The World and Everything in It: May 10, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. Hi, my name is Maia Keller. and I live with my parents and siblings in Orlando, Florida. But today I’m out in the world myself with my church’s short-term mission team as we are in Rome, Italy this week. I hope you enjoy today’s program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! 

President Biden meets with congressional leaders over the debt ceiling. Is America really on the verge of being a deadbeat?

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday. Also today, World Tour. Plus how a Texas family wound up doing Christian education in Albania.

And WORLD Founder Joel Belz on measuring the value of a human life.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, May 10th. 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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Debt limit » House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says talks over raising the nation’s debt ceiling are going nowhere fast.

He spoke to reporters after meeting with President Biden and other top lawmakers at the White House.

KEVIN MCCARTHY: Everybody in this meeting reiterated the positions they were at. I didn’t see any new movement. The president said the staff should get back together, but I was very clear with the president; we have now just two weeks to go.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that without a deal, the country could start defaulting on its debts on June 1st.

Hours earlier, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president is waiting for Congress to take the lead.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: They need to take action. Congress has to do their job. Super simple. They are manufacturing a crisis.

But McCarthy said the GOP-led House has done its job. It passed a bill late last month that would raise the debt ceiling while reducing overspending to slow the growth of the national debt.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the bill “dead on arrival” in his chamber.

Trump » Former President Donald Trump is blasting a New York jury after it found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

The jury rejected writer E. Jean Carroll’s claim that Trump raped her in a department store in the mid 1990s, but agreed that he assaulted her and defamed her after she publicly came forward with her claim in 2019. Trump has denied Carroll’s allegations claiming he doesn’t know her.

Trump attorney Joe Tacopina:

JOE TACOPINA: He’s firm in his belief that you cannot get a fair trial in New York City. And I think one could argue that that's probably an accurate assessment based on what happened.

The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. Trump said he will appeal.

Russia cyber operation AV » The Justice Department says it has disrupted a nearly two-decade Russian cyber-espionage campaign. WORLD’s Anna Johnsen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: The cyber campaign targeted the United States and other NATO members.

Prosecutors say the Russian intelligence agency, F-S-B, masterminded the operation and accused hackers of stealing documents from NATO governments and a U.S. journalist.

The Justice Department said the Russian operation relied on a so-called “Snake” virus, and the Department used a sophisticated tool to get the malware to self-destruct.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Border » More than 500 active duty troops have begun arriving along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Pentagon spokesman, General Pat Ryder:

PAT RYDER: This was to meet an urgent request from DHS while they explore options to support his long term.

It’s the first wave of troops who will support Border Patrol agents with migrant traffic expected to spike tomorrow when the pandemic-era Title 42 rule expires. That rule allowed the government to expel unauthorized immigrants more quickly.

Roughly 1,500 troops will mainly help monitor the border and perform administrative tasks to free Border Patrol agents up for field work.

Ukraine/Russia » Ryder on Tuesday also officially announced a $1.2 billion dollar military aid package for Ukraine.

RYDER - The capabilities in this package include additional air defense systems and munitions equipment to integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles and radars with Ukraine's air defense systems.

Meanwhile, the European Union is proposing new penalties for countries that help Russia evade Western sanctions.

Israel Attacks » Schools, beaches, and highways in southern Israel closed Tuesday, bracing for attacks from Hamas.

The Iran-backed group was expected to retaliate for an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip that killed three Islamic militant leaders on Tuesday.

AUDIO: [Netanyahu speaking Hebrew]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the militants were responsible for launching rockets toward Israel and were planning more attacks.

Palestinian health officials said the airstrikes also killed several civilians.

Bud Light backlash » Budweiser continues to hemorrhage sales after partnering with a transgender social media star. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more:

JOSH SCHUMACHER: Sales of Bud Light fell a staggering 21.4 percent last month.

Anheuser-Busch CEO Michel Doukeris recently downplayed the partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, saying the Bud Light can with his face on it was only “one can,” not a full marketing campaign. He blamed online misinformation for the backlash.

