The World and Everything in It - July 1, 2022

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Culture Friday we’ll talk with John Stonestreet about how to overcome misimpressions and misunderstandings about the major Supreme Court rulings on life and liberty.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, WORLD reporter Leah Savas with a list of life-affirming films you might want to see.

And your listener feedback.

BROWN: It’s Friday, July 1st. 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 with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Ketanji Brown Jackson joins Supreme Court » The United States Supreme Court has a new justice.

AUDIO: I Ketanji Brown Jackson - do solemnly swear - do solemnly swear - that I will administer justice - that I will administer justice …

The 51-year-old Jackson with her left hand on a Bible, her right hand raised, swore to defend the Constitution.

And with that, she became the nation’s 116th high court justice, replacing the now-retired Justice Stephen Breyer.

ROBERTS: And now, on behalf of all of the members of the court, I am pleased to welcome Justice Jackson to the court and to our common calling.

Chief Justice John Roberts heard there.

The addition of Jackson to the high court will not change its makeup. She takes Breyer’s place as one of three liberal justices.

Supreme Court checks EPA authority » Hours earlier, the Supreme Court handed down another pair of major decisions.

In one of those rulings, the court reined in the power of the EPA. The 6-3 majority found that the Clean Air Act does not give the agency broad authority to regulate emissions from power plants.

West Virginia’s Republican attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, led the legal challenge to the EPA’s authority.

MORRISEY: We’ve said one simple thing, that if you have a major issue of the day, Congress needs to be the decider, not an unelected bureaucracy.

And the court agreed, though its three liberal justices dissented.

High court says Biden amin can end Trump-era border policy » In the other major ruling of the day, the court handed President Biden a victory on an immigration measure.

The Trump-era rule known as the “remain in Mexico” policy forced asylum-seekers to wait south of the border until courts decided their claims.

In a 5-to-4 decision, the justices said the Biden administration can scrap that policy.

Republicans were not happy about it. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick …

PATRICK: This is a terrible decision for Texas. And we alone—we alone in Texas are spending $4 billion dollars this year in border security. That’s more than some states have [in] a total budget.

Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh joined their three liberal colleagues in siding with the White House.

President Joe Biden suspended the program on his first day in office, but lower courts reinstated it.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas conceded last year that border officials were encountering an “unprecedented number of migrants.” And that has not changed. In the month of May alone, border authorities made nearly a quarter-of-a-million arrests.

Migrant deaths » Republicans say the high court’s ruling will only make the border crisis worse. And further fueling their complaints is a series of deadly human smuggling incidents. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Four people died after their car crashed into a commercial semi-truck Thursday during a high-speed police chase in Texas.

Three more suffered severe injuries.

Police said the vehicle in question was part of a smuggling operation.

That came just days after 53 migrants died after being trapped inside a tractor-trailer as it baked in the sun near San Antonio.

And weeks earlier, another migrant died after police pulled over a vehicle suspected of human smuggling.

One of the people in that vehicle fled police, running across a highway where he was struck by a passing car.

The driver is charged with human smuggling causing death.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

KY, FL abortion laws blocked » Judges have blocked pro-life laws in Florida and Kentucky.

A Florida court temporarily halted a law that stops abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy in most cases. The judge said the law violates a woman’s right to privacy under the state constitution.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican said the law provides important protections for the unborn, and his office was prepared for the fight.

DESANTIS: We knew that we were going to have to move forward and continue the legal battle on that.

In Kentucky, abortion centers filed suit to temporarily halt a pro-life law that blocks abortion in every case except to save the mother.

NATO wraps up » Ukrainian troops are about to get more rockets—and rocket launchers. President Biden announced another $800 million worth of military aid to Ukraine on the final day of NATO’s Madrid summit Thursday.

BIDEN: We’ve provided Ukraine with nearly $7 billion in security systems since I took office. In the next few days, we intend to announce nearly 800 million more.

Other member nations agreed to spend more money on defense and move more troops to Eastern Europe to deter Russian threats.

Snake Island » In Ukraine, columns of smoke billowed from Snake Island on Thursday as Russian troops sailed away in a victory for Ukrainian forces. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: Snake Island was the scene of a dramatic standoff in February when Ukrainian soldiers on the island refused the calls by a Russian warship to surrender.

Russia took control of it, apparently hoping to use Snake Island as a staging ground.

The Kremlin portrayed the pullout as a “goodwill gesture.” But Ukraine’s military says it drove the Russians from the island with a barrage of artillery and missile strikes.

