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The World and Everything in It: July 10, 2025

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WORLD Radio - The World and Everything in It: July 10, 2025

Atlanta doctors save an unborn child, President Trump proposes investment accounts for newborns, and Arsenio Orteza reviews a new bluegrass album. Plus, an unusual time capsule, Cal Thomas on politics in the pulpit, and the Thursday morning news


NickyLloyd / E+ via Getty Images

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

A recent delivery of a baby to a mom on life support shines a light on the conflict between end of life decisions and state heartbeat laws.

GIBBS: I don’t think the pro-life law had anything to do with whether that baby’s alive.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Also today, a new federal savings and investment program for families. 

And bluegrass, reimagined.

LUCKHAUPT: We listen to a lot of the Beach Boys, and we try to figure out “How can we incorporate the type of harmonies that they use into a bluegrass context?”

And Cal Thomas says politics should remain out of the pulpit, despite what the IRS may allow.

BROWN: It’s Thursday, July 10th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MAST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Mark Mellinger with today’s news.


MARK MELLINGER, NEWS ANCHOR: Russia hits Ukraine w/largest drone barrage of the war » Russia is intensifying its attacks against Ukraine, launching more than 700 drones, its largest such barrage of the war so far, along with 13 missiles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says this latest assault targeted a town that’s home to Ukrainian Army airfields, and is also near a key hub for receiving critical foreign aid.

President Trump lamented the war’s climbing death toll.

TRUMP: Think of it. 7,000 people a week, on both sides. 7,000 people. Young, mostly military people, young souls… are dead.

Trump’s also frustrated by the stalled U.S.-led efforts to broker an end to the war.

U.S. Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley tells Fox News:

CROWLEY: Vladimir Putin has continued to press the war in Ukraine, and as the president has indicated, he would like to have both sides come to the table. But that’s not materialized quite yet.

Meantime, the Trump Administration has resumed sending weapons, including precision-guided rockets, to Ukraine after the Pentagon directed the pause of some deliveries last week.

GOP preparing Russian sanctions bill » U.S. senators are putting together a bipartisan bill to ratchet up pressure on Russia to end its war on Ukraine.

The bill would impose new economic sanctions on Russia, and has 80 co-sponsors.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune:

THUNE: I think it’s an important message to send, especially now. And I think it’s… it’s leverage that we need, and that frankly the White House needs in their negotiations with the Russians. So, in my view, the sooner we can execute on that, the better.

Thune says GOP leadership is working with the White House and U.S. House colleagues to get the bill finalized. He’s hopeful Congress can vote on the bill late this month.

40 reported dead in Gaza airstrikes, no ceasefire yet » Another round of Israeli airstrikes has killed 40 people in the Gaza Strip, according to a hospital in southern Gaza.

Israel confirms it struck more than 100 targets where it suspects Hamas of hiding weapons and fighters among civilians.

Still, President Trump, fresh off two days of meetings in the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is optimistic negotiators are close to hammering out a Gaza ceasefire.

TRUMP: There’s a very good chance that we’ll have a settlement, an agreement of some kind, this week. And maybe next week, if not.

Negotiators for both sides have been meeting this week in Qatar.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff says they’ve been making good progress, and he’ll be joining them soon.

Texas flooding: Death toll near 120, government response questioned » In central Texas, the death toll is up to at least 118. with at least another 160 missing, as crews clean up from the deadly 4th of July flooding.

SOUND: [Cleanup]

Hundreds of volunteer first responders used backhoes and their bare hands Wednesday to dig through piles of debris stretching for miles along the Guadalupe River.

Fredericksburg Fire Chief Lynn Bizzell says crews are doing everything they can to find survivors.

BIZZELL: We have 300 people working. We have all the heavy equipment that we can muster up to try to remove that debris. We are finding vehicles and RVs deep inside the debris that you can't even see from the outside. And so the challenges are there, they're real.

With hopes of finding survivors dwindling by the day, crews are focusing on doing what they can to bring closure to the families of the missing.

