The World and Everything in It — November 18, 2019

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Can a president end a prior president’s executive order on immigration? The Supreme Court considers DACA.

FRANCISCO: I don’t think anybody could have reasonably assumed that 
DACA was going to remain in effect in perpetuity. 

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Legal Docket.

Also on the Monday Moneybeat, the American financial system pronounced “resilient.”

Plus the WORLD Radio History Book. Today, remembering a tragic accident at a Texas University two decades ago:

And WORLD commentator Trillia Newbell on showing hospitality in all circumstances.

REICHARD: It’s Monday, November 18th. 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: Now the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: U.S., South Korea extend suspend military exercise in “goodwill” gesture to Pyongyang » Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday the United States and South Korea have decided to shelve a joint military exercise that has long riled North Korea.

ESPER: We have made this decision as an act of goodwill to contribute to an environment conducive to diplomacy and the advancement of peace. 

Esper said the move is an effort to “keep the  door open” to diplomacy. But he added that no one should interpret the olive branch as a sign of weakness.

ESPER: We will continue to ensure our combined forces on the Korean Peninsula remain at a high state of readiness. 

Officials in both Washington and Seoul say they remain hopeful that they can jumpstart stalled nuclear talks with North Korea. But Japan’s defense minister said Sunday there isn’t much hope that Pyongyang will truly change its behavior. Taro Kono told Esper that they must stick together in the face of the North Korean threat.

KONO: No one could be optimistic about North Korea. 

Japan continues to feel threatened by repeated North Korean missile launches. 

Despite Sunday’s announcement, so far, North Korea does not seem ready to reciprocate. Shortly after Esper spoke, the North Korean foreign ministry said it has no plans right now to restart talks. It said Washington has to signal a willingness to reverse its—quote—“hostile” policies toward Pyongyang.

North Korea also blasted U.S. support of a recent United Nations resolution condemning the North’s human rights violations.

Hong Kong police storm university in violent clash » Police and anti-government protesters clashed once again in Hong Kong Monday in the most violent confrontation yet. 

AUDIO: [Sound of confrontation]

Authorities fired a barrage of teargas canisters and rubber bullets at demonstrators on the campus of Polytechnic University. Some activists in gas masks battled back with petrol bombs and even bows-and-arrows. 

Riot police surrounded the school, and as they moved in from all sides, some protesters retreated inside. Others set fires on bridges leading to the school. At one point, police threatened to use “lethal force” against anyone who did not surrender.

At daybreak, protesters remained in control of most of the campus. Tensions cooled a bit after the president of the university said in a video message that that police had agreed to suspend their use of force.

Trump pardons Army officers, reverses Navy Seal’s punishment » An Army Special Forces officer just pardoned by President Trump in a highly public case expressed his gratitude on Sunday. 

Major Mathew Golsteyn is a former Green Beret accused of killing a suspected bomb-maker in Afghanistan in 2010. Golsteyn believed the man was responsible for an explosion that killed two U.S. Marines. He has argued that the Afghan was a legal target because of his behavior at the time of the shooting.

He told Fox News that the president called him personally. 

GOLSTEYN: He was just incredibly sanguine, warm, and demonstrated an amazing degree of knowledge about the case and what had been going on. 

Trump also pardoned former Army Lieutenant Clint Lorance. He has served six years of a 19-year sentence for ordering his soldiers to fire on three unarmed Afghan men in 2012. 

The commander in chief also ordered a promotion for Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher. He was convicted of posing with a dead ISIS captive in Iraq in 2017. Gallagher was in line for a promotion before he was prosecuted, but he lost that and was reduced in rank after the conviction.

The pardoned soldiers said they couldn’t be more thankful, but not everyone is celebrating. Some have criticized the moves, saying the president has undermined the military justice system. Hina Shamsi with the American Civil Liberties Union said the actions amounted to an “utterly shameful use of presidential powers.” 

Venice flooded for a third time in a week » Venice was hit Sunday by another high tide—the third in a week.

Stores and museums in Venice were mostly closed in the hardest-hit area around St. Mark’s Square. And the doors of the famed St. Mark’s Basilica were shut to the public. Authorities stacked sandbags in canal-side windows to keep water from entering the crypt again.

