The World and Everything in It: June 17, 2025

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Israel hits Iran hard, but will it be enough to bring the regime down?

GORDIS: This is the first time in many years that Israel is not fighting a terrorist organization. It's fighting a serious country.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, we’ll also take you to the front lines of clashes in Los Angeles.

And later, one family’s journey to turn grief into ministry to others—after losing their son.

BRAD: You can see the heaviness in their walk in the door, tears in their eyes, they're hurting.

And Andrew Walker of WORLD Opinions on why chasing cultural relevance can come at the cost of credibility.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, June 17th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

REICHARD: It’s time for the news now with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel-Iran » Israeli airstrikes have continued in Iran including one blast that temporarily knocked Iranian state television off the air during a live broadcast Monday.

The news presenter could be seen rushing off-camera amid dust and debris.

Israel and Iran exchanged multiple attacks over the weekend, with some fearing the escalating strikes could trigger a wider regional war.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this is a pre-emptive operation. He told ABC News it’s designed to prevent something far worse in the future if Iran were allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

NETANYAHU: We're not just fighting our enemy. We're fighting your enemy. They chant, Death to Israel, death to America. We're simply on their way. And this could reach America soon.

Trump on Iran situation » And President Trump issued an ominous warning on social media last night, saying—quote— “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”

He emphasized again in all caps: “IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”

And he told reporters:

TRUMP: I want to see no nuclear weapon in Iran, and we’re well on our way to making sure that happens.

But Trump has also suggested that the door may still be open for Iran to sign an agreement to halt the fighting by giving up their nuclear ambitions.

The White House maintains that the U.S. military is not taking part in Israel’s current military operation.

G7 Summit » World leaders are discussing the Israel-Iran conflict, among other things, for a second day this morning on day-two of the G7 summit.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is hosting the summit in Alberta.

CARNEY:  We will have open frank discussions. Uh, we might not agree on absolutely every issue, uh, but where we will cooperate, we will make an enormous difference for our citizens and for the world.

The so-called Group of Seven is aiming to find a way to contain the escalating fighting between Israel and Iran.

But German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants a joint statement from Europe that would stress Iran cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons-capable material.

Also on Monday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, alongside President Trump, touted a new trade agreement between the US and the UK.

STARMER: This now implements on car tariffs and aerospace, um, our really important agreement, and so this is a very good day for both of our country as a real sign of strength. So thank you again, Donald.

Trump and Stamer signed the deal on Monday, making it official.

Trump ICE expansion » Also on Monday, President Trump called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to step up operations in cities that seek to shield those in the country illegally from deportation.

TRUMP: The cities are where you really have what’s called sanctuary cities, and that's where the people are. I look at Chicago… that city has been overrun by criminals.

Los Angeles has seen days of sometimes violent protests in response to ICE raids last week.

Days before his call for more raids Trump seemingly hinted at going easy on—quote “farmers and people in the hotel and leisure business” who were losing hard-to-replace employees due to the raids.

But Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLauglin said yesterday:

MCLAUGHLIN:  There's not been a change in posture. We consi continue to, uh, enforce the law. Our work site enforcement operations are really tip of the spear to getting, uh, these criminal legal aliens out of our country.

That followed a report by Reuters that immigration officials had been directed “to largely pause raids on farms, hotels, restaurants and meatpacking plants.”

MN political shooter chargers » A Minnesota man has been charged with murder after allegedly fatally shooting one state lawmaker and wounding another.

Police arrested Vance Boelter near his home after a two-day search.

Federal prosecutor Joseph Thompson:

THOMPSON:  It is no exaggeration to say that his crimes are the stuff of nightmares. Belter stalked his victims like prey.

Police captured Boelter after spotting an abandoned vehicle he had been using … And saw him running into a wooded area.

THOMPSON:  Look, I mean, this was a political assassination, which is not a word we use very often in the United States, let alone here in Minnesota.

Boelter is accused of posing as a police officer and fatally shooting former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband in their suburban Minneapolis home. Authorities say he also shot and wounded a state senator and his wife.

SCOTUS to hear pregnancy center case » The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear from a faith-based pregnancy center in New Jersey, which is fighting an investigation that it says is unjust and unconstitutional. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher reports.

