The World and Everything in It - July 13, 2022

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

President Biden signed an executive order on abortion last week. We’ll talk about it.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also today, World Tour.

Plus we return to Amish country:

And making Christian education accessible to more families.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, July 13th. 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: Time now for the news with Kristen Flavin.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden embarks on Middle East trip after meeting with Mexican president » President Biden is in Israel today on the first Middle East trip of his presidency. He plans to meet with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, as well. He’ll also travel to Saudi Arabia, a country that candidate Biden once vowed to make a global pariah over human rights abuses.

But before jetting out of Washington on Tuesday, Biden welcomed Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the Oval Office.

BIDEN: Mr. President, my friend, my partner, it’s good to have you back in the White House.

Biden said the U.S.-Mexico relationship is vital for many reasons, from the fight against COVID-19 …

BIDEN: To continuing to grow our economies, to strengthening our partnerships and addressing migration as a shared hemispheric challenge.

The two leaders discussed a range of issues, including trade and immigration. The Mexican president heard here through an interpreter.

OBRADOR (translated): It is indispensable for us to regularize and give certainty to migrants that have for years lived and worked in a very honest manner.

Migrants are showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border in record numbers.

The two presidents have their share of differences. Most notably, Lopez Obrardor has called U.S. support for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion a—quote—“crass error.”

CDC on new subvariants, hospitalizations » The CDC is urging Americans to exercise greater caution due to the spread of two offshoots of the omicron variant.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says hospitalizations are rising slowly, but they’re mounting.

WALENSKY: We have seen a doubling in the number of hospitalizations since April.

The new strains, BA.4 and BA.5, are even more contagious than their predecessors.

The agency estimates that B-A-5 now makes up about two-thirds of U.S. infections and it has shown a worrisome resistance to immunity.

But White House COVID Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha says they’ve on top of it.

JHA: We’ve been planning and preparing for this moment. BA.5 is something we’re closely monitoring, and we know how to manage it.

The BA.4 subvariant accounts for another 16 percent of U.S. cases.

U.S. health officials are again urging vaccines and boosters, though it’s unclear how much protection vaccines provide against the latest strains.

Judge blocks AZ’s ‘personhood’ abortion law / MN abortion expansion » A federal judge in Phoenix has blocked a law that would give unborn children legal rights from the moment of conception. WORLD’s Mary Muncy has more.

MARY MUNCY, REPORTER: Arizona’s “personhood” law went into effect the day after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

But U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes ruled the law was too vague. He said abortionists would not know whether they would be prosecuted or for what crime.

The personhood law could also conflict with another law that protects unborn babies after 15 weeks gestation.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, a district court blocked enforcement of several pro-life laws. Among them was a 24-hour waiting period before getting an abortion and an informed consent requirement.

The court said a 1995 state Supreme Court ruling made abortion a constitutional right.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

ISIS terrorist strike » The Pentagon says that one of its drones killed a senior ISIS commander and injured another on Tuesday in northwest Syria.

Military officials insist no civilians died in the operation.

The strike comes only months after the top ISIS leader blew himself up along with several members of his family as U.S. Special Forces raided his hideout.

The White House said the attack "takes a key terrorist off the field” and greatly “degrades the ability of [ISIS] to” operate in the region.

Belarus military drills / Ukraine update » Belarus has launched new military drills along its border with Ukraine, raising concerns that the Russian ally could join Moscow’s forces on the battlefield. WORLD’s Anna Johanson Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: The Belarusian government says soldiers and tactical vehicles will perform drills through this Friday.

The West widely views the government of President Aleksandr Lukashenko to be a puppet regime under the Kremlin’s thumb.

But some experts say the country’s military is ill-equipped for battle and for that reason, may be unlikely to join the fight anytime soon.

Meantime, in Ukraine, a new round of Russian shelling killed at least 16 civilians and wounded nearly 50 more.

Officials in Kyiv say Russian rockets killed nine civilians in mulitple cities in Donetsk province, including Toretsk, where a kindergarten was hit.

Ukraine also raised the death toll from a weekend Russian strike in the country's east to 41.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Sri Lanka lawmakers to elect new president, govt uncertain » In Sri Lanka, lawmakers have agreed to elect a new president. But they struggled Tuesday to decide on the makeup of a new government.

Protesters suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine stormed the president’s house over the weekend demanding a change in leadership.

The president and the prime minister agreed to resign.

