The World and Everything in It: January 5, 2024

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Hey there! Mary and Myrna here.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Hi!

REICHARD: How would you like to introduce the next program?

BROWN: Now that the holidays are over, we need to stock up on prerolls.

REICHARD: And we need your help!

BROWN: Would you make a preroll for us over the next few days?

REICHARD: We love to hear the different voices …

BROWN: Different cities, different countries …

REICHARD: Different vocations …

BROWN: Different age groups.

REICHARD: We never know what we’re going to hear!

BROWN: Here’s how to do it …

MONTAGE: The World and Everything in It / is made possible / by listeners like us. / Hi, my name is Elizabeth Bacon / Thomas Smoke from Sao Paulo, Brazil. My name is Kim Friday, my husband and I live in Pelham, Alabama / Clovis, New Mexico / Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst, New Jersey. / We are missionaries in Slovakia / Pella, Iowa / Phoenix, Arizona. I'm a tennis teaching pro / compliance manager for a local manufacturing company / pharmacist. I'm a rising high-school senior / and an air ambulance pilot. / We hope / you enjoy / today's / program.

REICHARD: Just like that! We want to hear you! Make your preroll and send it to us at editor@wng.org. You may be next!

BROWN: If you need a little help on how to do it, just visit our website and click on “record a preroll.”

REICHARD: We’ll also have a link in the program transcript today.

BROWN: Send your pre-roll to editor@wng.org, but first, we hope you enjoy today’s program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! Conservative women collaborate with a beer company to create a calendar marketed to conservative dads. Wise or unwise?

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Also, on Culture Friday, China’s falling birthrate. And a troubling Republican veto in Ohio. We’ll talk about that and more with John Stonestreet.

And, last year was a turning point for Christian movies.

KAY SMITH: I think these kids need help.

CHUCK SMITH: What they need is a bath.

And this month’s Ask the Editor.

BROWN: It’s Friday, January 5th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Kristen Flavin with today’s news.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, NEWS ANCHOR: Blinken to Middle East » Secretary of State Tony Blinken is back in the Middle East this morning for another round of high-stakes diplomacy. It’s his fourth trip to the region since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October.

State Dept. spokesman Matthew Miller:

MILLER: We don’t expect every conversation on this trip to be easy. There are obviously tough issues facing the region and difficult choices ahead. But the secretary believes it is the responsibility of the United States of America to lead diplomatic efforts to tackle those challenges head on.

He is prepared to do that in the days to come.

He will meet with leaders in Israel and the West Bank and visit several other countries in the Middle East and beyond.

He’s expected to talk with Israel once more about minimizing harm to civilians in Gaza. And he’ll meet with a variety of leaders about humanitarian aid to Gaza and keeping the war from spreading regionally.

U.S. kills Iraq militia leader » The U.S. military says an Iraqi militia leader who carried out attacks against American troops is dead.

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder:

RYDER: And finally I can confirm that on January 4 at approximately 12 PM Iraq time, U.S. forces took necessary and proportionate action against Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al-Jawari (a.k.a Abu-Taqwa), who was a Harakat-al-Nujaba leader.

Ryder wouldn’t provide more specific details on the operation, but Iraqi police and witnesses said a drone fired rockets toward a facility used by the militia group. Those rockets hit a vehicle inside, killing four people.

Ryder added:

RYDER: We maintain the inherent right of self-defense and will continue to take necessary actions to protect our personnel.

He said no civilians were harmed, and the strike did not damage any infrastructure.

Iran Red Sea » Meantime, U.S. officials are warning Iran about its involvement in attacks against commercial vessels on the Red Sea. Iran-backed Houthi rebels have targeted key shipping lanes.

Christopher Lu is a U.S. representative to the United Nations.

LU: Iran has long enabled these attacks by the Houthis. Beyond Iran’s longstanding of financing to aid such Houthi operations, since 2015 it has transferred advanced weapons systems to the Houthis, including unmanned aerial systems, land attack cruise missiles and ballistic missiles used in attacks against maritime vessels.

