The World and Everything in It: May 5, 2026

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Today: reconsidering mail-order abortions.

HAMRICK: Our state laws that say the pre-born are valuable from conception, those are being violated, and so we're all headed back to the Supreme Court.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today: Might we be seeing the beginning of the end for OPEC?

And how smartphones and video games can get kids hooked on gambling.

Later, an unlikely tool in the fight against human trafficking.

STARR: She got in our van, we took her to the hospital, and then we continued to walk alongside her for many months.

And WORLD Commentator Janie B. Cheaney on what churches lose when seniors quit.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, May 5th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: SCOTUS Mifepristone » The Supreme Court on Monday restored mail-order access to the chemical abortion drug mifepristone — for now. Justice Samuel Alito signed the order. It pauses a federal appeals court ruling that would have required in-person prescriptions.

The drugmakers asked for the pause over the weekend. Several states have sued the FDA over the mail-order policy.

We’ll have much more on this later in the program.

Iran – UAE » U.S. forces sank at least six Iranian boats Monday — opening a passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Two American-flagged merchant ships made the transit.

Central Command has cleared a mine-free passage through the strait. Admiral Brad Cooper says the operation involved more than a hundred aircraft as well as unmanned platforms:

COOPER: Under the sea, on the sea, and from the air. And then 15,000 service members to extend this defensive umbrella across the Strait of Hormuz to protect our forces and also as committed to to defend commercial shipping.

Trump warned Sunday that Iranian efforts to halt the strait would be 'dealt with forcefully.' But Iran has vowed to keep firing on ships in the strait. Cooper said Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps:

COOPER: …has launched multiple cruise missiles, drones, small boats at ships. We're protecting, we have defeated each and every one of those threats through the clinical application of defensive munitions.

‘Project Freedom’ aims to escort hundreds of ships stranded in the Gulf since war broke out in February.

Iran also resumed attacks Monday against the United Arab Emirates — a key American ally. Missiles and drones rained down on the UAE. One drone sparked a fire at an oil facility — wounding three workers. It was the first such attack against the country since the three-week ceasefire began between Iran and the US and Israel.

Meat price fixing » The Trump administration has a bone to pick...with the beef industry.

Officials at the Justice Department and the Department of Agriculture on Monday said they're looking into allegations of price fixing.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche:

BLANCHE: In the beef industry, the big four processors control over 85% of the beef processing market. Two of the big 4 are primarily foreign-owned. Multiple plant closures across the country, the current market structure and high concentration in the industry indicate anti-competitive activity.

Those big four companies include JBS, Tyson, Cargill, and National Beef.

Officials are asking anyone with information on anticompetitive practices like price fixing, bid rigging, or procurement fraud to come forward.

Meanwhile, representatives of the meat industry say price fixing isn't to blame for the high cost of cheeseburgers. Instead, they say an ongoing cattle shortage is the culprit.

AL and TN call sessions to redraw congressional maps » Republican lawmakers in Alabama met Monday to redraw congressional districts — and Tennessee's special session begins today. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports:

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Governors of both states called the sessions after last week's Supreme Court ruling. The justices struck down a majority-black district in Louisiana, saying the map relied too heavily on race.

Florida has already approved new districts that could give Republicans up to four more House seats.. Other Southern states are eyeing similar moves before the November midterms.

Texas redrew its map last summer to add five Republican-leaning districts.

In November California redrew its map in an effort to add up to 5 Democratic seats. And Virginia voters approved another map last month that could give Democrats four additional seats there.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Cruise ship virus » Authorities are working to contain a suspected outbreak of deadly hantavirus on a cruise ship off the coast of West Africa. Three passengers have already died. Three more people are seriously ill — including two crew members.

Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia:

HUNTER: You acquire the infection typically from breathing in aerosols that are contaminated with rat urine and feces or rodent urine and feces. And, um, so one of the riskiest things is, um, cleaning out rats, nests from your house.

The MV Hondius left Argentina for Antarctica with nearly 150 people aboard.

As of Monday, Cape Verde had refused to let anyone off — citing public health concerns. The World Health Organization says hantavirus may spread between people.

