The World and Everything in It - May 21, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

This week and next, we’re training young journalists in Christian worldview reporting. Today John Stonestreet answers their questions about media bias and keeping the pulpit engaged.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Culture Friday.

Plus two movies the kids might request for family movie night. One a road trip gone awry and the other a rom-com set in Ireland.

And Word Play with George Grant.

REICHARD: It’s Friday, May 21st. 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, Anna Johansen Brown has today’s news.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel, Hamas agree to cease-fire in Gaza » Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Hamas officials quickly agreed to honor the deal.

That ended an 11-day conflict that left more than 200 people dead.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken welcomed the news.

BLINKEN: Our goal continues to be to stop the violence, to bring calm, and then get back to work trying to build lasting security and a more hopeful future for all.

Egypt helped broker the deal and pledged to fund rebuilding efforts in Gaza.

MAN: SPEAKING ARABIC

Egypt’s ambassador to the United Nations announced the cease-fire at the General Assembly and said he hoped it would last.

But Israel made it clear that peace will only last as long as Hamas upholds its end of the bargain. In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s military made “significant achievements in the operation, some of which are unprecedented.”

SOUND: BOMBS, EXPLOSIONS

The latest round of fighting between Hamas militants and Israeli forces began May 10th. The dueling rocket fire did not let up ahead of Thursday’s announcement, even as mediators said they expected a deal soon. Five people reportedly died on Thursday during Israeli airstrikes.

Senate Republicans rally against Jan. 6 commission » Senate Republicans are lining up to oppose creating an independent commission on the Jan. 6th Capitol riot.

Democrats in the House approved the commission late Wednesday. Thirty-five Republican members voted with them to create the bipartisan group.

But Senator Ron Johnson of Wyoming called the commission anything but fair. Here he is speaking on Fox’s The Ingraham Angle.

JOHNSON: I sure hope we can get at least 41 Republican colleagues to vote against this thing. You know, there are investigations going out. I’m doing my own investigation into really accurately recreating exactly what happened on Jan. 6. But Nancy Pelosi’s commission is not going to dig into this in any kind of bipartisan fashion. She gets to pick all the staff members. This is a joke and should be voted down.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the chamber’s top-ranking Democrat, said Republican opposition to the commission just proves how much it’s needed.

SCHUMER: We always needed to look into it. But the fact that there’s such denial, such lying, there is such obeisance to Donald Trump’s big lie, and to his fundamentally dishonest personality, makes the need for truth, for a commission greater than it ever has been.

Democrats would need support from at least 10 Republicans to get the 60 votes needed to create the commission. Republican Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have voiced support for the commission. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she liked the idea but wanted to see changes to the way it would be set up.

Vaccine boosters might be necessary this fall » If you got a COVID-19 vaccine this spring, you may need a booster as early as this fall.

Dr. Anthony Fauci made that prediction during an interview with Axios.

FAUCI: We know that the vaccine durability of the efficacy lasts at least six months, and likely considerably more. But I think we will almost certainly require a booster within a year or so after getting the primary because the durability of protection against coronavirus is generally not life-long.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said his company would have data from trials of a booster shot within the next two months. Moderna is also working on a booster shot for its vaccine.

But Fauci said the good news about boosters is that they likely won’t be specific to particular variants of the virus. Boosters targeting the original strain provide adequate protection against mutations.

So far, about half of eligible Americans have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. And nearly 10 percent have developed natural antibodies after recovering from a confirmed case of the virus.

Weekly jobless claims continue to fall » Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims have fallen to their lowest point since the pandemic began. WORLD’s Leigh Jones reports.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to 444,000, according to numbers released Thursday by the U.S. Labor Department.

That encouraging sign comes as nearly all states with Republican governors move to cut off extra federal unemployment benefits. Businesses say the extra money is making it too easy for people to stay home and not work.

Twenty-two states will stop providing the $300 dollars in extra benefits starting June 1st.

