The World and Everything in It: November 4, 2022

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Culture Friday: affirmative action, overheated politics, and pandemic policy.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We will talk today with John Stonestreet. Also, a review of a new war movie: All is Quiet on the Western Front.

And Ask the Editor for November: considering motherhood.

BROWN: It’s Friday, November 4th. 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 has the news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: NoKo ICMB / tensions » At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a message to North Korea on Thursday.

AUSTIN: We strongly condemn the DPRK’s irresponsible and reckless activities.

Austin heard there at a news conference alongside Defense Minister Jong-Sup Lee is heard by way of a translator:

LEE: Any nuclear attack by the DPRK, including the use of tactical nuclear weapons is unacceptable, and [will] result in the end of the Kim Jong Un regime by the overwhelming and decisive response of the alliance.

North Korea fired at least six missiles into the sea on Thursday, including an ICBM, that triggered panic in northern Japan. That came days after Pyongyang made nuclear threats against Washington and Seoul.

The North was angry over joint military drills between the U.S. and South Korean militaries. But Pyongyang’s actions may have backfired.

In response, Sec. Austin said they’ve decided to extend those exercises.

AUSTIN: We are returning to large-scale exercises to strengthen our combined readiness and our ability to fight tonight if necessary.

Austin described Washington’s commitment to defend South Korea as “ironclad.”

Campaigns » It’s the final push to Election Day and Democrats are pulling out all the stops.

AUDIO: I’m fired up! Thank you! 

Former President Barack Obama campaigning for Democratic candidates in Phoenix.

OBAMA: Get off your couch and vote! Put down your phone and vote!

President Biden stumped in neighboring New Mexico on Thursday, touting his student loan forgiveness plan.

BIDEN: Despite what Republican officials say, we can afford this student loan program. That’s because of our historic deficit reduction.

But Republicans note that the Congressional Budget Office projects deficits of $1.6 trillion dollars per year for the next decade.

Meantime, in Iowa, former President Donald Trump campaigned for Republicans.

TRUMP: And if you want to save the American dream, then this Tuesday, you must vote Republican in a giant red wave! 

A current average of generic polls gives Republicans a 3-point edge over Democrats.

GOP candidate attacked » In New Hampshire, a man attacked Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc just before his debate with Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan.

The retired Army brigadier general said the man appeared to take a swing at him, but Bolduc was able to dodge the blow. Bolduc described it as an attempted assault. He told WMUR:

BOLDUC: You know, if the police didn’t do their job, it probably would have been an assault. So I’m grateful that the police were there. I’m grateful they did their job.

So far, a 37-year-old suspect is facing charges of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct.

The polls have the race between Bolduc and Hassan as a virtual tie, however, late momentum has been on the Republican’s side.

DePape may have been in country illegally » Immigration officials say the man who allegedly violently attacked Paul Pelosi last week was in the country illegally. WORLD’s Mary Muncy has more.

MARY MUNCY, REPORTER: The Department of Homeland Security says David DePape is a Canadian national and was in the United States on an expired visitor visa.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has asked the city of San Francisco to release DePape into federal custody. That suggests he could be deported after serving his sentence, if he’s convicted of a crime. He faces a slate of felony charges.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, is recovering from serious head injuries.

For WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

Lapid concedes » In Israel, Acting Prime Minister Yair Lapid conceded defeat on Thursday as former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to return to power.

Final results showed Netanyahu’s Likud Party and its nationalist and religious partners capturing a solid majority in parliament.

The strong showing promised to end political gridlock that has paralyzed Israel for more than three years.

UN inspectors found no dirty bomb evidence in Ukraine » In Ukraine, inspectors have found nothing to support Russia’s claims that Ukrainian forces were planning to set off so-called “dirty bombs.” WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has that story.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: UN inspectors examined three locations in Ukraine after the Kremlin suggested they would find evidence there of radioactive weapons — or so-called “dirty bombs.”

They found no such evidence.

