The World and Everything in It: July 3, 2026

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Culture Friday, America marks 250 years. But why are Europeans celebrating the U.S. more enthusiastically than many Americans?

NICK EICHER, HOST: John Stonestreet is back and he’ll answer that, and much more.

Also today: A new film features the surprising friendship between Ben Franklin and the preacher who helped shape a nation.

AUDIO: George Whitefield was the revolution.

And George Grant reminds us that America's founding was built on extraordinary ideas—and extraordinary words that brought them to life.

BROWN: It’s Friday, July 3rd. 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: Ukraine-Russia update » In Ukraine:

SOUND: [Rescuers search for missing]

Rescuers in Kyiv search for victims hidden under rubble in a collapsed apartment building. Officials say a massive, 11-hour Russian strike involving some 500 drones and dozens of missiles killed at least 21 people.

Officials say the attack targeted well over a hundred residential buildings in Kyiv.

RESIDENT: [Speaking Russian]

One woman says she managed to take shelter in a parking garage at her apartment building before hearing an explosion. She added that everything was destroyed and people are still trapped under the rubble.

Stéphane Dujarric is spokesman for the UN secretary general. He said Thursday:

DUJARRIC: Any attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, wherever they occur, are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and must stop immediately.

PESKOV: [Speaking Russian]

But that's sounding increasingly unlikely. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Russia plans to intensify pressure on Kyiv to achieve Moscow's goals.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is asking the United States to give Ukraine permission to manufacture Patriot air defense missiles to combat the attacks.

Colorado wildfires and heatwave » Wildfires are ripping across Colorado — and the toll keeps mounting. Six big blazes have charred nearly 130,000 acres, and forced thousands from their homes.

The largest — the Aspen Acres Fire in the south — is zero-percent contained. Whole towns are evacuating.

Governor Jared Polis toured the fire zone Thursday:

POLIS: We're currently tracking somewhere of around 150 plus losses of structures. It's likely more than that.

That number has since risen to at least 180. And with bone-dry, windy weather ahead, the danger is far from over.

Polis said of those forced to evacuate:

POLIS: I hope that many of them are able to return safely to their homes soon, and to those who lost everything they had, know that our friends, our community, our state will be there every step of the way to help them to the extent we can.

On Saturday the Snyder Fire, near the Utah line, turned deadly as three firefighters were overrun by the flames. They deployed their fire shelters as a last resort but were unable to survive.

Venezuela update » In Venezuela, a man trapped for eight days in the rubble of a collapsed shopping mall … is still alive. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

SOUND: [Cheers]

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Crews cheered as rescuers pulled a security guard from the basement of the mall, a rare bright spot after last week’s deadly twin earthquakes.

43-year-old Hernán Gil Flores survived in an air pocket in his guard cabin, as international crews spent about 100 hours tunneling to him, passing food and water to keep him going.

But the wider toll is staggering. Venezuela says roughly 2,300 people are confirmed dead … with more than 11,000 hurt. And nearly 50,000 people are still unaccounted for.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez is under fire, with many Venezuelans calling the response too slow. But the Trump administration is defending her, pointing to decades of underinvestment in infrastructure.

The U.S. has some 900 troops on the ground providing support.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Hiring slows in June » American hiring hit the brakes in June. Employers added just 57,000 jobs — less than half of May’s, and well short of forecasts.

Yet the jobless rate actually ticked down, to 4.2 percent — mostly because more people stopped looking for work.

PNC chief economist Gus Faucher  had expected job gains above 100,000:

FAUCHER: Instead we got a number that was softer than that. But, you know, this isn’t terribly surprising. Growth in the labor force is weak. We just don’t have as many people available out there to work.

That’s the key. America’s workforce is actually shrinking — and Faucher points to tighter immigration controls, and baby boomers retiring in droves.

Paychecks are up about three-and-a-half percent from a year ago — but still lagging inflation.

The soft report could keep the Federal Reserve from hiking rates for now.

Weekend 250 celebrations » Preparations are underway in Washington for celebrating America’s 250th birthday tomorrow. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has that story.

BENJAMIN EICHER: An air show will feature the new Air Force One jet gifted to the White House from Qatar. Organizers plan to set a new Guinness World Record with 850,000 fireworks launched from ten locations around the capital.