Ahneuser-Busch has so far refused to apologize for what many see as its promotion of the transgender social agenda.

But LGBT groups are now boycotting the brand now as well, because the company is not declaring steadfast support for that agenda.

In the meantime, sales of Anheuser-Busch products as a whole are down 12%.

And analysts say if the bleeding doesn’t stop, Modelo could soon overtake Budweiser as the nation’s top-selling beer.

For WORLD, I’m correspondent Josh Schumacher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: The fight over America’s debt limit. Plus, taking Christian education to Albania.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 10th of May, 2023. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. It’s time for Washington Wednesday. Today, the debt ceiling.

As you heard moments ago, President Biden met with congressional leaders yesterday to negotiate ahead of an impending default crisis.

This is the first time since February that Biden has met with leaders of Congress to address the issue. Three months ago, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy visited the White House to discuss ways to ensure America continues to pay its bills.

KEVIN McCARTHY: My role right now is to make sure we have a sensible, responsible ability to raise the debt ceiling, but not continue this runaway spending.

EICHER: McCarthy walked away from that meeting without a deal, but he worked with House Republicans to narrowly pass a bill in April to raise the debt limit while cutting spending.

Despite that win, Democrats on Capitol Hill roundly rejected the bill as a bad faith effort by the Republicans to exploit a difficult situation. President Biden promised to veto the bill, and Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer said it would be dead on arrival in the Senate. It’s currently under review in the budget committee.

REICHARD: That brings us to yesterday, when McCarthy finally returned to the White House. This time joined by Schumer, House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

And like the last meeting, neither side is willing to budge. Democrats can’t live with spending cuts, and Republicans can’t live without them.

EICHER: So what’s really going on here? To find out, World’s Washington D.C. reporter Leo Briceno interviewed economist Stephen Moore. Moore is a Distinguished Fellow in Economics at the Heritage Foundation and previously served as a member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal.

Over the years, Moore has seen his fair share of political fights over fiscal policy…and in this case, he says Biden has a weaker position than do House Republicans.

STEPHEN MOORE: Well, first of all, I think that Joe Biden has been really one of our most financially reckless presidents in American history, if not the most. I mean, we've spent and borrowed $6 trillion in the last two and a half years. And that's coming out of a crisis. In other words, we should be running surpluses. When Biden came in, that COVID crisis was basically over, we had the vaccine, we were reopening our businesses, people were going back to work, people were getting back on planes and getting traveling again. And so these should be boom times for the United States. And, and instead, Biden came in and spent $6 trillion on all sorts of new government programs and social programs and student loan bailouts and green energy projects and things of that nature that have very low return for the economy. And so I really believe that this is a showdown that has tremendously important consequences, that Republicans have to hold the line here and say, Look, we're not going to give you an unlimited credit card. That's what Biden wants. He said, just let me borrow whatever I want. And I think that is really quite outrageous. I mean, we're the Titanic headed to an iceberg, financially.

REICHARD: So what would McCarthy’s bill do if Biden considered signing it?

MOORE: It raises the debt ceiling, but it says we're gonna save $4 trillion over the next 10 years, we're not going to hire 87,000 new IRS agents, we're not going to give you a $350 billion green energy slush fund to disperse money to all your political contributors. And it also says that, we're going to put a pretty reasonable cap of 1% per year on government spending. And so Biden refuses to negotiate, he is going to bring us right up to the brink. But I have to tell you, I've never seen Republicans as unified as they are right now.

EICHER: Meanwhile, Democrats are just as unified, and they frame the issue this way: that it’s irresponsible to get hung up on spending cuts with the debt collector at the door. But Moore says it’s the Democrats who are playing a dangerous game.

