things we saw happen was one party in this country took evermore egregious stands in defense of abortion. We can look from the mid 1990s with the Bill Clinton administration, when the adage was to keep abortion safe, legal and rare, which in that context meant that there was still some type of stigma or regret attached to abortion. 25 or 30 years later, we've now moved forward to this issue of shout your abortion, and a total, complete loosening of any stigma around abortion. And so I think that is necessarily cheapened our politics. Doubtlessly, given how politics works, I'm sure both sides can share some blame in this. But when all is said and done, we have one party in the United States of America that has written into their platform the destruction of human life. And we need to be very clear about that and the moral contrast that presents as Christians think about competing political ideologies on offer right now.

BROWN: Andrew, I’m interested in this question of evangelicals being so late to the pro-life cause, very different from our Roman Catholic friends who were on this right away.

You’re an ethics professor and I wonder what you know about the history of evangelical ethical thinking on life issues, what took so long?

WALKER: Yeah, Myrna, that's a really good question. In my own convention, the Southern Baptist Convention, we were grievously very slow to come to grips with the pro-life movement. And in fact there are resolutions, I believe, in the 1970s that are more or less pro-choice. And I think that has to do with perhaps, at least in the 1970s, there was a whiff of anti-Catholicism within many sectors of Protestantism. And I think that being pro-life was meant to be predominantly a Catholic issue. We still have our differences with Catholicism in many ways, but there has been an increased co-belligerence between Protestants and Catholics on the pro-life issue. In fact, I would say, it's probably the issue that allows for us to work together in the social sphere more than any other issue. But I also think, too, that the Roman Catholic Church has had 2,000 years to build out kind of an elaborate philosophical system of Catholic social teaching, and Protestants, depending on how you date us, have had 500 years to do so. And we've been a little bit slower to codify and formulate our own social teaching. It's not as though we didn't have it there laying dormant in our teaching, or in the Scripture. It's certainly there in Scripture. But it takes a while for people to come to grips with social movements. It takes a while for institutions to begin to do what they need to do, which is to get right on the issue and to hire the right people, to write the right papers, to mobilize the right people. So I don't think it's just one thing in particular. It's a confluence of issues. But all that to say, being wrong on this in the past, as grievous as it is, I think, now if you ask what is an evangelical or what do evangelicals stand for now in the public square, one of the things that would be said about them is that they're so fervently pro-life. And I think that's an adage to the fact that in 50 years people can change and change for the better.

BROWN: I’d like to close by asking what you think the biggest challenges are ahead for that main issue March for Life talks about, and that’s the building of a culture of life where abortion is not just illegal but unthinkable?

WALKER: I think that there are at least two really big difficulties that we have to overcome. And I think one is just how ingrained and routine abortion is in our culture, that people have thought of it as the last form of birth control. I think that means that we have to change hearts and minds. We need to work evermore to humanize the unborn, to demonstrate our care for women who find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy. I also think, just tactically speaking, this issue arguably became more complex as this now becomes a 50 state issue rather than just a federal issue. So it means that the work to address this on the state issue is more dispersed. So it means there are going to have to be more local level initiatives, and citizens on the ground in all 50 states to really put the pro-life ethic into action. That necessarily means paying attention to the political sphere. As I'll often say in my class, it's not oftentimes that a lot of Americans disagree on the pro-life issue, it's that either they're A) uninformed or B) they're just not politically motivated to vote to correct this issue. So I think this is both expanding hearts to build sympathy for the unborn and for women. It's also an educational aspect as well as informing minds to get people off the sidelines and for them to be made aware of just how invasive and cruel pro-choice laws really are.

BROWN: Andrew Walker is professor of Christian ethics and apologetics at Southern Seminary and managing editor of WORLD Opinions. Thanks, Andrew!

WALKER: Thank you all.

NICK EICHER, HOST: 9-year-old Molly Sampson of Maryland had a very specific Christmas list. She wanted a pair of insulated waders, W-A-D-E-R-S. So after opening the gift, she went wading in the Chesapeake Bay with her parents and sister. Audio here from FOX Channel 5.

MOLLY: It was on Christmas day and we went out around 9:30am with our waders on and we were wading the water and I found this tooth. I pulled it out of the water.

