The World and Everything in It: July 19, 2024

To listen to the complete versions of the Psalm 23 songs included in today's program check out our Spotify playlist.

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like you. Hi, I'm Luke Kelly from Saint Augustine, Florida. This week, I'm at the World Journalism Institute for Young Professionals at North Greenville University. I appreciate how our instructors push us beyond our limits to become better journalists. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! Today on Culture Friday: What is the Republican Party saying to evangelical voters?

NICK EICHER, HOST: John Stonestreet is standing by, and we’ll talk about that and about the law that prompted the richest man in the world to leave California.

Also, a pair of movies debuting today—one in theaters, one on premium cable—both of them on the theme of overcoming adversity.

And later, the Shepherd Psalm set to music.

BROWN: It’s Friday, July 19th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump RNC » Donald Trump last night formally accepted the Republican nomination for president for a third time, delivering his first full speech since a would-be assassin’s bullet very nearly found its mark.

TRUMP: Just a few short days ago, my journey with you nearly ended. We know that. And yet, here we are tonight, all gathered together talking about the future.

He paid tribute to Corey Compratore, the former fire chief who was struck and killed by a bullet intended for the former president. Compratore’s fireman’s jacket and helmet were displayed on stage as he spoke.

For Trump, it was a more toned-down speech than usual, pensive at times, but it still featured familiar campaign mantras and rousing one-liner.

TRUMP: Two things on day one, right? Drill, baby dill, and close our borders! (cheers)

Turning focus to the border, he recounted stories of violent crimes committed by migrants who entered the country illegally.

TRUMP: Tonight, America, this is my vow: I will not let these criminals and killers into our country.

And he vowed the largest deportation in generations.

He touted the accomplishments of his first four years in office, highlighting things like the pre-pandemic economy. On the global stage, he said the world was calmer during the Trump presidency as America projected strength. That, he said, kept Russia at bay. He added that tightening the clamps on Iran helped keep peace in the Middle East.

He promised more of the same in a second Trump presidency.

TRUMP: And the entire world, I tell you this: We want our hostages back. And they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price.

The final day of the convention leading up to Trump’s speech featured a heavy dose of showmanship with performances by country music star Jason Aldean, rock star Kid Rock and even a spirited speech by Hulk Hogan.

Secret Service » Anger is mounting among Republicans over the Secret Service security failure that almost led to the assassination of the former president.

GOP lawmakers this week confronted the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

AUDIO: You owe the people answers. You owe President Trump answers.

Cheatle held a conference call with senators on Wednesday, but Sen. John Barrasso said she simply read talking points and stonewalled lawmakers. 

BARRASSO: She needs to answer those questions, and we thought we might have a chance to discuss them with her last night. Instead, she chose to run away.

The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed her to testify on the security failure on Monday. 

Push to bounce Biden » President Biden is facing a renewed push to pull the plug on his reelection campaign and make way for a younger Democratic nominee.

But the president’s deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters yesterday anyone waiting for the president to drop out…shouldn’t hold their breath.

FULKS: The president has said it several times: he’s staying in this race.

Former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are reportedly among the latest influential Democrats … to privately urge Biden to bow out. That’s according to the Associated Press report yesterday… citing several sources close to the situation.

Bob Newhart obit » Bob Newhart has died after a series of illnesses. The accountant-turned-comedian rose to fame with a smash album and became one of the most popular TV stars of his time.

MUSIC: [Bob Newhart Show theme]

Newhart was a Chicago psychologist in “The Bob Newhart Show” in the 1970s …

MUSIC: [Bob Newhart Show theme]

… and an innkeeper on “Newhart” in the 1980s.

NEWHART: You won’t believe the dream I just had. What is it? I was an innkeeper in this crazy little town in Vermont.

Younger audiences know him as Papa Elf in the 2003 holiday movie Elf. Bob Newhart was 94 years old.

Lou Dobbs obit » Longtime cable TV news host Lou Dobbs has also died.

He was a founding anchor for CNN and later was a nightly presence on Fox Business Network for more than a decade. He was 78.

His death was announced Thursday in a post on his official X account. No cause of death was given.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, singing Psalm 23.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday the 19th of July, 2024. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s time for Culture Friday, and joining us now is John Stonestreet. He’s president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

Morning, John!

