The World and Everything in It: May 24, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. I'm Julie Plowden, and I have the honor of directing the flute choir at Greater Atlanta Christian School in Norcross, Georgia. 1-2-3... (choir plays a rendition of our opening theme)

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! Today on Culture Friday: student questions from our collegiate course at World Journalism Institute at Dordt University.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Yes, interesting topics, too. The Pledge of Allegiance, Islam and Christianity, and John Stonestreet will be along in just a few minutes. Later, America’s most iconic fat cat.

AUDIO: And that’s why we should go from Sunday to Tuesday.

EICHER: Also, a new faith-based film from Angel Studios. And a son pays tribute to his World War II veteran father as we approach Memorial Day weekend.

BROWN: It’s Friday, May 24th. 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

SOUND: [Military band for Kenya president]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Kenya state dinner/visit » A military band at the White House where a red carpet was rolled out on the South Lawn as President Biden welcomed the president of Kenya.

BIDEN: President Ruto, Mrs. Ruto, and your three lovely daughters who are here to my left, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.

The White House hosted President William Ruto for an official state visit making Kenya the first African nation to receive that honor since 2008.

And as the U.S. works to counter influence from China and Russia in Africa, Biden declared on Thursday …

BIDEN: I’m proud to announce we’re working with Congress to designate Kenya a major non-NATO ally.

Kenya is a leading tech market, with opportunities for American private investment and a potential partner for moving U.S. supply chains away from China.

Israel latest » Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington soon to address a joint session of Congress.

House Speaker Mike Johnson made the announcement at the Israeli Embassy in Washington…

JOHNSON: This will be a timely and I think a very strong show of support to the Israeli government in their time of greatest need.

He did not say exactly when that will happen.

This week, prosecutor Karim Kahn of the International Criminal Court announced that he’s pursuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, accusing them of war crimes in Gaza, along with Hamas.

Netanyahu fired back:

NETANYAHU: He’s accusing us of deliberate starvation. What a pack of lies! I mean, we put in 20,000 trucks, 500,000 tons of food and medicine.

Lawmakers from both parties have condemned Kahn’s move, and are cooperating with the White House in a push for sanctions.

NETANYAHU: I’m very glad now that in the U.S. Congress there’s a very strong effort, which is bipartisan, to put sanctions on anyone who does this in the ICC.

President Biden says there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas.

Russian assets » Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday allowing Russia to seize American assets within his country if the U.S. chooses to give Russian assets frozen under sanctions to Ukraine.

Putin’s decree comes after U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said G-7 nations would discuss handing over frozen Russian cash to Kyiv.

President Biden approved legislation last month clearing the way for American forces to send about five billion dollars of Moscow’s money to the country it is now invading.

SOUND: [Tourists at Kinmen]

China and Taiwan » Tourists snapped pictures on the beaches of the Taiwanese island of Kinmen yesterday. The beach scene may have been calm, but miles offshore, China began two days of military exercises around the island, prompting Taiwan to scramble its jets and put its military on alert.

Beijing says its exercises are punishment for the territory’s inauguration of a new president as well for elements seeking official Taiwanese independence from China.

CHING-TE: [Speaking Mandarin]

But Newly elected Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te says his government won't be intimidated, and as commander-in-chief he’s pledged to protect the island.

Senate border vote » On Capitol Hill, for the second time in three months, Republicans have rejected a Senate border security bill. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer put the measure to another vote on Thursday. He said he was giving Republicans a second chance to take action.

SCHUMER: For years we have heard that if you want to fix the border, then Congress needs to act. Today we have a chance to act on the strongest border bill Congress has seen in generations.

The bill faltered, just as it did months ago.

The measure would, among other things, update asylum laws and add more border patrol agents. Schumer said if Republicans were serious about securing the border, they would pass it.

But GOP lawmakers say it doesn’t go far enough and that certain provisions in the bill would actually incentivize more illegal immigration.

Republican Sen. James Lankford helped craft the original bipartisan border bill, but he called today’s vote a political stunt in an effort to help Democrats save face on the border issue.

LANKFORD:  Today is an opportunity to be able to have a vote that's sitting out there so people can send fundraising emails out later tonight and say, look, I tried to do something when no work was actually done to try to get something done and completed and passed today.