Jehan Perera is executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.

PERERA: What people are saying is that if the government doesn’t go, then there will be another show of people’s power. And this time it might not be so peaceful.

Lawmakers have agreed to elect a new president from their ranks one week from today to serve the remainder of the current presidential term. But they have not yet decided who will take over as prime minister and fill the Cabinet.

I’m Kristen Flavin. Straight ahead: what the White House has planned on abortion.

Plus, how to make Christian education accessible.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 13th of July, 2022.

This is The World and Everything in It and we’re so glad you’ve joined us today. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Today is Washington Wednesday, and up first: the White House war with pro-life states.

President Biden came under much criticism from pro-abortion activists. They said he wasn’t doing enough to protect abortion access. Last week, though, the president signed an executive order on abortion.

REICHARD: Biden said he’s directing federal agencies to take multiple steps to maintain access to abortions. Much more on that in a moment.

Additionally, the president is even considering declaring a public-health emergency over abortion access.

BIDEN: That’s something I’ve asked the folks, the medical people in the administration to look at, whether I had the authority to do that and what impact that would have.

That could allow his administration to use taxpayer dollars.

EICHER: He’s also calling on Congress to pass a bill that would codify abortion rights into federal law.

Democrats have congressional majorities theoretically to make that happen, but one procedural hurdle stands in the way: a Senate rule called the filibuster. Overcoming a filibuster requires 60 votes. But getting rid of the rule requires only a majority vote…

That is something some senators are loath to do on the grounds that what goes around comes around—especially in politics.

Well, joining us now to help us understand what all of this might mean is Jamie Dangers. She is Legislative Director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

REICHARD: Jamie, good morning!

JAMIE DANGERS, GUEST: Good morning, Mary. Thanks so much for having me.

REICHARD: Let’s start with the president’s executive order. The order directs federal agencies to fight any state efforts that it says tries to limit a woman’s ability to cross state lines to get an abortion. What is this order really about and what will it actually do?

DANGERS: Yeah, there's a lot of fear mongering going on. And there's a lot in this executive order that points to problems that don't actually exist. For example, no one is actually trying to stop a woman's travel movements. And in some ways, this order sounds like it's very egregious and showing how far the President is willing to go and what he is trying to do. But when you look at what it actually accomplishes, really, he's just telling departments like Health and Human Services to make a plan to do something. So there isn't so much of an immediate effect, but more of an outline of what he is trying to accomplish through the executive branch. And I think to me, one of the really ludicrous parts about the executive order is that the president directs the Department of Health and Human Services to launch outreach and public education efforts so that Americans can know where to go to get abortions. So essentially, he's directing HHS to become the marketing arm of the abortion industry.

REICHARD: The executive order also seeks to ensure access to abortifacient drugs. How so?

DANGERS: Yeah, so they're talking about the chemical abortion drugs that the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, has approved, but they approved it under a safety protocol called the REMS—the risk evaluation and mitigation strategy—because they know that those drugs are actually dangerous, or can be dangerous to the women and girls who take them. So what the administration has been doing already, even before this executive order, is working with the Food and Drug Administration to weaken the safety protocols by allowing these drugs to be available through the mail so that a woman or a girl doesn't have to go in and see her doctor to get screened, which is very dangerous because no one is checking to see if she has an ectopic pregnancy or even how far along she is. Maybe she's got her dates wrong. And they're known to be dangerous drugs. So, several states have already passed laws to strengthen the safety protocols, to make sure that in their state these drugs cannot be made available through the mail. And what Biden is trying to do is preempt some of those life-saving protections that some of the pro-life states have already enacted or are working to do.

REICHARD: Okay, let’s talk now about Biden thinking he’ll declare a public health emergency over abortion access. Can he legally do this? And if so, what would it mean?

DANGERS: Yeah, so public health emergencies are a legitimate thing. But COVID-19 pandemic was a recent example. And, you know, it required the various executive agencies, federal government, state, local, tribal governments to coordinate efforts to try to manage and mitigate what was an emergency. But public health emergencies should be for actual public health emergencies. And again, this is part of the abortion lobby’s fear mongering tactics to try to create a sense of panic when really there is no need for that. It's abortion that has always been dangerous.

They're pushing dangerous drugs. They're pushing deregulation. They're pushing dangerous abortions. And saying those who are trying to protect the unborn and protect their moms are creating a public health emergency. It makes no sense.

