The World and Everything in It - June 10, 2022

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today, we’ll talk about pro baseball players taking an unpopular stand for their faith … and the specter of political violence in our country.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Culture Friday.

Also another summer movie playing to our love for the past. This time, for kids. Well, really, their parents.

And Steve West catches up with singer-songwriter Steven Delopolous of the band Burlap to Cashmere.

BROWN: It’s Friday, June 10th. 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: Time for news. Here’s Kent Covington.

1. House panel investigating Capitol riot holds public hearing »

SOUND: [gavel] The select committee to investigate the Jan. 6th attack on the United States Capitol will be in order.

After nearly a year of investigation, the House panel probing the Capitol riot began laying out its findings last night in its first public hearing.

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards testified, describing the Capitol breach as “chaos” and “something out of a movie.”

EDWARDS: I can’t even describe what I saw. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle.

In video footage played during the hearing, some rioters could be heard responding to Vice President Mike Pence’s certification of the election by chanting “hang Mike Pence.”

SOUND: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!

Vice chair of the investigating panel, Congresswoman Liz Cheney read an account asserting the following …

CHENEY: The president responded with this sentiment—quote—‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence—quote—‘deserves it.’

The committee said former Trump White house staff heard the remarks.

The panel laid the blame for the riot firmly at the feet of Donald Trump. They said the siege was hardly spontaneous but a “attempted coup” and part of his effort to overturn the election.

They played numerous recordings of Capitol rioters who said they believed President Trump asked them to be there.

Republicans on Thursday dismissed the primetime public hearing as a political theater and a distraction from pressing problems. House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik:

STEFANIK: This committee is not about seeking the truth. It is a smear campaign against President Donald Trump, against Republican members of Congress, and against Trump voters across this country.

The House panel will reconvene for further hearings next week.  

2. Lawmakers debate legislation to better protect Supreme Court justices » Hours earlier on Capitol Hill, GOP lawmakers again called for a new law to better protect Supreme Court justices and their families.

This comes after police arrested an armed man near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday. The man said he planned to break into Kavanaugh’s home and kill him.

The Senate has passed a bipartisan security bill, but lawmakers in the House say they want to make some changes. Democratic Congresswoman Cheri Bustos …

BUSTOS: We want to protect our Supreme Court justices. It’s incredibly important that we do that. However, the bill that was sent over by the Senate, we are actually looking to broaden that.

She said the Democrat-led House wants to make sure the bill would also protect others who work at the Supreme Court.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee is accusing the Justice Department of not enforcing laws already on the books. He said protesting outside the Supreme Court is perfectly appropriate, but demonstrating at the homes of high court justices is illegal.

LEE: You should go to prison for years for that, and yet not one criminal prosecution has been brought under that.

One day after the threat on Justice Kavanaugh’s life, protesters were back outside his home on Thursday.

3. Iran removing UN surveillance at nuclear sites » Iran has started ripping down dozens of cameras that allow the UN to at least partially keep watch on the country’s nuclear program.

Rafael Grossi leads the International Atomic Energy Agency—IAEA for short. That’s the UN’s nuclear watchdog.

He said Iran is removing 27 cameras that track Tehran’s uranium enrichment.

GROSSI: This of course poses a serious challenge to our ability to continue working there.

Iranian leaders said 40 cameras will remain active.

But Grossi said the country’s stockpiled uranium could be used to make reactor fuel or nuclear weapons. And Iran’s uranium enrichment is just weeks away from weapons-grade levels.

Iranian leaders have been withholding the camera footage since last year. Some analysts believe that is to add pressure in negotiations.

Talks with Western leaders to reforge the 2015 nuclear deal have been stalled for months.

4. US Military: 5 Marines killed in aircraft crash in desert » A U.S. Marine Osprey aircraft has crashed in the California desert, killing all five Marines on board. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The Pentagon confirmed the crash on Thursday. It happened during a training exercise in a remote area near the Arizona border.

The Osprey is a hybrid airplane and helicopter. It flew in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but some have criticized it as unsafe.

It is designed to take off like a helicopter and then rotate its propellers to face forward and cruise like an airplane.

The aircraft was based at Camp Pendleton in Southern California.

Officials say they have launched an investigation into the cause of the crash.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

5. Biden administration orders millions of vaccine doses for young children » The Biden administration has ordered millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses for small children.

That comes as officials expect the FDA and CDC to sign off as soon as next week on vaccine shots for children under 5.

