The World and Everything in It - November 30, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Rising prices are hurting everyone. That includes ministries that help the poor.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Plus, foster agencies again must fight to retain religious liberty protections.

Also today, as the Supreme Court prepares for tomorrow’s arguments over Mississippi’s pro-life law, our reporter Kim Henderson catches up with the state attorney general who’s arguing the case.

And appreciating the love and concern of grandparents.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, November 30th. 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 with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden: omicron cause for concern, not panic » President Biden says the omicron COVID-19 variant is cause for concern, but not panic.

BIDEN: We have the best vaccine[s] in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists, and we’re learning more every single day.

The Biden administration has restricted travel from several African countries, including South Africa where the variant first emerged. Many other nations are doing the same.

But some top officials in Africa and at the UN are blasting the travel restrictions. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said African countries are the victims of “immorally low” vaccinations available on the continent…

DUJARRIC: And they should not be penalized for identifying and sharing crucial science and health information rates with the world.

But White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said while there’s no way to stop omicron from spreading to the United States, the restrictions are an important step.

PSAKI: This is not going to prevent. It is going to delay. And that delay is going to help us have necessary time to do the research by our health and medical teams, to get more people vaccinated, and get more people boosted.

Doctors believe the omicron variant is driving a skyrocketing COVID caseload in South Africa. But so far, most of the new cases have been mild, mainly affecting people in their 20s and 30s. And doctors say the majority of hospitalizations have been among unvaccinated patients.

But officially, the jury is still out on how dangerous and how infectious omicron actually is.

Dr. Paul Burton is chief medical officer at Moderna. He said tests over the next couple of weeks should reveal how effective current vaccines are against the variant.

BURTON: If we need to manufacture an omicron-specific variant, it’s going to take some weeks, two to three months is probably what we’re looking at.

President Biden said that on Thursday he will lay out a detailed strategy for how his administration will fight COVID-19 this winter.

Judge blocks healthcare vaccine mandate for some » But he may not be able to bank on vaccine mandates as part of that plan.

A federal judge has blocked his administration's vaccine requirement for healthcare workers in some states.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp in Missouri ruled in favor of 10 states that sued over that mandate.

Schelp said the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid lacked congressional authority to enforce the rule. The mandate would require more than 17 million workers in health facilities and home care providers to receive at least one shot by next Monday.

The mandate did allow employees to request medical and religious exemptions.

The affected states will be exempt from the vaccine requirement while the case is pending. Several other states have mounted similar lawsuits.

Iran nuclear deal talks resume in Vienna amid muted hopes » Negotiators from several countries are back at the table with Iran after talks resumed Monday in Vienna over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The remaining signatories to the nuclear deal are meeting at the same luxury hotel in Vienna where they signed the original agreement six years ago.

Negotiators held their last round of talks back in June. Since then, the task has only become more difficult with Iran’s new harder-line government.

President Biden has signaled that he wants to rejoin the deal after President Trump withdrew from it in 2018. But for now, the U.S. officials are not directly taking part in meetings.

But a U.S. delegation is indirectly involved, with diplomats from the other countries acting as go-betweens.

Critics say a revived agreement won’t prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. And leaders in Israel once again warned on Monday that Iran cannot be trusted to honor the terms of any agreement.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Migrant caravan trekking north toward U.S. border » A caravan of about 2,000 migrants is in southern Mexico today, trekking north to the United States. Most of the migrants are from Central America. They departed the town of Tapachula near the Guatemalan border on Sunday.

National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd called the ongoing unprecedented migrant surge especially concerning right now. He said that’s because many who cross the border and claim asylum will be released inside the United States.

JUDD: They are released without any testing to ensure that they don’t have the COVID and all the variants thereof.

The Dept. of Homeland Security says it does work with state and local authorities and nongovernmental groups to help ensure migrants get tested at some point after entering the country.

The Border Patrol reported more than 164,000 border encounters with migrants last month. That was down slightly from September but still more than double the total from one year earlier.

In the fiscal year that ended in September, the Border Patrol reported more than 1.7 million encounters, more than tripling total encounters from the previous year.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey steps down » Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is stepping down as CEO of the company. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has that story.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Dorsey will remain on the board until his term expires in 2022. At that point, Twitter’s chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal will take over as CEO.

Dorsey did not give a reason for stepping down. He said only that Twitter should—quote—“break away from its founding and founders.” He added that dependence on company founders is “severely limiting.”

Twitter was caught up in a heated political atmosphere around the 2020 election, particularly when it banned former President Trump after the January Capitol riot.

