The World and Everything in It: May 28, 2026

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today, tracking a deadly new opioid.

KROTOLSKY: Especially when these drugs first emerge, the challenge is that most laboratories are not testing for these drugs.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And holding drunk drivers accountable when they take parents from children.

Also today, the DHS secretary floats changes to processing international flights.

And author John Bevere says interest in Christ’s return is growing.

BEVERE: When eschatology is preached correctly, it produces an urgency.

And WORLD Commentator Daniel Darling on the legacy of two great cultural thinkers, half a century on.

BROWN: It’s Thursday, May 28th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Myna Brown.

REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Iran update » President Trump says Iran is — his words — “negotiating on fumes.” At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, he insisted Tehran is desperate to end the nearly three-month-old war — and the November midterm elections won't make him rush into a deal.

TRUMP: It looks like they wanna just make a deal. They wanna... They, they ha- I don't think they have a choice. Their economy is, uh, in free fall. They have 250 percent inflation. Their money has no value. Their whole, uh, economic system is broken down.

But there's daylight on key issues. The emerging deal would have Iran give up its highly enriched uranium in exchange for sanctions relief.

Some Republican senators say that's too easy on Iran. Trump on Wednesday also said he wouldn't be comfortable with Russia or China taking the uranium. Tehran this week said there’s been significant progress, but a deal is not close.

TRUMP: They want very much to make a deal. So far they haven't gotten there. Not, we're not satisfied with it, but, yeah, We will be. We will be. Either that or we'll have to just finish the job.

U.S. forces hit targets in southern Iran Monday in what the Pentagon called self-defense strikes.

Trump is pushing for a deal that reopens the Strait of Hormuz and halts Iran's nuclear program. He also wants the deal to expand the Abraham Accords, bringing Arab states and Israel together.

Hamas says Israeli strike killed leader » Meantime, Israel is still pressing its operation against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. And in Gaza, Hamas confirmed Wednesday — Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City killed its new military chief. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports:

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Mohammed Odeh, his wife, and two of his sons were killed Tuesday — and 20 more were reportedly wounded.

Odeh was a former Hamas intelligence chief. Israel says he was one of the architects of the October 7th, 2023 attacks.

Odeh's predecessor was killed less than two weeks ago — making him the fourth Hamas military chief Israel has killed since October 7th. The strike came on the eve of Eid al-Adha  — a major Muslim holiday. Thousands marched through Gaza City Wednesday for the family's funeral. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel will continue targeting Hamas leaders tied to the brutal October 7 attacks.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Chemical explosion update » Officials say there's no hope of survivors at a Washington paper mill. A chemical tank imploded there Tuesday morning — leaving nine workers missing. One person is confirmed dead, and nine others injured, including a firefighter.

Crews are back at the site this morning. But before bodies can be recovered — the tank itself has to be stabilized. Longview Fire Battalion Chief Matt Amos:

AMOS: The recovery operations, they remain focused on safely accessing all affected areas of the facility, recovering victims, and supporting impacted families while ensuring responder safety.

The 900,000-gallon tank still holds about 90,000 gallons of caustic liquid — used to break down wood for paper. Cowlitz Two Fire Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein:

GOLDSTEIN: The tank remains unstable, creating a dangerous situation for our personnel, which has created our additional planning. Crews are actively assessing the structural integrity of that tank and working on plans to stabilize that tank.

Investigators still don’t know the cause of the implosion.

Ebola update » Americans exposed to Ebola overseas won't be flying home for treatment. The Trump administration says they'll go to a new facility in Kenya instead. The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has already reached American doctors and missionaries. Two were recently flown to Europe for isolation and care.

Brown University public health professor Dr. Craig Spencer criticized the administration’s decision. Spencer survived Ebola in 2014.

SPENCER: Not even being willing to consider bringing Americans infected with Ebola back to the United States or not even being willing to consider Americans who may have been exposed to Ebola back to the United States is a moral abdication of what this country owes its own.

But the administration says the new policy protects Americans at home. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday at a cabinet meeting:

RUBIO: We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States. And so we're very-- the State Department and other agencies represented here … working very, very hard to contain this crisis to the countries where it's currently located.

The Congo outbreak has nearly 1,000 suspected cases — and more than 200 suspected deaths.

Zelenskyy asks for more US help » Ukraine needs more Patriot missiles. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is asking Washington to send them — to help combat intensifying Russian attacks.

ZELESNKYY: [Speaking in Ukrainian]

He said he is appealing both to Congress and the White House … warning that deliveries to Ukraine are falling short — because the Iran war drained American stockpiles.

