The World and Everything in It: July 11, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything In It is made possible by listeners like us. I'm Jill Bray, a wife to my husband, Aaron and mother to my three young boys from Palmyra, Pennsylvania, which is why I appreciate every segment from Whitney Williams as I relate well. Thank you for your humor and honesty, Whitney. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! China is continuing to crack down on dissidents from Hong Kong.

LI KWAI WAH: Our department has totally arrested 260 individuals. Some people have fled overseas and continue to engage in activities and endanger national security.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll speak with one group that’s fighting for freedom.

Also today the Supreme Court canceled the president’s student-loan cancellation plan. What effect will it have on the education economy? And planting churches in nursing homes.

LORRAINE: I think the scriptures make it abundantly clear that we should not neglect meeting together. And this is the closest they'll get to church.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, July 11th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: It’s time for news with Kristen Flavin

KRISTEN FLAVIN, NEWS ANCHOR: ACE Act » Republicans in Congress are calling for voting reforms … just in time for the 2024 presidential election.

The Committee on House Administration held a hearing yesterday to discuss the American Confidence in Elections Act, or ACE Act.

Chairman Bryan Steil:

Steil: Most importantly, the ACE act will restore voter confidence in our elections.

The measure aims to reduce voter fraud while giving states more control of their own elections.

It would pull federal funding from states that allow non-citizens to vote .. and assure deceased voters are removed from active rolls.

Democrats say the bill would marginalize some voters.

Congresswoman Terri Sewell of Alabama:

Sewell: I think that my colleagues with their American Confidence in Elections Act is trying to really nationalize a lot of these voter suppressions.

Chairman Steil said a congressional vote on the measure will likely take place later this year.

Biden at NATO summit » President Biden is in Lithuania today, attending the NATO summit.

The military alliance could welcome a new member soon. Turkey announced yesterday that it was withdrawing its objections to Sweden’s request to join.

Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg:

STOLTENBERG: Sweden has met these conditions. This will strengthen NATO and it will strengthen our ability to defend and protect not least the Baltic region.

In exchange for backing Sweden’s NATO application, Turkey asked NATO leaders to support its country’s membership in the European Union.

Questions still loom about Ukraine’s request to join NATO. Stoltenberg says it will eventually happen, just not right now.

STOLTENBERG: No final decision has been made. Allies agree that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance. The most urgent task now is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign and independent nation in Europe.

Before arriving for the summit, President Biden met with King Charles the Third in England  to discuss funding clean energy initiatives.

Biden will end his tour tomorrow at the U.S. Nordic Leaders’ Summit in Finland.

Wagner chief » The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin days after the group staged an armed uprising last month.

According to Russian officials, Putin invited more than 30 mercenary leaders to Moscow for a discussion of the mutiny.

GALLYAMOV (Speaking Russian): Perhaps they are trying to arrange a return of the Wagner group to the frontline.

Political analyst Abbas Gallyamov said the discussion might have been a way to get Wagner forces back to the front lines of the war in Ukraine.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Wagner chiefs pledged their support for Putin and promised to keep fighting for Russia.

Prigozhin claimed the uprising was intended to protest the decisions of top military leaders  not to overthrow the government.

New York floods » New York Governor Kathy Hochul today visited the state’s Hudson Valley region where floodwaters have proved deadly.

The village of Highland Falls received nine inches of rain that destroyed roads and damaged millions of dollars in property. The governor laid out the work ahead:

HOCHUL: , assess the monetary value of the damage, so we can put in our request for FEMA assistance to help the communities have the resources they need to rebuild.

One 35-year-old woman drowned as her house took on too much water. Dislodged boulders rammed into parts of her home as she was overwhelmed by waves.

Heavy downpours with possible flash flooding remain in the forecast for parts of New England.

Larry Nassar » Imprisoned sports doctor Larry Nassar is recovering after a fellow inmate stabbed him on Sunday. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: A prison union leader at the federal penitentiary in Sumterville, Florida, said another prisoner stabbed Nassar multiple times during an altercation.

The 59-year-old sex offender was taken to an area hospital. He was reportedly in stable condition.

Nassar pleaded guilty in 2018 to sexually assaulting dozens of young female athletes while he worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics.

