The World and Everything in It: July 8, 2026

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

The families of detained Chinese Christians hope one pastor’s release will lead to more.

CHERIE: As a Christian we always hope for a miracle. Cause for Pastor Ezra, we all believe it is a miracle.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on World Tour.

Also today Washington Wednesday: The president turns to an old fight—freedom versus communism. Hunter Baker standing by.

Later: first-time homeowners face an uphill climb.

CORBIN: We made a spreadsheet listing pros and cons of states we're interested in.

EICHER: And WORLD Commentator Bethel McGrew on U.K. compassion—complete with a prison sentence.

MAST: It’s Wednesday, July 8th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

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

SOUND: [Arrival ceremony]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: NATO: Defense spending » An arrival ceremony in Ankara (AHN-kah-rah), Turkey, for President Trump Tuesday, at the start of a NATO summit. And NATO chief Mark Rutte was eager to show the president that allied countries are stepping up their defense spending — something Trump has been calling for for years.

RUTTE: Here in Ankara, I expect nations to present clear, concrete, and credible plans to reach that five percent goal. And the evidence we see so far is impressive.

Rutte said NATO is on the right track, with countries like Germany and others stepping up their defense.

RUTTE: And of course, if one or two still have to be convinced, we have ways to do that.

NATO also showcased military projects worth billions of dollars — an investment Rutte called "money well spent." The deals included some $40 billion for counter-drone defenses, more than $26 billion for air and missile defense, and new surveillance planes to replace NATO's half-century-old radar fleet.

NATO: Trump criticizes over Iran, Turkey F-35s » President Trump is pleased with the progress, though he says more needs to be done. He is not pleased, however, some NATO allies for refusing to help the U.S. during its war with Iran:

TRUMP: Well, I was testing to see whether or not they'd be there, because I've long said that we help them, but I'm not sure that they'd be there for us. And Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down.

Trump struck a warmer chord with the summit's host. He and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan played up their close ties — and Trump said he'll lift U.S. sanctions on Turkey, opening the door to Ankara rejoining the F-35 fighter jet program:

TRUMP: We have a better relationship with Turkey, and Turkey's been, in many ways, much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal. So yeah, it's something certainly we would consider. It's a great plane.

The United States kicked Turkey out of that program in 2019 after it bought a Russian missile-defense system. The idea worries Israel and some U.S. lawmakers, who warn arming Turkey with the state-of-the-art jets could destabilize the region.

NATO: Zelenskyy, Ukraine » Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also addressed NATO leaders. He touted recent strikes by Kyiv against Russia's energy sector.

ZELENSKYY: Just yesterday, Ukrainian drones broke through Russia’s defenses and struck a Russian oil refinery in Siberia, and this is not an exception. It's the new reality. There is no major oil refinery left in Russia that has not been struck by Ukraine.

That alone, he said, is reason enough for Ukraine to be admitted to NATO.

ZELENSKYY: Do you really believe it would be right to leave outside NATO a country and a people with this level of defensive capability?

But he added that Russia's ballistic missiles still pose a significant threat to Ukraine...and called for more US-made Patriot missiles for Kyiv's air defense.

U.S. launches new strikes against Iran » The U.S. has struck Iran again — retaliation for another wave of attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz. WORLDs Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER: U.S. Central Command says its "powerful strikes" hit Iranian military sites and ports — payback, it says, for Iran continuing to terrorize the critical shipping lane.

Qatar says Iran was behind a strike that left a Qatari gas carrier burning off the coast of Oman. Drones or projectiles also struck two other tankers.

Washington also revoked a license that had let Iran sell its oil. Tehra calls the strikes a violation of the fragile truce — and oil prices jumped nearly 3 percent.

The escalation comes at a fraught moment — during the funeral of Iran's slain supreme leader. It puts renewed strain on a ceasefire with peace talks slated to resume soon.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

Robinson hearing update » A Utah judge has cleared the way for the public to see surveillance video of Tyler Robinson at the scene of Charlie Kirk's killing.

Robinson is accused of assassinating the conservative activist last September. Tuesday, Judge Tony Graf ruled the footage is admissible and can be broadcast, over defense objections:

GRAF: Having taken in consideration all factors, the court rules that exhibit twelve point four is admitted into evidence and shall be played in the courtroom and may be broadcast by the media.

