The World and Everything in It - May 7, 2021

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Americans are having fewer babies. Is that because raising kids is expensive, or is something else at work?

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk about that on Culture Friday.

Plus one final review from Megan Basham.

And your Listener Feedback.

BROWN: It’s Friday, May 7th. 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: Now, news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden pitches spending plans in Louisiana » President Biden spoke to a row of TV cameras in Louisiana Thursday standing in front of Lake Charles. A badly aging bridge served as his backdrop as he made a public pitch for his proposal to spend trillions on infrastructure and other priorities.

He called it a “once in a generation investment in America itself.”

BIDEN: Great jobs to modernize our bridges, our roads, our highways, our ports, our airports, our water pipes, our water projects, high speed internet...

The president has proposed $2.3 trillion dollars in spending on what he calls The America Jobs Plan. That’s in addition to another roughly $2 trillion for a separate spending proposal.

Biden said he’s willing to compromise on the tax hikes he recommended to help cover the cost.

Republicans too say they’re willing to compromise on an infrastructure investment, but they say only a portion of what Biden has proposed truly addresses infrastructure. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell:

MCCONNELL: And so we’ve laid out about a $600 billion dollar alternative, paid for, that deals with things that we commonly refer to as infrastructure.

It will ultimately be up to moderate Senate Democrats like West Viriginia’s Joe Manchin as to what concessions, if any, the White House will have to make.

Unemployment claims drop again to new pandemic low » Another reason Republicans object to the trillions in new spending—they say the president’s case that it’s necessary to revive the economy isn’t holding water.

That as the latest Labor Department report shows jobless claims falling once again to another pandemic low. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Unemployment claims fell below 500,000 last week for the first time since the pandemic struck 14 months ago.

Jobless claims fell nearly 17 percent from the prior week’s total of 590,000. And new applications for benefits have nearly been cut in half from a peak of 900,000 in January.

The job market is growing with the reopening of more businesses as more Americans get vaccinated.

The economy grew last quarter at a vigorous 6.4 percent annual rate, with expectations that the current quarter will be even better.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

U.S. rushing medical supplies to India » Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the U.S. military is rushing badly needed supplies into India where health officials are still struggling to control a deadly COVID-19 surge.

AUSTIN: We’re moving urgently to support India’s frontline healthcare workers. And three U.S. Air Force C-5M Super Galaxies and a C-17 Globemaster III have already delivered many tons of critical supplies.

But some have accused government officials in India of being slow to distribute life-saving supplies donated from abroad.

Under order by the Supreme Court, India's government agreed on Thursday to provide more medical oxygen to hospitals in the capital. That could help ease a 2-week shortage. The government raised the oxygen supply from 490 to 730 tons per day in New Delhi.

The number of new confirmed cases in India on Thursday breached 400,000 for the second time in recent weeks. The country continues to shatter global records for new infections, and experts say the official reported numbers of cases could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Study: Pfizer vaccine highly effective at blocking severe illness from UK, S. African variants »

The surge in India is fueled by more infectious variants. And two studies published this week show that the Pfizer vaccine is highly effective in protecting against severe disease caused by those variants. WORLD’s Leigh Jones has that story.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: The studies, conducted in Israel and Qatar, suggest that the vaccine largely prevents serious illness from the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the U.K., and the B.1.351 variant, originally found in South Africa.

The results show the vaccine to be 87 to 89 percent effective at blocking infection with the U.K. variant. And it was 72 to 75 percent effective against the South African strain.

But it was 100 percent effective at preventing severe, critical, or fatal disease from both variants. And overall, it was 97 percent effective at blocking severe illness from any form of the coronavirus.

The study was based on more than 200,000 coronavirus cases between Jan. 24th and April 3rd.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

Gov. DeSantis signs election bill into law in Florida » Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new voting reform bill into law Thursday. GOP lawmakers sent the legislation to the governor’s desk after passing it on a straight party line vote.

