The World and Everything in It: July 2, 2026

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Well, you did it!

As our fiscal year came to a close, you—and thousands of others—responded with extraordinary generosity.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Oh, you sure did. Together, you didn't just meet the needs of WORLD's June Giving Drive—you exceeded them.

And that means more sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth, made possible by people who believe it matters.

REICHARD: Whether this was your first gift or one of many over the years, thank you! Every gift was an encouragement. Every gift was a reminder that this work belongs to a community of people who value truth, wisdom, and faithful reporting.

BROWN: So from all of us at WORLD, thank you for making this June Giving Drive an overwhelming success.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Decades after the first men-in-women’s sports controversy, the Supreme Court sides with the girls.

WAGNER: This case was about whether the rule of law remains anchored in objective truth.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Also today, Venezuela’s long recovery.

And, a new abortion law raises alarms for black families.

Later, keeping a spiritual focus while writing books.

LAUBE: If you define success as being faithful, the results are not yours.

BROWN: And King Charles redefines “Defender of the Faith.” Commentary from WORLD Opinions editor Albert Mohler.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, July 2nd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

REICHARD: Time now for the news—here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Iran latest » Diplomats from the U.S. and Iran have been in Qatar this week continuing peace talks — and mediators say they're making progress toward officially ending the war.

The two sides never met face-to-face; Qatar and Pakistan shuttled between them. The biggest sticking point remains the Strait of Hormuz. Iran insists it controls the shipping lanes and can charge tolls; the U.S. and Gulf states refuse.

President Trump told reporters he's upbeat:

TRUMP: They've had very good meetings and we'll see. We hit them very hard for three nights, as you know. But we're getting along very well. So I call it the denuclearization, and it's all taking place. It's all going well.

Still, major questions are unresolved — from nuclear inspections to the fate of Lebanon. Vice President JD Vance says Trump is committed to peace — unless Iran decides otherwise:

VANCE: That's kind of up to the Iranians. If they try to rebuild their nuclear program, if they try to start shooting at commercial vessels again, that's gonna change our calculus. But right now, what the president has said is, "Go and make a deal. Go and negotiate in good faith." And that's what he's empowered us to do.

Two sides agreed to keep talking.

Negotiators have 45 days remaining ahead of a deadline … to reach a final deal on Iran's nuclear program, sanctions and the Strait of Hormuz.

Ukraine-Russia latest » Meanwhile the war between Russia and Ukraine rages on:

SOUND: [Damage in Kharkiv]

Firefighters worked to extinguish flames in Ukraine's Kharkiv region after officials say a Russian glide bomb strike killed a 15-year-old boy. More than 30 additional victims were injured.

At the same time:

SOUND: [Zelenskyy arrives]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Dublin...touting a proposal for Ukrainian and Irish companies to work together to produce drones. Zelenskyy acknowledged that Ukraine has had a rocky history with some European countries like Poland.

ZELENSKYY: But we live now. Now we have one aggressor. Now we have unanimity. And we are defending EU, and we have to think about security for our people, for the future.

Meanwhile the toll of the war is mounting. The Center for Strategic and International Studies projects that more than 2 million are dead, wounded, or missing since Russia invaded mainland Ukraine four years ago. Of that number...the center says well over half are Russian casualties.

New AF1 takes flight » President Trump took to the skies Wednesday for the first time aboard a new Air Force One — a Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar.

The $400 million jet has a fresh look — a navy belly with red and gold stripes … and it enjoys some new luxury touches inside.

Trump shrugged off criticism from Democrats and other critics who called the acceptance of that gift a big conflict of interest.

TRUMP: This was a gift from a country that's treated us very well, and they're an ally of us over in the Middle East, Qatar. And I went to Boeing, I said, "Who has the best one?" They said, "Qatar. There's never been a plane like it."

The jet’s maiden voyage took the president to North Dakota, to tour the new Theodore Roosevelt Library — opening for America's 250th.

It's only a stopgap — as the White House awaits delivery of new planes from Boeing in 2028 or shortly thereafter.

Warsh Fed remarks » The new head of the Federal Reserve may be dashing President Trump's hopes for interest rate cuts this year.