Three dead in New Mexico flooding » In New Mexico, torrential rain has led to flash flooding that’s claimed at least three lives.

A man, a 4-year-old girl, and a 7-year-old boy in the village of Ruidoso were swept away Tuesday as floodwaters rose to 20 feet.

Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford:

CRAWFORD: Our emergency responders conducted approximately 65 swift water rescues during yesterday’s event.

Crawford says the flash flooding also wiped out some homes, and it’ll take days to total up damage estimates.

New Mexico’s governor has signed an emergency declaration.

Trump administration suing California over transgender athletes » The Trump Administration is suing California, accusing it of Title IX violations for letting boys who consider themselves transgender to compete in girls’ sports.

Title IX is the federal law banning sex-based discrimination in education.

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon:

McMAHON: It is just totally unfair to have men competing against women in sports and also to share their intimate locker facilities, et cetera. Women fought hard for these rights, and it is the law, and the president means business with it.

McMahon talking to Fox News.

The Justice Department calls California’s rules demeaning, saying they signal girls’ opportunities and achievements are secondary to accommodating boys.

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office calls the suit a cynical attempt to distract from the White House’s freeze on billions of dollars in federal grants for after-school and summer education programs.

I'm Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: Georgia’s heartbeat bill is blamed for keeping a brain dead woman alive, but there’s more to the story. Plus, pastors, politics, and the IRS.

This is The World and Everything in It.


LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 10th of July.

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

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

First up on The World and Everything in It…when life and death collide.

In February, 30-year-old Adriana Smith was declared brain dead. Doctors at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta kept her on life support because she was nine weeks pregnant.

On June 13th, doctors delivered Smith’s baby via c-section. Four days later, they removed Smith’s ventilator.

MAST: The tragedy of Smith’s death and the good news of her baby’s arrival have been met with outrage. That’s because there’s a troubling question at the heart of this story: should Smith have been allowed to die earlier?

Here’s WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: Inside the cream-colored sanctuary of Fairfield Baptist Church, mourners filed past Adriana Smith’s open casket. It was June 28th. Pink and white flowers flanked the coffin, contrasting with the large black speakers onstage.

SOUND: [FUNERAL]

Fairfield senior pastor Eric Vickers:

VICKERS: I want to be honest about where we are this afternoon. As the city, as the state, as the nation, and even as the world is watching. We are living in critical and perilous times. And Adriana has become a martyr for our times.

Many pro-abortion advocates are also calling Smith a martyr because she wasn’t allowed to die sooner. According to Georgia’s LIFE Act, doctors can’t abort preborn babies after detecting a heartbeat, usually around six weeks. Some have said that’s why Smith had to stay on a respirator. In a YouTube video, hospice nurse Julie McFadden explained the logic:

MCFADDEN: So although Adriana’s family would like to possibly take her off life support, due to this law, medical professionals are legally not allowed to do that.

Emory hospital apparently told Smith’s family they wanted to avoid violating Georgia’s abortion restrictions and other relevant laws. But, it’s overly simplistic to argue that Georgia’s LIFE Act legally forced the hospital’s hand. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr told news outlet 11Alive:

11ALIVE: There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death, removing life-support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.

John Mize is the CEO of Americans United for Life. He says pointing to the state’s abortion restriction is a mischaracterization.

MIZE: When the rare circumstance of when a woman suffers a pregnancy complication in a pro-life state, that the abortion advocates are always prepared to re-victimize these women and their families on national media, attempting to twist narratives to make it appear as if pro-life laws are to blame.

Many states require physicians to keep pregnant patients on life support. But these laws have to do with end-of-life care, not abortion.

In Georgia, doctors can override a woman’s wishes regarding life support if she is found to be pregnant, and they can save her unborn child.

GIBBS: Generally, when there is no advance directive, the protocol should be to save life.