HUNTER: there have been some suggestions that it might, but, um, other researchers have cast doubt on that evidence. Um, so it's, it's not clear if, if person to person spread does happen. It's probably quite uncommon.

The WHO says the public health risk remains low.

Giuliani hospitalized in critical condition » Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is breathing on his own after being hospitalized with pneumonia and placed on a ventilator. Giuliani's spokesperson said Monday that the 81-year-old remains in critical condition but is stable at a Florida hospital.

Current New York City Mayor Zorhan Mamdani offered his well-wishes on Monday.

MAMDANI:  I know that many New Yorkers are concerned by the reports that he's in critical condition, and so we do keep him and his family in our prayers at this time.

Spokesperson Ted Goodman said Giuliani’s condition was exacerbated by restrictive airway disease, attributed to his exposure to dust and toxins from the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.

I'm Kent Covington.

Coming up, fighting child gambling problems. Plus, an effort to stop sex trafficking at the Kentucky Derby.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday, the 5th of May.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Up first: rethinking the rules for abortion drugs.

A legal battle in Louisiana over the drug mifepristone may be headed for the Supreme Court to decide whether to bring back stronger safety measures.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals late last week reinstated previous FDA rules requiring mifepristone to be dispensed in person with a doctor rather than by mail.

EICHER: It’s the latest development in a legal and cultural battle that goes back decades about abortion pill safety.

Friday’s order by the Fifth Circuit temporarily blocked the FDA’s current rules easing abortion pill availability.

When drug manufacturers asked the Supreme Court to weigh in, Justice Samuel Alito ordered an administrative stay. Constitutional scholar Ilya Shapiro.

SHAPIRO: Meaning that the lower court order is put on hold for a few days, literally a few days, while the Supreme Court receives further briefing and considers whether to put in a stay pending further appeal, meaning pending a petition to the Supreme Court.

REICHARD: The pill cuts off the growth hormone from the uterus, starving the baby to death.

French authorities approved the drug in 1988, but it faced opposition in the United States. Eben Fowler worked for a Kansas City pharmaceutical company that later merged with Roussel Uclaf, the French company that developed mifepristone.

FOWLER: I was also in touch with some of the upper management people that I worked with, telling them that they really needed to do whatever they could do to shut the drug down, to get rid of the patent and and essentially take it out of the hands of people who could distribute it. That's unfortunately not what happened.

EICHER: Eventually, a rapid review led to FDA approval under President Bill Clinton. Fowler says the drug company’s guidelines for dispensing mifepristone don’t fully take into account the drug’s dangers, but do ensure some safety measures.

FOWLER: You needed to see a doctor ahead of time. You needed to come back and see them again to make sure that you're not going to have some kind of a problem such as hemorrhaging, etc.

REICHARD: The company also recommended the drug not be used after 7 weeks of pregnancy.

But the FDA under President Joe Biden loosened the rules during the COVID-19 pandemic. FDA allowed mail distribution as late as ten weeks into pregnancy.

Pro-life doctors sued, saying the rules forced them to finish abortions when mail-order drugs left women in medical emergencies. But the Supreme Court ruled in 2024 the doctors lacked standing to challenge the FDA’s rules, saying the doctors did not provide sufficient evidence their conscience protections were being violated. Now state governments are weighing in, saying out-of-state prescribers are undermining local pro-life protections.

Ilya Shapiro again.

SHAPIRO: So now it's Louisiana, as a state, bringing a similar challenge to its availability by mail, not having a requirement to see a physician and other certain loosening of the regulation surrounding this medication.

EICHER: So far, the Trump administration has asked the courts to wait on a pending FDA review of mifepristone, but that review is reportedly on hold until after the midterm elections.

Kristi Hamrick is Vice President of Media and Policy for the group Students for Life.

HAMRICK: We're left with states like Louisiana going, people are dying, women and children, and no one seems to care. And our state laws that say that the pre-born are valuable from conception, those are being violated, and so we're all headed back to the Supreme Court.

REICHARD: For this week, though, drug companies can continue mailing abortion drugs.