Russia fired nearly 90 missiles and hundreds of drones at Kyiv last weekend alone. Ukraine says it intercepts more than 90 percent of incoming drones — but ballistic missiles are harder to stop. The Trump administration hasn't publicly responded to Zelenskyy’s appeal.

Meanwhile, British intelligence now says nearly a half-million Russian troops have been killed since the war began.

I'm Kent Covington.

Coming up, tracking a deadly new opioid. And later, the DHS secretary floats changes to processing international flights.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 28th of May.

This is WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you’ve joined us today! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

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

First up on The World and Everything in It, a new opioid hits U.S. streets.

EMS departments across the country are warning first responders to watch out for a new synthetic opioid that’s up to ten times more potent than fentanyl–and hard to detect.

REICHARD: Cyclorphine is part of a new class of drugs called orphines that are causing overdose deaths across the country.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY: David Peress works with the Chicago Recovery Alliance, testing street drugs so people don’t overdose.

DAVID PERESS: We've seen orphine opioids show up in two different subtypes of supplies.

Some people order orphines online and know what they're getting.

PERESS: And the other context we see orphine opioids is in trace amounts in street dope.

That’s fentanyl.

Authorities believe some illicit drug-makers are lacing their products with orphines to create a more intense high, leaving users unaware of what they're taking and first responders scrambling to treat them correctly.

New street drugs are an increasingly common problem, starting with fentanyl in 2012.

ABC NEWS: A synthetic painkiller 100 times more powerful than morphine… Fentanyl is taking the opioid epidemic to a new level of urgency.

Then, a few years ago, the animal tranquilizer Xylazine made headlines.

FOX NEWS: A new drug is being blamed for turning parts of philidelphia into what some are calling zombie land.

Then last year, it was nitazenes…

KHOU 11: New warning this afternoon from the DEA a synthetic opioid so potent that this makes fentanyl look weak.

Nitazenes can be up to 40 times more powerful than fentanyl.

These new drugs are synthetic compounds—so instead of drug makers taking the time to grow something like poppies for opium or coca for cocaine, they acquire a set of somewhat common ingredients and synthesize them into a drug. That means new compounds are constant.

In the lab, Peress uses both rapid testing strips and a spectrometer to figure out what’s in drugs.

PERESS: Dope can contain anywhere from like several to a dozen, usually more, active compounds

Spectrometers list every compound in a sample, but are less common outside of the lab.

Medical professionals and law enforcement often use rapid test strips. But those only react with the compound they’re made to find. That means you need a strip for every drug you’re looking for, and there isn’t one for orphine analogues yet.

PERESS: In 2023 we had a three panel test strip. In 2026 we have a seven panel test strip because new drugs keep getting added to the supply.

Some rapid tests can have more than 12 strips.

Alex Krotolsky with the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education says suppliers change their product because they’re looking for the cheapest, easiest money-maker.

He says orphine suppliers seem to be trying to get around the greater attention on nitazines.

ALEX KROTOLSKY: With the recent scheduling of the nitazines in China in July of 2025, We're now seeing the proliferation of additional orphines.

And since there are no test strips for orphines, no one will know whether orphines played a role in an overdose unless samples are tested in a lab.

KROTOLSKY: Especially when these drugs first emerge. The challenge is that most laboratories are not testing for these drugs.

So no one knows the scope of the problem. Right now, the orphine analogue cyclorphine seems to be popular.

KROTOLSKY: In 2026 alone, we've had more than 110 deaths associated with cyclorphine, so certainly it's a significant number, but here in the United States, that's still a lot less than the number of deaths we see from fentanyl.

Fentanyl caused more than half of all overdose deaths last year.

Brookings Institution Fellow Vanda Feldbab-Brown says orphine use probably, and hopefully, won’t be as widespread with fentanyl.

FELDBAB-BROWN: This is coming from Asia, probably China, through the mail. This does not appear to be large wholesale distribution by Mexican cartels.

She says right now, the likely culprits in orphine production are small labs in Asia hoping to get around authorities. Brown says it’s a nimble industry.

FELDBAB-BROWN: In the past 10 years, the amount of new substances arriving in the US in Europe is just order, or two orders of magnitude greater than what we saw in the 10 years prior to that.

Brown thinks that’s a trend that’s here to stay.

For now, orphines are an emerging problem, and states are taking steps to keep it from growing.

About 70,000 people died of an overdose last year, that’s a decrease from the year before, but experts say it’s important to stay vigilant. Florida Poison Control Center public information officer Mike McCormick.