Speaking in Portugal, Fed chair Kevin Warsh said the Fed's job is beating inflation — which usually means keeping rates high, not cutting. In fact, Wall Street now bets on a possible rate hike by September.

WARSH: We're gonna deliver price stability in the US. That's what this committee has signed up to do, and our objective is to do that. The tactics, the strategy, and the rest, that's still to come.

That's a shift. Warsh — appointed by Trump — had pushed for lower rates last year. And Trump has spent months demanding cuts.

Many Senate Democrats who opposed Warsh's confirmation predicted he would wear puppet strings … straight from the Oval Office. But Warsh declared again on Wednesday …

WARSH: We've been an independent central bank for a very long time. We're gonna be an independent central bank at this moment, and you're gonna see no changes on that.

Inflation hit a three-year high this spring on higher fuel prices tied to the Iran war. With those easing, the Fed might hold off on a rate hike — but a cut this year looks to be off the table.

USMCA » The United States does not intend to renew its trade pact with Canada and Mexico in its current form. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports:

KRISTEN FLAVIN: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says he can't recommend keeping the USMCA — short for the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement … without major changes.

The USMCA replaced NAFTA during President Trump’s first term … and covers over a trillion dollars in trade a year.

But it's not dead. The deal stays in force for now — the move instead starts a yearly review, and it could expire a decade from now unless all three countries agree to renew.

The Trump administration wants to shrink U.S. trade deficits and stop other countries — like China — from routing goods through Canada and Mexico. Washington now plans to pursue separate deals; talks with Mexico are already underway, though not yet with Canada.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Victor Willis of Village People dead » Victor Willis — the co-founder of the Village People, and the voice behind "YMCA" — has died at 74.

MUSIC: [“YMCA” by The Village People]

A Baptist preacher's son from San Francisco, he was singing on Broadway when he co-founded the disco group in 1977.

In 2020 “YMCA” was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry as "an American phenomenon."

Willis co-wrote that song and other hits including "Macho Man"...

MUSIC: [“Macho Man” by The Village People]

The group says Willis died this week, after a short but aggressive illness. He was still performing this spring — the last original member onstage.

President Trump paid tribute, saying he'll be "sorely missed."

I'm Kent Covington.

Coming up, the recovery effort in Venezuela. Plus, pastors call attention to the ways the abortion industry targets black women.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 2nd of July.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

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

First up: The Supreme Court’s opinion on men in women’s sports. It’s an older controversy than you may know. Here’s WORLD legal correspondent Jenny Rough.

JENNY ROUGH: One summer, a lifelong tennis player with the name Renee Richards applied to compete in the U.S. Open tennis championship. Richards was good enough to qualify. But the USTA (United States Tennis Association) required a Barr body test, a mouth swab to confirm a player’s genetic sex. Richards refused. Turns out, Renee Richards was previously Richard Raskind.

JULIE KLIEGMAN: So Renee Richards is a transgender woman who successfully sued for her right to compete in the U.S. Open alongside other women.

Julie Kliegman has written a book about Richards, out this summer.

Richards’ lawsuit, filed in New York state court, alleged the USTA’s rule violated state human rights laws and the U.S Constitution’s 14th Amendment, the equal protection clause. The case made national news almost 50 years ago.

KLIEGMAN: This is much earlier, in 1977, than people typically expect that conversations around transgender athletes, particularly at a high level, started. And, you know, that the legal questions surrounding this were being addressed … 50 years ago.

Richards won and was able to play in the U.S. Open against women.

This summer, the issue of men in women’s sports is in court again. At the United States Supreme Court. There were two companion cases: One from West Virginia, the other from Idaho.

West Virginia versus BPJ involves a state law banning males from women’s sports teams. BPJ socially transitioned in third grade, took puberty blockers, and then tried to join girls’ teams. His lawsuit claimed the ban violated Title IX and the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

Idaho has a similar law. In Little versus Hecox, Lindsay Hecox is a male who went through puberty and took female hormones in college. Hecox tried to join the college women’s teams and claimed the law violated the equal protection clause.

When Justice Clarence Thomas questioned Idaho’s attorney in oral arguments in January, for a split-second, I actually thought he was going to mention Richards’ 1977 case.

JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS: Let’s take, for example, an individual male … say, a lousy tennis player … and wants to try out for the women’s tennis team .

I was wrong. Thomas simply used that hypothetical to ask about Title IX. That federal law prohibits discrimination based on sex in the education context.

WILLIAM WAGNER: Eventually when it was amended to include sports … it was in the athletic context.

William Wagner is a constitutional law scholar of the Faith and Freedom Center in Michigan.

The other law at play, the equal protection clause, requires the government to treat similarly situated people in the same manner under the laws. But that does not mean an equal outcome.

WAGNER: I don’t get to play professional basketball and start for the Detroit Pistons just because I want to. And say, Hey, you’re starting all these young, tall guys. … What about us old, short guys? … No, that’s not what the Equal Protection Clause protects.

Wagner filed friend of the court briefs in the cases. He cited a study that set forth empirical data showing biological differences are relevant to safe and fair competition in athletics.

Macy Charles knows this from personal experience. Charles is a volleyball player who had to compete against a man on a women’s team during her college recruitment process. She says the sport of volleyball is different for men and women, in addition to the players.

CHARLES: Women’s volleyball, there’s lots of strategy and placement. Trying to catch your opponent off-guard. Men’s volleyball, it’s all force. …It is very, very dangerous to compete against a man because the ball is coming at your face. … A man’s body is structured differently. His hormones are different. His bone density is different. His muscle capacity is different.

Today, Charles lives in Arizona. On Monday, it became clear the court would issue its opinion in these cases on Tuesday.

CHARLES: I was standing with my husband, and I was like, “The decision is coming out tomorrow.” And he looks at me and he’s like, “Go pack your bags!”

Yesterday morning, she stood outside the Supreme Court, praying with her colleagues from Concerned Women for America. She refreshed the Supreme Court’s webpage on her phone over and over until the decision finally popped up.

CHARLES: I scroll to the holding clause and read those beautiful words, especially where it says, “consistent with Title IX.” Ah, it’s music to my ears. … It was such an incredible moment. We all cheered and hugged.

One consolidated opinion. Two legal questions decided separately. Same conclusion: States can pass laws that ban biological males who identify as females from playing on girls and women’s sports teams.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion. And he began with some sports stats. Prior to Title IX in 1972, about 300,000 high school girls played sports. Today, the number of women athletes has grown more than ten times.

The court held the term “sex” in Title IX means biological sex. Here’s Wagner on the legal importance of that.

WAGNER: There was a deeper question that goes beyond athletics, goes beyond sports. And that was whether the law must conform itself to objective reality or whether objective reality must yield to somebody’s subjective personal identity. And the court said, reality matters. Truth matters. … This case was about whether the rule of law remains anchored in objective truth.

The legal analysis for the equal protection clause question calls for a test known as intermediate scrutiny. As long as the sex-based classifications are substantially related to an important government objective, the laws can stand. The court held that safety and fairness are important government interests.

Back in 1979, Renee Richards was playing in the U.S. Open 35-and-over championship match and beat Nancy Richey pretty handily. Biographer Kliegman on Richards’ shift in mindset that day:

KLIEGMAN: She had a feeling that it wasn’t right, and she felt there was still an advantage to her being trans despite her years of undergoing hormone therapy.

Richards is 91 today … and though we didn’t talk online, Kliegman passed along an email from Richards to me. It said: Before puberty, or during puberty blocking, transgender kids should be allowed to compete. … But not after.

That view aligns with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented on the question of equal protection along with Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. She would have sent the case back to lower court to evaluate the evidence about players who do not experience male puberty.

Justice Kavanaugh, who coached girls’ basketball before being elevated to the court, wrote about the nature and reality of sports. Quote: “Women and girls who play sports care deeply. They … train in the heat and the cold … work out early in the morning and late at night … learn to endure loss with grace … and win with class.”

CHARLES: I feel that so deeply and emotionally. …

Macy Charles again.

CHARLES: I would just spend hours outside learning how to overhand serve. … I had to … do all kinds of speed training, try to increase my vertical another inch, like anything I could possibly do. … And then I finally get to show that off to a college scout and there’s a boy on the other side of the court. … It just destroyed all these things I had dreamed of and worked so hard for.