Shapiro says it serves as a pause button while the court looks into the case, not an indicator on how it might rule. He laid out two scenarios:

SHAPIRO: It could enter a stay of the lower court ruling, meaning that ruling would not be in effect, and the mifepristone would be available by mail.

EICHER: Or the court could lift the stay and allow the Fifth Circuit ruling to go into effect while the Supreme Court considers taking up a case on the merits. The FDA and Louisiana have until Thursday to respond, and the stay ordered by Justice Alito expires next Monday.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: oil industry shakeups in the Middle East.

OPEC, The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, oversees oil production in the region. Its stated goal is to ensure stable supply, but OPEC is considered a cartel. It’s made up of 12 member countries which decide on prices for the global market. Then their economists estimate demand and calculate the appropriate level of supply to achieve the target price.

By intentionally taking oil off the market, OPEC uses its leverage to act as the “deciding body” for the global price.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: But OPEC got some surprising news last week when the United Arab Emirates severed ties after six decades.

WORLD’s Emma Eicher on what the move might mean.

EMMA EICHER: The United Arab Emirates is the 3rd largest oil producer in OPEC, and its abrupt exit on May 1st signals a potential new order in the Middle East.

It’s a move that isn’t unprecedented, but Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni says what the UAE started may be hard to stop.

E.J. ANTONI: It could very well turn out that this is the first snowflake, so to speak, in the snowball effect that will eventually be the unraveling of that cartel.

The unraveling comes down to the interplay of supply and demand. Typically, OPEC acts as a gatekeeper, keeping oil prices artificially high by limiting how much its members can supply to global markets.

It’s a strategy that has worked for decades, made even tighter by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

But the UAE is done waiting for the gate to reopen.

ANTONI: The UAE is positioning themselves to be able to meet that huge surge in demand by coming up with a big increase in production. And again, if they're still part of OPEC, OPEC is going to have their boot on UAE's neck, essentially trying to tell them, don't produce more.

Saudi Arabia has the biggest boot in OPEC, as its top oil producer. And some anticipate the Saudis will retaliate. Even though the UAE produces less than half the output of Saudi Arabia, it can still threaten Saudi revenues by loosening the cartel’s control over supply. Meaning, if the UAE pumps at will, that puts downward pressure on prices. The UAE’s longstanding relationship with Saudi Arabia has remained tense.

MICHAEL TAMVAKIS: They don't always see eye to eye with the politics of Saudi Arabia, particularly external policies.

Michael Tamvakis is a professor of commodity economics and finance at Citizen George’s University of London. He says that because oil is a global commodity, these two neighbors are head-to-head competitors in the same markets, and their rivalry could spark price wars.

TAMVAKIS: Saudis may start undercutting UAE cargoes. The oils they export are very close in terms of quality, so they can easily replace each other. They may even compete with other markets like Europe and even the United States, although these are smaller markets.

Prices will stay high with the Strait of Hormuz closed and supplies restricted. But once it reopens, and the UAE pumps out more oil, prices are predicted to stabilize.

TAMVAKIS: Hopefully we're going to see a lot more oil in the market, and the price is eventually coming down again.

The UAE is a strategic ally of the West. Israel recently supplied the country with laser systems to counteract drone and missile attacks from Iran. And some have said the UAE’s exit is noteworthy for the U.S.

Jim Krane is an energy research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute in Houston.

JIM KRANE: UAE has kind of been seeing itself more of a partner of the US and Israel than the other countries in the Gulf. I think it would like to have a bigger role in Washington, and it sees the cartel kind of holding them back from achieving their geopolitical ambitions.

While the UAE’s move is a win for the consumer, market volatility will hit U.S. oil industries hard.

KRANE: the US might not be producing anything if it weren't for OPEC taking so much oil off the market and under-investing in its own resources. By keeping oil off the market and keeping prices high, that's allowing the US oil industry to stay in business and stay profitable.

Because U.S. fracking is often more expensive than traditional drilling, it requires a higher market price to make economic sense. By propping up prices, OPEC has strengthened American competitors.

But long term, the UAE is betting that independence is worth more than the cartel’s protection.