Western nations have called Moscow’s repeated claims “transparently false.” The accusations raised concerns that Russia may have been preparing to use such a weapon itself and then blame Ukraine.

Meantime in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was again cut off from the electrical grid. It has been relying on emergency diesel generators to run its safety systems.

Fighting in Ukraine has repeatedly damaged power lines and electrical substations at the plant.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: Culture Friday: affirmative action, overheated politics, and pandemic policy.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It's the fourth day of November 2022. 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 Culture Friday!

Let’s bring in … who?! … John? Stonestreet?

I’m told he’s president of the Colson Center and host of something called the Breakpoint podcast.

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Well, I’d thought you guys had forgotten all about me!

EICHER: Haha! Kidding of course, you’re unforgettable.

Well, welcome back!

STONESTREET: Well, it’s good to be back!

BROWN: Affirmative Action in university admissions may be on its way out. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas expressed his skepticism this week: “I’ve heard the word diversity quite a few times and I don’t have a clue what it means. It seems to mean everything for everyone.”

Obviously it’s a legal issue. But it also feels like a huge cultural moment, too. What do you think?

STONESTREET: Well, I think it is. And I think it's clear that the policies, as they have been applied, have been discriminatory in the name of not being discriminatory, I mean, that those facts of the case at least seem clear. Now, of course, I think what Justice Thomas is getting at is that, you know, basing identity, clearly on an attempt for diversity requires that you define what you mean. And what we know to be true, is that policies about diversity have reduced people down to, you know, ethnic categories, and haven't done a thing about ideological diversity. There's no ideological diversity on university and college campuses, or at least many of them. And, you know, the arguments that were put by those trying to uphold these policies were, you know, ethnic diversity brings ideological diversity, that clearly has not been the case when all the power holders of a particular university setting bend in a very stark direction, ideologically. And so it just hasn't worked. And so I think this is an important conversation. And I think it's an important decision that the Supreme Court is taking up, of course, we don't know what's going to happen, we don't know where all of this is going to land. And I do think we need to, you know, work in every single way that we can to make sure that the playing field is fair, that people do have equal access to opportunity. But you know, as many people have pointed out, seeking diversity in outcome is not the way to go about it, you have to seek diversity in opportunity, and that everyone has access. And then, you know, let the mix of innovation and hard work and ingenuity and, and talent, you know, rise to the top. And I think that's, you know, the kind of the way the world needs to work, and it hasn't. So it'll be interesting to see where they land on this. But I think Justice Thomas's words here reflect the words that a lot of us have the same ideas. We hear this as a goal: diversity, diversity, diversity, but it seems very limited, it seems very unequally applied, and unhelpful, at least as we are using the word, oftentimes using it without ever defining it in the first place.

EICHER: John, let’s talk about this strange and frightening story: the home invasion of House Speaker Pelosi’s residence in San Francisco. Thank the Lord she wasn’t home and we can be thankful her husband is going to be okay.

But I think it’s the nature of our divided politics that when we have an event of this sort, that we’ll retreat to our respective ideological corners and say, (a) this is a story about individual criminality or (b) these are the predictable consequences of political rhetoric that’s overheated.

I’m happy to hear your analysis of our dysfunctional politics, but I also wonder, shouldn’t we have both conversations: Isn’t our rhetoric at times overheated, and don’t we have a real problem with mentally ill people and ineffective approaches to crime-fighting?

