The World and Everything in It: March 14, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. I’m Kelsey Reed and I’m Maya Reed. We like to listen to The World and Everything In It together, and watch WORLD Watch. We hope you enjoy today’s program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Voting rights for felons vary among the states. What’s behind the recent push to expand those rights?

NICK EICHER, HOST: Australia’s domestic violence rates are rising. Today we’ll hear what Christians there are doing about it.

Plus some edifying books for children.

And the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank … economist and WORLD commentator Jerry Bowyer on the worldview implications.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, March 14th. 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: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

Biden banks » President Biden says despite the second and third-largest bank collapses in US history … there’s no need to worry.

BIDEN: Americans can have confidence that the banking system is safe. Your deposits will be there when you need them.

The federal government is backstopping every penny deposited in both Silicon Valley Bank … and Signature Bank.

While depositors are getting their money back, investors in those banks are out of luck.

BIDEN: They knowingly took a risk. And when the risk didn’t pay off, investors lose their money. That’s how capitalism works.

Biden says taxpayers will not foot the bill for refunding deposits. Instead “the money will come from the fees that banks pay into the deposit insurance fund.”

But GOP Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the Senate Banking Committee, says if more banks fail …

ROUNDS: Who is going to actually pay the cost of guaranteeing those deposits in the future, and I think that’s something we’re going to have to talk about. And I think it’s something Congress is going to have to probably get involved in.

Fed rates effect on banks »

Biden and some lawmakers say they intend to get to the bottom of what caused the banks to collapse. The president says he’ll call for tighter banking regulations.

Many analysts say the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes played a role. Mark Hamrick is senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com.

HAMRICK: There were some unintended consequences of those interest rate hikes intended to rein in inflation. Many of us were wondering if something was going to break, and now it does appear that something has broken.

The bank failures could complicate the Fed’s efforts to get inflation under control.

AUKUS pact » The U-S is set to sell at least three Virginia Class nuclear submarines to Australia. It’s part of a three-way pact between the two countries and Britain … intended to counter China.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak:

SUNAK - For the first time ever, it will mean three fleets of submarines working together across both the Atlantic and Pacific. Keeping our oceans free, open and prosperous for decades to come.

Sunak also says his country will be increasing its defense spending… And pouring more resources into the alliance, known as AUKUS.

SUNAK - For the first time, for the first time, the United Kingdom will move away from our baseline commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defense to a new ambition of 2.5%. Putting beyond doubt that the United Kingdom is and will remain one of the world's leading defense powers.

Sunak says the UK will divert part of that increase to back Ukraine’s military against Russia.

Xi to visit Moscow soon, will speak with Zelenskyy too » Chinese leader Xi Jinping could visit Russia as soon as next week. Reuters first reported his upcoming trip on Monday.

Vladimir Putin has repeatedly invited the Chinese leader to the Kremlin … after China’s foreign minister visited last month.

The Wall Street Journal meanwhile reports that Xi may speak with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his trip Moscow. U-S National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

SULLIVAN - We have been encouraging President Xi to reach out to President Zelenskyy because we believe that PRC President Xi himself should hear directly the Ukrainian perspective and not just the Russian perspective on this.

SULLIVAN - They [Ukrainian officials] have not yet actually gotten any confirmation that there will be a telephone call or a video conference. We hope there will be. That would be a good thing because it would potentially bring more balance and perspective to the way that the PRC is approaching this.

China has offered to broker a peace deal in Ukraine… But the U-S claims Beijing is also considering selling weapons to Russia.

Alaska drilling permission » The Biden administration is approving a major oil-drilling site in Alaska. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

The Willow project is expected to produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day once construction is complete.

The plan has broad support in Alaska from officials, businesses, and the public. Some are calling it an economic lifeline for the state.

But environmental activists are blasting President Biden for approving the drilling project while saying he wants to cut carbon emissions.

The administration has limited drilling in other areas of Alaska and the Arctic Ocean.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

A thousand migrants rush border » A group of more than a thousand migrants pushed past Mexican authorities and rushed a US border entry point in El Paso, Texas Monday.

But US Border Patrol agents blocked the mostly Venezuelan group … using barricades and razor wire on bridge over the Rio Grande.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Jose Sanchez

SANCHEZ: CBP did an excellent job. Outstanding job of securing that bridge. That bridge is directly — leads into downtown El Paso.

