The World and Everything in It: November 13, 2025

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The Evangelical Lutheran Church is considering mandated reporting of certain confessions.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also, the FDA changes its warnings on hormone replacement therapy.

And upheaval at a conservative think tank over antisemitism on the Right.

And a Christian punk band is back after 20 years, and they’re not afraid to speak up.

HARRIS: Big voices, big people can easily take over your narrative if you let them. So we have a responsibility to reclaim our narrative and write it ourselves.

And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on what it will take to rein in a dysfunctional Congress.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, November 13th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

REICHARD: Time for news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: House funding vote » After six weeks, the House last night cast the final vote to end the longest-ever government shutdown.

SOUND (House vote): On this vote, the yeas are 222, the nays are 209. The bill is passed.

And with that, the bill went to President Trump’s desk for a signature — with the Senate having approved it earlier in the week.

Hours before the vote, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters:

LEAVITT:  President Trump looks forward to being, to finally ending this devastating Democrat shutdown with his signature.

The spending package will reopen the government and fund it through the end of January.

Senate Democrats held up funding for weeks, demanding Republicans agree to extend expiring Obamacare tax credits, until eight Democrats crossed the aisle to break the filibuster this week.

Fentanyl crackdown » The Trump administration says Beijing is now taking real steps to help curb the flow of deadly fentanyl into the United States.

 FBI Director Kash Patel met with his Chinese counterpart following a recent summit between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

PATEL:  That was the sole purpose of my trip to China to eliminate these precursors

The flow of fentanyl precursors from China has been a major flashpoint between Washington and Beijing. President Trump earlier this year hit Chinese goods with additional tariffs, accusing China of allowing chemical makers to supply Mexican cartels.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio says things are now moving in the right direction.

RUBIO:  The Chinese have agreed to schedule 13 key precursors, so for the first time, if they can cut back on that being shipped to Mexico, that will certainly have an impact on the, on the manufacturing of Fentanyl inside of Mexico.

In response to the announcement from China, the White House is reducing tariffs on Chinese products by 10%.

White House responds to Epstein email »  Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released emails on Wednesday from Jeffrey Epstein about President Trump.

In one 2019 message, Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls,” though what he meant is unclear.

The White House says Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago years ago.

And Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the release a smear campaign … and an attempt to distract Americans as Trump signs a bill ending the Democrats’ government shutdown.

LEAVITT: And this entire thing, again, it's not a coincidence to the American people at home. There are no coincidences in Washington D.C.

One alleged Epstein victim, Virginia Giuffre, repeatedly said under oath that Trump was never involved in wrongdoing and “couldn’t have been friendlier.”

But House Democrats joined by a handful of Republicans are attempting to force a vote to compel full release of any and all files the Justice Department has related to the late billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Israel: Trump’s call for Bibi pardon » President Trump is renewing his earlier call for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be pardoned.

Trump, speaking to Israel’s parliament last month, asked Israeli President Isaac Herzog:

TRUMP: Mr. President, why don't you give him a pardon?

Netanyahu has been facing a long-running corruption trial that has bitterly divided Israel.

Trump this week reiterated his position. He said he sent a letter to Herzog, characterizing the case against Netanyahu as political and unjust.

Israel: West Bank attacks » Meanwhile, tensions in the West Bank.

Authorities say several dozen masked Israeli settlers attacked a pair of Palestinian villages in the region, which the Israeli government refers to as Judea and Samaria.

Both Israeli and Palestinian officials say the settlers set fire to vehicles and other property, before clashing with Israeli soldiers sent to stop the attacks.

Final U.S. pennies to be minted in Philly » The U.S. Mint struck its final penny on Wednesday, ending more than two centuries of production.

The one-cent coin, once a symbol of thrift, now costs nearly four cents to make.

Treasurer Brandon Beach pressed the button for the last batch at the Philadelphia Mint.

 BEACH: Given the rapid modernization of the American wallet, the Department of the Treasury and President Trump no longer believe the continued production of the penny is fiscally responsible.

He said the move will save taxpayers $56 million.

President Trump ordered the change earlier this year. It’s the first U.S. coin discontinued since the half-cent in 1857.

Billions of pennies will stay in circulation, but no new ones will be made.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: a Christian denomination wrestles with what to do next when someone confesses abuse. Plus, changes in women’s health care during menopause.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 13th of November.