STONESTREET: Well, yeah, I think both of those things are true. And I think both of those things are factors in this horrible incident. And, you know, it's, it's terrible, that should never happen. It was strange to many that it could possibly happen when you're talking about the one who's third in line for the presidency. I mean, it just is bizarre, especially in an area that has been so overrun, in many ways with criminal activity because of approaches to crime fighting and to policing. But I also think that we're not quite getting at it if we are just looking at the problem of political rhetoric, the heat behind the rhetoric today is a problem. There's no question. But that in and of itself is a fruit not a root. And that's not the root cause of what we're addressing. What we're looking at right now is a culture where too much weight is put on politics. Chuck Colson, of course, used to love to quote that line that politics is downstream from culture. I think that tends to be true, though politics, of course, is in and of itself a part of culture. But I think, in our cultural moment, politics has become culture, politics has become the defining thing that we point to. I mean, even now, as we head into the midterms, we even hear politics as identity. We talk about identity politics, but now it's politics as identity, like the most important thing about you are your political views. And it's just not a healthy way to live. And it's not a way that we can order society, because politics just isn't big enough to carry that much weight. And clearly, in far too many people's minds in America right now, politics is the only game in town. And I realized that I'm saying that, you know, just out from a very important midterm. And I realized that I'm saying that in a context where too many Christians then punt to, well, let's just stay out of politics, as if that's possible. And as if that's a good thing, when it's not, we got to engage in that process. But we also can't put so much weight on it. It just can't. You're not a healthy society when that happens, and you don't have healthy citizens in that kind of an unhealthy society.

EICHER: You saw the news around the release of standardized test results showing a marked decline in academic performance as a result of pandemic policies, and this all seems pretty predictable. But I was also struck by the plea by a writer in The Atlantic: “Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty: We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID.” Do we need to do that? And should we make the distinction between when we were “in the dark” and when we weren’t?

STONESTREET: Yeah, I saw that piece and thought a couple things were interesting about it is, would this writer have made the same plea if all the data that was coming out supported the earlier self confessed hysterics that she participated in? And you know, she admitted to that in the piece. But the point you bring out I think, is really important, too, because we're also seeing numerous news reports about the collaboration between the state and social media platforms to suppress information, even at a time when we knew better, even when the best data was out there. You know, many of us have wondered, since mid 2020, or at least late 2020: Why were conversations about natural immunity, essentially, absent from all the powers that be, you know, from state officials, to media outlets, and everything else. And, you know, more and more data was coming out, we had false promises that came out. I mean, all of this was, was now becoming really clear. So there is a point where you don't get amnesty. There is a point when the gut level approach to reality in which you seek to control people's lives through law and government policy took over, and it certainly superseded what was in the best interest of children. And you kind of saw that kick in and then a doubling down, and even a removal of public information to kind of cover the backside. And at some level, that's what happens in a place like this. I think the midterms are going to be in certainly in some places a referendum on this, as more of this data comes out. And we learn more and more and more.

And at the same time, I do have to say that I was I was a little bit sympathetic on this. And I think we should at least give a little bit of grace for those who did act the way they did out of, you know, best interests. And we may not always be able to tell the difference between those who clearly were seeking power and those who clearly weren't, but there certainly was some gray matter at that time, at least early on. But man, more and more is coming out of what was known and it's not looking good.

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

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: There’s a nondescript building tucked away on a nondescript street in Delaware.

Its exact location, we can’t disclose.

The building would be easy to miss if you happened not to spot the razor wire and armed guards surrounding it.

The safe inside is state of the art. The building itself has seismic motion detectors, in case someone tried to jackhammer one of the walls.

You may think I’m describing Fort Knox, but I’m not. That’s in Kentucky anyway. But this place does hold stuff that’s good as gold:

Things like a Pikachu trading card, very rare. And a pair of sneakers once worn by the late NBA superstar Kobe Bryant. There’s also a mint-condition Mickey Mantle baseball card.

In all, it holds more than $200 million worth of valuables—not so much for collectors, but for people wanting to protect assets they intend one day to trade. You don’t want to lose this stuff—you can imagine the pain. That’s why the owner of the facility calls the place “the painkiller.”

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, November 4th.Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the new war movie All Quiet on the Western Front. WORLD’s Emily Whitten says that Christians can appreciate its artistry, but not its anti-war message.

EMILY WHITTEN, REVIEWER: All Quiet on the Western Front begins in the stillness of No Man’s Land, between French and German trenches of World War I.

AUDIO: [GUNSHOTS]

But it’s not “all quiet” for long.