White House virus response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said Thursday,

JHA: This would mark an important moment in the pandemic. It would mean that for the first time, essentially every American, from our oldest to our youngest, would be eligible for the protection that vaccines provide.

The government allowed pharmacies and states to start placing orders last week, with 5 million doses initially available—half of them shots made by Pfizer and the other half the vaccine produced by Moderna.

Jha said shots could be available for young children as early as the week of June 20th.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: courage in the ballpark.

And singing the language of faith.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Friday, June 10th, 2022.

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.

John Stonestreet is away this week and so we’ll bring in Andrew Walker.

He’s a professor of Christian ethics and apologetics at Southern Seminary and managing editor of WORLD Opinions. Hey there, Andrew, good morning!

ANDREW WALKER, GUEST: Nick and Myrna, good morning to you both.

BROWN: Andrew, I'm sure you're aware that June is so-called National Pride Month. In observance, the Tampa Bay Rays' logo got a rainbow makeover for Pride Night at one of their recent games.

Nearly every Tampa Bay player who took the field against the White Sox did so with that rainbow-colored sunburst logo patch on his right arm and on his cap.

But five Rays pitchers said no, peeled off the logo, and wore the team's standard uniform.

One of those courageous pitchers, Jason Adam put it this way, "We all want them to know they are welcome and loved here, but we don't want to encourage this lifestyle if we believe in Jesus, who's encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior, just like Jesus encourages me as a heterosexual male to abstain from sex outside of the confines of marriage."

Of course, his bold statement got fans stirred up, calling his remarks disappointing and marginalizing.

If the players had been students of yours, would you have been pleased with (a) their actions and (b) how they explained their actions?

WALKER: Yeah, Myrna, Thanks. That's a great question. And obviously, I mean, this issue of Pride Month, it's ubiquitous in the culture. And everywhere you go, there is some type of LGBT corporate presentation being thrown at you at every possible angle. And so we shouldn't be shocked and surprised that this is now made its way on the uniforms and Major League Baseball, as regrettable as that is. And I think what this particular instance demonstrates is that it's now actually revolutionary, to be a counter revolutionary. And that to be a dissenter in our age, is to be someone who actually goes against what was once considered radical, but is now quite routine. And so this is a sad testament to the age in which we live, where individuals are being pressured, and shamed into signing on to messages and ideologies and viewpoints that they don't agree with. And I think this is fundamentally a denial of, kind of the freedom of conscience and freedom of conviction. You know, we live in a country that has been premised on the idea of speak your convictions, speak those convictions proudly. And we're really showing with the fruit of these types of conversations, how that's increasingly more difficult, and you're going to face a consequence, for bucking an idea or a viewpoint that up until, you know, 20 and 30 years ago, was considered radical and kind of a revolutionary worldview. So I think we want to commend those baseball players for having the bravery and courage to stand firm on their faith.

Now at the same time, and this isn't really to criticize those baseball players. At the same time, I would want to say that this isn't just a faith issue. It's never less than a faith issue. It's also an issue of just kind of sound, moral reasoning and sound moral principles. Because when a Christian says what they believe about the nature of gender and sexuality, what we're saying is not just true for Christians, it's actually true, we think, for every living human person, because what Christians believe around matters of gender and sexuality are oriented to the common good to human flourishing. And so if we couch this only in a well, “my faith teaches me…” that can send the signal that what you believe is just really kind of this sectarian truth that you can believe over here in the corner and your corner of the sandbox, but don't bring that into this larger public square domain. And so I would simply say, as Christians, we need to have confidence that the answers that we have around conflicts, around gender and sexuality, again, they're never less than matters of faith, but we actually have, I think, more coherent, better answers to explain In what human nature is what were ordered to as far as the relationship between male and female, and the reality that male and female are static categories, we can't change from male into female, and vice versa. You know, I go back to the New Testament where we're told to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that is within us. That applies to ethics as well. That's not just the hope of resurrection and the hope of sanctification. It's the fact that all of life is lived under the umbrella of Christ's lordship, including our ethics, which means we should be ready to give clear, compelling reasonable answers that what we believe around gender and sexuality are not just Christian truths. They're true truth that is binding on all people because all people are made in God's image.

EICHER: I want to change subjects to a very frightening story. What’s so upsetting here is the specter of political violence. I’m old enough to remember political assassinations … not of JFK, but of his brother Robert Kennedy and of Martin Luther King Jr. The attempt on President Reagan was in a different category, as was the attempt on Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Then we had the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise that was politically motivated.