She’s happy the court recognized that, adding: Every human is worthy of government protection and utmost dignity. But sex matters. Women matter. The way God created us matters.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: helping Venezuela.

Aid organizations are distributing food and setting up hospitals after two massive earthquakes struck the country last week. The confirmed death toll is approaching 2,000. And, with tens of thousands still missing, officials believe that toll will rise as cleanup continues.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Now locals are scrambling to help each other find loved ones in the rubble and distribute supplies. WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY: Albany Morales is driving through her neighborhood in La Guaira. She’s in the same clothes as when she left last week.

ALBANY MORALES: It's all destroyed. I think it's even worse than on the day, in the day of the earthquake.

She passes the mall where her mother used to work. It’s the first time she’s been back.

MORALES: It’s just looks like a, like a horror movie. A friend of mine used to live in that house, and it's on the floor now.

Several of her friends from high school are missing or dead. One had a funeral that she couldn’t attend.

Morales, her mother, and brother were in their apartment when the earthquakes struck last Wednesday. After the shaking eased, they ran down five flights of stairs and outside to find Morales’ father. She forgot to put on shoes. Hours later, they reunited with him outside of a clinic. They sat under its awning for the night.

MORALES: I didn't want to sleep either, so didn't matter to me, because we were just so stressed out, and we were terrified.

The next day, they went back to the apartment. Morales grabbed a pair of shoes and her passport, then they drove 30 miles to stay with a friend in Caracas. It had also been hit, but that house is sturdy.

On Monday, her old boss told her about an interpreting opportunity with a disaster relief organization.

ETHAN FORHETZ: A lot of times, earthquake quakes will happen in places that are a little more remote, not the case here.

Ethan Forhetz is the Vice President of Convoy of Hope. As he drove through town, the first thing he noticed was tents everywhere.

FORHETZ: Those earthquakes were so devastating and powerful. It weakened a lot of structures that didn't come down, and so now people are just concerned about going in, and it could be months before inspections are able to be done to get everybody back into their homes.

Millions of Venezuelans were already relying on aid before the disaster, and the government has been trying to recover from more than ten years of a shrinking economy.

Now, Convoy of Hope and other aid organizations are setting up supply distribution and medical sites in the country.

Morales says her next worry is her diabetic father’s insulin: he has a month’s supply, and she doesn’t know what will happen when it runs out.

But right now, Morales says she’s not sad about the loss of their house or things…

MORALES: We're really thankful to God right now, just because we're alive. We're alive.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Up next, a new Virginia state amendment could have implications for black families.

Racism played a part in the pro-abortion movement during the early days of Planned Parenthood. Now, pro-life advocates hope to convince black voters to reject an amendment that would erode pro-life protections.

WORLD’s Lauren Canterberry has the story.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY: In late May, about 50 people filed into Mount Olivet Church in Richmond. They were not there for a celebration or a service. Instead, they gathered to pray, and discuss a new pro-abortion constitutional amendment.

J.R. Gurley is a pastor in Newport News. He’s also the Virginia ambassador for the Frederick Douglass Freedom Alliance, which co-hosted the prayer breakfast.

J.R. GURLEY: When this particular amendment popped up in Virginia, we knew we had to do something about it immediately.

If approved, the amendment would prevent anyone from “interfering” with a woman’s right to an abortion. That means even parents could not protect their daughters from having an abortion. It would also change the number of medical professionals needed to approve a third-trimester abortion from three to one–and that one could be an abortionist.

Gurley says it would disproportionately affect black families.

GURLEY: It’s entirely reasonable to ask whether this amendment will further reduce the number of black children born in Virginia. Anyone who is looking at this with one eye open and one eye closed can see in the future and say, absolutely.

At the meeting in Richmond, a panel of black pastors and community leaders told attendees about the effects of abortion on black babies.

In 2022, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that black babies are aborted at more than four times the rate of white babies. Meanwhile, only about 18% of Virginia's population is black, but 32% of all abortions performed in the state were on black women.

GURLEY: We discuss disparities in education. We discuss disparities in health care. We discuss disparities in the criminal justice system. We discuss disparities everywhere. So why would we suddenly stop caring about outcomes when it comes to unborn children?