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning.

EICHER: Alright, John, well, we just heard news of the closing of the Republican convention, but I want to rewind a bit, back to Monday night

AUDIO: Hello. My name is Amber Rose …

I want to be careful in describing this RNC speaker, but the convention described her as a model and influencer.

The conservative Princeton professor Robby George says it a bit differently. He says if you go to her social media feed, you’ll find that what’s there “is antithetical to the values and virtues the [Republican] Party claims to stand for—and should stand for.”

Some have criticized the overall optics of the convention as moving away from those values and virtues that it’s a big-tent party now.

And with the VP selection, a real break from a free-market emphasis on economics. But I’ll talk about that on another day.

So I’d ask you, John, about the discomfort here for the Christian ordinarily drawn to the Republican Party. Can a Christian be in the party without being of the party?

STONESTREET: Well, I mean, I think that is the question, and let me just say up front that I appreciated Professor Robby George's post about Amber Rose, other than the point where he said, “Go to her social media.” Do not go to the social media feed. Let me just say that definitively. And it's important to note that these incidents that you're mentioning have additional meaning because they happened in the context of a changed RNC platform. This is not a good sign. It is a sign that what a lot of people believed, which is the major pro-life wins, and even pro-faith statements that were made by the Trump administration and the President himself in the first administration were transactional. They were, “I will do this for you. You support me.” And you know what? We got, Roe overturned. That's not a small thing. But that transactional period apparently is over. And this is a way in which Christians should have understood the limits and scope of political involvement and political action for the good that it can do, without thinking that it can do ultimate good, without kind of thinking that someone who does some things on our behalf necessarily is on our side, when you're talking about something that just seems so intrinsically pragmatic as the political process is right now. And so it's going to have to be a rethinking. 

And yet, there still is a real stark contrast morally between these two parties. You know, we had the Biden administration release rules that say Christian families can't really foster unless they sign off into taking their kids to pride parades and using pronouns and so on. We know about the department heads from this administration, men who present themselves and claim to be women and advance things, including the transitioning of children that continues to be promoted by this particular official, despite the rest of the world doing serious backpedaling on it. So there's real and actual harm being done to children from unelected bureaucratic officials running these departments, particularly HHS and the Department of Education. 

But and, you know, in all this too a consideration that I appreciated was one that I saw from pro-life activist Mark Newman, you know, who said, you know, a lot of pro-lifers are rightly concerned by this change in policy that they're seeing from the RNC. But do they attend a church that's ever done anything pro-life ever? In other words, if we expect more from a political party than we do our own church on these very important moral issues, a level of clarity from them that we don't expect from our own pastors, we've got something backwards. 

We’ve said this from the very time that we got the Dobbs decision, that this pushes the debate back to the states, that there's more work now to be done, we're in for another 50 years, at least, or more, and the goal is that abortion becomes unthinkable, not just illegal. And if we think, then, that we can rely on a political party to deliver that, we can't. And so we need to take this relationship, we need a DTR, you know, as they used to say on my Christian college campus. That was shorthand where you would walk around the quad and “define the relationship.” And that needs to be done. It's long overdue, but it definitely needs to be done.

EICHER: John, of course there was a major, major event between now and the last time we spoke … and it was a “where-were-you-when?” moment. So where were you when you first heard of the assassination attempt on the former president and what’d you think?

STONESTREET: I was on a plane, which meant that I got better information than if I were watching live TV, because the clearest information came through X, and I was able to access that, and the live satellite TV on the plane wasn't working, or wasn't there or something. And so these details continued to emerge. And what a surreal moment. You know, I went back this past week with the help of an article that I came across that was really stunning. Until Saturday, we were in the longest span since the assassination of President Lincoln at Ford's Theater, the longest span between attempts on a president or presidential candidate. When you go back in the decades after Lincoln, it's like every 20 years or less that there's an attempt, and really the last one we had was against President Reagan. And that, that hilarious line that he said to Nancy when he came to, “Sorry, honey, I forgot to duck.” I mean, it was just Reagan doing what Reagan did. But it is surreal. And, you know, one of the things that I'm closely watching is, you know, the the response. Now look,  all the calls for unity from the left, from the media left, were quickly abandoned within minutes. 