David Gibbs is president and general counsel of the National Center for Life and Liberty. He says it’s not fair to take aim at or give credit to Georgia’s LIFE Act. In fact:

GIBBS: I will go so far as to say, I don’t think the pro-life law had anything to do with whether that baby’s alive. I think the doctors made a decision that there was no clear directive from the mother to end the babies life…

But some people say the circumstance violated Smith’s autonomy for a different reason. And this is where the second argument for Smith’s martyrdom comes in: some advocates think it wasn’t fair to keep Smith on a ventilator just because she was pregnant. U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts:

PRESSLEY: But because Adriana was nine weeks pregnant, about a month past a missed period, Adriana’s body has been turned into an incubator. An incubator with no medical rationale, no ethical reason, and no compassion.

These kinds of arguments are behind a movement to let women refuse life-sustaining care no matter what. In 2021, Colorado authorized women to refuse life support during pregnancy. Beginning July 27th, women in Washington state may do the same. There’s a similar bill going through the Michigan legislature and a related lawsuit in Kansas.

The issue of refusing care came up at Adriana Smith’s funeral. After Scripture readings and a bluesy rendition of His Eye Is on the Sparrow, a Georgia lawmaker read a resolution which she called “Adriana’s Law.” State Representative Park Cannon:

CANNON: Whereas the advance directive protection contained in Georgia’s advance directive statute should be upheld, to ensure that a patient’s end-of-life wishes regardless of pregnancy take precedence over fetal personhood clauses.

But Smith might have wanted to give her baby a shot at survival. Here’s John Mize again.

MIZE: But there wasn't an advanced directive that the child be terminated. So who’s to say that the mom wouldn’t have wanted her child to be brought to term given her circumstances? And that’s the complexity in the gray area.

Mize believes the hospital rightly chose to keep Smith on life support until her baby could be delivered. But he said doctors should have at least brought Smith’s family into the decision-making process. Audio from 11Alive’s interview with Smith’s mother April Newkirk:

NEWKIRK: I’m not saying we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy. But I’m saying we should have had a choice.

General counsel David Gibbs believes the safe delivery of Smith’s baby vindicates the hospital.

GIBBS: And they made the decision that this was a viable baby in our care and we are going to save its life. And I think it was a right decision. I think it was a brave decision. I also think it's within their code of ethics. I mean, doctors are to, under the Hippocratic oath, preserve and protect innocent life. And in this case, I really believe that they did the right thing.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.


MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It:

A nest egg for babies.

While President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act is best known for budget cuts and tax breaks, the law he signed on July 4th will also give billions of dollars to the youngest Americans. The idea is to put $1,000 in an investment account for every baby born in the United States for the next 4 years.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: So how will the accounts work, and are there strings attached?

WORLD reporter Carolina Lumetta has the story.

SOUND: (Hail to the Chief)

CAROLINA LUMETTA: At a White House roundtable event in June, House Speaker Mike Johnson explained the President’s plan to invest in the future of Americans with actual investments.

JOHNSON: if you have a 401k, you understand the power of investing early for the future. Trump accounts uh take that same principle and they apply it from the very beginning of Americans lives.

Here’s how it works: When a baby is born, the Treasury Department will automatically open a diversified investment account and put $1,000 into it. The account will then be managed by a bank of the family’s choice.

TRUMP: They'll be open for additional private contributions each year from family, friends, parents, employers, churches, private foundations, and more.

Up to $5,000 a year. Once the child turns 18, he or she may withdraw half of the funds, but only for higher education tuition costs, a trade school, starting a business, or buying a home. While the original version before Congress restricted the program to children born to American citizens, the Senate removed that provision.

TRUMP: This is a pro-family initiative that will help millions of Americans harness the strength of our economy to lift up the next generation and they'll really be getting a big jump on life, especially if we get a little bit lucky with some of the numbers in the economies into the future.

During the White House event launching the proposal, business leaders also signed on. Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell said his company would match the government’s initial contribution for its employees.

DELL:…and it embodies our core belief that opportunity should begin at birth.

The idea of accounts for babies is not new. In fact, it’s been a Democratic talking point for years. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton brought up the idea of a baby bonus during her 2007 presidential campaign. And in 2021, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker sponsored a bipartisan bill to launch baby bonds that could accrue up to $50,000 per baby. Then in 2023, Connecticut launched the first statewide baby bond program.