But with the arrest of a man for plotting to kill a sitting justice on the Supreme Court, Justice Bret Kavanaugh, I want to talk about the distinction between political speech, even aggressive speech, and unacceptable actions. It seems like whenever there’s a violent actor on the left, the right tends to lay things at the feet of their ideological opponents, and vice versa. Like Jan. 6th, all conservatives are responsible for Jan. 6th. But talk about the difference between speech and actions, ethically.

WALKER: Sure, I mean, let's just begin this conversation by stating like, how sad it is that we're seeing an escalation in political violence. And I think that that is a species of a broader trend that's impacting kind of just the overall discourse of our current day, everything is getting escalated. And when things get escalated, such as our rhetoric, it tends to spill over into political violence and political action. And I think the distinction we want to draw here is, you know, we have broad freedoms, to have very aggressive speech to use the phrase that you used. We should be willing to state our convictions, state them clearly and passionately, and then be willing to back those up. And one of the brilliant contours of the American experiment is the reality that the whole project of American democracy is premised on the idea that we settle our differences through constitutional mechanisms and procedures, not through defining ourselves down by our most basest instincts that bleeds over into violence.

And you're right, I don't think that this is necessarily an issue that we can pin on either the right or the left, I think a biblical anthropology that understands all of human nature has fallen, means we're all equally fallen. And any individual, if they're not having their worldview and their passions, properly constrained and taught and informed in the right direction, um, can be given over to these types of temptations, especially if they don't have a larger horizon in front of them. If you go to the individual in question, who was plotting the assassination of Brett Kavanaugh, the quotes that he's given, indicate a young man in despair. And so what I read in this is this is a man whose whole world has been dominated by politics. And that speaks to the reality that in all of us is this God shaped hole in this God shaped void. And unless we put God and Christ and and the permanent things in that place in our heart, something is going to fill that vacuum. And the big question is, what is going to fill that vacuum and what's going to happen when that thing that should be a second order or third order or fourth order thing that we love and care about is then turned into a first order love. And, again, that can spill over into political violence with you think that politics is the full horizon of your existence, then you're going to pursue whatever action it is consistent with those principles. And that's really, really dangerous territory to be living in.

EICHER: All right, Andrew Walker. He’s a professor of Christian ethics and apologetics at Southern Seminary and managing editor of WORLD Opinions. Thanks, Andrew!

WALKER: Thanks, Nick and Myrna.

NICK EICHER, HOST: A California woman recently picked up a couch that she found on Craigslist. But after hauling it home, she found something inside the couch that she could hardly believe.

Vicky Umodu told tv station KABC that she immediately started yelling,

AUDIO: You know, telling my son come, come, come! I was screaming come, come, come! It’s money, it’s money! I need to call the guy!

It was money, and she did call the guy.

But you’re probably wondering, how much money? Well, a lot: $36,000 dollars in cash stuffed inside a cushion.

Turns out that a family was giving away the old furniture of a relative who’d died recently and had no idea the cash was inside the couch.

But Umodu was not playing finders keepers here. She said she never considered keeping the money.

And so for her honesty, the family gave her a $2,200 reward. Which Umodu says she plans to use to buy a new refrigerator.

So it’s always wise to check the cushions for change, and be honest about what you find.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, June 10th.

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

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a rodent blast from the past.

Parents who grew up in the ’90s might want to relive some of their own childhood with their kids. The new Chip and Dale movie on Disney Plus is counting on just that.

The film is getting good reviews from critics, but arts and media editor Collin Garbarino says this nostalgia-laden reboot might be better left in the past.

COLLIN GARBARINO, REVIEWER: Thirty years ago, Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers was a staple of The Disney Afternoon when the studio repackaged some of its old characters into new adventures. Now Disney has repackaged Chip and Dale again to capitalize on America’s current obsession with everything from the 80s and 90s.

Dale: But now we’re ready to bring it back. Rescue Rangers 2.0! Starring me. Now in new and improved 3D.

Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen...

Dale: Oh, wow. You hear that?

Announcer: … are you ready for the star of the day?

Dale: Well, that’s my cue to go. This has been chapter one of Dale’s Tales. If you liked it, please don’t forget to subscribe.