Democrats are working to shift public perception about who’s to blame for the border crisis. Recent polls suggest that voters largely blame President Biden.

Migrant encounters at the border have shattered records over the past few years with more than 8 million crossing since Biden took office.

DOJ Ticketmaster/LiveNation lawsuit » The Justice Department and 30 states are suing Ticketmaster’s parent company LiveNation, calling the company’s dominance in the live events industry a monopoly.

Attorney General Merrick Garland:

GARLAND: We allege that to sustain this dominance, Live Nation relies on unlawful, anti competitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States and over the fans, artists, independent promoters, and venues that power the industry.

LiveNation argues that it is not violating any laws, and that suit demonstrates a lack of understanding about the economics of the industry.

NCAA » The NCAA and five major college sports conferences have agreed to settle antitrust allegations for almost $3 billion dollars over the next 10 years. The deal also calls for a  groundbreaking revenue-sharing model that could start directing millions of dollars directly to college athletes as soon as fall 2025.

If approved by a judge, the payouts will go to thousands of former and current college athletes who were not allowed to earn money from endorsement and sponsorship deals dating to 2016.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: John Stonestreet answers questions from journalism students on Culture Friday. Plus, Memorial Day mementos.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday the 24th of May, 2024.

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.

It’s time for Culture Friday, and joining us now is John Stonestreet. He’s president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

Morning, John!

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning.

EICHER: John, it’s that time of year for us when we empty the office and head up to Sioux Center, Iowa. We’re on campus here at the beautiful and growing Dordt University. It’s the 2024 World Journalism Institute collegiate course and we have our largest class ever.

BROWN: Good class, yes! They are getting the opportunity for some hands-on journalism practice. They’re hearing some excellent worldview lectures from Les Sillars who leads the journalism program at Patrick Henry College.

EICHER: And then of course nightly editing sessions led by our fearless WJI leader Lee Pitts who does such great work.

But let’s turn to student questions, John. I think we can get three in if I get out of the way, so here we go.

TAYTE CHRISTIANSEN: Hi John, I'm Tayte Christiansen, a student here at WJI and also a student at Hillsdale College. And I just want to know your thoughts on the Pledge of Allegiance, and if it's too similar to an oath, and if so, if Christians should be saying it, thank you.

STONESTREET: Yeah, good question. And I think there's always this tension between Christians and our ultimate loyalty that is to Christ and His Kingdom, and the loyalties that are part of being human and the way that God designed us in relationship with with one another. And then the loyalties that we owe, for example, those who've gone before, these are very real things. These are Christian things because they're real things loyalty, gratitude, honor, duty, goodness, beauty, truth. And thankfully, in the history of Christian theology, there's this idea of order, as almost kind of a description and adjective to things like love and the things like liberty and things like loyalty. So Aquinas, you know, talks about this idea of ordered loves. You see that order reflected in Jesus's, you know, answer to the question, what's the greatest commandment. He said, the first one is love, the Lord your God. Second one, which is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself. Now, you've probably experienced this and a culture like ours, which is always trying to tear apart truth and love that if you try to love your neighbor before loving God, you're not going to love either one. Well, you have to love God first. And that orders our love, then for our neighbor, I think the loyalty is the same way. I'm loyal first and foremost, to Christ, my ultimate allegiance has to be to him because He is first Creator and second Redeemer. And yet we know that he has put us in particular times and places, and we're created to be stewards. So there's a sense in which we are called to a time and place, and we're called to steward that time and place well. Now our loyalties to our time and place, our country, our nation, the circumstances in which we find ourselves in should never exceed that of Christ. And it should never, by being loyal to those things make us loyal to that which is antichrist, that which is evil, that which is wrong. So I don't think they're in conflict. I think they can be, you know, and I think for Americans, including American Christians, at times, they do feel like they're in conflict, and the order is upside down. But I don't think by definition, they have to be that way.

SARA SMITH: I'm Sara Smith, and I'm from Fargo, North Dakota. In conversations with people regarding support for Israel versus Palestine. I've heard some claim that the Koran asks Muslims to kill those who don't agree with them. But in the Old Testament, we see examples of God telling the Israelites to kill other people groups who might not agree with him. So how would we as Christians go about responding to the claim that the God of the Bible isn't that much different than the Koran or the God that Muslims serve?