RADCLIFFE: There is a discussion at the highest levels of government, both Democrats and Republicans, who recognize the value and the importance of wealth, particularly seeding it for babies.

David Radcliffe studies state and local policy for the New School Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy, based in New York. He helped implement Connecticut’s program. Radcliffe likes the idea behind Trump accounts, but has some concerns about how the President’s plan will work.

RADCLIFFE: We really see this as a rich-get-richer plan that focuses significantly on savings versus assets.

The Connecticut program is reserved for children born into low-income families, while the Trump version is open to all. While Connecticut’s program is tax-free, the Trump accounts will be taxed on withdrawal. Furthermore, the account owner can only withdraw half of the amount at age 18 and then the full account once he or she turns 25.

The total investment will also depend on the additional contributions, something that wealthy parents can take advantage of while poorer parents cannot. Assuming 5% growth over 18 years, that $1000 looks different with additional investment.

RADCLIFFE: The young person in the poorer circumstance $3,000, the wealthier child can accrue up to $150,000.

Another concern for analysts is the expected price tag. Adam Michel is director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute.

MICHEL: The government will be transferring $1,000 into each of these accounts temporarily through 2028, but that money has to come from somewhere…

The Joint Committee on Taxation expects the program to cost $17 billion dollars over ten years. President Trump says the savings in the Big Beautiful Bill will cover the cost. But Michel suspects the government will need to borrow money or raise taxes to keep funding the accounts down the road.

MICHEL: So that transfer itself is not making anyone in the aggregate better off.

There are already nearly a dozen savings programs with tax advantages available to American families. Michel at the Cato Institute recommends a universal savings account that’s managed by the individual, not the Treasury Department.

MICHEL: You put the money in, it grows, and you can spend the money whenever and on whatever you like. And they're a way of actually letting individuals and families save for their future in a way where the government is less involved rather than more.

Republicans in Congress praised the program as part of a larger pro-family agenda. Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio told me the seed amount might be small but is compounded with other investments included in the bill.

MORENO: …that $1,000 will make a big difference. The other piece is, of course, the child tax credit going to $2,200. I think that's a really good part of it. This is clearly a bill that's gonna help working families.

For analysts like Adam Michel, government promises of free money don’t sound like a recipe for future success.

MICHEL: Republicans in every other piece of economic policymaking will tell you that simply writing people checks is an incredibly ineffective and often counterproductive way of making people better off for the long run.

It’s now up to the Treasury Department to start building Trump accounts for babies born back in January until the end of 2028.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta, in Washington.


LINDSAY MAST, HOST: In Nebraska last week, a massive treasure hunt 50 years in the making. Ann Johnson found her little toy dog. Audio from KLKN-TV.

ANN JOHNSON: My grandfather, Harold Davisson, had me wrap this up, put it in a bag, and he wrote on the outside, "This was dropped in by Ann Johnson when I was uh probably four.

What she dropped it into was a huge underground space created by Davisson in 1975: The world’s largest time capsule, big enough to also hold a yellow Chevy Vega, a motorcycle, a leisure suit, pet rocks and some 5,000 other relics.

Tammy Lincoln says her family took part in adding to the capsule when she was just 10. She recalled what Davisson told her about why he did it.

TAMMY LINCOLN: He did not want to tell his children and grandchildren what it was like in 1975. He wanted to build a time capsule so he could show them instead.

Also in the capsule, personal letters and recordings, now working their way back to their owners and owner’s families, 50 years later.

It’s The World and Everything in It.


MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, July 10th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Three homeschooled brothers raised on hymnals and harmony reinvent bluegrass.

The Luckhaupt brothers make up the band My Brother’s Keeper and their strong, new album—Wartime Cartoons—came out in June.

But WORLD’s music critic, Arsenio Orteza, says that all of the music they’ve released in the last dozen years holds up to repeated listening.