Ukraine’s government says the pullout does not guarantee the Black Sea region’s safety, but it does “significantly limit” Russian activities there.

The island sits along a busy shipping lane in and out of the port city of Odesa.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

I’m Kent Covington. This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, July 1st, 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. It’s Culture Friday.

Let’s bring in John Stonestreet. He’s the president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

Good morning!

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning.

EICHER: So after we talked a week ago, it was just a few hours after that that Dobbs came down, reversing Roe and Casey and returning the issue of abortion to the states.

This subject has been a major theme here on Culture Friday for the many years we’ve done it, John, and you should certainly feel free to mark the occasion as you wish.

But my question for you here right off the bat is whether anything surprised you about the reaction to it and specifically, do you think the leak of the opinion actually had the beneficial effect of letting off some of the cultural steam before the court released the final opinion.

STONESTREET: Well, you know, that's a good question. I guess it's hard to know what we're comparing it to—whether, you know, it was an intentional leak by a progressive clerk in order to let that side kind of prepare. You know, there were the protests, and acts of violence against pregnancy resource centers and other places. And some of those certainly, I think will continue. I don't think this is going anywhere.

There's certainly a level of irrationality and factual inaccuracy in terms of how people are responding to it. No one has banned abortion. No one has settled the matter.

I celebrate the end of Roe v. Wade, because it preemptively stopped the job of state legislatures and the job that they're actually supposed to do preemptively like right off the bat, it took out of their hands, something that belongs in their hands, enshrined something in the Constitution that actually just does not exist.

But it is really amazing to see headline after headline after headline, you know that the Supreme Court has taken away a constitutional right, when the entire opinion was about the fact that there was no constitutional right. I mean, argue it but don't assume it—you know, actually make the case for it. Which, of course, it can't be made. So here we are. It's not amazing. It's not surprising. This whole thing about abortion has proceeded on factual inaccuracies.

I'll tell you what I have seen though: just a blatant willingness of many of these headlines to quote people who feel like they have lost a right in the state of pregnancy. And they're very quick to acknowledge that what they're killing in this whole conversation is a baby. That's been a stunning thing. Headlines, you know, quoting these women, it's like I can't I can't have this baby. So oh, so we are talking about a baby. This isn't a dehumanized sort of practice. So it's taking the lid off of it. And I think that's powerful. It's undermining the false definitions and the lies and the misused words that have been employed for years in this debate, and hopefully now we can actually, you know, have a real debate and, and move forward on it.

BROWN: John, I’m noticing a new kind of argument making the rounds on social media. It goes something like this:

“I’m not pro-murdering babies: I’m pro Becky, I’m pro Theresa” and then what follows are scenarios of women facing difficult pregnancies that supposedly warrant the killing of their babies.

I’m reminded of a recent WORLD Opinions article by Allie Beth Stuckey. She points to a Washington Post sympathetic profile of a 19 year old mother in Texas, unable to abort her twin daughters because of the state’s new protections for the unborn.

I’m just seeing a lot of this in the immediate days after the Dobbs decision and I expect to see more. How do we address this notion that women now somehow count less in America?

STONESTREET: Well, I think there's really two primary things we can point out and again, convincing someone of something just does not mean the same thing as making a valid argument.

But I think there are two very important things we can point out. Number one is, many of the preborn children are women as well. So holding up the value and worth of women means holding up the value and worth of all women. Second, I think a lot of this language from the pro abortion side is profoundly dehumanizing on women.

I thought women were supposed to be able to have it all. I mean, wasn't that really the whole notion. And now we're told women can't have it all, unless they actually deny or violate the natural functioning and the natural purpose of their own body.

It's almost as as Ryan Anderson has put it, as if we now have in a new way, a new misogyny, in which the male body who's able to have sex repeatedly but doesn't have to bear the natural consequences of fertility is the ideal body. And so what we want is to turn women into a bunch of men biologically. And I think that is a profoundly dehumanizing thing, I think being pro woman is being pro woman. And one of the amazing things about women, a very amazing thing about women is their ability to have children. And the crazy thing that we often hear from the pro abortion side is that women have to deny that ability, that that ability is an obstacle to their being fully and truly, you know, women and people of value.

So, I think, and I was having this conversation recently with, with one of, and I think there's a whole network of young Catholic theologians who are female, who took seriously the call from Pope John Paul, to that we needed a new Christian feminism and there's a whole network of them, they're wickedly smart, and they're super talented. And basically, they're making this articulation that we want a feminism that upholds the full capacity of women to be women. And we don't want women to have to deny their God given procreative capacity in order to be fully valued as women and that's what the pro abortion side is telling us that that has to happen.