His remarks followed an incident on the Red Sea. An armed unmanned vessel — effectively a floating drone — came within a “couple of miles” of U.S. Navy and commercial vessels before detonating on Thursday.

The vessel launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen.

And it happened just hours after the White House and partner nations issued what they called a “final warning” to the militia group: stop attacking commercial ships or face military action.

Mayorkas Impeachment » Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says he will cooperate with a House impeachment inquiry. The first hearing is set for next week.

The House Homeland Security Committee has been investigating the secretary’s role in the crisis at the southern border. Congresswoman Erin Houchin is a committee member:

HOUCHIN: Mayorkas has clearly failed in his responsibilities as head of DHS. Their sole mission is to protect the United States from our greatest threats. Yet they’re letting in millions of people into the United States without any vetting.

U.S. border officials in December reported a record 300,000 encounters with illegal immigrants.

Some Democratic lawmakers have called the impeachment inquiry baseless and a distraction from other issues.

School Shooting » Iowa police are still investigating a fatal shooting that took place yesterday morning at Perry High School near Des Moines.

Iowa's assistant director of Criminal Investigation Mitch Mortvedt confirmed that one student was killed.

Five other people were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, four of whom were students.

MITCH MORTVEDT: The shooter has been identified as 17-year-old Dylan Butler, a student at Per.ry High School. Butler was armed with a pump action shotgun and a small caliber handgun.

Mortvedt said the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Law enforcement also found an improvised explosive device in the building…which was safely disarmed.

Microchip Investment » The Commerce Department says it is giving more than $160 million to the company Microchip Technology. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: The Commerce Department said the government grants would give the company the ability to increase its production of mature-node microchips essential for commercial and defense industries.

Microchip Technology is receiving the money under the bipartisan-supported CHIPS Act which aims to decrease the United States’ dependence on microchips manufactured abroad.

The act also aims to bolster the existing semiconductor manufacturing industry in the United States.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Vatican defense » The Vatican is doubling down on its decision to let priests bless—but not marry—same-sex couples.

The Holy See released a five-page document defending the new policy yesterday, stating that blessing same-sex couples is neither heretical nor blasphemous.

POPE FRANCIS: [Speaking Italian] Let us remain vigilant against rigid ideological positions that often, under the guise of good intentions, separate us from reality and prevent us from moving forward.

That’s Pope Francis addressing the Vatican bureaucracy last month, days after the policy was implemented.

He’s warning about what he called rigid ideology, saying it will prevent the church from—in his words—moving forward.

The Pope has faced criticism from church leaders around the world with many feeling the church is endorsing sinful behavior.

The Vatican’s latest document once again stressed the difference between a blessing and a wedding saying that Biblical marriage is between a man and a woman only.

I'm Kristen Flavin.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, venturing into the wilderness of ideas in this month’s Ask the Editor.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday the 5th of January, 2024.

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

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

It’s time for Culture Friday, and joining us now is John Stonestreet. He’s president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

Morning, John!

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning.

REICHARD: Lots to talk about today, and I’ll begin with what’s billed as a “conservative calendar” by “Ultra Light Beer” for “conservative dads,” all those things in quotations.

The calendar has pictures of attractive conservative women. Two photos are of Riley Gaines in a bikini and Dana Loesch in her normal streetwear, who happens to be holding some guns. Now, nobody is shown nude. Some portion of sales goes to the Riley Gaines Center to keep womens’ sports for actual women.

Now, not everyone appreciates this. One is Allie Beth Stuckey, who is a WORLD Opinions writer. She acknowledged on social media that this isn’t the biggest problem on the planet, for sure. But still, some of the women in the calendar are married and posing provocatively, and she thinks this is essentially soft porn marketed to men.

So John, what’s your take on all this?

STONESTREET: My take is where's Nick for this question? Why am I the only guy on this time to answer this? No, it's a completely legitimate question, and it's something that matters to me, to us at the Colson center, personally. Riley Gaines is scheduled to speak at our national conference this May, which I'm happy to say is already sold out, and we're excited about that. And she has been a courageous defender of women in women's sports. I mean, just as recently as what last month, she brought attention to this story at the University of Washington, where apparently the university offered a volleyball scholarship for the women's team to a male, and didn't even know that he was a male. And this was all due to the sort of impact that she's having in the world.