The movie reimagines the original series with a meta twist. Chip and Dale were actors back in 1990 when they made the original series. We catch glimpses of them on set, hanging out with the cast and crew, talking to their agents. But all that’s in the past. Chip and Dale had a falling out, and the show got canceled. Thirty years later, Dale desperately tries to revive his acting career. Chip, on the other hand, makes do at an unfulfilling desk job.

Chip: Life is the worst, which is why you need good insurance. Look, I’m not going to put on the hard sell, but in my experience bad things happen all the time. They happen without warning. Sometimes from the last place you’d expect it, and you’re left to pick up the pieces. So, you have to protect yourself. If you’re prepared for the worst, then the worst isn’t so bad.

But bad things bring these estranged friends back together when one of their pals gets kidnapped by a bootlegging operation.

Monterey Jack: So, they kidnap the bloke, erase his mouth so he can’t scream, then change him around to try to sneak by the copyright laws, and then smuggle him overseas to a black-market studio, where he’ll spend the rest of his life being forced to make terrible bootleg movies.

Chip: Oh, no. That’s awful.

The movie is a seamless merging of animation and live action. Chip appears in a classic hand-drawn 2D style reminiscent of the original series. Dale, who’s trying to stay relevant, underwent a surgery to give him a 3D look. They get help from a live-action police officer, named Ellie, who’s, of course, much larger than the chipmunks.

Ellie: Hey! I’m Ellie Steckler. Uh. I’m a huge fan.

Dale: Really?

Ellie: I actually became a detective because as a little girl growing up in Albany, I wanted to help people. Just like you guys.

Dale: No way. We are so honored.

The movie is chock full of cameos and Easter eggs. Parents who watch it with their kids will have to explain many of the old-school callbacks in the movie. Kids will be delighted by some cameos that they’ll have to explain to their parents. Disney crammed so many references to different franchises, I can’t even begin to count them. The Disney cartoons show up, but we also get Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sonic, He-Man, My Little Pony, Batman, Fast and Furious—you get the picture. With all the cameos, the toon-related mystery, and the blend of animation and live action, Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers feels like a reboot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? And, of course, Roger Rabbit gets his own cameo.

Dale: We were living the dream. High on the hog, all night long, dancing the “Roger Rabbit” with Roger Rabbit.

Roger: Boy, what a party.

The movie is rated PG, and it has a light and breezy tone. But some of the choices felt wrong for a kids’ movie. There are a couple of references to Chippendale dancers that kids won’t understand, and underneath the breeziness this movie deals with some pretty heavy stuff. The bootleg operation abducting and exploiting toons? It sounds an awful lot like a human trafficking ring. Some viewers will feel the movie’s lighthearted depiction of this tragic real-world problem inappropriate. There’s even a toon version of a drug ring that helps recruit rodent toons for the bootleggers.

Chip: Hi, Mr. Bjornson. Do you have any cheese for sale?

Bjornson: Oh, do I have cheese? [laughs] Let’s see. We’ve got the Muenster, the Gouda, the Brie.

Chip: Do you have any “stinky cheese”?

Bjornson: You cops?

Chip: Nah! No. We just wanna buy some stinky cheese. The stinkier, the better.

Bjornson: Alright. Come on. Get in.

Chip and Dale find themselves in a cheese shop reminiscent of an opium den. Kids probably won’t understand the dark reference, but childish obliviousness doesn’t mean comparing drug addiction to eating cheese was a good idea.

This slick movie relies on style rather than substance. In the end, the plot feels like a threadbare excuse to give us a dizzying parade of cameos meant to satisfy our craving for nostalgia.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, June 10th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Singer-songwriter Steven Delopolous may not be a household name. Yet most people who have kept up with Contemporary Christian Music for a number of years will be familiar with Burlap to Cashmere. The band burst onto the scene with a 1998 release titled, Is Anybody Out There?

The band is currently on hiatus, but WORLD Correspondent Steve West recently talked to Delopolous about the band, his solo work, and the life of faith as a musician.

VIDEO: [BASIC INSTRUCTIONS]

STEVE WEST, REPORTER: This rousing video of Burlap the Cashmere playing “Basic Instructions” is a live version of the fan-favorite Dove Award-nominated song from their 1998 release. Over two decades later, the energy of the song, and its straight ahead message of faith, crackles from the screen.

VIDEO: [BASIC INSTRUCTIONS]

Delopoulos grew up in Brooklyn before his family moved to New Jersey. He floundered in school for a while as a kid but credits his mother with helping him find his place in music, for helping him find his gifts and nurture them.