EICHER: So beyond Dobbs, John, we had the Coach Kennedy case this week, dealing with the football coach’s freedom to have a post-game prayer on the public-school field, the court ruled in favor of the coach. Obviously, this is a major win for religious liberty, but what does this do culturally: How do you answer the criticism of this decision, that Christians are just exercising power and special privilege?

STONESTREET: Well, you know, I could say some things but I thought Coach Kennedy himself has been absolutely fantastic in media interviews answering this very question, which is just again, calling out the misnomer that this only applies to Christians. And it doesn't. It applies to everyone.

I think there's some wonderful lines of argumentation and Gorsuch's opinion itself that I think this is something that Christians should read. But your concern is the right one, because this criticism is not just because of the Coach Kennedy decision. What we're hearing now is an echo, of course, is essentially putting together this case with the Dobbs case, with the case having to do with whether money can go to Christian institutions, and seeing it all together.

And here's what you need to know. And that first case in which Justice Roberts wrote an opinion that said, look, we've already decided this and Trinity Lutheran, we already decided this and Espinoza. This is the third case now, in which a state pretends that simply because a institution is religious than a program, a state program that's available to all entities can't be available to religious institutions simply because they're religious - that's just not something you can do, you have to have a compelling interest to withhold the same sort of access to these programs from Christian institutions. He's saying the same thing that the Supreme Court has said now three times. In the Dobbs case, this is a decision specifically about the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade. And its, you know, subsequent decisions. This isn't a Christian position. This was a constitutional argument.

And in the case of Coach Kennedy, this is just something that clarifies where free speech rights and free exercise rights lie. And thankfully, Gorsuch just completely undermines this whole lemon test that's been used for years, which is just hugely problematic, and Gorsuch says this thing has never been helpful. It's never been useful, and it's time for it to be thrown away. These were all decisions decided not on grounds of judicial activism. They were undoing unconstitutional grounds of judicial or political activism. So this is a better day for the exercise clause. It's a better day for the religious freedom of all Americans. This isn't just about special rights being bestowed upon Christians.

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

STONESTREET: Thank you so much.

NICK EICHER, HOST: You know how it feels when you walk onto the plane, put your carry-on bags away and settle into your seat, only to find that the flight is delayed?

Well, that’s what happened to passengers on a recent flight to Europe from Newark, New Jersey.

But that gave the passengers an opportunity to enjoy a little in-flight entertainment.

Traveling on the plane that day was a children's orchestra from Nashville en route to Europe for a concert tour.

And at the request of flight attendants, they performed an impromptu concert during the delay. Here’s a bit of it:

AUDIO: [Orchestra]

The young musicians made the delay much more enjoyable for everyone aboard.

So, first-class treatment all the way back in coach.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MRYNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, July 1st. 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.

In light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs, maybe you’d like a little more help talking about the issue everyone’s talking about. WORLD reporter Leah Savas is our go-to reporter on pro-life issues and she has three film recommendations on the subject.

LEAH SAVAS, REPORTER: Last summer, I began catching up on pro-life films I had heard about over the years but had never seen. A highlight of my search was the 2018 movie Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer.

Alexis 'Lexy' McGuire: Now I’m curious. What’s up?

Detective James Wood: We found our Oxy source. It’s a, uh, Dr. Kermit Gosnell. He runs a clinic in 3801 Lancaster Avenue. We want to get a warrant so we can take a hidden camera in there.

The movie is a well-made true-crime drama. In a phone call last year, filmmaker Phelim McAleer told me the goal was to make a good movie, not a political statement. He and the other filmmakers succeeded. They tell a compelling story that Hollywood wouldn’t touch.

Gosnell operated a filthy facility in Philadelphia where he performed illegal late-term abortions. He also killed babies born alive. One woman even died there in a botched abortion. This dramatization follows Gosnell’s trial over his house of horrors.

Alexis 'Lexy' McGuire: Betty, you like to take pictures, don’t you?

Betty: Yes, ma’am

Alexis 'Lexy' McGuire: You take a lot of pictures, right? Pictures of your meals, pictures of things you see on the street. Pictures of your friends. Did you ever take a picture inside Dr. Gosnell’s clinic?

Betty: Yes.