MOORE: Every business man and woman and every head of a household knows you can't just continue to borrow year after year after year. That story doesn't have a happy ending. And it's the same true of government, look at the governments that have tried to spend so much money and just spend and borrow and borrow. And that has always led to a crash in the economy of these countries, whether it's Bolivia, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela, Greece—this story always has an unhappy ending. So you want to turn the battleship around before it hits the iceberg. And Republicans, I think, have very reasonable demands here. And I think people need to understand that the person, the chamber of Congress that has not passed a debt ceiling bill is the is the Senate, and the Senate is controlled by Chuckie Schumer and the Democrats. So Republicans have done their constitutional duty they passed a budget, they've raised the debt ceiling, Biden doesn't want to do it. So I think the, let's see him pass a budget. Let's see, let's see Schumer get a bill out, I don't think he can do it.

EICHER: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has predicted that the US could run out of spending authority as soon as June 1st…raising concerns about what a default would mean for the economy. But based on past experience, Moore says when push comes to shove, the government will pay up.

MOORE: Well, there's not going to be a default on the debt, let me just say that loud and clear, we have money to pay the interest on the debt that's owed. So bondholders should be assured that you're going to be paid. But it does mean we'd have to cut back on some government programs, and there might be some skittishness in the markets. If that happens, that's the point that Biden has been making. Well, if he's so worried about that, why won't he make a deal with the Republicans? He keeps saying Republicans are the danger to democracy. But you know, we have a democratic system of government, we have one chamber of the Congress is held by one party and one chamber is held by the other party. And so, you know, the Democrats say, we're not going to negotiate. I mean, what kind of democracy is that? So, Biden has to sit down and negotiate with the Republicans, he has to come up with a deal, he's going to have to cut back on government spending. And I think those are things that most Americans very much a plot, I saw, the media keeps saying, Oh, 70% of Americans want the debt ceiling to be raised. That's true. But more than half of those 70% want spending cuts, you know, to accompany any increase in the debt. And so you know, a third of Americans don't want to raise the debt ceiling at all. So you've got a situation where I think Biden is playing a very weak hand.

REICHARD: Regardless of the cards Biden or McCarthy have, this is not really a game. It has serious, long-term consequences that, as Moore says, puts America on a path to national destruction:

MOORE: We will not be the world's economic superpower if we continue to borrow and spend money we don't have. And so this is just common sense, folks. We've got to get really serious about the debt. We've got to grow our economy so we have more people working and more people paying taxes, and we have to shrink the government size, which is now you know, $6 trillion a year we're spending. When I first came to Washington, the budget was $1 trillion. So we cannot continue on a path to national financial destruction, it's not going to be you and me that's going to really pay the price for this. It's going to be our children and grandchildren who are going to just inherit a lot of red ink.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with World reporter Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE: DRC Flooding — Today’s World Tour begins in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

SOUND: [Woman singing]

Residents are in mourning after flooding in parts of South Kivu province killed over 400 people.

Heavy rainfall that began last week caused flash floods that swept away several buildings and left some major roads impassable in the hard-hit Kalehe territory.

Local authorities said thousands of people remain missing.

SURVIVOR: (Swahili) My whole family has disappeared. My family was swept away by the waters and all my neighbors disappeared everywhere in Nyamukubi, even at my in-laws' house.

This survivor says the floodwaters swept away her family members and neighbors.

The Congolese government observed a day of national mourning on Monday and flew flags at half-mast to honor the victims.

Heavy rains have drenched parts of east Africa, including Uganda and Kenya.

Flooding and landslides have killed more than 130 people in Rwanda.

N.E India violence — Next, to northeast India.

SOUND: [Evacuation]

Some 35,000 people have sought shelter in military camps and elsewhere after deadly ethnic fighting flared in Manipur state. Authorities said 60 people have died in the unrest.

The fighting began last week after members of the majority Christian Kuki tribe protested the dominant Hindu Meitei community’s request for a Scheduled tribe status. That designation gives marginalized communities like the Kukis quotas for education, health, and government jobs.

Both sides have a long history of clashes.

The protests turned violent, with cars and houses set on fire. Authorities reported more than 200 people injured and about 17 houses burned.

