The World and Everything in It — July 2, 2020

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: Good morning!

Police reform advocates want law enforcement agencies to build better relationships with the communities they serve. We’ll take you to some cities where that work is already underway.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also YouTube is censoring medically accurate statements about gender dysphoria in children. We’ll talk to a Christian doctor about why that’s so dangerous.

Plus, a farewell speech from one of America’s most famous generals. It was delivered 58 years ago to the cadets of the United States Military Academy.

And Cal Thomas on the perversity of Supreme Court precedent.

BASHAM: It’s Thursday, July 2nd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Megan Basham.

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

BASHAM: Up next, Kent Covington has the news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: California closes most bars, restaurant dining rooms » California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that he has ordered bars and restaurant dining rooms to close for the next three weeks throughout most of the state. 

NEWSOM: This doesn’t mean restaurants shut down. It means that we’re trying to take activities, as many activities as we can—these mixed activities, these concentrated activities—and move them outdoors. 

The order also applies to the indoor movie theaters, wineries, entertainment centers, zoos, and museums. It applies to 19 counties covering nearly three quarters of the state’s population. 

And Newsom ordered parking lots closed at many beaches to limit overcrowding.

The Democratic governor’s order comes amid a troubling increase of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations across the U.S. Sun Belt. 

Georgia once again shattered its record for new daily reported infections, adding 3,000 cases in one day. 

But the virus is also spreading at a faster pace north of the Sun Belt.

In Oregon, Governor Kate Brown said she’s prepared to enforce a new rule requiring all Oregonians to wear masks in indoor public spaces. 

BROWN: Do we wear face coverings, keep a physical distance and avoid large gatherings? Do we protect ourselves, our families, our grandparents? Or do we pretend that this virus isn’t hiding and lurking among us? 

Kansas residents must follow a similar rule starting Friday.

U.S. government buys up remdesivir supplies » The U.S. government announced this week that it has an agreement to buy up the bulk of remdesivir supplies for the next three months. That is the only drug licensed so far to treat COVID-19. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports. 

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The Department of Health and Human Services said it had secured a half-million treatments through September. That amounts to roughly 90 percent of the drug’s production in August and September.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar said “to the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it.”

But some public health experts are criticizing the move, saying it signals an unwillingness to cooperate with other countries.

In a statement Wednesday, Gilead said its agreement with the United States allows for unneeded supplies to be sent to other countries. The company said it is “working as quickly as possible” to enable access worldwide. But it noted that the United States is seeing a significant rise in COVID-19 cases, while—quote—“most EU and other developed countries have reduced their levels of disease.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin. 

Seattle police clear occupied protest zone » Seattle police cleared out the city’s “occupied” protest zone on Wednesday.  

Officers moved in on the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood around 5 a.m., dismantling tents and roadblocks. 

Protesters who called for defunding the police department had camped in the area for weeks, calling it the Capitol Hill Occupation Protest—or “CHOP.”

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best told reporters…

BEST: Our job is to support peaceful demonstrations. But what has happened here on these streets over the last two weeks—few weeks, that is—is lawless and is brutal, and bottom line, it is simply unacceptable. 

She noted that since the protest occupation began on June 8th, the CHOP area has been the site of four shootings—two of them fatal—“robberies, assaults,” and “countless property crimes.”

Police arrested more than 30 people Wednesday for failure to disperse and other offenses. 

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered the area cleared following the shootings. 

Judge blocks U.S. “3rd Country Asylum Policy” » A federal judge appointed by President Trump has knocked down a cornerstone of the Trump administration’s asylum policy. WORLD’s Leigh Jones has that story. 

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly’s decision halts the so-called “3rd Country” rule.

Kelly said that authorities violated federal rule-making procedures by not seeking public feedback before putting the policy into effect last July. 

The rule denies asylum to people who travel through other countries to reach the U.S.-Mexico border without first seeking protection in those countries.

The impact of Kelly’s ruling is diminished by a coronavirus pandemic-related measure. It allows the government to quickly expel people who cross the border illegally and block asylum-seekers at official crossings. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

British prime minister slams China’s “serious breach” of Hong Kong rights, agreement » In Hong Kong, police arrested hundreds on Wednesday. That as many demonstrators defied a police ban for an annual protest to mark the 23rd anniversary of the former British colony’s handover to China. 

Protesters decried the new so-called “national security” law that bans anything Beijing defines as secessionist, terrorist, or subversive activities.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said the law “constitutes a clear and serious breach” … of the agreement under which the U.K. handed over Hong Kong in 1997. The Chinese government promised Hong Kong would have 50 years of autonomy. 

JOHNSON: It violates Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and is in direct conflict with Hong Kong basic law. The law also threatens the freedoms and rights protected by the joint declaration. 

