The World and Everything in It - June 25,2021

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

A narrow victory for religious freedom and cake-baker Jack Phillips faces yet another lawsuit.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We will talk about that and more today on Culture Friday.

Also today we review the new drama Blue Miracle, based on a true story.

And your listener feedback!

BROWN: It’s Friday, June 25th. 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: It’s time for the news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Condo tower collapse » Rescue teams are still digging through rubble near Miami this morning after a beachfront condo building partially collapsed. Dozens escaped to safety, but many are feared dead.

Raide Jadallah with Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue told reporters...

JADALLAH: This process is slow and methodical. You see that every time there’s a shift in the rubble, we have additional rubble that shifts on us.

A wing of the 12-story building in the community of Surfside crumbled to the ground after 1 a.m. Thursday morning. By late afternoon, nearly 100 people were still unaccounted for.

Miami-Dade County Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava…

CAVA: We are all praying. We are all crying. We are all here with the suffering families, and we urge everyone to join us in prayers and in hopes.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who toured the scene, said television did not capture the scale of what happened. No word yet on the cause of the collapse.

Biden announces deal on massive infrastructure plan » President Biden emerged from the latest infrastructure talks with Republicans on Thursday and declared —quote—“we have a deal.”

The bill’s price tag at $973 billion over five years, or $1.2 trillion over eight years, is scaled-back considerably from Biden’s original proposal, but it could open the door to his more sweeping $4 trillion proposals later on.

The president said the deal isn’t perfect, but that’s the nature of compromise.

BIDEN: I clearly didn’t get all I wanted. They gave more than I think maybe they were inclined to give in the first place. But this reminds me of the days when we used to get an awful lot done in the United States Congress. We actually worked with one another. We had bipartisan deals.

Moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine also celebrated the agreement.

COLLINS: Everyone contributed to what is the largest infrastructure package in history.

On the surface, the deal gives President Biden a major bipartisan achievement. However, Democrats may simply be moving some of the more contentious parts of the president’s plan to separate legislation.

Biden said his party may still attach measures dropped from the infrastructure plan to a separate budget bill using the reconciliation process. That would allow them to push those measures through the Senate without any Republican votes.

CDC extends eviction moratorium for another month » The Biden administration is extending the nationwide ban on evictions for another month. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced the extension on Thursday, but said the agency does not plan to extend it again.

A Biden administration official said last month that the government has launched an “all hands on deck” multi-agency campaign to prevent a wave of evictions.

As of June 7th, just over 3 million Americans said they faced eviction in the next two months.

The CDC last year prohibited landlords from evicting tenants who were unable to pay.

The agency claimed the authority to impose that moratorium as a public safety measure during the pandemic. It said those evicted from their homes may have to move in with others or into shelters, preventing social distancing.

Several federal court rulings have found that the CDC overstepped its authority, but the moratorium has remained in place pending legal appeals.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Harris to visit U.S.-Mexico border today » Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first visit today to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will join her on the Texas trip.

Harris has taken heat from both sides of the aisle for not going to the border earlier, despite the president tapping her to lead efforts to stem a surge in border traffic.

Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar represents a district in south Texas. He said Thursday…

CUELLAR: She’s got to spend time with land owners, with the stakeholders, with the city and county officials. And I hope she sits down with our brave men and women in green and in blue, our Border Patrol agents.

Republican Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales said much the same.

GONZELES: Hopefully, it’s not just a photo opp. They’re going to hear the fentanyl is coming over at record numbers. Unaccompanied children, over 80,000 unaccompanied children, over 800,00 migrants.

Republicans say Harris is still avoiding certain hotspots along the border like Del Rio and McAllen, Texas.

The vice president is slated to visit the El Paso area during this trip.

Michigan Senate GOP probe: No systemic fraud in election » State Senate Republicans investigated Michigan's 2020 presidential election for months looking for evidence of voter fraud, and they have announced their findings. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The GOP-led state Senate Oversight Committee said in a 55-page report that the election's outcome represents the “true results.”

Joe Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump by about 155,000 votes, or just under 3 percentage points, in the battleground state.

While Trump has continued to claim that the election was stolen, the panel said it found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in Michigan.

But the committee's three Republicans did recommend legislation to close what it called "real vulnerabilities" in future elections.

