The World and Everything in It: November 15, 2024

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Culture Friday: How so-called luxury beliefs sank the Democrats on Election Day.

NICK EICHER, HOST: John Stonestreet’s going to join us in a few minutes.

Also today, a review of a stage play with talking horses and a majestic life-sized lion.

PERFORMANCE: Now you see. I am a true beast. Oh Aslan, forgive me. I've been rather a fool.

And later, moving from Narnia to Middle Earth. George Grant on J.R.R. Tolkien’s love of language. Word Play is coming up.

BROWN: It’s Friday, November 15th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Thune and Johnson on GOP agenda » The soon-to-be Senate Republican Leader John Thune has a message for Senate Republicans be ready to hit the ground running.

THUNE: And needless to say, the floor priority at the start of the year will be confirming President Trump’s nominees. And members should expect an aggressive schedule until those nominees are confirmed.

Thune will replace longtime leader Mitch McConnell when the new Congress convenes on January 3rd.

House Speaker Mike Johnson says he huddled with Sen. Thune shortly after he was elected leader.

JOHNSON:  We talked for a short period of time about the agenda going forward and how we have to do this in a bicameral fashion. We need the House Republicans and the Senate Republicans to be in lockstep on exactly the same page, and we will be.

Republicans have officially retained their majority in the House and could add up to four more seats to their existing majority.

Kennedy nomination Health Secretary » Among those nominees facing Senate confirmation hearings early next year will be Robert F. Kennedy Jr. President-elect Trump announced Thursday that RFK Jr. is his pick for Health secretary.

Though Kennedy hails from the most famous family in Democratic politics, he split with the party last year when he launched an independent White House bid, later bowing out to join forces with Donald Trump. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Kennedy says he’s on a quest … to make America healthy again.

He says the ‘big food’ industry has loaded American foods with harmful ingredients … fueling an “epidemic” of chronic diseases. He says he’s ready to take on both ‘big food’ and ‘big pharma.’

But Democratic senators are certain to grill him about his position on vaccines. His critics have labeled him an “anti-vaxxer.” Kennedy says that’s not accurate … that he merely supports more transparency about vaccine testing … and allowing individuals to make their own choices about vaccines.

Kennedy is a former environmental lawyer and professor, but senators are also likely to press him on his credentials to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Collins and Sauer nominated » Trump is also nominating former GOP Congressman Doug Collins as Secretary for Veterans Affairs. Collins is a veteran, and currently serves as a chaplain in the US Air Force Reserve Command.

The president-elect has also tapped John Dean Sauer for solicitor general. Sauer previously held that same title for the state of Missouri, and he once clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia.

The solicitor general of the United States plays a big role in shaping U.S. legal policy and is the government’s top lawyer before the Supreme Court.

FBI arrest of ISIS devotee » Federal authorities are revealing new details about charges against a Texas man accused of supporting ISIS and seeking to take part in a 9/11-style attack. Federal prosecutor Alamdar Hamdani:

WILLIAMS:  Mr. Said communicated with the official media outlet for ISIS, known as Saar al Khalifa, the Tower of the Caliphate. He also had pro ISIS propaganda videos and flyers he created.

28-year-old Anas Said pleaded not guilty to numerous charges in federal court on Thursday.

FBI agents executed a warrant to arrest Said last week.

Grossi Iran » Iran claims it's willing to negotiate differences with the United Nations over its nuclear program, but it will not respond to pressure.

ARAQCHI: [Speaking in Farsi]

That according to Iran's foreign minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, heard there.

But Iran knows pressure is coming with Donald Trump set to return to the White House. And Araqchi says Iranian leaders are now ready to negotiate.

His comments came during a meeting in Tehran with Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency.

Grossi warned world leaders that time is running out to curb Iran's nuclear program.

GROSSI: The fact that international tensions and regional tensions do exist — this shows that the space for negotiation and diplomacy is not getting bigger, it is getting smaller.

Grossi visited Iran in an effort to try and ensure that the Islamic country is abiding by the terms of an agreement made in March of 2023.

Iran has become increasingly uncooperative with international inspectors.

Syria - Israeli attack » Meanwhile…

SOUND: [Aftermath of Israeli strike]

Syria's state-run news media claims that Israeli airstrikes in the Damascus area killed more than two dozen people.