STONESTREET: Yeah, it's a great question. First thing I would say is that the God that is explained in the Old Testament, and the New Testament, for that matter, and the God pointed to by the Koran are different in other ways. In other words, not just in how they deal with people outside of the religion. But just in essence, the most notable way, the fundamental way, this is a question of ontology, in other words, the nature of being of God that is different is Trinity. That makes an enormous difference, by the way, in practical terms, but the idea of the Trinity is blasphemous in Islam. Now, I would also make a distinction here in terms of the way you framed the question, which is in the Koran asked Muslims to kill those who don't agree with them. That is not exactly accurate, because what the Quran asks Muslims to do is kill anyone who sees God differently. And that is not, for example, the blanket requirement of a God of the Old Testament the God of the Old Testament also tells us people to welcome sojourners to welcome foreigners. In fact, later on in the prophets, when the prophets are going to the Israelites saying, Hey, you haven't kept up your end of the bargain here and this covenant you made with God, and look at what God gave you. And, hey, by the way, he got rid of your enemies in this land and very specifically says not because of who you are, this isn’t because you're great. It's because their sin and their wickedness was so grievous. In other words, God used in a sovereign kind of meta plan, at least if you take the prophets seriously, the Israelites ridding Canaan, of these people, as a way of protecting women and children in particular as a way of ending some really bad evil stuff. You also have out of the Judeo Christian vision of things, this long tradition that we call just war. In other words, that there is a moral consideration not just into whether to wage war, but how it's to be waged. That is not found in Islam. And you look at this, and you say, yeah, tthere's nothing like what comes out of the Judeo Christian understanding, which is, for example, restraint, not targeting civilians.

Now, of course, you know, what you're thinking, which is, well, in the Old Testament, you know, one of the big problems is that Israel didn't wipe everybody out, agreed. That was, according to the prophets and act of national judgment that God was carrying out against the Canaanites. And this was actually, you know, God doing this, and this way, which is something I think that's different enough. I'm not saying that there aren't tough questions, but there are significant differences.

I'll end with a recommendation, which deals with this way more than I could in the time allotted, And thus a way more intelligently. The Christian philosopher Paul Copan has written a book called “Is God a Moral Monster,” and addresses this specifically, you know, claims of genocide and things like that against the God of the Old Testament, and how does that purport to our sense of justice, so I would recommend that book highly.

TATTON STRASSHEIM: Hi, I'm Tatton Strassheim. I'm from Patrick Henry College. Here's a situation for you. You have Christian friends who have fallen into a homosexual lifestyle. You're having a hard time winning the argument with them. How do you remain faithful to a Christian worldview while still loving someone who is your friend and further, as far as you're aware, is your brother in Christ?

STONESTREET: Yeah, I mean, there's not a magic formula, there's not a four step plan, you just got to do it. And I think part of it is you got to do it in the face of being accused of not doing it. And I think that's where we have seen, for example, so many adults, faithful Christians, whose children have basically forced them into an ultimatum. You either affirm me or you don't love me. And they feel left with a choice that they don't know how to make. And I think that the answer to that, when someone lays that kind of ultimatum down, that we've got to be willing to say is, I know, that's what you believe. But I think you're wrong. I do love you, and I will show you, but I cannot affirm you. Because if I do that, then I would not be loving you. 

And I think at some level, you have to admit that those categories won't make sense to them. And in fact, those categories could very well make them angry and ended up breaking the relationship. So you have to do it, I think with a measure of the wisdom of Proverbs. But one of the things that says is a soft answer turns away wrath. And I know that sounds like really simple, because it is. But simple, doesn't mean it's easy, and doesn't mean it's any less true. Make sure that you have the conversation in the right context. Make sure you explain very clearly, I know you think this. Recognize, and in a sense, acknowledge maybe even honor that you have taken the other person seriously. But you have to be willing, at some level to disagree. And I think that's the crux of the disagreement is whether or not you can actually love someone while still holding fast to truth at all. 

This idea comes from Alexander Solzhenitsyn. And his last piece that he wrote to his fellow countrymen was lived not by lies, that's what it's called. And his point was, look, to be faithful to Christ in these really confusing days, doesn't mean that every conversation you have with your friend who identifies as gay, needs to be about this. This isn't his true identity, and to talk to him or her as if it is, is actually to say something about them, that's not true, either. So you don't have to make every conversation about this. It's not like you're, you've failed Christ, if you haven't convinced him with your arguments, because, by the way, people are rarely rationally convinced of arguments. They want things to be true, and they justify their behavior and what they want with reasons. 