Alexis 'Lexy' McGuire: On that particular night, do you remember taking a picture of Baby Boy A, the baby you saw Dr. Gosnell put up on that shelf?

Mike Cohan: Objection!

Judge: Overruled. The witness may answer.

Betty: Yes, ma’am.

Alexis 'Lexy' McGuire: In light of this new evidence we would like to be granted the opportunity to publish this new photograph.

Mike Cohan: Objection! This is outrageous! This was not presented in discovery!

The film is gritty and sometimes difficult to watch. It deals with abortions and the deaths of mothers and infants in a dirty building. But the filmmaking and acting is better than many other films about abortion produced outside of Hollywood.

Another favorite I discovered has a happier outcome. It’s called I Lived on Parker Avenue, and it’s a thirty-minute documentary produced by Louisiana Right to Life. The documentary follows 19-year-old David Scotton on his trip to meet his biological parents.

David: There’s a lot going through my mind right now. How they’re going to react when I’m on their doorstep and how I’m going to react when I see them after 19 almost 20 years of always wondering what it’s going to be like.

As a pregnant teenager, Melissa Coles almost aborted David. She got all the way to an examination table with her feet in the stirrups before she told the abortionist that she couldn’t do it: She couldn’t abort her baby. Something a person said outside had planted a seed in her mind.

Melissa: I remember all these protestors being lined up. They rush out to protect you from all the protestors and they put a blanket over my head and a radio here and a radio here and try to blast the sound away from all the protestors. But as I was walking in, throughout all the confusion, and all the noise. I remember—I remember this lady saying, “that baby has ten fingers and ten toes, and you’re going to kill it.”

The film explores the blessings and difficulties of adoption for both the child and the mother. You can watch I Lived on Parker Avenue for free at ilivedonparkeravenue.com.

My third recommendation is The Matter of Life. This recent documentary targets professing Christians who consider themselves pro-choice.

Narrator: No other surgical procedure has caused more controversy or division than abortion.

TV clip: I think this is the battleground culture issue in America today.

TV Clip: Their view is that there is only one way to be a woman in this society.

Narrator: More than ever, it’s important for everyone to know where they stand on abortion and why.

The film’s biggest fault is it tries to cover too much ground in too little time: it’s only about 100 minutes. But it hits the highlights: it tells America’s abortion history, using historical photos along with audio and newspaper clippings. It gives the science of when life begins and describes brutal abortion procedures. And, in it, people affected by abortion tell their personal stories.

Dr. Anthony Levatino: To you watching this, you’re an adult or you’re an adolescent, and there was a time in your life when you were a child and there was a time in your life when you were this big and there was a time in your life when you were this big and there was a time in your life when you were even this big, but it was always you. There is only one you. So once I reached that point, there was no turning back. I stopped doing abortions. I haven’t done an abortion since February 1985 and I’ll never do another one.

Those stories show why abortion isn’t simply a political issue but a matter of life and death.

I’m Leah Savas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, July 1st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Time now for Listener Feedback—starting today with a correction. A handful of you wrote in after Cal Thomas’s June 2nd commentary attributed the Third Law of Thermodynamics to Isaac Newton.

Listener Eric Lehmkuhl put it this way:

Isaac Newton was an amazingly intelligent man, but thermodynamics was not his specialty. Cal Thomas was referring to Newton's laws of motion. He may have confused thermodynamics with dynamics! Easy to do.

BROWN: Another correction now. Emily Whitten recommended Whose Body? By Dorothy L. Sayers for our June Classic Book of the Month. But in her review, Emily didn’t include the “L” in Sayers’ name. That prompted this note from Kerry Mumford Montgomery, and I’ll read it to you:

Dorothy Leigh Sayers wanted the L always used…No one would leave out the S in C. S. Lewis. Why drop the L in Dorothy L. Sayers? Let's honor her wishes and the standard use of her name for decades.

Moving on to other feedback. Jesse from Tampa Bay recorded this message after Monday’s History Book:

JESSE: While I generally appreciate WORLD’s approach of understated prose for overstated facts—the choice of the word “curtail” to characterize China's actions toward the people of Hong Kong in the past decade...I can only consider inaccurate and worthy of correction. China's actions are clearly intended to eliminate the people's freedom and ability to dissent. And the choice of the word curtail simply doesn't fit the proverbial bill. Thank you for what you do.

Well, thanks for listening and you know on reflection, I think we all agree with that.