Those strikes came shortly before an advisor to Iran's supreme leader was scheduled to be in the capital to meet with Palestinian representatives.

Israel says the airstrikes hit terrorist military infrastructure.

HAGARI: [Speaking in Hebrew]

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari says Israel hit transit routes used by the terror group Hezbollah and the headquarters of the Islamic Jihad terror group.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: more take-aways from last week’s election results. John Stonestreet is next.

Plus, we review a stage production of the C.S. Lewis’s classic: The Horse and His Boy.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST:It’s Friday the 15th of November, 2024.

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.

It’s time for Culture Friday, and joining us now is John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

Good morning!

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning.

EICHER: John, I read a smart sort-of moderate take on where the political culture is right now and there will be two words that I think will really jump out at you … you’ve used them before. But let me run through it. It’s by George Yancey. He’s a sociology professor at Baylor … and he’s talking to the Democrats and giving some advice in a lengthy thread on the social media platform X. Yancey argues that despite significant financial resources and influence over major cultural institutions, Democrats failed to connect with working-class voters. He says that the party’s reliance on celebrity endorsements and promotion of “luxury beliefs” … there it is … that reliance alienates those concerned with, for example, economic issues. By luxury beliefs he meant specifically debates over gender-transitions for minors, defunding the police, and so forth. What do you think?

STONESTREET: I think George Yancey is absolutely right about the massive amount of money that was spent by the Democratic Party—and the Harris campaign is all the proof you need, especially when you contrast it. I mean, a big development in this election—and, you know, I’m not a political commentator per se—but when Elon Musk got involved, he brought his PAC and spent an awful lot of money, specifically in Pennsylvania. He put all that money into knocking on doors instead of paying, you know, Oprah, Cardi B, and some others to show up. And that campaign, apparently, is still seriously in debt after spending all that cash. That kind of tells you everything—it reflects the difference between a top-down celebrity-ism and, I think, a populism.

But we saw something else. We saw something across the board. Yancey touches on it, and he really nails it when he talks about “luxury beliefs.” I think critical theory has really clouded the ability of those on the progressive left to recognize just how elitist some of these beliefs are. And then, of course, in the trans part of this issue, you’ve got men talking down to women in a way that, until yesterday, would have been called “mansplaining” and everything else. In other words, it’s pretty clear who the oppressors are now, and they’re not the ones who fit the usual narrative. It’s completely upside down.

I do think the easiest way to interpret these election results is really through the old line, “It’s the economy, stupid.” You had a sitting vice president connected to a time when things were economically rough and people really struggled. But the other side of it was the number of times that mainstream media outlets and those on the political left talked down to the American people. I saw half a dozen headlines the week before the election along the lines of, “The economy’s fine. Why is everyone unhappy?”—like people don’t know what they’re doing when they go buy eggs, for heaven’s sake. That kind of elite talk-down-ism has really come to characterize the party, and I think there was a real pushback against that and you can see it.

BROWN: Pushback is certainly the key word for where we're going next, John. Maybe you heard about the fierce exchange between two CNN guests, part of a panel discussion on the show News Night with Abby Phillip. Author Jay Michaelson called conservative political commentator Shermichael Singleton transphobic. Here’s why:

SINGLETON: I think there are a lot of families out there who don't believe boys should play girls sports.

MICHAELSON: They're not boys. I'm not going to listen to transphobia at this table, I am—

This would go on for a solid 20 seconds before the host could regain control of the conversation.

PHILLIP: I think out of respect for Jay, like, let's try to talk about this in a way that is respectful.

SINGLETON: Okay, so let me rephrase this. Since I'm being targeted here—

PHILLIP: You are not being targeted—I’m specifically saying I know you are not intending—

And then this goes on for another 25 seconds—an eternity in TV!

PHILLIP: Hold on. Just get to your point.

