The World and Everything in It — November 9, 2020

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The Supreme Court confronts a conflict of its own making, pitting religious liberty against same sex marriage.

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

Also today, the Monday Moneybeat: we’ll talk about the jobs recovery, an encouraging new report for the month of October. And we’ll talk about how economic policy might work in a divided government.

Plus the WORLD History Book. Today, the 50th anniversary of the worst airplane crash in the history of college sports.

And Marvin Olasky on inspiring young Christian reporters to stand true for the faith.

REICHARD: It’s Monday, November 9th. 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: Up next, today’s news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden prepares for transition and Trump fights on » Former Vice President Joe Biden is preparing for a move into the White House. 

While President Trump has not conceded the race, every major network called the election for Biden over the weekend. 

Among the Republicans to congratulate Biden was Utah Senator Mitt Romney, but he spoke no ill of the president. He told Fox New Sunday…

ROMNEY: I think one of the things people like about President Trump is that he is different than typical politicians and people who have run for president before. He’s going to keep on fighting. That’s what you expect from President Trump.

The Trump campaign has vowed to continue the legal battle in several states, alleging voter fraud tilted the outcome of the election. 

But former President George W. Bush on Sunday said the election was “fundamentally fair” and that “its outcome is clear.” He also called Biden to congratulate him, one day after the former vice president delivered his victory speech. 

Speaking in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, Saturday, Biden promised to do all he can to unite a bitterly divided nation. 

BIDEN: It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again, and to make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are not our enemies. They are Americans!

Networks began calling the race for Biden after vote counts showed him edging in front of Trump in Pennsylvania and Georgia while maintaining a slim lead in Arizona. 

But with razor thin margins in all three states and the votes not yet certified, the Trump campaign insists it’s not over yet. 

Senate Majority may be decided in January » Meantime, voters may have to wait until next year to learn which party controls the Senate.

With control of the White House, Democrats would need two more Senate seats to claim the majority. And there are currently two undecided races in the state of Georgia.

One of those contests is already heading to a January 5th runoff election between GOP Senator Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock.

In Georgia’s other Senate race, with 98 percent of the votes in, incumbent Republican David Perdue still leads Democrat John Ossoff by 2 percent. But his share of the vote has slipped under the 50 percent mark. If that’s where it stays, then by state law, that race will also head to a January runoff.

John Ossoff told CNN…

OSSOFF: I believe that history right now is unfolding in Georgia, with two Senate races, two Senate runoffs in a single state. 

There is one other Senate race still too close to call. That is in North Carolina where GOP Senator Thom Tillis leads Cal Cunningham by nearly 2 points, with 97 percent of the votes in. 

Even if Democrats manage to flip that seat, Senate control will likely still come down to Georgia on January 5th. 

Hurricane Storm lashes Fla. Keys, threatens Gulf Coast » Hurricane Eta is swirling over the Gulf of Mexico this morning. That after lashing the Florida Keys last night with winds around 70 miles per hour, driving rain and storm surge. 

Eta is now expected to steer north, perhaps slamming Florida’s Gulf Coast sometime over the weekend. 

Dan Brown with the National Hurricane Center said this has been a remarkably busy hurricane season. 

BROWN: Eta is the 28th named storm of the season. That ties it with 2005 with the record for the most number in the Atlantic basin.

Last week, Eta killed at least 150 people in Mexico and Central America, mainly due to flooding and mudslides. 

It battered Cuba on Sunday before swiping the Florida Keys. 

Azerbaijan claims it has captured key city in Nagorno-Karabakh » The militaries of Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to battle over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

On Sunday, Azerbaijan claimed it has taken control of the strategically key city of Shusha. Fighting has raged there for more than a month.

In a televised address to the nation, President Ilham Aliyev said “Shusha is ours — Karabakh is ours.” 

AUDIO: [Sound of Aliyev speaking]

Karabakh being the Azerbaijani version of the city’s name.

But Armenia’s Defense Ministry said—quote—“fighting in Shusha is continuing. Wait and believe in our troops.”

Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijan’s borders, but has been under the control of local ethnic forces backed by Armenia since 1994. 

The latest outbreak of fighting started on Sept. 27 and has killed hundreds, if not thousands. 

Longtime “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek dies » Game show host Alex Trebek has died. 

Most Ameicans knew him as the voice of “Jeopardy!” for more than 30 years. 

TREBEK: Thank you, Johnny Gilbert. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the final game in our Super Jeopardy summer tournament. 

Trebek announced last year that he had advanced pancreatic cancer. 

The good humored host joked that he needed to beat the disease because his “Jeopardy!” contract ran for three more years. He vowed to fight the illness, and he continued working as long as possible. 

The Sony studio said Trebek died at his LA home, surrounded by family and friends. He was 80 years old.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the fight for religious freedom in foster care.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD: It’s Monday morning. This is The World and Everything in It. Today is the 9th of November, 2020. 

Good morning to you, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher.

As we get closer to our end-of-year giving drive in December and asking our regular supporters to renew their support for biblically objective journalism—this month, we’re encouraging first-time supporters to join us.

If you’re a listener who’s never given before, I want to challenge you to make this year the year you add your support for our unique brand of journalism.

And I’ve mentioned a family that is offering a matching gift, essentially saying, we want to make it clear we don’t expect you to give alone. We’re all in this together. We are with you. You make a first-time gift of any amount, we’ll match it, dollar for dollar.

REICHARD: Right, we’ve not done that before, but I really like how this friend made the offer—as you put it—a demonstration that we’re all in this together, that they want to get behind the effort to encourage more people to chip in a little, and the power of multiplication takes a little and turns it into it a lot. And the family offered to match up to $75,000 in new giving.

EICHER: And I have to tell you this: I received an email on Friday and I just want to give this friend a shout out. He said, I’d like to add $10,000 to the total—so the match goes even higher. So thankful for that, and I think it shows how hungry God’s people are for journalism that puts Him first and seeks to offer an alternative to biased, secularist, partisan news reporting. And if the election wasn’t an example of that, I’m not sure what is.

So please join with thousands of others who support our work: wng.org/donate—this month, we’re looking for first-time supporters. Wng.org/donate

REICHARD: Last week a full virtual bench of 9 justices heard oral argument in the biggest religious liberty case this term. The case is Fulton v City of Philadelphia. The justices conducted business by phone, as they have since May. 

That was on Wednesday. 

Two days prior, on Monday, Chief Justice John Roberts welcomed newest Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

ROBERTS: Before we commence the business of the court this morning, it gives me great pleasure on behalf of myself and my colleagues to welcome Justice Barrett to the court. Justice Barrett has taken the oaths prescribed by law and her commission will be duly recorded. At a later time we will have a special sitting to mark the occasion. Justice Barrett, we wish you a long and happy career in our common calling.

And then without further ado, oral arguments began. 

Today we’ll focus only on that religious liberty case.

The question is whether the government can require religious beliefs be dropped as a condition of participating in foster care placement.

EICHER: Here’s the background. 

For more than two hundred years, needy children found foster homes and ongoing support from some iteration of Catholic Social Services. We’ll use the initialism CSS for that, Catholic Social Services. 

Two years ago, the City of Philadelphia learned of CSS’s policy of referring same-sex couples who want to foster to other agencies. Now, not a single gay couple approached CSS for help. Yet the city stopped allowing foster children to be placed with a family endorsed by CSS because of that policy.

REICHARD: The city says the religious beliefs of CSS discriminate against people based on sexual orientation. That violates city policy as well as contract language foster care agencies sign to partner with the city to help find homes for children. 

You can hear the battle lines drawn in this from Chief Justice Roberts:

ROBERTS: This is a case involving free exercise rights, but they’re in tension with another set of rights, those recognized in our decision in Obergefell.

And that’s it: free exercise of religion under the First Amendment, adopted in 1791, versus the right to same sex marriage created five years ago by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling. That’s the Obergefell ruling.