Johnson said his government will “reintroduce a new route for those with British national overseas status to enter the U.K.” He said they will have “the ability to live and work in the U.K. and thereafter to apply for citizenship.”

Russian voters allow Putin seek 2 more terms » Russian voters this week approved changes to the country’s constitution that could allow President Vladimir Putin to hold power until 2036.

According to election officials, with three-fourths of the precincts counted, 77 percent of voters backed the constitutional amendments. 

But the election was tarnished by widespread reports of pressure on voters and other irregularities.

The amendments would allow Putin to run for two more six-year terms.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: an approach to policing that builds community trust.

Plus, Cal Thomas on judicial inconsistency.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: It’s Thursday the 2nd of July, 2020. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MEGAN BASHAM: And I’m Megan Basham. First up: community policing.

Police-reform advocates are calling for numerous changes in law enforcement. They especially want officers to build more trust with the neighborhoods, towns, and cities they serve. How to actually do that is the more difficult question.

EICHER: One of the most popular suggestions is a strategy known as community policing. At its most basic level, it involves officers collaborating with residents and neighborhood organizations to identify and solve problems together. 

WORLD’s Sarah Schweinsberg talked to leaders in several cities to find out what the strategy looks like in practice. Here’s her report.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: Jani Lewis founded Natalie’s Sisters in 2012. The ministry helps women in Lexington, Kentucky out of prostitution, addiction, and poverty. 

It can be dangerous work, so Lewis reached out to a local police officer for help. 

LEWIS: We don’t know anything about women involved in street prostitution. So he introduced us to another officer who had worked the streets for about 20 years, and he’s the one that helped us get started.

It turned out that some Lexington police officers had been praying for a way to help women stuck on the streets. They were tired of just arresting them.

LEWIS: The police took it upon themselves, one particular officer, to write a proposal for the police department, for a formal partnership to partner with us as part of their community policing program. 

And so, Natalie’s Sisters volunteers began riding along with police at night in an unmarked car. The officers pointed out women who needed help. Then police and volunteers began talking to the women and giving them bags of toiletries and snacks. 

Jani Lewis says over the years, the partnership has changed how many women on the streets view the police. 

LEWIS: They have learned that there are many officers who do care a lot about them… The ladies also trust the officers a lot more.. They’ll stop the police on the street and report crimes and things that they would not in the past because they didn’t have any trust for the officers.

The partnership has also helped change the officers’ perception. Jani Lewis says instead of arresting a woman who might be high or soliciting, police are more likely to write a citation, look for underlying causes, and connect them with resources. 

Officer Michael Jones started working with Natalie’s Sisters three years ago. 

JONES: When you start you know, seeing a humanitarian side and realizing some of these women, you know, they went to college, they have careers, some of them dealt with domestic violence. Now, there’s so much more to them. They all have a back story. 

In north Pittsburgh, law enforcement agencies practice geographic community policing. That’s where police are always assigned to a specific neighborhood. That way they can build relationships with people in a community. 

Diana Bucco is the president of the Buhl Foundation. It works with law enforcement to reform policing in the poorer and racially diverse Northside neighborhoods. 

BUCCO: We’ve got residents and police officers telling us they want the same thing. They want a different relationship that’s anchored in proactive public safety, rather than reactive law enforcement. 

So, in 2018, police established a Public Safety Center in a Northside neighborhood. Bucco says the center became a place where both police and the community come together. 

BUCCO: On the main level, it had community space, and it was designed to be a problem solving hub so that residents could attend training and go to workforce development meetings and a sewing club is actually in this Public Safety Center. So the physical space was designed so that it would invite residents in to solve problems in their lives and see a partnership with the police rather than being considered a police station.

Police also invited residents to join the process of choosing which officers would police their neighborhood.

Bucco says two years later there’s still a long way to go. But surveys show both residents and police are encouraged by the reforms. 

BUCCO: The fact that we haven’t seen protests or violence resulting from from the murder of George Floyd in the north side of Pittsburgh is a significant indicator that the relationship between the police and the residents has significantly improved.

In the small city of Belton, Texas, local faith leaders and police formed the Belton-Clergy Police Partnership. Scott Cox is a member and a volunteer chaplain at the police department. He says the partnership allows the police chief to reach out for prayer and to facilitate conversations. 

COX: There may be a week where officers have to deal with multiple fatalities. And he’ll reach out to the clergy partnership for prayer, possibly for outreach to specific officers. And it also is a way to have liaisons within the community where the clergy can be an avenue for communication. 

Belton police also host Coffee with a Cop at a local restaurant every few months. 

COX: It’s really just an opportunity for citizens to come in and just meet and have conversations with police officers. 