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

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

First up, reporting confessions that mention child abuse.

Earlier this year, Catholic priests sued the state of Washington after the legislature passed a law requiring clergy to call authoritie, if someone confessed to committing child abuse. Eventually, the state backed down, allowing clergy in the state to keep all confessions secret.

REICHARD: But not all Christians agree with this view.

Here’s WORLD marriage and family reporter Juliana Chan Erikson.

JULIANA CHAN ERIKSON: At the close of worship on December 31st, 2023, a praise and worship leader at a church in Overland Park, Kansas, invited anyone who wanted to speak to a pastor to come forward.

A man walked up and asked to speak to a pastor. Once they’d found a quiet place in the church, the man confessed to the pastor that he had sexually abused children years ago.

More on his story in a moment. But first, the episode highlights a question that has divided churches and denominations this year: how to deal with child abuse when it’s shared during a private confession.

Yesterday, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America met to consider a church policy about child protection. The policy, if the denomination passes it, would direct Lutheran clergy to inform authorities about child abuse heard during confession or pastoral counseling.

Child abuse experts applaud the denomination’s move.

VIETH: My hope is that this message will be read and contemplated by all of Christendom: “Well, wait a minute, why haven't we engaged theologically with the issue of child abuse?”

Victor Vieth is the director of the Center for Faith & Child Protection at the Zero Abuse Project. He says this should be a model for other churches.

VIETH: Most churches don't have any policies. Those that do, they're pretty weak policies. They fall below the standards that I and other experts would recommend.

Lutheran Church doctrine views private confession of sin as useful but limits how private it can be.

VIETH: We want to keep confidence, we respect the confessional, but it must give way to the teachings of Jesus. And if keeping a confidence forces me to sin, then I break that confidence. And I think other Protestants and the Jewish community are, “We've never said there was absolute confidentiality when you're talking to your pastor.”

Roman Catholics take a different view. Josh Mercer is the cofounder of CatholicVote. He told me in an interview back in May that Catholics are concerned that adding limits would deter sinners from confessing all of their sins.

MERCER: Catholics know right now, they can go to a priest and they can say anything. If that priest had to turn around and said, Oh, by the way, I'm going to go tell the sheriff you just did that, then, well, why would you confess those sins? You would keep tight lipped.

The Bible seems to encourage both public and private confessions. James 5:16 says we should confess sins to one another. But 1 John 1:9 promises that if we confess our sins to God, he promises forgiveness.

What Catholics and Protestants agree on, though, is the need for the guilty party to turn from and accept the consequences of both the sin and the crime.

MERCER: The priest would then counsel that person. You know what? You need to go make this right. And you need to go to the authorities.

Still, the law protects the right for a person to discuss his sins in a private meeting with a priest or pastor. Currently 28 states require clergy to report child abuse, but most allow what’s called a clergy-penitent privilege for such meetings.

Lawyers say all of this gives churches freedom to decide what to do if a child abuser confesses.

MOTZ: There's also a lot of room for different approaches within the American tradition…

Chris Motz is senior counsel with First Liberty Institute.

MOTZ: I think that's been a good thing for us as Americans, that churches kind of get to figure out their own doctrine and their own governance without this sort of undue pressure from the state, you know, telling them how they have to regulate their own their own members.

It’s rare for someone to confess child abuse to a pastor, but it does happen, and Motz says churches should be proactive and prepared.

MOTZ: Understand your own theology and like what you feel called or to do by your denomination, by God, with the reading your scripture, your own tradition. Part two is understand if there's a conflict between where you stand and state law.

So what happened to the Kansas man who confessed to child abuse?

After the man admitted it, the pastor contacted authorities. In September, Charles S. Bell was found guilty of child sexual abuse. He will be sentenced tomorrow.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Juliana Chan Erikson.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Menopause.

It’s a stage in most every woman’s life, marking the end of child-bearing years and bringing major shifts in hormones. And for decades, women have faced those changes with limited medical attention or research.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: In recent years, scientists have developed hormone therapies to treat symptoms like hot flashes and to stave off osteoporosis. But the Food and Drug Administration dampened demand for those therapies with warning labels. On Monday, FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary [muh-CARE-eeh] announced a change.