E.J. Antoni of the Heritage Foundation says that once the market adjusts, those who can produce the most will lead the way.

ANTONI: When everyone's trying to refill reserves, they're going to be the big winner. Obviously, any oil consuming nation, though, is also going to benefit somewhat, and that would include us here in the United States, because, again, it should … produce some downward pressure on oil prices in the long run.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Eicher.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next on The World and Everything in It: Putting the odds back in children’s favor.

Thanks to the internet, what happens in Vegas no longer stays in Vegas. Slot machines, bingo, roulette, and other games of chance all enjoy easy entry into homes.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Most states ban gambling for people under 18, but illegal betting sites often find ways around laws—and those young people are often the biggest losers.

WORLD’s Lauren Smyth has the story.

LAUREN SMYTH: Kurt Freudenberg knew he had an addiction by age 12. He hid it so well that his mother, Kim, didn’t see the signs until he left for college. She’d check his location and realized he almost never left his room.

KIM FREUDENBERG: He was not showering, not brushing his teeth, washing clothes, hardly eating, peeing in a plastic tub in his dorm room so he didn’t have to leave the computer.

Kurt’s grades slipped and he dropped out. When he got home, his parents sat him down.

FREUDENBERG: We kind of just waited him out, looked at him, kept quiet, waited for him to ’fess up, thinking he was going to say it was drugs. And he just said, “I’m gambling.”

Kurt had been a gamer in middle school. His parents knew he spent real money on in-game items, like costumes and special weapons for his character.

SOUND: CSGO trailer music

What they didn’t know was that he’d trade those items for tokens on illegal offshore gambling sites.

FREUDENBERG: And he was a normal kid—he ran track, he played soccer, he had good grades. He was a good student. And then he went to college, where he then started getting into crypto casinos, sports betting, all kinds of betting.

Kurt isn’t alone. A 2025 study from the UK found nearly a third of kids under 18 spent money on gambling within the past year. Most of it seems harmless—bets between family members, casual card games, or claw machines at the arcade. But about 2% showed early signs of a gambling problem. And some had already lost control.

Cait Huble is director of public affairs at the National Center for Problem Gambling. She says more and more children have started calling the help hotline.

CAIT HUBLE: They have access to a mobile phone, they are, you know, very tech literate, and they have been playing video games with Minecraft and loot boxes their whole life.

Minecraft is an online worldbuilding game marketed for kids ages ten and up. Some experts worry the in-game treasure chests, which drop random digital items, are early exposure to gambling mechanics. And kids who start betting young are almost twice as likely as their peers to develop an addiction later in life. The digital nature of the currency doesn’t help.

HUBLE: The comprehension of, we're playing video games, or, you know, we're playing with pretend money. And I turn 18 or 21 and it's real money, but it's still all you know, digital. We're not playing with cash and chips the same way 20 years ago, and that mental shift, I think, is hard for a lot of those young, mushy brains to comprehend.

Some European countries and the state of New York have taken legal action to prevent kids from accessing games with loot boxes that drop random items and can be purchased with real money, saying they violate local gambling laws.

But simply restricting gambling mechanics in video games won’t stop kids from being exposed. Now, you don’t even have to go to a casino—the casino will come to you.

AUDIO: The crowd is psyched … for Monday night!

There’s football on TV. The odds appear at the bottom of the screen, and ads for betting sites play during commercial breaks. A decade ago, only Nevada had fully legal sports betting. Then in 2018, the Supreme Court ruled the federal government couldn’t stop other states from legalizing it. Thirty-nine states plus Washington DC opened sports betting markets—and with that change came lots of new marketing.

In theory, gambling sites have access restrictions for children under 18. But those restrictions can open the door to black market sites. Sometimes, the odds may be rigged—let the kid win a little to keep him coming back. Here’s Kim Freudenberg again:

FREUDENBERG: They think that gambling is a way to make money, not understanding at all about how the product is designed for you to lose, and it’s designed for you to lose as much as possible, as fast as possible. Because that’s the system of the slot machine—near misses, losses disguised as wins, right? This is all psychological things to keep you playing.

In the depths of his addiction, her son Kurt stole from his family and sold his belongings to fund bets. But for many gamblers, losses go far beyond just money.