Misinformation from a Facebook post may have triggered the crowd surge. That post reportedly claimed that migrants who showed up at the entry point on Monday would be granted entry.

I’m Kent Covington

Straight ahead: responding to domestic abuse in Australian churches.

Plus, books kids and parents can enjoy together.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 14th of March, 2023.

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.

A quick note to parents…if you have kids in the car or in the room, you might want to skip this story and come back later to listen to it. It deals with a tough subject.

And that tough subject is domestic abuse. It’s on the rise in Australia. Recent studies show a 15% increase over the last few years. It got worse with Australia’s Covid lockdown. Now, with economic hardship, the pressure on some families is near the breaking point.

REICHARD: In Australia, one in four women has been sexually or physically abused. And studies conducted by the Anglican church of its membership show that domestic violence within Anglican homes is just as prevalent—if not worse—than in the homes of those who don’t attend church. WORLD Reporter Amy Lewis reports on what churches in Australia are doing in response.

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: Australia’s strict pandemic restrictions had some unintended consequences. They made domestic abuse perpetrators and their victims spend lots of time together. Hotline workers worried when the phone lines went silent. They knew it meant people couldn’t find a safe time or place to make the necessary phone call.

On average in Australia, a woman dies every 9 days because of domestic violence. It’s an ugly statistic. Warning signs can often be hard to spot.

Sexual abuse and trauma counselor Nicky Lock explains that domestic and family abuse encompasses more than just physical violence.

LOCK: And not realize that there's this whole gamut of other forms of abuse…It's all part of the same picture…through emotional abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, sexual abuse, spiritual abuse. Those things are not necessarily precursors for physical violence. Just because somebody is abusing someone psychologically, doesn't necessarily mean that person will progress to physical violence. But psychological abuse is harmful, deeply harmful, by itself.

Since the pandemic began, several states in both the United States and Australia have passed or introduced legislation that criminalizes something they call “coercive control.” That’s behavior one person exerts over another with the intent to maintain power and control. It often follows a pattern of explosion, remorse, maybe a honeymoon stage, and then another unexplained explosion.

LOCK: …Once the…victim has been through that cycle a number of times…she has this sort of knot in her stomach, …they talk about walking on eggshells, because they know almost with certainty that the explosion phase is going to happen again. They just don't know how long, and they don't know what will be the thing that will spark it off.

Sandy Grant led the Sydney Anglican domestic violence response task force. He also helped with a 2021 research project studying Anglican families in Australia. Within their study sample, researchers found that abusive relationships within church membership slightly outnumber those in the general population.

SANDY GRANT: Some people have falsely taken that research to indicate that perpetrators are as [hm] prevalent in our church pews as they are in the general society. The research didn't actually and, to be honest, couldn't really realistically measure the prevalence of perpetrators in the church.

People who attend church struggle with the same issues as those who don’t attend.

GRANT: I would have to say because of the continuing battle with the old nature… the flesh, we shouldn't be surprised that people in church who are genuine or professing Christians will sometimes misbehave badly. It's not acceptable. It needs to be called out, it needs to be disciplined.

But those abusive relationships might not be easily recognized or acknowledged.

GRANT: Christians prize things like forgiveness. We prize marriage, we want marriages to succeed...Patience is sometimes called long suffering….And all those things can lead us to tolerate, frankly, behavior that shouldn't have been tolerated.

Grant worked with counselor Nicky Lock and others on a domestic abuse policy and set of best practices for Anglican churches. It includes a step-by-step guide for church staff on what to do if someone comes to them for help. It prioritizes the safety of the victim first.

After safety, Grant says the next most important thing is to listen with acceptance.

GRANT: It doesn't mean accepting every single thing they've said is exactly and precisely the only possible way anything could be interpreted or understood, but it just means a posture of acceptance, and listening carefully, not rushing to charge, not rushing to tell them what to do.

He also says church leaders are often under-prepared to deal with abuse in their church.

GRANT: I thought that if I preached on marriage and used “Prepare” with wedding couples, I was sort of ticking the right boxes, and maybe an occasional marriage enrichment course. And I was very naïve, I didn't always respond well to little signals, little hints that there might be something amiss. And I think many clergy have found themselves in that position. And many, just ordinary church members also.

