The World and Everything in It - May 28, 2021

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today, we’ll talk about engagement with those on the “other side” of the cultural divide, both in traditional journalism and in everyday life.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Student questions ahead today on Culture Friday.

Plus a film about a book you’ve probably consulted a time or two.

And, Ask the Editor. Executive Producer Paul Butler considers how God speaks, sometimes through unlikely voices.

BROWN: It’s Friday, May 28th. 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 has today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Republicans unveil infrastructure counter-offer » Republican senators unveiled an infrastructure proposal Thursday, just north of $900 billion countering the president’s plan, which would spend nearly twice as much.

The GOP plan would also tap unused coronavirus aid cash to pay for the spending—instead the tax hikes called for in the White House plan.

West Virginia Sen. Shelly Moore Capito announced the counter-proposal at a news conference.

CAPITO: We’re hoping that this moved the ball forward. We believe that the alternative, which is a partisan reconciliation process, would be destructive to our future bipartisan attempts.

Reconciliation is a mechanism that Democrats could use to pass an infrastructure bill without any Republican votes.

President Biden said he hasn’t had a chance yet to dig into the details of the Republican proposal. But he added that he did have a brief but good conversation with Sen. Capito about the plan.

BIDEN: And I told her we have to finish this very soon.

The proposal received a cool response from other Democrats.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters…

PSAKI: This is an ongoing negotiation. We’ll continue to have discussions about how to move it forward. There are a range of mechanisms to move ideas forward in Congress and we’re open to that as well.

The GOP offer is $928 billion in total. It would increase spending by $91 billion on roads and bridges, $48 billion on water resources and $25 billion on airports.

It also would provide for one-time increases in broadband investments, at $65 billion.

President Biden’s latest proposal carries a price tag of $1.7 trillion.

Jobless claims fall again to new pandemic low » The number of Americans seeking jobless benefits dropped last week to another pandemic low. But businesses are still having a tough time finding enough workers. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The Labor Department reports that new claims fell to 406,000 last week. That was a drop of nearly 9 percent from the week before.

The unemployment rate, now 6.1 percent, is still almost twice what it was before the pandemic, when the rate was just 3.5 percent. Yet many businesses can’t find enough applicants for all the open jobs.

Almost 16 million people received unemployment aid during the week of May 8th. That’s the latest period for which data is available. That’s nearly eight times as many people as received jobless payments in August 2014, when the unemployment rate was where it is now—6.1 percent—and roughly the same proportion of adults had jobs.

That’s largely because federal programs during the pandemic made far more people eligible for unemployment than in the past. And many businesses say so-called enhanced jobless benefits are paying people as much to stay home as they would make at work.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Senate Republicans filibuster Jan. 6 commission » Lawmakers in the Senate debated into the early morning hours today … with Republicans set to filibuster a measure that would create an independent commission on the Capitol riot.

It would be the first successful use of a filibuster in the Biden presidency to halt legislative action.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday the commission is necessary to fully investigate the incident.

SCHUMER: A national bipartisan, independent commission to report on the events of Jan. 6th is exactly what the doctor ordered.

But Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said multiple Senate committees are already conducting inquiries. And he noted that former President Trump’s role in the incident was already litigated in an impeachment trial.

MCCONNELL: I do not believe the additional extraneous commission that Democratic leaders want would uncover crucial new facts or promote healing.

Most Republicans opposed forming a commission, though the House measure passed with 35 Republican votes.

Death toll at 10 in Calif. rail yard shooting » Officials in California have raised the death toll from a rail yard shooting to 10, including the shooter, who took his own life.

The suspect, 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy, was an employee at the public transportation facility where he opened fire on Wednesday.

Evelynn Tran is Acting General Manager of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. She told reporters that some officials like her receive training on how to handle an active shooter situation, but not the aftermath.

TRAN: And yesterday, I was at the Family Assistance Center, and I saw the immense pain in the faces of the families, and I heard their cries when they got the news.