Five justices created a collision between established First Amendment freedoms and new ideas of human sexuality.  And that decision’s been used ever since to try to shut down people with religious convictions about marriage being between a man and a woman.

CSS, Catholic Services, wants to continue its charitable mission. Attorney Lori Windham represents it and two foster mothers, including Sharonell Fulton. She’s taken in over 40 children in partnership with CSS, adopting two of them.

WINDHAM: Respondents act as if this is a zero-sum game: Either LGBTQ couples can foster, or Fulton and CSS can. But the law and decades of experience say otherwise. The Free Exercise Clause is at the heart of our pluralistic society, and it protects Petitioners’ vital work for the Philadelphia community.

On the other side, lawyer for Philadelphia, Neal Katyal. He mentions FCA. That’s an initialism for “foster care agency.”

KATYAL: The City’s point is that when you enable an FCA to discriminate on the basis of orientation, that will stigmatize the youth. That is a compelling interest. LGBT kids are an outsized number of people in the foster care population, and it’ll undermine the ability of the program to operate.

Katyal also mentioned that the city gives CSS millions of dollars to carry out its foster care work. So where’s the harm to CSS to serve gay couples?

But in a press conference, Windham pointed out CSS actually subsidizes the city because it provides so many services to the community, and does so at a loss to CSS. The agency spends more than it takes in to provide meals to homeless people, stock food pantries, and more in addition to foster placement. 

Now, one contention in this case is what level of review the court should use. 

When the government wants to encroach on religious freedom, it must jump a high hurdle. First, the government must show it has a compelling reason to restrict religious liberty. 

Justice Elena Kagan wanted to get to that “compelling reason.” Here she presses Hakim Mooppan, who argued on behalf of the federal government in support of CSS.

KAGAN: Do you think there’s a compelling state interest to want to eradicate discrimination against gays and lesbians? Is that a compelling state interest?

MOOPPAN: So we’re not denying the significance of that interest in the abstract. What we’re saying is that —

KAGAN: Is it a compelling state interest, Mr. Mooppan?

MOOPPAN: In the abstract, perhaps, but, on the facts of this case, the govt has undermined that interest.

KAGAN: Is it perhaps or is it yes or is it no?

MOOPPAN: Well, Your Honor, we haven’t taken a position on that question because the question in this case is whether the City of Philadelphia has a compelling interest. And the City of Philadelphia does not because they have undermined that interest by recognizing a series of exceptions.

…Exceptions such as considering the disability status of potential foster parents. Exceptions like that undermine the city’s argument that it cannot also make an exception for religious beliefs. You can trace that argument back to a Supreme Court decision from 30 years ago called Employment Division v Smith.

That decision said it was okay to fire Native Americans for smoking peyote during Native religious practice and then deny them unemployment benefits. So long as the government applied rules about drug use across the board, those rules are “neutral and generally applied.” 

No need to consider religious exercise rights then or in this case, because everyone is required to work with gay couples. 

But Windham argued this isn’t about exceptions.  This is about government infringement on religious exercise. 

Justice Kagan took up the cause of government with Windham:

KAGAN: I mean, there are a lot of things that governments do now that traditionally were done by private organizations, religious organizations. I mean, you could go through, you know, youth homes or homeless shelters, a lot of old philanthropy is now regulated and conducted by the government. Why should that matter?

WINDHAM: Justice Kagan, because I think that really points out the question in this case: Does the Free Exercise Clause shrink every time the government expands its reach and begins to regulate work that has historically and traditionally been done by religious groups?

Justice Stephen Breyer thought the problem could be resolved easily: just have CSS make a note in the margins of its paperwork saying whatever it wants to say about same-sex couples. But still, go ahead and evaluate the couple.

BREYER: What is your religious objection to that? 

WINDHAM: So Justice Breyer … what the City is asking CSS to do here is to certify, validate, and make statements that it cannot make. And I’m not aware of any case where this court has said it’s okay to compel speech or coerce religious exercise as long as you can tag a disclaimer onto the end of it.

