The World and Everything in It — March 12, 2021

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

As they say in Washington: Personnel is policy. 

And a personnel move there raises another red flag about religious liberty.

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

Also today, a new Anthony Hopkins film that could earn the veteran actor yet another Oscar.

And Petra! Remember them? We’ll tell you what their former frontman is up to now.

BROWN: It’s Friday, March 12th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington has the news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden signs relief bill ahead of prime time address » President Biden took to the airwaves last night for his first primetime address in the White House… 

BIDEN: As we mark one year since everything stopped because of this pandemic.

It was one year ago when the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic. 

Biden said he is asking all states and territories to make all adults eligible for vaccines no later than May 1st. And he said he is deploying an additional 4,000 active-duty troops to help administer vaccines across the country. 

And the president again urged Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible. 

BIDEN: If we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4th, there’s a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together in the backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day. 

Hours earlier, Biden signed the near $2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill into law. 

BIDEN: An historic piece of legislation that delivers immediate relief to millions of people. 

The bill provides another round of direct stimulus payments—$1,400 for most Americans. It also extends a federal boost to unemployment benefits, and provides expanded child tax credits among other things. 

But Republicans say beyond the headline provisions of the bill, it’s loaded with wasteful and reckless spending.

Earlier in the day, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had this to say… 

MCCONNELL: This wasn’t a bill to finish off the pandemic. It was a multi-trillion-dollar Trojan horse full of bad old liberal ideas. President Biden’s own staff keep calling this legislation—quote—‘the most progressive bill in American history.’ 

President Biden again said he and key members of his administration plan to tour the country to sell the American public on the merits of the bill.  

Chauvin faces additional murder charge » Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is now facing an additional charge in the death of George Floyd. 

Chauvin already faced second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. And Judge Peter Cahill Thursday granted prosecutors’ request to add a third-degree murder count.

Cahill had earlier rejected the charge as not warranted by the circumstances of Floyd’s death, but an appellate court ruling in an unrelated case established new grounds.

Legal experts say the additional charge helps prosecutors by giving jurors another option, making Chauvin’s conviction more likely. 

Miss. Gov. signs bill restricting transgender athletes from girl’s/women’s sports » Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill Thursday barring male athletes who identify as female from competing in girls’ or women’s sports. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more. 

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Mississippi is the first state this year to enact such a law, after a federal court blocked a similar law in Idaho last year. It’s set to take effect on July 1st, though a legal challenge is possible.

Lawmakers in numerous states are working on legislation to respond to an executive order by President Biden. The president’s order bans what he calls discrimination based on gender identity in school sports and elsewhere. 

Reeves said on his Twitter account that he has three daughters who play sports and that Mississippi’s bill would “protect young girls from being forced to compete with biological males for athletic opportunities.”

South Dakota’s Republican Gov. Kristi Noem also said this week that she plans to sign similar legislation into law in her state. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin. 

Gov. Hutchinson signs tough pro-life law » Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed tough new pro-life legislation into law this week and would ban nearly all abortions in the state. 

Hutchinson said he signed the bill because of its “overwhelming legislative support” and his “sincere and long-held pro-life convictions.”

The Republican governor had expressed reservations about the bill, which does not make exceptions in cases of rape or incest. 

Opponents have vowed to block it before it takes effect later this year. But many Republican lawmakers in the state say they’re counting on that legal pushback. They’re hoping to push the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide.

TX Rangers plan full capacity crowds » The Texas Rangers are on track to become the first major U.S. sports team to have a full-capacity crowd in attendance for their April 5th home opener. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has that story. 

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: The Rangers this week announced that as of now, the team is planning to fill 40,000 seats at their home ballpark in Arlington. 

Fans will have to wear masks unless they are actively eating and drinking at their seats. Rangers CEO Neil Leibman said “We’ll be extremely responsible,” and added he’s confident it will not be a spreader event.

Ironically, for their first home game, the Rangers will host the Toronto Blue Jays, who can’t even play on their home field with or without fans. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in Canada, they’ll open their season at their spring training facility in Florida. 