Election-related bills are pending in the GOP-controlled Legislature. The new measures would include tougher photo ID rules. But Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has vowed to veto the bills.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday.

Plus, your Listener Feedback.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, June 25th, 2021.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s Culture Friday, John Stonestreet is here. He’s president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

John, good morning!

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning.

EICHER: Let’s start with a couple of religious-liberty items—one of them involving the most well-known bakery owner in the world, Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop.

He’s back in the news three years after he won his case at the Supreme Court. More on that in a moment.

The other one also involves the Supreme Court and it’s the foster-care decision that came late last week involving Catholic Social Services in Philadelphia. This was a unanimous decision, a ruling in favor of the Catholic foster-care agency that would not place children in LGBT homes.

Here’s how I’d like to begin here, John. The question is whether this matter is truly settled, just like the Jack Phillips case seems never truly settled.

Because even though this foster-care case was 9-0 against the city of Philadelphia for terminating its contract with Catholic Social Services, some of the more conservative justices complained the case was so narrowly drawn that cities could easily get around it.

As to religious-liberty protections going forward, Justice Samuel Alito said and I’ll quote, “This decision might as well be written on the dissolving paper sold in magic shops.”

So what do you say about that? A 9-0 Supreme Court decision and maybe we’re still not sure whether religious liberty is secure.

STONESTREET: We’re not sure. And I think that’s Alito’s point. I think that even Justice Roberts’ decision, which was very, very narrow (and that’s what you get when you have a nine-nothing decision; you’re not going to get anything sweeping,) indicates it’s not settled. Religious liberty is not this technicality in the same sense that the Masterpiece cake shop decision was; it’s very clear that the government can apply different standards to religious entities and non religious entities. In this case, the city of Philadelphia did. They had a policy of exceptions to their Non Discrimination Act, and it applied to some groups and didn’t apply to others, even though it should have.

So this really wasn’t meant to settle any decision in this epic battle that we’ve got in our culture between so-called sexual freedoms and religious liberties. There’s a lot left to be decided. As we have seen, even in the last term, there’s a lot to be decided as we start applying these things across various aspects of culture. These issues will continue to be fought in the court. Again, it’s good that they came to the decision, don’t get me wrong. The court is not going to address something unless it’s the perfect issue any sort of sweeping way. There was enough bad behavior on the side of the city of Philadelphia. And so that’s where this one came out.

BROWN: I heard a few people saying, interesting timing for this case, with Catholic Social Services winning, just months after Bethany Christian Services, another foster-care agency reversed itself and agreed to place children in LGBT homes in order to keep its contracts with the city. So theoretically, it could reverse back. Do you wonder whether it will?

STONESTREET: I’d love to see it make that decision if it’s true that the decision was made out of an analysis of inevitability, which I think was premature. And I think it’s obvious now that it was premature. Instead of a change of conviction, the only right thing to do is to reverse that decision. I hope they do that. I have no inside information on whether they will.

But I think it’s reasonable for supporters who believe in traditional marriage and biblical sexuality and what’s best for kids in terms of moms and dads and so on to expect that of Bethany Christian services, because that’s the only right decision. And I think it’s also a warning, because we certainly do have plenty of organizations within the Christian world that often want to give up the 50 yard line before the thing is settled. We’ll know when it’s time to retreat into our Christian bubbles, because we’ll have a big strong swift kick in our rear ends and that’s when we’ll know when it’s time to leave the business of being a public witness in this cultural moment.

I think you can see it from here. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t I think it’s happening, but we should not abandon ship before we need to.

EICHER: Now, Jack Phillips. He got sued yet again—as I said—three years after winning at the Supreme Court. Sued for refusing to bake a gender-transition cake for an activist lawyer who wanted to celebrate his transition from a man to identifying as a woman. Does this not show the very high cost of fighting city hall and how do you steel yourself for this kind of battle?

STONESTREET: I think Jack Phillips’ resilience has been remarkable. I think that his treatment at the hands of the state of Colorado has been despicable.