EICHER: John are we talking about the rhetoric now?

We're talking about the rhetoric specifically, yeah, it was just abandoned so quickly. And the clear double standards, I mean, the hypocrisy, it's just be it's just overwhelming sometimes to watch this and you think really is very little that we can trust from the main sources of information in our culture. But an important consideration is whether there's a sense of gratitude that comes out of this from the President and from the President's supporters. This is a big deal historically, when you think about a leader who escaped something like this. And you know, we obviously live in a system where the potential is far more limited than in other situations in terms of access to real power and things like that. But it is going to be something, I think, to to really watch and to really consider and to pray for. 

And, you know, I think for Christians, it's renewed, as I wrote about this past week, the need for us to talk about God's presence in the world. We live in a secular age, which means the idea of God has to be relegated to the personal and private. And then you have these things that come up which demand that we talk about God's presence. And what we should do is not so much talk about God's intervention, although I think it's clear that there was a providential hand on these events. But recognize that God's hand never leaves the human experience. This is what the Bible describes. That God is present in this world, that he creates, and he is concerned with the affairs of men. And we recognize His providence in this event, which was an incredible dodge, literally, by one, and a dramatic loss for another family in Pennsylvania. And the recognition has to be the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's the response to providence and God's hand and the uniquenesses in which he works that we can't always understand. And I think hopefully that that emerges in the way we talk about it, and also what we see from the President.

BROWN: John, this is slightly related. Now that Elon Musk is on-board the Trump train, he posted on his social media platform X that a new law in California was the “last straw” for him, and he’s moving another of his companies out of the state, specifically Space X.

And it has to do with this: California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that makes his state the first in the nation to keep school districts from requiring staff to notify parents when their children are battling gender confusion.

Forget keeping parents in the loop. Teachers and other staff have to get the child’s permission to reveal that kind of information.

A spokesman for the governor said this law will protect the child-parent relationship by preventing outsiders from intervening in family matters.

If it’s true what happens in California eventually ends up happening in other parts of the country, what are we in for John?

STONESTREET: You I mean, look, you talk about the ability to actually describe something in exactly the opposite terms of what it actually is. This is precisely enabling outsiders and intervening in family matters. And last week, I met a family who's had outsiders, school officials collude together—counselors, administrators, teachers—to interfere between loving parents and their child. These were engaged parents by all indications, loving parents by all indications. And by the way, this was “flyover country,” not California. So, on one level, it's important to realize that what Newsom is doing here is what Newsom does, which is passed this incredibly progressive law, and describe it in some way that actually is factually not true. 

But secondly, this is already happening. In other words, what this law does is basically say you can't, as a school official, without the student's permission, reveal this to their parents. There are school districts we already know of all across America that in practice, are already behaving this way. They're not notifying parents. They're taking students down a road to social transitioning, calling them by different names, using different pronouns. So look, in one sense, this is actually putting in law something that's already being practiced, and not just on the left Coast.

BROWN: John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center and Host of the Breakpoint Podcast. Thanks!

STONESTREET: Thank you, both! 

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, July 19th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a couple of movies debuting today about facing fears and challenging adversity.

Here’s arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino.

COLLIN GARBARINO: First up, the big movie in theaters this weekend is Twisters. It’s kind of like a sequel to the 1996 disaster film Twister, but the two storylines don’t overlap.

In Twisters, Glen Powell plays celebrity storm chaser Tyler Owens.

TYLER OWENS: I’m feeling pretty good, Boone. And if you feel it!

CROWD: Chase it!

TYLER: I said, If you feel it!

CROWD: Chase it!

Playing opposite Tyler is Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kate. A talented scientist who’s hoping to figure out how to prevent tornadoes. Tyler’s intrigued by Kate, but she’s not impressed with his methods.

TYLER: You didn’t say which way we were going yet. Now from what I gather, west we double our chances. East. Well, it’s high risk, high reward.

KATE: Well, go for the reward.

Glen Powell has become a bona fide star, and Twisters is a relatively fun disaster movie. First, the heroes chase the tornadoes, and then we see the tornadoes chase the heroes. But this is the kind of movie that you shouldn’t think about too much. The special effects are pretty cool, but there’s not much attempt at realism and there are plenty of plot holes.

