The World and Everything in It: May 23, 2025

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Culture Friday, student questions from our WORLD Journalism Institute collegiate course at Dordt University.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, can Disney make a live-action movie fans will approve of? Is that possible? WORLD’s Collin Garbarino on that and

HUNT: I need you to trust me, one last time.

Another Mission: Impossible.

And later your Listener Feedback.

BROWN: It’s Friday, May 23rd. 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 with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Response to D.C. shooting » The Justice Department has charged the suspect in the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers with multiple federal crimes.

Interim Washington District Attorney Jeanine Pirro:

PIRRO:  Murder in the first degree for the murder of 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky, a foreign official and official guest of the United States.

And another first degree murder charge for the death of Sarah Milgrim, as well as charges of murder of foreign officials.

Prosecutors say 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez gunned them down in cold blood Wednesday night as the couple left an event at a Jewish museum.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday:

NETANYAHU: Yaron and Sarah weren’t the victims of a random crime. The terrorist who cruelly gunned them down did so for one reason and one reason alone – he wanted to kill Jews.

According to his charging documents, Rodriguez later confessed to the crime, and told investigators he did it for Palestine.

Big beautiful bill heads to Senate »  The Senate will now decide the fate of President Trump’s so-called ‘big beautiful bill’ which addresses his top legislative priorities.

House Speaker Mike Johnson took a brief moment to celebrate the bill’s passage in the House early Thursday morning after a marathon overnight session. But he wasted no time urging the Senate to do the same.

JOHNSON:  I encourage our senate, uh, colleagues to, to think of this as a one team effort, as we have, um, and, and get it over the line ultimately and finished, and get it to the President's desk by July 4th.

Right now it makes the 2017 tax cuts permanent, eliminates taxes on tips, it also addresses border control and national security.

President Trump and Republicans call it a beautiful bill. Democrats describe it differently. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer:

SCHUMER:  House Republicans took a bill that was already rotten to the core and made it even worse

Democrats accuse Republicans of pushing through tax cuts for the rich.

Witkoff heading to Rome for Iran talks » U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff is traveling to Rome today for a fifth round of nuclear talks with Iran.

White House Press Secretary Karline Leavitt told reporters:

LEAVITT:  This deal with Iran could end in two ways. It could end in a very positive diplomatic solution, or it could end in a very negative situation for Iran.

The White House says President Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday about a potential deal.

Iran is believed to be a short technical step away from weapons-grade levels of enriched uranium.

Supreme Court charter schools » The U.S. Supreme Court has effectively shut down plans for the first publicly funded religious charter school in the country. In a rare 4-4 split decision—Justice Amy Coney Barrett sitting out—the justices allowed a lower court ruling to stand, blocking a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma.

The case centered on whether taxpayer money can fund a religious charter school. Supporters argued it expanded school choice; critics said it blurred the line between church and state.

The decision applies only to Oklahoma and doesn’t set a national precedent.

Judge federal abortion rule » A federal judge has struck down part of a Biden-era regulation that required employers to accommodate workers seeking abortions. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more:

BENJAMIN EICHER: District Judge David Joseph ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission overstepped its authority by mandating such accommodations.

The commission interpreted the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act— or P-W-F-A to include abortion as a—quote—"related medical condition" requiring employer accommodations.

But the judge found that Congress did not explicitly include abortion in the PWFA and that the commission lacked the authority to expand the law's scope.

While the decision vacates the abortion-related provisions, the rest of the EEOC's PWFA regulations remain in effect.

The ruling came in response to lawsuits filed by two states along with Catholic organizations.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

RFK roadmap on chronic illness » Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has unveiled the very first report from his Make America Healthy Again commission.

The panel was tasked with finding the root causes of rising chronic illness in children and developing a strategy to reverse the trend.

And Kennedy says many of its findings should really come as no surprise.

He told reporters Thursday:

KENNEDY:  It's common sense that ultra-processed nutrient poor food contributes to chronic disease. It's common sense that excessive screen time and isolation lead to anxiety and depression, especially in children. It's common sense that exercise and healthy foods come before prescriptions and surgery.

The report also looks at corporate influence in shaping public health policies, particularly in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

The Make America Healthy Again Commission has 80 days from the report's release to develop a strategy addressing those issues.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: John Stonestreet answers questions from our WORLD Journalism Institute students on Culture Friday. Plus, WORLD’s Collin Garabarino reviews two movies opening this weekend.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday the 23rd of May.