David Hull with the Utah Bureau of investigation… testified that video shows Robinson arriving at Utah Valley University hours early, then returning in different clothes, climbing onto a rooftop around the time that the fatal shot was fired… and then fleeing. The rifle used in the shooting was found in nearby woods.

Robinson's lead attorney, Kathryn Nester, pressed Hull:

NESTER: Isn't it fair to say that as of the moment that Tyler Robinson voluntarily surrendered to authorities in Washington County, as of that moment, you all did not know who the shooter was. Is that right? HULL: We had identified a person of interest, but we did not specifically know who the shooter was.

The hearing to determine if the case will go to trial continues, with both families present.

The 23-year-old Robinson hasn't entered a plea. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Ebola update » Congo's Ebola outbreak is only getting worse — and the very people fighting it are threatening to walk away. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: More than 500 people are now dead, out of over 1,500 infected across three eastern provinces — centered in Ituri. Nearly a third of those who catch this strain don't survive, and the World Health Organization calls it one of the deadliest starts to any Ebola outbreak on record.

Now, exhausted frontline health workers say they'll go on strike over months of unpaid wages and missing supplies — even as dozens of them have contracted Ebola themselves. That could gut the response just as clinical trials for a vaccine get underway.

The strain driving this outbreak is called Bundibugyo. It still has no approved vaccine or treatment.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I'm Kent Covington.

Coming up: The families of detained Chinese Christians hope one pastor’s release, will be the first of many. And later, a look at the challenges now facing first-time homebuyers.

This is The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 8th of July.

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

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

It’s Washington Wednesday. Back with us is Hunter Baker. Hunter is a senior fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy. Good morning, sir.

HUNTER BAKER: Good morning.

MAST: Hunter, it feels like more than a week since we talked last, so there’s lots to catch up on. Let’s start with themes from America 250. President Trump used two major speeches over the holiday weekend to say something about what comes next. At Mount Rushmore, he argued there can be no American freedom without American culture. Then, in Washington, he celebrated American power, told the story of a black Union soldier who refused to let the flag touch the ground, and then repeatedly attacked communism. Listen.

TRUMP: Communism is a loser. It always was, and it is right now, it’s a big loser. Look at the people that are promoting it. They are not the people you’re going to follow. In 250 years, the free people of this land have accomplished more with our liberty than any other society.

Hunter, you heard something significant in all of that. What was it?

BAKER: It was very interesting to me that he brought up the topic of communism, obviously. We saw the end of the Cold War, what I sometimes call Project 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it seemed like the issue just receded. The Russians, the Soviet state actually ceased to exist, and Communist China, while keeping the name, embarked upon this big move toward free markets, or at least some sort of a nationalistic market economy. And so it just didn’t seem like communism was a threat anymore, and so people stopped talking about it.

And yet in these past few years we have had this sudden resurgence in the United States of socialists, ardent socialists. Trump is conflating a little bit between socialism and communism, although there’s a lot of family resemblance there, and he is just making the point that this has once again become an issue, and he’s trying to rouse the American people to forcefully reject it.

MAST: So, is the president trying to make anti-communism a central organizing principle of American politics again?

BAKER: I think he is. I think that he is trying to speak to all those Americans who have bad memories of our conflict with communist powers and trying to remind them, do we really want to let this rise again? Do we really want to have this colossal global sort of twilight struggle, which was incredibly significant, involved all this nuclear tension? It was an incredible battle. Do we really want to go backwards? Do we really want to backtrack on human freedom by moving in the direction of some kind of central control of the economy?

EICHER: Well, Hunter, issue two: the ownership society. Trump accounts, as we all know, went online this week. Michael and Susan Dell and Ray and Barbara Dalio, big supporters of the program, they were at the White House this week for the event. And what we know about it is that children who were born from the beginning of 2025 through the end of 2028 receive $1,000 in seed money from the federal government. And I can disclose I’ve got a couple of grandsons who qualify for the program.

More than half a million children, other than those two, reportedly have received the money when the program opened up. Parents, employers, charities, philanthropists can contribute even more to this program. And Hunter, when we were talking about this a few days ago, you said you were really excited about it.