Pulled it out of the water and added to her collection of more than 400 shark teeth, but this particular tooth from the Calvert Cliffs was quite different from the rest. It was a 5-inch fossil from a Megalodon. Molly's father Bruce couldn't believe his eyes.

BRUCE: I was absolutely shocked. I couldn't believe that she had found a tooth that big. I've spent my whole life looking for something like that.

The Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland confirmed its identity—saying it was one of the largest specimens ever found in the bay.

So what is Molly going to do with the 5-inch tooth?

MOLLY: I'm probably gonna put it in a shadow box and put it in my room.

Put it in a shadow box and put it in her room. It’s going to cast quite the shadow!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, January 20th. 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.

For the last five weekends, Avatar: The Way of Water has held the top spot at the box office. The movie has grossed about $600 million domestically and $2 billion worldwide.

BROWN: In second place at the box office for the last couple of weeks is a movie titled M3GAN and spelled M-3-G-A-N. It’s a suspense thriller about a killer doll programmed with artificial intelligence.

Sounds pretty creepy!

EICHER: It is, but WORLD reviewer Collin Garbarino says it’s not as scary as you'd think. And he says the movie explores some interesting questions about what it means to be a parent in the digital age.

Because of a lack of competition, both films will probably repeat as Nos. 1 and 2 at the box office this weekend. You can read his review of both films in WORLD Magazine or at wng.org. We’ll include links in today’s transcript.

BROWN: But today, let’s revisit the not-creepy classic Roman Holiday. Here is Collin Garbarino.

COLLIN GARBARINO: It’s hard for me to believe it, but Roman Holiday starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. My dad is a big Audrey Hepburn fan, so I watched the movie a number of times when I was a child.

ANNOUNCER: And so to Rome, the Eternal City, where the princess’s visit was marked by a spectacular military parade highlighted by the band of the crack Bersagliere Regiment. The smiling young princess showed no sign of the strain of the week’s continuous public appearances. And at her country’s embassy that evening, a formal reception and ball in her honor was given by her country’s ambassador to Italy.

Gregory Peck was already a big star by 1953, but Audrey Hepburn was virtually unknown. That would change after her performance as Princess Ann in Roman Holiday. Hepburn won an Academy Award for her performance and quickly became one of Hollywood’s darlings.

COUNTESS: Now, my dear, if you don’t mind, tomorrow’s “shedule”—or “skedule,” whichever you prefer. Both are correct. 8:30—Breakfast here with the embassy staff. 9:00 we leave for The Polinari Automotive Works where you’ll be presented with a small car.

ANN: Thank you.

COUNTESS: Which you will not accept.

ANN: No, thank you.

COUNTESS: 10:35—inspection of food and agriculture organizations presents you with an olive tree.

ANN: No, thank you.

COUNTESS: Which you will accept.

ANN: Thank you.

The movie tells the story of a young European princess named Ann who’s spent her entire life both sheltered and put on display. She longs for the freedom of a normal life, and on a visit to Rome, she runs away from her responsibilities.

And she’s found sleeping on the side of the street by Gregory Peck’s Joe Bradley.

JOE: You’re well read, well dressed, snoozing away in a public street. Would you care to make a statement?

ANN: What the world needs is a return to sweetness and decency in the souls of its young men. [groan]

Joe is a somewhat unethical journalist, and when he realizes he’s found a princess, he plans to sell the story to his new editor.

JOE: How much would it be worth?

HENNESSY: Just plain talk on world conditions? Probably worth 250. Her views on clothes of course would be worth a lot more. Maybe a thousand.

JOE: Dollars?

HENNESSY: Dollars.

JOE: I’m talking about her views on everything. The private and secret longings of a princess, her innermost thoughts as revealed to your own correspondent in a private personal exclusive interview.

Ann and Joe spend the day together. Ann, trying to conceal that she’s a runaway princess. Joe, trying to conceal that he already knows she’s a runaway princess. It’s a clever funny movie.

JOE: Must be quite a life you have in that school. Champagne for lunch.

ANN: Only on special occasions.

JOE: For instance.

ANN: The last time was my father’s anniversary.

JOE: Wedding?

ANN: No, it was the 40th anniversary of, um, the day he got his job.

JOE: 40 years on the job? What do you know about that? What does he do?

ANN: Well, mostly you might call it public relations.