This Kuki tribal leader said a large crowd began attacking his community last week.

TRIBAL LEADER: So we ran away, all of us ran to the jungle and we try to survive.

Military officials said they helped evacuate people from both sides to safety.

Authorities imposed curfews and cut off the internet in the affected districts.

Canada wildfires — We head over to Canada where wildfires have sparked a state of emergency.

SOUND: [Fire truck]

More than 80 wildfires are burning in Alberta, forcing more than 29,000 residents to evacuate.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the province-wide declaration will aid the emergency response.

DANIELLE SMITH: This is not a step we took lightly, but it’s one that will allow the quickest and most effective response.

Firefighters from Ontario and Quebec have also stepped in to help.

Provincial officials say they expect some rain and overcast weather conditions this week, but they warned the hot and dry conditions will return in a few days.

Syria rejoins Arab League — We close today in Syria.

After a 12-year suspension, Syria is now back in the Arab League. Member countries voted Sunday in Egypt’s capital, Cairo, to readmit the country.

The alliance suspended Syria back in 2011 at the start of the civil war under Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit is the Arab League’s secretary general.

ABOUL GHEIT: [Speaking Arabic]

He says here he expects western and European countries to oppose the move, but called it an independent decision.

The vote was not unanimous. Qatar and eight other countries in the 22-member alliance did not send their foreign ministers to the meeting.

Aboul Gheit said Assad can attend the Arab League Summit hosted by Saudi Arabia later this month.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Perhaps you saw the story last week of that huge pile of pasta mysteriously dumped in the woods. Keith Rost of Old Bridge, New Jersey, is the one who deserves credit for finding the trove. Audio here from NBC News, New York:

KEITH ROST:  I was just going through the trails. So I looked down seen alphabets, noodles, spaghetti probably about 200 pounds.

The story was all over social media--many wondering where it came from.

NEW YORK NEWSCAST: We have some answers related to what you could call a macaroni mystery.

Mmm-hmm and we do. Apparently a neighbor of Rost died and her son was cleaning out her kitchen when he came across a stash of dry goods.

ROST: They were of a generation like my grandparents—always had a cupboard full of cans and pasta and you know, just to be safe. 

So he tossed it in the woods. Obviously, he was unfamiliar with the old saying, “a penne saved is a penne earned.”

Hang on, it gets worse.

This story went viral and drew all kinds of social media commentary, to wit: Who did this? Al-Dente and his partner in crime Lynn Guini?

Well, it turned out the guy who dumped the pasta wasn’t the one who cleaned it up. It was the city having to send a clean-up crew.

Now, there are so many pasta-bilities of how to end this story. But to my mind, this is a classic case of moral hazard. The city is going to be back cleaning up some other mess, they might as well say “pasta, la vista, baby.”

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, May 10th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: bringing the gospel back to places where the Apostle Paul walked.

After World War Two, the Eastern European nation of Albania spent decades under firm communist control. In 1967, Prime Minister Enver Hoxha declared Albania the first atheist country in the world. Religion was outlawed.

EICHER: After communism fell in the early 1990s, Albanians hungered to learn about the God they were prohibited from knowing. But the church there still faces challenges and needs help from Christians in other countries.

One family from Texas says God used an unlikely source to lead them there, and not just for short-term missions. WORLD reporter Jenny Rough has their story.

PETER SARGENT: So in—

KATIE SARGENT: Romans 15—

PETER: Romans 15 or Act 15? I should know this off the top of my head. —it says they went as far as Illyricum, which is modern day Albania.

JENNY ROUGH: Peter and Katie Sargent flip through the pages of a Bible in their kitchen—as music plays in the background. Their three young daughters run around their family room playing with a stuffed bunny.

Throughout their lives, the Sargents have read Romans 15 multiple times. But until two years ago, they didn’t give a second thought to the reference to modern-day Albania.

PETER: So probably Paul himself was here, but definitely the gospel was here early on.

Now, they live and breathe and eat all things Albanian.