He is serving a decades-long sentence, and will likely be in prison the rest of his life.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Philly shooting latest » In Philadelphia, police investigating a July Fourth mass shooting say the suspect killed one of the victims days before the attack.

Philadelphia police commissioner Danielle Outlaw:

OUTLAW: Our investigators have worked tirelessly to piece together to piece together evidence and analyze all available information.

The body of Joseph Wamah Jr. was found in a home after a gunman opened fire in the Kingsessing neighborhood, killing four people.

Investigators now say he had been dead for almost two days.

Police are conducting an internal investigation into why the first killing initially went unnoticed.

I'm Kristen Flavin.

Straight ahead: the economic results of last week’s Supreme Court ruling on Biden’s college loan forgiveness program. Plus, church care for the elderly in nursing homes.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 11th of July, 2023. This is WORLD Radio and we thank you for joining us today! Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

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

First up on The World and Everything in It: the Chinese government reaches beyond its borders chasing dissidents.

Last week, police in Hong Kong issued arrest warrants for eight pro-democracy activists who fled overseas.

The government accuses these expats of violating a national security law that’s been used to persecute dissidents as China cracks down on rights.

EICHER: Authorities went so far as as to place a million-dollar bounty on each dissident. That’s the equivalent of more than $120,000 U.S. dollars. And it’s a first under that law. The escalation has drawn criticism from rights groups as well as Western nations alarmed by the implications.

Joining us now to talk about the dangers these dissidents face is Jonathan Dingler with China Aid, a U.S.-based human rights organization.

REICHARD: Jonathan, welcome!

JONATHAN DINGLER: Thank you for having me, Mary.

REICHARD: Jonathan, personal freedoms have deteriorated a lot in Hong Kong in recent years. Remind us of the history behind that?

DINGLER: Well, it was really the introduction of this national security law, which  essentially made it so that Hong Kong citizens could be liable for China crimes. Essentially, before, China promised that Hong Kong would be one country, two systems. Which means that Hong Kong would be able to manage its own government, make its own decisions regarding legislation and judicial matters. But after the National Security Law made it more difficult to be an advocate for freedom in Hong Kong, because now those advocates could be arrested for Chinese crimes. So this sparked a huge protest in late to early 2020. And we saw just a harsh crackdown from the Chinese authorities, which led to countless Hong Kong protesters and activists leaving Hong Kong.

REICHARD: And now we have this news of China targeting Hong Kong dissidents overseas. What do these arrest warrants mean, for these particular people?

DINGLER: Well, as it's been stated, they actually can't arrest them, obviously, unless they come to Hong Kong themselves. But this is incredibly concerning for anybody in the Human Rights space, mostly because we have seen a track record of the Chinese government. We've seen a track record of the Chinese government using transnational repression, to either bring expats and dissidents back to China and then they're tried for the crimes that they've so called committed. And this is, this is incredibly concerning seeing that the Hong Kong government is now actively pursuing these dissidents overseas.

REICHARD: And we do have an example of that right here in the United States with Bob Fu.

DINGLER: That's right. Um, there was a report back in April from Axios, about Bob Fu, our founder here at China aid. He was an underground pastor in China for some time, a Tiananmen Square demonstrator. He came and founded China aid in 2002. He has been relentlessly harassed by the Chinese Communist Party with bomb threats sometime earlier this year. The CCP used operatives to call in these false bomb threats into cities like Los Angeles, New York, even Houston, soliciting basically making a hotel reservation in his name, and then making a false bomb threat. And that makes, you know, the FBI get involved. And they're calling Bob to see if he's actually made these threats. And this is not just Bob, unfortunately, there's a lot of dissidents with similar tactics used by the CCP.

REICHARD: And what is China aid doing to try to help those who have fled persecution in China?

DINGLER: Well, China aid is not a resettlement group. So we can't actually help when we rescue people from China, or maybe, you know, if we do rescue people from Hong Kong, we bring them to the US, we help them for a year, and then it's up to them to get asylum and that sort of thing. But our main goal is to expose, encourage, and equip. We want to expose the abuses in China, we want to tell the American people the Western world about these abuses and make sure that they're up to date, and know about these pressing issues, especially with Hong Kong and China. And we want to encourage the views of the people that are living here in the West that are taking refuge, seeking asylum. We want them to be encouraged by our work to see that it's actually having an impact both at the government level and at the grassroots level.

