The World and Everything in It: July 19, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. I'm Amity Garwood in Austin, Texas. And my husband and I have four wonderful sons. We're parishioners at Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church, and we just wrapped up our annual Greek festival. Enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! House Republicans pass a bill to fund national defense without social experiments.

TOM COTTON: The military should not be paying for abortion tourism or diversity consultants or sex-change operations.

But Democrats accuse Republicans of making a political issue of it.

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

Also today, news from around the world on WORLD Tour. And part two of our series on bringing dignity to those caught in the tragedy along the southern border.

AUDIO: It's to satisfy the families, because in the Hispanic culture, Latino culture, it's very important to have the bodies back.

And the limits of homeschooling movements. WORLD commentator Janie B Cheaney has some thoughts.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, July 19th. 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: Up next, Kent Covington has the day’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump fed probe » Republicans say the Biden Justice Department has a credibility problem in the wake of news that Donald Trump is the target of another federal criminal probe.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise:

SCALISE: Unfortunately, there’s example after example after example of the Biden administration weaponizing government against their political enemies.

His remarks come after Trump said Tuesday that he received a letter informing him that the Justice Department is investigating him over alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Trump was already facing possible state charges in Georgia on the same matter.

Democrats say they have full confidence in the Justice Department.

Trump overshadows field » And the steady media focus on Trump’s legal woes is casting a large shadow over the rest of the Republican presidential field with candidates finding it hard to get their message out.

Second place GOP challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigned in South Carolina Tuesday rolling out his military policy plans.

He blasted President Biden’s push to transition to electric military vehicles.

DESANTIS: The more and more you inject this type of political agenda into military, you are giving China a competitive advantage.

After speaking, DeSantis fielded four questions … all of them were centered on Donald Trump rather than the governor’s policy proposals.

Russia strikes grain port » Russia launched a fresh attack on the port of Odessa Tuesday, one day after backing out of a wartime deal allowing Ukraine to safely ship grain through the Black Sea.

Moscow claims the attack only hit military targets.

But U.S. State Department spokesman Matt Miller responded:

MILLER - It is clear that Russia continues to use food as a weapon of war. This time, the impact is not only on the people of Ukraine, but also on global food supply and prices.

Turkey and the United Nations brokered the grain deal last summer.

Herzog in DC & protests in Israel » Israeli President Isaac Herzog is on Capitol Hill today where he’ll address a joint session of Congress, marking Israel's 75th year of statehood.

Herzog met with President Biden at the White House yesterday.

Biden: America's commitment to Israel is firm. It is ironclad. And we're committed as well to assure that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon.

Back in Israel Tuesday, protesters packed the streets … denouncing a proposed overhaul of the country’s judicial system.

Herzog told reporters:

Herzog: It's a heated debate, but it's also a virtue and a tribute to the greatness of Israeli democracy. Israeli democracy is sound, strong, is resilient.

Herzog will address Congress at 11 a.m. eastern this morning.

Heat moves east » A massive heatwave already baking the Southwest is creeping eastward.

Austin and Dallas, Texas hit 106 degrees Tuesday.

Little Rock, Arkansas expected to top 100 today.

And National Weather Service forecaster Bob Oravec cautions:

ORAVEC: There is really no end in sight to the large scale pattern that is supporting this Heatwave, as we look forward over the next week or two doesn't look like it's gonna change.

Out West, Arizona has hit at least 110 degrees now 19 days straight.

Philippines drug war » The International Criminal Court says it is reopening an investigation into the Philippines' deadly “war on drugs.” WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: The ICC suspended its original investigation into the matter in 2021 when the Philippines claimed it had launched an internal investigation. But the court now says a domestic probe is not sufficient.

The Philippines government has confirmed more than 6,000 deaths connected to the country’s war on drugs. But human rights groups say the actual number could be twice that amount.

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte withdrew the country from the International Criminal Court in 2019. But the court says it still has jurisdiction over cases involving crimes that allegedly took place before the Philippines withdrew.

For WORLD, I am Josh Schumacher

Lloyd Austin abortion remarks » Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday suggested that China must be happy about Republican efforts to halt taxpayer dollars from funding abortion tourism for service members.