But here's what you've got to commit to: just don't go along with something that's not true. And I think that's a choice that many Christians increasingly are going to face in a culture that is redefining these fundamental words, fundamental ideas. Don't say something that's not true. Don't live in such a way as to say something that's not true. Don't live by lies. So I think that's going to be part of the commitment going forward for a lot, all of us actually.

EICHER: John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint Podcast. Have a great weekend!

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, May 24th. 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: a couple of new movies arriving in theaters this weekend might be of interest to families. Here’s arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino to review the movie titled Sight and The Garfield Movie.

MUSIC: [That’s Amore - Dean Martin]

COLLIN GARBARINO: Summer’s here, so that means theaters need some reliable animated movies to attract all those kids who’ve just gotten out of school. In June and July, we’ll get Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4, but this weekend everybody’s favorite fat cat lands feet first in The Garfield Movie.

GARFIELD: And that’s how I adopted Jon.

Chris Pratt voices Garfield who’s living a life of luxury in Jon Arbuckle’s suburban home… napping regularly, eating plenty of Italian food, and exploiting his canine friend Odie. But this idyllic existence comes to an end when Garfield’s long lost father Vic, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, reappears. Vic is an alley cat who’s involved with some shady critters.

VIC: OK, follow me, Junior.

GARFIELD: Uh. No, no, no, no, no… You lost the privilege of telling me what to do a long time ago.

JINX: Hello, Vic.

Garfield and Odie get roped into a scheme to steal thousands of quarts of milk from a dairy farm. Of course things don’t go as planned.

The Garfield Movie is a competent enough film that will probably entertain most kids, but to be honest… I was pretty disappointed by it. You would think an 80s icon like Garfield would offer some fun nostalgia for adults, but this movie’s orange cat doesn’t much resemble the Garfield of old.

Sure, there are a couple of jokes about how he eats lasagna and hates Monday.

GARFIELD: And that’s why we should go from Sunday to Tuesday.

But he’s not fat enough. He’s too active. And he lacks his signature cynicism. Nothing about the film feels particularly Garfield-y. The story quickly turns into a heist movie with all the heist-movie cliches.

GARFIELD: I’ve seen it on television a million times. We’ll need a hundred feet of rope. [Train horn]

Moreover, the voice acting didn’t impress me. Garfield just sounds like Chris Pratt, and Vic just sounds like Samuel L. Jackson. I was also annoyed by the relationship between Garfield and Vic. The film pushes a sappy story about an estranged father who abandons his son—but he really loves him from afar, so that’s what matters. I’m not buying it.

Let’s move on to our second film, Sight from Angel Studios.

MING: I want you to take your time. Your eyes are going to be very sensitive to the light.

Sight tells the true story of Ming Wang, a Nashville eye surgeon with the reputation for working miracles.

The movie begins with Ming, played by Terry Chen, working on his next project, with help from his colleague Misha, played by Academy Award nominee Greg Kinnear.

MISHA: Ming, did the nun tell you what happened?

MING: No.

MISHA: Well, apparently in India, street beggars make more money if they’re legitimately blind. So the stepmother poured sulfuric acid in each of her eyes.

The difficulty in restoring this little girl’s sight destroys Ming’s faith in himself to work miracles.

Flashbacks to Ming’s childhood and teenage years in Communist China punctuate the story of his struggle to heal the blind girl. Young Ming studies hard and wants to become a doctor—like his parents—but when the Cultural Revolution breaks out, his dreams, along with his family’s safety, are threatened.

AUDIO: [Confrontation in Chinese]

Sight tells an uplifting story, but the movie’s production values don't quite meet the standards of Angel Studios’ other recent films. Also, the film’s pace feels uneven. Young Ming’s story moves briskly along in the flashbacks. But the scenes set in the present start to drag as the older Ming gets stuck in a rut before having his spiritual epiphany. Some of the dialogue is a little stilted, but the actors, to their credit, handle their lines well.

MISHA: Hey, are you seriously not going to tell me what’s going on here?

MING: I don’t want to have this conversation. OK?