The Rangers’ announcement came just after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s order took effect reopening the state 100 percent. But their plans are subject to change. Local officials can still limit capacity at public events if hospitalizations reach certain benchmarks. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown. 

Evangelist Luis Palau has died » Evangelist Luis Palau has died after a three-year battle with lung cancer at the age of 86. 

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Palau interned with Billy Graham, served as a translator for him, and modeled his ministry after Graham’s. For five decades, Palau conducted large outreach events in both English and Spanish. 

Two decades ago, Palau began using less traditional methods to reach a younger audience. Some of his outdoor festivals featured corporate sponsors, Christian hip-hop and country music, skateboarders, and motocross riders. The festivals, which drew hundreds of thousands to each two-day event, also unified the local churches that put them together. 

Palau’s wife, Patricia, and four children survive him.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the government employment agency loses a religious liberty advocate.

Plus, a retired Christian rocker remembers a life that’s almost beyond belief.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, March 12th, 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.

This story came in late last Friday, the firing of the general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

I realize that might sound to you like inside-baseball given that something like 9 million people work for the federal government. 

But this was a key position with implications for religious freedom. 

Sharon Fast Gustafson had built a career on fighting job discrimination and in her role with the federal government, she’d been an effective advocate for workers who found themselves victims of religious discrimination. And she advocated without favor: Gustafson supported Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs.

A word about the EEOC. The president appoints commissioners and the general counsel, but it’s designed to have a bipartisan composition. Of the five members, three are supposed to be from the president’s party and the other two from the minority party.

Commission appointments are five-year terms, the general counsel a four-year term. By cutting short the term of the general counsel, that raises concerns about the independence of the agency.

The president stated no reason for firing Gustafson. A Republican-appointed EEOC commissioner, though, ventured a guess.

BROWN: Right. Commissioner Andrea Lucas issued a sharply worded statement about the firing. Quoting here:

“In the days leading up to the President’s decision to fire Ms. Gust-of-sun, a report and related materials dealing with religious discrimination were removed from the EEOC’s website shortly after inauguration. Sharon Gustafson led the work group that produced that report.”

Lucas’s letter warns that she is, quoting again, “deeply concerned that today, religious liberty has become a disfavored or second-class right in many areas of our society and culture.” And she added that the firing of Gustafson proves her point.

EICHER: It’s Culture Friday and so let’s welcome John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. John, good morning.

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning.

EICHER: Did you see this story, John? It didn’t get a lot of attention, but it sure seems ominous.

STONESTREET: I did. And it does seem ominous and the reason it didn’t get a lot of attention is because of all of the other ways in which this administration has launched out in prioritizing other freedoms other than religious liberty. We have just one example after another of basically this administration—both in domestic and foreign policy—continuing what happened in the last term of President Obama’s administration, which is elevating LGBTQ rights to a privileged position, maybe above everything else in both domestic and foreign policy. And so that is just kind of been par for the course so far for the Biden administration so that pendulum swing has come back pretty fast. 

The challenge here is that in almost every area the elevation of LGBTQ rights means the compromise of religious freedoms. I think that’s why so many conservatives—myself included—reacted so strongly to the choices that were being put forth to lead, for example, the Department of Health and Human Services. We’re all old enough to remember just how controversial that department was under the Obama administration, and how it pitted so-called sexual freedoms in some way or another against religious freedoms. 

Now, these department heads, these appointments, they change from administration to administration. Not all of them, but many of them. And this is one that’s kind of gone both ways. But the removal of the report, the prioritization of sexual freedoms, LGBTQ rights, elevating them in foreign and domestic policy, it puts them on a collision course with religious liberty. Something that as Commissioner Lucas’ letter put it is often seen as a second-class right. In fact, it’s even worse than that. In some parts of our culture, it’s seen as something bad. Religious freedom’s not even seen as something good. It’s seen as a so-called license to discriminate. So getting it out of the way in a way, it doesn’t seem to be coincidental to all the other moves that the administration is making.