REICHARD: Jonathan, I want to ask you, what is happening with the church in Hong Kong? Is the gospel spreading there underground?

DINGLER: It is spreading underground. Unfortunately, Hong Kong has begun to crack down pretty severely on religious freedom. As we've been seeing over the last few years personal freedoms in Hong Kong are continuing to diminish. And over the last year, we've seen a continuing deterioration of religious freedom in Hong Kong. Especially with the Catholic Church. That's kind of the predominant religion in Hong Kong. And we've seen, you know, deterioration of this religious freedom. You know, Cardinal Zen, Joseph Zen, he was a huge advocate for human rights and religious freedom, and he was put on trial. We've seen lots of the Catholic Church being forced to synthesize being forced to make themselves compatible with socialism. And so religious freedoms are continuing to dwindle. But there is still hope for the gospel. It's in times like these of persecution, where Hong Kong Christians can come together and under the weight of persecution actually be able to tell a more credible gospel, which is really encouraging.

REICHARD: Jonathan Dingler is with China Aid, a US based human rights organization. Jonathan, thank you so much.

DINGLER: Thank you so much, Mary.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: the future of education economics.

The Supreme Court recently struck down President Biden’s plan to cancel the debt of students who took out federal loans for college.

NICK EICHER, HOST: The president had said earlier that only Congress had the power to cancel student debt, but made a political calculation and did it anyway.

Even though the Supreme Court struck it down, the debate over student loan debt continues. Here to talk about it is economist and World Opinions commentator Jerry Bowyer.

REICHARD: Jerry, good morning!

JERRY BOWYER: Good morning to you Mary.

REICHARD: Tell us how the education economy works as far as federal funds go?

BOWYER: How it works is very dysfunctionally, in the sense that it is the perfect example of the fatal conceit of when the government decides that it's going to make something cheaper and subsidizes it. It doesn't make it cheaper, it makes it more expensive. And it increased the cost all the way around because when the government subsidizes education—whether it's by direct grants, or whether it's by subsidized loans, or the ultimate subsidized loan is a loan that gets forgiven. It's no loan at all, really, at least in the long run. What that does is that just ends up flowing into the coffers of the colleges and universities. So it's a system that did not work. And under Obama, it was more nationalized. A lot of these loans were brought on the books of the federal government, rather than being out there in government sponsored entities, that is things that were associated with government, but were actually private, you know, like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, you've heard of these things. So these are called government sponsored entities. And one of them is Sallie Mae, and that was school loans. But a large proportion of loans were actually taken out of the private sector, and put in government. So the government bought existing loans. And in addition, it became a lender itself, not just somebody who guaranteed somebody else's loans, but became the lender, which meant that these loans are assets owned by the taxpayer. And to forgive them is actually not to forgive the loans, it is to transfer debt from the borrower—in this case, people who went to universities—and since people who go to graduate school tend to have bigger debt than people who didn't go to graduate school, so it's people who are graduate school graduates, people in the professions that tend to be higher income, it's a transfer of debt from them to taxpayers in general. And of course, since we're not running on a going basis, that means future taxpayers—our kids and grandkids. So Biden didn't forgive anybody's debt. He took the debt off the back of largely doctors, lawyers, people with graduate degrees and put it on our grandkids.

REICHARD: Jerry, both the President and then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said in no uncertain terms that only Congress has the power to cancel debts like this. Why then did the president change course and do something he knew wasn’t right under the law?

BOWYER: Yeah, and I think Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden were trying to manage the expectations of the ideological extremists in the party. And I think what's happened between now and then is the ideological extremists in the party are now the mainstream of the Democratic Party. They're not a group outside yelling in. To be in power as a Democrat, is largely to have them as a core part of your coalition. So those people have a long time been saying, we need to cancel the debt, we need to cancel the debt. And the gatekeepers in the Democratic Party have said, no, no, no, yes, we want to. It's a great idea, we love the idea, it's great policy. We just can't do it without a change in law. So it was a way of kind of controlling their rabble rousers. But the rabble rousers are now the base. And so I don't think that Biden changed his mind about the legality of it, or Nancy Pelosi did. The legality of it hasn't changed. This is an article one power in the constitution. So nothing changed legally. What changed is something that changed politically. So I think there's a reasonably high probability that when Joe Biden signed this executive order, he knew it would be struck down by the courts. Which means—it's kind of cynical here because students had their debt "forgiven," really meaning transferred on to other people, and then they were excited about that, and now it's back on them. And now there's social tension. Well, that social tension was anticipatable by the people behind this—mostly the president who signed the executive order. And I guess, you know, that shows that they don't really mind social tension as long as they appease the left, and then somebody gets struck down by the court, you know, that's kind of a win-win for them. They can say we tried, it didn't work. And those nine people or six of those nine people, you know, they're wrong again, maybe we need more Supreme Court justices. So that's another element of the Democratic Party now. Attacks on the judicial branch are now mainstream.