The tide peaked at nearly 5 feet for a third time since Tuesday night’s flood—the worst flood there in a half-century. Since records began in 1872, water levels had never risen that high even twice in one year, let alone three times in one week.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards wins reelection » Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards won a tight runoff election over the weekend, edging out Republican businessman Eddie Rispone. 

EDWARDS: If this campaign has taught us anything, it’s that the partisan forces in Washington DC are not strong enough to break through the bonds that we share as Louisianans.

The blue dog Democrat held off his challenger by about 40,000 votes. That despite a big push by President Trump to help reclaim the governorship for the GOP. 

Edwards is one of the few remaining high level pro-life Democrats in the country. And with his focus on bipartisan issues, he cobbled together enough cross-party support to win 51 percent of the vote and another four years in office. 

Federal jury rules against pro-life activists over hidden-camera Planned Parenthood probe » A group of pro-life activists must pay nearly $900,000 to Planned Parenthood for secretly recording its associates talking about selling the body parts of aborted babies. That was the ruling from a federal jury in California on Friday. 

The Center for Medical Progress—CMP for short—conducted a 30-month hidden-camera investigation. The video footage led to a renewed push to pull taxpayer funding from the abortion giant. 

Planned Parenthood then sued CMP, its founder, David Daleiden, and fellow activists for fraud, illegal recording, and breaking confidentiality agreements.  

After the verdict on Friday, Daleiden called the trial a dangerous attack on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: the high court considers the limits of presidential orders. Plus, Trillia Newbell on welcoming guests, even in tight quarters. This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It for Monday,  the 18th of November, 2019. Good morning to you, I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. I hope you’ve got your bag packed, Nick! Because this is the week we go to Nashville, Tennessee! You, me, Megan Basham, Paul Butler, Myrna Brown, Jonathan Woods, J.C. Derrick, Jenny Rough, Trillia Newbell, Emily Whitten will be there.

EICHER: Yes, it’s the third of our live events. The World and Everything in It Live, and I usually pack my bags at least five minutes before leaving the house.

REICHARD: You have a system down! As a guy who travels a lot.

EICHER: That I do! And these live events are something I get so much more out of than what I put into it. It’s so encouraging and energizing to meet people who listen to the program and support the program, as we say everyday. Looking forward to meeting listeners like you.

REICHARD: We’re getting full, but there’s still a seat for you. You do need to register, though. It’s free, but you’ll need to reserve your seat. Just go to worldandeverything.org, hover over the “engage” tab, then click “live events.” Register there, and we’ll see you on Thursday night at 7!

EICHER: This Thursday night at 7 in Nashville. 

And, Mary, one more little thing—a little gigabyte thing, possibly 9 GB thing. I’m so embarrassed.

I inadvertently caused—indirectly—but I caused it. Probably several gigabytes worth of content placed on your phone. 

REICHARD: Yes, dumped it onto my phone. 

EICHER: Yep, and a few others I heard about.

And I’m so sorry. Here’s what happened. We switched providers to deliver the program to you. Initially, it made only a few programs available, and we know you sometimes have to binge listen and catch up, and you wouldn’t have been able to do it with just the newest programs. So I asked that the maximum number be made available, not thinking that they’d push out as new.

So you may have had all those programs load automatically, and if you did, please accept my apologies.

It’s easy to delete them and clear space on your device, and I’m sorry you have to do that. But the silver lining here is that those archives are available on our feed.

I’m just sorry if I caused a bunch of clutter on your phone. 

So if you come to Nashville, you may have a bone to pick with me. And I’ll be right there. I’ll face the music.

REICHARD: Appreciate what we lawyers call mea culpa, but I’ve got it all cleared off my phone. It didn’t take long. 

EICHER: Well, on to the Supreme Court. 

This was the sound outside the court from those who support the presidential executive order called DACA—that’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals:  

CHANTING: Home is here! Home is here! Home is here!

REICHARD: These are people whose parents brought them to the United States illegally as children. Their legal status is at stake in a dispute over the reversal of that DACA program.  