EICHER: What I was going to add here, John, is this is a serious individual. She wasn’t an ideologue. She was a professional anti-discrimination attorney. That’s what she specialized in. And you and I have talked about this in the past, about the importance of religious freedom for all. And that seemed to be her emphasis. She wasn’t trying to come in and just be the voice of the Christians. She worked with a wide array of religious groups—Muslim groups and Sikh groups and Hindu groups, Jews, and Christians. Everybody. Religious freedom for all, which is kind of exactly what you said that needs to be the approach.

STONESTREET: Well, it is and it’s not only religious freedom for all. It’s religious freedom in its fullness. And that’s the other thing that she seemed to really understand and reflect in her work is not just the rights of people from these various faiths to believe whatever they want, but to actually live in accordance with those beliefs. That’s the part where it interferes with the new sexual orthodoxy and the elevation of sexual minorities. That’s where the rub comes in. That’s where the conflict comes in. And she seemed to get that part of religious liberty. That it was a fundamental good, that it should apply to everyone, that it should be a grounding for which people could actually not only believe in the privacy of their own hearts or their own heads or their own houses of worship or their own homes. But actually in the public square as they ordered their public lives.

BROWN: I want to talk about an aspect of the big Covid bill that just passed. Another little reported story: there’s money in that bill that pro-lifers say will end up funding abortion and that breaks with a longstanding policy of the government, not to directly fund abortion.

The group Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden issued a statement castigating President Biden. And here’s some of the language:

“As pro-life leaders in the evangelical community, we publicly supported President Biden’s candidacy with the understanding that there would be engagement [with] us on the issue of abortion and particularly the Hyde Amendment… We feel used and betrayed.”

Well, John, you know “told you so” seems just too sophomoric” and “It’s ok, we all make mistakes” not sure that is quite appropriate either. I’ve heard both sentiments expressed. As Christians, what should our response be to these fellow Christians?

STONESTREET: Oh, you took the words out of my mouth. I mean, the temptation to say, “Told you so,” is so strong. And to say that we all make mistakes implies a level of naivete that this particular group shouldn’t have had. 

So, why they thought that there would be some level of engagement, I’m not sure. Maybe there’s some information that the rest of us just really aren’t aware of because there was — unless there was a private email or a memo or a carrier pigeon that had sent a note, there literally was no indication on any level that they would have any sort of say to advance a pro-life cause at any point in this administration, in any department, at any level. 

The campaign very clearly crawled into bed with Planned Parenthood and everyone else. The need that they had to contrast this campaign with what President Trump had done with various pro-life policies, the various department heads that were going to be rolled out and put in charge. There was no indication whatsoever that they should have any different expectations. So, I was a little confused by the comment. I appreciate these individuals by and large, but I was a little lost about why they were taken by surprise.

EICHER: John, speaking of pro-life, the state of Arkansas approved full protections for the unborn this week. A total abortion ban—no exceptions—only life of the mother. I’ll note that the National Right to Life Committee had expressed concerns, worrying that in the legal challenge, it might be a bit much for even a more favorable Supreme Court. It might backfire and prompt the court to uphold Roe versus Wade instead of sending up more moderate approach. For example, the heartbeat law South Carolina approved last month. It draws the abortion line at the stage of an unborn child’s development where medical equipment can detect a heartbeat. So 6-to-8 weeks instead of full protection from the moment of conception. So a little strategizing here. Any thoughts on the strategy?

STONESTREET: There’s a legal strategy and a cultural strategy. And the legal strategy has to do not only with getting Roe overturned, but with returning some level of autonomy to this issue of the states. So, for different states to put out different bills that basically reflect their elected officials and the constituency I think is absolutely OK. 

But also on the legal strategy as it has to do with specifically Roe v. Wade, it’s a pretty kind of fascinating sort of thing to watch bills or legislation that didn’t have a chance 10 years ago have a chance today. And that includes on the state level and these are actually going to be things that can be test cases for Roe v. Wade. I mean what an interesting, interesting thing here. So I say let’s go with it. 

On a cultural level, I think there are times that the law can lead culture or can instruct culture. We saw that, for example, with civil-rights legislation in the south. And I think this at least confronts those who are ambiguous on abortion with an idea that abortion itself is immoral to a level that it should be outlawed. So I’m OK with that instructive role that this legislation can play as well. 