Dorsey defended the move. Trump later sued the company for alleged censorship.

Dorsey is also the founder and CEO of the payments company Square. Some big investors have questioned whether he could effectively lead both companies.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: ministries feel the pinch of rising prices.

Plus, the love—and concern—of grandparents.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 30th day of November, 2021.

You’re listening to World Radio and we thank you for joining us today. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up on The World and Everything in It: the rising consumer price index.

That’s one economic measure for price inflation and you’ve heard a lot about rising prices over the past few months.

No doubt you’ve seen ample evidence of the problem in your own family budget.

REICHARD: But families aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch. Ministries are also dealing with rising costs and rising need. WORLD correspondent Lauren Dunn reports.

DOHM: We hang about 4000 clothing items in here.

LAUREN DUNN, REPORTER: Paul Dohm is standing in a large metal building filled with rows and rows of clothing racks.

DOHM: And we organize it, you know – men's women's boys girls. Everything here is donated, we just make it available for people.

Dohm is the executive director of His Helping Hands. It’s been serving at-risk and low-income families in Wichita, Kan., since 2002. The ministry distributes food three times a month and provides gently-used clothes, furniture, and sometimes even cars for qualifying families.

Dohm says the ministry usually serves nearly 80,000 families every year. The number of people seeking help dipped during COVID. But now, the numbers are rising.

DOHM: It does seem like here in the past month, we've seen a greater need for food. And I think that people are, you know, their budgets are getting a little bit strained at this point that some of the stimulus stuff is over with. And so we've seen a probably a 50 percent increase in people coming in for food at this point.

And it’s getting more expensive to provide services.

Dohm estimates the ministry has experienced a 12 to 15 percent increase in costs due to inflation. That’s mostly in wages, fuel, and trash.

DOHM: As we manage the donations and get those ready for different distributions, some of these, we have to put in the trash, you know, and so, we do have a fairly high trash bill every year…We've seen rate increases of 50 to 70 percent in that area.

Nationwide, inflation is at a three-decade high. In the last year, fuel oil prices rose by nearly 60 percent, and gas prices by nearly 50 percent. Food prices have increased by about 5 percent overall.

Jerry Bowyer is chief economist of Vident Financial. He says inflation can have a greater effect on lower-income families. So, it’s not surprising that it also would increase the need for a nonprofit’s services.

BOWYER: The people that they serve are going to need them more because inflation does not hit the poor and the rich equally. Inflation hits the poor much harder, because poor people spend a far higher proportion of their income on food, shelter, clothing, than rich people.

As ministries deal with rising costs, they may not receive extra funds from donors to cover the shortfall. Bowyer says some donors may not realize inflation hits the ministries they support as well.

BOWYER: People tend to give kind of in a stable way, they give a certain amount of year to each group. And it's not always natural for them to fluctuate when the need goes up. And of course, you know, the ministries can tell them the need is greater. But there's also, there might be a little donor fatigue like oh, well, they always say the need is greater, when in fact it's almost, you know, whether it's true in the past it's almost certainly true now that the needs are going to be going up.

David Hodge is the chief financial officer at Union Rescue Mission. It’s a homeless shelter that’s operated in Wichita for 70 years.

HODGE: Our facility houses about 200 homeless men. About half are in long term programs that would lead to independent living over time. And about half are in the emergency shelters that just tend to stay overnight. And our desire’s to get all of them in into long term program so we can assist them with reentering society and living independently.

Hodge says the shelter usually serves more guests during winter months. But this year, the shelter hit capacity even during summer weeks.

Bri Smith is a communications strategist at Union Rescue Mission. She says the staff had to move chapel services to the cafeteria to make room for more beds.

SMITH: This is actually our chapel. But it is filled with beds right now because we are so like, full. So this would normally be where we would have church, but we can't because we have like an inflation of guests.

Union Rescue Mission is hoping to open a second building in the area next summer. That would double its capacity.

Like His Helping Hands, the mission is grappling with rising costs on just about everything.

Union Rescue Mission buys about half the food it needs to serve about 300 meals a day. The rest of the food is donated. Another big expense? Fuel.

HODGE: We're located about 10 miles from the core of downtown Wichita, most of the homelessness is occurring in the core. So we operate a busing service to and from downtown twice a day. And so fuel cost is important to us. And you'll notice energy costs are up about 50 percent in the past 12 months. A 50 percent increase in fuel equals a $60,000 increase to us.