MCCORMICK: These aren't just statistics, every one of those numbers represents a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a son, a daughter, a friend, a neighbor, a church member, a workmate, and there's countless other victims, which are the people that are left behind, so while we are seeing encouraging news that we are bringing overdoses down. Now is not the time to stop and get complacent. Now is the time that we really need to step on the gas and push this forward and dramatically bring these numbers down.

McCormick advises calling Poison Control [1-800-222-1222] in a suspected overdose…plus administering the overdose reversing drug naloxone if you have it. Even if it’s not an overdose, naloxone is harmless for most people and first responders will know what to do next.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is talking about halting customs and immigration processing at airports in sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration efforts.

Here’s Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin floating the idea on Fox after an anti-ICE protest in Newark, New Jersey on Memorial Day:

MULLIN: If they’re going to not allow us to go out and arrest the worst of the worst and then when we call for assistance at the facilities and they’re barricading our employees from coming in and out of the facility, then why are we processing international flights into the airport there? We're currently drawing up plans to say, 'Listen, in these sanctuary cities where the local radical left Democrats aren't allowing us to do our job and enforce federal laws, then we shouldn't be processing international flights into their cities either because they don’t want us to enforce immigration but they want us to process immigration at their facilities? Nothing about that makes sense to me

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The idea is only in the discussion stage and not yet implemented policy.

Here to talk about what it could mean is Doris Meissner with the Migration Policy Institute. That’s a nonpartisan think tank in D.C. that focuses on the movement of people around the world and improving immigration policies.

Doris, people may hear “halting customs and immigration processing” and think all kinds of things that may or may not be true. In practical terms, what would happen if this is implemented?

DORIS MEISSNER: It seems to me that what we're learning is very much a trial balloon. But if they are talking about, as they seem to be, targeting sanctuary cities, given what we know in the past and the concerns that we've heard expressed over time from this administration, it is probably places like New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver. So these are, you know, major international gateway places where people come to the United States largely for tourism purposes, for business purposes, to attend events. And so the idea then of not clearing them to come into the United States when they arrive at an international airport, it's hard to understand what the connection would be between doing that and objecting to what this administration objects to, which is often limited cooperation from particular cities, generally blue cities, with federal immigration enforcement.

REICHARD: What might be a practical effect of such a policy?

MEISSNER: Just think about what's coming up now with soccer and the World Cup, which this summer is going to involve games all over the country and certainly in the New York area and in California. Would all of those people who have bought tickets to come to the United States not be cleared to enter the United States because they're flying to airports in cities that have immigration policies that the immigration that the administration objects to? It's hard to say. But that would be one outcome, one possible scenario, if what they're talking about comes to pass. Now with all kinds of the policies that they have talked about and that they have implemented, there have always been large areas of exceptions, and so I'm certain or I'm guessing that there would be exceptions to whatever declaration of change this would be. But it does seem like an incredible stretch because I think it's cutting off the nose to spite the face.

REICHARD: And as we mentioned, this is just a proposal under discussion at this point. It's not an implemented policy. So Doris, I'm wondering, do you think the Department of Homeland Security has authority to do something like this, or do you think there's going to be legal challenges if it does?

MEISSNER: Well, I imagine there would be legal challenges. The Department of Homeland Security certainly does have the authority through its customs function and its function of clearing people to come into the country. It has the authority to deny people arrival in the country, but that's based on somebody that has an outstanding warrant or somebody who has a criminal background, somebody who is on a terrorist watch list. It has not ever applied in my experience to people who are traveling for normal travel purposes.

REICHARD: This seems to me to be a way to disincentivize people from coming to the U.S., in order to cut down on nefarious characters coming in, no?

MEISSNER: I'm not so sure. I mean people who are coming over on airplanes have already been cleared to travel to the United States. They either have a visa, I mean, for people that are not U.S. citizens. And, and let's remember, most of the people that would be affected by flights coming to these jurisdictions will be U.S. citizens. Either people who are traveling, coming back from travel or business people or people who are coming for cultural reasons, actors, performers, sports figures. So there would be a heavy impact on U.S. citizens if flights are curtailed from going to places like Chicago and New York. I mean just New York area airports admitted fifty million passengers last year. So we're talking about enormous numbers of people. But among those passengers those who are not U.S. citizens either have to have a visa which means they have been cleared of having any reason to be excluded from the United States, or they have to have come from a country where we have what's called visa waivers, which is that they don't require an individual visa, but there is a procedure that they go through to register that they're from a safe country like Germany or France or the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, and those people too have been authorized to travel to the United States. So stopping them once they arrive in Los Angeles because it's a sanctuary city, I don't get the connection.