Now, hopefully we don’t leave all the education up to a disembodied piece of legislation. We need to engage that instruction ourselves. But, yeah, listen, I’m all for this. And I’m curious. I’m curious what this Supreme Court is going to do. It’s a different Supreme Court. We haven’t had anything like this tested by this particular court. So, I think it’s going to be interesting to watch and at the very least it seems like states are really trying to create this elbow room from the federal government and say, look, on this issue we should be the ones in charge. So, good for them and I think we’re going to see more and even more creative attempts on a state level.

BROWN: John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

EICHER: Thank you John.

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: German police say they have solved a cold case nine years after a burglary in the town of Schwelm.

And it’s all thanks to a half-eaten piece of sausage. 

The suspect is identified only as a 30-year-old male. The break-in happened sometime in March 2012. Evidently, the perp helped himself to a bite of sausage—known in Germany as wurst. And it kind of is the worst. But I digress.

French police recently notified German investigators that they had taken DNA from a man arrested there that matched the DNA gathered from the half-eaten wurst.

However, the statute of limitations on the burglary has expired. And that means the suspect likely will not be extradited to Germany.

So, Myrna’s rolling her eyes here because she knows how I love puns. I cannot resist: This is clearly—for the investigators—a wurst-case scenario.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, March 12th. 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 new film about a difficult topic that many families are dealing with these days.

It’s in theaters now and available on streaming March 26th. But it’s already generating a lot of Oscar buzz. Here’s Megan Basham.

MEGAN BASHAM, REVIEWER: It’s easy to see the stage origins of Anthony Hopkins’ latest movie, The Father. Writer-director Florian Zeller adapted the film, rated PG-13 for language, from his 2012 French play. 

Nearly all the action takes place in a flat that may be Anthony’s (Hopkins’ character shares his first name) or may belong to his eldest daughter, Anne. Late stage dementia makes it difficult for him to remember where he is. But the close set and small cast are the ideal building blocks to illustrate the narrowing that so often comes with the end of life, when the world available to us, both physically and socially, grows so small.

Anne, played by Olivia Colman, tells him she is moving to France to get married. But even if she weren’t, she’s no longer equipped to see to his needs, so they will have to make arrangements about his care. Anthony blithely wonders who would be interested in her romantically and goes back to fixating on his favorite watch. Anne’s lined face and hunched shoulders show months, possibly years, of bearing her father’s verbal blows. Is it illness making him say these things? Or are these the thoughts he’s always had, his tongue loosening as the restraint of a sound mind falls away?

CLIP: I don’t know where this stupid obsession comes from. She’s always been that way, ever since she was little. The thing is she’s not very bright. You know, not very intelligent. She gets it from her mother. I think she tries to do the best that she can for you Anthony. Oh the best she can, the best she can. I never asked her for anything. I don’t know what she’s cooking up against me, but she’s cooking something up, that I do know. I do know the signs. But let me be absolutely clear. I am not leaving my flat. I am not leaving my flat.

Through Anne, we see the conventional story of dementia—the bone-deep weariness and isolation it causes loved ones and caretakers. But The Father quickly moves past that usual construction and pushes us to experience the story from Anthony’s perspective as well.

Throughout the film, we feel unmoored by time, unsure of when conversations are occurring. Or even if they’re occurring at all or are merely a figment of Anthony’s increasing paranoia. This confusion creates sympathy that isn’t drawn from sentimentality or easy melodrama but from allowing us to experience the world as Anthony does. He is obsessive and frequently cruel. Here is talking about his other daughter in front of Anne.

CLIP: Her little sister, now that was quite a different story. Oh you have two daughters? Yes, even though I hardly ever hear from the other one. All the same she’s my favorite was always my favorite. She was a painter, look, there you are. The pirouette. Beautiful isn’t it? Yes. Dazzling girl. I don’t understand why she doesn’t never gets in touch. Never.

But when the scene shifts, we see similar exchanges from Anthony’s point-of-view. When faces are unrecognizable and adults speak to him slowly and simply as if he’s a child, we wonder how much of his behavior may be a mechanism for exerting control over his fracturing sense of himself.