REICHARD: Back to President Biden’s calling on Congress to pass a national abortion access law by any means necessary, even if that means using the “nuclear option” to end the filibuster. But right now, Democrats lack the votes needed to make that happen, correct?

DANGERS: Yes, thankfully. So currently, Senate rules are that if they're working to pass legislation, the first step is the cloture vote or what is known as the filibuster, and that is a 60 vote threshold. And that's hard to reach unless it's a truly bipartisan initiative.

Also, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who are both Democrats, are very vocally opposed to ending the filibuster for various reasons. And while Senator Sinema is not a pro-life voter, she's always voted against pro-life bills in the Senate, Senator Manchin often votes pro-life, but both of them still want to protect the filibuster. So that's good news. But also it's interesting because the bill that President Biden is pushing—deceptively called the Women's Health Protection Act and what we around here call the Abortion on Demand Until Birth Act—is actually one that Democrats haven't even been able to get a majority at all, even a simple majority on. They've already voted on it twice and most recently, they had more NO votes than YES votes. So even if the filibuster didn't hold for some reason, they still couldn't get it through this Senate.

REICHARD: Some Democratic lawmakers have proposed establishing abortion facilities on federal lands in pro-life states. Even national parks. Is that likely to happen?

DANGERS: You know, this is something they've been kind of bandying about ever since Texas enacted its heartbeat law in September of last year. But so far, no one has been able to figure out how to do it lawfully, which is great news. There are really good laws on the books preventing federal funds from being used in certain ways having to do with abortion. And the pro-life members of Congress and pro-abortion members of Congress are both studying this right now to try to figure out how strong those protections are and are they enough. We think they are. But we are working to ensure that is the case. However, there are efforts to legislatively make it possible for the federal government to use federal lands in pro-life states. For example, Congresswoman Jayapal of Washington, she leads the Progressive Caucus here in Congress. She has an amendment right now that she's trying to get passed that would allow abortions to happen on military bases using money from the Department of Defense. And both of those things—on military bases and with Department of Defense funds—are prohibited by law. So that's an uphill climb for her, but it's something they're trying. I just don't think Americans—I mean, so far, Biden and members of Congress and those in the executive branch have been stymied in their efforts to do this, but also Americans just don't like the idea of their national parks being used for abortion facilities. I mean, can you imagine an abortion facility right next to Old Faithful? It blows the mind that they would try to get around pro-life state laws by doing something so extreme.

REICHARD: We’ve been talking to Jamie Dangers with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. Jamie, a real pleasure to talk with you.

DANGERS: Thank you, Mary. I really appreciate it.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It, WORLD Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

ARGENTINA PROTESTS— Today’s World Tour begins with protests in Argentina.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Thousands of right- and left-wing demonstrators crowded the streets of Buenos Aires on Saturday to protest the country’s economic struggles.

Argentina is battling with an inflation rate of more than 60 percent, and spiking gas imports are draining already weak foreign reserves.

The government struck a $45 billion debt deal with the International Monetary Fund earlier this year, but many have blamed the agreement for tighter economic policies.

Juan Carlos Giordano belongs to the Socialist Left party.

GIORDANO: [Speaking in Spanish]

He called on authorities to stop all foreign debt payments and invest instead in health, wages, and education. The Saturday protests coincided with the country’s Independence Day celebrations.

CHINA PROTESTS — We head over to China, where demonstrations are far less common.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the People’s Bank of China in the central city of Zhengzhou to march against corruption.

Four banks in the province froze all cash withdrawals since mid-April due to the country’s economic downturn. That left thousands of small savers without access to their funds.

Protesters accused local officials of working with banks to suppress protests. Some participants said security guards beat and wounded some of them.

Responding to the protests, provincial authorities said they will start releasing the funds, beginning Friday.

SEBRENICA GENOCIDE MEMORIAL— Next, to Bosnia.

AUDIO: [Prayers at the cemetery]

Thousands of Bosnians showed up at a memorial cemetery on Monday to mark the 27th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide.

This year, families buried 50 more victims after finding their scattered remains across mass graves in Srebrenica. They include three teenage boys.

The anniversary marks the 10 days of killings in 1995, when Serbian forces slaughtered more than 8,000 Bosniaks. Many of them were young boys.

Emir Suljagic lost his father and brother in the killings.

SULJAGIC: Every next anniversary is somehow more difficult than the previous one, the time takes its toll, and it's not an easy day, I can tell you that much. it's a.. it's not an easy time of the year for any of us, myself included.