They started this, even just by accepting this complaint. The complaint was clearly a targeted thing on behalf of this lawyer, Sardina, who apparently is obsessed with Jack in such an unhealthy way and actually publicly said that he will not quit until Jack changes his mind or goes out of business. This sort of treatment is despicable. It is something that wouldn’t be tolerated. This is the sort of behavior that civil rights legislation was actually built to deal with, so that you couldn’t unjustly target somebody who believed or lived or looked differently than you. I feel for my friend. He’s a good man, he has tried really hard to be faithful.

And he is living out that observation from T.S. Elliot that for us, there’s only the trying, the rest is none of our business. He’s living out the wisdom of Solzhenitsyn, that you don’t have to show up at every protest, but just don’t say what’s not true. And he’s doing that. And he’s paying the price for it. He’s doing it very often in a time and place where the broader church in Denver and in Colorado is not willing to stand with him. It’s unreal. It’s just stunning. It’s hard to comprehend how long this has been and how hard it’s been on his soul.

BROWN: John, I know you’re a big football fan.

So I want to get your take on the first-ever openly gay football player—Carl Nassib—plays for the Las Vegas Raiders. He announced his sexual orientation on social media and immediately his NFL jersey has become the top selling jersey.

That gets near-universal praise while another NFL player—a retired running back by the name of Warrick Dunn—quietly helped yet another single mom become a first-time homebuyer. This was home number 190!

I found that an interesting contrast and what does that say about what our culture finds heroic or worthy of praise?

STONESTREET: You know, there are rules to civilizations. This is something that has been written on for years. Pitirim Sorokin, for example, has written on this. His categories were the difference between sensate cultures—cultures that live for the senses and immediate gratification—and ideational cultures, which are cultures that live for higher goals or ideals. Just think about the contrast in the story that you have repeated between those two things.

We’re a culture that praises the gratification of the senses versus a culture that praises and treats as heroes those who point to something bigger and higher than ourselves. In Sorokin’s study (founder of the Harvard sociology department, if I remember correctly,) sensate cultures collapsed and ideational cultures grew, even if those ideals of the latter were being built around were bad or unjust like, for example, the Islamic caliphate. It’s just a difference between living for the moment and living for the future.

And it’s not just individuals, it’s what we choose to celebrate what we choose to say is good, who we think are heroes. In his experience, ideational cultures grow, sensate cultures collapse, and there’s no there’s no exception. You can see that as a universal rule for civilizations. I don’t think anybody looks at our particular cultural moment and goes, “hey, we’re doing well!” It’s pretty clear things aren’t going well, and what are we going to blame it on? We’re going to blame it on a president, we’re going to blame it on the stock market. I mean, none of that makes sense. It’s not big enough to explain the level of chaos. What is are the values and the worldview that’s driving our cultural moment.

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

BROWN: Thanks John. 

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Something quite unexpected occurred during a recent meeting of G-7 leaders in Cornwall.

The queen of England took up arms!

When she was presented a large cake to commemorate her 95th birthday, she ignored the cutting knife on the table and instead grabbed a ceremonial sword.

As she cut into the cake with the large curved blade, someone, with the best of intentions, noted that there was a perfectly good knife on the table.

The queen responded...

QUEEN: I know there is. (laughs) This is something that is more unusual.

Definitely more unusual, and everyone enjoyed a good laugh—even if it was a bit awkward seeing the monarch handling an oversized blade.

But after the initial cut, which really didn’t do much, she returned the sword in favor of the sharper and much easier-to-handle cake knife.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, June 25th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: family movie night.

Hollywood loves true stories, maybe because truth is sometimes stranger than fiction—and just as entertaining. Reviewer Sharon Dierberger says that’s certainly true of an upbeat family movie recently released on Netflix.

SHARON DIERBERGER, REVIEWER: Blue Miracle is quite a fish tale based on a true story. Whether or not rods and reels rock your world, you and the whole family will enjoy this catch.

The film follows Omar Venegas, who with his wife Becca, runs an orphanage for boys in beautiful Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. But the orphanage, named Casa Hogar, is not so beautiful. It’s in dire need of repairs, especially after a hurricane sweeps through. It’s also in debt to the bank for a LOT of money.

 Omar: “I really hate to ask you this, but-“ Woman: “Omar, is everything ok?” Man: “What do you mean? What’s going on?” “I was wondering if you could talk to the bank for us.” Man: “The bank?” Omar: “We just need a little more time to pay what we owe. And if you could put in a good word at the bank…” Man: How much do you owe exactly?”

