The World and Everything in It - January 28, 2022

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is stepping down and we will talk about what it all may mean.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk it over with John Stonestreet on Culture Friday.

Also a film adaptation of the blockbuster Christian romance novel, Redeeming Love.

And Listener Feedback.

BROWN: It’s Friday, January 28th. 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 has today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Justice Breyer confirms retirement » Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer confirmed on Thursday that he is in fact retiring, one day after the news broke of his planned departure.

Addressing the public, Breyer said America remains an experiment in democracy.

BREYER: You know who will see whether that experiment works? It’s you, my friend. It’s you, Mr. high school student. It’s you, Mr. college student. It’s you, Mr. law school student. It’s us, but it’s you. It’s that next generation.

President Biden did not announce a nominee to replace Breyer. He said he has not yet picked a prospective justice, but he again told reporters…

BIDEN: That person will be the first black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue in my book.

It’s also safe to assume Biden’s pick will not change the ideological makeup of the court.

Breyer is one of three liberal justices currently serving on the high court. He will retire at the end of the current term after 28 years on the job.

Russia: “little ground for optimism” in resolving Ukraine crisis » Russia said Thursday that there was—quote—“little ground for optimism” in resolving the crisis over Ukraine.

That after the Biden administration rejected a list of demands by Moscow, including a pledge that Ukraine will never be allowed to join the NATO alliance.

Some experts believe those demands were merely a pretext for an invasion.

Roughly 100,000 Russian troops have been parked near Ukraine’s border for weeks. And Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Kremlin is not backing down.

KIRBY: We continue to see, including in the last 24 hours, more accumulation of credible combat forces arrayed by the Russians in, again, the western part of their country and in Belarus.

NATO allies continue to warn of severe economic consequences if Russia makes the wrong choice.

U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said US officials continue to talk with German allies and Russia’s lucrative gas pipeline project in Europe is at risk.

NULAND: I want to be clear with you today. If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.

But an economic conflict with Moscow also threatens Europe’s energy supply. The EU currently gets about half of it’s natural gas from Russia.

U.S. economy grew 5.7% in 2021 in rebound from 2020 recession » The U.S. economy last year enjoyed its biggest rebound since the Reagan administration as the pandemic’s grip weakened. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Gross domestic product—or GDP—is the nation’s total output of goods and services. And the Commerce Department says output grew 5.7 percent in 2021.

That was the strongest calendar-year growth since GDP surged more than 7 percent coming out of a deep recession in 1984.

The economy ended the year by growing at a brisk 6.9 percent annual pace from October through December.

Beth Ann Bovino is chief economist at Standard & Poor's Global Ratings. She said “It just goes to show that the U.S. economy has learned to adapt to the new [COVID] variants and continues to produce.”

But squeezed by inflation, the economy is expected to slow this year.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Buttigieg outlines strategy to reduce rising road fatalities » Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is pledging to tackle rising traffic fatalities.

Federal data to be released next week is expected to show another increase in deaths on U.S. roads through the third quarter of 2021. That will add to a half-year traffic death total of more than 20,000. That already was the highest half-year figure since 2006.

BUTTIGIEG: We cannot and must not accept that these fatalities are somehow an inevitable part of life in America.

Buttigieg outlined a national strategy aimed at making the roads safer.

Over the next two years, he said, his department will provide guidance as well as $5 billion in grants to states to encourage lower speed limits. He’s also pushing for redesigned roads. That will include things like dedicated bike and bus lanes, better lighting and crosswalks.

But some critics say the Biden administration should start by putting the breaks on its proposed fuel economy standards.

The administration wants a new standard of about 50 miles per gallon by 2026. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration predicts the change will lead to more deaths and injuries.

It says new cars are generally safer. But the tighter standards would raise the cost of new cars, forcing many people to keep older cars on the road longer.

The NHTSA estimates the change would lead to nearly 2,000 additional deaths and 80,000 more injuries.

North Korea fires 2 suspected missiles in 6th launch in 2022 » North Korea on Thursday fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea in its sixth round of weapons launches this month. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher reports.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: South Korea said the weapons were likely short-range and were launched five minutes apart from a town on North Korea’s eastern coast. They reportedly flew roughly 120 miles before plunging into the sea.

Experts say the North is likely ramping up testing activity to put pressure on the Biden administration to ease economic sanctions in exchange for Pyongyang resuming nuclear talks.

Leader Kim Jong Un walked away from the bargaining table in 2019 after what had appeared to be a series of positive talks with then-President Trump and his administration.