Cassidy’s ex-wife has now told police that the shooter talked about killing people at work more than a decade ago. But she said she ever believed him until now.

And authorities say a locker at the rail yard believed to be the gunman’s contained “materials for bombs, detonator cords, the precursors to an explosive.”

Facebook won’t remove posts claiming COVID-19 is human-made » With new questions swirling about the origin of COVID-19, Facebook says it will no longer remove claims that the illness is human-made or manufactured. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has that story.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Facebook said it made the move—quote—“in light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts.”

President Biden this week directed intelligence agencies to intensify their investigations into the origin of the virus and report their findings within 90 days.

That followed reports of U.S. intelligence findings that workers at a laboratory in Wuhan, China may have sought hospital treatment for COVID-19 symptoms in Nov. of 2019.

That has renewed questions about the possibility that the virus may have escaped from the Chinese lab.

U.S. intel agencies do not believe, however, that the virus was man-made.

Still, with so many unanswered questions, Facebook said it was appropriate to stop removing posts that suggest the virus could have been manufactured.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: questions about culture from aspiring Christian journalists.

Plus, the way God speaks through every voice.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, the 28th of May, 2021.

You’re listening to The World and Everything in It and we thank you for joining us today. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Well, here we are today, last day at World Journalism Institute up at Dordt University—Sioux Center, Iowa—working with 25 excellent students, helping them with news writing, feature writing, and broadcast journalism. It’s been a grueling and rewarding two weeks here, investing in the lives of young people who want to glorify God in this profession.

It’s Culture Friday and we’ll continue our annual tradition and have students asking the questions. And before we do that, let’s welcome John Stonestreet. John is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

Hi John.

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning!

EICHER: Let’s jump in. First question.

GRACE KENYON: My name is Grace Kenyon, and I will be a senior at Wheaton College. How should Christians engage with mainstream journalism in such a way that allows us to stay grounded in truth but also demonstrate compassion and willingness to be in discussion with non-Christians?

STONESTREET: Grace, it's a great question. I don't think it's just a question for mainstream journalism, because everything is hot takes these days.

So I think there's a number of ways that we can answer your question, how do we engage with mainstream journalism? First of all, let's get more of you to be journalists, which is why I think this program is so cool. And why I think some of you should really take seriously this call to be a truth teller.

But you need to think about your job that way. You need to think about what it means to be a distinctly Christian journalist, a journalist who's a Christian, and not just one that you know, is moral and doesn't lie, but does journalism for for God's purposes.

I remember years ago, for example, having a conversation with a girl who told me about her friend who is a fashion designer, and she said, it's so important that we have Christians in that field. And I said, Why? And listen to what she said. She said, Because fashion designers tell culture, what beautiful is. And I think you need to ask that same question. What do journalists do? And what is the Christian calling there? And what does that mean to actually go out? And do journalism? as Christ? Would under the authority, the rule and reign of Christ? What does that look like? That's a different way than just, you know, how do I navigate the world of journalism without getting fired? Or how do I, you know, deal with this, you know, kind of terrible world of journalism as a Christian, it's a different world.

Now, let me go a little bit deeper than that. Because, you know, one of the features I would say that the way journalism has done today, what it does to us, first of all, it makes us care about things that aren’t important, and keeps us from caring about things that are. So that's one thing, right? Is care about things that are important, you have to have those kind of the biblical framework of what truly matters, and then elevate those things. What's truly redemptive. That's going to be a huge distinctive.

Another thing has to do with the meaning of words. So what's important? What do words mean? What is the task of journalism? And then I think there's going to be an increasingly important reason for Christians to embrace something that Rod Dreher has, thankfully brought to all of our attention again, which is a speech or actually an essay written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, called “Live Not by Lies.”How

Look, he said, he said, in the context of Soviet Russia, he was appealing to his fellow people, he goes, you know, look, they're lying. We know they're lying. They know, we know they're lying, and yet they're lying anyway. So what do you do in a situation like that, and when those lies are reinforced by the power of the state. He said, You know, it doesn't mean you have to go fight every fight. But here's the thing we can never be allowed to do, or allow ourselves to do. And that is to say something that's not true.