AUSTIN: I would imagine our adversaries would look at something like this and be pretty happy that we create this type of turbulence within our force.

A defense spending bill passed by House Republicans last week would block the Pentagon from paying travel expenses for servicemembers traveling between states to seek an abortion.

American soldier in North Korea » An American soldier is in now North Korean custody after he willfully crossed the border from South Korea during a tour of the Joint Security Area.

The Pentagon says Private 2nd Class Travis King was facing disciplinary action in the United States for an alleged offense. And apparently skipped out on his scheduled flight and fled to North Korea.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin:

AUSTIN: We’re closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldier’s next of kin and engaging to address this incident.

Americans have routinely been held as political prisoners in North Korea for decades.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: The debate over national defense spending priorities. Plus, finding the migrants who go missing.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 19th of July, 2023. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It is Washington Wednesday once again, and today we have the Senate wrestling over defense spending.

When House Republicans last week narrowly passed their defense bill, Democrats accused Republicans of politicizing national defense by injecting culture war issues.

REICHARD: But GOP lawmakers insist that they are instead trying to remove social politics from Pentagon funding. Senator Tom Cotton:

TOM COTTON: The military should not be paying for abortion tourism or diversity consultants or sex change operations. They should be buying the weapons that we need to defend our nation and to support our troops.

REICHARD: The House bill would strip funding for what Republicans say are the radical left-wing social policies of the Biden Defense Department.

EICHER: Joining us now is Victoria Coates. She has senior experience across the U.S. government, including at the White House, where she served as a deputy national security advisor to President Trump.

REICHARD: Victoria, good morning!

VICTORIA COATES: Good morning, Mary.

REICHARD: Let’s talk about some of the controversial policies within the Biden Defense Department. Some of our listeners might not even be aware that they exist. Let’s start with funding for abortion travel. What’s that about?

COATES: It's fascinating. When the Supreme Court decision on abortion came down, that Pentagon issued a memo an official memo declaring their policy to be that they will provide financial support for either service women or female family members of service men to travel to have abortions and recover from them. And this is not something I could have envisioned when working on the NDAA as a as a Senate staffer, 10 years ago, that this would be an issue we would have to confront. But because the administration has so politicized the Pentagon, because they have declared this to be their official policy, I think the Congress had no choice but to respond and say that, that this is intolerable, that this is not a responsible use of US taxpayer dollars going to the Department of Defense, and interestingly, one of the lead co sponsors of that amendment, Dr. Ronnie Jackson, rather, he has been a military doctor for decades. So he has served, he knows exactly what he's talking about. And he says, This is just this is just wrong. This is not the business of the United States military. And just recently, we had Admiral Kirby at the White House podium declaring it the sacred obligation of the Pentagon to provide abortions, which is is just an extraordinary assumption of responsibility, you know, that it's not an option, it's not a choice, as as many like to say about the procedure, but it's an obligation for the US military to do this.

REICHARD: Another thing is funding for transgender procedures. The Biden administration wants taxpayer dollars to pay for that as well?

Well, let's talk about funding for transgender procedures, taxpayer dollars are paying for that, too.

COATES: Yeah, it's been that's, that's what the Pentagon would like is to make gender change procedures available to the military. And Kirby addressed that as well. He said that if you undergo these, these procedures, and you are fit mentally and physically to serve, you can continue to serve. And so again, this is simply not the function of the military. You know, if if a consenting adult wishes to undergo these these procedures, that's their business, but it is not the obligation of the United States military to pay for them. It has nothing to do with war fighting, or defending our nation effectively.

REICHARD: Do you know, Victoria, if the military pays for plastic surgery, for example, I'm trying to think of other kinds of procedures that the military would not cover?

COATES: Right, elective procedures, I think only I mean, obviously, the the military will pay for plastic surgery if you're injured and require it. So that I think is an important distinction, but an elective nose job, or whatever it may be absolutely not, that would not be considered actual health care, it would be considered a choice. And these things are as well and again, have nothing to do with the core mission of DOD.

REICHARD: Something else that Senator Cotton mentioned: diversity consultants and training. What does that mean and what’s changed from the Trump administration to the Biden administration?