BENJAMIN EICHER: The First Choice Women’s Resource Centers wants to block a subpoena from Democratic New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin.

The state says it’s investigating whether the pregnancy center misled people into thinking its services included referrals for abortion.

But officials with the center say the probe is aimed at silencing the group’s pro‑life views and violates its First Amendment rights.

They challenged the subpoena in federal court, but a judge found the case wasn’t far enough along to weigh in. An appeals court agreed.

First Choice says it’s looking forward to presenting its case to the Supreme Court.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: escalating missile attacks in the middle east. Plus, offering help and hope to parents after losing a child.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 17th of June.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Before we continue on: a reminder that WORLD’s June Giving Drive is in full swing. If you didn’t hear yesterday, we did surpass the first challenge last week and a new group of WORLD donors has stepped up with yet another—putting up a $161-thousand-dollar challenge gift in hopes of keeping that momentum going and, as we’ve emphasized many times ,it’s another reminder that nobody gives alone. We’re in this together.

If WORLD’s reporting has been a benefit to you then I hope you’ll cast your vote for sound journalism grounded in facts and Biblical truth.

REICHARD: Please visit W-N-G-dot-org-slash-JuneGivingDrive today and make a gift of any amount. It’s quick, easy, and secure: W-N-G-dot-org-slash-JuneGivingDrive, and thank you for keeping trustworthy journalism moving forward.

EICHER: All right, up first Israel continues to press its campaign to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Ever since the early morning hours of October 7th, 2023 Israel has been at war with Islamic terror groups funded and armed by Iran. Now they’re fighting directly.

In the days leading up to Israel’s surprise counterstrike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure international concern over Tehran’s atomic ambitions spiked.

REICHARD: The International Atomic Energy Agency issued its starkest warning in years … formally declaring Iran out of compliance with nuclear safeguards. I-A-E-A pointed to a stockpile of highly enriched uranium … sufficient for multiple nuclear weapons.

That finding … along with Iran’s continued obstruction of inspections and growing public threats … helped set the stage for that direct confrontation.

GORDIS: This is the first time in many, many, many years that Israel is not fighting a terrorist organization. It's fighting a serious country.

Israeli Historian Daniel Gordis woke up to air raid sirens at 3am on Friday in Jerusalem. He spoke with our Washington Producer Harrison Watters.

GORDIS: We immediately, of course, all grabbed our phones and looked at them, and it was the home front command saying, basically, nothing's new, but you should be on the alert.

EICHER: Hours later Israelis learned of the strike on Iran. Here’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

NETANYAHU: In the past 24 hours, we've taken out top military commanders, senior nuclear scientists, the Islamic regime's most significant enrichment facility and a large portion of its ballistic missile arsenal. More is on the way.

Gordis, the historian, says the strike follows months of planning and nearly two years of war on multiple fronts.

GORDIS: The first thing is that we've destroyed the Ring of Fire.

That ring of fire has been a long-time strategy of Iran to encircle Israel—arming terror groups like Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. But since the October 7th attacks, Israel has put out most of the fire. And in December, the Assad regime in Syria collapsed, cutting off a major supply route Iran had used to arm its proxies.

REICHARD: Gordis says Iran opened itself up by launching missile attacks on Israel last year.

GORDIS: Because it did no significant damage to Israel. But what Israel was able to do, particularly in the response in October, was to take out many of the air defenses that would have made what we're doing now impossible or much more dangerous.

Still, Israel hasn’t knocked out all of Iran’s teeth. The regime’s underground nuclear facilities in Fordow are believed to have survived the strikes. Experts believe it holds much of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.

DUKE: They lack the capability to completely destroy and remove for eternity the Iranian nuclear capability.

That’s Darren Duke. He’s a retired Marine Corps colonel who served as a military attache to Israel from 2006 to 2009. He says the U.S. has reliably supported Israel’s defense against Iranian retaliation. But he told Watters that backing an offensive strike on Iran is a completely different matter the consequences of which Washington must weigh carefully.

DUKE: We should not underestimate the fact that the Iranians have spent decades not only building a domestic capability inside their own borders to respond militarily, but they have a worldwide, global network that they could operationalize in terms of terrorist operations around the globe.