REICHARD: Final question, Jerry. Some say that the compassionate thing to do is relieve the burden of debt from these students. But you, along with many others, say that’s not true compassion. You recently wrote a column for WORLD Opinions in which you sought to clarify passages of Scripture that some use to support debt transference or forgiveness. Can you explain?

BOWYER: Yes, there is debt forgiveness in the Bible, but the person who made the loan and as the owner forgives, that's compassion. If I owe you money, you forgive what I owe you, you own the piece of paper, you own the IOU and you tear it up. You say, Jerry, you're my brother in Christ, I forgive your debt, then that's certainly biblically permissible and encouraged in many cases, especially when it's somebody in need. And in Torah, which is not directly binding, but still has moral principles for us, there was a seven year process of that. That's compassionate. But if you forgive somebody else, if you give my debt to somebody else, there's no compassion, there's just coercion. So that's not a compassionate move at all. And again, these debts aren't actually being forgiven, they're being transferred. And I just don't know why law school graduates are more deserving of compassion than our grandchildren, who are going to end up having to pay this or defaulting on it and destroying our financial systems. So this is really a very, very false form of compassion. This is favoritism of the worst sort. If it were a general debt decree, that would be different. But this is a group of college graduates and especially college graduates from graduate school, who arc towards Democratic politics, who tend to be supporters of the president. So this is, this is pork barrel politics. This is not the year of Jubilee that's talked about in the Bible. This is something a lot more like Babylonian kings did when they were feeling a little unpopular, which is make somebody else forgive debts, kill off some noblemen and say, look, I'm your savior, not compassionate at all.

REICHARD: So the colleges and universities could be compassionate?

BOWYER: I think Congress should look at something that holds the colleges and universities responsible. They have gigantic financial endowments in many cases. They were the beneficiaries of these loans, right? The loans were taken out to pay them. They have had enormous expansion in their revenues. They've had enormous expansion in their public budgets. They're the beneficiary. If there's debt forgiveness to be done, it should be done by them. And another idea is, maybe it's not debt forgiveness, maybe we start to look at how fraudulent they were. Because if you look at the marketing departments of colleges and universities—I work in the finance industry, if I talked about investments, the way they talked about an investment in a college education, I'd be wearing striped pajamas. So they go out and say, well, people with college degrees make a million dollars. Well, hold on a second, that is so promissory, and so distortive. So one could argue that some of these marketing programs—we call an admissions office, but really it's a marketing program—they over promised the benefit of a college degree, and therefore they fraudulently engaged the students and therefore they should pay some kind of restitution for the benefit that they incur. I think you could make that argument. I think there would have to be a law to that effect, but I think that's something we really should look at. And by the way, if the college is question that then I'd say well, wait a minute, is it beneficial or not? If a college education is really as valuable, as you said it was, then why do we need student debt forgiveness? I mean, these young people should be doing beautifully. They did what you said, they spent their $80,000-$100,000 a year, they're making their million dollar added income from being college graduates. If it's so valuable to be a college graduate, then why the tin cup, if it's really that valuable, and if it's not that valuable, then these colleges and universities have some explaining to do because they sure implied that it was.

REICHARD: Jerry Bowyer is an economist and the President of Bowyer Research. Thanks so much, Jerry!

BOWYER: And to you. Take care.

NICK EICHER, HOST: This weekend saw the return of a 50 year tradition.

AUDIO: Please, can you start to bring your snails to the course.

The Annual Snail Racing World Championships.

AUDIO: Ready. Steady. Slow! [CHEERS]

The snails start in the middle of the racing circle and glide to the outward edge. This year's winner went 13 inches in a blistering seven minutes, twenty four seconds.