ANGOLA FORMER PRESIDENT — We wrap up today in the Central African nation of Angola, where residents mourn former President José Eduardo dos Santos, who died Friday. He was 79.

AUDIO: [Archive of crowds cheering Dos Santos]

Dos Santos assumed office in 1979, four years after Angola gained independence from Portugal. He led a Marxist, single-party government before adopting democracy in 2008. He stepped down in 2017 due to his health.

AUDIO: [Streets of Luanda]

Dos Santos was rarely seen in public but gained a legacy as an iron-fisted leader. He retained control during the country’s civil war, and also distributed the nation’s wealth between army generals and political rivals to ensure their loyalty.

Angola observed five days of national mourning that ends today.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

NICK EICHER, HOST: A married couple from Ohio has some advice for other married couples and with 79 years of experience being married, I’d say we would do well to listen up.

Hubert Malicote told television station WLWT, the love story starts in the teenage years in church.

HUBERT: Right in front of us was a pew full of young girls, and she looked around at me and smiled.

She would be June, now June Malicote. Hubert and June have three children, seven grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren. Their marriage has endured the Great Depression, Hubert’s service in World War II, and now, a pandemic. June says in all those years, the couple never had a single major fight.

JUNE: We’ve never had a quarrel. We’ve never had one quarrel.

Well, nothing too serious. And here’s why. Here’s the advice. Hubert believes in the power of a simple time-out. He says, “If there’s controversy, you might have to walk away for a couple minutes. Then you come back in and change the subject or you work it out.”

Advice that’s certainly stood the test of time: June turns 100 years old today and later this month, so does Hubert!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 13th. We’re so glad you’ve turned 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: Amish exits.

Yesterday we learned about the challenges one family faced when deciding to leave the Amish community. Today, what it’s like to embrace a new community.

Here’s WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson.

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR WRITER: When you ask someone who was raised Amish what it was like to leave that world, get ready. They have lots to say.

DAN: The hardest struggle was to make the decision. I remember literally, physically, my shoulders were sagging. Ah, you mean I will have to leave all my Amish friends and all my reputation . . .

LEVI: Being an Amish, if you tell an Amish man, you're going to do something, you can cash it at the bank. That was something that bit me, because when I came out, I trusted everybody, and I got advantage taken me.

ENOS: I didn't know anything about trucks, nothing about movies, nothing about video games, any of those things, and I found it extremely difficult to make friends. In fact, probably for the first year and a half or so, We really, I really did not hardly have any friends.

KEIM: Nine months into our marriage, she and I both left. And that was the last time we left. 1987. Very difficult time.

LEVI: It took me a long time to actually love my children. Yeah, I liked them, but they were an asset to me. When you grow up in the Amish, you don't have your own money until you're 21. So whatever you could bring in to the table was gained for the family. That's just the way it was.

And when they really get to talking, you might hear a bit of [Pennsylvania] Dutch.

AUDIO: [SPEAKING PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH]

Enos Schrock grew up speaking [Pennsylvania] Dutch. He was in eighth grade when his parents left the Amish church. Leaving the Amish school was the final step in their excommunication.

ENOS: It was recess and I'm just gathering all my stuff together and books and my friends and cousins and stuff are coming by. Some would say a little bit of something. Some would say I'm sorry.

When he was young, he imagined what life would be like as an Englisher. That’s what the Amish call the non-Amish.

ENOS: As a little Amish kid, your dad tells you to go out and clear some brush or something with your axe and hatchet and little handsaw. So you're just sitting out there daydreaming: Man, what would it be like to have like a little chainsaw that's just my size. Or a little four wheeler . . .

Enos’ brother, Andrew, had also fantasized about modern conveniences.

ANDREW: I remember driving my horse and buggy, and it's windy out it's snowing and blowing and wet rain. I come up to a stop sign, and there's a car beside me and there's this lady sitting in there, her hair down. No gloves on. She looks perfectly comfortable, and I'm out here wet, freezing. So I still, when I get in my car and it's nasty out, I say, “Thank you, Lord, for this windshield.”

Their sister, Lydia, was six when her parents decided to turn their backs on their Amish heritage. That also changed their minds about what Lydia could and could not wear.

LYDIA: I went to Goodwill once for like the first time. And I remember I found this really, really colorful dress, like bright colors, like flowers everywhere. And I bought it. I wore it for the first time at church, and I was just like, wow, this is so fun.