DACA was an Obama administration order. Those now-grown children who’ve lived in this country most of their lives could apply for protection from deportation. They then could work in the United States, get a driver’s license, access health insurance. 

Restrictions applied: for example, no felony record, and they had to renew their applications every two years.

EICHER: Five years later, the Trump administration announced reversal of the prior administration’s executive order. It cited Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution that assigns authority to Congress, not the president, to determine the nation’s immigration rules. 

The Trump administration supported leaving the program in place for a time while Congress negotiated a political compromise. But Democrats refused because part of that compromise involved beefing up the southern border with a wall.

REICHARD: And then came the lawsuits. Challengers argue the way President Trump ended DACA violated the law; they say it is akin to a federal rule-making which has as part of the process time for public comment. That didn’t happen.  

Ted Olson argued on behalf of those challengers. Olson is former solicitor general under George W. Bush.

OLSON: The government’s termination of DACA triggered abrupt, tangible, adverse consequences and substantial disruptions in the lives of 700,000 individuals, their families, employers, communities, and Armed Forces. That decision required the government to provide an accurate, reasoned, rational, and legally sound explanation. 
It utterly failed to do so…

What Olson’s talking about is a legal concept known as a reliance interest. That is to say, people reorder their lives trusting that a policy of the government will remain. Many of these young people didn’t find out they were here illegally until they didn’t qualify for a college loan, for example. 

But Olson’s argument is an odd one: everyone agrees a president has the right to rescind a prior president’s executive order. Olson argued President Trump needs a better reason.

OLSON: Basically, the policy decisions are saying we understand people may have relied on this, but that’s just too bad. That’s basically all it was.

Defending the current administration’s right to rescind DACA was U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco. He argued reliance on DACA by its recipients was acknowledged, but that’s just not the point.

FRANCISCO: DACA was always meant to be a temporary stop-gap measure that could be rescinded at any time, which is why it was only granted in two-year increments. So I don’t think anybody could have reasonably assumed that 
DACA was going to remain in effect in perpetuity. 

Francisco said the orderly wind down of DACA mitigated any reliance interests. Besides, reliance alone doesn’t justify violating the Constitution. And what the other side is asking for is rather trivial.

FRANCISCO: All that they seem to be saying is we have to write a few more words.

But some justices didn’t buy the underlying premise of the Trump administration that DACA was illegal in the first place. Listen to Justice Elena Kagan, who references a key decision memo written by former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen:

KAGAN: If the program turns out not to be of questionable legality, in other words, if some or many of us think that the original program was legal, how does her memo suffice to do that balancing? 


By balance, she means taking into account the reasons to end DACA as well as the consequences.

And Justice Sonia Sotomayor made clear which way she leaned on the matter.

SOTOMAYOR: That this is not about the law; this is about our choice to destroy lives.

Ted Olson argued the case ought to be sent back to DHS to figure out a better explanation than the ones it already gave. 

Justice Neil Gorsuch:

GORSUCH: What good would another five years of litigation over the adequacy of that explanation serve?

Another important thread to all of this is whether the Supreme Court even has any business reviewing the case in the first place. 

Now, we mentioned at the beginning the government’s argument that Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution is the issue. Or, as the Wall Street Journal editorialized: this case is about a breakdown in the separation of powers. 

By the way, the Journal is conservative, but it’s also pro-immigration. The editorial concluded that this is a matter for the political branches to work out, not the Supreme Court. 

Most people can agree that children ought not be punished because their parents broke the law. 

But the legal issue here is what power the Constitution gives the president to commandeer immigration policy.

This final case today arose in Kansas during a traffic stop. 

In 2016, a sheriff’s deputy ran a registration check on a 1995 Chevy pickup truck with Kansas plates. He hadn’t observed any traffic violations to prompt that search, but he did learn the truck was registered to a Charles Glover, and that Glover’s license had been revoked. 

So the deputy pulled the truck over, confirmed Glover was the driver, and charged him as a habitual violator of state traffic laws. 

Glover’s lawyer, Sarah Harrington, argued this violates her client’s Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

HARRINGTON: Kansas and the United States ask this court to adopt a bright-line nationwide rule that it is always reasonable to assume that a car is being driven by its unlicensed owner…. They simply assert that it is common sense in every circumstance and in every community in the country. But that’s not true, and that’s not how the Fourth Amendment works. 