BAKER: Yeah, we’ve moved from an old American model, which was you tried to get a job that would have a pension of some kind, and then you would supplement that with Social Security, and hopefully paid off your house and your car, and then you would retire.

And I think that we’ve moved into something where a lot of people have joined what you might call the investor class, where they’re fully invested in their 401(k), and they get the corporate match and all that stuff. And I think those people are very strongly invested in America, in their country.

And I think that what Trump is trying to do is he’s trying to expand that investor class. $1,000 is obviously not a lot of money, but it’s a start, and it draws people’s attention to what would be possible when that money compounds over a lifetime. So I’m very encouraged. I think that this is an important way to get people invested in the growth of the economy, to really be participating instead of just being spectators.

EICHER: Oh, listen, $1,000 for a toddler. I looked back at that little guy and I said, man, you’re rich.

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting criticism of this pretty serious design flaw: parents putting after-tax dollars into that account, and then the money gets taxed again when it matures and it becomes his own, becomes ordinary income. So for most families, you would look at a 529 or just an ordinary brokerage account that may be a better deal. So on balance, is this a better political idea than it is tax policy?

BAKER: I’m almost positive that that’s true. But what I would say is that this gets the public attention and it gets people invested. I’m sure that there’s going to be a time when they’re going to go back and they’re going to reform this and make it work better than it is.

But I think this is a really great start, and as you can see, some very serious money people, Dell and Dalio, and I’m sure there will be others, have already invested massive amounts of money in this. So I’m very hopeful for what’s possible in the future.

EICHER: Hey, speaking of investments in capitalism, Vice President JD Vance recently dismissed the economic philosophy of the great Milton Friedman, the free-market laissez-faire tradition, and that has brought really quite a response from economists like Larry Kudlow, Stephen Moore, and many, many, many others.

Why does it matter, do you think, Hunter, that the likely future standard-bearer of the Republican Party is speaking ill of Milton Friedman, of all people?

BAKER: Because Milton Friedman is at the very core of what the Republican Party has been for decades. We were talking about the Cold War. Milton Friedman, right in the middle of that. I mean, I thank God that we had the intellectual influence of Milton Friedman.

And read his book. He wrote a couple of popular books, Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose, and those books are easy to understand, and they are excellent.

And one of the points that he made was that it’s not just that capitalism is better in terms of economic growth and generating wealth, but it’s also better in terms of preserving the conditions of freedom. Friedman would point out that in Moscow, you could only buy the party’s newspapers, Pravda, or something like that, or the Workers Daily, whereas in New York City you could buy Pravda, you could buy the communist papers, and you could buy The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times and everything else as sort of an easy demonstration of the superiority of a free and free-market society.

MAST: Well, Hunter, it appears the Platner time bomb finally detonated. A new story came out this week about sexual assault allegations against Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. He denies it, says it’s inaccurate, though he immediately said he and his team needed to regroup and figure out what to do next.

So Democrats are rescinding their endorsements. Even Bernie Sanders called on Platner to quit the race. Now, all of this touched off a fight over who replaces him before he’s even formally left. Progressives say Maine voters rejected the establishment. Moderates say the Platner collapse proves the left should show some humility.

So who wins the replacement fight?

BAKER: It is interesting. This is a great demonstration of the battle that’s going on nationally in the Democrat Party. There is a, I would say, more than progressive group, socialist group, communist group, Platner being one of the members of that group, and they are at war with the more normal members of the Democratic Party, who are pretty liberal to begin with.

But they are arguing that the regular Democratic Party is complacent and compromises and hasn’t pushed far enough, and they are worried that if Plattner goes out, that they will have somebody else come in who will be from the moderate wing of the party. And of course Plattner himself looms large in all this because he has a say about it.

EICHER: Well, in the time that remains, we’ve still got a couple things we need to touch on. No small item: the NATO summit.

Hunter, President Trump is in Turkey for the summit meeting. He’s renewed his complaint that America’s allies are simply not carrying enough of the security burden. So let me just ask you for a prediction on this. Do you think Trump leaves Turkey with a stronger alliance or a bigger rupture in the transatlantic alliance?