Counselor Nicky Lock says one way church leaders can address the topic is from the pulpit.

LOCK: There's plenty in the Bible about violence, abusing other people, misuse of power. So it shouldn't be hard to actually weave in information about domestic violence into a normal preaching cycle.

Raising awareness could be the impetus someone needs to broach the topic with someone they love.

LOCK: It could be the the woman's best friend, she's heard the sermon two weeks ago with it says, Oh, he actually mentioned this word domestic violence…I'm wondering, I've, you know, I've seen what happens in your relationship with your husband. I'm wondering if that's what's going on.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis.

REICHARD: You can read more about this on our website … and we’ve included a link in today’s program transcript.

MARY REICHARD: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: voting rights for felons.

Earlier this month, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed a bill into law that restores the right to vote to about 55,000 ex-felons. Audio from CBS that day:

TIM WALZ: We're a country of second chances. We're a country of welcoming folks back in. And the idea of not allowing those voices to have a say in the very governing of the communities they live in is simply unacceptable.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Now, you might be surprised to learn that there is no national set of standards for when felons can regain their ability to vote … that’s up to each state. WORLD Reporter Addie Offereins explains.

OFFEREINS: So each state can decide this as they so choose to do, and there's really a lot of variety across the states. The most common situation for felons in 22 states, they can vote once they've finished their incarceration. So even if they're on parole or probation, finishing out their sentence paying fines and fees, they're still able to vote in 22 states, just not while they're incarcerated.

REICHARD: Minnesota was one of more than a dozen states where felons have to wait until after they finish parole and probation and pay off any fines and fees before they can vote again. And two of the strictest states are Kentucky and Virginia, where felons can only regain their voting rights through an executive action or pardon from the governor.

On the other end of the spectrum, Maine and Vermont allow felons to vote while still in prison. Those two states are still very much the outliers, but states like Nebraska, New Mexico, and Kentucky are considering policy changes to loosen the rules around felons regaining the vote.

Brian Fullman is an advocate for the new law in Minnesota. As a nineteen-year-old selling drugs on the streets in Chicago, Fullman went to prison for two years. Now living in Minnesota, he argues that because of the voting restrictions, he was misinformed about his rights as a citizen.

FULLMAN: But the real harm around having a policy in place where formerly incarcerated can’t vote, is if you're not clear about the law, you don't think you can vote at all. So for the next 10 years, I didn't think I can vote at all. But the actual law states, when you're done with your parole or probation, you can vote. So it should have never had it in place because it's so easy to misinform people.

EICHER: But others are not so keen on laws that lower the bar for felons to vote. Zack Smith, a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, spoke with our reporter.

OFFEREINS: And he was concerned and I think I also mentioned this before that it makes more sense for a convicted felon to finish the terms of their sentence completely, then be able to vote right away after they're done being incarcerated. Because even if someone is on parole, there's a likelihood that they could violate that role and quickly be sent back to prison. So it wouldn't really make sense for someone to get reintegrated into society right away, when they might, there's often a high likelihood that they will be re-incarcerated. And so they should pay that debt to society in full. They owe that to society, finish their sentence prove they can be a productive member of society, and then they should be able to vote.

REICHARD: A related concern is that these policy changes may not adequately consider the crimes that put felons behind bars to begin with.

OFFEREINS: Another expert I spoke with, Charles Lehmann, he's a fellow with the Manhattan Institute. And he said that he believes rules should consider what kind of crime was committed and how much of their sentence, as well as how much of their sentence a convicted felon has completed. And so some of these states do have exceptions or rules, depending on how violent the crime was, was it Is this person a sex offender, different limitations? In Alabama, there's some pretty strict limitations on when you're able to vote depending on the crime that you committed. And so Charles Lehmann said, This kind of makes sense that there should be variations depending on the severity of your offense against society, because that should impact how much you're able to participate in society.

EICHER: Kate Trammell of Prison Fellowship recognizes the need for some way to safely restore felons to society, but warns against making it too burdensome.

TRAMMELL: So right, not only is it a question of, do we need to keep people from voting in order to keep others safe, right, but also, what is the risk of cutting people off from the voting booth just because they have a criminal record?