COATES: Yeah, this is really a disease that has crept into the military is this entire class of consultants that are currently being hired on the taxpayer dime to come in and improve the social makeup of the military. So it's runs from things that are necessary, like sexual harassment training, which I think is an important safeguard to put into place, to these these wild diversity programs that that you read about, and you think this can't possibly be real, you know, where, you know, white men are required to, you know, sort of shame themselves publicly for their privilege, and others are allowed to describe how white privilege of these of these men makes them feel. And then the requirements to get what they consider to be the proper makeup for the military into place, which can mean that a less capable person because they have a more desirable identity could be promoted. And so we don't have our most capable people doing the most critical tasks of defending our nation, and this has ballooned Mary to the point where I've had service members tell me that huge amounts of their time are taken up going to these programs, which once again have nothing to do with war fighting or keeping our nation safe.

REICHARD: We did see a faction of Republicans tried to cut funding for the war in Ukraine. They didn't succeed in doing that. Victoria, is the divide on that issue growing?

COATES: Well, I think the funding for the war in Ukraine is something the administration has to face. The problem that we have here is we've been at this now for over 500 days since Putin invaded Ukraine for what was supposed to be a three day war. So somebody seriously miscalculated. And the brief that the Congress got with at the time of the original invasion was that our plan was to arm an insurgency and support the Government of Ukraine in exile, which would have been one set of obligations for the US taxpayer. But it became clear, certainly by this time, that last year, if not sooner, that this was no such thing. And we were getting into the position of being the lead donor by leaps and bounds to the Ukrainian military cause, but not just to the Ukrainian military cause, but also to civil society issues in Ukraine. The President said this spring that we're going to put something in the pocket of every Ukrainian. And I think that's when a lot of American head sort of tilted to one side and said, Well, I don't know.

REICHARD: What else did you find noteworthy about the House defense bill?

COATES: I found it noteworthy how strong the bill was that pretty much all of the points raised by the Freedom Caucus, got in there or got out of there. And Speaker McCarthy really held firm on it. And so he deserves a lot of credit. I think there were assumptions going in on the part of the Freedom Caucus that he would probably try to cave or create a watered down bill. And there was really a moment of legislative crisis where that almost happened where he put together what we call a package, a group of amendments that were very middle of the road and noncontroversial and was going to make that the only amendments that would be voted upon there was sort of a revolt on the right, everybody was holding their breath to see if you know if there would be a sort of a movement to undermine the speaker. And cooler heads prevailed and the decision was made that, you know, the American people gave us the majority in the House, and that these are actually common sense ways to get the social issues out of the Pentagon. And so as I said, credit to the speaker for getting pretty much every conservative priority into this, or out of this legislation, and getting it through holding his caucus together enough. And so we now have to wait and see what the Senate cooks up. So that this is far from over. But that was what really caught my attention about about how this bill proceeded.

REICHARD: Now that the debate has shifted to the Senate— do you think the measures can survive that strip funding for things like abortion travel and transgender procedures?

COATES: It'll be interesting to see what the Democrats decide they really want to fight on. And how many of these they want to have a vote on. If they materially alter the bill, then they got to send it back to the house. I mean, we could be playing ping pong for a long time. I've seen it happen before. So you know, they're gonna have to prioritize whether they want to go on record as being the party that wants to spend your taxpayer dollars on abortions, on gender change, on DEI, training? Or do they want to be the party that supports robust, a robust funding for our military to do the job of the military? So I think I think that'll be an interesting question for many of them to answer.

REICHARD: Final question here, Victoria, what are the top bipartisan priorities with regard to defense spending right now?

COATES: Well, I mean, those those actually are pretty positive. There is robust bipartisan support for modernizing our nuclear facilities, all the legs of our nuclear triad, which definitely needs to happen. There is robust bipartisan support for funding for Israel's military, which, you know, has been somewhat in question in recent days because of some statements of some progressive members of the House, but I think very encouragingly, many Democrats have come out and rejected that and supported the funding that goes into the NDAA. So those would be two areas where I think we've been particularly pleased from a Heritage Foundation perspective that we do see, you know, broad majorities in Congress, which means broad majorities of the American people supporting what's in the NDAA.

REICHARD: Victoria Coates has been our guest. She is a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation. Victoria, thanks so much.