But crowds may not be quite so record breaking. Security is tighter this year, with fences and metal detectors surrounding the National Mall and restrictions on coolers and lawn chairs. Portions of the Potomac River will also be closed to boats.

The National Park Service is encouraging visitors to stay hydrated, as temperatures are expected to hit triple digits, with rain expected before the evening’s fireworks. President Trump plans to speak before the 40 minute firework show lights up after 10:30pm.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Coming up, Steve Limkeman reviews a film about a founding father’s friendship. Plus, the words that shaped America.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Friday the 3rd of July.

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

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. It’s Culture Friday. Joining us now is John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Welcome back John! Good to see you, it’s been a minute!

JOHN STONESTREET: Thanks, good to see you both!

BROWN: John, on the fourth of July weekend, it seems appropriately fitting that we start with this story about the Daughters of the American Revolution—and an attempt that was made to restrict the Daughters to Daughters only. Our Harrison Watters was there.

HARRISON WATTERS: The annual meeting is a time for pageantry. But a few hundred of the three thousand plus delegates came ready to get a resolution to the floor for a vote.

STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBER: I think we should practice right now. Ready? One, two, three.

ALL: Second!

At a closed door meeting, members supporting Restoration —wearing black and white—testified to the harms of men in women’s spaces and programs. Other delegates, wearing pink, defended what they called inclusivity.

During the vote, tellers brought paper ballots to the delegates at their seats. After voting, Texas delegate Laura McDonald went down front to ask a question. While there, she says she was offered a second ballot.

MCDONALD: And I said no, I’ve already voted. And then I got to thinking, wait a second, what happens if somebody does that? They get up out of their seat and vote again? That’s all I said…[18:28] and then the next thing I know, they’re saying that they’ve heard that there were people cheating.

The DAR has not replied to multiple requests for comment. McDonald says the leaders called for a revote, and this time each section of delegates came forward to vote on stage.

MCDONALD: And they cut our ribbon to say that we’d voted, and then you drop it in, and then you file back in…and that took a long time.

About three hours, with no breaks. Delegates who left the room could not reenter. After 8pm, the final results came in. Here’s Barbara Wells.

WELLS: There were 981 yes votes for us, and there were 1474 no votes for them. So, that’s that’s how we lost.

McDonald says the results are revealing.

MCDONALD: Is this the restoration of the DAR? Is this the—I hate to say it, but the exposure of the DAR, and we found out today what their true intentions are.

Some are looking elsewhere. Delegate Hanna Jones:

JONES: There’s other lineage societies. This is not the only game in town.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy, another lineage group, last year voted to protect women’s membership, and has invited Southern DAR members to join. But McDonald is encouraging members to hold the line for now. Christine Gordon plans to answer the call.

CHRISTINE GORDON: We have the blood of revolutionaries through our veins, we’re not going to be giving up too quickly.

A special session is planned for October and McDonald hopes it will bring more clarity about how the DAR plans to proceed.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters in Washington.

BROWN: John, this vote was a bit unexpected. What’s the right response when an institution embraces something that simply isn’t true? Is it time to leave—or stay and fight?

STONESTREET:
Listen, now’s not the time at all to back down from what is true. I was really appreciative to see the clarity, for example, in Justice Thomas’s concurrence in the decision that was released this week about boys’ and girls’ sports, where the rest of the justices, rightly so, were trying to address issues of Title IX and issues of equal protection.

Thomas did not miss the opportunity to just say boys with gender dysphoria are not girls, and they never will be. At some level, that is the truth, and you have to stand with the truth.

This is just the way we’re going to go about our business.

There are times when an institution—and I’m just not very familiar with the Daughters of the American Revolution as an institution—but there are times when an institution is lost and the best thing to do is build something better and different. Then there are other times that you stay in it and you fight for the things that actually matter.

The point isn’t about America, and it isn’t about the American Revolution. It’s about claiming the word "daughter." You look at that and think that the absolute level of narcissism required to say that every single thing in the world has to be about me and my identity and my movement is just a remarkable thing to see.

EICHER: So, John, here we are, July 3. Tomorrow is the big anniversary, the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Myrna and I can remember 1976 pretty well, the Bicentennial. Gerald Ford was in office, and it was just a couple years after Watergate. I had enough of an awareness—I was kind of into news as a kid—but there was a real feeling, even though we had a president resign in disgrace. There was a feeling of patriotism. Red, white, and blue everywhere. Lots of flags.