But you know, what are categories of sexual appropriateness, are categories of modesty, have been completely corrupted in the wake of the sexual revolution. This is not only inappropriate, it's wrong. There's no reason for conservative dads to get this calendar to ogle these women. And it's certainly a dehumanizing thing for the women. And the way that this is marketed and the way that this is posed, this is not a Christian thing. It’s not even a conservative thing. And this is one of the great crises that’s facing the conservative movement right now, which is what's worth conserving? What are we trying to conserve? Conservativism is not just kind of this push against progressivism. And unfortunately, that's what it is, in too many circles. It's not thought out in terms of what it is that we're actually trying to protect, what is it that we hold dear, what is it that we value? And that's why, by the way, Christianity is a not only a unique player in the conservative world, but it's a necessary player if conservatism is actually going to have some substance that's worth preserving.

But then I also, you know, want to say too, because somebody like Riley, who's, you know, a young woman, who showed incredible courage over the last several years in a particular area, that that does not automatically qualify her for kind of a well-thought out theologian. And, you know, this is one of the things that happens in Christian celebrity culture is we want to hold somebody up as a beacon for all things. And then on the flip side, if they fall short in some area, we want to turn around and completely cancel. And that's the awkward thing of this particular situation is, you know, she's she's a young woman, and you know, she didn't plan this calendar to the best of my knowledge. Unfortunately, she's taking money from it. And I hope she rethinks it honestly, because it's a bad move.

BROWN: Well, John, on another topic, I want to get your take on what Communist China is calling a crisis, and specifically how the Communist Party is dealing with it.

China is apparently headed toward a demographic collapse. Fewer than 10 million babies were born in 2022, compared to 16 million a decade earlier. Now, it's not hard to guess who's taking the blame, but women in China say don't point the finger at them. First leaders implemented the One Child policy; now they're pushing the birth friendly culture. They were punished at one time for having too many children; now, they're being hounded to have more.

Can you blame these women, John?

STONESTREET: Oh, no, this is gonna get worse before it gets better. I mean, these are policies coming out of a political ideology that thinks that the world can be manipulated, that humans can actually control the progress of evolution, you know, morally, economically, socially, on literally every level, and it shouldn't be a surprise that we have gone from, you know, a one child policy to a two child policy to maybe a three child policy in certain circumstances to now, you know you have Communist officials calling women personally and encouraging to have children.

What we will see tragically in our lifetime and I hate to, I don't I'm not celebrating this, certainly, I'm predicting it and I wish it weren't true, but we will have forced birth. And you know what the irony of this is, of course, we'll continue to have in America, people showing up in The Handmaid's outfits anytime any a sort of pro-life bill is passed anywhere, as if that's a legitimate representation of the story. And where we have in real life around the world examples of The Handmaid's Tale, and that is, of course, the artificial reproductive technology IVF surrogacy industry, particularly propagated by gay and lesbian couples, primarily rich gay couples. But then we'll also have there in China forced births, we will have forced births because it's math. And, you know, that's how they understand humans to be components of a larger economic reality, as opposed to seeing economics as part of the larger human reality. And all this is worldview, whether you think humans are an accident on the planet, or humans are actually made in the image of God and what the whole story, in a sense is all about, you get that backwards, and then suddenly, humans become an economic cog in the machine, a factor to be factored in towards larger economic goals. And that's what's happening here.

So, this math doesn't work. By the way, the demographic math isn't working anywhere around the Western world, all nations which are under replacement rate, including the United States, and especially European nations. So we're gonna have economic incentives and other things that drive similar policies. But that's not how China does it. They just mandate it. They just drive it forward, either loudly or quietly, and so you'll have forced births in China within a decade.

REICHARD: Another story in the news: the president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, resigned on Tuesday following criticism of her anti-semitic comments…. and more pointedly, for numerous allegations of plagiarism by Gay over the years.