STEPHANIE MORTON: My name is Stephanie Morton, I’m a student at Belhaven University. How do you foster productive and caring conversations with people on “the other side” in a culture that attacks the person rather than the idea?

STONESTREET: Well, Stephanie, I think it's the question, I believe, and we've talked and written and held conferences on this. And I think Father Sirico once put it this way, we got to be ruthless with ideas and gentle with people. And the reason we got to be ruthless with ideas, is because ideas have consequences. And bad ideas have victims. So bad ideas when they go unchecked actually end up harming other people. And so we engage those things that matter out of love.

Now, the lie you're going to hear is that you can't have these conversations in a loving way, if you disagree. And the Bible just doesn't give us that as an alternative. It doesn't mean you have to fight every fight. But the Bible not only tells you that truth, and love can go together, that you don't get one without the other. They're both sourced in the person of Jesus Christ. So to be truthful, but not to be loving is not to be truthful, to be loving, but not to be truthful is not to be loving.

Now, you specifically asked how do we deal with people on the other side who attack the person rather than the idea? I think one of the ways you do as you point out when they're attacking the person instead of the idea that the best tactical way that I know of to do this is the tactic we learn from Jesus and Socrates. And that is the tactic of asking questions, questions, like what do you mean by that? How do you know that's true? What if you're wrong? These are rhetorical strategies. And you know, it's always the case when someone feels like you're willing to listen to them that they're willing to listen to you. And I think we're probably too quick to give answers and not quick enough to ask questions. And of course, that's the rhetorical strategy Jesus used. People come to Jesus with question. He'd ask a better question. They'd come in assuming an idea. You know, Matthew 19, about divorce, Jesus would ask another question, exposing the assumptions and the idea.

This is a skill set that we need to learn. But it's amazing how far we will go to prepare ourselves for a career that we want or, you know, a job that we want and so we'll do the preparation because we want to live that kind of life. I think if we actually value the kind of life in which other people are treated as the image of God and which ideas are taken seriously, the people are cared for, then we will work just as hard to develop some of these tactical skills as well.

EICHER: John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Thanks!

STONESTREET: Thank you!

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, May 28th.

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: the true story behind one of the most important books in the English language.

EICHER: If you don’t know how to spell a word these days, you may turn to Google for help. But The Oxford English Dictionary is still the gold standard for defining our language. Its unabridged version contains more than 600,000 entries!

BROWN: The first edition came out in the late 19th century. And the way it came together is the stuff movies are made of. Literally. Here’s reviewer Sharon Dierberger.

MURRAY: We are about to embark on the greatest adventure our language has ever known. DELEGATE MEMBER: Let us begin at aardvark and never stop until we zymurgy.

SHARON DIERBERGER, REVIEWER: Who would have thought a movie about a dictionary could be so compelling?

Two men played an instrumental—and quite unforgettable—role in creating the first-ever Oxford English Dictionary. The professor is a clear-eyed, loving husband and father, driven by purpose. The wild-eyed doctor is plagued by terrible memories, hallucinations, and guilt.

MRS. MURRAY: Yet, two such men found each other in our time. My husband, and his friend, the murderous madman. Together, they have given us something extraordinary.

Their unlikely but true parallel stories merged in 1870s London.

Based on a book of the same name, The Professor and the Madman isn’t a simple recap of historical events. It’s a deep, emotional drama elevating God’s grace, mercy, and redemption in the lives of complex characters.

The film, released in 2019 but available now on streaming platforms, uses language in profound and sometimes humorous ways.

Professor James Murray, played by Mel Gibson, is a Scottish autodidact. That is, he’s a self-taught professor who left school at age 14. He delights in words—their meanings, and their origins. In one scene, he matter-of-factly rattles off a list of 20 languages and dialects he knows, as he stands before the stuffy Oxford University academic delegation.