DELOPOULOS: My mom realized that I had a talent in the arts and in music, and that's when I really flourished. [M]usic was not really something I sought after. It really enveloped my childhood. And it saved me from a life of miscommunication and not really understanding how the world works. But music–I understood thoroughly how that world worked.

AUDIO: ["ORCHESTRATED LOVE SONG"]

Throughout his career, Delopolous’ cousin, Johnny Phillipidis, has been by his side. He was there for the debut record: 1998’s Is Anybody Out There. He was also there when a revived band recorded a self-titled release in 2011 and Freedom Soul in 2015.

AUDIO: ["PASSOVER"]

DELOPOULOS: Me and Johnny had that camaraderie and that same language early on, and there was nothing you could do to stop us. He just knew how to play with me better than anyone else. Like he just understood my language. And keep in mind that we, our fathers are from Greece. They're not second generation. They're from Greece. So there was that language barrier as well on top of it. So that's why it was hard for us to understand how to do anything else, or even really speak the language well, or understand the language.

Burlap to Cashmere toured extensively in those years, opening for Jars of Clay and Caedmon’s Call, as well as playing their own gigs. But touring proved to be exhausting. In 2003 Delopolous recorded a solo album, Me Died Blue, where he explored some of his folk influences that couldn’t flower in the give and take of the band. You’ll hear traces of songwriters like Harry Chapin and Paul Simon in the music—something he has continued to do in a series of digital only releases.

AUDIO: ["JUNGLE TRAIL"]

The songs which Delopolous writes contain a lot of Christian imagery. But as is often the case with poetry, one can’t always immediately say what some of the songs are about—meaning can be elusive, even to the writer.

DELOPOULOS: You think, well, it could be this could be that and, but, um, hopefully, you know, for me, it's about a feeling. You know, you can't be an engineer to understand what I'm saying. You kind of have to understand this as more of a painting.

AUDIO: ["SWEET REMISSION"]

Even though the meanings of his songs may often be veiled, even mysterious, Delopoulos uses the language of faith to communicate. That’s not surprising given his upbringing in the Greek Orthodox Church. But it’s also because the faith he was schooled in as a child is a living reality for him now.

DELOPOULOS: I remember having this other perspective in my childhood, almost like I was watching a play or a movie. So there was a lot of things that made me question this mystery of life and and really wanting not to solve it, per se, but to connect. And I think faith came to me. I didn't come to it.

AUDIO: ["I WILL FOLLOW"]

DELOPOULOS: Faith isn't something that I chose. I feel like faith is something that's enveloped my being and given me no other option, and just to say that this is, you know, I'm here for you, this is your safety net, I'm your safety net, you know, I'm your place where you're gonna go back to and you're gonna drink, you know, freshwater. In a world that's, you know, kind of has some drought issues, let's be honest. 

Now in his late forties, the singer-songwriter is still growing in his faith, grateful that he’s not alone but surrounded by a loving God.

DELOPOULOS: I'm also still trying to get to the most important place in my faith, which is complete surrender. And knowing that everything is in the hands of our Creator, you know, and just having that faith in my walk.

You can catch Delopoulos along with Johnny Phillipidis on their Simon and Garfunkel Tribute tour this Fall, where he’ll take a look back at some of the songwriters that were so influential in his writing.

AUDIO: ["SOUNDS OF SILENCE"]

DELOPOULOS: It won't just be songs of Simon and Garfunkel, it'll be the era of the Sounds of Silence–that era of Bob Dylan and Harry Chapin and, you know, John Denver and Don McLean, and all those guys and with a mix of some of our own stuff, it'll basically be me and Johnny doing what we do.

AUDIO: ["OTHER COUNTRY"]

I’m Steve West.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Time to thank the team that helped put this week’s programs together:

Mary Reichard, Kent Covington, Josh Schumacher, David Bahnsen, Kristen Flavin, Anna Johansen Brown, Lauren Dunn, Emily Whitten, Kim Henderson, Onize Ohikere, Janie B. Cheaney, Zoe Schimke, Cal Thomas, Andrew Walker, Collin Garbarino, and Steve West.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz are the audio engineers who stay up late to get the program to you early! Leigh Jones is managing editor, and Paul Butler is our executive producer.

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

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The Bible says, "Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift." (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Remember to worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ this weekend, and God willing, we’ll meet you right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

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