At the start of those talks, Kim stopped testing nuclear explosives and long-range missiles targeting the American homeland. But last week, Pyongyang issued a veiled threat to resume those tests.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: anticipating Justice Breyer’s replacement.

Plus, your listener feedback.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, January 28th, 2022. 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.

MONTAGE: "When exactly I should retire ..." // Justice Stephen Breyer's plan to retire // after nearly three decades // the end of an era // for 27 years Justice Stephen Breyer // Stephen Breyer's expected to retire // the Supreme Court Justice the most senior member of the liberal wing // the court's most senior liberal Justice Stephen Breyer made the decision that was widely expected // Justice Stephen Breyer's surprise decision to leave the Supreme Court // Democrats do not want to waste any time // with the midterms coming and a razor thin majority in the Senate // "We want to get this done as soon as possible" // and his departure will give President Biden his first chance to nominate a justice to the high court. // "I'm looking forward to making sure there's a black woman on the Supreme Court to make sure every representation ..."

Well, it’s Culture Friday. Time now to welcome John Stonestreet. He’s the president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Morning, John.

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning!

EICHER: Well all the sudden we’re back in the thick of judicial nominations for the Supreme Court with Justice Breyer’s announcement—this widely expected surprise decision, as we heard.

STONESTREET: Well, you know, there had been predictions and, of course, they were politically motivated that if he's going to do it, he's either going to do it this term or the next term and do it this term, because we're secure in terms of who's going to make the replacement nomination and also, of course, having the Senate majority to get it pushed through. So it really doesn't change anything in terms of the balance. And it actually goes back and underscores, I think two things. First is how important the Trump nominations to the Supreme Court and to the courts at large will prove to be historically. This falls into the elections have consequences category. And so here we are, with a brand new Supreme Court, which makes this retirement announcement really interesting, but also in the long run - and I don't want to say non consequential because obviously it is - but it's just a different thing than what people would have predicted just three or four years ago. The other thing, though, that I'll say is that the courts are clearly the center of the culture wars. And that tells you a couple things. Number one, obviously they really matter. But number two is courts don't change cultural opinion. Sometimes they reflect it, oftentimes they reflect it. But if you win by the court, you die by the court. And so a long term cultural strategy, when it comes to social issues that Christians do and should care about requires more than just putting all of our eggs in the Supreme Court basket, the courts will let us down. And it's not a long term win. It also says a lot about kind of the health of our system of checks and balances of a republic, when that much weight is given to one of the branches of the government. And we know that President Biden has appointed all the justices he could, and this is the first Supreme Court nomination that he's going to be able to get. But in the lower courts, he's been very active. So any attempt by people who care about conservative values to kind of say, well, we won, you know, past tense, because of what the last administration did is missing that now this strategy, which was highly effective for the Republicans are is also being employed by the Democrats. And so it is interesting here to see where this is, where this is headed. I think it'll be another contentious nomination, but it'll be a lot more show than substance, because of the way the balance is. But it does point to how important the courts are. And that says something more deep about who we are as a nation, and how we're making decisions to move forward on controversial issues.

EICHER: Oh, listen, if you think about contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings, I think you have to go back to 1987.

For modern times, that’s when everything changed—and I remember this pretty vividly—the year I got married, was a low-level congressional staffer, President Reagan nominated Robert Bork and the man’s last name became a verb—to “bork,” that is to savage a nominee, smear the nominee with modern political oppo research and all the rest.

But here's the ironic thing: the famous Bork hearings, the first “borking” happened in the Senate Judiciary Committee—the chairman none other than, remember? Senator Joseph Robinette Biden. And now he’s president three and a half decades later.

STONESTREET: Well, you know, this is the thing is if anyone thinks that the Republicans or Mitch McConnell invented the hardball strategy at least goes back that far. And each side squeals when the other one does it. I don't think it's healthy. I don't think it actually suggests that we're having, you know, anything resembling a coherent debate. But it's a circus. And you're right to point out the circus goes back decades now. And each side squeals when the other one does it.

BROWN: So hey, John, as, as you've said, the ideological balance of the court is not changing. But this might be an opportunity for President Biden to make good on his pledge to nominate a black woman. And, you know, his ratings, yeah, he's not, you know, doing all that well, in terms of his approval rating. Do you think this will help him in some way?

STONESTREET: I don't think it'll help him. I mean, the Supreme Court nominations, I don't think, help Democratic politicians as much as it helps Republican politicians. And that has to do with who is in the ideological minority. And who is in the ideological majority. I just don't think it will. But it will be interesting to see if he follows through with this promise. I'm even tempted to speculate—and this has nothing to do with the worldview—but whether this will be something he sees as a way to solve his running mate problem that he has, but I'll just leave that at that.