Add to that the vulnerability of U.S. bases across the Middle East: prime targets if conflict escalates. The U.S. also has to consider its military readiness to deter other adversaries, like Russia and China.

EICHER: President Trump has warned: if Iran doesn’t return to the negotiating table Israel’s next move may hit even harder. Yesterday, Iran signaled it’s willing to talk.

Colonel Duke says that while many nations are calling for a ceasefire, many in the Middle East don’t really mean it.

DUKE: I will tell you, many Arab states, while they may be publicly criticizing Israel for the campaign, are quietly very pleased with what Israel is doing to reduce this threat to the whole region.

The U.S. and Israel agree that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. The challenge lies in how to stop it diplomacy or destruction.

DUKE: I foresee a return to negotiations in the future, because Israel will just be unable to remove the threat by themselves.

Historian Daniel Gordis says even if the U.S. does help eliminate Iran’s equipment and top scientists, the root of Iran’s nuclear problem lies deeper.

GORDIS: They have the knowledge, we can never take away the knowledge. So however this war ends, part of the settlement has to be either regime change, and the new regime simply says we have no nuclear aspirations, or if this regime stays in place, they have to forswear any kind of nuclear activity or Israel will simply keep doing what we’re doing, because we cannot allow this to happen again.

Gordis says Israel cannot wait on the U.S. to eliminate the threat of Iran and will continue alone if it must.

GORDIS: If the Jewish people learned anything from the 20th century, it is when somebody looks at you and says, I plan to destroy you or kill you, believe them, because we didn't In the past, and we paid for it dearly.

REICHARD: So far, Israel has claimed it has taken care to avoid civilian casualties, unlike Iran, which has targeted population centers in Israel.

Colonel Duke says the front lines of war don’t isolate the church. Very often, they reveal it.

DUKE: We should remember there is a church in each of these countries where we as Christians have brothers and sisters who are living under these threats and this disorder, and we should all pray that the church would be able to continue her work even as these wars go on, and perhaps because of these wars, that the gospel would go forward.

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

So-called “No Kings” protesters clash with police in Los Angeles.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Last weekend, thousands of protestors marched in cities across the country. They rallied against what they call authoritarian overreach by the federal government. The demonstrations began in Los Angeles several weeks ago. They continued downtown on Saturday, ending with a protest outside City Hall and a confrontation with police.

REICHARD: Supporters say the protests were peaceful. But video shows a different story: some demonstrators throwing water bottles and bricks at police. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher was there.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: On Saturday afternoon, thousands of people stood chanting and yelling outside City Hall in Los Angeles.

PROTESTOR: My sign says ICE belongs in my Horchata, not in my city.

This protester declined to give his name. He was there to speak up for relatives who are living in the U.S. illegally.

PROTESTOR: We're here for them, supporting them, hoping things could get better. And I mean, they pretty much lived here over half their lives, so this is pretty much already their country too.

Earlier this month, protesters in Los Angeles clashed with police and graffitied parts of downtown in response to arrests and raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. President Donald Trump ordered thousands of National Guard soldiers in to quell what he called an uprising. Local authorities also imposed an overnight curfew on the downtown area.

But protests continued throughout the week.

Most businesses in downtown Los Angeles boarded up or closed down for Saturday. Little to no looting took place. But the weekend before that, protesters vandalized the downtown area’s Little Tokyo neighborhood with graffiti.

AUDIO: We are the people! We are the people!

On Saturday, protesters took to the streets in other cities across the country, from Atlanta to Seattle to criticize Trump and his administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. In many of those cities, the protests remained nonviolent.

But in some places, things got heated. In Los Angeles, weekend demonstrations started with protesters holding signs in front of City Hall.

RIOS: We're not here to throw things. We're not here to fight.

Anthony Rios is a pastor at New City Church in Los Angeles. He has some immigrants in his congregation, and he was downtown waiting as protesters gathered.

RIOS: My father and mother came to came as immigrants. They came illegally to the United States, and like in the 80s. And they went through the process, and thank God, they got citizenship. But I know the struggle of immigrants. I've lived it.

Rios says part of that struggle was a general fear of “la migra,” slang for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

RIOS: These are stories that we would play as children. We will play hide and seek, like, “Oh, La Migra is coming! La Migra is coming!” But I never experienced that until today.