Now it just doesn’t in some ways feel the same today.

Except this was interesting—the Europeans coming over here remarking on social media how much they love America. They show up in World Cup venues with preconceived notions about the country driven by media coverage. They get here and they say, “What a great country this is.” They seem more patriotic than some of our own people.

STONESTREET: Well, listen, hey, I was six months old in 1976.

EICHER: Yeah, so the memories are vivid!

STONESTREET: I mean, like it was yesterday!

But I’ll tell you what I do remember. When you’re young and you’re over at your grandparents’ house, or you’re exploring your own house for the first time, and you come across these knickknacks, there was still an awful lot of Bicentennial stuff laying around.

That is an interesting thing that I hadn’t thought of until you brought up your own memories of it. Without a comparison, I’ve thought we’re certainly not as patriotic as you would expect at a time like this. This is really a big deal.

I suspect it has to do with a number of things.

Number one, we are dealing in the wake of an extended period of time without sustained and significant civic education. That education has to do with not teaching the next generation the history.

You lose identity when you lose story. When you don’t know what story you belong to, then you don’t really know who you are.

When you boil it down to what it means to be an American, what we know about our story is all the bad things. There is a critical-theory overarching narrative that has, I think, dominated how American history has largely been taught, and that’s really going to rob it.

Frankly, I think there was an impulse where many people wanted to have a level of patriotism, and that’s been undermined by increasing partisanship.

To make so many of these things partisan has been a mistake. Certainly from the left, wanting to make any sort of celebration the mark of a partisan identity. But the administration is guilty of making some of this partisan, making some of this about him.

I think that’s a real missed opportunity this time, in this place, and this year, where we really could have recaptured some of what it means to be an American in a really good way.

To me, it’s a real tragic loss.

I have been struck watching European fans experience Buc-ee’s for the first time.

What are they really impressed by?

They’re impressed by the culture. They’re impressed by the civility. They’re impressed by people wanting them to legitimately have a good time and experience middle America.

They’re impressed by the diversity—not racial diversity on a shallow level—but the diversity of interests, the diversity of music, the diversity that you find in one single Buc-ee’s truck stop.

This thing that America has that the rest of the world doesn’t have tells you something we’ve talked about before here. It speaks to the mistake that’s been made when this has been allowed to become so partisan.

I understand where that came from, and I’m not putting all the blame in one direction or the other.

America has always been the strongest in its middle.

The rich civil society, the family, the local communities—the things that have been the product of people taking ownership of their own lives, their own communities, and their own relationships—that’s what Alexis de Tocqueville noticed when he came and wrote Democracy in America a long time ago.

You see this part of America that is unique and unusual when you have a group of individuals who take a sense of identity and a sense of responsibility seriously the way Americans have.

BROWN: John, out of the tall stack of Supreme Court opinions this week, one of the biggest involved boys competing in girls’ sports. Justice Clarence Thomas—and you mentioned him just moments ago—he wrote separately to make a point that was almost startling in its simplicity: boys are not girls. What did you make of all that?

STONESTREET: First of all, if there’s any narrative left that this court somehow is owned and run and managed by Trump, that myth should be off the table.

I’m so glad that we are at least concerned with original intent. I’m actually grateful for that, even though I wish that the ruling would have landed differently given contemporary circumstances.

The other thing I wanted to say is that the decision about men and boys in women and girls’ sports was welcome.

I appreciated Justice Thomas’s flat-out clarity. "Let’s not forget that at the heart of this is that boys are not girls, no matter what."

I think he’s willing to invite more challenges to this narrative that somehow boys with gender dysphoria are, in fact, girls. His willingness to come out and say that up front is actually a big statement.

Kristen Waggoner was very careful and clear to say on CNN and in other places, in the wake of all these sympathetic pieces about this boy in West Virginia who’s now not allowed to participate, "This is not just about competitive advantage. It’s also about safety."

This young man, who is now the target of so much sympathy from the mainstream press, threatened to sexually assault the girls who were in that locker room.

We were told over and over and over this doesn’t happen.

That’s not something the court was asked to address. That’s not something that had to do with equal protection or Title IX.