AUDIO: Ladies and gentlemen, the winning trainer: Lettie! The youngest trainer in snail racing history. Four years old!

Lettie and her snail Evie earned the coveted championship trophy cup … and now we must know how trainers prepare these thoroughbred athlete animals!

AUDIO: We’ve given her bits of water and hosta leaves to keep her all ready for her race haven’t we? And you’re very happy aren’t you?

So, it just takes a little wo-tah and hosta leaves to get that es-car-going …

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, July 11th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: an unlikely church.

In many western countries, the population is aging. Take, for example, just two English-speaking countries, the U.S. and Australia. About 16 percent of those countries is older than 65. Taken together, the population of those in nursing homes and assisted living facilities is roughly one million. That’s like a big city. San Francisco, Denver, Nashville, Boston. They’re not even that big.

REICHARD: It can be hard for the people living there to get out and about. So facilities often run special events like art classes or movie nights. But not all activities are equal.

WORLD Correspondent Amy Lewis takes us to a care facility in Australia where the church service is more than an entry on a calendar.

SOUND: [Chatter in a coffee shop]

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: The Charles Brownlow Retirement Village café is lively today. People chat over coffee with their elderly wheelchair-bound parents. A granddaughter takes a selfie with her grandmother before they walk back to her room.

ELEVATOR VOICE: Floor 2. Doors opening.

Upstairs, a schedule on a white board shows a weekly Wednesday church service. It’s sandwiched between the Triple A exercise class and lunch. That placement is no accident. Residents need to exercise—and they want lunch. So faithful church attenders—and the ambivalent—stick around for the church service in the middle.

Starting a church service in a nursing home probably won’t grow a diverse and expanding congregation. But Steve Voorwinde says it will grow God’s people and his kingdom.

VOORWINDE: And she said, Well, where they really need you is upstairs. Now upstairs is the care center.

Voorwinde is a former pastor and seminary lecturer. He also lives downstairs in independent living. His wife Nancy has multiple sclerosis and moved in while workers were still finishing the facility.

VOORWINDE: So we thought well, if there's going to be any Christian influence in this place, it's very good if it comes in at the grassroots level. And the earlier the better.

He approached the facility managers to see if he could be part of that influence. The managers were keen to get something started. That’s when he found out they had to.

VOORWINDE: One of the federal requirements in Australia is that anyone who provides care in the sense of nursing home care, also has to provide spiritual care. Now, that can mean anything, I suppose. But in the majority of cases, it is Christian.

When Voorwinde’s attempts to find a chaplain fell through, he realized he’d have to step in. He had already spent 20 years off and on preaching in nursing homes.

Soon, others joined the team.

It sounds like the start of a joke to say an Anglican vicar, two Baptist preachers, and a Christian Reformed pastor walk into a nursing home. They take rapid COVID tests, print their name tags, and ride the elevator to the second floor.

SOUND: [CB CAFE]

ELEVATOR VOICE: Elevator going up.

But in this case, it’s a reality every Wednesday. Four diverse but local congregations share the responsibility and privilege of preaching the gospel to people at the end of their lives.

Voorwinde says the denomination is not the important part.

VOORWINDE: If they're proclaiming the gospel and relating it to the people there. I think that's really the most important thing. So, yeah, and they're the kind of people who have put their hand up for this sort of work.

Alan and Lorraine Wheeler served as missionaries in Chad and then bred alpacas before they moved into the independent living apartments. Like Voorwinde, they saw the spiritual need and invited their pastor to preach upstairs.

LORRAINE: Well, I'm very conscious of the fact that almost all of the people in care here are unable to get to a church.

Lorraine remembers the feeling of spiritual isolation after their own church closed and they had to search for another.

LORRAINE: I think the scriptures make it abundantly clear that we should not neglect meeting together. The church is a body, it's a necessary body. We are not isolated beings in the kingdom of God. And this is the closest they'll get to church.

Jen Grover has also signed up to help. She’s the lifestyle and activities coordinator for Level 2.

JEN GROVER: I was looking to do something different or something to complement singing teaching, and found my way into aged care. And I love it. I'm able to use music within my work as well.

She chooses the hymns and leads the singing for the Wednesday services.