Despite the rising costs, Hodge remains optimistic about the mission’s work. Staff still ask police and social service workers to bring homeless men to the shelter. The mission even sends out teams to invite men off the street in the evenings.

HODGE: I would tell you that I've seen more optimism within our men, the people coming in. Even though the number’s growing, their hearts are soft, and they love to hear about Christ. You're not homeless, if you've accepted Christ—you have a home. It’s just where do you live between now and eternity.

Back at His Helping Hands, Paul Dohm is also confident about his ministry’s future.

DOHM: We have a lot of faith in our big God. And he's never let us down. As he leads us into some of these areas, he has always been faithful to supply the needs for those areas, if we're faithful to minister to the people that that he's called us to minister to.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Dunn in Wichita, Kansas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Christian foster care organizations back in the crosshairs.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) moved to scrap Trump-era waivers for faith-based foster care agencies. Those waivers allowed them to follow their religious convictions on marriage and sexuality without running afoul of federal nondiscrimination law.

With the Biden administration lifting those protections, some foster care agencies may find themselves fighting expensive legal battles over their rights of conscience. Again.

REICHARD: Joining us now to fill us in on what’s happening here is Steve West. He’s an attorney and writes about religious liberty issues for WORLD Digital. Good morning, Steve!

STEVE WEST, REPORTER: Good morning, Mary. 

REICHARD: Well, bring us up to speed on this, Steve. This goes back to a move made by the Obama administration in 2017, if I’m recalling correctly.

WEST: It does. Just a week before President Obama exited office in January 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services added sexual orientation and gender identity to existing nondiscrimination regulations that addressed race, sex, and national origin. The rule required recipients of HHS funding to “treat as valid the marriages of same-sex couples.” So child-placement organizations like Greenville, South Carolina’s Miracle Hill Ministries faced a choice: Comply, or exit the foster care ministry; place children with same-sex couples and violate religious convictions, or lose federal funding and your state license.

REICHARD: Back in 2019 the Trump administration issued a waiver for certain states. What did that waiver say and what did it accomplish?

WEST: In essence, it said you don’t have to comply with the additional restrictions in order to continue to receive federal funding. You can continue to place children only with those who have Biblical marriages and who are Christians. The rule remained but was waived for child placing agencies in South Carolina, Michigan, and Texas.

REICHARD: Wondering why did that waiver to just those three states?

WEST: Good question. I believe it was because of the political pressure brought to bear. For example, in South Carolina, then Republican Governor Henry McMaster went to bat for Miracle Hill asking HHS for the waiver and signing an executive order barring the state’s Department of Social Services from denying a license to an agency solely based on its religious identity and beliefs. And in Michigan, Catholic charities challenged the Obama administration rules--so these were well-known hot spots.

REICHARD: Okay, so the Biden administration removed those protections for Christian foster care groups in all 50 states. How did HHS justify that move?

WEST: They have pitched it as a waiver that was too broad and as a return to a system of considering waivers on a case-by-case basis. Yet it’s fairly obvious to observers that this is another case of advancing a progressive agenda wedded to the LGBTQ movement. Under the Trump administration, HHS had a very active section of its Civil Rights Division that really policed the agency for its own violations of religious liberty--particularly under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. But this recent move suggests that emphasis is over. If that’s true, then religious liberty will likely be subordinated to other causes--like the gay rights agenda.

REICHARD: And what will this mean for these foster care organizations going forward?

WEST: If this rule remains in place, it likely means they will be back to a choice: comply, or exit. That’ll be a real loss for orphaned and vulnerable children, as faith-based ministries are huge players in a strained foster care system. Yet I suspect we haven’t heard the end of this. Some of these ministries, like Miracle Hill, have for the better part of a century been serving children. They won’t give up without a fight.

REICHARD: A fight that costs a lot of money. Well, before we leave you, Steve, I believe you have positive update on a case that you and I spoke about recently, a professor subjected to cancel culture?

WEST: That’s right, Mary. You’ll recall a theater professor at Coastal Community College in Conway, South Carolina. The college suspended Steven Earnest from teaching duties in September. That, after an email in which he questioned an apology issued by the university’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee for something wrongly construed by students as racial targeting. He suggested in an email that students were overly sensitive. Late last week, the school cleared him and said he would be returning to teaching duties in the Spring. Still, it just demonstrates how one misstep--even an innocent one, can get you in a heap of trouble in a hair-trigger campus environment.

REICHARD: Dicey times, but this shows what good can come from fighting back. Steve West writes about religious liberties for WORLD Digital. You can read his work at WNG.org. You can also subscribe to his free weekly newsletter on First Amendment issues, called Liberties. Steve, always good to have you on. Thank you!