We are on campus this week and next at Dordt University, up in Sioux Center, Iowa, and we’re 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. Our radio and television teams have been up here this week the news and magazine team are headed up this weekend, and we’re working with 32 talented young men and women helping them learn to honor Christ in their journalism careers—with skill and faithfulness. This is always the most exhilarating, and most exhausting, two weeks of the year for me. It’s good for the heart to meet these young people—

What’s the slogan, a newborn baby is God’s opinion that life should go on. I think of faithful Christian students the same way—a very positive sign about the future. It’s really an honor to be a part of it.

BROWN: I’m the same way. I’d like to see someone try and keep me away from this. I just love these kids, and we can call ’em kids, Nick, lots of people are kids to us at this point!

EICHER: Right, my kids are older than these kids!

BROWN: Well, it’s a busy, busy time here at WORLD, not only with WJI going on, but we’re entering giving season, and today we kick off a one-week New Donor Drive.

EICHER: It’s interesting, Myrna, thinking about investing in the next generation of journalists. I think this is a good theme for what we’re doing with the New Donor Drive: We have longtime WORLD donors who are investing in the next generation of donors. And what they’re doing is saying that every single new gift given today will be tripled. A first-time donor puts in a dollar, and our long-time donor puts in two. So one becomes three. Fifty becomes 150, a hundred becomes 300, you get the idea.

BROWN: Yes, and to sweeten the offer, we know that many listeners save up this Friday program for the weekend. We don’t want you to be listening on Saturday, for example, and saying, “Oh, no! I missed out.” Well, we’re accounting for that reality and offering today and up to the time the clock strikes midnight and becomes Monday.

EICHER: Again, we’re asking you, if you’ve never given before to WORLD to make this the year you do. And today and this launch weekend, every new gift gets tripled, each dollar becomes three. No better time than now to cast a big vote of confidence for sound journalism grounded in facts and Biblical truth.

Your support keeps this program going. It supports WORLD Watch, WORLD Magazine; it supports our faithful news-gathering team working for you every day.

It’s our longtime donors giving alongside our newest ones. Let me give you a special address that I hope you’ll visit, this will make it much easier to keep track … WNG.org/newdonor …

BROWN: That’s the place!  WNG.org/newdonor and thank you for making trustworthy, biblically grounded journalism possible. 

Well, it’s Culture Friday, John Stonestreet joins us now … John, of course, is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Good morning to you.

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning!

EICHER: John, we have four WJI students lined up with good questions for you, sound good?

STONESTREET: I’m ready, let’s give it a shot.

HEFFRON: Hi, John. My name is Caleb Heffron, and I am a student at Taylor University. And my question for you today is, what does godly masculinity look like in the modern day? Masculinity has kind of been taken over I feel like as a word to something that's only meant to be bad. And so how do we embody godly principles as a man, especially for someone going into the world as a young adult?

STONESTREET: Yeah. Well, since this is a Culture Friday segment, I’m tempted to go down the rabbit hole of why we are seeing trends of young men, more and more young men becoming religious, coming back to faith. I was talking to a group of folks just this morning about this.

It’s funny. I’m old enough to remember when we were worried that young men didn’t have an attention span, that they were playing video games and couldn’t think longer than a tweet. Now they’re listening to three-hour podcasts on really, oftentimes deep subjects. So to me, there’s some good news here to be found, but you’re right.

Listen, I think a lot of masculinity has for a decade or more have been portrayed as toxic—things that aren’t toxic at all. There are moments when that becomes obvious, times when you need a man to be heroic, when you need a man to self-sacrifice, when you need a man to be strong and a disciplinarian.

So, listen, I think we need to start with design. What did God create men for? Before we know what a man should do, we need to know what a man is for. I think the fundamental thing communicated in Scripture—in the creation narrative—is that all humans, but men in particular, were created to leave things better than they found them. To be fruitful, to multiply, to make things flourish.

That turns our attention from looking inside and instead looks at turning outward. How do I turn my attention, first and foremost, to loving God? Then from the perspective of loving God, then loving others? Now, of course, what Scripture says is that He empowers us to do that. So when we are related well to God, then He actually equips us with the Holy Spirit.