SINGLETON: My point in terms of its effectiveness, regular people with children look at these things and they say, You know what? This is a bit too far. I do not agree with this. I don't like this. I think Democrats are going way too much to the left on social issues. They're uncomfortable with it. A lot of people believe that. A lot of families believe that. You may disagree with that reality, but that's why Republicans kept running those ads over and over and over again …

Your thoughts John …

STONESTREET: This was a really remarkable exchange. I watched this, and I thought of Chuck Colson. Now, I know that sounds strange, but here’s why. In the last year of Chuck’s life, he spent a lot of time talking about this social phenomenon that explained what we’d seen in the Second World War and other totalitarian situations. It’s called the “spiral of silence.” The idea is that social pressure is very effective at silencing dissent: when one person is silent, it becomes harder for the next person to speak up, and harder for the next person, and so on. This theory was used by a German sociologist to explain how, even though a whole lot of people opposed Hitler, they didn’t speak up; they just went along because the social costs were too high.

The other part of that theory is the incredible courage it takes to speak the truth in this culture. The trans movement has largely advanced through this “spiral of silence.” In this clip, you basically have a Republican consultant saying it’s clear the American people pushed back on the aggressiveness, especially against kids and men in women’s sports. That’s all he’s saying.

But then, you have this activist who now thinks that all he needs to do is pretend to have hurt feelings and act like it’s just unthinkable to say boys are boys and girls are girls, and that’ll silence the conversation. And what’s equally fascinating is the rest of the CNN panel, including the host, going, “Uh, I know we really need to talk about this… but I’m not sure I should,” like they don’t know what the new rules are.

The rules were really clear, by the way, just a year and a half ago. This was like a runaway train with no brakes, and now you have people on CNN saying, “I know what I want to say, but I’m not sure I can say it out loud.” I thought it was fascinating, and it took me right back to this explanation of social pressure and how ideas often don’t advance by argument; they advance by social pressure. So look, I think we need to put this on the calendar, come back on this date in 2025, and see what’s changed. Because politics is very often downstream from culture, but sometimes it’s upstream. Watching this panel was like an instruction in cultural hermeneutics—it explains so much. I just, like, have this image in my mind. Sorry to go on about this.

The host of this show—clearly progressive—going, “I want to defend him, but am I going to get canceled?” No one knows what the new rules are anymore, which is great, because everyone knew what they were 18 months ago.

EICHER: John, I am hesitant even to bring up the pro-life takeaways from Election Day, but, honestly, there’s so much sort of euphoria on the right, even among pro-lifers and it’s understandable—but, what do you think, have we exhausted this issue?

STONESTREET: I don’t know if we have new information, but it’s worse than we thought. And by “worse than we thought,” I mean we’re going into the next X number of months without any real political alliances. Now, one might say it wasn’t a legitimate alliance because of this, that, or the other. But it’s pretty clear that the Republican Party ran the Democratic Party on life from the 1990s. Now look, no question: it’s way better than the Democratic platform of 2024, which is, you know, flat-out evil and the most pro-death platform we’ve ever seen. But we also saw what happened at the ballot. And the ballot, of course, tells you an awful lot about where culture is.

We have to go back and figure out how to communicate from the ground up. It’s serious. The realities, I think, are that Americans are way more morally relativistic than we thought a decade ago when we talked about polling and pro-life generations and all that. Number two, we now have a lot of pro-lifers who live in aggressively pro-abortion states. In Colorado, for example, not only are taxpayer dollars now directly funding abortions, but they’re laying the groundwork to frame abortion as a fundamental constitutional right. They’re moving to attack pro-lifers, pro-life Pregnancy Care Centers, and restrict pro-life doctors from following their conscience on things like abortion pill reversal.

So, the divide between pro-life and pro-abortion states and what it means to be a citizen in each is more dramatic than ever. And we haven’t figured out messaging—we don’t know how to push back against this with moral relativism and expressive individualism on the rise. There’s a lot of work ahead, and I say that being grateful that we at least got three out of ten. I mean, hey, three out of ten? If you’re a professional baseball player, that’s Hall of Fame material. But for an unborn child? That’s not a good situation.

BROWN: John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Thank you, John.

STONESTREET: Thank you both!

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, November 15th.

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

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

This week, a theatrical adaptation from the Chronicles of Narnia saga opens for a two-week run at the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. Before the show hit the road, The Horse and His Boy completed a short tour of its home base in South Carolina. WORLD’s Bekah McCallum attended a performance and has this review.