AUDIO: [WAR SOUNDS]

The new movie is an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1928 novel. Early on, protagonist Paul forges his parent’s signature so he can join the German army with his friends. It doesn’t take long for him to realize that the rousing speeches he heard at school about the glories of warfare were nonsense.

CLIP: …for the Kaiser, God, and the Fatherland!! [CHEERS]

His first day at the front, a bomb rips one of his friends apart.

As he leans over his friend, taking in the loss, a commander barks out orders for him to continue collecting dog tags from the dead. There is no time to mourn or honor the fallen.

CLIP: [CRYING] Come on, keep working! We don’t have all day!

Like the book, this film offers an anti-war message—something Christians should be careful of.

But it does get a few things right. For one, it’s authentically German, like the novel’s author. Writer/director Edward Berger uses German actors who speak in German, so English speakers will need to read subtitles or listen to a clunky overdub of British English.

Still, the cinematography is stunning. Brenner breaks the monotony of trench warfare scenes with aerial panoramas of battlefields, trees, and surrounding country sides. He dots earthy blues, greens, and browns, with flames of bright orange and yellow from explosions and even flamethrowers.

CLIP: [FLAMETHROWER]

I suspect that artistry has a lot to do with the film’s over 90% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But be forewarned, the violence captured here also earns the film’s R rating for “strong bloody war violence and grisly images.” It’s meant to be hard to stomach.

Other negatives: At one point off screen, a character has sex outside of marriage and later talks about that experience with his buddies.

More generally, the film’s disjointed storytelling makes it hard to feel connected to anyone. Paul in particular isn’t very likable. His overacting in early scenes may be on purpose, part of the ironic flavor. But it undermines the film’s effectiveness.

As for the message, Christians can acknowledge that war is horrific and blind patriotism is bad. But we can’t accept a blanket anti-war message. Professor Joseph Loconte wrote A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and A Great War. In that book, he says Christian writers J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis experienced many of the horrors of World War I—without falling prey to pacifism and other errors of their age.

LOCONTE: How did those two men respond–ultimately, through their works? They're very clear about the tragedy of war, the tragedy of the human condition, the will to power. But they're also very clear about the need to resist evil in all of its forms.

Christian “just war” theory goes back centuries and involves many layers. But Lewis and Tolkien both agreed on this point.

LOCONTE: There are some wars that are absolutely morally necessary in order to protect the innocent from great harm, from great evil. And the difficulty with Eric Remarque, and so many anti-war poets and writers in the 1920s and 30s, is that they seem to have abandoned the concept.

The new film version of All Quiet on the Western Front adds several characters that aren’t in the book, including German and French leaders who—with one exception—ignore the horrors they inflict on soldiers like Paul. At least one reviewer says the film uses these scenes to blame France for Hitler and the Holocaust.

Such criticism is beside the point, though, if Remarque is right—if there’s no God, no meaning, no honor in life, and no hope in death. Near the end of the movie, this is made clear when Paul goes to great lengths to save a friend who’s been shot. They finally arrive at the camp hospital, and he heaves his friend onto a dirty mattress. A doctor makes this casual remark.

CLIP: You could have spared yourself the trouble. He’s dead.

Like Tolkien’s vision of Sam carrying Frodo on Mt. Doom, Paul gives all he has to save his friend—but there is no grace here, only horror and futility.

In contrast, Christians know our real problem isn’t war—it’s sin. And the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

LOCONTE: There is a moral, spiritual dimension to life. And that means that war is not the worst of evils. Dying with no sense of meaning or purpose, that is a worse evil.

I’m Emily Whitten.

BROWN: You can hear more of Emily’s discussion with author Joseph Loconte this weekend right here in our podcast feed. Look for that Saturday afternoon.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, November 4th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. We receive a lot of emails with questions, concerns, and suggestions. We present some of those during our regular Listener Feedback segment. But once a month we ask the editor to respond to a particular inquiry. WORLD Executive Producer Paul Butler will do just that.