COATES: Thank you, Mary.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Nigeria, Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Tunisia-EU migration deal — We begin today’s roundup in Tunisia where some European Union leaders returned this month hoping to stem illegal migrant arrivals.

AUDIO: [Applause]

Leaders from Italy, the Netherlands, and the European Commission signed a strategic partnership agreement with Tunisia on Sunday.

The officials agreed to offer economic aid—including EU funding—to modernize Tunisian schools and boost student exchange programs.

The agreement also targets human trafficking networks.

Here’s European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

VON DER LEYEN: So we will work with Tunisia on an anti-smuggling operational partnership. We will also increase our coordination on search and rescue operations. And we agreed that we will cooperate on border management, anti-smuggling return, and addressing root causes in full respect of the international law.

The European leaders also traveled to Tunisia last month when Von der Leyen first pledged more than $1 billion of EU funding to support Tunisia. EU member countries still have to approve the deal.

AUDIO: [Ongoing migrant rescue]

Tunisia has increasingly become a major departure point for migrants illegally seeking entry into Europe.

On Saturday, a boat that departed from Tunisia’s coastal city of Sfax with dozens of migrants landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

AUDIO: [Flood rescue operations]

South Korea Flooding — We head over to South Korea, where rescue operations are underway.

At least 40 people have died since persistent heavy rainfall began last week.

In the central city of Cheongju, nearly 900 rescue workers searched a tunnel after a flash flood swept more than a dozen vehicles away. At least 13 people died.

The rainfall caused landslides that destroyed homes and buckled roads.

The disaster has destroyed nearly 200 homes and forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate.

AUDIO: [Visit]

On Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited villagers in North Gyeongsang province where a landslide killed at least 19 people.

YOON: [Speaking Korean]

During a government meeting, Yoon called on disaster response teams to mobilize all resources and speed up rescue efforts.

South Korea’s weather agency said some parts of the country will continue to receive heavy rain.

AUDIO: [Flood waters]

Similar heavy rainfall has also wreaked havoc in India over the past two weeks. More than a hundred people have died and thousands of evacuees remain in relief camps.

EVACUEE: [Speaking Hindi]

This evacuee says he took refuge on top of an electricity pillar when the flood waters came before a boat rescued him.

South Asia’s annual monsoon season runs from June to September.

AUDIO: [Iran street sound]

Iran’s morality police — In Iran, police units that check whether women are obeying head-covering regulations are returning to the streets.

Iran’s police spokesman announced the return of the morality police hijab patrols on Sunday.

MAHDI: [Speaking Farsi]

Saeed Montazer-al Mahdi says anyone who disobeys the police warnings would face legal action.

Official morality police operations ceased for months after Mahsa Amini’s death in custody last year sparked nationwide protests.

STUDENT: [Speaking Farsi]

This student says she doesn’t believe police can handle the number of people who now defy the regulation since the protests.

AUDIO: [2023 FIFA chant]

Women’s World Cup — We wrap up today in New Zealand where the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off Thursday.

New Zealand and Australia are jointly hosting the soccer tournament at ten different venues.

The games will begin in New Zealand with a match between the host country and Norway in New Zealand, while Sydney, Australia, will host the final.

AUDIO: [Maori Waka chant]

Teams from 32 nations, including the United States, are competing for the cup.

Carli Lloyd, a former U.S. player, says the American team will have to overcome some challenges to stand a shot at victory.

LLYOD: They do have some injuries, they’ve got some key players that are out due to injury. So, I think it’s going to be really tough, but they definitely have the talent, the depth and all of that to be able to go for a threepeat.

The U.S. team will play its first game on Saturday.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: A man in Kentucky had a hunch and so he started digging on his property one day.

KENTUCKY MAN: This is the most insane thing ever. Those are all $1 gold coins, $20 gold coins, $10 gold coins.

He found hundreds of them, coins from the Civil War era. Most are gold, some are silver, all dating between 1840 and 1863.

KENTUCKY MAN: And look I’m still diggin’ ‘em out. There’s one, two, three, four, five, six, six more.

Dubbed the “Great Kentucky Hoard,” the anonymous man filmed his discovery, finding coins valued at roughly $1,000, some of them worth even more, much more.