Anne tries to arrange for a series of home nurses so her father won’t be left on his own during the day. But one by one, Anthony chases them off. It is so easy for a stranger, only there to collect a wage, to walk away. 

CLIP: We had planned on going to Italy. But we had to cancel at the last moment. Do you know why? No, why? Because of your row with Angela. We weren’t able to go and leave you on your own. We had to cancel our holiday and bring you here. And now you’re going to stay here. For good, if I understand correctly. He’s forgotten. It’s amazing.

In an increasingly aging culture, beset by divorce, smaller families, and fewer siblings to shoulder the burden of sick parents, the question of how we honor our fathers and mothers at the end of their lives becomes a crucial part of living out our theology. Good fathers and bad, cruel and kind, will need to lean on children that themselves have fewer networks to rely on for support.

CLIP: Why do you say things like that in front of him? What did I say? Listen, I completely understand your feelings. No you don’t. Yes I do. But what I don’t understand, is you do so much for him and I respect you for that. I mean you took on the decision to bring him here and, you know, why not. But, how can I put this? I honestly think you have to come up with a different solution. He’s totally lost it, Anne. Stop talking like that. How do you want me to talk? I’m telling the truth. We have to come up with a different arrangement. Such as? Put him in an institution. A home? Yes, a nursing home. It’ll be better for him.

As their absence in The Father illustrates, the ties of extended family, church, and close community may ask much of us in the years of our strength. But they pay back what they take exponentially when we need them.

I’m Megan Basham.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, March 12th. 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.

Before we continue, we wanted to remind you about the upcoming World Journalism Institute. 

Now, Myrna, you didn’t attend the WJI course for college students, but you did go to the mid-career course.

BROWN: That’s right Nick, and I’ve got to say, I’ve been a journalist for my entire career, and I still developed and honed new skills. So for a budding journalist there’s going to be a lot to learn. I also made some really great connections.

EICHER: Yeah, for college students interested in journalism and beginning the fun—and stressful—process of job searching, we just can’t recommend WJI enough. 

And after going all virtual last year, we are really looking forward to the two-week, in-person course at Dordt University in May. This is for college students and recent college grads.

BROWN: If that’s you, the application deadline is the end of the month, March 26th. And from what I remember, the application takes some time. So don’t delay and head on over to WJI.world. The web address WJI.world. 

Now, maybe you are not an aspiring journalist, but you know one. Do that person a favor and let him or her know about this excellent opportunity.

EICHER: Coming next on The World and Everything In It: What are they up to now?

That’s the question we got last year from one of our faithful listeners. He wrote in to say he enjoys our interviews with Christian music artists and wondered if we could follow up with one particular lead singer from the 80’s. I’m certainly old enough to remember that era!

BROWN: Same here, but I was more into Gospel than Christian Rock. And maybe that’s the reason I enjoyed so much my conversation with John Schlitt, frontman for the group Petra! 

PETRA: HIT YOU WHERE YOU LIVE: What He has to give is when we’re hit where we live… whoa whoa….

MYRNA BROWN, REPORTER: Nearly two decades before John Schlitt was belting out Christian rock songs like Hit Where You Live, the long-haired, fiery tenor was using his voice to rouse another group of music lovers.

HEAD EAST: NEVER BEEN ANY REASON:  Are you still warmed up just a little? Can you get your hands in the air. 

In 1969, Schlitt and four other Illinois college students formed the secular rock band, Head East. Five years later, they recorded their first album. Schlitt says it was a musician’s dream.

JOHN SCHLITT: We had record companies coming to us rather than us going to them. The problem is you get enough of that dream and all of a sudden it becomes old hat and it gets boring. So every night you’re playing in front of 20,000 people. Well, that’s what you did the night before. So you start looking for that next excitement.  I was very susceptible to cocaine for some reason and it became my crutch. It was my god.  

Growing up, Schlitt didn’t have a strong Biblical foundation. Religion was a divisive subject in his family. His mom was Catholic and his dad was Lutheran.

JOHN SCHLITT: They basically came to me and said John, this church thing is breaking up our family. When you get old enough, you decide which church you want to go to. I was a teenager so I said, great, I just won’t go.