The whole gospel is a gospel of renewal and redemption and resurrection. All these re- words point us back to what God intended by creation. We’re not saved to become less male. We’re saved to become truly and fully male.

There’s also, I think, some wonderful wisdom through the ages of the cultivating of virtues. We’ve kind of substituted values for virtue—as if having the right belief somehow is the same thing as loving the right things. But we have to cultivate the right loves, the love for truth, the love for justice, the loves that actually do contribute to the rest of the world, and then that has to shape how we then engage.

I think if we cultivate those virtues, in the end, we’ll have the kind of courage that portrays true masculinity. Chesterton has said courage is the testing point of all the virtues. And hopefully, if we cultivate those virtues with the right priorities in mind, that will emerge

ATKINS: Hi, John. My name is Sarah Atkins. I'm a student at UNC Chapel Hill, and I just wanted to ask you, from what I've seen, there has been a movement of young Christians going from more low church denominations such as Baptist toward more traditional high church denominations like Anglicanism and Catholicism. And I was wondering, why do you think that is?

Well, I’m tempted to make a joke about the Tarheels as a Duke basketball fan. But I will not! I will not do that—

EICHER: We’d have to T-you up, John, technical foul!

STONESTREET: Haha! I think what you’re noticing here, Sarah, is accurate. I just want to point out, though, this is something that people have been noticing for a while. When you look at the numbers, it’s not just folks going from low church to high church, or less liturgical to more liturgical, although it is. It’s just a whole lot of movement going on

Some, by the way, are coming not out of a low church, but coming out of no church—and that’s what they’re gravitating towards.

There is a stability in doing something that the church has always done from the beginning. There is a stability of not just saying we’re a church of the Bible, but actually reading the Bible as a church, as a liturgical congregation. There is a stability amidst the post-modern chaos and confusion of a creed that kind of grounds your feet into truths, and you’re not looking for how does this apply to me? Or how can I experience this in a new way?

But just no matter what the experience is that we’re going through, either as individuals or as a civilization. They’re solid ground. I believe in one God, the Father and Jesus Christ, his only begotten son. You know?

I mean, these are truths that transcend times and transcend cultures. And there’s a reaction, I think, at some level, to the constant need for innovation that draws people to this way.

I think that maybe explains the front door. We still have to have a conversation at some point in many of these denominations about the back door. Of course, we want to distinguish between those congregations that say the creeds and believe them and those that say the creeds and don’t believe them—or make up new creeds, right?, which there’s a whole lot of conversations to be had about mainline denominations.

MACKEY: Hi, John. This is Grace Mackey from Palm Beach Atlantic University. It seems to me like over-consumption of media is a problem. So as a professional media How would you encourage your readers and listeners to manage their media consumption responsibly—more specifically, news and social-media consumption?

STONESTREET: Yeah, Grace, it’s a great question. If I could channel the professor from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when he said, “Plato, Plato, it’s all in Plato,” I’ll say “Postman. Postman, it’s all in Neil Postman,” who warned about this when it came to newspapers and the emerging entertainment society that was being driven by television. What you kind of have to do is think about, okay, what are those dangers?

There’s a couple of things. Number one is that it would drive an ethos of style over substance. Second, that it would make us completely captivated by news that was happening in another part of the world, and make us not engaged in our own backyards.

So what do we do? You know, we talk a lot on Culture Friday about culture through the lens of habits, and the need to have different habits. You have to be weird, and the weird has to be not having that same sort of media diet that everyone else does.

Over-consumption is a problem. Second, over-consumption, if you don’t have strong foundations, is a real problem. I had the same conversation years ago with praise and worship leaders. In other words, just because you are really good at playing the guitar doesn’t mean you should make up your own theology and put it in your songs and then make people sing it.

But the separation that we’ve done at the church between those who are kind of celebrities and the need for those celebrities to have good theology is a real problem. So that’s really the conversation, I think, for producers.

You also have the conversation for consumers: We need different habits as well. I would really recommend a Sabbath lifestyle, not just days, although I think a 24 hour Sabbath from social media is probably a good habit to start now. But Sabbaths when you’re at the dinner table, Sabbaths when you’re in the car and have the opportunity to either reflect or pray or learn or have a conversation. These are different habits. Sherry Turkle, who’s not a believer, warned about this years ago. She talked about the need for “sacred space,” where you just have tech-free parts of your life. To me, that’s a bare minimum.