MAKARY: The FDA is taking action to remove the blackbox warnings from estrogen related products…

BROWN: In a press conference in Washington, Makary explained those particular warnings are rooted in research from 2002. The Women’s Health Initiative by the National Institutes of Health reported a link between the synthetic estrogen in hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer.

MAKARY: Some of us looked at it and said this is interesting. There's no statistical significance in the increase in breast cancer. If we don't have statistics then we don't have science.

REICHARD: Significant or not, headlines warning that hormone therapies could cause cancer pushed the FDA to add the strongest safety alert to every estrogen drug, even ones with different formulas and chemical pathways.

Dr. Rachel Rubin, a urologist at Georgetown University Hospital, explains.

RUBIN: The warning label on the box falsely says that vaginal estrogen causes cancer, stroke, blood clots, heart attacks, and probable dementia.

BROWN: Vaginal estrogen is usually prescribed in low doses to treat genitourinary symptoms, and has been clinically proven to not have those scary side-effects. But research from February found the FDA’s warning label has scared off many doctors and patients. Urologist Dr. Kelly Casperson says only about 1 in 20 women gets a prescription.

CASPERSON: If a patient does get a prescription from her doctor and brings it home, nearly one in three will never use it because of the fear created by the incorrect warning label.

REICHARD: Dr. Makary also touted new research showing the added benefits of hormone replacement therapy for combatting bone fractures, and coronary heart disease.

MAKARY: We talk about statins all the time. We never talk about HRT. Statins have up to a 35% reduction. And these studies are showing up to a 50% reduction. What are we doing?

BROWN: Dr. Makary and others on stage blamed groupthink for the unwarranted blanket warning, and promised to give more attention to women’s health. They also announced two new drugs for treating menopausal symptoms.

That got a warm response from many in the audience of reporters, policymakers and medical practitioners in the room.

DUANE: I'm just really excited that we recognize that the female body is well, while complex, is unique and still understandable, especially when we learn to better understand and monitor women's hormones.

REICHARD: Marguerite Duane is Associate Professor of Restorative Reproductive Medicine at Duquesne University in Pennsylvania. She told WORLD that while menopause is a stage of life like puberty or pregnancy, there are unique challenges with which doctors can help.

DUANE: …There can be dysfunction that leads to an unhealthy transition, and so in that case, we do want to provide the appropriate support.

BROWN: So are women who do not get hormone replacement therapy in menopause missing out?

STREICHER: Hormone therapy is safe and beneficial for many women. Not all women need to take it or will be in trouble if they don't take it.

BROWN: Dr. Lauren Streicher is a clinical OB-GYN professor at Northwestern University in Chicago. She’s excited to see the black-box label removed from hormone therapies, but is concerned the FDA’s tone and approach could undermine their credibility.

STREICHER: The answer is not to remove the label altogether, from my point of view and other experts, but to do this on a product by product basis.

REICHARD: Streicher points out that the possible side-effects of swallowing a pill diff from applying a skin patch. And it’s not yet clear how the range of estrogen products will be labelled.

She’s also concerned that staffing cuts at the FDA could affect the review process.

BROWN: Earlier this year, the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research cut nearly 400 employees as part of a restructuring effort. Commissioner Makary says the agency is also bringing in more expert panels to work with the advisory committees required by law.

MAKARY: Ad-coms are bureaucratic, long, often conflicted and very expensive. So we can have an active robust discussion as a group of medical experts spontaneously. And so we're doing more of that.

REICHARD: In July, Dr. Streicher was invited to participate in the expert panel on estrogen product labelling, but after attending several preliminary meetings, she dropped out.

STREICHER: There definitely were some academic experts who've been in the space for a very long time and are very knowledgeable. And then there were people who are, quite frankly, more in the medical influencer space, who are physicians, but who do not necessarily have the kind of expertise in this world that we see in some of the experts who've been doing this for a long time.

BROWN: She acknowledges that the traditional process is cumbersome and led to decades of mislabeling for hormone therapy. But she worries the new approach could introduce more bias into how medical policies are reviewed.

STREICHER: We've seen this with Tylenol, with acetaminophen and autism. We've seen this with the vaccines. We've seen this with a lot of other things that they have basically decided who their experts are and that's biased, and it is, and it's highly problematic.