BAKER: I think we’re in a time of really serious change. The United States military used to maintain the standard that it was always going to be ready for a major two-front war. In recent years, we have walked back from that standard. I’ve heard ready for 1.5 fronts, or even just one front.

And I think that increasingly the American attention is directed toward Asia and the Pacific, and so he has been fighting to get the other members of NATO to take up more of the slack. The problem is that he’s leaning a lot on power and threats and withdrawing forces and resources that we have previously committed to the defense of that continent.

And the question is, are they going to bridle at what they perceive as a lack of respect or threat, or are they going to find a way to work with him and future American leaders on a new situation? And I think, based on what I hear from the European head of NATO, I think that they are going to work with him. They may not help him out a lot in Iran, but I think that they are going to continue to contribute to their own defense in a bigger way.

MAST: Well, Hunter, briefly, before we go, I want to touch on a story I’m sure we’ll be covering more in the weeks and months to come. But a lot of people were struck this week during the pretrial hearing in the Charlie Kirk assassination case. As evidence was introduced, the judge was visibly shaken at one point by a new video of the killing.

So what do you think will come of this ultimately? Will there be closure, or will the conspiracy theories never dissipate?

BAKER: First of all, I think that all of us were severely shaken. If you had the bad fortune to see the video when it was online, which I did, it was one of the most shocking things I’ve seen in my entire life. And I don’t think I’ll ever have that image out of my head.

But my understanding was that the young man’s family encouraged him to turn himself in. So my presumption is that the evidence is pretty strong, and that this case will bring closure, and that the conspiracies will shut down.

EICHER: Hunter Baker is a senior fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, and our regular Washington Wednesday analyst. Hunter, thanks. We’ll see you next week.

BAKER: Thank you.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour.

The relatives of detained Chinese Christians are hoping that the release of a prominent Chinese pastor will call attention to the others still in custody.

China released Ezra Jin Mingri last week, bringing renewed attention to the government’s crackdown on Christians. Jin leads the underground Zion Church, one of the communist country’s largest unregistered churches with some 10,000 members in 40 cities across the country.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Besides Jin, 17 other church leaders were locked up last October in an attempt to squelch religious activity.

At least eight remain behind bars. Geng Pengpeng who goes by Cherie says her husband Gao Yingjia, who goes by Joshua, was arrested in Beijing.

YINGJIA: Sometimes I feel like time goes really slowly because we count it like day by day. But then when I look back, it's wow, I feel like it's already nine months. So it's just unbelievable. You know, for me, like my feelings I've been having up and downs.

EICHER: In China, new laws enacted last fall restrict online activity for clergy—policing both what is said and what platforms are used for evangelism. The initial charges against the churchgoers were “illegal use of information networks.” About half of the arrested church leaders were released in June. But others now face more serious charges, like fraud and “illegal business operations.”

MAST: Cherie told WORLD it's dangerous for the families to speak out while their spouses are still in custody as they may face government retribution.. But raising awareness is one of the few tools they have.

YINGJIA: The lawyer said, to be honest, we will try our best to help your husband. But as a matter of fact, in China, what the lawyers can do was just really limited, you know. They can just cancel their license and stop their law practicing. So they encouraged us. So as a spouse, as family members, you have to fight to speak out for your spouse's freedom.

She says they marked their 16th anniversary in February, with Joshua in custody. She describes her husband as considerate, sweet, and smart–with a PhD in theoretical physics from Peking University.

She’s tried to explain to their four year old what happened.

YINGJIA: He had lots of questions, he said, ‘Mom, why they took the pastors away in prison? 'Cause all the pastors are good people. They've been helping others.’ That's what he sees and he feels.

Cherie translated for another Zion pastor named Yang Jun. His wife Wu Quiyu  goes by the English name Chloe, and she was arrested in the sweep. Yang’s name was also on the arrest list. But he was traveling in South Korea at the time and has stayed there since. Their two toddlers are living with their grandparents in China. They’re too young to understand what’s happening, but he video calls them every day.

Yang says having a detained spouse means constantly leaning on the Lord, and being open to what he can do.

YINGJIA: So he said he's praying for more faith and strength from the Lord. he's kind of like the holding the pessimistic opinion even before Pastor Ezra was actually freed. So he didn't believe it could happen. So now he's praying for more faith from the Lord.