The last thing I’ll say is just this. One of the things that’s very important when it comes to any kind of cultural analysis is that the loudest thing in culture, often, is not the most significant. The most dangerous ideas, C.S. Lewis said, are not the ones that are argued, but the ones that are assumed. I think the most dangerous ideas in culture and the most significant stories, and the most prominent and important trends within a cultural setting are not the loudest, but the ones that are normalizing our beliefs in particular ways. So having that discernment when everyone’s chasing to be the loudest will make you different as well.

MONSON: Hi, John. My name is Catherine Monson, and I attend the University of Montevallo. My church is currently praying for a missionary who could be drafted by the Russian army any day. So my question is, how should Christians think and pray about wars, especially when there are Christians serving on both sides—for patriotic reasons or by compulsion?

STONESTREET: Oh, man, what a fascinating question. It would be “interesting” if we weren’t talking about a real person here. That’s the thing: This is a real-life situation. What I mean by real life is when we remember that our the Christian faith deals with public truths.

One of those is the lack of children that necessitates the draft for the Russian army to begin with. Russia’s been inflicted by the demographic crisis that we’ve talked about on this program before. You know, that has real-world consequences when you have a leader like Putin who wants to take your people to war. But that’s another question for another time.

This is really hard. You know, Jesus spoke to a Roman soldier and did not say the only way to follow me is to get out of the army. Neither did Paul, and now you’re talking about people who clearly were involved in a state force that wasn’t driven, you know, by Christianity or by doing it the right way.

The conversation of “just war” developed through Christian history and Christian influence, where you started to wrestle with, oh, not just on pragmatic terms, can we win this? But should we be engaged in this war? Then once you are engaged, how should we be engaged.

More closely to modern times, you have a guy like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who led a underground seminary for the confessing church, and some of his former students who he kept in touch with all the way through. You can see some of their correspondence and letters and papers from prison. He wrote to them about what it means to be co-opted at that point in the German army, and they did not have a choice.

It’s fascinating to listen to him say, Go, be the best German you can be. But for him, that also meant Don’t be the best Nazi you can be, because that’s not being the best German you can be—and you might even get in trouble with it. I think that there is a lot of space when you do not have the choice, and you’re conscripted into that, but can you actually obey and do the right thing in the process? Of course, there are other views on this that say you can’t at all.

I’m not a pacifist for a lot of reasons, but there is a Christian tradition there, so there’s a lot of reading to be done in this space. I think what you could do is encourage him that whatever his hand finds to do, he does it all for the Lord, and you pray to that end, and in the middle of being perhaps co-opted into something that isn’t ultimately just and is full of problems, that he can do it in the right way and point people to God as he does it.

EICHER: John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast! Thank you John, I love this time of year, I bet you do, too!

STONESTREET: I do, these are great questions as they always are and I guess we’ll get to another batch of them next week.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, May 23rd.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in it: what’s coming to theaters this Memorial Day weekend. Here’s Collin Garbarino on Disney’s live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch and Tom Cruise’s latest Mission: Impossible movie.

COLLIN GARBARINO: This Memorial Day weekend, movie theaters are offering a couple of new films that could have broad appeal.

First up we have the live-action remake of Disney’s 2002 animated film, Lilo & Stitch. A film about a mischievous Hawaiian girl who adopts a chaotic space alien.

A.J.: Yeah, let’s put this one back, Lilo. You know, we do have better dogs. Like, way better.

LILO: Not better than him! He can talk. Say, “Aloha.”

STITCH: Alo—

TUTU: Dogs no can talk.

A.J.: Dogs can’t talk, Lilo.

STITCH: Ruff. Ruff.

Just like in the 2002 animated feature, Stitch is a dangerous science experiment whose ship crash lands in Hawaii. In order to blend in with his surroundings he gets himself adopted by six-year-old Lilo. Ever since their parents died, Lilo’s big sister Nani has been trying to keep their lives from falling apart. Lilo has her own behavior problems, and adding Stitch to the mix creates absolute mayhem.

DAVID: Lilo, how’s it going?

LILO: Look, David. I got a dog.

DAVID: You sure that’s a dog?

LILO: Mmm… yeah.

STITCH: Ruff

Besides Stitch’s unsuccessful attempts to fit in, the family has other problems. The United Galactic Federation has sent two agents to arrest Stitch and bring him home. Of course these two bumbling aliens prove even more inept than Stitch at navigating human society.