But I’m grateful that Kristen made a point to let everyone know, "As you’re feeling sorry for this guy, let me tell you what he did."

It’s important to keep in mind that what is really at stake here is the safety and well-being of women. It’s not just about competitive advantage, as important as that is in and of itself.

EICHER: John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. John, thanks!

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, July 3rd.

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: the spiritual roots of the American Revolution.

Earlier this year, the historical drama A Great Awakening explored the friendship between Benjamin Franklin and evangelist George Whitefield … and how that friendship helped shape America’s founding. The film is now streaming on Wonder Project, a new faith-based entertainment platform.

WORLD reviewer Steve Limkeman now with his review.

STEVE LIMKEMAN: A Great Awakening begins with two young men who want nothing to do with religion. Benjamin Franklin finds his father’s candlestick-making unenlightening and dreams of greater things. His father would like him to be a preacher, but Franklin is equally disillusioned at the thought of boring the congregation on Sundays reading sermons by other men. So with his father’s blessing, he apprentices at his elder brother’s print shop – with one admonition:

JOSIAH FRANKLIN: Don’t allow the sun to set on your faith.

Several decades later, the 1787 Constitutional Convention is overshadowed by a struggling nation. Revolutionary War veterans need assistance, children are desperate for food scraps, and political leaders no longer prioritize seeking God in prayer. Though Franklin is troubled by some elements of the convention, he still believes in the power of the printed word, a power that he has passed down to his grandson Benjamin Franklin Bach. Those who appreciate Franklin’s proclivity for proverbs will not be disappointed by this film. When a querulous Alexander Hamilton asks why Franklin has been so quiet in the debate, Franklin quips:

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: I believe, Mr. Hamilton, that he that speaks much, is much mistaken.

The narrative’s real power comes not from the Founders’ fiery philosophical debates, but from Franklin’s friendship with a man of faith: George Whitefield. Perusing some of Franklin’s old documents, his grandson asks, incredulously, how his grandfather could have been friends with a preacher:

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BACH: Was he part of the revolution?

FRANKLIN: Benny, George Whitefield was the revolution.

Franklin’s sensational claim suggests that the Christian revival the colonies experienced in the mid-18th century, historically known as The Great Awakening, created the definitive motive and unique character that led to American independence from Great Britain. And of course the film is not wrong. Principles like “liberty” and “all men created equal” derive their source from their Creator, as is asserted in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence.

A brief window into Whitefield’s childhood claims that he never thought much of the pulpit either. He attends Oxford in 1732 with his sights set on an actor’s stage, inspired by some of Shakespeare’s best lines from Hamlet. But an act of grace by Oxford’s Holy Club changes his trajectory. After redirecting his booming voice to a dramatic reading of Scripture, Whitefield writes home to ask his mother a question.

WHITEFIELD: If as an actor I could make fiction believable, imagine what could happen if I speak the truth from my heart?

Jonathan Blair delivers a powerful performance as the young preacher who set America’s soul on fire. Whitefield’s soaring rhetoric and compelling compassion draw tens of thousands. The movie marvelously brings Whitefield’s thunderous oratory to life; his sermons seamlessly weave together Scripture, ancient and contemporary ethics, harsh rebukes of lukewarm leadership and evocative appeals to the deepest desires of the human heart.

WHITEFIELD: O, does not your dead heart quicken to life at the thought that you were fashioned for such purpose and have yet a part to play in the unfolding kingdom of God!

Franklin studies Whitefield’s Philadelphia sermon to try and scientifically prove that one man’s voice, unaided by amplification, could not possibly reach the masses that turned out for his public preaching. Dumbfounded, he discovers that Whitefield actually could have reached 30,000 in Philadelphia, a number greater than the city’s whole population. Witnessing renewed religious fervor among the populous, Franklin intends to partner with Whitefield to capitalize upon it:

FRANKLIN: The Pennsylvania Gazette is the leading newspaper in His Majesty’s thirteen colonies. It would be extremely effective in communicating your whereabouts to ensure the largest crowds possible and, with it, the largest possible offerings.