EICHER: The vice president would certainly make for a lively—

STONESTREET: —can I say that out loud, is that a problem?

EICHER: Well, we’ve certainly heard the same theory.

We’ll just direct emails to “j-stonestreet” … no, seriously …

Seriously, though, you made the point that, you know, the one side does it, the other side squeals about it, and vice versa, depending upon who's in control. But isn't there a real opportunity when you have a Supreme Court nomination to have a discussion about the meaning and role of the Constitution, the rule of law, those good worldview questions? With Trump, you had Neil Gorsuch. You had Brett Kavanaugh, you had Amy Coney Barrett and that hearing, in particular, was so interesting. It wasn't as contentious as it had been.

It could happen that way. It could play out that way. But you'll have, I imagine, a real contrast in worldviews on display, we can hope not a “borking.” Isn't that a positive thing?

STONESTREET: Yeah, I think that's a good point, Nick, I think we did see that actually, even from a handful of Senators. I look back to the last couple of Supreme Court nominee hearings. And you did have some really interesting conversation, if you could hear it, if you could get past the noise, about what is the court? What is the court supposed to do about what is the nature of precedent and stare decisis. And these are really important thing, because again, if you like the, the way, the ruling is then a the courts job is to never overturn precedent, if you don't like the decision, then they're courageous, you know, in the same way that you know, those who overturned some of the racist policies and racist laws, where it's not hard to see, I think among all the different activities of government officials, particularly senators, it's this is where you see the most kind of blatant political posturing is in these sorts of nominations and these sorts of hearings. So you got to get past the noise in order to get there. But there is such an important constitutional debate that needs to be had, there clearly is a way that these things can educate the public. You know, I think of Ben Sasse, and some others who have used these kinds of platforms in which to try to educate the public. I'm all for that, let's have a real conversation, as opposed to the kind of the faux outrage, walk out of the room, you know, refuse to whatever, but you do got to get past an awful lot of noise to be able to hear that. And maybe that's one of the jobs that we can have is to find the conversations that matter and amplify them for the rest of the country.

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

STONESTREET: Thanks so much.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Thousands of Londoners were running late on Monday after numerous underground trains were delayed for more than an hour.

Now, you might guess that the cause of the delay was a technical problem or maybe pandemic staffing shortages, but no.

The culprit was a really stubborn swan.

The bird parked itself on one of the tracks at London’s South Acton station and refused to move.

Fourteen trains were canceled or rerouted while workers tried to convince the bird to leave the tracks.

They finally managed to wrangle the bird and turned it over to rescuers with London Wildlife Protection.

They said the swan was underweight and may have been disoriented. Rescuers kept it overnight and the bird was back on track!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, January 28th. 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. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Redeeming Love.

Fans of Christian romance novels will instantly recognize that title. Francine Rivers published the book in 1991. Since then, it’s sold more than 3 million copies. And fans have long hoped to see it on the big screen.

BROWN: As of last weekend, they can. But reviewer Collin Garbarino says many probably shouldn’t. And just a word of caution for parents—want to give you a heads-up—this review discusses subject matter that probably isn’t suitable for younger listeners.

So let me give you a quick moment to hit the pause button if you choose to.

COLLIN GARBARINO, REVIEWER: Redeeming Love is a retelling of the Biblical story of Hosea. He’s the prophet told to marry a prostitute to show how God has entered a covenant with faithless Israel.

The story is set during the California Gold Rush. Angel, played by Abigail Cowen, is the prettiest prostitute in a small mining town called Pair-A-Dice. She’s so popular the brothel holds a lottery each day to see who will get the chance to hire her. Tom Lewis, in his first feature film, plays Michael Hosea, an upstanding local farmer with impeccable Christian principles. And just like Hosea in the Bible, Michael decides God wants him to marry the prostitute.

Michael: Who is she?

Man: That’s Angel. Finest girl west of the Rockies.

Michael: I have to meet her.

Michael pays double to buy Angel’s time, but he just wants to talk. She initially rebuffs his proposal, but in the end, she agrees to marry him and move to his farm 20 miles away. Angel struggles to believe she’s worthy of love and abandons Michael more than once before the story’s inevitable happy ending.

Angel: You’re going to marry me—take me away from here? Give me the life I deserve?

Devoted fans of Francine Rivers’ book will probably enjoy seeing it on screen. But I left the theater feeling conflicted.

On the one hand, the film feels like a step forward for faith-based entertainment. It’s distributed by Universal Pictures and boasts higher than usual production values. On the other hand, it’s not without problems. And most importantly, it includes some major stumbling blocks for Christian audiences.