FREUDENBERG: One in five problem gamblers, at some point, will attempt to take their life, because they get so it’s so hidden, and it can get so bad before people notice.

Even after Kim found out, she didn’t know how to help her son. The lack of resources eventually drove her to start her own nonprofit.

For Kurt, she cobbled together resources: first sending him to a therapist. He recovered, relapsed, and dropped out of college again. Then he spent a month in inpatient therapy. He’s been clean for three years. He’s back in college, and this time, he’s thriving.

A happy ending for one story—but Kim says the trap that snared her son can still endanger other kids.

FREUDENBERG: It’s so dangerous, and most people don’t see it coming. And we’re just not ready. We’re not ready for what’s going to happen.

For WORLD, I’m Lauren Smyth.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Cincinnati radio just picked up a signal from the past.

The call letters WKRP—from the late-’70s sitcom about a fictional radio station—are coming back, for REAL, to the city that made them famous.

And the man helping make it happen… could barely contain himself:

MCINTIRE: WKRP, after 48 years, is coming to Cincinnati. Book it. It’s done.

That’s D.P. McIntire. He got it done. He runs a small nonprofit station in North Carolina, WKRP, a call-sign he treated less as property and more as a piece of radio history.

So when he found a group willing to bring WKRP to its rightful home, he awarded the rights.

Formats change, stations come and go.

But some signals never really fade.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 5th.

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

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Combating exploitation during Derby Week.

Big events bring big crowds—and with them sometimes, hidden costs.

REICHARD: This past weekend, more than 150,000 people packed Churchill Downs. But just beyond the track, another group was at work, reaching women in need.

WORLD’s Amy Eytchison has the story.

AMY EYTCHISON: The rose is one of the Kentucky Derby’s many rich traditions:

AUDIO: Welcome to Churchill Downs.

Along with the hats, the drinks, and the call to post.

SOUND: [Bugle]

Roses became the race’s official flower after they were presented to women attending a Derby party. By the 1890s, race officials would drape a rose garland around the winning horse’s neck.

AUDIO: And they’re off!

But the rose has another significance for Rachelle Starr, founder of Scarlet Hope, a Louisville-based nonprofit. For nearly two decades, she’s led an outreach to a different kind of woman—a woman who is either trafficked or involved in the sex trade in and around Louisville. Their calling card is a single red rose with information about a help line.

STARR: Would you like a rose today? How are you?” (I'm good, good.) We're just out here telling women that Jesus loves them and see how you are today and how we can pray for you.

Scarlet Hope staff and volunteers do outreach work year-round, but make a special four-day push leading up to the Derby and other sporting events like the Super Bowl. They load up in vans to hit the streets, hotels, and strip clubs where exploitation occurs. Starr remembers one woman who cried and fell into her arms when she saw the rose.

STARR: She had just been sold from her boyfriend, her pimp. She had a very, very dark encounter with what we would call a John, a customer, and I asked her if she wanted to get out, and if she felt like she had a choice.

According to Louisville Tourism, the Derby is the region’s largest tourism driver, bringing 400 million dollars in economic impact.

STARR: The derby is not the problem. But the Derby increases all of that exploitation, tourism and all of those things in our city…

Churchill Downs—the Derby’s racetrack—sits amid a center of sexual exploitation.

STARR: what I could consider the capital of the sex industry in Louisville. She was right in the middle of, you know, the elite, the upper class, the people going to the Derby…

Jeremy Murrell is Deputy Commissioner of Kentucky’s Office of Counter Exploitation. He says his office fights human trafficking year round, but big events increase the challenge.

MURRELL: While we can't comment on specifics, these crimes often do increase during Derby week.

Fighting them means involving local and state law enforcement as well as the FBI and Homeland Security.

Ricky Lynn was Kentucky’s first human trafficking detective. He’s participated in dozens of stings.

LYNN: We have over 100 websites in Kentucky you can buy people on, and we average about 9000 ads a day…

During the past decade, Lynn has helped train officers and community members to deal with predators and victims. He says it’s important not to sensationalize but to use the focus around a sporting event to get more people involved in helping out.