BEKAH McCALLUM: Christian theater groups aren’t always known for their technically excellent productions. And it’s a rare troupe whose family-friendly shows attract fans from hundreds of miles away.

AUDIO: [Sound of crowd in theater]

Located a few miles outside of Greenville, South Carolina, Logos Theater has cornered the market on both.

On a Thursday morning in October, about 300 people arrived for a morning showing of The Horse and His Boy from The Chronicles of Narnia series.

The Horse and His Boy is set a few years after the events of The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe. The Pevensies rule as kings and queens in Narnia, but far away lies the land of Calormen which is ruled by the evil Tisroc. It’s up to an unlikely character to stand up to him.

NARRATOR: In those days, far south in Calormen, on a little creek of the sea, there lived a poor fisherman called Ashish. And with him, there lived a boy who called him father. The boy’s name was Shasta.

When his adoptive father threatens to sell the boy into slavery, Shasta runs away with a talking horse named Bree. On the road, they meet a teenage aristocrat named Aravis. She’s traveling with Hwin, also a talking horse.

After bumping into a few of the Pevensies and learning about a plot that will endanger one of Narnia’s allies, the travelers speed off to get help. The story teaches clearly the Christian doctrines of repentance and God’s providence…as apparent misfortunes help the characters develop.

PERFORMANCE: But I did change, honestly I did! When you went back, faced that lion. It wasn’t going to kill you at all really, that lion. I’ve met him. I know, so have I.

The Horse and His Boy is not the first play set in Narnia that Logos has produced. Executive director Noah Stratton…

STRATTON: Our goal is to do all seven. So we've done Prince Caspian, we've done The Horse and His Boy, we did a version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe a number of years ago.

But, this play involves more puppets than previous Logos productions. There are puppets for Aslan, Hwin, Bree, and a few other minor characters. Bree’s puppet is about the size of a Clydesdale draft horse. Two puppeteers operate the inside. Another guides the head from behind. Theater puppet master Justin Swain.

SWAIN: But then you get into three separate people, strap them into a giant horse puppet and say all right walk stage right and it's like one like and they go all over the place it looks like a newborn giraffe right so it just takes a lot of coordination with all those people to get them to all work together.

That coordination is especially important when the actors mount the puppets and ride across the stage. And even though I knew there were puppeteers controlling the characters, they effectively blend into the background of the story.

I was struck by Logos’ commitment to vivid storytelling. The stage itself is outfitted with a 22-foot diameter turntable, fog machines, and full-scale set pieces like the palm trees that open like beach umbrellas.

In some scenes, characters swing from ropes, fight with actual swords, and eat real food. Despite having so many moving parts, the show doesn’t have a traditional support crew.

STRATTON: Yeah, so we don't have almost anyone backstage. Almost everybody is the actors. We are moving the sets. We are, there's maybe two back there that aren’t in the production.

Before coming to see the life-like puppets and dazzling set, families should know about the show’s 3-hr run time. Its length is partially due to extended flashbacks not in the book.

PERFORMANCE: And I swore him to be secret, and I begged him to write a certain letter for me. Oh, and he wept and implored me to change my resolution. Change your resolution!

Purists may balk at the insertions, but some of the added scenes do clarify a few of the more vague parts of the original story. Narnia fans might also be disappointed with how the play opens…the foreshadowing is not in the book and is something of a spoiler.

PERFORMANCE: I see much in the eyes of this child. The day will come when this boy will save Aarkenland from the deadliest danger in which ever she lay.

The play also emphasizes Aslan as a picture of Christ much more than the book.

ASLAN: Dear daughter, I knew you would not be long in coming to me.

One character even offers a brief prayer to the lion which could be confusing to some younger viewers. It might warrant a conversation about how Aslan is a picture of Christ but not actually Christ himself. Since it first premiered in 2019, the play has worked to highlight the allegory.

JUSTIN SWAIN: Specifically in his hands, he has nail pierced wounds to tie into the allegory of who he represents. We really wanted to make a very profound statement with those. We actually added in modeled scars into the feet.