He says some people in his congregation are afraid to come to church.

RIOS: So right now there's a sense of fear in the Latino community, and I think that's the reason why we all want to stand up, because it's not a way to live.

During Saturday’s protest in deep blue Los Angeles, counter-protests were nowhere to be seen as protesters chanted and held their signs near City Hall.

Richard Buckley was one such protester. He held up a sign saying:

BUCKLEY: When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

SCHUMACHER: Can you explain why you chose this sign for today?

BUCKLEY: Because I believe in it. I believe in the fact that Fascism is coming. I spent years working in Eastern Europe and Europe, and it comes when people think they're better than others.

Buckley explained that he himself is a Christian, and that he attends an Episcopal church in Los Angeles.

SCHUMACHER: How does your faith inform what you're doing here?

BUCKLEY: Because I believe in everybody, forgiveness, empathy, human rights, all those things are Christian based.

Another protester, who identified himself only as Fiest, held up a massive sign bearing the words of Leviticus 19:33.

SCHUMACHER: What made you choose this verse specifically?

FIEST: Specifically because it speaks about foreigners and how we should treat them? Yeah, there's other verses, so many other verses that talk about how we should treat our neighbors, how we should love our neighbors, but this one just stood out to me because it was very direct that we should treat them like natural-born citizens.

Several hours before curfew at 8 P.M., the tone shifted.

A couple of blocks away from City Hall, police began pushing protesters back up many of the streets they’d marched down. They shouted over a loudspeaker that protesters needed to fall back or face consequences.

Next came the consequences.

Police launched flashbangs and tear gas grenades into the streets. Many protestors left. Police shot pepper balls near the feet of the ones who didn’t. Some still refused to leave.

A few protesters threw water bottles and other objects at the police. Others kicked tear gas grenades back at the line of officers. Others shouted obscenities.

Slowly but surely, the protesters fell back and the crowd shrank in size until the police cleared everyone off the streets.

Pastor Rios says police were responsible for escalating the situation. Adding that when people are confronted with aggressive police actions, they tend to push back.

But Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell told NBC 4 Los Angeles that his officers were responding to several instigators.

McDONNELL: The day started out very peaceful. Went very well up until the point where officers started being attacked. When that happened, dispersal orders were given for people to break up and leave the area. Officers started taking rocks bottles and missiles at that point from a high ground position over by the LA mall at that point they deployed gas in order to disperse the group..

Officers arrested 35 people for violating curfew and a few others for failure to disperse and resisting arrest. McDonnell says overall, seven officers have been injured in the clashes.

He says about 30,000 people attended Saturday’s protest.

Rios said later that it was one of the largest protests he’d seen in the city—and he’s seen his fair share of protests. He also noted that looting was not a feature of the rally.

ANTHONY RIOS: I keep hearing this phrase that people are saying, LA is burning. LA is burning because of the protest that happened last week. But LA is not burning. LA is rising.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher in Los Angeles, California.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It was a very good day on Saturday:

LECROY: You're working your tail off every single day,..the president, the owners, they're excited to invite you to Nats park for your call up to the major leagues on June 14. Congratulations.

Such good news for any young recruit from manager of the minor league team Matt LeCroy, especially if you’re a dog!

ANNOUNCER: Let’s hear it for Bruce the bat dog! (Crowd Cheers)

That’d be Bruce the Golden Retriever who made his Major League debut at Nationals Park during a “Pups in the Park” event on Saturday. Decked out in a debut bandana, Bruce fetched bats, posed for photos, and soaked up cheers. A well-earned treat after working his tail off in AAA as a bat retriever.

Bruce heads back to the minors now, but he clearly knocked it out of the park.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, June 17th.

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

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: healing from grief.

Yesterday, we told you the story of the life and death of Adam Brown. He was a highly respected member of SEAL Team Six killed at the height of his career. Today, we take you to Adam’s home town to hear more of what happened next.

Here’s WORLD correspondent Caleb Welde in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

SEAL 1: He was different

CALEB WELDE, CORRESPONDENT: When Adam was killed in Afghanistan … his teammates really struggled.