That pattern continued through college. As a 21-year-old, newly-married rock star, Schlitt began filling the void with temporary pleasures.  

JOHN SCHLITT: There wasn’t enough money in the world that was going to take care of this emptiness that I had and I tried to fill it with booze and drugs and because of it I actually got fired from that band because I was too messed up.  

His stint with Head East ended in 1979. Schlitt says while he was suicidal and binging on drugs and alcohol, his wife, Dorla was delving into a newfound faith in Christ.

JOHN SCHLITT: And she’d try and tell me about the Lord and I’d say get out my face. I don’t want to hear about this Jesus. But that night I went into that pastor’s house with an attitude. I walked out with the Holy Spirit and my life changed.

Schlitt left the music industry and spent the next five years rebuilding his life. 

JOHN SCHLITT: I got a job sweeping the floor at a tool dye factory. I grew up. I learned a lot of discipline. I got out of debt, which I still don’t see how I did. God just opened my eyes saying this is a beginning. This isn’t it. This is a start. 

PETRA: THE COLORING SONG

During that five year transformation, Schlitt says he learned how to put God first, love his family and work hard. When Greg  X Volz left the band in 1986,  Schlitt got an invitation to join multiple-Grammy award-winning Christian rock group, Petra.

JOHN SCHLITT: When Petra called and said would you be our lead singer, that meant they asked me could I be a Christian, rock singer.  And God had conditioned me for both parts, the rock singer and the Christian.

For the next 20 years, Schlitt says God did more than he could ask or think, by  multiplying his platform, exposing him to audiences all over the world. 

SCHLITT: And I tell you, Rock n’ Roll is a very exciting music forum. And when you can use that exciting music forum to sing about the most exciting subject in the history of mankind, how dare I not do it?

But in 2006 Petra disbanded. 

SCHLITT: I’ll tell you what, for the first year or so, I was a little lost because you know, I still got the steam. I’m still ready and there’s nothing to do.

Today, Schlitt is 71years old. He’s been married for 50 years and still wears his signature long locks. He’s recorded several solo and collaborative albums. His latest project came out last year.  And when he isn’t singing, he’s using his hands as a skilled woodworker.

SCHLITT: I have a ministry. It used to be called John Schlitt Ministries. Now it’s called Build It Ministry, where I was working with this lady for the last two years to get her life back in order by re-doing her home. I just stay busy. If I’m not singing, I’m building.

MYRNA TO JOHN: As you look at music today, the singer, the songwriters even some of the current Christian rock bands, do they reach out to you and ask for advice? I think the only advice is, just be careful. Don’t compromise. Be evangelistic, don’t just be edifying, be evangelistic.

It’s the same advice he shares with his four adult children and seven grandkids. The grands range from college age to 3 years old.

SCHLITT SINGING ACAPELLA: There’s a higher place to go beyond belief, beyond belief. That was the one they loved. Everytime I’d sing it they’d dance to it.

PETRA: BEYOND BELIEF

While the older ones are a little embarrassed when he sings to them, having a grandad who loves Jesus and rock and roll is kind of cool.

JOHN SCHLITT: They do like my records. They’ve got them on their IPads and phones. Every once and awhile they’ll say, hey Gooka. I’m called Gooka. Gooka listen. And they’ll turn the phone up. They’ll tell me what they like about it and what they don’t like about it. It’s sweet.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It takes a team to put this program together and deliver it to you each morning and not by carrier pigeon! 

Thanks are in order:

Megan Basham, Joel Belz, Anna Johansen Brown, Kent Covington, Kristen Flavin, Katie Gaultney, Kim Henderson, Onize Ohikere, Bonnie Pritchett, Mary Reichard, Sarah Schweinsberg, Cal Thomas, and Whitney Williams.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz are audio engineers. Leigh Jones is managing editor. Paul Butler is executive producer. And Marvin Olasky is editor in chief.

And, thanks to you. Because of your support, you’re helping make it possible to bring Christian journalism to the marketplace of ideas. 

The Psalmist reminds us to “Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.”

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.