To bring out the theme even more, artistic director Nicole Stratton recently changed a scene that used to be just a conversation between Shasta and Aslan. Videographer Matt Hainsworth…

HAINSWORTH: Last year, Nicole had the idea to take the smaller lion that we call scrappy, the smaller lion, and show everything that they're talking about. And so being able to see everything as an example of, “Oh, I was the lion here, I was the lion there, I was the one taking care of you the whole time,” and it's such an awesome picture of Christ.

The Logos Theater production of The Horse and His Boy at the Ark Encounter runs through November 23.

I’m Bekah McCallum.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, November 15th. 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. Before we end today, I did want to tell you about a special offer from WORLD Watch for our podcast listeners: If you sign up between now and the end of the year, you’ll receive the first three months of our video news program at no cost.

BROWN: Bring current events to life—in your living room, around your kitchen table, or in your classroom. Parents tell us that WORLD Watch sparks compassionate conversations, informed prayers, and understanding hearts. That is a gratifying thing to hear, because we really do pour into those stories, we’re intentional about provoking that in young people!

EICHER: Start your first three months on us at worldwatch.news/radio.

There is a small per-month price after the trial period, but by then you won’t even care. It’s so perfect for families who value learning together. Find out more at: worldwatch.news/radio.

BROWN: Up next, Word Play. Today, an unsurprising confession from the man behind the fantastical world of Middle Earth.

Here’s George Grant.

GEORGE GRANT: By his own admission J.R.R. Tolkien was captivated by a lifelong secret hobby. He was renowned as the avocational author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion but his vocational calling was as a linguist and an Oxford don. He was a fellow of Pembroke College as a professor of Anglo-Saxon. He was also a fellow of Merton College as a professor of English Language and Literature. His first book, published in 1922, was not a fantasy story, a prequel to his great legendarium, but an etymological glossary of fourteenth century Middle English.

Besides Anglo-Saxon and English, Tolkien was conversant in Finnish, Old Norse, Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Aramaic, Hebrew, and several Celtic and Gaelic languages including Irish, Manx, Cornish, Scots, and both medieval and modern Welsh. Of course, as an academic, he was also fluent in Latin and Greek. In his letters he expressed remorse at his clumsiness with the various Slavic languages, including Russian. But his fascination with linguistics did not end with these living languages.

On November 29th, 1931, at a meeting of the Oxford University Johnson Society, Tolkien revealed that from early childhood he had engaged in the “construction of imaginary languages in full or outline for amusement.” By this he did not mean that he had coined a few expressions, neologisms, or portmanteaus, but rather that he had built whole languages with lexicons, grammars, lenitions, and vocabularies complete with elaborate “phonetic trills and tropes.” He indulged in what he called this “new game” or “home hobby” of composing “word music” during abbreviated seasons of “limited leisure” or in “occasional thefts of time.” This was, he said, his “secret vice.”

The more than half-dozen of these sophisticated languages that Tolkien created were not, he insisted, purely philological, etymological, or grammatical exercises. Nor were they supplements designed to color the mythological worlds he had invented. Just the opposite: it was the languages that spawned the stories. Before he ever imagined Middle Earth, before there were Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Ents, Trolls, and Orcs, he was crafting the dialects, idioms, and vernaculars that they would speak. “Language,” he said, “both strengthened imagination and set the imagination leaping.” The words spawned the worlds.

But of course, we already knew that didn’t we? Tolkien was simply following the example of the one who spoke all that is seen and unseen into being. For in the beginning was the Word.

I’m George Grant.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, it’s time to say thanks to the team members who helped put the program together this week:

Mary Reichard, David Bahnsen, Emma Perley, Steve West, Leah Savas, Todd Vician, Janie B Cheaney, Carolina Lumetta, Onize Oduah, Lindsay Mast, Nathanael Blake, Leo Briceno, Mary Muncy, Cal Thomas, John Stonestreet, and Bekah McCallum.

Thanks also to our breaking news team: Kent Covington, Lynde Langdon, Travis Kircher, Lauren Canterberry, Christina Grube, and Josh Schumacher.

And thanks to the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Our producers are Paul Butler, Kristen Flavin, and Harrison Watters with assistance from Lauren Dunn and Benj 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 Psalmist writes: “Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise; then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word.” —Psalm 119:41-42.

Be sure to worship Him with brothers and sisters in Christ in church on the Lord’s Day.

And Lord willing, we’ll meet you right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

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