REICHARD: Back at the press conference, Dr. Duane says she has her own concerns about synthetic estrogen drugs, compared to bioidentical hormones used in natural medicine. But she is encouraged the administration is willing to challenge the medical status quo when it fails to tell the whole story.

DUANE: Like everything in medicine, we need to continue to study and do the research and make sure we are monitoring for any adverse effects to optimize health for women and minimize the risk.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And now, damage control at the Heritage Foundation.

A recent interview between conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes stirred up divisions on the right. It’s prompted many to ask who truly speaks for conservatism these days.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Days into the social media debate, the president of America’s largest conservative think tank took a position that surprised many, and led some to resign in protest.

Washington Bureau Reporter Carolina Lumetta has the story.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: Two weeks ago, many conservatives were outraged to watch Tucker Carlson welcome Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes to his show for a friendly conversation. Instead of asking challenging questions, Carlson said that Christian Zionism, a belief that the modern state of Israel has a right to the land based on biblical promises, is a heresy. Then he called out high ranking U.S. officials for their Zionist views, which he described as a “mind disease.”

While many criticized Carlson for the interview, others came to his support, including Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.

ROBERTS: We will always defend truth, we will always defend America, and we will always defend our friends against the slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda. That includes Tucker Carlson, who remains, and as I have said before, always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation. The venomous coalition attacking him are sowing division. Their attempt to cancel him will fail.

That video, posted to X, sparked internal backlash, with many concerned Roberts was defending antisemitism. Two Heritage scholars have since quit the organization, and the foundation’s own National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism has left. The task force was created in 2023 to address left-wing anti-Semitism cropping up at Ivy League universities. After Roberts’ video, task force members realized the problem was also in their own house. Mark Goldfeder, CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, withdrew last week.

GOLDFEDER: This is really really bad because what we are seeing is the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism from the far-right fringes

Goldfeder says right-wing anti-Semitism is nothing new. In 2022, rapper Kanye West repeated tropes that Jews control the media and the banks, and praised Adolf Hitler on the Infowars show with conservative talk show host Alex Jones. Since then, conservative podcaster Candace Owens has defended the rapper and has claimed that Jewish people support pedophilia. Goldfeder is worried that outlandish claims conservatives once rejected are now gaining traction.

GOLDFEDER: It went from Kanye to Candace to Tucker and now to Heritage and I think we need to draw a red line before it becomes mainstreamed in conservative politics that a little anti-Semitism here and there is okay or even worse.

Roberts has since apologized for his wording and clarified that he abhors the views Fuentes espouses over Jews, women, and race relations. In an all-staff town hall last week, Roberts said his chief of staff misled him into thinking that the script for the video had been approved by the organization. That chief of staff has resigned, but Roberts maintains that he will not leave.

Here’s Roberts in a message he posted to social media after video footage of the town hall leaked.

ROBERTS: Everyone has the responsibility to speak up against the scourge of anti-Semitism, no matter the messenger. Heritage and I will do so, even when my friend Tucker Carlson needs challenging.

But in the rest of that video, Roberts does not challenge Carlson for his handling of Fuentes. Roberts clarified that he is personally friends with Carlson but he also does not agree with everything the podcaster says. I asked Texas Senator Ted Cruz about the situation last week.

CRUZ: I have no interest in befriending someone who embraces Nazis and understand the debate is not about platforming Nick Fuentes. If Tucker had had him on and then cross-examined him vigorously, challenged his hateful and bigoted views, that would have been one thing. But he didn't.

Other Republican senators condemned the Carlson interview but have not said whether they’ve lost trust in the Heritage Foundation. Florida Senator Rick Scott told me that opposition to Israel is a feature of the Democratic Party, not the Republicans.

SCOTT: We don't support anti-Semitism. We don't support boycotting Israel. So I'm going to, and that's where I am, and I'm going to continue to be that way.

LUMETTA: So where do you land on the Heritage Foundation then? Do you think that...

SCOTT: I've had a good working relationship with them.

Other partners have abandoned the think tank. The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism has now moved on from the Heritage Foundation to join the Conference of Christian Presidents for Israel, which was founded last year to address right-wing antisemitism. Co-chair Luke Moon told me that the two groups will join forces to take on Carlson and his influence in the conservative movement. Senator Cruz says that type of work is essential to the future of the coalition.