The sets, costuming, and cinematography are all quite good. Director D. J. Caruso, who’s best known work is a Vin Diesel action movie, does a good job with the material. But the movie probably should have been about 20 minutes shorter. The dialogue was only occasionally heavy handed, and I found myself pleasantly surprised at the acting, despite the fact that British actor Tom Lewis delivered his lines in an American accent that sounded like an impersonation of Matthew McConaughey.

Michael: You did not choose the life you have, but you can choose the life you want.

The movie seeks to separate itself from other faith-based films with an authentic grittiness, and all forms of human depravity are on display, some of them quite graphic. We should expect depictions of adultery and fornication in a movie about prostitution. But we also see lying, theft, greed, murder, suicide, incest, abortion, pedophilia, abuse, enslavement, arson, and vigilantism. The language is relatively mild, but some viewers will struggle with the violence and disturbing subject matter. I certainly don’t recommend taking children or teenagers.

               Angel: What’s your pleasure, mister?

              Michael: The truth is, I didn’t come here for that.

Redeeming Love also tests the limits of its PG-13 rating with prolonged scenes of partial nudity and sensuality. When Angel and Michael first meet, she walks around the room naked trying to tempt him.

            Paul: She just does not love you. She’s using you.

            Michael: You have no idea who she is.

We see her from behind. We see her partially reflected in a mirror. We see long shots of Angel with her hair artfully arranged to conceal the parts of her body that would get the film an R rating. Caruso attempts verisimilitude, but the scene distracted me because no one’s hair stays in place like that unless it’s been glued down. The film also contains two surprisingly long sex scenes. Clever camera work and Michael’s hands obscure full nudity.

The film’s script also contains some structural problems. As a character, Michael hurts the story because he’s just too good to be true. In a movie that’s meant to be realistic, Michael … isn’t. His unwavering righteousness sucks the narrative tension from the movie because we don’t ever wonder how he will react. Michael is a stand-in for the Bible’s Hosea who is ultimately a picture of Jesus. So perhaps making Michael less than perfect wasn’t an option. But this approach turns the story into an allegory, and allegories aren’t easy to make.

As an allegory, Redeeming Love fails to depict the redemption found in the Book of Hosea and the New Testament. Hosea’s wife is a prostitute who symbolizes the unfaithful people of Israel, and in the New Testament, unfaithful Israel symbolizes sinners redeemed by Christ. But in the movie, Angel isn’t really a sinner; she’s a victim. It’s true that Christ makes whole that which is broken, but that’s different imagery that doesn’t work with the storyline.

It also makes it all the more infuriating when Michael refuses to pursue his wife at the movie’s end, claiming she must exercise her free will. The blurred lines between sin and damage and redemption and saving oneself leave the movie with a confused message. And that confused message fails to redeem its relentless and less-than-entertaining depictions of immorality.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, January 28th. 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. Time now for Listener Feedback.

EICHER: It’s been a while, Myrna!

BROWN: It has, what with the holidays and all.

EICHER: That’s right. And that means, we have two months worth of feedback to share. And… two months of corrections.

BROWN: Ouch!

EICHER: Right. Well, we’ll start back in December, when we referred to flags flying at half mast. But as an astute listener wrote in to point out, that’s only correct if the flag is on a ship. On land, they fly at half staff.

BROWN: We also said the United States declared war on Japan 70 years ago. Of course, we know it was really 80 years ago. And in our year-end obituaries we referred to actor Christopher Plummer singing in The Sound of Music. But in fact they were actually recorded by Bill Lee.

EICHER: One final correction: Last week we referred to the former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. He was once governor of that state, but not at the time we were talking about. The former governor we meant to name was Ralph Northam.

BROWN: Ok, now for two clarifications.

EICHER: Yes, and we got quite a few emails about this first one. In a recent Washington Wednesday segment about the legal cases stemming from the Jan. 6th riots, we said that five people died during the incident. That’s not exactly right. One protester was shot to death by police. Three others had medical emergencies. And one Capitol Police officer died after suffering a series of strokes in the hours following his confrontation with protesters. So the number five is right. What’s not right is to say “during the incident.”

BROWN: Our second clarification involves a discussion about Christians and divorce that we had with John Stonestreet on Culture Friday. One of our listeners shared she was disappointed with the broad brushstroke of including Lysa TerKerst in the discussion. In retrospect, I agree not enough attention was given to TerKerst’s ministry in promoting marriage or her attempts to save her own.

EICHER: On now to feedback! And we’ll start with the interview that generated the most comments this month.