PETER: What if we just kind of pass some of this stuff, Katie. And then maybe I could serve the potatoes.

KATIE: Yeah, the potatoes are still hot.

DAUGHTER OLIVIA: Pitas! I want pitas!

The Sargents may be settled in Albania now, but just four years ago, they were living the American dream. Married 8 years. Two daughters with a third on the way. They had just bought a house. And a second car. Life seemed set.

Then everything changed in 2019.

PETER SARGENT: It all started with our small group at church.

Their small group read the book Radical by David Platt. The end of the book presents a challenge: pray for the unreached places of the world.

PETER: To pray for the whole world, we got a prayer guide. And each night at our family bible time, we prayed for a different country.

They started with Afghanistan. But they didn’t make it much farther. That’s because their 4-year-old daughter Faith kept requesting prayers for the second country on the list.

KATIE: And it was really funny because for a long time she couldn't even really say Albania. She would be like, “I want to pray for, what's that country called again?” Or she'd be like, “Let's pray for Alabama.” And we're like, “Albania?” “Yeah, Albania!”

At the time, Peter worked as the campus pastor at a Christian school in San Antonio. The Sargents began to look for small ways to support the country. Since they both had an interest in education, they decided to support a school.

KATIE: So we Googled it, and there was one Christian school in Albania. And they just so happened to have a job posting on there that was exactly what Peter was doing, campus pastor, Bible teacher. And we're like, “Oh no, uh, Lord, what are you trying to do here?”

God seemed to open door after door after door. They took the first step of faith by letting go of what Americans cling so tightly to. They sold their house and cars. And whittled down their personal effects.

Then in July of 2021, they packed up eight suitcases, three car seats, and headed overseas. They describe the adjustment as stretching, but good. First, the basics. Learn a new language, including new concepts like the consonant blended letters of the Albanian alphabet. Dh...

PETER: Not to be confused with Xh, which is also.

Learning how to get food.

KATIE: You actually have to figure out, well, the chicken that we like is at this store, but then this store has all the breakfast stuff, and fruits and vegetables are a completely separate thing.

Tirana is a walking city. And running errands on foot provides the Sargents with many ministry opportunities.

KATIE: Like while you're out doing that, you meet the same people over and over and over basically every single day. And you have the same, you know, little small talk conversations. And that’s been really great for language development, but also for reaching our neighborhood.

One of their neighbors is a mosque.

AUDIO: [Call to Prayer]

And each time they hear the call to prayer, it reminds the Sargents to pray, too. Specifically for their nominal Muslim neighbors. They’ve had conversations about the gospel with some of them. Only 30,000 of the country’s 3 million people are evangelical Christians. The Sargents have learned to communicate the gospel in a way that makes sense to the unique culture there.

PETER: So their concept of sin, like mëket, is kind of strong. Like murder and that kind of thing. But the word mistake, gaboim, will sometimes click with them. So I’ll say sin or just mistakes. Everybody’s made mistakes. And that sounds like bad news, and it is bad news. But I’m not here to tell you bad news. I’m here to tell you good news.

But the bulk of the Sargents’ ministry focuses on the school where they work, GDQ International. Peter serves as chaplain and Bible teacher. Katie teaches social studies. The students are a mix of locals and missionary kids. The curriculum takes the approach of biblical integration.

PETER: Where we take what would be a secular textbook curriculum and then encourage the students to think about it from a Christian perspective.

Because of the country’s history, Sargent says God is part of the national consciousness for the first time in a long time.

PETER: And really, these kids are the first generation in Albania since before World War II who were able to be free to grow up in Christian homes. So this is a really neat moment in history to be investing in, in young Albanian Christians.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough in Tirana, Albania.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, May 10th. 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.

How far should we go to save another person’s life? It’s a critical question–as you know if you’ve been listening to WORLD’s newest season of Lawless. That podcast explores the case of Terri Schiavo. So, check that out if you haven’t already!