A total of about 16 million people received unemployment benefits during the week that ended on May 1st, the last for which cumulative data is available. But that was down from nearly 17 million the week before.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

NOAA issues annual storm predictions as first depression forms » Forecasters are predicting this year’s Atlantic hurricane season will be above normal. But they do not expect the historic level of storm activity recorded in 2020.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration unveiled its annual predictions Thursday.

Forecasters anticipate as many as 20 named storms, with up to half becoming hurricanes. And three to five of those could become major storms.

The Atlantic hurricane season starts on June 1st, but the first storm is already spinning to life.

The National Hurricane Center is monitoring an area of low pressure northeast of Bermuda that could become a subtropical storm by early next week. If it does, it will be named Ana.

I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Straight ahead: questions about culture from students at the World Journalism Institute.

Plus, George Grant on the ways our tongues can trip us up.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Friday, May 21st, 2021.

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.

We’re on the campus of Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa, for the 2021 World Journalism Institute. We have an excellent class again this year and several of us on the WORLD Radio team are here working with them: Myrna Brown, Paul Butler, Sarah Schweinsberg, and Marvin and Susan Olasky.

It’s so great to be back in person in beautiful northwest Iowa, and as has been our tradition, we open the microphone to student questions.

To answer them is John Stonestreet, president of Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

John, good morning.

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning, Nick!

EICHER: Well, let’s get right to the questions.

TIMMIS: My name is Anna Timmis. I'm a graduate of Hillsdale College. How do I thoughtfully engage in the conversation about racial justice and police brutality when it's so hard to tell if the media coverage of incidents of police brutality are accurate, especially when many media outlets have an agenda?

STONESTREET: Hi, Anna, that's a question that not only are many people asking, but many people feel up close and personal.

I mean, look, there's there's a number of things that are making it more difficult to answer your question: First is a theory of everything that's now been applied to so many different contexts in our culture—academia, certainly journalism, certainly has overtaken certain, you know, generational demographics even. And, of course, I'm talking about various versions of critical theory. In our day and age, certainly critical race theory over the last couple of years has been the dominant narrative, when talking about any sort of interaction that involves anybody that's not of the same race.

So that's kind of super applied, you know, up front, before anything else is allowed to be asked.

Then you have kind of, you know, segments of culture that have a real vested interest in driving that narrative. And then you have a bunch of disenfranchised people who are so skeptical and cynical of anything that comes from the state of the media, that what is happening is they're using the specter of critical theory or critical race theory, to absolutely avoid having to have the conversation in the first place.

So how do we actually engage in this conversation?

First of all, we've got to start with the right foundation. The only foundation that provides the grounding for the conversation we need to have is the image of God, the image of God has been among the most consequential ideas in all of human history. It's not just something that Christians believe it's something that because Christians believed it and live that way, it literally changed structures and human hearts.

So when you talk about an idea big enough to both get to the human heart, and to get to some of the structural ways that sin embeds itself in the world, there's very few ideas in history that have been big enough for it. Redemption in Christ is one of them, and the image of God is the other you've got to start there.

The second thing we need to have is not just the right foundation, but we actually have to have the right habit. And the thing is, is that we have been catechized by our devices to react and not think.

Think of how many times a story makes everyone breathlessly angry. And just a few hours or days later, the larger context comes out, either through more video being released, and suddenly realize the entire story is wrong. Or the entire story that you reacted to was wrong. Now, I don't know any way around that other than have better habits than everybody else. Don't feel like you have to tweet about something because somebody, you know, says, anybody who doesn't speak up is complicit. That's bogus language, based on a society that is addicted to quick takes an outrage instead of the truth. And Christians have to be better Christians have to know better.

And Christians have to be better Christians have to know better and right now we don't. And we've got even, you know, evangelical, and Christian thought leaders whose living depends on this quick reaction. And it's way easier to virtue signal. And I hate that word, but it actually is what's happening by going along or tweeting, support or whatever, and then actually not doing anything in one's real life to love and care for somebody else. So our habits have to be different, not only in how we treat these stories, but in how we actually deal with real people, which are far more valuable than fitting a narrative anyway.