The Associated Press published an article on Wednesday blaming conservatives for using plagiarism as a new “weapon.” And yet, Harvard expels students for plagiarism. John, what do you make of this?

STONESTREET: I mean, there comes a moment where you have to just say that is stupid. And that's what I thought when I read the AP headline, that's just stupid. There's not any sort of rationale around that. As Anthony Bradley pointed out the same day on Twitter, there's plenty of examples of white college presidents who were undone by plagiarism. And by the way, plagiarism is wrong for everyone. It's really wrong if you're in academics, it's really wrong if you're a pastor, right? And that's where we have, I think, the highest consequences for plagiarism, and we should. Plagiarism was enough to force the resignation. But standing in front of a congressional hearing justifying calls for the genocide of the Jewish people as not even counting as bullying on campus, that wasn't enough? That tells us a little bit about the critical theory mood that's affected college campuses. 

I think even more than that: this woman had no business being the president in the first place. This woman had no business, in fact, from her academic qualifications and her publishing record, she probably would not have been a candidate, a serious candidate to make the faculty 10-15 years ago. So this is a revelation about just how far the state of American higher education has gotten. And that's something that we're going to have to reckon with sooner or later, across the board where, you know, we know that degrees aren't worth what they used to be, that kids aren't learning what they're supposed to be, their proficiency levels have gone down, their ability to make rational arguments has gone down, the whole mood on college campuses, where the students determine what is and what isn't truth and what is and what isn't real and what is and what isn't fair, and all kinds of other things. 

I mean, if you did not think that the state of American higher education was a disaster before watching just what's happened with the Harvard President over the last since what, October then end of October, you're just not paying attention, folks. I mean, this is the this whole thing is it has been just I think an exposure of what's really behind the scenes, and I hope people pay attention. I hope this is like the Loudoun County School Board moment, you know what that was for K to 12 education. I hope this is that for higher education.

BROWN: Quickly, John before we let you go, a surprising story out of Ohio, the Republican governor, Mike DeWine, vetoed a piece of legislation that would’ve protected children and teens from transgender procedures. And you may recall that back in 2021, Asa Hutchinson, then the governor of Arkansas, vetoed a similar bill.

John, what do you make of this growing trend of Republican governors playing to the left on transgender issues?

STONESTREET: Mike DeWine had one job here, and that was to protect the athletes in his state from from observable risks and from obvious challenges of fairness, and he failed to do that. Look, I don't know that I can even connect it with Asa Hutchinson because at least with Asa Hutchinson, who I think, you know, squandered this and showed no spine and the decision he made back in 2021, there was at least the overwhelming push from the medical and the political community to accommodate the transgender fantasy. 

But you know what, the end of 2023 is not the beginning of 2023. What did we see in 2023? We saw the lid come off with the closing of the Tavistock clinic in the UK. We saw the St. Louis gender clinic, the University of St. Louis gender clinic whistleblower just come, you know, we saw a whole bunch of other people in and around the world, but especially outside of the United States, basically back off on this kind of radical ideology. So I don't even think Mike DeWine has an excuse like Asa Hutchinson had back in 2021, if he's just kind of responding to the political pressure, which is not as great now as it was at the beginning of 2023. 

So, look, I have no access to what's behind this, it made no sense. The veto is going to be overturned by all indications, and hopefully so, by the Ohio legislature. He's not running for re-election. I mean, none of this makes any sense, you know, to me, other than probably some personal connection, that's the best that I can guess about, but that's what it is. It's a guest and nothing more.

REICHARD: Well I think we covered the gambit here! John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Thanks so much, John.

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, January 5th, 2024. This is WORLD Radio. Thanks for listening! Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the state of movies in America. Here’s arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino.

MUSIC: [Can You Hear the Music - Oppenheimer]

COLLIN GARBARINO: It’s no secret that the movie industry has been experiencing a rough patch since 2020. The box office still hasn’t recovered from those pandemic lockdowns, and movie studios still haven’t figured out how to make streaming profitable. On top of those problems, 2023 saw Hollywood shutdown for about six months while the writers and actors went on strike.