WEST: Always glad to be on, Mary.

NICK EICHER, HOST: The beauty of Nerf guns is that the darts can’t really damage or break anything. It’s a Nerf gun, what can happen?

Engineer Michael Pick had an idea.

So he built his own Nerf gun—a 12-foot Nerf gun. It uses high pressure compressed air to propel footlong darts with PVC cores at speeds up to 50 mph.

On his YouTube channel, Pick loaded a solid-tipped dart and fired away just to see what it could do. The target: a full-size cinder block.

AUDIO: One, two, three [BANG]

Yup, that was the sound of a concrete block shattering to pieces.

The engineer used computer modeling, plywood, and a 3D printer to construct this bad boy.

Now, no parent in his or her right mind would put one of these under the tree this year, nor could you. First of all, there’s just one, and second of all, it isn’t for sale.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, November 30th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Well, today is our last day for the November New Donor Drive, and if you’ve given, I have great news. You have succeeded in hitting the goal of $40,000—all with first-time gifts.

So that’ll unlock the matching funds and the bonus and that’s really going to take us into our Year-End Giving Drive next month in a strong position. So thanks!

REICHARD: That is great news, to know that we really are in this all together. It takes effort and commitment on your part to make that first-time gift and we take it as a strong vote of confidence in what we do here to support sound journalism grounded in facts and biblical truth. The reporting, the editing, the production work—all the elements come together to create this program and ensure that it’s delivered day in, day out, all year ’round.

Now, maybe you had planned to give on this last day of the drive and I don’t want to discourage that. Come on in and make your gift, that’ll just put an exclamation point on that happy sentence. Just visit WNG.org/donate.

EICHER: Coming next on The World and Everything in It: A reckoning for Roe. Back in May, the Supreme Court granted a petition to review a Mississippi law that limits abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. The question presented during tomorrow’s argument will be this: Do these bans violate the Constitution?

REICHARD: The case is captioned Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It has pro-lifers across the nation wondering if maybe, just maybe, the time has come to overturn Roe v. Wade.

WORLD Senior Correspondent Kim Henderson has a story about the case in the current issue of WORLD magazine. She brings us this report.

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It’s a sunny September day, and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch is standing outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building. She’s wearing a bright blue pantsuit tailored to fit her thin frame, and she’s going full throttle, talking with supporters and taking pictures.

Fitch inherited Mississippi's blocked Gestational Age Act when she took office in 2020.

FITCH: We knew this case was out there for us, but you know, at that point, you think it's just a long shot…

Fitch recalled how she felt when the justices agreed to hear Mississippi’s case.

FITCH: I'm going through the airport, and all the different TVs are blaring in the Atlanta airport -- Dobbs case, Mississippi Attorney General…

In the final stretch before the December 1 hearing, Fitch has become a face of the Dobbs case. Her picture accompanies op-eds in newspapers across the country. She tweets information about pregnancy resources centers. She pushes back against the assumption that abortion creates equal opportunity for women.

And Fitch knows she’s not alone in thinking it’s high time for the High Court to reconsider Roe.

FITCH: You know, with 76 amicus briefs -- which is an incredible amount -- to ever have that supported us. I mean, we have one, a 3D to 4D, that they allowed him to attach as part of their brief. Unheard of, you know, so I think they're ready, I think I think the court is ready.

Fitch is referring to 4D sonogram imagery accepted as part of a brief. Judges will have the opportunity to watch a baby in utero yawn, suck her thumb, and kick. 

Shielding her face against the sun, Fitch holds a baby for photos, then smiles alongside a group of whitecoats. Christina Francis chairs the board of the American Association of Pro-life OBGYNS.

FRANCIS: As medical professionals, we are here to say very strongly and very clearly that abortion is not healthcare. It's not good for women. It's certainly not good for their preborn children who are our other patients. It grieves us deeply that abortion has become so embedded not only into our culture, but also into the practice of medicine.

Leah Sargeant is also posing on the steps with Fitch.

AUDIO: There's a lot of children down here. Oh my goodness, he looks pretty fun.

Sargeant is 20 weeks pregnant with her second child. She wrote an opinion piece about the Dobbs case for The New York Times.

SARGEANT: The thing I really appreciated about Attorney General Fitch's approach in the case overall, is it's making the case there's no magical moment of viability. This is kind of a contrived standard.

Sargeant says babies are still dependent on their mothers when they’re full-term. They still need support.