HARBOUR: My name is Jonathan Harbour, and I am a graduate of Southern Arkansas University. How can pastors be more diligent in addressing cultural issues such as ethnic tensions, political policies, and influential pop culture while keeping the focus of their sermons on Christ. It seems that a lot of churches ignore these issues from a fear of becoming too politically involved.

STONESTREET: Jonathan, it's a great question. I don't know that, you know, there's a magic formula other than understanding that the story of the Scripture is the grand story of everything. And in that story, we find ourselves, within the larger story, we find ourselves in a particular moment. So that's what that's the language that I like to use, is keeping the story in the moment straight. Pastors oftentimes are afraid that if they jump on the moment, they'll lose track of the story. And so they just lock in completely on the story.

Of course, we also have the other problem where, you know, pastors have locked in on the moment. I know, for example, pastors who have actually told me when we asked them to help out with a doctor assisted suicide bill that was coming in our state, and they were like, No, no, no, it's too political. But then, you know, as soon as they could, they spoke out on immigration, or march with Black Lives Matter, both of which, of course, are highly politicized. And I'm not saying they should have done one and shouldn't have done the other but how do they justify doing one and not doing the other?

It's because of this because far too often Christians are culturally engaged on those things that the culture has already decided on. If it's still in debate in culture, even something, I guess, that should be as non-controversial, in terms of the Christian position, like something about abortion, if it's not settled, church won't weigh out into that, why it has to be settled, it has to be settled by the culture, you know. The way you're supposed to step out has got to be decided for you. And then once it is, then you're gonna go.

And that's just really cowardly. And it's very, very common, unfortunately. It's sad, because the larger culture is defined by conflict, but lacks any sort of worldview framework by which to understand the conflict and to offer any way forward. And who has that? Christians do.

And that is a partial answer to your question, Jonathan, is that Christians have to deal with the brokenness of the cultural moment, because they're commanded to love their neighbors. And if they don't deal with the things that are harming their neighbors, how can they say that they're actually loving their neighbors as ourselves? And I think that should be motivation enough.

EICHER: John Stonestreet is president of the Colson center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. John, thanks.

STONESTREET: Thanks so much.

EICHER: It’s graduation season. And for one young man in North Carolina, it’ll mean graduating twice.

Today, Mike Wimmer graduates with an associate’s degree from community college. And next week, he’ll graduate from high school as valedictorian.

He told local TV station WCNC,

WIMMER: Everybody says I’m like a sponge. I take in knowledge really fast, at that faster pace.

Super fast, as it turns out. You see, Wimmer is only 12 years old!

In only a year, he completed two years of high school and also two years of community college. Other achievements include founding a company to redefine robotics and AI.

And Wimmer has a winning attitude:

WIMMER: I set out every day to learn something new about technology or programming, and I know I’m not going to get it right on the first try. But I learn from each mistake and learn from that knowledge to ultimately find success.

His options now include job offers, a fellowship, or more formal education. Still, he reminds everyone: “I have this high intellectual age, but I’m still a kid.”

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, May 21st.

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: family movie night.

Sometimes it’s hard to find films that both children and parents can enjoy together. WORLD’s Sarah Schweinsberg says there are two new movies out that mostly fit the bill.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG REPORTER: Netflix released it’s animated movie The Mitchells vs. the Machines last month. It quickly became the platform’s top streaming movie.

CLIP: Every family has its challenges from picture day to picky eaters. For my family our greatest challenge, probably the machine apocalypse.

The story centers on the Mitchell family, a quirky bunch with little in common with their neighbors, let alone each other. Youngest son Aaron is obsessed with dinosaurs. Mom Linda loves stickers and cupcakes.

Father and daughter Rick and Katie are even further apart: Katie loves to create short films and memes, while her father prefers to be outdoors, hunting. He feels increasingly alienated from Katie, who spends most of her time on her phone and computer.