That cost the industry billions and cut off the movie pipeline that theater owners depend on. But despite the gloom hanging over the industry, 2023 also saw glimmers of recovery.

Box office revenue in North America was up 20 percent from the previous year but that’s still down 20 percent from 2019. With fewer movies being released, though, the per film average in 2023 was actually higher than it's been in more than a decade.

So, people are clearly heading back to theaters. But the question is what kinds of films are they buying tickets for?

MUSIC: [Avengers theme]

Surprisingly, not superhero movies… For the last fifteen years, comic book films have dominated the box office, and 2023 attempted to continue that trend. But this year, Hollywood’s most profitable genre became box-office kryptonite.

Marvel Studios is one of Hollywood’s most consistent hit makers, but two out of its three movies last year misfired. DC Studios fared even worse. It released four big budget superhero movies. None of them landed with audiences.

Hollywood’s other staple is the big-budget sequel, but most of those failed this year too.

AUDIO: Hi Barbie! 

Instead of seeing the usual suspects, audiences flocked to see Barbie this summer, and I think part of its appeal was that it was quirky and different. Listeners might remember that I wasn’t thrilled with Barbie’s humanistic message, but I must say, it was original.

After social media latched on to the somewhat absurd idea of watching Barbie and Oppenheimer back to back, the Barbenheimer double feature attracted thousands of people who hadn’t been to the theater since COVID.

With Barbie winning 2023’s box office, it was the first time in more than 20 years that a movie that was neither a sequel nor a superhero took the top spot.

MUSIC: [Peaches — The Super Mario Bros. soundtrack]

The No. 2 movie was The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and it wasn’t a sequel or superhero movie either.

But the real surprise of 2023 was how important niche movies became for the health of the movie industry. A plethora of small movies with loyal fans kept theater owners afloat.

MUSIC: [Lavender Haze — Taylor Swift]

In the fall, Taylor Swift’s concert film broke records. Last month, Beyonce’s movie gave box office numbers a little boost too. And then Japanese movies also posted some surprising numbers. Both Godzilla Minus One and the animated The Boy and the Heron gave the holiday box office a little juice despite the dearth of blockbusters.

But the niche that overperformed the most was the faith-based genre.

KAY SMITH: I think these kids need help.

CHUCK SMITH: What they need is a bath.

I really liked Jesus Revolution, starring Kelsey Grammer.

And I was pleased to see it make more than $50 million in theaters. That’s a pretty respectable number for a faith-based film with a small budget. But, no one in Hollywood predicted what would happen later in the summer when Angel Studios’ Sound of Freedom started outperforming those lackluster sequels like Indiana Jones 5 and Mission: Impossible 7.

Sound of Freedom ended up making $185 million against a budget of only $14 million.

BALLARD: All I see are those kids' faces.

Angel Studios, whose founders are Mormon, had three other films in 2023 too. And though none of them were monster hits like Sound of Freedom, they all exceeded their modest budgets while upping the standards for faith-based films. With this strong showing, you could make the case that Angel won the year.

The big loser of the year?

MUSIC: [When You Wish Upon a Star]

No Disney movie even cracked the top three despite the company owning Disney Animation, Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel. And the 100th anniversary celebration seemed to make no difference.

So, what are we getting in 2024? It could be a slim year for movie theaters because studios have fewer films to release. It will take most of the year for Hollywood to recover from the impact of last year’s strikes. And many studios are retooling to adapt to audiences’ changing tastes.

This year, we won’t see nearly as many superhero movies. Both Marvel and DC are taking 2024 to revitalize and reboot their franchises.

And even though audiences rewarded originality in 2023, this year will still be dominated by sequels. There’s going to be a Kung Fu Panda 4, an Inside Out 2, and a Despicable Me 4, another Godzilla vs. King Kong movie and a John Wick spin-off. And Hollywood’s hoping to squeeze a little more nostalgia from old franchises like Ghostbusters, Alien, Beetlejuice, Gladiator, and Karate Kid.