Gurley says those high abortion rates began with the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger. In 1939 she started a project aimed at increasing birth control use among black people, but the program quickly devolved to include abortion.

Gurley and other pro-lifers say abortion has shifted from a moral issue to a political one, making way for pro-abortion policies to receive broad support. According to the Pew Research Center, more than 80% of Democrats believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Just 36% of Republicans believe the same.

In last year’s election, every county and city in the state shifted toward the Democrat party. The same party includes abortion access as one of its key goals and introduced and passed the current amendment.

Bishop Garland Hunt is the president of the Douglass Leadership Institute and spoke at the meeting in May. He says the Democratic party has drawn in many black voters with its focus on human rights and social issues.

GARLAND HUNT: That does resonate with black people because they feel like it’s a certain freedom that we should fight for. We needed freedom from slavery. Now we need freedom for a woman to be able to choose whether to go through with a baby or to terminate the pregnancy.

Hunt said pastors have also shied away from discussing abortion because it is perceived as too political or not politically aligned with their congregations.

HUNT: They allow racial identity and their political identity to supersede their identity with Christ.

Hunt and Garland plan to host more community meetings. They hope the attendees will share what they learn with their friends and family.

HUNT: Our goal is transforming their minds and their hearts to Christ Jesus. If we can transform the mind and transform the thinking, then they will automatically vote the right way.

The new constitutional amendment is set to go before Virginia voters in November.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Canterberry.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Scientists have identified a new dinosaur from Antarctica.

Researchers say a single tail vertebra belonged to a creature called a titanosaur!

Mark Evans is one of the researchers.

EVANS: The very largest of the titanosaurs were titanic, hence the name, and they were the largest ever living land animals.”

The identification came after researchers compared the fossil with more complete remains.

And where did they make this surprising discovery?

Not in Antarctica.

No, they found it in a desk drawer!

The fossil had been sitting there since 1985, labeled simply “large reptile.”

Turns out, sometimes the next big scientific discovery doesn’t require another pricey expedition … just somebody finally cleaning out the desk drawer.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, July 2nd.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a literary agent redefines success for Christian writers.

Many writers pin their hopes on finding the right publisher or agent and when that doesn’t happen, discouragement takes over.

But one agent has a counter-cultural message for Christians in any field, and it has nothing to do with how to make the bestsellers list.

WORLD correspondent Elizabeth Shenk has the story.

ELIZABETH SHENK: Steve Laube is known as “The Dream Crusher” by the writers he has rejected. And he’s rejected thousands of them. He has an instinct for the market, and unapologetically describes himself as “The Simon Cowell of Christian publishing.” It’s his job to have an eye for marketability, but he views this role as a chance to tell writers the honest truth.

LAUBE: Bottom line: there is a commercial and a commerce element to the publishing business, but that's a different question than the creative process and I have to explain that to writers who don't understand that when they come in.

That conflict between the commercial and the creative is where Laube does his best work. And it’s a unique dilemma. As an agent, he’s on the lookout for sales potential. But as a believer, he watches the spiritual toll the rejections can take on authors.

 LAUBE: Writers define success as getting the big book contract and if they don't get that, they stamp their own fire out and they give up. If you define success before you begin as being faithful and as being obedient, the results are not yours. They're never ours in the first place. The results come from the Lord Himself.

Writers need honesty about their work, but they also need a shepherd who understands their temperaments, struggles, and weaknesses—a minister with a literary soul.

Having seen that need firsthand, Laube decided he could be that minister. So he wrote a book of his own—subjecting himself to the same anxieties he sees in others. This May, Laube released a book entitled Sacred Margins: On the Spiritual Life of a Writer, and it has a decidedly pastoral tone. In it, Laube reflects on the consecration of a writer’s call while unmasking common anxieties.

LAUBE: They just don't realize it. Imposter syndrome, the comparison game, the self-doubt that, "Do I have anything to say?" We tend to talk ourselves out of our writing. You put it down and went, "Is this any good? Of course not. It's terrible. I wrote it." Well, that's self-talk, and guess what? It's the enemy talking to you, not God. That's why I say it's obedience to His Word.

And that’s a radical message from an industry gatekeeper. But Laube says that obedience allows a writer to communicate with the reader.