As Katie prepares to leave for film school, the family’s differences threaten to pull them apart. Cue a good, old-fashioned family road trip.

KATIE: Wait, why do you need all of that to take me to the airport?

RICK: I messed things up last night, but I’m going to make it up to you. I cancelled your plane ticket to college.

KATIE: You what?! 

There’s nothing like the open highway to bring a family together, right? But when not even that works, there doesn’t seem to be a road ahead for the Mitchells.

That is, until giant tech company, Pal, rolls out its latest digital assistant—a friendly robot.

CLIP: Your digital assistant just got an upgrade. Meet Pal Max! 

Then, a mysterious, evil overlord takes over the robots’ software. And the AIs quickly turn against their human masters, locking them up and kicking them off the planet.

Suddenly, it’s up to the mixed-up Mitchells to save the world. But to do that, they’ll have to accept—and even embrace—their differences.

CLIP: Play it safe? When Rick Mitchell brought a live non-neutered, feral possum into our home, did he play it safe? No, he named him Gus and made him a member of the family, and we all got rabies that one time. But now we’re immunized and we’re stronger for it. Yeah, OK I see what you’re doing.

This loud and colorful comedy, rated PG, features a wonderful group of voice actors, as well as nonstop action and humor that bridges generational gaps. And the film pushes children and teens away from the culturally popular idea of chosen families. Instead, it encourages them to embrace the family they were born into despite differences in viewpoints and interests.

CLIP: CLOSING MUSIC FROM THE MOVIE

Here’s the downside. Throughout the movie, Katie wears a rainbow pin, but nothing is said about it. And then during the credits her mom asks her, “Are you and Jade official?”—suggesting Katie is gay. So parents will have to decide if the film’s entertainment benefits outweigh this tacked-on LGBT nod.

SOT: IRISH MUSIC

Next, pack your bags and break out the fiddle. It’s time to head to Ireland.

Finding You is a coming-of-age film now in theaters aimed at a teenage and college-aged audience. The movie is based on a 2011 novel about a young woman who spends a semester abroad in a tiny Irish village.

Finley Sinclair is hoping to gain admission into an elite music conservatory to play the violin. But her hyper-focus on technique prevents her passion from translating to the strings. After a failed audition, she packs her bags for the green shires of Ireland, where her older brother who died several years earlier, also spent a semester of college.

On her flight, the secret dream of many-a-teenage girl comes true. She happens to sit next to a movie star, Beckett Rush, who is filming a fantasy show in Ireland’s castles.

SINCLAIR: Beckett Rush?

RUSH: Shhh, I’ve come this far without being bothered right. Look if you keep quiet, I’ll give you an autograph when we land, alright? We can do a selfie or something just not until we land. I don’t want to attract any attention, OK?

SINCLAIR: I really don’t want anything from you.

Good girl Finley doesn’t trust this tabloid celebrity, but Beckett is intrigued by her down-to-earth qualities. He wants to prove he’s more than a good-looking face.

While the quite predictable—and at times cheesy—prince-and-pauper intrigue will make some eyes roll, tween and teenage viewers will enjoy the sweet romance.

CLIP: "Why is Beckett Rush in your living room?" "No…" "No, that’s definitely him." "You can’t tell anyone." "Beckett Rush is in my house!"

And viewers of all ages will, of course, enjoy the Irish scenery they’ve come to expect, complete with breezy walks by the sea, visits to a pub and the Cliffs of Moher. 

CLIP: "Do you even really like being a movie star?" "Why wouldn't I?" "That’s not what I asked."

Other positives? Unlike most love stories aimed at teens and young adults, this one doesn’t feature sexual content, aside from brief kisses and a sprinkling of mild profanity.

And Finley doesn’t talk about her faith, but a subplot shows her being drawn to her older brother’s apparently Christian beliefs. A drawing he leaves behind takes her to a cross with an inscription reading, “The Lord Himself goes before you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.”