Finding these lost coins is competitive business. So you can probably appreciate the anonymity of the man who found it.

But as in the parable of the lost coin, you can’t help but rejoice publicly, even if it’s just a matter of posting a video to YouTube.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 19th. 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: searching for the lost.

A note of caution: this story may be too heavy for younger listeners, so a word of warning to parents. Now might a good time to press pause, because we’re continuing the series we began yesterday on those who die trying to cross the southern border.

Yesterday, we met some of the people working to identify such migrants. Today, WORLD’s Bonnie Pritchett brings us Part Two of that story.

MALE VOICE: [PRAYING IN SPANISH]

BONNIE PRITCHETT, REPORTER: Prayers are rising above the Fortuna Foothills outside Yuma, Arizona. It’s the morning of May 21st. Volunteers with Eagles of the Desert are preparing to search the rocky terrain for the remains of Victor Hugo, a migrant from Pueblo, Mexico.

For protection from the elements, the volunteers wear long pants, boots, and long-sleeve, fluorescent yellow shirts. For success in their search for migrants—living or dead—they seek God’s provision.

AUDIO: [PRAYER]

Eagles of the Desert is a search and rescue organization based in Southern California. They work primarily in the Arizona desert. The group chronicles its work in videos posted to its Facebook page.

AUDIO: [PRAYER, SOUND OF WALKING]

After the amens, searchers don wide-brimmed hats and begin discussing the search routes.

AUDIO: [SOUND OF WALKING]

Migrants who enter the Southwest United States between legal points of entry often risk their lives. In April, when Hugo was reported missing, temperatures had already topped 100 degrees. Water is scarce. So too is mercy. Those who can’t keep up with the group get left behind. That was Hugo’s fate.

Local authorities or Border Patrol will search for migrants reported missing and presumed alive. But neither agency is charged with looking for the dead. Ely Ortiz and Vicente Rodriguez have chosen to carry that burden.

Ortiz’s brother, Rigoberto, and cousin, Carmelo, died in the Arizona desert in 2009.

ORTIZ: [Speaking in Spanish]

Ortiz told me how they died. It’s a sadly familiar tale.

RODRIGUEZ: Then they came in a group and crossed in the Arizona desert. And his cousin ate some cactus that made him sick.

Carmelo couldn’t keep up with the group. So, the smuggler abandoned him.

RODRIGUEZ: The brother was okay. He just stayed with the cousin and that's why he both of them got left behind.

From his home in California, Ortiz tried to mount a search for their remains. He had few volunteers. There was another complication: The bodies were on federal land. Ortiz needed a permit to search.

RODRIGUEZ: We got the permit to start a search on Fourth of July.

After three searches, Ortiz found his brother’s and cousin’s mummified remains.

Their deaths and the months-long search for their bodies compelled Ortiz and Rodriguez to found Eagles of the Desert.

Rodriguez credits the group’s coordinated efforts with rescuing over 500 people since 2012.

But most of their searches are for the dead.

The U.S.–Mexico border is nearly 2,000 miles long. Texas spans most of that shared border. In 2022, Arizona Border Patrol agents encountered 570 thousand migrants. Texas had more than double that.

More migrants inevitably adds up to more lost or dead.

In one South Texas county, Brooks County, Don White is spending his retirement looking for both.

WHITE: I'll just pick an area that I know has been traversed or traveled through before. And you go out in search. Sometimes the family will send me GPS information. There's two, there's two search groups in California that will send me information.

Black ribbons of two-lane highways bisect sparsely populated Brooks County—the deadliest border crossing region in the United States. The remains of 951 people have been found in the sandy scrub land since 2009.

WHITE: I carry extra water to pass out to people I find out the brushes that are still alive. Back in the back is exhumation tools, body bags, three different types of body bags we've got a white which is for...

For almost a decade, White has volunteered with the Brooks County Sheriff’s Department, mostly searching for migrants who died on the vast ranches.

But just as searchers in Arizona require federal permits to access some locations, White needs the ranchers’ permission to search on their land.

WHITE: That's a hard trust to get a hold of. Once they trust me, then they're pretty good with access. But until they do, I may not get access at all. I'm almost nine years into this. And some ranchers I've never met in some of the smaller areas.