In 1770, after 30 years of friendship, Whitefield begs Franklin to take the claims of the gospel seriously. Though Franklin long maintained his skeptical Deism, the colonies’ miraculous deliverance from the world’s most powerful army dramatically deepened his faith. Returning to the contentious Constitutional Convention at the close of the film, Franklin gives a passionate speech invoking the need for the delegates to appeal to the Lord in prayer, to seek the wisdom to forge a lasting government:

FRANKLIN: I have lived, sir, a long time. And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I have seen of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of men.

The film asks all the right questions and delivers powerful arguments for the need for a new birth in Jesus Christ. Benjamin Franklin once popularized George Whitefield’s sermons and journals for profit, inadvertently awakening the nation’s faith in the process. It is my hope that this movie contributes to honor the legacy of George Whitefield and all the Lord accomplished through him.

I’m Steve Limkeman.

EICHER: And one more recommendation for the holiday weekend: we’ve also posted a review of Young Washington at WNG.org. It’s a look at the future president before he became the father of our country … and a thoughtful reflection on what that story still says about America. The review is online at WNG.org. We’ll place a link in today’s transcript.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

As we celebrate America’s Independence Day this weekend, we’re talking with Eric Metaxas about his new book Revolution — This longer interview will dig into what actually happened during the founding, how faith shaped it, and what it all means today. That interview will be available tomorrow, right here in your podcast feed.

BROWN: And now, here’s George Grant with Wordplay for Independence Day. Today, the language of liberty.

GEORGE GRANT: G.K. Chesterton once quipped that America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. Other nations find their identity and cohesion in ethnicity or geography or partisan ideology or cultural tradition. But America was founded on certain ideas—ideas about freedom, about human dignity, about social responsibility.

It was this profound peculiarity that most struck Alexis de Tocqueville during his famous visit to this land at the beginning of the 19th Century. He called it American exceptionalism.

It is noteworthy that this exceptionalism was articulated at its inception with exceptional language. The creedal ideas of liberty enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist Papers, and the Constitution are often framed in eloquent classical rhetoric, rife with exceptional stylistic flourishes.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident.”

“All men are created equal.”

“They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”

“Among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

“We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity...”

“...deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

“Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society.”

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”

“Power is of an encroaching nature, and it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.”

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

In addition, the founding documents marshal an exceptional formal terminology drawn from Western Christendom’s rich historical, philosophical, and theological literary legacy.

There are Latinate terms like arcana, those mysterious or secret bits of information, and desideratum, the needful or desired end; or éclaircissement, the clarification of obscure matters; and obviate, a prescient preventive action; or opprobrium, a harsh criticism or public scandal; and usurpation, the wrongful seizure of authority or power.

There are also innumerable technical legal terms like bill of attainder, a legislative maneuver to sanction without judicial proceedings; and ex post facto, retroactive enforcement; and emolument, the remuneration received for public service; and evince, to indicate or show clearly.

James Madison asserted that “No language is so copious as to supply words and phrases for every complex idea, or so correct as not to include many equivocally denoting different ideas.”

Understanding this, the founders stretched the limits of the English vocabulary using other obscure terms like factious, remonstrate, adventitious, detractable, exigencies, imputation, indissoluble, palliate, venial, promulgate, aphorism, disquisition, odium, votary, and innervate.

If America’s great 250-year-long experiment in liberty is indeed exceptional in the course of human events, it should not surprise us that it was best expressed early on with exceptional language.

Lofty ideas warrant lofty vocabulary.

I’m George Grant.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Now it’s time to name the crew who helped with this week’s programs:

Mary Reichard, David Bahnsen, George Grant, Jenny Rough, Amy Lewis, Jeff Palomino, Cal Thomas, Hunter Baker, Mary Muncy, Lauren Canterberry, Elizabeth Shenk, Albert Mohler, John Stonestreet, Steve Limkeman, and Josh Goniea.

Thanks also to our breaking news crew: Kent Covington, Steve Kloosterman, Travis Kircher, Daniel Devine, and Christina Grube.

And thanks to the guys who are up late so your program is ready early: Tech producers Benj Eicher and Carl Peetz.

Harrison Watters is Washington producer, Kristen Flavin is features editor, Emma Eicher is assistant producer, Lindsay Mast is Producer. I’m Executive Producer Nick Eicher.

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, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, ‘As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.’” —Psalm 2:1-6

He is the King of Kings and His Kingdom endures forever. Find a church that believes that … and experience the hope of Jesus!

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

Go now in grace and peace.

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