LAUBE:  I wrote something. It was for myself. I read it to you. You've absorbed it. But here's what's happened. You brought your story to my story, and a new story was created. This happens in every book.

It’s a connection Laube experienced when he put his own advice into action. When readers of his book asked how he managed to echo their thoughts, his answer was simple.

LAUBE: I was just faithful to write what I thought was important, what I felt I needed to explore, and it hit you right in the middle of the eyes and made your eyes water. That's incredible, but that's the nature of writing, the communicating process, versus writing on assignment.

That advice caught the attention of the industry. Laube is frequently asked to speak at writers’ conferences—not only to teach writing, but to focus on the spiritual life of the writer.

LAUBE: My first question was, "Well, why me?" What has ever given you that idea that I would have anything to contribute? I realized I had been immersed in this field, in these books for so long, that I had built a reservoir of pure, clean water from God that was keeping my soul cleansed. Not that I have a pure soul, but that I needed to build an aqueduct to become the vehicle to move the water to those who are thirsty, who didn't even know they were thirsty until the water came.

Laube discovered a passion for relating spiritual truths to the art of writing. He calls this desire a “fire in his bones.”

LAUBE: What I say about my creative process may not be the same that happens to someone else. 'Cause for some, the fire in the bones is smoldering. For others, it's a raging, out-of-control fire, and that's where I was. But I didn't know it had been smoldering for 15 years. It was there, but I wasn’t even looking for it.”

When those embers burst out again, Laube obeyed.

LAUBE: I'm not looking for that accolade or that byline. That's not my point. That's not what I'm called to. But I can't stop writing.

That’s called being “uncrushable.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Elizabeth Shenk.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

As Americans prepare to celebrate Independence Day, we’ll remember our nation’s break with the British Crown.

WORLD Opinions editor Albert Mohler says that this year, the Crown itself is making news—and raising an important question about Britain’s Christian inheritance.

R. ALBERT MOHLER: Americans celebrate Independence Day by remembering our break with the British monarchy.

Ironically, this year the Crown itself is offering a reminder of just how much Britain has changed.

King Charles III has announced that he intends to redefine the monarch’s ancient role as Defender of the Faith. To understand why that matters, you have to go back to Henry VIII.

Any way you look at it, Henry VIII was one of the pivotal figures in the emergence of modern Europe. He was larger than life in every sense. An energetic monarch. A brilliant one, too.

When Martin Luther began preaching the Reformation, Henry defended the pope and the Catholic Church. In 1521, the pope rewarded him with the title “Defender of the Faith.” It was a decision Rome would live to regret. Henry eventually broke with the Catholic Church and established the Church of England. Yet the title remained with the crown, passing from monarch to monarch.

Until now.

King Charles says he intends to move beyond serving as Defender of the Faith. Instead, he will “protect the space for faith within the multi-faith nation.” The change is more than awkward language. It represents a rejection of what the title has always meant.

We were warned. Long before becoming king, Charles spoke of dropping the word “the” and becoming simply “Defender of Faith.” He argued that Britain's monarch should embrace all religions rather than Christianity alone. His outlook has long reflected an eclectic spiritual vision influenced by New Age ideas and thinkers such as Sir Laurens van der Post.

His late mother, Elizabeth II, took her Christian commitment seriously, even as the Church of England drifted theologically. Charles accepted the traditional title at his coronation. Now he appears ready to move beyond it.

The larger issue is what this says about Britain itself. The Church of England is in steep decline, with weekly attendance below two percent of the population. Secularism dominates public life, while other religions continue to grow. Faithful Christian congregations remain, but they increasingly bear witness in a culture that has turned away from its own inheritance.

Several years ago, I met with Prince Charles as part of a small group discussing his book on ecology and spirituality. That conversation convinced me this moment was coming.

Which leaves one final question. Where is Henry VIII when you need him? For all his faults, Henry understood what it meant to defend the faith. King Charles now proposes to defend faiths—but not the faith “once for all delivered to the saints.”

FOR WORLD, I’m Albert Mohler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet is here for Culture Friday. And A Great Awakening… A review of the film about the friendship between George Whitefield and Benjamin Franklin. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” —Psalm 1:1-2

Go now in grace and peace.

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