None of these movies feel poised to capture our attention this year. People are craving experience and connection right now. Going to the theater takes effort, and it’s easier if you feel like you’re part of a movement or cultural moment. Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Sound of Freedom might not have been the best movies of 2023, but they all gave audiences that sense of being part of something bigger.

So, I have no idea what the must-see movie of 2024 will be, but I predict whatever it is will offer something original while fostering a sense of belonging.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Friday, January 5th, 2024. 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. Up next, Ask the Editor. This time, WORLD Radio Executive Producer Paul Butler has a question of his own.

PAUL BUTLER: Thanks to John Stonestreet and others we are very familiar with the phrase: “the marketplace of ideas,” the call to enter the marketplace with the truth.

During this week’s Editorial Council meeting, WORLD Watch Program Director Brian Basham unveiled a new initiative his team is working on: to bring WORLD’s journalism to young people on social media.

Not as just a promotional tool, but as a delivery tool. A platform.

With all the negative press this past year on the effects of social media on young people in particular, we enter this space cautiously. Social media has proven to be less of a “marketplace” and more of a “wilderness.”

So after our meeting, I caught up with Brian and asked him about why he believes so strongly that entering the vast wasteland of “the socials” is important for us as Christian journalists.

BRIAN BASHAM: As I started to kind of reflect on these last couple of years, we have not really had a good presence on social media. Now, in all fairness, that was intentional. I do think it's a cancer on society. And…I think that there's a lot of bad that's happening there…but…I think we're called…to go out into the world…and disciple, right. And as I started to think about this, I started to actually feel guilty, that we were just completely neglecting this place where all these people live…

A lot of the products we create at WORLD are for people who are looking for us, but Brian makes the argument about making sure we also get out there and offer journalism based in facts and Biblical truth to those who aren’t looking for us.

BASHAM: Well, let me say this, I think it's important for us to be working with people so that they can hear our perspective and understand what the objective truth is about a certain subject. And as far as going out into the world…and providing stuff—like on social media—...hey, all these people are out there. And I think everybody's searching for the truth…and when they hear it, I think they will respond to it. And so if we don't go into the places where they are, and where they're listening to things, and doing things, well, then they're not going to get it. And so that's why I think it's important for us to go ahead and step out there and be available to them.

WORLD is hesitant to drive our current audiences to social media. But we are looking for ways to reach people wherever they’re at. It’s why we started our daily newscast for Christian radio stations last year. it’s why we post this program on all the podcast platforms instead of pushing audiences to our own portal. And it’s why we’re taking another look at social networking platforms:

BASHAM: I think it's important for Christians to be shaping the news: what we talk about, how we talk about it. I think…the news media in general is…antithetical to Christian values. And so if you do not have people in there, speaking into that, or…acting as somewhat of a guardrail against things that are totally working against it, then it's going…to kind of run amok…And so I think it's important for us to be in there and…helping make that happen.

So thank you to everyone who participated in our year end fundraising efforts to make initiatives like these a reality. We’re greatly encouraged by your support and the many WORLD movers who make it possible to not only enter the marketplace of ideas, but the wilderness as well.

That’s this month’s Ask the Editor. I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Well, now it’s time to thank the team who put the program together this week…

Nick Eicher, David Bahnsen, Mary Muncy, Emily Whitten, Onize Ohikere, Amy Lewis, Andreé Seu Peterson, Cal Thomas, John Stonestreet, and Collin Garbarino.

Plus, a new voice on the program this week: Associate Correspondent Stephen Halbert.

Special thanks to our breaking news team: Lynde Langdon, Steve Kloosterman, Kent Covington, Travis Kircher, Lauren Canterberry, Christina Grube, and Josh Schumacher.

Thanks also to our breaking news interns: Tobin Jacobson, Johanna Huebscher, and Alex Carmenaty.

And the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early…Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Our producer is Harrison Watters.

Our Senior producer is Kristen Flavin and Paul Butler is Executive producer.

Additional production assistance from Lillian Hamman, Bekah McCallum, and Benj Eicher.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” —Matthew 7:13, 14

Worship with brothers and sisters in Christ in Church this weekend. And Lord willing, we’ll meet you right 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.