MURRAY: I am fluent in Latin and Greek, of course. And beyond that, I have an intimate knowledge of the romance tongues: Italian, French, Spanish, Catalan. And to a lesser degree: Portuguese, Vordoir, Provincale, and other dialects. In the teutonic branch I am familiar with the German, Dutch, Danish, and Flemish.

The delegation called him because it’s desperate to create a complete lexicon of the English language after 20 years of failure. So its members grudgingly ask the unlettered, unconventional—but brilliant—Murray to spearhead a new effort.

DELEGATE MEMBER: The book must inventory every word, every nuance, every twist of etymology, and every possible illustrated citation from every English author. All of it or nothing at all. SECOND MEMBER: That would mean reading everything.

Murray’s enthusiasm is unbounded, but he first wants his wife’s support.

MURRAY: Whatever I’ve ever done I’ve done with you. I’ve never been able to without you. Once again, lend yourself to me? If I am to fashion a book I’ll need a spine. CHILD: Father? MURRAY: Elsie, children? CHILD: Are we going somewhere? MURRAY: To Oxford. Your father is the author of the New English Dictionary on historical principles.

The madman is Dr. William Minor, played by Sean Penn. He’s a retired surgeon who served in the American Civil War. He flees to England, believing a murderous army deserter is after him. In his delusions, Minor shoots and kills the wrong man and is sentenced to an asylum for the criminally insane.

MINOR: Wednesday April 17th, 1872. Inmate 742. 742 admittance. Minor, William Chester.

When Professor Murray enlists volunteers all over England to contribute words and quotations to his etymology research, Minor joins the quest from his asylum room. With passionate saneness, he gleans words and phrases from books lining his cell walls. He eventually contributes more than 10,000 entries for the dictionary. He sends a letter to the professor:

MINOR: Write to me, tell me what specific words at present shimmer and fade at your grasp. Let useful others troll the oceans with their nets cast wide. I shall throw my line and pluck the very quotes that evade you when you call upon me to do so.

The professor finally meets Minor on the deceptively serene asylum grounds. He thinks he’s a doctor at the facility. But then he sees Minor’s ankle shackles and realizes he’s actually a patient. The professor befriends him anyway.

MURRAY: As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens the countenance of a friend. MINOR: Scripture. You’re a man of God. I should not be surprised. MURRAY: It is by His grace alone. MINOR: I wish I had experienced that more often. MURRAY: You will my friend. Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. MINOR: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. MURRAY: You’re not alone, good doctor. We are linked now…consanguineous. MINOR: Brothers.

Despite his madness, Minor evokes sympathy and admiration. He frees an asylum guard from a crushing gate. He bequeaths all his goods to his victim’s wife and teaches her to read. But like Inspector Javert in Les Misérables, his tormented soul cannot grasp the concept of grace. His struggle leads to disturbing moments involving self-punishment and a torturous treatment by the asylum’s superintendent. That earns the film its R rating. Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there.

MUSIC: [CLOSING CREDITS]

An unusual tale masterfully filmed and acted, the movie’s conversations and dimensional relationships might leave you feeling not only entertained, but uplifted. And you may even find yourself checking your online dictionary like I had to—to look up a few new words…like assythment.

I’m Sharon Dierberger.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, May 28th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: I’m Nick Eicher.

PAUL BUTLER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: And I’m Paul Butler.

BROWN: Hey there, Paul! All three of us together at Dordt University for WJI—in our half classroom, half studio, taking care of the day job while our students are finishing up their pieces.

EICHER: Paul, you’re excellent in the classroom. We were just talking this morning about one of the comments you made, something that the students needed to hear, as they learn broadcast and have to contend with the natural self-consciousness you feel when you’re not used to hearing yourself speak.

It’s a real barrier everyone has to get over, and it’s not confined to the classroom. All of us are learning and growing and working to improve—improve our journalism, for sure, hone our ability to think Biblically, and then communicate that professionally.

BROWN: And because we have a real educational mission, too, different ones of us here are at different stages of our professional development. Our journalists come to us by way of WJI—some are interns, some new employees, some gravelly veterans—but regardless of where we are, the learning never stops.