But Kansas Solicitor General Toby Crouse argued otherwise.

CROUSE: Here, Deputy Mehrer relied upon the common-sense understanding that a registered owner, given the pervasiveness of automobile use in the United States, was likely to be driving again, warranted additional investigation. It would have been poor police work for Deputy Mehrer not to initiate the stop in this case and investigate further to confirm or dispel his suspicion.

But some justices pointed out law enforcement’s job is public safety. Some people’s licenses are suspended for not paying fines or court costs, for example. Hardly a safety matter.  

Justice Kagan spun a scenario to test the waters:

KAGAN: Suppose that a municipality has a law that says everybody has to carry their driver’s license with them at all times. And suppose that a particular police department actually did a kind of survey or, you know, a study of their practices and found that actually 50 percent of teenagers do not carry their driver’s license with them at all times. All right? So now it’s like common sense that if you see a teenager, she won’t be carrying her driver’s license with her. Does that give the police officer the ability to stop every teenager that he sees?

HUSTON: Generally not…

But Harrington, again for the truck driver, pushed for a rule that says law enforcement must support common sense with something courts can review.

Justice Alito wondered just how many things police must consider before pulling over a vehicle when the owner has a suspended license.

ALITO: Trying to check with headquarters as to the basis for the license suspension? Whether it’s an urban area or a rural area or someplace in between? Whether it’s a highway or a city street? Whether it’s raining? Whether it’s dark? 

Maybe whether it’s a law-abiding community where people who have suspended licenses never drive? The officer has to take into account all of those factors.

No, the truck driver’s lawyer argued. But law enforcement must be required to take more into account than a suspended license before pulling someone over.

Attorney Crouse for Kansas ended this way:

CROUSE: The Fourth Amendment does not and should not apply differently based upon the age and experience of the officer or the time of day of the Fourth Amendment. The rule that respondents propose would require the officers to let this vehicle go at night because it’s impossible to identify. The states have a strong interest in regulating the roadways and they have a strong law enforcement interest.

For example, if there’s a report of a child that had been abducted, and we were looking for the mother, the officers would be reasonable to rely upon the license plate.

ROBERTS: Thank you, counsel. The case is submitted.

One nice touch, reported by Nina Totenberg of NPR. All the parties in this case knew each other and seemed to be friends.  And it so happened that Glover was standing in the line to hear the argument, but wasn’t sure he’d get in. 

So the assistant DA who’d prosecuted him plucked Glover from the line to ensure he’d get a seat.  

Kindness, even in this circumstance. 

More of that please. 

And that’s this week’s Legal Docket.

MARY REICHARD: Coming next on The World and Everything in It, the Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER: Twice a year, the Federal Reserve issues a report on the state of American finance. 

It all grew out of the shock of 2007 and 2008: the financial crisis and connected to it, the great recession. Last week, the Fed’s “Financial Stability Report” pronounced the system “resilient,” and in testimony to Congress, Fed Chairman Jay Powell talked up the underlying strength of the American economy, particularly compared to others.

POWELL: The U.S. economy is the star economy these days.

After raising interest rates four times last year, Powell’s Federal Reserve has cut them three times this year. But he said the economy is expanding, unemployment remains at historic low levels, and inflation is in check. 

So absent a “material” shift in the economic outlook, he expects to leave rates where they are, now ranging between 1-1/2 and 1-3/4ths percent.

Powell does not see an elevated recession risk now or on the horizon, and when he compares conditions today with those that led to the need for the Financial Stability Report, he sees a well-balanced economy.

POWELL: This expansion is notable for the absence of parts of the economy that are really hot—for example, a hot housing market, where prices are moving up and there will eventually be a slowdown, in the case of the last economic downturn, you know, kind of a bust of a bubble. So we don’t have that.

Still, industrial production took a hit in October, though a good bit of it is related to the strike at General Motors. Overall, American factories’ productivity fell eight-tenths of a percent, the biggest drop since May of last year. 

Year on year, industrial production is down more than one percentage point.