COUNCILWOMAN: Oh, brilliant. Is it too late to vaporize the planet?

ALIEN: Finger’s always on the trigger, ma’am!

COUNCILWOMAN: No, no! I’m joking!

This live-action film stays true to the spirit of the original, but it’s not a shot-for-shot remake, which I’m happy about. This new version gives Nani and Lilo more of a support network. It also creates a true villain for the film something the original lacked. And, Maia Kealoha, who plays Lilo, is exceedingly cute.

LILO: Hey, I changed my mind.

NANI: What’s that.

LILO: I like you as a mom too.

On the whole, this new Lilo & Stitch is a competent remake with nice tweaks, but it’s lacking some sparkle. Despite the lush beauty of Hawaii, the cinematography isn’t very… cinematic. The film still resembles the straight to Disney+ movie it was originally intended to be. Nonetheless, Lilo & Stitch will work for families who enjoyed the original and are looking to kick off the summer with some fun.

But Tom Cruise’s latest impossible mission may be the ticket for moviegoers looking for a little more action.

Mission: Impossible has long been one of my favorite franchises, so of course I was ready for the eighth installment Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning. The seventh film came out in 20-23 and ended on a cliffhanger with super spy Ethan Hunt only completing the first step of his mission to destroy a dangerous artificial intelligence. The Final Reckoning completes that story, while serving as a capstone for the entire franchise.

KITTRIDGE: Everything you were. Everything you’ve done has come to this.

Since the last movie, the rogue A.I., known as the Entity, has become increasingly powerful. It’s corrupted all digital information, and humanity has lost confidence in the notion of truth. Angry crowds protest in the streets, and misinformation has exacerbated geo-political tensions. The situation becomes more dire when the Entity takes control of various countries’ nuclear arsenals. Who else can you call besides Ethan Hunt?

KITTRIDGE: When the need for certainty is absolute and the odds are deemed impossible, the mission falls to him.

BRIGGS: Should he choose to accept.

Previous Mission: Impossible movies each featured a self-contained mission that didn’t require the audience to know what happened in previous movies. That changes with this film. You had probably better go back and watch Dead Reckoning if you haven’t already. But this film doesn’t merely finish the story from the last installment. It doubles down on the interconnectedness of the Mission: Impossible universe.It’s complicated narrative encompasses plot points and characters from the entire franchise. The Final Reckoning ends up being a tribute to Mission: Impossible’s 30-year history. The film even offers a nod to Cruise’s Top Gun movies.

LUTHER: Our lives are the sum of our choices. This is your calling. Your destiny. I have no regrets.

This tribute has some nice moments, and Tom Cruise’s dedication to doing his own stunt work without the use of computer generated effects adds to the sheer spectacle of it all. But this isn’t Mission: Impossible at its best. The Final Reckoning is a bloated adventure with too many plotlines and characters. Despite its near 3-hour runtime, it feels incomplete. The beginning is choppy and hard to follow, as if scenes were cut because the film was overly long. And most disappointingly, some of the mysteries teased in the previous film don’t get resolved.

ETHAN: I need you to trust me… One last time.

Given its name and the desire to pay homage to the franchise’s 30-year legacy, you might think this movie is the end of the road for Ethan and the Impossible Mission Force, but the filmmakers haven’t ruled out another installment. I would definitely welcome Mission: Impossible 9, but I hope any future sequels would focus on what made some of the earlier movies so good: the blend of espionage and heist genres.

And in case you’re wondering, the best Mission: Impossible movie is the fifth installment Rogue Nation.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, May 23rd. 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. Up next, your listener feedback for the month of May.

First, a few corrections.

We had a little problem with numbers this week in our story about the donated jet from Qatar: we over-reported its value, by a single letter, but that single letter went quite a long way. We meant to say the actual estimated value is $400 million dollars, not billion.

Next, in this month’s WordPlay on the many strange plurals in the English language, and we made a mistake and flipped a few borrowed Latin singulars and plurals.

We quickly corrected the segment and reposted it online.

And one more correction today, on May 13th we mispronounced a Vietnamese surname in our story about the new Pope. The priest’s name from Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral is actually Ton “Win”, that’s spelled N-g-u-y-e-n, but pronounced “Win.” Remember the name.