BUTLER: Yes, I was thinking about that after receiving some mail here a few weeks ago. It said some things that sort of typified, for me, why these students we’ve been working with have hurdles they have to get over to do this kind of work: the issue of self-consciousness and how to accept feedback from listeners or viewers about your stories. Radio and television can get to you, not just when you’re new to it, but even when you’ve been around awhile.

EICHER: So I read what you wrote on that topic—and then remembering something you’d said in one of the classroom lectures—and I thought, let’s jump in the studio and you deliver that commentary for us today.

BUTLER: Thanks, yes, I was telling a story from early in my own career. 

Michael—a man at church—asked me what I did for a living. I told him that I produced short audio documentaries and features for a Christian radio network. He looked surprised: “You’re on the radio?” I said yes, and told him how he could listen.

The next week, he man approached me after the service. He blurted out: “I thought you had to have a good voice to be on the radio!” The observation wasn’t as much of a shock as perhaps it sounds. The honesty was surprising, but at the same time insightful. He was acknowledging that radio was changing. What used to be the domain of announcers with big, powerful voices, was becoming a platform for everyday people.

A few years later, I was reminiscing about that encounter with a coworker. Bill Davis is a professional voice-over talent paid to use his amazing “pipes.” Everyday he records promotional copy, and all sorts of other vocal projects. When I told him that story, he laughed at the punchline, but then said something to me I’ll never forget. He looked me in the eye, and said: “Paul, we don’t tune in everyday to hear your voice. We listen to hear your voice.” He explained that it wasn’t my delivery—my instrument—that was the draw, it was my life experience, knowledge, beliefs, and personality that came through my voice and made people want to listen.

I got to thinking about all this a couple weeks ago when we received an anonymous letter signed “A big fan.”

It began by praising my voice and that of several other reporters, correspondents, and hosts she liked. But then she turned to a handful of voices she didn’t care for. One “squeaks,” another sounds “tired,” still another “flaky,” and the last one sounded, to her ear, “condescending.”

The listener said that she fast-forwards through certain stories because she just can’t get past their voices.

As the Executive Producer for WORLD Radio, my primary responsibility is how the program sounds. Part of that job is working with our team on their delivery.

There are times for sure when we need to improve. Sometimes we mispronounce words. At other times, our emphasis is wrong, or our pacing doesn’t match the story—believe me, the list goes on. So I’m grateful when listeners provide feedback on how we’re doing: identifying what parts of our delivery need some work.

At the same time, I’d like to respond to this listener who didn’t include a return address on her note.

In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul instructs the church to “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” Prophecy here isn’t some hidden knowledge. It’s not predicting the future. Rather, Paul says in verse three that prophecy in the New Covenant is “edification, exhortation, and comfort…”

Edification is supporting the Holy Spirit’s work by building up, encouraging the body. Exhortation is calling others—pleading with our fellow Christians—to draw near to God. Finally, comfort is coming alongside and offering hope to the suffering, discouraged, and oppressed.

As the manager of this team, I can assure you that each person behind the program is fulfilling that calling. Some are naturally gifted presenters, others are still finding their voice, but all reporters and hosts are using their voices by God’s Spirit to edify, exhort, and comfort the body of Christ through sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth.

So to our big fan who skips segments because of delivery issues. I hope you will reconsider, and instead listen even more intently: God may have something for you to hear that will encourage you, challenge you, or inspire you. Because sometimes, God chooses to speak through the most unexpected of voices, even mine.

I’m Paul Butler.

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:

Anna Johansen Brown, Janie B. Cheaney, Kent Covington, Jamie Dean, Sharon Dierberger, Kristen Flavin, Katie Gaultney, Kim Henderson, Jill Nelson, Onize Ohikere, Bonnie Pritchett, Sarah Schweinsberg, and Cal Thomas.

MYRNA BROWN, 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! Thank you for making possible Christian journalism in the vast marketplace of ideas.

How great are His signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

Go now in grace and peace.

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