REICHARD: On a broader view, would you say the Trump administration has done a good job in other immigration areas, such as the southern border?

MEISSNER: Well, there's no question that the border today is far more secure than it has ever been in our history. I have never been against barriers at the border. When I was the commissioner of the immigration service, I argued for barriers selectively used and combined with other forms of enforcement. I've always argued that walls alone, barriers alone, cannot solve issues at the border. And I would want to point out that I spent thirty years in the government working on immigration issues, most of those years working for Republican presidents. Three of those stretches working for Republican presidents and two of them working for Democratic presidents. So I have a very bipartisan background on this issue.

REICHARD: Doris Meissner has been our guest. She's with the Migration Policy Institute. Doris, thanks so much.

MEISSNER: Thank you.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Up next: a new bill in Missouri requires drunk drivers who are convicted of killing a parent to pay child support.

It’s called Bentley and Mason’s Law, named after two children whose parents were killed by a drunk driver. Their grandmother created the legislation and started a movement.

WORLD’s Emma Eicher has the story.

EMMA EICHER: Five years ago, Sergeant Cody Umfress was on patrol when he approached a fiery two-car crash in Jefferson County, Missouri.

CODY UMFRESS: It was April 13, 2021. 10:05pm.

He was the first police officer at the scene.

UMFRESS: There was flames 30 feet near, tree was on fire, vehicle was fully engulfed, and the ground was on fire. It was utter chaos.

Umfress radioed dispatch for backup, and smashed a window to one of the burning vehicles, looking for passengers.

UMFRESS: I had flames come back and singe all the hair off my arm and that burn in my wrist. At one point in time, I heard, ‘Help me, help me!’ and crawling up out of the ditch behind the black car was the other gentleman that was involved in the crash.

That man was drunk, injured, and angry. At the hospital, he was arrested for driving impaired.

He was the only survivor. The family in the other vehicle passed away: Cordell Williams, his fiance Lacey, and their four month old child.

The tragedy affected Umfress personally.

UMFRESS: There's a lot of similarities in my life to this crash. I think that I was the cop that was meant to be there for a reason.

Umfress lost his own parents and his brother to a drunk driver when he was three years-old, the same age as Bentley, one of the surviving sons of Cordell Williams.

UMFRESS: I've had my favorite Bible verse tattooed on the inside of my upper left arm 10 years prior to this crash, and my favorite Bible verse is Philippians 4:13 and the date of the crash is 4/13.

The night of the accident, Cordell’s two other children, Bentley and Mason, were with their grandmother Cecilia.

CECILIA WILLIAMS: Thank God for that, because I probably would not be sitting here talking to you if all five of them would have perished.

Williams began researching drunk driving laws in Missouri.

WILLIAMS: I wanted to know how much time this guy was going to get for killing my family.

In the state, Driving While Intoxicated that results in death is a felony. But Sergeant Umfress says impaired drivers often avoid jail time, even if they kill someone on the road.

Cecilia Williams decided to take action.

WILLIAMS: I thought to myself, you know, what can I do to make a difference, to help deter people, and also help families who are finding their self in a situation like mine, who are raising kids again, because it's not easy financially.

Williams came up with legislation called Bentley and Mason’s Law. Under the law, if a person has been convicted of, or pled guilty to killing a parent while driving impaired, then a surviving guardian can file a petition to collect child support from the offender.

WILLIAMS: They've lost enough, so their way of life should not change.

If the person is unable to provide support while in prison, they have a year after release to begin providing payments.

WILLIAMS: It tells them even though I'm not getting that money right now, that relief is coming.

Williams says the bill received widespread support from lawmakers and throughout the country.

WILLIAMS: A lot of people will tell me they are surprised that this is not a law yet, that it's something that should have been done years ago.

Sergeant Umfress has stayed actively involved in spreading awareness for Bentley’s Law, and later became an investigator for DWI crimes.

He’s kept a close relationship with the Williams family.

UMFRESS: We talk to the boys all the time. We've stood on the side of the highway with them on birthdays and anniversaries. They’ve become part of our family.

For Umfress, Bentley’s law is a fulfillment of Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

He was with Williams, Bentley and Mason the day the bill passed on May 15th.

UMFRESS: It was a relief to know that, you know, out of tragedy we could have something good come out of it. It's a great law, but it's a law that I hope never has to be used.