LYNN: If I post an ad online for a 14 year old kid, somebody's probably there in five minutes to pick that person up, whether it's an adult or kid.

Starr stays focused on the victims. She doesn’t make a distinction between women who are being trafficked, using sex for survival, or sex for sale:

STARR: We are there to minister to anybody in the strip club,..in a brothel, .. on the street, online, in an illicit massage parlor. Within that context of those establishments, we find human trafficking victims.

The woman she met in the streets outside Churchill Downs was being trafficked. She didn’t think she could leave that life.

STARR: And I said, you have a choice, and you can actually go with us today, and we will get you help. She got in our vehicle, our van, and we took her to the hospital, and then we continued to walk alongside her for many, many months after that.

She went into rehab for an addiction and completed the program.

This summer, the ministry will expand efforts to several cities that are hosting the World Cup.

STARR: This is exactly why Jesus came to this earth. He came to die for all of this—every sin and every broken piece. But these women often haven't been told that, and they certainly don't believe that God loves them, or that God is for them…

SOUND: [Crowd cheering]

On Saturday, the 40-pound garland placed on the winning horse’s neck featured 400 red “Freedom” roses individually sewn into satin backing.

But other roses could be called “Freedom” roses, too. They went to women who may never set foot inside the gates of Churchill Downs, but who may now have the resources to start down a different path.

For WORLD, I’m Amy Eytchison, with additional reporting from Jasmine Friesen in Louisville, Kentucky.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next: a quiet trend in American churches—easy to miss, but hard to reverse.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: My former neighbor, Ed, joined our church around the same time I did. He befriended my late husband and became one of the few people Doug remembered as his memory declined. On Sundays he would look for Ed after church, just to touch base with someone he knew.

Ed was going through some rough family issues and had just picked up a new hobby: pickleball. He told me he’d found something with his court buddies that he’d been missing, namely a sense of community and shared purpose. Shortly after, we didn’t see him at church anymore. No explanation – he just stopped going.

Ed is an example of an under-reported phenomenon: the so-called “silent exodus” of seniors from church. Most of them had been lifelong churchgoers; like Ed, they had raised families that they herded into the car on Sunday mornings while their neighbors slept in. They had set aside their tithes and prayed for missionaries, conducted family devotionals and sent the kids to church camp.

But now there’s a significant shift among Christians over the age of 65. Gallup reports that in the year 2000, about 60% of American seniors attended church every week. By 2020, the number was 45%. Pew Research notes a similar drop of nearly 10 percentage points in that age group. What’s happening?

Pastors noticed a change after COVID, when many of their congregants didn’t come back once lockdowns lifted. But the trend had already begun. Some of it is understandable, as older baby boomers begin to lose their eyesight, hearing, mobility, and memory. Some are caring for spouses or even older parents. Others have lost partners and friends, along with the warmth of fellowship after half their Sunday school class passed away. Even worse, they may feel that the whole church has grown away from them. All the focus is about attracting young families and building relevant teen ministries so the kids don’t drift away once they’re on their own. Seniors can feel out of place: mere pew-warmers and check-writers while the energy of the pastoral team is directed elsewhere.

And the loud music! And the new songs! And whose idea was it to bring in the strobe lights and fog machine?

Except for legitimate health concerns, none of it is any reason to forsake the assembly. But the assembly should remember that seniors still have a lot to give. And to receive.

As an old man himself, the apostle John acknowledged that all ages contributed to the vitality of a church. In his first letter he says, “I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you.” The old bring wisdom from experience; the young provide energy. The widow knows God’s faithfulness to a degree the new mother is just beginning to learn; the little children bring joy and purpose to her life with every handmade card.

We seniors needn’t fade away or look for community on the pickleball court. We have a responsibility to reach out to the young – and they have the responsibility to respond.

For WORLD, I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: Hunter Baker joins to talk politics for Washington Wednesday. And, how the church can strengthen marriage. We’ll have an interview with author J.P. DeGance on saving faith and family. 

That and more tomorrow. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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, “Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’ Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’” —John 18:36-38

Go now in grace and peace.

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