Today, though, we’ll go even further back, to 1987 and back to another famous controversial case of a feeding tube removed–this time, Nancy Jobes of New Jersey. Here’s WORLD founder Joel Belz with a classic commentary.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: The generation ahead of us is almost certainly one in which society will ask more and more frequently, is this particular life worth living? It is already true that our technological capabilities have leaped ahead of our ability to make sound ethical judgments. And progress in technology seems to be moving a good bit faster than progress in ethics. So things will get worse. 

This summer, the state of New Jersey shamelessly failed to preserve the life of a woman who was too weak to defend herself. The state did so fully conscious of what it was doing. Virtually unconscious since a careless operating room accident seven years ago. The woman in her 30s died earlier this month from starvation because her life was judged to be no longer meaningful. Otherwise basically healthy, the woman did not die from other problems. She had become an inconvenience, and the state agreed with the family's desire to cut off her sustenance.

Horrified though I was with this report, I couldn't help thinking that all of us have our own collection of yardsticks by which we measure the value of human lives. Contrast, for example, the 158 lives lost last week in the plane crash in Detroit, with the same number of people who died that very same day across the U.S. in car accidents, and then the comparable number who died the following day from car accidents, and again the following day, from car accidents, and so on. Why do 158 deaths from one cause strike most of us more harshly than 40 to 50,000 deaths from another cause. But on the same day that 158 people died in a plane crash. More than 4000 babies were being aborted throughout the United States, perhaps 1000 of them more than three months along in their development. Let's face it, even we pro lifers are pretty callous about such statistics. Even we attach more value to some lives than we do to others. Intuitively at least, we all have our own yardsticks.

We live in a zany age. If you look in one direction, human life seems very much undervalued: abortion, war, dictatorships of both the right and the left. All of these take their unfeeling tolls. But occasionally, you look in the other direction, and sense that maybe life can be overvalued, too. How? When judges set aside death sentences because of legal technicalities, when someone chants, ‘Better red than dead,’ or even when a president lapses into thinking the lives of two, three or four hostages are more important than the principle of not dealing with terrorists.  

So why hasn't God given us such a precise yardstick? Probably because we would end up abusing the yardstick in the same way we abused the gift of life itself. We'd become crass Legalist of the worst sort. Meanwhile, ignoring the main thing God wants us to treasure. Important as life is and jealously though God wants us to guard it, there is something yet more important that we are to guard with even more care. That is our devotion to God himself.

You needn't go further than the story of Abraham offering up Isaac on the altar to understand that. If Abraham had made life itself the supreme value right then he would have offended God with idolatry. What Abraham needed to discover, and what we need to discover for ourselves and then speak clearly to others in this ambivalent ethical age, is that God and only God is in charge. He is in charge and he is trustworthy even with the hard issues of life. And in death, the challenge is to follow God's lead. Does he indicate that he is calling someone unmistakably to himself? Then who are we to resist? But is he saying, on the other hand, that the time is not yet, but there is still more learning to take place through patience, then who are we to hurry God?

Such indicators may be easier here in the abstract than they are in the agony of real life. And certainly they are easier for believers than for those who reject the truth of God. 

But while we may not have a yardstick that the world will recognize as valid for the hard issues of life and death, Scripture does give us–as it does, in all matters–clear and faithful indicators unavailable to unbelievers. God is still God, and we are only his image bearers. A good rule of thumb still seems to be, let him be the one who acts. Let us be the ones to accept willingly what he does. That doesn't solve all the hard problems, but it points us in the right direction.

REICHARD: That’s WORLD founder Joel Belz, reading his commentary titled “More Ethical Than Abraham?” This is adapted from his book, Consider These Things. The column originally appeared on August 31st, 1987 in WORLD Magazine.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Title 42 comes to an end. How have border towns been preparing for the expected surge? We’ll have a report. And, some cities are sending some hospital patients home for treatment. The results are surprising.

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 Psalmist writes: How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119, verses 9 through 11.

Go now in grace and peace.

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