White steers his black Jeep off the road and parks on a wide easement. On the other side of the hog wire fence is a layup—a random clump of mesquite and cats claw trees where migrants gather to avoid capture and await their ride north.

WHITE: So, we're gonna go right there. That's they'll, they'll stage up all through these woods, wait for the ride to pull up and then they pile over the fence come over.

It seems everything here has flesh-tearing spikes, including the barbed wire topped fence.

White presses down on that top wire and we cross over. He has the rancher’s permission to enter.

Once over the fence, he points to a spot in the undergrowth strewn with old clothes, empty water bottles, and memories of more somber remains.

WHITE: This lady was with this group. She died while they were waiting for the ride. Nobody would call 911 after they left. Somebody called.

Body parts strewn about by animals can be collected and restored to a family.

WHITE: For the families. It's all for the families. It has nothing to do with deceased persons. It's to satisfy the families, because in the Hispanic culture, Latino culture, it's very important to have the bodies back. Very important.

It was for Ely Ortiz and his family in Oaxaca, Mexico. Rodriguez interprets.

RODRIGUEZ: He says he has more peace after they took the bodies down. And he told his mother, here's, here's the body. Here's your son. And he also told his aunt the same thing. And he said he felt a little bit more, better liberated. Because they had the bodies.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett in South Texas.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 19th. 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. “Movements” of various sorts grip people, for good or for ill. WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney says Christians can fall for misguided movements, too.

JANIE B. CHEANEY, COMMENTATOR: I first heard of Bill Gothard in the late 1980s, when his Advanced Training Institute hosted a discipleship conference nearby and most of my homeschooling friends signed up to attend. ATI was the homeschool outreach of the Institute of Basic Life Principles, founded by Gothard in 1961. I was interested until I heard about the time commitment: three-hour sessions every night and all Saturday, amounting to 20+ hours. Outside of Christ himself, there was no one I wanted to listen to for 20+ hours. After the conference, my friends agreed that they’d learned some valuable points but were creeped out by other aspects of the program, in particular the emphasis on authority, with the ultimate authority assumed to be Gothard himself.

His name wasn’t well known outside Evangelical circles, but the Amazon docuseries Shiny Happy People recently brought Bill Gothard to the attention of a wider public. The four-part documentary examines the Duggar family, whose popular reality TV show ended in 2015 after their oldest son confessed to sexual molestation. I haven’t seen Shiny Happy People, but word is that it makes the Duggars, who followed Gothard’s teachings and whose smiley facade covered a vein of dysfunction, emblematic of Christian homeschoolers everywhere. Not true; homeschoolers have always come in a wide range of lifestyles, both religious and secular.

But one idea promoted by Gothard, and many others, haunted the Christian homeschool movement of the 1980s and 90s: that our children would have a profound effect on politics and culture. That they might even, in the words of at least one conference speaker, “save America.” Shielding our kids from the world’s enticements, giving them Proverbs-based instruction, inspiring them with a mission—that was the ticket. Vision Forum, Generation Joshua, and the Quiverfull Movement were hopeful developments that promised great things. Which made it all the more painful when some of their leaders revealed feet of clay.

I recall our shock when a popular conference speaker who promoted large families and a back-to-land lifestyle left her husband for another man. “If we can’t trust her, who can we trust?” one of my friends cried. Other paragons would fall, brought down by sexual improprieties like Bill Gothard, or financial mismanagement, or overbearing leadership. And in my own circle of eight moms, all of us had children who strayed, at least temporarily, from the “basic life principles” they were taught.

Who can we trust? Jesus.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not built on a foundation of life principles. It’s built on a Person who is less interested in saving America than in saving individual souls. Every Christian parent rightly desires to train up their children in the way they should go, but there’s no foolproof method. To overestimate our best efforts is to underestimate the power of sin in our own hearts, and in our children’s. That’s hard to accept. So is radical grace, but nothing else can save.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: A medication shortage. Many patients are struggling to find the medicines they need …we’ll have a report on what’s gone wrong. And, the conclusion to our three part series on death at the border.

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 Psalmist writes: The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation. Psalm 18, verse 46.

Go now in grace and peace.

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