While more departments may start looking for ways to implement community policing practices and mindsets, Lexington police officer Michael Jones says, the responsibility to build trust doesn’t stop with police. They need community members to come alongside them as well. 

JONES: My encouraging words to the public is you are also part of the equation of that community policing. An engaged community is a safer community.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

MEGAN BASHAM: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: social media censorship.

NICK EICHER: Christians and conservatives have long complained that internet giants like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube single them out for censorship because they disagree with their views. Twitter banned an Irish television writer with hundreds of thousands of followers for tweeting, “men aren’t women.”

BASHAM: At first, these incidents were the exception, rather than the norm. But social media platforms are facing more pressure to eliminate anything that goes against the cultural demand for so-called tolerance. And that’s especially true when it comes to criticism of transgenderism.

EICHER: The latest organization red-flagged for “hate speech” is The Heritage Foundation. It ran afoul of YouTube’s content filters with a video taken last year at a summit on protecting children from sexualization. The event featured a discussion with Walt Heyer, a man who used to live as a woman. He now advocates against giving hormone treatments and other medical interventions to children with gender dysphoria.

BASHAM: Joining us now to talk about this is Dr. Jeff Barrows. He’s an OB/Gyn and executive vice president for bioethics and public policy at the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. Dr. Barrows, good morning!

JEFF BARROWS, GUEST: Good morning, Megan. It’s an honor to be with you. 

BASHAM: I’d like to start by asking what about this situation in particular caught your attention. As we noted, this type of censorship isn’t new, although it is increasing. So what about this instance prompted you and CMDA to send a letter of protest to YouTube?

BARROWS: Well, it was six words that Walt said as part of a panel, as you mentioned, on child sexualization. And those six words were describing gender dysphoria as this is a childhood developmental disorder. And in our minds as physicians, we recognize that as science. It certainly is not hate speech. So, when we see YouTube and Google censor this, it’s really astounding to us and it’s almost as if they are trying to prevent young people from learning the truth about gender dysphoria. And that truth is that between 75 and 95 percent of kids that are suffering with gender dysphoria will spontaneously resolve as they go through puberty. So, the best treatment is, in this case, no treatment at all.

BASHAM: It seems like it’s becoming increasingly difficult for doctors who disagree with transgenderism to speak up about it? What are you hearing from CMDA members?

BARROWS: We’re very concerned about the right of conscience in that type of scenario. In fact, the CMDA has been involved in a lawsuit that was settled at the district court level about what we call the transgender mandate and it involved an HHS statement on sex discrimination that was issued in 2016. And that basically said that sex discrimination could be defined as anything having to do with gender identity or even transgender ideology. So, when that came out, we immediately became very concerned that our membership might be required to give treatment to kids or adults that not only do we have a religious objection to, but we have a medical objection to it. Because as Christian healthcare professionals, we practice medicine by Scripture as well as by medical science. And the current transgender ideology is going against medical science.

BASHAM: Do you think this issue could become a litmus test for physicians and other healthcare professionals? I’m thinking not just on social media but for things like jobs or licensing?

BARROWS: I think that’s a possibility, especially at larger institutions. In fact, I am aware of people within university settings and medical schools that have been forced out of their position because they did not agree to participate in treatment of those that have gender dysphoria. So it’s not only a possibility, I know of cases across the country where it’s already happened.

BASHAM: I’d like to turn to a wider perspective. In some sense, it feels like a lot of social media platforms are responding to corporate pressure. We see Coca-Cola, Honda, and other massive companies pulling ad dollars from Facebook and Instagram, for example, if they don’t agree to censor speech. So the platforms comply to protect their bottom line. Is there a way for the Christian medical community to engage on the corporate pressure front?

BARROWS: I would like to say that there was, but we have not been successful to date. I think it’s important for people to understand that this is happening on the basis of ideology and not medical science. And I don’t know how, other than what we have on our website—we have all kinds of resources and medical references having to do with transgender and the proper treatment and the complications. I mean, when you talk about what these kids are put on in terms of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and then eventually the treadmill to engage in sex reassignment surgery. These are very serious issues. They have a lot of complications associated with them. There’s no science to back it up. And so we’re trying our best as an organization of Christian healthcare professionals to fight this on the basis of science. But I am afraid we’re losing the battle.

BASHAM: One last question. It may be a little early to ask this, but have you guys started thinking through how the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision is going to impact your goals and the agenda of your organization?

BARROWS: Yes. As I mentioned, we were involved in one lawsuit against the transgender mandate and that has impacted—the recent Bostock decision has impacted our thoughts on that decision. So we are working with attorneys of both ADF and others that can help us to make plans as we move ahead. Because we do not want to sit back and simply let this happen. We believe it’s very important for us in representing our membership to fight this as much as we can.