The Republican governor said the law will help safeguard elections, in part by strengthening voter ID requirements for mail-in ballots. He noted that ID is already required to vote in person.

DESANTIS: We’re also banning ballot harvesting. We’re not going to let political operatives go get satchels of votes and dump them in some drop box. We’re also prohibiting mass mailing of ballots. We’ve had absentee voting in Florida for a long time. You request the ballot, you get it, and then you can mail it in.

Critics argue that will make voting tougher for handicapped voters. The law does allow, however, for an electoral Good Samaritan to collect and return the ballots of immediate family and up to two ballots from people who are unrelated.

Mirroring the controversy over new voting laws in neighboring Georgia, Democrats say the new measures aren’t about election security at all. They charge it’s an effort to make it tougher for minorities to vote. Several groups immediately vowed to challenge the law in court.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: America’s baby bust.

Plus, your Listener Feedback.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, May 7th, 2021.

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

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

Call it the baby bust. A new government report says the number of births in America hit another record low, with the birth rate falling 4 percent last year.

Onize Ohikere reporting for WORLD this week in The Sift:

“The numbers dropped among every major ethnic group: Birth rates fell 4 percent for black and white women, 8 percent for Asian American women, and 3 percent for Hispanic women. The [government] says the birth figures leave the nation ‘below replacement levels,’ [meaning] more people are dying than being born. The lead expert on the report blamed anxiety about the pandemic [in part for] the decline, yet many of the pregnancies began well before the virus hit the United States.”

BROWN: It’s the acceleration of a trend. The 4 percent decline last year is about twice the average annual rate of decline we’ve seen between 2014 and 2019.

The Wall Street Journal said:

“Economists have speculated that the burden of student debt may also delay family formation among millennials.

“Sociologists have pointed to the educational advantage that women have over men as another factor.”

Meaning that “despite expanded business efforts to help with family leave and more flexible work arrangements,” women on career tracks are reasoning that they cannot afford to stop working and build families.

EICHER: It’s Culture Friday. John Stonestreet is here. He’s president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

John, good morning!

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning.

EICHER: I have an economist friend who says a newborn is like an IPO—an initial public offering—thinking that babies are a type of investment in the future of a culture. What do you think it says about our culture that we’re not replacing ourselves?

STONESTREET: Well, first of all, that's the right question because it does say something about our culture, doesn't say something about the pandemic. This is, if there's anything in our culture that should be qualified as a pre-existing condition of the pandemic, this goes way back. I've been talking about this personally, and I'm no expert, I was just looking at different experts who were reporting on this at least 10 years ago, way before it was cool to talk about this. So it's really something not only that this is happening, but that it's finally being talked about. This is not new news. Well, it's not a new thing. It is new news, apparently.

And that also, the only way to explain this as in economic terms. Let's let all Christians remember that humans are not fundamentally economic creatures. There is an economic aspect of who we are. And so the economic explanations are contributors, but to pretend as if the long history of convincing people that there's nothing unique about human life, that humans are in and of themselves problems to be solved, that get in the way of solutions—not solutions, not sources of solutions themselves, that were objects of problems, you know. That that we have to fix this dilemma that is humanity, rather than humanity being made in the image of God able to be subjects that be contributors in their own story. That is a fundamental worldview reality.

So this is what's being left out of the analysis and all this is the new set of ideas that has been deeply inculcated into and embedded into the mindset of our culture, and therefore into the mindset of so many people, especially younger people. That's what's missing in this whole analysis, and that economics can explain everything, and it just can't.

EICHER: And it's really high level. We went into ethnic groups, but we didn't really go beyond that. I don't know exactly, practically speaking, how you would look deeper into demography. But is it your sense that this cultural trend is leaking over into the church as well?