SEAL 1: He was a man of God.

SEAL 1: He made you wonder why he was like that.

Audio from the Sean Ryan Show.

SEAL 4: And so when he died a lot of us had a lot of problems with that.

SEAL 1: Why him?

Larry Brown—Adam’s dad—was reading his Bible when four SEALs in dress blues knocked on his door at 6AM. He remembers thinking “God, you got this wrong.” Adam’s mom couldn’t pray for six months.

JANICE: I don't think I was really mad at God, but I was disappointed. I was kind of like, God I prayed, you know, you know, and Adam loved you.

Janice also loved God and made it a point to tell Him that, every day of those six months. Larry says early on:

LARRY: God said, you know, and he reminded me that two times in the Bible where Jesus wept, and he said, you know, Larry right now I'm weeping again, but I'm not weeping for Adam. I'm weeping for you. And … I said OK.

They say they’ve learned to give grace to people trying to say the right thing. Of all the cards they got, the one that meant the most was from a friend who wrote, “No words, just tears.”

JANICE: I had to come to a point where, you know, God, you know everything, and you have a reason for everything, and I'm just going to rely on that.

That wasn’t the first time the Browns had to trust God with Adam. They still regularly return to their old home. The home they had to ban Adam from when they caught him stealing from them again. The home where they gave up chasing their drug addicted son. Janice was standing in the kitchen when she surrendered Adam to God and asked Jesus if He would be Lord of her life. It’s also the home, where they rejoiced when Adam surrendered his life to Christ and gained, in Adam’s words, “true confidence” – not in himself– but in the One who lived in him.

WELDE: So is this the farm?
BROWN: This is it, Yeah.
WELDE: This is beautiful!

The farm is now a retreat for grieving parents. The idea came when they met the Sullivans at church. Brad and Jill lost their daughter Hannah to brain cancer when she was just seventeen. The Browns and the Sullivans bonded instantly. They wondered, could they connect other parents who had lost children? They call the ministry “While We’re Waiting.”

There’s shaded pastures, fountains, a walking path, a fire pit, a garden, and a secluded patio overlooking the back acreage.

JANICE: People like to come out here and read their bibles. LARRY: In the mornings the sun, when it's just coming up, and they know it's just, whoo! Lord, thank you!

The weekend retreats accommodate ten couples for three days. Room and board are 100% free. Here’s Brad.

BRAD: When they come in, you can see the heaviness in their walk in the door, tears in their eyes, just they're hurting.

Couples or single parents bring a picture of their child.

LARRY: And we'll set the pictures on the cabinet in here.

Janice insists on a casual vibe in the living room. Jeans, a tee shirt, take your shoes off.

LARRY: And then we just start telling the stories about, how about our child, what you know, what we've learned, what God's taught us, we just let them share.

Scripture and hymns line the walls.

BRAD: In Christ alone. My hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song, my comforter…

The Browns and Sullivans say they don’t want to be obnoxious, but they can’t hide why they have hope.

BRAD: We share the gospel after Janice, and we make a point, if you don't know where you going to spend eternity, don't leave here.

Standing outside, in the memorial garden, Brad insists grieving people need to remember that they are in a battle.

BRAD: The enemy, the devil, wants to say, Brad, it was your fault that you could have done something different. Or Larry, if you'd have, you know, you know, the devil will lie to you.

Janice counsels families that they can have grief and joy at the same time.

JILL: Exactly. And when you're early on after the loss of a child, you can't see that, you can't imagine that there could be life after this.

They talk about how it helps to pair up a newly grieving couple with a couple further down the path:

JANICE: When you help someone else, it helps you. And so when we're here and and we sit and talk to a parent or or grieve with them, let them share in some way that helps us.

BRAD: People will say to us, our friends and people don't understand us, how do you do that every weekend? And then we would say to them, how do we not do it?

The Browns understand first hand that healing doesn’t come from people trying to say the right thing or trying to fix it. It’s about grace, and space to mourn with those who mourn.

When the Browns and Sullivans started “While We’re Waiting” ten years ago, they started small but word spread quickly:

BRAD: Initially we're going to do two retreats a year. We had five this weekend around the country.

They’ve done retreats in more than forty places across the country, helping at least three thousand parents.