CRUZ: In the last six months I've seen more anti-Semitism on the right than at any time in my life. And I believe Republicans and conservatives have an obligation to stand up and speak out against it, or the same thing that happened to the Democrat Party can happen to ours.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta in Washington.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Here’s something you don’t hear every day: hundreds of bagpipers piping AC/DC’s rock-and-roll classic “It’s a Long Way to the Top.”

It happened this week in Melbourne, Australia’s Federation Square. The very spot featured in the Aussie band's film clip from 1976. Thousands came out to witness the world-record attempt.

MUSIC CLIP: AC/DC tune on bagpipes

Yes, 374 pipers all together, setting a new national record for the most pipers piping together.

This piper endorsed the challenge!

WOMAN: I hadn’t been in a pipe band for 30 years, but this inspired me to practice again and I learned the tune!

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Sounds like they really kilt it!

REICHARD: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, November 13th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: The return of the band Crash Rickshaw. Twenty-four years ago, its debut album pushed the envelope for Christian rock.

BROWN: Years later, the group’s second release barely saw daylight. But now, the band is back with a strong new EP.

WORLD’s Arsenio Orteza has a review.

ARSENIO ORTEZA: Big Sir—that’s S-I-R—is the new EP by Crash Rickshaw and the first new music from the quartet in approximately 20 years. Its four songs only last 13-and-a-half minutes, but the band makes those minutes count.

MUSIC: [Sugar Shack by Crash Rickshaw]

This is “Sugar Shack.” The lead singer Joby Harris says the song is a chance for the band to savor fond memories of the Huntington Beach scene in which it got its start, a scene that included cute Christian girls.

HARRIS: That's why you'd want to drive an hour every weekend to go hang out, right? So, yeah, Orange County, Huntington Beach, very, very Christian, and I think it kind of still is. But back then, it was just nothing but youth groups and shows and churches, and yeah, absolutely, anytime you went down, there was a beautiful girl in Huntington Beach.

In 2001, guitarist Randy Torres, bassist Steve Dail, and drummer Alex Albert were enjoying popularity as three fourths of the alternative-metal, post-hardcore band Project 86. It was a group whose audience was part Christian, part mainstream. But Project 86 was between albums. So Torres, Dail, and Albert hooked up with Harris and recorded an album as Crash Rickshaw. I asked Dail why he and his Project 86 bandmates had felt the need for a side project.

DAIL: I think just to do something a little different. And Joby was, you know, had a different voice and different singing capabilities, and it was just—just sounded like a fun thing to do, you know? And at the time, like you said, we were doing well, and we were pretty locked in with Tooth & Nail, and—and Brandon Ebel at Tooth & Nail said, “Oh, if you want to do a side project, I'll put it out.” And so we're like, “OK, let's… let's do it!”

Brandon Ebel’s Tooth & Nail Records was, at the time, the go-to label for high-quality indie Christian rock. It had already helped put acts such as MxPx, Stavesacre, and the O.C. Supertones on the map. Crash Rickshaw was a perfect fit. The group’s music snarled with a punk energy so intense that at times it almost obscured the big topics its songs were addressing.

MUSIC: [Johnny Law by Crash Rickshaw]

“Johnny Law” is a song calling out Christians whose legalism drives away the lost. And it’s not the only Crash Rickshaw song shouting to the choir. “Angry Sunset” is an energetically noisy meditation on Ephesians 4:26. The song “Thank God I’m an Atheist,” on the other hand, confronts atheists with the irony that “It takes infinite knowledge to know / that there’s no God that holds you.” Crash Rickshaw was well received, but Project 86 remained Dail, Torres, and Albert’s primary commitment. Joby Harris says by the time Crash Rickshaw convened for its second album, The Unknown Clarity, a few years later, the environment that had once nurtured indie-Christian music had begun to change.

HARRIS: At that point, the entire Christian punk-rock, hardcore scene that was in Orange County was slowly starting to fade. And people in that scene—we were all the same age. We were all from, like, 18 to 25. And, suddenly you had families. You couldn't just hang out and do nothing anymore. You had to find a job. So that was what a lot of people in the bands had to do as well. “Hey, I can't tour anymore. I gotta take care of my family. I gotta get a job.”