MUSIC: [AMAZING GRACE BY JEN GROVER]

But for the past three weeks and multiple times in the past seven months she hasn’t been able to distribute the black plastic folders full of faithful old hymns. A few weeks ago, a spate of residents with a stomach bug closed down Level 2 and canceled all activities. Then there was a case of COVID…and the next week, a dozen more.

JEN: The difficult part has been having to cancel you know, due to COVID restriction. It's a directive from the health department and we have to do as we're told so, and yeah, the residents do miss it.

Lorraine Wheeler says the canceled service is more than just a disappointment.

LORRAINE: Also, like today, we're unable to go there because there's sickness that they've closed the place down. I feel quite sad about that, because those people are missing out. And how long will they have left on this earth? We don't know.

So the little band of pastors and leaders will keep working, holding services when they can.

VOORWINDE: People in old age definitely need spiritual care. You know, some are really cut off from, from their church communities. And, yeah, they need a living relationship with the Lord as much as anyone else.

When the services do happen, the residents gladly participate.

VOORWINDE: A lot of them are visually impaired. So they can't, can't read the hymns, but some know them off by heart and they're happy to sing them. I find that such an encouragement that people who by human standards, so limited in what they can do, and yet they're happy to sing the praises of God, even in that situation.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Highton, Victoria, Australia.

MUSIC: [TRUST AND OBEY BY JEN GROVER]

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, July 11th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Next up…WORLD Commentator Whitney Williams says the struggle to get sunscreen on children is real, but so is God’s grace.

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, COMMENTATOR: After nearly a decade of parenting, I’ve noticed that for most kids, sunscreen is akin to acid. Not the LSD, drug kind of acid. No, I’m talking about the kind of acid that melts flesh. I know you’ve seen it, maybe even experienced it yourself: Tortured parents torturing their kids via sunscreen application–the struggle is real, widespread, and there seems to be no easy way to go about it. But if you gather with friends and family at the lake or poolside, you’ll notice parents using several popular variations:

First, the one-fell-swoop method. It’s mainly for facial application and you only get one shot with this one. … There are no do-overs, so you better make it good. Step one: Squirt a lot of sunscreen in your hands. Step two: Sneak up behind your child and grab him or her around the jawline. Step three: Pull upward with gusto. This method also conveniently doubles as a chiropractic session. And listen, if it gets in the eyes, it gets in the eyes, OK? That’s just the price of summer fun.

A second variation you may see is the “just close your eyes and hold your breath” spray and pray method. A Williams family favorite. Sometimes the sunscreen even makes it on the skin!

Third, you’ve got kids in full-body coverage, complete with wide-brim hats, scarves, and sunglasses. No UV ray formed against these shall prosper.

Fourth, you’ll no doubt see, or hear, rather, the turn-or-burn moms–“Just turn toward me for five seconds or you’re gonna roast!” You’ll note this scene coinciding with many methods of sunscreen application.

Rounding out the torture tactics, you’ve got the deodorant-looking sunscreen, for when you want to really stick it to ‘em; the too blessed to be stressed need not apply-ers; delicate moms who prefer to finger paint their children, moms who slap on the sunscreen like they’ve got a grudge, frugal parents who place their children downwind from the spray and pray-ers, and finally the vampire families who don’t emerge till dark.

No matter how you choose to torture,  ahem, protect your children this summer, we parents would be wise to offer one another grace, because we all tend to burn pretty easily, don’t we? And I’m not talking about sunburns at this point. I’m talking about stinging people with nitpicky criticism… whether we verbalize it or not.

But we weren’t given Christ’s light to burn people with it, were we? No, Christ gave us His light to destroy the darkness and send evil scurrying. So, when it comes to the little things of parenting, let’s encourage one another. Let’s pursue peace and build one another up. Let’s act as sunscreen–not smothering, but covering one another in God’s grace, love, truth, and prayer, to protect one another from all evil.

Some friends and family might resist no matter how winsome our application of that grace. But still, I’d save the acidic turn-or-burn method as a last resort.

I’m Whitney Williams.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow on Washington Wednesday: presidential candidates are canvassing South Carolina ahead of next year’s primary. We’ll get a report on what’s happening in the Palmetto State.

Also, our weekly update on news from around the globe on World Tour. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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: I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12, verses 35 and 36.

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.