EICHER: Like the Jin family, Cherie credits President Trump for raising the plight of the Zion families with China’s president Xi Jinping. Cherie says the release of one pastor gives them new hope that more may come.

YINGJIA: As a Christian we always hope for a miracle. It happens. Cause for Pastor Ezra, we all believe it is a miracle. We didn't really, you know, think it would happen in this way, how things happen. So today we still believe in the miracle.

That’s this week’s World Tour.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Quick addendum to the news from Independence Day weekend: The champion hot dog chomper remains the hot dog chomp-champ.

Joey Chestnut won his 18th Mustard Belt at the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest.

Chestnut downed 66 dogs and buns in ten minutes.

For those keeping track ... the finish was ten short of Chestnut’s own world record.

But 16 better than the second-place finisher.

Afterward, he sounded a little disappointed.

CHESTNUT: Man, I got so much room left. ... There’s room for improvement, just like a lotta things. I’m gonna find a way to improve.

Improve? Like by adding dessert?

It’s The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 8th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: First-time homebuyers. Rising housing costs and tougher mortgage barriers are pushing many Gen Zers out of the housing market. Consequently, they also postpone other milestones, like marriage and starting a family.

MAST: But homeownership has long been viewed as a cornerstone of the American Dream. WORLD Senior writer Kim Henderson recently met one young couple who are bucking the trend and putting down roots in their community.

KIM HENDERSON: For 2-year-old Annemarie Lester going up the stairs inside her house is fun.

SOUND: [Child going up stairs]

Her parents, Corbin and Marion Lester, bought the house last year. They’re in their late twenties, and like many in his age group, Corbin thought he would rent indefinitely.

CORBIN: I've always just wanted my own space, for sure, but, I mean, I don't think I really craved homeownership at all until I had a family.

But when he did, Corbin discovered homeownership might be unattainable. These days, it takes an average of 7 years for would-be homebuyers to put together a downpayment.

CORBIN: If you're stuck in that rental, you're never going to be able to save up.

Americans are renting longer than ever, pushing the average age of first-time homebuyers to an all-time high: 40 years old. Affordability is one culprit. Scarcity of houses is another.

For many, the American Dream of homeownership feels increasingly out of reach.

SOUND: [Screen door slamming, birds]

The slam of a screen door is a common sound at the Lester house. Annemarie loves being outside, especially by the kiddie pool.

ANNMARIE: Bubbles, [water sounds], bubbles.

So, how did the Lesters do it? How did they buy a home?

The first thing they did was look outside their area. Montana was just too expensive.

CORBIN: We kind of made a spreadsheet listing pros and cons of a lot of the different states we're interested in, homeschool laws, parenting laws, political views, taxes, and South Carolina was pretty high up there.

They were able to get an 1800-square-foot home with four bedrooms, one bath, and 3.8 acres. But not without compromise.

MARION: When we moved in, this was all the counter space, and there's no counter space right there.

Marion says that’s ok.

MARION: Like well, we can do without this for now, like a bathroom. Originally, definitely on our wish list we wanted two bathrooms, but we can make it work for right now, and that's just fine.

Patricia Conaghan is a member of the Christian Real Estate Network. She says most home shoppers have wish lists.

CONAGHAN: I have yet in my 13 years plus of doing this, had someone say, “I want Formica countertops.” No, no, they want their granite, you know, or quartz.

Part of Conaghan’s job as a realtor is helping first-time buyers understand what their monthly mortgage payment will actually look like before they close. In her state of Louisiana, a major piece of that equation is soaring home insurance costs.

CONAGHAN: It's so expensive that, you know, first time home buyers may have enough for their down payment. But then when they start looking at insurance prices, I've seen where it's basically, you know, added five to $600 more a month on their monthly note.

That’s rough, but Conaghan says families are still eager to plant roots and own their place.

CONAGHAN: They walk in when we're looking at the properties, and the kids are like, Oh, this will be my room. And then the other one picks out their bedroom already, and what color, you know they're going to paint the bedrooms and what they're going to do.

And when they find a house they can afford, there’s nothing like her job.

CONAGHAN: As an agent, it just makes you feel great that you're out there helping someone achieve that, you know, that dream, that American dream.