Omar: “$117,000. Man: “Oh boy.”

These desperate times set the scene for unusual measures. Every year, Cabo hosts Bisbee’s Black and Blue. That’s a blue marlin fishing tournament—the biggest in the world. And it awards huge cash prizes. But this year, because of the hurricane, many international competitors have bailed. So the tournament opens the competition to local fishermen. Through odd circumstances, the orphanage and Papa Omar—as he’s affectionately known by his boys—enter the competition. None of the orphan boys has ever fished before.

The tournament announcers comment on the unusual last minute entry as the rest of the boys cheer back home at the orphanage:

Announcer 1: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to day one of Bisbee’s Black and Blue fishing tournament. And what a year it is shaping up to be.” Announcer 2: “That’s right, Larry. Part of what makes this year so special is a host of newcomers from around the Cabo area. We got first-timers like Team Casa Hogar, made up of orphans from a local boys home, and led by none other than legendary two-time Bisbee Champion, Captain Wade Malloy.” Announcer 1; “Wow, it’s gonna be an exciting three days.”

If you think you’ve heard this plot before, but set on a football field or basketball court instead of an ocean, you’re right. But the underdogs in this story are still worth watching. They tug on your heart like—well, like a marlin on a fishing line. I only wish the film had given us more back story on the orphans. and more of their thoughts, like here where book-smart Wiki shares a bit of his heart with Omar:

Wiki: “I can’t go back to the streets Papa Omar. The other Ticos, Geco and Hollywood, they’re tough. They can handle it. But it’s just I’m different.”

Director Julio Quintana cleverly juxtaposes the boys’ plight and poverty against stunning ocean scenes brimming with expensive, pristine yachts. But Papa Omar, well-acted by Jimmy Gonzales, carries the film.

He shows genuine compassion for the street kids, maybe because he used to be one. And the way he embraces all the boys, with their quirks and fears, keeps you hoping for a happy outcome. Each subplot, although embellished, grabs viewers, too.

There’s the grizzled, gruff, washed-up Captain Wade, played by Dennis Quaid, who takes Omar and the boys aboard his dirty, decrepit fishing boat. He’s abandoned his wife and son for the last five years. He mistakenly believes that by catching prize-winning fish, his family will esteem him as a great man. One of the boys calls him out:

CLIP: A fishing trophy? Oye. We all lost our dads for stupid reasons—bullets, drugs, prison. But right now, I’m feeling kinda lucky compared to your son.

Gradually, the captain starts thinking less about winning prizes and more about the kids. After he brags about the scar on his leg from fighting a marlin, he quiets when the boys laugh and start comparing their own scars—from abusive adults in their lives. Other things the boys say also drive the captain to silence:

 Boy 1: “We have names.” Captain: “What?” Geco: “You said we were nameless orphans, but we have names.” Hollywood: “Yeah, and we’re not orphans, güey. We’re like, between families at the moment.”

Papa Omar is determined to help all the boys, including a rebellious, hurting teenager he convinces to join their fishing team. And he tries to come up with a way to encourage Tweety, the youngest, who really misses his mother. Omar hands him a nail and tells him to write down his problems and nail them to a door like he does, giving them to God.

Omar: “And pow! God hears me every time!” Tweety: “Nuh-uh.” Omar: “Yeah, I mean it. I meant it. Next time you’re having a hard time, you just pray to God, ask Him for help, and pray hard, okay? And pretty soon, all that bad stuff, it’ll start to feel like a dream. Like it never happened.”

It’s refreshing to hear someone in a movie who isn’t the bad guy talking about God. And the nail becomes symbolic throughout the film, including when Omar finally hurls it into the sea.

Omar faces some hard choices about the orphanage. One of those decisions is as potentially life-changing as winning the prize money would be.

Blue Miracle is rated PG for intense action and occasional crude slang, so it might not be appropriate for the youngest viewers. But those are minor issues for an otherwise fantastic family film. Be sure to sit tight for the credits to see footage of the real characters and what Casa Hogar looks like today.

I’m Sharon Dierberger.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, June 25th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Time now for this month’s Listener Feedback.

But first: a correction. A commentary this month had Jesus walking in Palestine. What we should have said was that he was walking the streets and hills of Judaea and Samaria.