Our next film isn’t as loud or action packed, but it’s more inspiring and more realistic. Young Woman and the Sea arrives on Disney+ today. It's based on the book of the same name by Glenn Stout about the true story of one of America’s earliest swimming celebrities.

RACE ANNOUNCER: On your mark. Ready. [starting pistol]

Trudy Ederle was born in 1905 to German immigrants living in New York City. Back then there weren’t many options for women’s sports. In the first half of the film she struggles to find training on her way to becoming an Olympian at the 1924 games.

Trudy’s mother wants her daughters to learn to swim. These are the days when women still wore full-length bathing costumes. Trudy’s more traditional father is reluctant.

HENRY EDERLE: It’s indecent for a girl. What would people say?

After Trudy finds a coach, she and her team continue to face obstacles from a society that refuses to believe women can compete.

CHARLOTTE EPSTEIN: You know most men believe that women who exercise will harm themselves? That we’re too weak to run, swim, compete. That our hearts will explode.

For viewers not familiar with sports history, some of the bias against women in competition might sound laughable. Did the medical establishment really think women’s hearts would explode if they raced? Yeah, it did. It’s only been about 50 years since men admitted that women could run marathons.

JAMES SULLIVAN: Ladies, there are lifeguards on both ends for your safety, and a medical doctor is standing by.

Athletes like Trudy Ederle helped change people’s perception of what a woman could accomplish.

But we don’t remember Trudy for her pioneering swims in the pool. It’s her open water swims that gained her worldwide fame. Trudy Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel, and the second half of the movie focuses on her desire to attempt that dangerous feat.

TRUDY EDERLE: I leave for the Channel next week. Brittany.

GERTRUDE EDERLE: You are my child. And the thing you love most it… it terrifies me.

Young Woman and the Sea is rated PG. There are a couple of mild bad words, and a brief glimpse of a burly man’s naked backside as he walks out of the water, but for the most part it’s family friendly. Daisy Ridley, who starred in the most recent Star Wars trilogy, plays Trudy Ederle with a delightful mix of innocent joy and pigheadedness.

REPORTER: 7:15 AM. Air is 48 degrees. Water is 61 degrees. Trudy Ederle is in the water swimming the American crawl.

Of course, the filmmakers don’t stay exactly true to real life with Trudy’s story. They change up how she fared at the Olympics to give her a better story arc. They also compress the timeline and embellish some of her difficulties to ratchet up the drama.

BILL BURGESS: Not even Trudy’s strong enough to swim perpendicular to that tide. She’ll be swept out to sea.

I like Young Woman and the Sea quite a bit. The movie is a mostly historical account of one of America’s forgotten legends. It offers sincerity and humor, while depicting an inspiring woman’s determination.

A couple of scenes get close to offering some preachy feminism, but it really was shameful how the sports world treated women back then. This is a classic sports story that will entertain viewers who enjoy watching an underdog overcome adversity.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, July 19th, 2024. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next: the 23rd Psalm. Charles Spurgeon once referred to King David’s most well-known Psalm as the “Pearl of the Psalms.”

Bible commentator Matthew Henry declared it was so full of comfort that Christians would sing as long as the world stands.

EICHER: With that in mind, WORLD’s Paul Butler now with an introduction to a handful of noteworthy musical renditions of the Shepherd Psalm.

MUSIC: [PSALM 23 | CRIMOND]

PAUL BUTLER: The 23rd Psalm from Queen Elizabeth’s 2022 State Funeral. It’s one of the most well known settings of the Psalm—published in the 1650 Scottish Psalter.

BARKER: What I initially think of with this Psalm is funerals…I think that that's wrong, that it not ought to be thought of as a funeral Psalm.

Jeff Barker is a worship leader and retired professor of Worship Arts from Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa.

BARKER: It's not really about death, per se, but it is about the danger that we face in life. And for me personally, I will fear no evil…the idea that we have enemies of righteous living, enemies of living in the path of God. So this Psalm is a Psalm that says to me, “I cannot do this on my own, but God is going to lead me in the paths of righteousness throughout my life.”

Behind John 3:16, Psalm 23 is probably the most memorized passage from the Bible.