PAUL BUTLER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Today I’d like to respond to an email we received after the October 14th feature by Steve West on Christian poet Ann Porter.

I was hosting that day, and introduced the segment this way:

PAUL BUTLER: And I’m Paul Butler. Next up: hope for those who haven’t found their calling…at least not yet. WORLD’s Steve West tells us about an author whose first poems weren’t published until she was in her 80s.

After that segment aired, a listener named Amy wrote to me about that introduction. Here’s what she wrote:

This may surprise you, but those words discouraged me! I believe your writers intended them to encourage. Let me explain…

Ann Porter was a poet who was published late in life. I do see that as special. But she had already fulfilled her life’s calling before that point. Motherhood is a calling as is being a wife!

I have often felt discouraged about being a mom, and because at this point in my life, I am a stay-at-home mom homeschooling or doing distance ed with my children, I feel even more discouraged when I hear a philosophical statement that implies that this lady poet didn’t find or fulfill her calling until she got her poems published in her 80s. What does that say about what I’m investing my life in?

The world already devalues and discourages motherhood. Please don’t follow suit.

Amy didn’t leave an email address, so I hope she’s listening this morning.

We have seven core values at WORLD. They help us define our organizational culture. Number 5 is this: “We treasure our families.” One of the last things we would ever want to downplay is the divine calling of motherhood.

We did not intend in any way to suggest that Ann Porter had missed her calling until she was 80 years old. Or that being a poet was somehow more important than being a parent. What we intended to communicate was that even at 80 years old, when our society tends to push our seniors to the margins and silence them, God still had work for her to do. A calling that was in addition to—or perhaps even granted to her because of her faithfulness to—the earlier God-ordained callings within her family, her church, and her community. And we could have said that better.

Each and everyone of us has multiple callings. I am a husband, a father, a grandfather, a pastor…and I serve here as a manager. I believe that each of these callings come from God, and He equips me to do each of them. Some of those callings come and go, and others are life-long.

Our church just finished Proverbs 31 last night in Bible study. In this great chapter on the virtuous woman—or the woman of noble character—she’s praised not for her beauty or charms, but because of her fear of the Lord…which of course we see throughout the Proverbs as being the beginning of wisdom. Then king Lemuel’s mother says this…and I think it is true of every homeschooling mom I know:

Proverbs 31:25-29
25 ​Strength and honor are her clothing; ​​She shall rejoice in time to come. 26 ​​She opens her mouth with wisdom, ​​And on her tongue is the law of kindness. 27 ​​She watches over the ways of her household, ​​And does not eat the bread of idleness. 28 ​​Her children rise up and call her blessed; ​​Her husband also praises her.

And so we want to add our voice of praise to that chorus. Motherhood is already a difficult enough job without the myriad voices that downplay it or devalue it.

I could now get an email criticizing me for not acknowledging the other callings of women—those without children, those who have yet to marry, or who never married. That is not the intent. We must all come alongside each other and encourage one another in the faith and in following God’s callings—whatever they may be and in whatever season.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter what our society thinks about our God given callings…the scriptures instruct us to fear the Lord and invest His gifts in His work so that we may hear these words—words I hope our listeners consider as they contemplate your letter Amy, as well as— Ann Porter’s life: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many. Enter into the joy of your lord.”

I’m Paul Butler.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, it’s time to say thanks to the team members who put the program together this week: Kent Covington, Mary Reichard, David Bahnsen, Josh Schumacher, Carolina Lumetta, Emily Whitten, Joel Belz, Onize Ohikere, Amy Lewis, Katie Gaultney, Emma Friere, Cal Thomas, Collin Garbarino, Anna Johansen Brown, Lynde Langdon, Steve Kloosterman, Mary Muncy, and John Stonestreet.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And thanks also to the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz. Production assistance this week from Lillian Hamman and Benj Eicher.

Kristen Flavin is our producer. Paul Butler is our executive producer.

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 Bible says: “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:14-15 ESV)

Remember to worship in your local church alongside your brothers and sisters in Christ.

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

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.