BROWN: Longtime listener Eric Anderson had some kind words for us on the subject of corrections: In an email, he said I am comforted by this. He went on, We are thankfully resting in the grace that comes from God through faith. If all our faults were counted, who among us could stand?

EICHER: Amen. So we’ll stand corrected for our first voice message today from listener Amelia Nguyen. I bet you know how she spells her last name:

AMELIA NGUYEN: Hello WORLD Radio. Thank you for what you guys do. I just started listening a month or two ago and it makes my drive to work a little more interesting. I've really appreciated the couple of stories about the Vietnam War that you guys have done recently. My dad was born in Vietnam. So hearing these stories has been really cool. Keep up with the good work. Thanks guys.

BROWN: Glad you found us!

Our next comment is from Laura Laster.

LAURA LASTER: Hey World and Everything in It team I just want to commend you for the reporting from Leo Briceno on the Take it Down Act. It is fantastic to see WORLD … looking for ways that things can be redeemed and improved. And focusing on improvement of society through reporting on the Take It Down Act is just phenomenal. So thank you guys for all that you do.

EICHER: Listener John Piwetz lives in Kentucky. His comment is on last week's commentary by Erik Reed on a Biblical view of work.

JOHN PIWETZ: It was excellent and I agree with all that he said. I think that he could have even gone further to say that the problem of an unbiblical view of work is most often perpetrated by people in the church who tend to have this idea that “religious work” is more valuable than "secular work." I think that David Bahnsen also dealt with this point well in his book, Full Time Work and the Meaning of Life, which I thankfully became aware of through your podcast and listened to it recently and really appreciated what he had to say about the value of all work done well and productive endeavors. Thank you.

BROWN: And finally this morning, one of our favorite kinds of feedback when listeners hear something at “just the right time.” On May 7th we ran a story from Kim Henderson on caring for caregivers a very special day for this listener.

DUNCAN HOLMES: Hello this is Duncan Holmes from Fredericksburg, Texas. As I make this recording it's May 7th which would have been my dear wife Sharon 71st birthday. How appropriate that you did this program on aftercare giving… We were married 43 years and … I was the caregiver as best I could be though I felt like I could have done a heck of a lot more … when she died in October 2019 its been up and down … Anyway, thank you for sharing that today with us I appreciate you all very much and … you who are widows and widowers, always lean heavy on the Lord and on people at your church. Okay God bless.

Thanks Duncan. Glad our program encouraged you on your wife’s birthday.

EICHER: Before we go today, that comment reminds me to remind you once again about The Cordell Prize. It’s our writing competition for journalists between the ages of 18 and 29, it’s for those interested in reporting on the angle of faith and suffering.

We’re looking for published stories from the last year that highlight individuals overcoming adversity while remaining steadfast in their Christian faith. Publication can be from a student or local newspaper, or online publication.

The piece needs to be at least 2,000 words and written in AP style.

There are generous cash prizes for the top entries from $500 to $2,500.

BROWN: Cordell Prize submissions are due by May 30th. Visit wng.org/cordell for more information. We’ll have a link to that page in our transcript as well.

Thanks to everyone who wrote and called in this month we appreciate hearing from you. That’s this month’s Listener Feedback!

NICK EICHER, HOST: All right, time to recognize the team that made The World and Everything in It happen this week:

David Bahnsen, Anna Johansen Brown, Craig Carter, Juliana Chan Erickson, Emma Eicher, Nathan Finn, Collin Garbarino, Carolina Lumetta, Mary Muncy, Onize Oduah, Elisa Palumbo, Mary Reichard, Jenny Rough, Anne Shearer, Josh Schumacher, John Stonestreet, Cal Thomas and our hard working students at WJI this week and next week!

Thanks also to our breaking news team: Lauren Canterbury, Kent Covington, Mark Mellinger, Christina Grube, Travis Kircher, Steve Kloosterman, and Lynde Langdon.

And thanks to the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early. Benj Eicher and Carl Peetz.

Harrison Watters is Washington producer, Lindsay Mast and Leigh Jones are our feature editors, Paul Butler is executive producer, and Les Sillars our editor-in-chief. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. 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: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” —Ephesians 4:29

Our weekly reminder now, to go to church this weekend, to worship our Lord, to encourage others and to be encouraged as the body of Christ.

And Lord willing, we’ll be right back here with you on Monday. Go now in grace and peace.

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