SARGEANT: The more we kind of frame the rights of a child around viability, rather than just their intrinsic dignity, the more we're writing out anyone who's vulnerable. And that's not just children. That's people who are elderly, people who are disabled, mothers themselves who have greater needs during pregnancy and after birth. None of us are viable, totally, on our own.

Questioning viability questions the whole construct of Roe. Maybe that’s why it took the justices 11 months to decide to hear the case.

PERRY: I am encouraged that I am, but no I never actually thought it would ever be here...

Sarah Parshall Perry is a legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation in downtown DC, where a bust of George Washington looks over her shoulder as she works. Perry can’t wait for the Dobbs case to have its day in Court.

PERRY: This is going to be a very critical opportunity to bring the strongest points to the surface. Oral argument is limited. They will have to lead with the strongest punch and see what they can get before the court in the shortest amount of time.

She’s interested to see which of the amicus briefs will be mentioned.

PERRY: To pluck out some of these more original arguments like the one brought by the feminist scholars who have said women's advancement argues for overturning Roe v. Wade. It ought not to be continued good law.

Hugh Hewitt agrees. His recent column in The Washington Post calls the upcoming hearing “Roe’s Waterloo.” He’s not alone in predicting at least six members of the Supreme Court will overturn it.

But Parshall doesn’t see the Court as having a conservative majority. She says it’s more like a 3-3-3 breakdown.

PERRY: We have the three liberals. We have three who have proven themselves to be moderate. And then we have the three true conservative justices, including Alito and Thomas, and they will most likely make up the bulk of the court's argument if Roe versus Wade is overturned.

Attendance in the courtroom will be limited, but the court will provide a phone feed so the public can listen in at supremecourt.gov or c-span.org.

PERRY: I will be doing nothing else but listening to oral arguments that day.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Washington, D.C.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, November 30th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Here’s WORLD commentator Whitney Williams on the love of grandparents.

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, COMMENTATOR: When I’m traveling for work, my grandparents want to know all of the details: “I’m staying at a La Quinta in Houston,” I tell them over the phone. “Which one?” they ask, telling me how much they enjoy La Quintas, because they allow pets. “I don’t know,” I tell them. “I’m driving and can’t recall the street name. It’s next to a big highway,” I offer. “Oh, what highway?” my grandmother asks. “I don’t know.” I say. “I just hit ‘go’ on my GPS and don’t ask questions.” “Is the hotel in a safe area?” she asks. “I don’t know,” I say. “I’m not familiar with Houston. … It has a fence around it,” I chuckle. “Well, how do you get in if it has a fence around it?” my grandmother asks, concerned. “Well, there’s an opening in the fence where you drive into the parking lot.” I explain. “What airport did you fly into?” my grandmother asks. I try to be patient and remind myself how blessed I am at 34 years of age to have living—and extremely loving—grandparents. “The bigger airport in Houston,” I answer, not being able to recall the name. I tell them I’m heading to a lunch meeting and that I have a dinner meeting later that night. “I guess you won’t be back to the hotel before dark.” my grandmother comments. I suddenly realize I’ve missed my exit and sigh internally. “Probably not,” I say.

A few hours later, my phone rings again. My grandparents have their La Quinta magazine laid out on the dining table and they’re trying to figure out which one I might be staying at. I’m driving again. “They love you,” I tell myself, taking a deep breath as I swing my rental car into a Jack in the Box parking lot so I can open up my Priceline email and give them details.

Later that night, I call to let them know I made it back to the hotel. My grandpa answers and we have a long, bittersweet conversation. What that 85-year-old man says breaks my heart: “I don’t know why I’m still around.” he tells me. I immediately feel guilty about my earlier irritation over their questioning. “Can I come visit y’all and bring the boys next week?” I ask. I can sense my grandpa’s delight through the phone and smile.

AUDIO: [Sound of walking outside, boys seeing tent, grandpa helping them set it up...]

That next Wednesday, my three boys and I make the hour-and-a-half long trek to my hometown. My grandmother cooks, dotes, and apologizes for my grandpa’s reminiscing, and my grandpa gifts my boys with a two-man Army tent circa WW1. His parents had gifted it to him and his brother when they were little boys. As I watch my sons delight over their new old tent, I soak in my wonderful, loving grandparents and thank God for the unknown La Quinta that made the day possible.

I’m Whitney Williams.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Trade policy. We’ll find out how the Biden administration is handling global trade relationships.

And, a few recommendations for readers on your Christmas shopping list.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: 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.

The Psalmist writes: Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Go now in grace and peace.

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