STONESTREET: Oh, absolutely. It's leaking over into the church. But the problem there again, is a problem of catechesis. So how many churches in America have premarital counseling? Many of them. How many of them talk about the inherent connection and God's created order between sexuality and procreation? Almost none of them. What will be asked of a young couple that's pursuing marriage? Well, do you guys want to have kids? Are you on the same page, right, as if the only right page is the same page, not that there is a fundamental connection of childbearing marriage and sexuality. This is not part there's not an expectation.

Not to mention when it comes to ethics of artificial reproductive technologies, or ethics of, of birth control, that those questions are not even asked. In other words, what's missing in our church wide discussions of sexuality, marriage and children is theology. It's not there, there's a divorce between this, we have decided as a society, that sexuality and the morality of sexuality is completely and utterly and only self determined. So this is one of those examples where the message of the church and the message of the culture with with certainly some incredible exceptions, and so I want to note that, but where it's essentially identical, and in that the church is contributing to the cultural decline, and it missing an incredible opportunity, because the future belongs to the fertile. That's the way the world works.

BROWN: John, I want to call your attention to something that's happening in the Pacific Northwest. In two words: campus mutiny!

This story comes from our colleague Esther Eaton’s report in the latest edition of WORLD Magazine.

So, here's what happening. Seattle Pacific University is an evangelical Christian university. But some students, alumni, and more than 70 percent of the faculty at this school want the university’s board to ditch hiring policies that affirm Biblical marriage between a man and a woman.

And there's an "or else" attached to that demand. Some of the threats include withholding donations and attacking fundraising events and enrollment.

In her report, Esther makes a keen observation. Christian schools often worry about external threats from the government and secular opponents. But this university is facing a threat from within.

What do you think—is this the tip of a bigger iceberg? Or is this an isolated case?

STONESTREET: It's absolutely not an isolated case. If you are under any illusions whatsoever that faculty at local universities that identify as evangelical Christian are in fact in their core beliefs and in their core practices and policies on campus. They may be because there are some that, there are plenty that very much are. But then you've got to you've got to actually ask, you can't see.

And I tell you what's the wrong way to investigate this is by looking at the motto or looking at the the model that's put on the sign. To call Seattle Pacific University an evangelical Christian University is an incredibly unhelpful description. There's no sense in which it is, except with some words that are completely untethered from any significant historic Biblical, theological, or traditional meaning that still decorate their documents. Now, they would also say, "We love like Jesus," but you know what, Buddhists love an awful lot like Jesus, too. So you actually have to look beyond what people say into what they actually teach.

This is a stunning thing. I found this story in Seattle Pacific at Seattle Pacific University to be stunning on a number of levels. One is because now hopefully, at some level, we're seeing the cat out of the bag. I don't want to say it's the best kept secret among evangelical colleges, but it's one of them. And it needs to come out. Seattle Pacific did not give up on a Biblical morality when it comes to marriage first. Long ago, they gave up on things like Biblical authority and Biblical inerrancy. And that's the subtext of this story. And the fact that that's being revealed now hopefully will be helpful to parents. Another indicator of the deeper issue we face in the Christian world right now is that there's an awful lot of people that have paid attention to the story. And they've also seen a story from the other coast in Virginia of a very large Christian university, whose president—the son of the founder—had an enormous moral failure and rightly was removed.

There's a lot of "Christian thought leaders" right now that if you were to ask them, "What is the most important story in Christian higher ed of 2020? Is it 70% of the university faculty giving up on Biblical orthodox convictions on marriage and teaching something that is fundamentally anti to Christian morality and God's design? Or is it the moral failing of a high-profile Trump supporting college president and his wife?" Without hesitation, they're going to point to the failure of the President. I think that that is a major story in Christian education. No question what happened with Jerry Falwell Jr. at Liberty University. But the fact that that is the big stain to angelical Christian higher ed, and that this story out of Seattle Pacific isn't because of something about them being more Christ-like in their behavior or nicer—loving them or whatever—tells you everything you need to know about the vulnerability of Christian higher ed and the vulnerability of Christian evangelical thought leaders, that we have to paraphrase a friend of mine. There's a plague right now, and evangelicalism what we want to punch right and coddle left. And this is an example of that as well.