ARSENIO ORTEZA: One look at My Brother’s Keeper’s album covers tells you that you’re not dealing with your father’s bluegrass. Most feature evocative paintings or band photos more in line with indie rock. The group’s latest, Wartime Cartoons, is a photo of what might be a grandfather and a grandson, identically dressed, possibly for church, sitting across from each other in folding chairs. The man holds a large book and appears to be reading or singing from it to the boy, whose posture suggests rapt attention. It has no obvious connection to any of the album’s 15 songs. Instead, it suggests that something interesting and unpredictable lies within.

MUSIC: [Sunday Morning 9:53 A.M. (Page 364 in the Light Blue Hymnal)]

That’s Wartime Cartoon’s shortest song, the one-minute, 10-second “Sunday Morning 9:53 A.M. (Page 364 in the Light Blue Hymnal).” It may be the only song on a bluegrass album ever played entirely on an organ. It’s certainly proof that the brothers at the core of the five-member group don’t mind bending traditional bluegrass rules.

Actually, Joshua, Benjamin, and Titus Luckhaupt call what they do progressive bluegrass. The term allows them some leeway in how they present their music and in the kind of music they present. I asked what progressive bluegrass means to the band. Here’s Benjamin:

BENJAMIN LUCKHAUPT: So you’re using acoustic instruments and not heavy drums and not ever any heavy electric instruments, you’re staying within the confines of the genre, but then you’re bringing influences in from all kinds of different—different fields, lyrically and musically. So you might be really influenced by a rock band, and you’re trying to figure out a way to present those sounds but still using the acoustic bluegrass instruments.

MUSIC: [Take On Me by My Brother’s Keeper]

The group’s 2018 performance of A-ha’s “Take On Me” may best illustrate the approach. My Brother’s Keeper takes an ’80s synth-pop classic and strips it down to mandolin, guitar, fiddle, and bass. More impressively, it features the youngest Luckhaupt, Titus, hitting the refrain’s famous high note.

MUSIC: [Take On Me by My Brother’s Keeper]

The two cover songs on their latest album aren’t quite as stylistically daring. The group has even recorded one of them before, the folk standard “Poor Wayfaring Stranger.” But the other, George A. Young’s “God Leads His Dear Children Along,” gets an a cappella treatment that showcases the brothers’ vocal harmonies like nothing else on the disc.

MUSIC: [God Leads His Dear Children Along]

BENJAMIN LUCKHAUPT: You know, traditional bluegrass has four-part singing, but we—you know, we listen to a lot of the Beach Boys, and we try to figure out “How can we incorporate the type of harmonies that they use into a bluegrass context?”

There’s more to My Brother’s Keeper than the Beach Boys and A-ha though. The group’s bassist, Wyatt “Sawmill” Murray, has been known to compose under the influence of video-game music. The Luckhaupts grew up in a Baptist church pastored by their uncle, where they joined their musical cousins in frequent impromptu post-service jamming. They were also exposed to Southern-gospel quartet music. The most significant piece of their story is that, from kindergarten through grade 12, they were homeschooled. Their curriculum included five years of piano, after which each added an instrument of his choice. Joshua Luckhaupt:

JOSHUA LUCKHAUPT: So at about the age of 10, we all then added our bluegrass instruments in—fiddle for me, guitar for Benj, Titus on the mandolin.

Their father, perceiving their interest in music, built song analysis into their studies. In this way, Joshua told me, the band’s foundations were laid pretty early.

JOSHUA: And because we were in front of people at church every week, we learned that element of playing in front of others because after service we were jamming together. A big part of bluegrass is the jam circle, the idea where everybody can gather around and play some standard songs that we all would recognize and everybody gets a turn to take a break, everybody gets a chance to sing a little bit, and you learn a lot from that.

The church-organ and a cappella pieces demonstrate the kind of audacious variety that My Brother’s Keeper has woven into its albums. Consider, for instance, the very title of Wartime Cartoon’s most powerful song, “Smile! It’s the End of the World.” Its lyrics pack quite a wallop too. The song begins by taking aim at a “watered-down Gospel trickling off a pulpit.” It also paraphrases a famous quotation, often attributed to G.K. Chesterton but really from a novel by Bruce Marshall, about what men who patronize brothels are subconsciously looking for.