MISHA: Fine. You crash and burn on your own.

Despite some failures in filmmaking quality, the movie has much to commend it. The Motion Picture Association gave it a PG-13 rating, which seems too harsh. Sight contains a couple of scenes of cruelty and violence that might disturb smaller children, but the movie has no foul language and no sensuality. And on the whole, the story is both informative and inspirational.

The scenes of Ming living through the Cultural Revolution feel especially relevant. Young communists tear down China’s traditions and marginalize the country’s experts. They’re arrogant enough to believe they can build a better society despite their ignorance and inexperience. These idealistic youths aren’t too far removed from some of America’s own political movements.

But communists aren’t the only ones susceptible to hubris. Dr. Wang must learn to embrace humility and accept the past, and in the end Sight reminds us that the most important things in life transcend what we can see.

SISTER MARIE: But look. Look what God uses when we refuse to believe there is no purpose.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, May 24th. 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: WORLD commentator Steve West with a reflection on what Memorial Day means for his family.

STEVE WEST: Like many of my generation, I have a father who served in World War II. I don't know a lot about his service. Men who returned from World War II often didn’t talk about the experience much. My father didn't. He died at 46, when I was 14, and I knew little about a time period that had to loom large in his mind. What I do have is a photo of him in uniform, a Purple Heart medal, and an identification bracelet with the number, 34603355.

From his home in North Carolina, he left the state for the first time to serve in northern Africa. From there he went to Sicily, Italy, and then Luxembourg, where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. It was there he became separated from his fellow soldiers, stepped on a landmine, and lost his leg up to midway between his knee and ankle.

He came home decorated with the medal, which I keep in a desk drawer with the photo and worn metal bracelet imprinted with my father’s name and serial number. Presumably, it would allow him to be identified if he were killed in action. By God's grace, my Dad did not die when so many others did. He was not shot. Nor did he die from the landmine, though he bore its wound for the rest of his life.

This is all I know. My sister once attempted to track down his military history, but like many others came to a dead end. A 1973 fire at a massive military records center in St. Louis destroyed many veterans’ records.

So what remains are a trio of artifacts—a photo, a medal, and a bracelet. They carry weighty memories, stories, and meanings—and mysteries. In a digital age when what’s on screen seems ephemeral and insubstantial, artifacts point outward to things we need to remember. God created a world of particular things, and when He created, when He redeemed, and when He ultimately restores creation, it will be flesh and blood, dirt and rock and water, and we will not be disembodied spirits roaming over a great nothingness.

In fact, Scripture is replete with particulars—names, places, and times. Even Eden is not some dreamy wisp of a place like Shangri-La. It’s rooted in space and time by two rivers that still flow, the Tigris and Euphrates.

Racing ahead, Scripture offers details about a new heaven and a new earth—a city 12,000 stadia in length, height, and width, with walls made of jasper, streets of gold, and foundations in precious stones.

My father’s serial number, 34603355, is not just a number. It points to a person worthy of being remembered for what he points to—a loving God who cares for His creation. He’s the one who saved my Dad.

He’s also the one who has saved our country, so far. Until Christ returns, the Bible warns wars will continue. But God’s good purposes remain. Take a moment this Memorial Day and be grateful for those who were wounded or gave their lives for a country they counted worth dying for—and for the ones who continue to do so.

I’m Steve West.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, now it’s time to thank the team who helped to put the program together this week:

Jenny Rough, David Bahnsen, Caleb Welde, Mary Reichard, Lindsay Mast, Will Inboden, Bonnie Pritchett, Jerry Bowyer, Carolina Lumetta, Onize Ohikere, Emma Freire, Nathanael Blake, Mary Muncy, Cal Thomas, John Stonestreet, Collin Garbarino, and Steve West.

Special thanks to our breaking news team: Lynde Langdon, Steve Kloosterman, Kent Covington, Mark Mellinger, Travis Kircher, Lauren Canterberry, Christina Grube, and Josh Schumacher.

And the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Our producer is Harrison Watters.

Our Senior producer is Kristen Flavin and Paul Butler is Executive producer.

Additional production assistance from Benj Eicher and Bekah McCallum.

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 Psalmists writes, “I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word.” —Psalm 119:113-115

Worship with brothers and sisters in Christ in church this weekend. And Lord willing, we’ll meet you right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

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