Williams says her work isn’t done, and she’s campaigning for more states to implement similar bills.

WILLIAMS: I hate why it started. I will always hate why it started, but knowing that my family in heaven is making a difference, they're making a difference.

The Cayman Islands, the Virgin Islands, and Guam have enacted laws that require impaired drivers to pay child support if an accident results in the death of a parent.

In 2022, Tennessee became the first state to enact a version of Bentley’s Law, and at least five other states have followed suit. More than a dozen states have introduced or drafted similar legislation.

The Missouri bill will come into effect on August 28th this year.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: In southeastern Michigan, the senior class at Airport High School marked graduation the way they know best: By causing a minor traffic jam with farm equipment.

It’s called Tractor Day. This is a tradition stretching back decades.

Students leave the cars at home. They roll into school on tractors, four-wheelers, and other off-road vehicles.

AUDIO: I think we’re just a farm school. It’s a tradition. Everyone’s done it before us. We just carry it on.

One senior arrived in a restored tractor once owned by his great-great-grandfather.

Another drove the same tractor previously used by sisters and cousins.

This graduating senior said:

AUDIO: I view it as one final hurrah.

A final hurrah: a sort of last recess before adulthood shifts everybody into a higher gear.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 28th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: The end times.

If you flip through the pages of the New Testament, you’ll find that right behind the message of salvation, the single most discussed topic is the return of Christ. Early church fathers wrote about it often, treating it as foundational to Christian theology.

But in the modern church, eschatology often triggers a different reaction. For some, it’s a source of divisive theological debates. For others, it’s simply ignored.

REICHARD: John Bevere is a minister, author, and co-founder of Messenger International. In his latest book, titled, The King Is Coming, he argues that the Second Coming shouldn’t produce panic or passivity, but resolve and readiness. 

Our producer Lindsay Mast talked to him about it:

LINDSAY MAST: John, you’ve written dozens of books on foundational Christian concepts. But tackling the return of Christ feels like stepping into a theological minefield. Why did you feel like now would be the right time to write this particular book?

BEVERE: Yeah, 10 years ago, I would have laughed you out of the room if you said I was going to write on this. It's what the Holy Spirit did in me. My family, you know, my greatest fear was it would produce dogmatic, argumentative Christians, people that had an escape mentality. So I stayed away from it. And the Lord pulled me in in 2021 and I've spent thousands of hours and my family started saying, Dad, you're changed. And I realized that it was having good fruit. And what it spoke to my heart when I saw the frequency that it's written in Scripture, is that when eschatology, which is the study of end times, is preached correctly, it produces an urgency. I'm pumped because I believe I've watched some of my close friends who've been in ministry for decades and all of a sudden they're preaching on it. I felt the compelling to preach on it. So obviously, I believe the Spirit of God is saying something to the church because I believe His return is so close.

MAST: Now, lots of people over time have predicted-wrongly-the return of Christ. What makes you think your predictions might be different?

BEVERE: First of all, I have not predicted anything other than the season. Jesus said we would not know the day or hour. The Son of God doesn't even know the day or the hour. How much more I don't know the day or the hour. However, He said we'd know the generation. So I plan like he's not coming back for 200 years, but I live like he's coming back today. Dates and timelines are not what's important. What's more important is us being ready. And there's a lot he talks about for us to be ready for him because he's coming as a thief in the night. So when I was in university and I was studying engineering at Purdue, it took me about five or 10 minutes to find out where the final was gonna be, what building, what classroom. But I spent hours preparing. And I find that a lot of eschatology when it's preached today deals with the when instead of the more important aspect of being prepared. Both are important. However, the most important is the bride— according to Revelation 19—has made herself ready.

MAST: You shy away from topics people might argue over when it comes to eschatology. What’s one aspect of the return of Christ that you would be willing to argue, debate, try to convince someone of?

BEVERE: Right. Holiness. The only description of the church that Jesus is coming back for, it's not a leadership church, I believe in leadership. It's not a relevant church, believe in being relevant. It's not a community church. God said it's not good that man's alone. The only description of the church, the only description, is a church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. She is holy without blemish. So it's a church that's not in bed with the world. And we have a church today that almost gives you permission to sleep with the world while you're saved and that is not the grace of God. Jude actually tells us in the last days there are to be people who are creeped into our churches unnoticed who will tell us that the grace of God gives us permission to live a ungodly, immoral life. And this has been the greatest deception I believe in our entire lifetime is the fact that we have not preached that grace empowers us to do what we couldn't do in our own ability.