EICHER: Yes, alright. Well, after Amy Lewis’s recent profile of the Australian musical group Sons of Korah, Retired US Navy Chaplain Don Belanus wrote in thanking us for the story. But he was surprised we “neglected to reference that Reformed Christians have been singing the Psalms for generations.” He added:

I appreciate the music of the Sons of Korah, but I would also submit that setting Psalms to music for congregational singing—a task of a very different order—is very difficult indeed and at least as valuable! Thank you for your ongoing good work.

BROWN: Next, Paul Gable from Edmond, Oklahoma, recorded this response to our June 8th program:

GABLE: Good job by WORLD for airing Mary Reichard’s interview with former Navy SEAL Brandon Webb. That was really interesting, and so much better than listening to one more politician or public policy theorist drone on about what needs to be done regarding gun safety. Thanks to the team at World for your efforts at finding people who don't always get to be heard, but, like Brandon Webb, can add valuable insights to what's going on in the news. Keep up the good work.

EICHER: However, not everyone shares Paul’s perspective. Jason Blosser from Arizona wrote:

The problem is broken families and mental health, not restrictions on my “shall not be infringed” Second Amendment rights.

The so-called “common ground” argument on your podcast historically means Republicans caving to Democrats.

BROWN: Another segment that received a lot of feedback was our Washington Wednesday guest a few weeks ago on the January 6th committee.

Jared Meyer had this to say:

I had to stop what I was doing to write and say THANK YOU! The discussion was fair, honest, and did a good job of summarizing the hearings so far without straying into the sensationalism or denialism common to either side of the political divide on this.

EICHER: Listener Hank Scholz, however, disagreed. He says:

We are very disappointed about your one-sided reporting on June 15, 2022, concerning the Jan. 6 kangaroo court. There are thousands of hours of interviews and videos that prove the lie the committee is perpetuating. Just report all the facts.

BROWN: Linda Berg listens to the program from Woodbury, Minnesota and she recorded this message for us after Kim Henderson’s two stories on scammers who take advantage of seniors:

BERG: My 87 year old dad was nearly a victim of scammers. But my dad and our whole family are wanting to tell everyone we know about this to prevent others from falling victim. I imagined so many elderly that are scammed are embarrassed they won't tell others about this. Thank you for making people aware of these crimes. I'm hoping with greater awareness and with banks, maybe postal workers like Kim Henderson's dad's case, will be on the lookout and maybe these scammers will stop doing this. And I look forward to reading the article in the next issue of WORLD Magazine. Thanks.

We’ll include links in today’s transcript to Kim’s stories—from both the podcast and the magazine.

EICHER: And finally today, Zac from Atlanta wrote in with this question:

Dear World team,

When will another episode of Lawless [be ready]? … Thanks, really enjoying the series!

Glad to hear that Zac. Well good news! We released Episode 6 yesterday on the Lawless feed and will post it here to this channel Saturday morning.

BROWN: If you haven’t listened to any of the past episodes, they’re available anywhere you get your podcasts, or you can listen to them online at: wng.org/podcasts

Lynn Vincent and the team are hard at work on the final few episodes of season one. You won’t want to miss them!

Thanks to everyone who wrote in this month.

EICHER: Finally, a word of appreciation. Our Spring Giving Drive is done and thanks to you, we succeeded in reaching the goal. We’re so excited about the new Fiscal Year ahead. It’s listener support, of course, that keeps us going every day  and allows us to start new projects like the one that began this very morning. We’re working with Faith Radio and Moody Radio to supply broadcast news to their stations’ audiences. Those good folks came to us with this opportunity and I think it’s a recognition of the quality work Kent Covington and his team do, powered by the work of our breaking news team led by Lynde Langdon. Again, your support is what allows us to serve even more people with sound journalism grounded in facts and biblical truth.

BROWN: … and that’s this week’s listener feedback.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, it’s time to say thanks to the team who with your support put this week’s programs together:

Kent Covington, Mary Reichard, Carolina Lumetta, Kim Henderson, Cal Thomas, Amy Lewis, Steve West, David Bahnsen, Jenny Rough, Cal Thomas, Josh Schumacher, Kristen Flavin, Anna Johansen Brown, Emily Whitten, Onize Ohikere, Bonnie Pritchett, John Stonestreet, Collin Garbarino, and Leah Savas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz are the audio engineers who stay up late to get the program to you early! Production assistance from Emily Whitten. Paul Butler is our executive producer.

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

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

The Psalmist writes to the Lord: Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands! (Psalm 63:3-4 ESV)

Remember to worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ this weekend, and God 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.