Steve Dail remembers the recording of The Unknown Clarity as a rather diffuse process.

DAIL: We started recording that on our own. Like, way back, like—I think it was—like, 2002, somewhere in there, and just kind of started piecing it here and there. And it just kind of went on forever, right? And, like, we just never quite finished it, and everybody was busy. And [we] finally finished, you know, what we thought was an acceptable record at the time. And it just kind of never materialized into anything.

Well, it materialized into something. Ten vinyl copies, to be exact. But, essentially, the album vanished—and with it Crash Rickshaw. That is, until this year when the group reconvened for Big Sir. Mixed by the Grammy-nominated J.R. McNeely, the EP is what kids today might call a “banger.”

MUSIC: [Newports by Crash Rickshaw]

That’s “Newports.” Joby Harris told me that he called it that because, like the cigarettes after which it’s named, it’s about something that can slowly kill you over a long period of time.

HARRIS: The whole song is about social media, and the—you know, that it's a sociopathic platform, and that it pulls us, and we attach our value to it. And then we're on it, and four hours go by, and we've just lost a moment. So it's about being present, you know, that now is all that life gives us. And how do we be fully here and now? And, you know, be a little bit more detached from the pressures of all that.

So why is the EP called Big Sir?

HARRIS: The theme of the album is talking about big voices, big people that can easily take over your narrative if you let them. So we have a responsibility to—to reclaim our narrative and write it ourself.

Appropriately enough, the EP’s title track speaks truth to power in a pretty big voice itself.

MUSIC: [Big Sir by Crash Rickshaw]

I’m Arsenio Orteza.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, November 13th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says it’s time for the states to do something constructive to rein in Congress.

CAL THOMAS: Had enough of the consequences reverberating from the record-setting government "shutdown"? Ready to do something about it?

This is an ideal time to recall a slogan from the 1960s: "Power to the people." We need a second American revolution…not with guns or violence, but by a provision in the Constitution the Founders thought necessary should we arrive at a moment like this. That would be the state legislatures calling a convention of states to take back the power from Washington and put the government behind its original boundaries.

In its first paragraph the Declaration of Independence gives permission for such a revolution. It says: "When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

Granted, that was originally about a separation from our British overlords. Today it should mean a separation from the dysfunctional Congress, leading to a reformation of the federal government, which has betrayed the intentions of the Founders.

Article 5 of the U.S. Constitution allows for a constitutional convention of states with the approval of three-quarters of state legislatures. One grassroots nonprofit organization that advocates for a convention of states reports that 19 state legislatures have passed resolutions calling for a convention. Eight more have passed a resolution in at least one legislative chamber. The approval of 34 state legislatures is required.

The arguments against a convention include it might get out of control and damage the Constitution and the country. That is easily dealt with by limiting the convention to a short list of reforms, such as requiring a balanced budget and term limits.

Arguments in favor of a convention of states include that if Congress is not curbed now, it will only get worse—including the $38 trillion debt. Congress has demonstrated it is unwilling to give up the power it has accrued for itself.

Members of the House and Senate are not going to voluntarily relinquish their powers and perks. They are like a child with tooth decay who needs to have candy withheld from him. So too must the "candy" of spending and debt be removed from the hands of politicians before the country decays beyond repair.

As I wrote in "America's Expiration Date," the history of great nations is replete with examples that caused their decline. Massive national debt is one of them. We can't escape the lessons of history, any more than we can escape the consequences of gravity after jumping from a tall building. Halfway down we might regret our decision, but that won’t change the consequences. The street below remains a certainty.

We are teetering at the edge of a tall building. If we don't reconsider, turn around and come down, we will ultimately regret the consequences. If we wait much longer to address reform it will be too late and the time for repair will have passed. A convention of states appears to be the only answer.

Looking at the liberal groups who oppose it may be reason enough to persuade 15 more legislatures to follow the example of the 19 that have already given their approval. It will be difficult, as many of the remaining legislatures that must approve a resolution promote more government, not less. But the first revolution wasn’t easy either, and look how that turned out.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: Culture Friday with Katie McCoy. And, reviewer Max Belz on two classic films about the allure of fame. 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 Apostle Paul wrote this to the Christian church in Corinth and other believers in Greece: “Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.” —II Corinthians 7:2-4

Go now in grace and peace.

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