REICHARD: Retail sales rebounded a modest three-tenths of a percent in October, following a drop in September. The Commerce Department figures show a year-on-year rise of 3.1 percent. 

Although the report didn’t quite match expectations, these are fourth quarter sales numbers and they give economists a reason to believe holiday sales will be strong, and will drive up Gross Domestic Product by year’s end.

EICHER: On Wall Street, stocks continued their winning streak, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average topping the 28,000 mark for the first time ever. It’s the fourth straight winning week for the Dow, and the sixth for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the NASDAQ. Both of those indexes set records, too, with all three picking up about a percentage point in value. 

Only the smaller-company stock index, the Russell 2000, lost a little ground.

And that is today’s Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER: Are you someone who loves a challenge and has a big appetite? 

Well, here’s an offer that might tantalize you. A burger joint in Bangkok, Thailand will serve up a cash prize of $330 to anyone who can down its biggest burger in nine minutes. 

There’s a catch. There’s always a catch. 

We’re talking about a burger the diameter of a large pizza. Thirteen pounds of beef. The burger is stacked a foot tall.  All that beef, plus cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion rings, and mayonnaise. 

It’s 10,000 calories. 

This man said through an interpreter that he just couldn’t stomach it.

CUSTOMER: I will eat another burger at some point in the future, but not anytime soon. Because I was, I don’t know what to say.

The rules say if you can’t finish the mammoth burger in time, you have to pay for it. That guy who couldn’t finish got set back $83. 

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: Today is Monday, November 18th. So glad you’ve joined us today! Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the WORLD Radio History Book.

Today, twenty years ago, a tragic accident at Texas A&M University. Plus, a scientific hoax is revealed. 

EICHER: But first, the story of one of the last clipper ships England ever built. Here’s Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: The Cutty Sark left the Dumbarton, Scotland, shipyard on November 22nd, 1869. 

NEWSREEL: In her heyday, she carried wool from Australia and tea from China. Her highest speed was 17 and a half knots, and she held a tea clippers record of 363 miles in 24 hours…

Clipper ships were the pinnacle of sailing technology, and the Cutty Sark was perhaps the best example of these great vessels. 

The three masted clipper boasted 32,000 square feet of sail—nearly three quarters of an acre of cloth. The ship could make the trip from Australia to London in 83 days—more than three weeks faster than any other ships on the route. 

But with improvements in steam ship design, the clipper was relegated to less glamorous work. By the 1950s the Cutty Sark was no longer useful. Thanks to the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip, the clipper was saved as a museum ship.

NEWSREEL: Proudly flying a pennant bearing her name, she moves up the Thames passing the meridian line of Greenwich, on toward the dry dock where she will remain a memorial to the days of sail. 

After 50 years on display, the ship was closed to visitors to undergo extensive restoration. On May 21st, 2007, Londoners awoke to terrible news…

AP NEWSCAST: Amateur video captures a massive fire burning through one of London’s most famous tourist attractions: the clipper ship, Cutty Sark…

While the damage is severe, much of the ship’s skin wasn’t on site during the fire and restoration work continued. 

Five years later, at a cost of more than $80 million, the museum ship reopened to the public. It’s now raised 11 feet off the ground and surrounded by a glass sea. That gives visitors a fish-eye view of the handsome ship. 

MUSIC: [Scottish Reel]

Next, November 21st, 1953:

NEWSREEL: Britain’s Natural History Museum is all a dither over a scandal concerning the “Piltdown Man.” One of the most famous fossil skulls in the world is declared to be in part a hoax. It was presumed to date back half a million years… 

The Natural History Museum announces that the “Piltdown Man” is a hoax. 

In 1908, an amateur archaeologist named Charles Dawson discovered the remains near Piltdown, East Sussex, England. Four years later he returned to the area with a digging team and found more parts of the skull and jawbone. 

Even though some scientists doubted the discovery, news of the “missing link” spread rapidly. The “Piltdown Man” became a powerful tool in promoting Darwinistic human evolution. 

It took more than four decades before the scientific forgery was fully uncovered. Turns out, someone took thick human skull pieces and chemically stained the bones to alter their appearance—making them look very old. They grabbed a broken jawbone from an orangutan, filed down the teeth to make them look more human, and stained those pieces as well. Then someone took all the parts and buried them. 