For the Lesters, homeownership hasn’t been all dreamy. They bought a fixer-upper, and it’s been quite a ride.

CORBIN: We just completely redid all the septic last weekend. We had an excavator. We rented one, and finished on Sunday, at 2 in the morning.

Before that, it was HVAC work under the house. Corbin did it himself.

CORBIN: You can stand up when you get down here, but it’s a bit of a pain…

But having their own place makes the Lesters feel like an anchored part of their church and community. They have space to practice hospitality.

SOUND: [Piano]

And room to raise their daughters, one born right in their new master bedroom.

SOUND: [Baby crying]

They even have land to raise chickens.

CORBIN: That one there with the crazy looking comb, she's a Legbar. She also lays blue eggs. [MARION: Her name is Miss Marmalade.]

Nearly 2 million Gen Z and Millennials failed to form households in 2025, casualties of the tough housing market. That’s individuals who, based on historical trends, would have struck out on their own but didn’t.

CORBIN: Come on downstairs. [Annmarie: Downstairs?]

By God’s grace, the Lesters did.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

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

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

When does a private conversation become a crime?

British lawmakers are weighing a bill that could put some answers to questions of sex and identity on the wrong side of the law. Here’s WORLD commentator Bethel McGrew.

BETHEL MCGREW: The new draft bill pitches itself as protective legislation for vulnerable LGBT individuals, shielding them from so-called “conversion therapy.” But as written, it would be an authoritarian nightmare for British Christians who affirm a traditional sexual ethic. Minister for Equalities Olivia Bailey introduced the bill with a dramatic emotional plea:

OLIVIA BAILEY: We can all agree that nobody deserves to be abused, no matter who you are. But right now, gaps in the law are allowing a very specific form of abuse to occur, abuse driven by the false belief that being LGBT is shameful, by the false belief that it can be forcibly changed…

Bailey goes on to describe sad scenes of assault and harassment. But it is unclear why these actual crimes wouldn’t be covered by preexisting UK laws against, well, assault and harassment. When it comes to what counts as “abuse,” the text of this new bill leaves the possibilities wide open, defining “conversion therapy” as any attempt to change a person’s sexual self-identity. This could include completely consensual therapy sessions between a provider and a patient. And more, it threatens the rights of any concerned parent, teacher, or pastor who might gently try to persuade a boy that he isn’t actually a girl, or persuade a girl that she isn’t actually a lesbian. All that a young person would have to do is claim that this was causing him “alarm and distress,” or “serious harm to his mental health.” And the penalties are harsh: Up to five years in jail, and potentially unlimited fines.

On paper, this bill is technically supposed to cut both ways, also including those who would try to pressure people into embracing these identities. But in practice, everyone knows there will be no accountability for leftist ideologues. Meanwhile, conservative therapists shouldn’t count on a clause supposedly carving out protections for health care providers. The bill only promises such protection “unless the person acts in a way that falls far below the standards reasonably expected of a person in their position.” It’s not hard to guess how these so-called standards will be defined.

Thankfully, a variety of groups are raising the alarm, including non-Christians. Here’s Tim Dieppe from British free speech advocacy group Christian Concern:

TIM DIEPPE: It used to be very few Christian groups were prepared to stand up and say that we shouldn't ban this. But now more secular groups as well are coming up and saying it. The Free Speech Union is opposed to a ban. Sex Matters is opposed to a ban and various other groups like that. So it’s become a more mainstream position as people have understood more what it’s about.

In particular, there is a unified concern about the bill’s specific application to gender-confused people. The irony is that so-called gender transition functions as its own form of extreme conversion therapy. This is not lost on some gay and lesbian activists who are willing to join forces with conservatives, at least for the moment.

It remains to be seen whether the bill will survive the parliamentary review process. Some will support it in the name of compassion. But we recognize those who would be its actual victims. Not just the people whose speech it would suppress, but the lost souls they are trying to help. For WORLD, I’m Bethel McGrew.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Tomorrow: South Africans seek refuge in the safety of the U.S. We’ll have a report. And, how Gettysburg tour guides endure rigorous testing for the love of history. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick 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, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” —1 Corinthians 11:23–26

Go now in grace and peace.

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