BROWN: Ok, on now to your calls and emails. And we’ll start with the one that traveled the farthest. Listener Kristi Colas sent us this voice memo she recorded on her smartphone from France. She said she’s lived in Europe for 13 years and has listened to the program for a few years now.

COLAS: One thing I enjoy the most about your podcast is the fact that you cover the world news so well. When I first heard that the name was The World and Everything in It, I kind of rolled my eyes because in America I have found that so many times when they say, ok now we’re going to give news about the world, it’s almost all still about America. And now that I’ve lived overseas for so long, I’ve realized that the world is a much bigger place than the U.S. And so I love the fact that you cover international stories so well. So, please keep up the good work with that.

I do have one question, and that is, what time of day do you record the different parts of the podcast? Just curious about the daily schedule. But you all do a wonderful job. Thanks so much!

EICHER: It’s a good question, and the one thing I can say about the daily schedule that’s pretty predictable is this, and you’ll see it’s quite Biblical: The first is last. In other words, Kent Covington and his team work really hard to provide the most up-to-date news for you, so the first thing in is typically the last thing out.

So whether it’s Myrna and me or Mary and me, we go first, so Johnny and Carl can start working their magic as early in the evening as possible, then Kent prepares the breaking news, then we’re out the door.

There are exceptions, but not very frequently.

RUSSELL: Joy here, from California. Love, love, love the program. Listen to you daily. But I just have a question that’s probably on a lot of our minds. Do Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz no longer stay up late to get the program to us early? Wonderin’ in California! Thanks!

BROWN: Joy, I’ve got to hand it to you. You stumped us there for a minute. Then we figured out you were referring to the close on our Friday program. We’ve gotten out of the habit of calling Johnny and Carl our night owls, but believe me, they still are! They stay up late every night to get the program to you early.

EICHER: Alright, let’s go to the listener line.

MCALLISTER: Hi, this is Ian McAllister. I’m calling from Western Massachusetts. Love the program. Was just listening to today’s program. Great job Jenny Rough for your piece on boxing and Parkinson’s disease. Fascinating and well done. Thank you and keep up the good work.

BROWN: Thank you, Ian, agreed! Jenny finds really good stories.

EICHER: She does, and as a matter of fact, she and Mary Reichard are up in Montana reporting an episode of the Legal Docket podcast—preparing for Season 2, after the Supreme Court adjourns for the summer. So we’ve got that to look forward to.

BROWN: And that’s feedback for the month of June. But before we say goodbye, one more thing.

EICHER: Yeah, I think these guys heard their names mentioned one too many times. They’ve got a few words… 

JOHNNY FRANKLIN, AUDIO ENGINEER: Hi, I’m Johnny Franklin…

CARL PEETZ, AUDIO ENGINEER: And I’m Carl Peetz.

FRANKLIN: We’re the audio engineers for WORLD Radio—y’know, the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early.

PEETZ: We’re also the guys with a treasure trove of bloopers.

[BLOOPERS]

(chuckle) PEETZ: Being behind the scenes we hear a lot of that…

FRANKLIN: And it’s our privilege to smooth everything out so that what you hear is the sound journalism grounded in God’s word you’ve come to expect with minimal distractions.

PEETZ: We are grateful for your support of WORLD and for supporting us in our attempts to put our best foot forward, helping our hosts and correspondents communicate clearly the reporting done each and every day.

FRANKLIN: If you haven’t had a chance yet to support the June Giving Drive … I hope you will today. Just visit WNG.org/donate. That’s WNG.org/donate.

PEETZ: Thanks much! And let’s roll the credits!

NICK EICHER, HOST: I love the outtakes. Well, time to thank and recognize our outstanding team.

Thanks in alphabetical order to:

Caleb Bailey, Anna Johansen Brown, Kent Covington, Sharon Dierberger, Kristen Flavin, Katie Gaultney, Jill Nelson, Onize Ohikere, Mary Reichard, Jenny Rough, Jenny Lind Schmitt, Sarah Schweinsberg, Cal Thomas, Steve West, and Whitney Williams.

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

And you! Thank you for making possible Christian journalism in the vast marketplace of ideas.

The Bible says: We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Have a wonderful weekend, and enjoy the freedom to worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.