JOE: Well, that’s hard work.

ANN: Yes, I wouldn’t care for it.

JOE: Does he?

ANN: I’ve heard him complain about it.

JOE: Why doesn’t he quit?

ANN: Oh, people in that line of work almost never do quit. Unless it’s actually unhealthy for them to continue.

JOE: Well, here’s to his health then.

ANN: You know, that’s what everybody says.

The movie has so many iconic scenes. Cutting Ann’s hair. Eating gelato on the streets of Rome. Sightseeing on the back of a Vespa. Dancing on a boat in the river. The moment that always stuck with me the most is Peck losing his hand in the mouth of truth.

[screaming]

JOE: Hello!

ANN: You beast! It was perfectly all right!

JOE: I’m sorry! It was just a joke!

Like I said, I saw the movie many times as a kid, but I don’t think I really understood it until I was older. The scheming Joe is transformed by Ann’s innocence, and the film suggests our personal wants and desires must give way to familial and social responsibility. That’s not a typical Hollywood message these days.

MUSIC: [Theme]

If you’re thinking you’d like to revisit Roman Holiday—or maybe you want to see it for the first time—special anniversary screenings will happen this weekend at select theaters around the country. But if it’s not playing in a theater near you, you can find it on Paramount+ with a subscription or stream it for free with commercials on PlutoTV.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, January 20th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. You may have heard dictionary definitions of the 2022 words of the year, but what do they really mean? Commentator George Grant now with this month’s Word Play.

GEORGE GRANT, COMMENTATOR: According to John Sutherland, professor of English at University College London, “The English language is evolving at a faster rate now than at any other time in history.” He says this is because of the ubiquity of social media and instant messaging. Seemingly out of nowhere our public discourse is peppered with words like fleek and illin, yolo and steelo, fosheezy and neezy. As linguist Gilbert Highet reminds us, “Language is a living thing.”

Every year editors of online dictionaries attempt to sort through all these sudden changes. Then, they pick the most significant and defining words of the year. Using factors like page hits and searches on their websites, online polling, and editorial discretion, they choose words intended to reflect developments in popular English usage as it is shaped by current events and social trends. They try to highlight an expression that particularly reflects the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the preceding year. In the past, words like blog, meme, woke, Brexit, and vax have been named “Word of the Year” by one or another of the dictionaries.

This year the Oxford English Dictionary editors passed over partygate, sportswashing, lawfare, tridemic, vibeshift, metaverse, and splooting to settle on goblin-mode. It is defined as “a type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.” According to lexicographer Ben Zimmer, “Goblin-mode really does speak to the times and the zeitgeist, and it is certainly a 2022 expression. It gives people the license to ditch old social norms and embrace new ones.”

Merriam-Webster’s editors selected gaslighting. It is defined as “the practice of grossly misleading someone for one’s own advantage.” It is a form of psychological manipulation that “causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and it typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.” The idiom can be traced to “Gaslight,” a 1944 film starring Angela Lansbury, Ingrid Bergman, and Charles Boyer. It portrayed an abusive marital relationship in which the husband convinces his wife that his persistent dimming of their home’s gaslights is just a figment of her overwrought imagination.

The editors at Collins English Dictionary chose permacrisis, a term that describes “an extended period of instability and insecurity.” It depicts the smothering atmosphere of unending political instability, heightening global tensions over Ukraine, Taiwan, Korea, and Yemen, climate change worries, persistent pandemics, supply chain woes, unchecked inflation, and all the accompanying cost-of-living pressures.

Taken together, these words form a kind of lexicon of gloom, painting a rather pessimistic picture of contemporary culture over the past year—rather akin to the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad annus horribilis that the late Queen Elizabeth II once described. So, it really is a great time for us to herald the Gospel’s good news, glad tidings, and great joy.

I’m George Grant.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, it’s time to say thanks to the team members who helped put the program together this week: Andrew Walker, George Grant, Collin Garbarino, Cal Thomas, Josh Schumacher, Onize Ohikere, Kelsey Reed, Joel Belz, Emily Whitten, Kim Henderson, Steve West, and David Bahnsen.

Thanks also to our breaking news team: Kent Covington, Lynde Langdon, Steve Kloosterman, 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: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. (Psalm 9:1-3 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.

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