MUSIC: [Smile! It’s the End of the World]

But like My Brother’s Keeper’s other albums, Wartime Cartoons has light-hearted moments as well. Many of them occur in the title cut, a breezy and original slice of Western-swing meets Gypsy jazz. The song has no lyrics, so what it has to do with wartime or cartoons will no doubt spark discussion–something that all good music does sooner or later.

MUSIC: [Wartime Cartoons]

And if that sounds like your father’s bluegrass to you, you had a pretty cool dad.

I’m Arsenio Orteza.


LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Thursday, July 10th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. WORLD commentator Cal Thomas reacts to this week’s decision by the IRS to change its stance on politics in the pulpit.

CAL THOMAS: The Internal Revenue Service announced on Monday it is overturning a restraint on churches and other houses of worship that was supposed to keep them from endorsing candidates for political office.

The root of the ban extends back to 1954. Then-Senator Lyndon Johnson was running for re-election. The Texas Democrat faced a primary challenge from a wealthy rancher and oilman. A nonprofit conservative group published materials that recommended voters support Johnson’s challenger. In what many believed to be retribution, Johnson introduced an amendment to Section 501 (c)(3) of the IRS Code, prohibiting organizations that are tax-exempt from trying to influence political campaigns. Many took this as an attempt to muzzle preachers.

The measure was rarely, if ever enforced. Many black and white liberal preachers invited mostly Democratic candidates to their services close to elections, giving them tacit, if not outright, endorsements. Their tax-exempt status was never canceled. Issues ranged from the Vietnam War to civil rights.

On one level this is a freedom of speech issue, but not all freedoms are necessarily worth exercising. Even so, the government ought not be the ones to determine who can say what where. But the larger question is: who benefits the most and least from the IRS ruling? Some politicians will benefit, but churches that see this as an opportunity to jump into the political waters will be harmed as they will dilute their primary mission. Besides, many churches have members who hold different political views. For the pastor to engage in partisan politics runs the risk of having some of them leave. I would.

There has always been a presumption among those advocating for more political involvement by churches that members are ignorant about politics and can’t form their own opinions without instructions from their preacher. Organizations – some liberal, but mostly conservative – have raised a lot of money promoting a fusion between church and state.

I don’t attend church services to hear about politics. Neither do I wish to hear theological pronouncements from politicians, many of whom misquote Scripture, or take it out of context to fit their political agendas.

The mostly defunct Shakey’s pizza restaurants used to have a sign on the wall that said: “Shakey’s has made a deal with the bank. The bank doesn’t make pizzas and Shakey’s doesn’t cash checks.”

That’s how I feel about politics in the pulpit. Politicians and preachers should mostly stay in their own lanes. Where Scripture speaks clearly to a contemporary issue, including marriage, gender, abortion and the wisdom found in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, I’m ready to listen. But don’t let me hear who the pastor prefers in the next election. I am not without information and neither is anyone else if they take the time to do research.

Religious people have an absolute right to express their views in the public square—indeed the country needs them to. Many of our Founders exercised that right and the principles found in the Declaration of Independence and other documents reflected their worldview. And yes, colonial preachers frequently based their sermons on politics, praising or denouncing politicians. But that exception shouldn’t create a rule.

One of the reasons cited for the decline in church attendance in America is that many—especially young people—believe churches are already too political and identified with the Republican Party.

For those who disagree, I quote the ultimate church-state moment. In John chapter 18 we read of Jesus’s exchange with Pontius Pilate. Jesus said: “My kingdom is not of this world.” That ought to be good enough for everyone to put their priorities in the right order. No matter what the IRS says.

I’m Cal Thomas.


LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Tomorrow: more on the IRS rule change with John Stonestreet on Culture Friday. Also, a review of the latest Superman movie. And, Word Play with George Grant. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Lindsay Mast

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown

Our thanks to Bekah McCallum for writing and reporting our story today on end of life decisions.

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, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” —Matthew 11:28-30

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.

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