NEWSREEL: Today comes the shocking news that this is skullduggery. Mr. Piltdown is branded a phony…

In the more than 60 years since the announcement, many have tried to determine who instigated the hoax. More than a dozen suspects exist, but the most likely seems to be the discoverer Charles Dawson—though most agree he probably wasn’t alone in the plot. 

SONG: [I Wanna Be Like You—Disney’s Jungle Book]

And finally, November 18th, 1999:

BROKAW: Good evening, this was to have been a big Thanksgiving week at Texas A and M, home of the Aggies. But tonight, Texas is in mourning. In College Station, a huge pile of logs set up for the traditional bonfire collapsed… 

At the time of the accident, the Aggie Bonfire was a 90 year tradition.

What began as a simple fire in 1907 became an elaborate ritual—a way of expressing the “burning desire” to beat the University of Texas in the yearly rival football game. 

In the early morning hours of November 18th, the 58 member student crew was hard at work on the 5-thousand log pile. It reached 59-feet in the air. But some of the cables holding the lower layers together gave way under the pressure and the structure toppled, killing 12 students and injuring 27 others.

A memorial now stands on the site of the accident. It features a large concrete ring with 12 doorways oriented toward the hometowns of those who died.

SONG: [Texas A&M—We Bleed Maroon]

That’s this week’s WORLD Radio History Book, I’m Paul Butler.

NICK EICHER: Today is Monday, November 18th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. Here’s WORLD Commentator Trillia Newbell now on being hospitable.

TRILLIA NEWBELL, COMMENTATOR: On my recent trip to Rwanda, I spent a few days in small, countryside villages. One day, our group enjoyed a meal with women who are artisans in the community. 

The home was made of mud bricks. The floor was a similar dusty color and consistency. Our host, Primitive, cooked our meal on an outside stove with a visible fire and an iron pot. 

In our Western culture, the idea of bringing anyone into a home that isn’t perfectly tidy is an embarrassment. And let’s be honest, often we want much more than just normal tidiness. 

And the reasons for our hesitation can go beyond appearances. We also allow lack of space or resources to be a hindrance to our hospitality. 

Six years ago, my family downsized—first into an apartment, then into a small ranch style home. Although we have a great deal more amenities—like running water and full electricity—the size of our home isn’t much bigger than my sister’s home in Rwanda. 

When we first moved into the area I hesitated to say that I lived in an apartment. Instead I’d say something like, “I live in the neighborhood off the major interstate.” Soon the Lord convicted me of pride and fear of man. I thank God for that revelation and the repentance that followed! 

But then visiting friends began to request to stay in our apartment. Our new home felt too small to be truly welcoming. We live in a box, filled with boxes, I thought. There’s no way I can host.

In the first century, hospitality was a matter of survival. So the Apostle Peter reminded Christians not to complain during this common activity. He urged his readers to “show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9). 

In that same passage Peter tells us to “keep loving one another earnestly,” and “as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another” (1 Peter 4:8, 10). Hospitality is a practical way to love your neighbor as yourself and fan into flame the gift that God has given you.

And Peter wasn’t alone. The Apostle Paul charged early Christians to “contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13). Hospitality and caring for the needs of others marks our faith. 

Note that Peter and Paul gave no qualifiers. They did not say, “Show hospitality if you have a lot of room and all of your possessions are neatly stored.” 

As the holidays approach, let’s remember that hospitality isn’t about the what, when, and where. It’s about the who. It’s about the person we get to welcome in and love.

And in that spirit, we are to offer what we have, in love, and trust God to bless our guests. They might not remember your space, but they will surely remember your care. That’s exactly what I remember most about my sister in Rwanda. 

For WORLD Radio, I’m Trillia Newbell.

NICK EICHER: Tomorrow: we’ll take you to a Florida city where churches are working together to bring down the divorce rate.

And, a young woman who chose life for her baby now helps others do the same.  

That and more tomorrow. 

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. 

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

In the parable of the great banquet, Jesus said:  “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Go now, in grace and peace.

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.