And it wasn’t just clothes. It was also the work of cleaning those clothes. Several ladies described a love for their new washing machines.

HERSHBERGER: The washing machines. It really helped me with all my little children. I could really get some wash done and keep them cleaner.

Joe Keim directs Mission to Amish People, a ministry based in Savannah, Ohio. He’s helped thousands of former Amish make the difficult transition to life outside that community, that culture. But he says all the externals of Amish life aren’t really the issue.

KEIM: There's no perfect culture, no perfect church. I could easily stand here and say, you know, you should, in order to be free, you should be able to go to Walmart and buy a pair of jeans, right? They shouldn't have to be homemade.

But he doesn’t say that.

KEIM: At the end of the day, if you understand one thing—driving a horse and buggy, not having any electricity, wearing homemade clothes— as long as you understand that those have no bearing on salvation, they earn you nothing. They don't earn you any more than they earn me if I wear English clothes and drive a car.

Keim believes God is at work in the Amish population. He is hopeful.

KEIM: My burden has always been to share the gospel, and then disciple them. And whether they leave or don't leave is totally besides the point. It's just, are they open to discipleship? And if they really want to grow, they'll need discipleship.

But most do leave in hopes of joining with other like-minded believers. Dan Schrock did. His was the first voice you heard in that litany describing what it was like for him—shoulders sagging—to leave the Amish community.

DAN: It's like going out not knowing what I'm getting to, just like Abraham. But I had a surprise. When we did leave, I found that everyone that believes on Jesus Christ almost felt like my brother. And it was so amazing. I said, “I'm not, I'm not alone.” You know, I thought I'd be alone for quite a good while but no, I did not feel alone.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Central Ohio.

EICHER: If you’d like to learn more about Christian ministry in Amish country, we’ve included a link to Kim’s companion story in WORLD Magazine. You will find the link in today’s transcript and the story online.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 13th. 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. Here’s WORLD founder Joel Belz on making Christian education accessible to more families.

JOEL BELZ, COMMENTATOR: I suggested a few weeks ago that more Christian schools are becoming “elitist.” I should have been ready for the response from WORLD readers and listeners. Now, I wish I had been more precise. The term “elite” in my computer dictionary carries a handful of positive and negative connotations. To be numbered among the “elite” might be a good thing—but it might also be a put-down.

In my recent column, I said the growth of Christian schools over the last generation had exacted, as I put it, “some cost.” That may have been an understatement. The actual cost of enrollment in a Christian school has increased by a multiple of three, four—and probably even more—over the last few decades.

That dramatic increase puts the cost of Christian schooling out of the reach of thousands of middle-class families. Many get through by severe scrimping and saving. The really serious impact, of course, is on low-income families.

Dr. Alan Pue, head of the Barnabas Group Inc., has extensive experience in school administration and consulting. Much of that comes together in his book titled, Rethinking Sustainability. Pue thinks it confuses the issue when I refer to some Christian schools as elitist. He said to me: “As someone has astutely observed, ‘No money, no mission.’ Indeed, fiscal sustainability is a grave challenge for virtually every Christian school.

Pue went on: “No Christian school of which I am aware intentionally intends to create financial barriers… For many families Christian schooling is, however, beyond their financial reach. If we can’t make Christian schooling affordable we’ve still got to find a way to make it accessible.

“Here’s another reality,” Pue told me. “While Christian schools are engaged in both educational and life transformation efforts, at the end of the day they are not unlike a business—they must produce enough money to pay their bills. This is where the evangelical church could make a huge difference.” He suggests they could provide “scholarships for genuinely needy families.”

Pue says too many churches “ignore the reality of …young people who are forced to attend their local public schools….” He bluntly told me he thinks such schools "do more to turn the minds of our kids from Christ than anything other than the media that inundate our kids on a daily basis.”

To counter that trend, Pue produced his newest book this past summer. It’s a followup to his book Rethinking Sustainability. This one is titled Rethinking Discipleship, and it makes the case for why Christian schooling matters to all of us.

Now that sounds more democratic than elite!

I’m Joel Belz.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: NASA’s Webb Space Telescope. We now have the deepest, sharpest glimpse into the distant universe, and we’ll have a report.

And, reaction to the assassination of Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe.

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.

The Bible says: …the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. (Titus 2:11-13 ESV)

Go now in grace and peace.

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