We have preached so powerfully that we're saved by grace, you can't earn it, that the grace of God forgives us our sins. But what we have not preached is the grace of God empowers us to live like Jesus. That's why John writes, John, the apostle of love, he who says he abides in Jesus ought to live the way he lived. I've seen people in prisons, preaching in prisons, maximum security prisons that are living more Christ-like than many of the people attending our churches in America today.

MAST: You deliberately avoid matching prophecy to current headlines — but your book launched during a period of global instability. Does that timing make you uncomfortable at all?

BEVERE: Well, welcome to the last days. Jesus said there will be wars and even rumors of wars, but the end is not yet. The end comes when this gospel of the kingdom is preached in every nation. That's when the end comes. And that's the main sign that he attached the word end to. Does there happen to be wars going on? Sure, that's going on right now because Jesus said it would happen. But that's not the focus and I never ever would have written a book because of current headline events. I'm more interested in how does the truth identify where we're at right now, not how the headlines are identifying where we're at right now.

MAST: Final question: What is one truth you want readers to remember, regardless of how chaotic the world around them gets?

BEVERE: Yes, to be eager. Eager in anticipating His return.

MAST: John Bevere has been our guest today. His latest book is The King Is Coming. John, thank you for being with us.

BEVERE: Thanks, Lindsay.

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

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

Francis Schaeffer once warned that ideas have consequences—not just for individuals, but for entire civilizations.

SCHAEFFER: There is a flow to history and culture. This flow is rooted in what people think, and what they think will determine how they act…

A half a century ago, Schaeffer released a book and film series that challenged evangelicals to stop treating Christianity as merely private and personal.

BROWN: WORLD commentator Daniel Darling says Schaeffer—and later Chuck Colson—helped shape a generation of Christians concerned not only with personal faith, but with the moral direction of an entire culture.

DANIEL DARLING: Fifty years ago, two books helped reshape the evangelical conscience.

Francis Schaeffer’s How Should We Then Live? and Chuck Colson’s Born Again challenged Christians to see their faith as more than merely personal or private.

Schaeffer was a Presbyterian pastor and apologist who founded the L’Abri ministry in Switzerland with his wife Edith. He warned that Western civilization was living off moral capital it no longer believed in. He argued that ideas shape cultures—and eventually shape nations.

SCHAEFFER: There is violence and a breakdown in society ... there is a danger of increasing authoritarianism to meet the threat of chaos … Should we despair and give in? If not, how should we then live?

Schaeffer said Christians ought to reject a privatized faith that surrendered culture to destructive ideas and moral confusion. But he also warned believers not to embrace Christianity merely as a political strategy or social tool.

SCHAEFFER: Christianity cannot be accepted merely as a means to an end. Christianity is truth…

That message deeply influenced another evangelical voice whose own life became a testimony to grace and transformation.

Charles Colson had once been one of Richard Nixon’s most feared political operatives. Colson was a hard-driving White House insider later imprisoned during Watergate. But after becoming a Christian, Colson devoted the rest of his life to prison ministry, moral renewal, and helping Christians recover what he called a biblical worldview.

COLSON: Christianity is not just a personal relationship with Jesus. It’s a way of seeing all of life.

Like Schaeffer, Colson believed freedom could not survive without virtue, conscience, and moral formation.

COLSON: If the people start acting irresponsibly … you have to continue to increase government power in order to prevent chaos.

Colson never argued for Christian withdrawal from public life. But neither did he place ultimate hope in politics or power. Instead, he believed Christians should bring truth to bear on every part of society while remembering that cultural renewal begins first with transformed hearts.

COLSON: Francis Schaeffer once said we have to act like missionaries to our own culture.

That conviction shaped a generation of evangelicals who came to understand Christianity not merely as a devotional experience, but as a worldview—a way of understanding reality itself.

Fifty years later, the temptations Schaeffer and Colson confronted are still with us: moral confusion, political idolatry, cultural retreat, and the seductive belief that freedom can survive without virtue.

Their answer was not despair. And it was not triumphalism.

It was faithful Christian witness grounded in truth.

For WORLD, I’m Daniel Darling.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: Katie McCoy will be along for Culture Friday. And, a clean comedy hits theaters this weekend. We’ll have a review of The Breadwinner. 

That and more tomorrow. I’m Mary Reichard.

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: “I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words. My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise. Hear my voice according to your steadfast love; O LORD, according to your justice give me life.” —Psalm 119:147–149  

Go now in grace and peace.

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