GEBEL: I’m Paul Gebel from Edmond, Oklahoma. I want to commend Mary Reichard and the WORLD team for Mary’s January 19th interview with Krystal Knight, Democratic political strategist. Rather than having a person who would be generally favorable to the WORLD view that most of WORLD’s listeners have, you were willing to bring someone on from the other end of the political spectrum. I think it was a good move, and forced me as a listener to really focus in on what Krystal was saying about President Biden’s first year in office and let her words speak for themselves. Thank you!

Thanks, Paul. We heard from many listeners who agreed with you.

To be fair, we also heard from a few who criticized our decision. Listeners like Micah Frank, who emailed to say we should not have allowed a Biden supporter to spin what he called “lies and half truths” without following up with any clarification or corrections. The only thing I’ll add here is that our intention was simply to let you hear that different perspective and we did agree to let the guest speak her mind.

BROWN: Jumping back to December now, and the story, or series of stories, that listeners most enjoyed.

YOUNG: This is Ashley Young from Coppel, Texas. And I wanted to say thank you to Kim Henderson for your amazing reporting on Truth Be Told. I am always a fan of any kind of crime podcast or documentaries, but I find myself so often leaving discouraged or disenchanted with the world we live in. Truth Be Told had the exact opposite effect. I felt like I left inspired and empowered by what Christ is doing, even in the darkest places. It gave me things to pray for in the lives of those victims who have not yet found Christ, even in the pain. And it also gave me hope for those that had. So thank you for how much work you put into that podcast and how long you worked on it, and just the amazing job you did presenting a very difficult case and yet doing it in a way that points to Christ all the way through.

We also heard from many listeners in December saying how much you enjoyed our special holiday programming, starting with this edition of History Book.

IRELAND: Hello, I’m Chris Ireland from Washington. And I grew up in North Dakota with my parents and would go to Christmas at my grandma’s house, who was Norwegian and remember as a little girl her making lutefisk. And I just so appreciated your special this week on the history of lutefisk and where it came from and the background of it. It just brings back a lot of memories of having lutefisk at the Christmas table with my family. Especially with my dad who loves lutefisk and slathered it with butter and my cousins and I just being grossed out. [chuckles]

Speaking of being grossed out, how about this week’s commentary on a parasite that turns crickets into zombies?!

FRITCH: Hello, I’m Lorraine Fritch from Southern California. Whitney Williams, I always enjoy your adventures, especially the latest one about the horsehair worm in the creek. Cautionary tale it is, but I’m still chucking over the creepy details of poor Jiminie’s demise.

EICHER: As I was listening, I was just thinking, oh, wow, how’s Myrna holding up?!

BROWN: Alright, well, we have time for one more call today.

JEFFRIES: Hi WORLD family! This is Marie Jeffries from Phoenix, Arizona. As a mega fan of WORLD News Group, I’d like to offer a praise and a request. I love the fact that Mary Reichard ends each episode with a daily passage from the Bible. These verses are often familiar but sometimes not. And I frequently find myself rewinding the episode to hear key words of the verse again to search it for myself. So my request is, would it be possible to include at least the book, if not the whole reference, so that I could easily forward these verses to friends and family who could benefit from the encouragement? Keep up the great work, WORLD!

EICHER: Thanks, Marie. You’re not the only one who’s asked about those verses at the end of the program. So here’s what we’ll do, our promise. We will at least place a link on our transcript page to the verse cited. Sometimes it just breaks the flow, there are timing issues, but that’s unlimited online, and we can make it a practice to place the Bible reference and link it to an online Bible for you so it’s easy to share.

Before we go today, we have a request. We need more prerolls! The well is dry. So dry that our managing editor is about to declare a preroll emergency!

BROWN: That sounds serious.

EICHER: It is! So, if you haven’t recorded a preroll yet, please help us stave off the emergency by sending one in. You can find all the details at wng.org/preroll. Our nearly panic-stricken managing editor thanks you!

NICK EICHER, HOST: Time now to thank the team that put together this week’s programs:

Mary Reichard, Kent Covington, David Bahnsen, Katie Gaultney, Lauren Dunn, Whitney Williams, Anna Johansen Brown, Josh Schumacher, Onize Ohikere, Jenny Rough, Joel Belz, Jenny Lind Schmitt, Maria Baer, Lillian Hamman, Cal Thomas, John Stonestreet, and Collin Garbarino.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Carl Peetz and Johnny Franklin are the audio engineers who stay up late to get the program to you early! Leigh Jones is managing editor, and Paul Butler is our executive producer.

The Bible says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)

I hope you’ll worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ this weekend.

Lord willing, we’ll meet you back here on Monday.

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.