EICHER: John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It was supposed to be a relaxing flight from Salt Lake City to Honolulu. But somewhere over the Pacific, something happened that no one on board the plane will ever forget.

Lani Bamfield told NBC News they were about halfway to Hawaii when she heard someone call out for medical help.

Bamfield is a nurse in Kansas City, and she rushed to see what the issue was. And that’s when she saw a very surprised Lavinia Mounga.

BAMFIELD: She had little baby Raymond in her hands and she was like—a scared look.

It’s not as though she was in the backseat of a Greyhound bus, but neither did she expect to give birth on a Delta Airlines flight. But adding to the shock—she didn’t even know she was pregnant!

MOUNGA: This guy just came out of nowhere.

Raymond was born at just 29 weeks gestation.

And providentially, Lani Bamfield isn’t just any kind of nurse. She and the two friends she was traveling with are neonatal intensive care nurses. Also aboard was a family physician, Dr. Dale Glenn.

GLENN: We made baby warmers out of bottles that were microwaved. We used an Apple Watch to measure the heart rate.

Doctors say Raymond is doing well and should be able to go home with mom in the next few months.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, May 7th.

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

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Before she left for work at her new job, Megan Basham left behind one last review, and we’ll hear that in a moment.

Before we get to that, though, just a quick word about support for this program.

Typically, we do two big funding drives each year: one in December at the end of the year and one at the end of our fiscal year which is June.

What we want to do now, before we get into June, is to encourage you if you’ve never given before to make a first-time gift this month, and join the thousands of your fellow podcast listeners who provide the support we need to produce and deliver this program each day.

A few long-time-giving families let us know they are willing to provide a special incentive, a matching gift. But not just a dollar-for-dollar match, as we did last year. This is a two-dollar-for-one-dollar match, meaning each gift goes that much further.

This is a recognition among our supporters that giving is a team effort. No one expects you to go it alone. We go together. So if you give 50 dollars, they give $100, and so the impact of your gift is tripled: $50 means $150—simple math—a single new gift is a triple new gift.

BROWN: It’s such a generous offer from the families to provide these matching gifts to triple your impact and encourage you to give for the first time.

Just visit wng.org/donate to make your first-ever gift today. Wng.org/donate.

EICHER: I should add that our friends are willing to triple match up to 40-thousand dollars, and they tell us they’re really hoping to give it all. Wng.org/donate.

BROWN: Coming next on The World and Everything in It: streaming the New Testament.

Megan Basham has watched a lot of Christian film and TV productions over the years. But only a few have earned her wholehearted recommendation. Last year’s debut of The Chosen was one of them. So when season two came out earlier this month, she was anxious to see whether it lived up to the promise of the first season.

MEGAN BASHAM, REVIEWER: The first season of The Chosen offered one of the strongest filmed representations of the New Testament I’d ever seen. If anything, the first three episodes of Season Two surpass it.

CLIP: Don’t look at him, look at me. When you were in your lowest moment and you were alone, I did not turn my face from you. I saw you under the fig tree. Rabbi. There it is. You are the Son of God, the King of Israel.

Writer/director Dallas Jenkins and his team continue to take creative risks that pay off by being both more entertaining and more thoughtful than your average network Easter special.

The first episode opens with the framing device of John writing his gospel to reflect on how Jesus’ earthly ministry revealed him to be both God, who was the Word in the beginning before the earth was formed, and yet also a man. As the story quickly returns to the timeline we left off in Season One—the beginning of Christ’s public ministry—we see exchanges that underline this truth.

CLIP: I really am open to suggestions for the reading. I couldn’t. After today, after yesterday, I do not feel very much worthy. Who is worthy of anything? You, but no man apparently. I’m a man, John. And yet. I am who I am.