REICHARD: Trammell argues that felons who have paid their debt to society shouldn’t have to wait or petition to regain their voting rights. Because in her view … serving time for their crimes is sufficient.

TRAMMELL: The right to vote, we believe has very little to do with specific penalties for crimes outside of that experience of incarceration. Right. But it has a lot to do with healthy engagement in your community.

EICHER: Addie Offereins is WORLD’s Compassion beat reporter. If you’d like to learn more about this story, we’ve included a link in today’s transcript.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Why did the bison cross the road?

CINDY SHAFFER: Well, this guy's been standing on the road 20 minutes now...

Well, I guess he didn’t really cross, and that was the problem up in Yellowstone park recently.

Cindy Shaffer of Montana posts videos online from her visits to Yellowstone. This one was a little different.

SHAFFER: That bison is not moving…This is just crazy.

On her way home last Friday evening Shaffer got stuck in a bison jam … one single bison blocking both lanes of traffic. One driver pulled around Shaffer to get up in the bison's face...hoping to encourage it to mosey along … but it just wouldn’t.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Well, he was there first!

EICHER: Not a bad point.

SHAFFER: But it's been at least 20 minutes. I want to go home.

Alas … home, home, is the range … where frequently was heard … quite a few discouraging words.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, March 14th.

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: Whitney Williams recommends three books for families… that won’t disappoint.

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, REVIEWER: Most of us are familiar with the Secret deodorant slogan: “Strong enough for a man, made for a woman.” But too many stinky read-alouds with my boys had this mom wondering: “Are there any books out there that are strong enough for adults, but made for kids?” The short answer is you bet!

First, Someplace to Call Home, by Sandra Dallas, written for ages 10 to 14.

The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl hit the Turner family hard. Daddy left to find work and never came back. Then Mommy died. Now, it’s up to 12-year-old Hallie and 16-year-old Tom to make ends meet and take care of their little brother, Benny, a 6-year-old who evidently has Down syndrome. The three travel from town to town, ­living out of their car and looking for work, but it’s hard to come by. Seems like friends are hard to come by, too. People call the Turner kids “squatters,” and treat them with suspicion, though they’re just trying to make it like everyone else.

Here’s an excerpt of Chapter One read by Nick Jensen and Chloe Hendon:

“What if it rains?” “Rains? If it rains, we’ll all stand outside and praise the Lord. When was the last time you saw rain, Tom?” “Let’s see.” Tom tilted his head, thinking. “I think it was in 1929. The Bible says we have seven good years and seven bad, so we should have rain in two or three years.” “Well, I hope the Lord can count,” Hallie told him. She stared at her brother until the two burst out laughing. She felt good finding something funny.

As you can hear, there’s plenty of love, joy, and gratitude among these siblings even in the midst of incredible hardship, and a near-tragedy ends up bringing even more good things their way.

Next, here’s a clip from Deborah Hopkinson’s The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel. It’s read by Matthew Frow.

Sometime in the first hour of walking into those hot, shadowy rooms where death had been, I found a way to change my thinking around. Instead of looking with my eyes, I decided to see with my heart.

Eel is a 12-year-old orphan boy hired to help collect dead bodies in his neighborhood at the height of the Broad Street cholera epidemic. At first he’s not sure he can stomach the work, but he needs the money …

I tried to remember that the corpses were just people. People like Mr. Griggs or neighbors that I might greet on the street. And so rather than thinking about my own queasy feelings, I thought about them. I started to believe there was something important and noble about what we were doing. It made me want to be different from the men who came to get my own pa. And this coffin man, whose name was Charlie, seemed to feel the same way.

Dr. John Snow, an epidemiologist, suspects contaminated water is to blame for the deadly outbreak, but not many people believe him. Snow and Eel work to gather the evidence they need to prove Snow’s theory and save the lives of Eel’s friends and neighbors (or what’s left of them). Just as they start to make headway, a dark character in Eel’s past catches up with him and threatens everything. Hopkinson’s seamless mixing of real-life facts and figures with fictional characters and storylines makes this fast-paced novel both educational and entertaining.