BARROWS: Thank you for having me.

NICK EICHER: Here’s ingenuity for you… 

Graduating seniors at Somerset Island Prep in Key West, Florida weren’t about to skip graduation, but neither were they going to violate social-distancing rules.

So they gathered together—wearing caps and gowns, masks and life jackets and wave-runners! 

Each senior rode past an anchored boat where the principal handed the student his or her diploma on a pole. 

Board chairman Todd German said the unconventional event “is a perfect example of the innovative mindset” that defines the school.

BASHAM: Virus or no, I see this becoming a tradition!

EICHER: Where there’s a will, there’s a wave!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: Today is Thursday, July 2nd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MEGAN BASHAM: And I’m Megan Basham. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: another in our occasional series: “Notable Speeches Past and Present.” 

Today we return to May 12th, 1962. The occasion: an award from the United States Military Academy to Retired Army General Douglas MacArthur. It’s the Sylvanus Thayer Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the USMA.

EICHER: General MacArthur was 82 years old when he made what was to be his final appearance at his alma mater. His half-hour, often halting speech to the young cadets, was primarily a memorial to the U.S. soldier. 

In our presentation of his edited comments, we’re featuring his personal reflections on the academy motto: “duty, honor, country.” We have tightened up his delivery pace to make it possible to include more of his oration in the time we have available.

GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR: Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.

The unbeliever will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. But these are some of the things they do: They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation’s defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. 

They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

Duty, Honor, Country.

The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.

But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point.

Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.

Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.

I bid you farewell.

NICK EICHER: Today is Thursday, July 2nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MEGAN BASHAM: And I’m Megan Basham. Next up: Cal Thomas on the latest Supreme Court disappointment for pro-lifers.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: This week we saw quite an irony at the Supreme Court: a Republican-nominated chief justice provided the decisive vote to strike down an abortion law written by a Democrat. 

In killing a Louisiana law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges, Chief Justice John Roberts has re-enforced a longstanding theme: there is no guarantee a judge nominated by a Republican president will decide cases based on the text of the Constitution.

From the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, who called his selections of Earl Warren and William Brennan his biggest mistakes, through George W. Bush, who gave us Roberts, judicial inconsistency has been the consistent pattern. 

Not since Justice Byron White, appointed by John F. Kennedy in 1962, has a nominee selected by a Democratic president gone against the constitutional philosophy of the left. White was one of the two dissenters in the Roe vs. Wade case in 1973. William Rehnquist, who would later become chief justice, was the other.

The Louisiana law was not about the “right” of a woman to abort her child. It was argued instead as a way to protect a woman’s health in the face of botched procedures that have sometimes led to severe medical complications and even their deaths. The justices should watch the documentary about Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who performed abortions on mostly minority women in a filthy environment. A jury convicted him of murdering three babies and involuntary manslaughter in one woman’s death.

In the Louisiana case, NPR noted dissenting Justice Samuel Alito “wrote that the court’s decisions in both the Louisiana and Texas cases are ‘used like a bulldozer to flatten legal rules that stand in the way.’”

Only four years ago Chief Justice Roberts opposed striking down a nearly identical Texas law, but now he cites “precedent” to justify his current position.

Precedent is not always decisive, as previously overturned cases show. The Dred Scott v. Sanford case of 1857 said African American slaves could not be U.S. citizens. It was itself a reversal of precedent and was later undone by, you guessed it, reversing precedent.

It’s fair to call John Roberts the new Anthony Kennedy. He’s the retired justice who sided with his liberal colleagues on social issues, creating rights that are nowhere to be found in the Constitution.

The good news is that abortions have declined in recent years. That’s due to a number of factors, not the least of which is pregnancy help centers offering free care. Sonograms—which some states mandate—are also helping women make informed choices. More states should require them and empower women.

This won’t be the last time the Supreme Court disappoints those of us who are pro-life. We can channel that frustration into increased support for pregnancy help centers. That will have a greater effect than waiting for Justice Roberts to again change his mind.

I’m Cal Thomas.

NICK EICHER: Well, as you just heard, the pro-life movement is still shaken following the Supreme Court ruling. Tomorrow on Culture Friday, we’ll talk more about what to do next—as well as how to think about the movement to take down statues and other monuments.

Also tomorrow, the sequel to last week’s documentary on the Apostle Paul. This one covers the Apostle Peter.

That and more tomorrow. 

I’m Nick Eicher.

MEGAN BASHAM: And I’m Megan Basham.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Romans reminds us, Beloved, never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.

I hope you’ll have a great rest of the day. We’ll talk to you tomorrow!

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