Once again, the series is especially strong in a suit almost no other Bible-based productions even attempt—humor. We got to know Matthew’s meticulous, borderline-obsessive personality well last year. This season, his Sheldon Cooper-like devotion to detail continues to develop, often in hilarious ways. Like here, where he’s recounting for John his first meeting with Jesus.

CLIP: It was the fourth morning of the third week of the month of Adar, some time during the second hour. It doesn’t have to be precise. Why wouldn’t it have to be precise? Mine will be precise.

Of course we know that Matthew’s gospel was indeed very precise. Finding natural laughs is part of what continues to make The Chosen not just something we feel like we ought to watch in order to support Christian entertainment, but something we want to watch. I’m not sure that would be the case without some fictitious scenes and characters.

When I reviewed Season One about a year ago, several of you wrote to express your concern over the dialogue, scenes, and backstories the series invented for Bible characters. I also heard from a few who object to any on-screen depictions of Jesus based on the Second Commandment’s prohibition against idols. I don’t want to dismiss those concerns, and I had a couple of my own that I shared. But I’ve never been tempted to confuse an actor’s depiction of Jesus in a movie or TV show with the Jesus of the Word.

I think this issue is one of conscience, on which Christians can in good faith differ.

By weaving invented vignettes that we don’t know with Bible stories we know well, Jenkins circumvents our tendency to tune out the familiar. We want to know how a Samaritan robber’s story plays out, so we pay attention.

CLIP: So now you know what you’ve done. The kind of man you’ve helped. Every day I think about that Jew. Naked and alone on the road possibly dead. I could be a murderer.

Yet at the same time, the little side plot is grounded in facts Scripture does offer—the enmity between Israel and Samaria and the parables Jesus told. So the themes contained within the story arc don’t depart from sound doctrine.

This goes for conflict between the characters as well. The series is careful to fully flesh out each disciple and give them individual personalities. Once again, though, the series’ greatest strength is a Jesus who feels like a real man, albeit a perfect man.

We see normal, easy affection between him and the disciples. His holiness is evident, and his authority certain, but his personality isn’t alien-like or distant. You don’t imagine you would feel awkward around him. The Chosen presents the first on-screen Jesus I could picture myself wanting to follow. And, honestly, the first one I could picture liking me and wanting to spend time with me.

CLIP: Ah, there’s that word. “Soon.” It is the most imprecise word in the world. What is soon? A few hours? A few days? Years? One hundred years? A thousand years? Ask my Father in heaven how long a thousand years is then talk to me about soon...

I could go on—especially about how the series deftly shows how, in the disciples’ place, we too likely would have been confused about what Messiah would do though the prophecies were clear. But suffice it to say, without confusing its imagination with Scripture, as entertainment, The Chosen prompted me to reflect more deeply on the real record of Jesus’ ministry on Earth.

I’m Megan Basham.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, May 7th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Time now for Listener Feedback!

But we’ll start, as we always do, with a few corrections. On the April 2nd program, we referred to an “automatic handgun” when we should have said “semi-automatic.” And on the April 6th program, we mispronounced the town of Petoskey, Michigan. We said Petroskey, and we apologize for that. It’s Petoskey, and it’s a beautiful place.

BROWN: On an April 22nd report about police-reform proposals, we referred to “chokeholds” in connection with the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin. That was incorrect. Chauvin did not use a chokehold to restrain George Floyd.

EICHER: And on the April 30th program we said that the men eventually charged in Ahmaud Arbery’s death were arrested swiftly. That was true, but only after the Georgia Bureau of Investigations got involved with the case. That did not happen until nearly three months after Arbery was killed.

One final correction today: On Tuesday’s program we said Taiwan faced defeat in the 1949 Chinese civil war. But Taiwan was not actually a party to that conflict.

BROWN: Let’s go to the listener line!