MUSIC: THE STORY OF MY LIFE BY ONE DIRECTION

It’s an interesting tangent for a film about romantic love, which of course, is notoriously unreliable. But that gives parents the opportunity to talk to their kids—especially their daughters—about what true love is all about.

I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Friday, May 21st. 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.

It’s time for our regular request for prerolls! Our stash is running a little low. So, if you’ve always wanted to hear your own voice introduce the program, now’s your chance.

Go to worldandeverything.org and click on “The World and Everything in It” in the top menu. Once you’re there, click on “Record a Preroll.” That will tell you everything you need to know.

REICHARD: Well, as you’re recording your preroll, you might find yourself getting a little tongue tied. It happens to us all the time! Our resident word expert, George Grant, might not be able to explain why our tongues trip us up so often. But at least he can put a name to the problem.

Here’s this month’s Word Play.

GEORGE GRANT, COMMENTATOR: It can happen to the best of us. When our minds are befuddled, our tongues can become muddled. When our thoughts are jangled, our words can become tangled. When we’re under stress or feeling duress, in private conversation or public declamation, we just might stammer or mangle our grammar. It has happened to me. I’m sure it has happened to you—even if only on a rare time or two.

Baseball great Yogi Berra is perhaps more famous for his habit of stumbling over sense and syntax than for his Hall of Fame career in Yankee Stadium. The countless Yogi-isms attributed to him are classic: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” “You can observe a lot by just watching.” “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” “No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.” “Baseball is 90% half mental.” “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.” “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.” “It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.” “It gets late early out here.” “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.” “Even Napoleon had his Watergate.” “I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.” “The future ain’t what it used to be.”

This sort of misspeaking is technically what is called “Malapropism.” It is the inadvertent use of the wrong word or phrase, often rendering sentences hilariously nonsensical. The term comes from a character named Mrs. Malaprop in “The Rivals,” a five-act comedy written by Richard Sheridan in 1775. Like Yogi, Mrs. Malaprop constantly stumbled over her sentences—much to the amusement of everyone: “He is the very pineapple of politeness!” “She’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.” “I would by no means wish a daughter of mine to be a progeny of learning. I would have her instructed in geometry, that she might know something of the contagious countries.”

Shakespeare used malapropisms to great effect in several of his plays, perhaps most memorably with the bumbling sheriff Dogberry in “Much Ado About Nothing.” “O villain! Thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this.” “Get the learned writer to set down our excommunication and meet me at the jail.” “Our watch, my lord, have indeed comprehended two asspicious persons, and we would have them this morning examined.”

As you may have surmised, malapropisms can take any number of different forms. A mondegreen is an inadvertent mishearing and then a subsequent misspeaking of a word or phrase—"the cattle are lonely, the baby awakes.” A spoonerism occurs when letters or syllables get swapped around in words or phrases slip of the tongue—or a “tip of the slung.” An eggcorn is an alteration of a word or phrase, reinterpreting it as a similar-sounding word—“it’s just a pigment of your imagination.” Malapropisms all.

And they can be anywhere and everywhere. President Bush was famous for them—as is President Biden. Great Britain’s Prince Consort, Philip, was known to be prone to malapropisms. Of his many gaffes, solecisms, and bloopers, he once declared “Dontopedalogy is the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, which I've practiced for many years.”

Indeed, haven’t we all?

I’m George Grant.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It really does take a dedicated team to put this program together and deliver it to you each morning. And what a team we have!

Thanks are in order:

Joel Belz, Anna Johansen Brown, Kent Covington, Katie Gaultney, George Grant, Kim Henderson, Onize Ohikere, Jenny Rough, Sarah Schweinsberg, Cal Thomas, and Whitney Williams.

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

And you! This month is set aside for you if you’re a listener to this program but haven’t given yet to support it. We have a triple match this month for first-time gifts, so if you’ve already donated, thank you! And if you are considering it, just go to wng.org/donate. Secure, online, easy: wng.org/donate.

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

The Lord said to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah: "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit." (Zechariah 4:6)

Go now in grace and peace.

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