And finally, my personal favorite for its humor and heart, A Long Way From Chicago: A Novel in Stories by Richard Peck, for ages 9 and up:

Grandma Dowdel was a bit rough around the edges with her gun toting and beer brewing—and boy, could that woman tell some whoppers! But the larger-than-life lady had a heart to help others, and that’s one thing she wasn’t loud about. At least that’s what her now-elderly grandson–Joe–remembers from his childhood visits to small town Illinois in the 1930s. Here’s a clip from the audiobook, read by Ron McLarty:

Now, I’m older than Grandma was then, quite a bit older. But as the time gets past me, I seem to remember more and more about those hot summer days and nights, and the last house in town where grandma lived. And grandma. Are all my memories true? Every word. And growing truer with the years.

Each ­chapter hilariously recounts something Grandma had up her sleeve for her Chicago city-slicker grandkids, Joey and Mary Alice. From a (jumpy) dead guy in Grandma’s front parlor to an illegal catfishing adventure, each word of this 1999 Newbery Honor winner is a tickling treat. And adults, you might need a tissue at the end.

The years went by, and Mary Alice and I grew up, slower than we wanted to, faster than we realized.

If you’re a parent who longs for more when it comes to juvenile fiction, no need to sweat. These three books have got you covered.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Whitney Williams.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, March 14th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next…the fall of Silicon Valley Bank.

As WORLD reported Monday morning:

KENT COVINGTON: Wall Street is opening to uncertainty today as investors brace themselves for the fallout from the second-biggest bank collapse in US history.

Then, the collapse of another financial institution. On Sunday, regulators closed Signature Bank, which had been heavily involved in the crypto sector.

REICHARD: Today, WORLD Opinions contributor Jerry Bowyer on what’s behind these events.

Bowyer sees more than bad policy here; he sees worldview conflict.

JERRY BOWYER, COMMENTATOR: If a man obeys sound financial principles, he is like a man who builds a house on a foundation of stone. If a man doesn’t obey such principles, he is like a man who builds his house on a foundation of sand.

Houses built on sand look very much like houses built on stone right up until a storm comes, at which point one is washed away. This Biblical vision contrasts with modern theories. Modern portfolio theory is based in Darwinism and skepticism, and it sees risk as essentially random and risk management as investing in assets with low volatility.

The collapse last week of Silicon Valley Bank, or S-V-B, illustrates the difference in worldviews with painful clarity. The storm came and the house collapsed. Or, switching to a slightly less pious analogy, the tide went out and we saw who’d been swimming naked.

SVB was vulnerable in numerous ways. The Fed’s extremely easy monetary policy helped to drive up the price of treasury bonds. By purchasing so many treasury bonds, the Fed created a treasury bond bubble. Low interest rates from the Fed also helped to create a bubble in the tech sector.

COVID policy added to that technology bubble as media consumption grew. People hunkered down in front of social media and streaming services, and that led investors to buy more tech stocks, pushing their price higher and higher.

Of course, all that excess money led to inflation. The Fed eventually admitted the problem and reversed course, selling treasury bonds, driving down the price, and hiking interest rates. All of that hurt technology companies–and banks–in Silicon Valley. Regional banks like SVB had less diversified balance sheets and so were hurt more. And since it owned a lot of long-term treasury bonds, SVB was hit hard by the Fed’s tightening policy. Financial Analyst David Bahnsen says the bank didn’t adequately hedge against that risk.

In a storm, not every house collapses. The shaky ones do, and SVB was shaky. Several issues stand out, such as the bank’s high concentration in long-term treasury bonds. In the past three years long-term bonds underperformed short-terms ones 11 to 1.

Then there’s the issue of managerial focus. SVB was distracted from its core mission. It appears the head of risk assessment refocused a lion’s share of her work toward Pride Month celebrations and other issues of identity politics.

Risk is failing to follow certain foundational principles–in a lifestyle, in a family, in a nation, or in a business. The principle of sound money was ignored by the Fed. SVB violated principles of diversification and prudence. It set aside its fiduciary duty to steward the assets of others and focus on business, not ideology.

As the nation debates this failure, some will turn to old scapegoats like capitalism, greed, and political enemies. But fundamentally, this crisis arose from wrong first principles. Humanistic and technocratic foundations are no substitute for Biblical foundations.

I’m Jerry Bowyer.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Washington Wednesday…we’ll talk about the recent hearing in Congress about America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

That and much more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HIOST: 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: As [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. John Chapter 9 verses1-3.

Go now in grace and peace.

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.