BRAD: We had someone come to retreat this weekend and come to Christ, and we go, wow, God, you did it again! There's people in heaven today because of Adam's story and because of Hannah's story, and there's people encouraged in Christ because we get to share the hope of the gospel. You. And that's what is a blessing to us as we look back and we say, How can we be mad?

For WORLD, I’m Caleb Welde in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, June 17th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, WORLD Opinions managing editor Andrew Walker with a warning for so-called “Christian elites.”

ANDREW WALKER: For the past several decades, American evangelicals have heard a constant refrain from within their own ranks: We need more Christian scholars in the academy. More believers in the arts. More evangelicals at the highest levels of government, journalism, science, and business. The argument goes something like this: If Christians retreat from the commanding heights of culture, then we forfeit the opportunity to shape policy and the broader moral imagination of our nation.

There is some wisdom in this instinct. Cultural presence matters. The lament that evangelicals have often been anti-intellectual or culturally withdrawn is not wholly unfounded. At the same time, I know many so-called evangelical “elites” in business, law, think-tanks, government, and academia. None of them is self-consciously preoccupied with being an “elite.” They are preoccupied with excellence and conviction.

But the evidence of recent years suggests that producing Christian elites is not the silver bullet it was promised to be.

Consider a couple examples. Francis Collins was a celebrated Christian scientist who headed the Human Genome Project and later served as director of the NIH. He was lionized as a model of evangelical engagement with secular power. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Collins enthusiastically used his post to marginalize dissent. His leadership oversaw debauched research, yielded to LGBTQ degeneracy, and revealed the subtle corruptions that accompany power more than the redemptive possibilities of Christian presence in elite institutions.

Or take N.T. Wright, the brilliant Biblical scholar, whose scholarly and popular writings shaped a generation of evangelicals. Wright’s commentary on political and cultural issues often lands with a thud—not because it lacks erudition, but because it frequently sounds indistinguishable from the educated Western intelligentsia. Not only that, his posture toward American evangelicalism drips with condescension. Just recently, he made appallingly shallow comments granting the legitimacy of abortion in certain instances. That was compounded by an incredibly reckless comment that his resurrection-denying friend, the late Marcus Borg, was a Christian. The fact that Wright can write the magnum opus of our day defending the bodily resurrection while treating it as a secondary matter really is as astounding as it is confounding.

One is left wondering whether the point of rising to elite status was to offer a distinctly Christian voice or simply to earn a seat at the table by accommodating the reigning orthodoxy of leftism and secularism.

The problem is not chiefly “the scandal of the evangelical mind” …to quote Mark Noll’s now overused phrase of the 1990s. The problem is rather the scandal of compromising elites. Too many Christians, having achieved access to elite institutions, seem to lose their nerve. They crave acceptance more than they embody conviction. They confuse proximity to power with cultural influence, only to eventually find themselves being the ones influenced.

Why does this happen? One factor is the old and persistent evangelical inferiority complex. That insecurity breeds a deep temptation: Once a young evangelical finally gains admission to Harvard, the Times op-ed page, or the NIH, the pressure to be seen as reasonable, sophisticated, and nuanced becomes overwhelming. Convictional clarity begins to erode under the acid rain of elite deference.

Another factor is the failure of the evangelical community itself. We have not trained our would-be elites to understand that cultural power is not an end in itself. Christian fidelity will always, in some ways, be at odds with the spirit of the age. We cheer when one of our own gains influence, but we rarely provide the theological and moral formation necessary to withstand the spiritual hazards that come with that influence.

None of this is a call to withdraw from cultural engagement. On the contrary, it is a call to raise up a new kind of Christian leader—one who understands that bearing witness is more important than earning accolades, and that public influence is a stewardship, not a status symbol. We do need more Christians in the elite spaces of culture. But we need them to be the right kind: clear-headed, morally courageous, unashamed of the gospel, and willing to be thought of as fools for Christ.

I’m Andrew Walker.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow on Washington Wednesday, Christian lawmakers debate federal food assistance.

And, what the recent South Korean election could mean for the region and for U.S. foreign policy.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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: “[But] the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” —Verses 17 and 18 of James Chapter 3.

Go now in grace and peace.

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