STEVE SANCHEZ: Hi! I’m Steve Sanchez from Johnson City, Texas. And I’m amazed at how much I see the WORLD news team as family. It really hit home when I heard that a long time news team member was leaving. I continued working out as I usually do while listening to the podcast in my church gym, but waited with bated breath about who that person might be. When I heard it was Megan, I literally shouted out, “No!” Then I heard the great news that she was going to the Daily Wire then shouted, “Yes!” Then something happened that was totally unexpected. I started to cry. Yes. I cried tears of joy. Who does that for a news podcast? Well, I do. Keep up the great, excellent, wonderful work. Thanks!

EICHER: I appreciate what that says about the connection we enjoy with listeners. That affection we hear about so frequently absolutely goes both ways. We really do keep in mind that we’re here for you, to serve you. So thanks for the kind words.

And after our farewell last week to Megan, we received so many calls and emails, and we want to play just one more that I think really captured what pretty much everyone said.

MB: Agreed! Here’s listener Heather Hatfield.

HEATHER HATFIELD: I’m a huge fan of both the work that WORLD produces and the individuals that make up your team. I’ve especially enjoyed knowing what to watch when my husband and I want to unwind after a long day of work and parenting our three young children. We have very different tastes in movies, but thanks to Megan Basham, found entertainment that we both enjoyed and was relatively clean. I feel so blessed to have heard her reviews and commentary. Although I never met her, I found her to be an inspiration and a role model, as are all who make up the WORLD team. She will be greatly missed. To the entire team at WORLD, you are my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am honored to be a part of the family. Thank you for your excellence, and your commitment to Jesus. You make the world a brighter place. Shine on, and God bless you all.

BROWN: Next, we have longtime listener John Power. He called in after hearing a story on the April 14th program.

JOHN POWER: I’m calling today for the first time with a request. I would ask that you please not create programs and stories that put me in tears right before I’m going into the office. Because when I listened just now to the story about Trey getting his 1 percent, and I reflected on my own five sons and daughter and I put myself into the shoes of his parents. My heart went out to them and then rejoiced greatly and praised God to hear of how he answered their prayers. But, please, I would prefer not to be in tears as I walk in the office because then I just have to explain to people what’s wrong, and it just gets awkward. Of course, I’m joking. Thank you, and God bless you.

BROWN: Several of you also wrote or called to voice your appreciation for Jenny Rough’s piece on the sounds of nature. Here’s Beth Skinner.

BETH SKINNER: I’ve recently started thinking about this and the sounds that God has because I have a 2-year-old grandson. And he will just stop and I don’t understand what he’s hearing until he points, and he’ll say, “tweet tweet.” And it’s the birds. And he will just still and listen. And this piece just reminded me of him and how even though he is so young, God is declaring to my grandson through nature His glory. And I just again, that’s one of those lovely pieces of journalism, and I thank you so much. Bye-bye.

EICHER: And finally, we’ll end today with listener Koby Padgett. He called in from Columbia, South Carolina, with a little love for Carl Peetz and Johnny Franklin.

KOBY PADGETT: I must say, your producers do fabulous work every day on this program. Their music choices are above and beyond, every time. Calling in today after hearing the start of the grass-growing story, and leading into that, Hugh Masekela’s “Grazing in the Grass.” Just perfect work. Thank you so much for everything you guys do, every day. We appreciate it.

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:

Joel Belz, Anna Johansen Brown, Kent Covington, Angela Lu Fulton, Katie Gaultney, Kim Henderson, Amy Lewis, Onize Ohikere, Bonnie Pritchett, Mary Reichard, Sarah Schweinsberg, Cal Thomas, and Emily Whitten.

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! You’ve made it possible for us to bring Christian journalism to the marketplace of ideas. Thank you!

As the Psalmist reminds us, "For his anger is but for a moment and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning." (Psalm 30:5)

Have a great weekend, and worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.