BARKER: I think it's most well known because it's so succinct that it's easily held in the memory, and so people hang on to it. It has a journey. It goes from the pastures, through dark trouble, and then a table, and then home to heaven to be with the Lord. So that journey helps it hang in the memory as well.

There are hundreds—if not thousands—of musical renditions of Psalm 23. Some are simple, historic expressions rooted in church tradition like this chanted version by Theopolis:

MUSIC: [THEOPOLIS - PSALM 23]

Canadian musician and television personality Peter Pringle posted his ancient interpretation of Psalm 23 sung in Hebrew and accompanied on an ancient Canaanite lyre:

MUSIC: [THE LYRE OF MEGIDDO, PSALM 23 IN HEBREW]

Most modern renditions of the Psalm are equally contemplative. Jewish artists Miqedem begin that way in their recording, but about halfway through take a more upbeat turn:

MUSIC: [MIQEDEM - PSALM 23]

BARKER: It ends in joy. It ends in “thou anointest my head with oil…and my cup is full, to running over.” It doesn't matter if you spill it. It's just there's plenty. Those images are such hopeful images and we sometimes forget that the Christian journey ends in heaven.

One of the musical gems I discovered this week for the first time was a Gospel-styled selection by People & Songs featuring worship leader Josh Sherman. It begins with Psalm 23 and weaves in the New Covenant blessing of God’s promised Spirit for His children.

MUSIC: [PEOPLE & SONGS FT JOSH SHERMAN - PSALM 23 (I AM NOT ALONE) (LIVE AT LINGER CONFERENCE)]

The words of Psalm 23 are very personal, and devotional. Many of the musical expressions of the Psalm reflect that. But there are also some very moving versions that feature hundreds of voices joining together, like this recording featuring Shane and Shane and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir:

MUSIC: [BROOKLYN TABERNACLE CHOIR - PSALM 23 SURELY GOODNESS, SURELY MERCY SUNG BY THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE CHOIR]

Many memorize Psalm 23 in their youth. Some in Sunday School, others at the knee of parents or grandparents. 

BARKER: My daughter, Hannah, remembers this Psalm because when she stayed overnight with her grandma Doris, Doris would speak this Psalm to her from memory, and she taught it to Hannah. And so I think it's a Psalm that has been taught from one generation to the next, and I certainly hope that when our grandson leaves the farm that he will leave with this Psalm on his lips.

In Luke 24, Jesus tells the religious leaders of His day that He fulfills the Psalms. And Jeff Barker says in Psalm 23, it’s easy to see.

BARKER: It begins with naming him. “The Lord is my shepherd,” and Jesus said that “I am the good shepherd.” So we, right away, are immersed in the presence of Christ. But then suddenly, the Psalm takes this wonderful turn in which we're not only talking about Christ, but we are talking to Christ. “Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the presence…” you cannot journey through this Psalm without being in the presence of Jesus.

In 1982, Sparrow Records released Keith Green’s version of the Psalm. It’s one of Jeff Barker’s favorites. It shaped an entire generation of Christians—returning the church to the simple instruction of Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

MUSIC: [KEITH GREEN - PSALM 23 FROM THE GREATEST HITS, 1982 SPARROW RECORDS]

If you’d like to learn where you can find any of these songs and a few others I wasn’t able to squeeze into this segment, I’ve created a Spotify playlist and have included the link in our transcript and placed it at the end of today’s show notes below.

For WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, it’s time to say thanks to the team members who helped put the program together this week:

Mary Reichard, Emma Perley, David Bahnsen, Daniel Suhr, Emma Waters, Carolina Lumetta, Onize Ohikere, Hunter Baker, Mary Muncy, Cal Thomas, John Stonestreet, and Collin Garbarino.

And a new voice on the program: WORLD Opinions commentator, Elliot Gaiser.

Thanks also to our breaking news team: Kent Covington, Lynde Langdon, Mark Mellinger, Travis Kircher, Lauren Canterberry, Christina Grube, and Josh Schumacher.

And thanks to the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Our producer is Harrison Watters.

Our Senior producer is Kristen Flavin and Paul Butler is Executive producer with additional production assistance from Benj Eicher.

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 LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” —Psalm 18:1

What a mighty God we serve! Be sure and worship Him with brothers and sisters in Christ in church on the Lord’s day.

And Lord willing, we’ll meet your right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

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