Near the end of the argument, Justice Brett Kavanaugh looked for the win-win solution in this comment to Katyal, lawyer for the city:

KAVANAUGH: It seems like Philadelphia created a clash it seems and was looking for a fight and has brought that serious, controversial fight all the way to the Supreme Court even though no same-sex couple had gone to CSS, even though 30 agencies are available for same-sex couples, and even though CSS would refer any same-sex couple to one of those other agencies. 

And to be clear, I fully appreciate the stigmatic harm. But we need to find a balance that also respects religious beliefs. That was the promise explicitly written by the Court in Obergefell and in Masterpiece. And what I fear here is that the absolutist and extreme position that you’re articulating would require us to go back on the promise of respect for religious believers.

Katyal reframed the question as one pitting religion versus religion. CSS might use a victory here to refuse to help Baptists or Buddhists. No evidence of that happening, but Katyal went on to warn that a decision in this case will affect government contracts in all 50 states, and far beyond matters of only foster care. 

I think Justice Samuel Alito hit on what many people of faith think is truly the issue:

ALITO: If we are honest about what is really going on here, it’s not about ensuring that same-sex couples in Philadelphia have the opportunity to be foster parents. It’s the fact the city can’t stand the message that Catholic Social Services and the Archdiocese are sending by continuing to adhere to the old fashion view about marriage.

I think most justices are looking for the win-win Justice Kavanaugh mentioned.

Meanwhile, none of the hundreds of children currently in group homes or shelters is able to be placed in homes certified for foster care by Catholic Social Services. This,  even as the city put out a notice that foster homes are “urgently needed.” 

And that’s this week’s Legal Docket.

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

NICK EICHER: Let’s jump right in with financial analyst and adviser David Bahnsen.

DAVID BAHNSEN, GUEST: Good morning. Good to be with you.

EICHER: And you! So a nice jobs report, it appears, for the month of October. Almost a million private-sector jobs, balanced out by loss of a quarter-million temporary government jobs—like census workers—so about 640,000 net new jobs. Unemployment rate, which had hit almost 15 percent at the height of COVID lockdowns—now below 7 percent—at 6.9. What does that tell you?

BAHNSEN: A pretty strong continuation of the trend that has been in place, which is an outperforming job market to expectations: 6.9 percent unemployment rate is something that I had economists a couple months ago predicting that we might see by 2022. So to get a 6-handle on the unemployment rate, just months after the initial debacle is really quite surprising and encouraging. 

And yet I don’t think anyone’s approaching it with a sort of finish-line approach. There’s a lot of work to be done. And I continue to reiterate that it’s going to be very difficult to get all the way to the finish line if there are policymakers still flirting with shutdowns. 

EICHER: So let’s talk a little bit about why that is because I saw the survey of economists before that report came out, and it really underestimated the jobs recovery for October. So they’re missing it and I wonder why. 

Do you think we just had a stronger underlying economy going in or can you credit Washington’s policy response or maybe a mixture of the two?

BAHNSEN: Or neither of the two. But it’s probably a mixture of the two and neither of the two—in this sense: there was a stronger economy and it’s really hard to measure the impact that it had in the stronger recovery. But it’s also somewhat counterintuitive to say it didn’t play a role.

However, I believe the biggest factor is the one not being discussed, which is that we had such an unbelievably artificial deterioration in the economy. So it becomes much easier to put the economy back together again, when the economy didn’t really ever fall apart. You just had a government mandate that no one could do anything. So what I mean by this is not that it was right or wrong. I have all kinds of opinions about the shutdown as does everyone. But my point is economically: it wasn’t like a typical recession or let alone a severe recession, like in 2008, where there were these underlying deteriorative fundamentals in the extension of credit, the willingness of banks to lend, the interest of employers to hire, the interest of people to go get jobs. You didn’t have all those normal supply-demand imbalances in production and consumption. You just simply had the government tell you, you can’t do anything. 

Now, of course there was a pandemic going on. And if there had been no lockdown, there still would have been a recession. The natural and organic decrease of economic activity through the initial period of COVID and that uncertainty would have created a significant contraction. But because we did such a draconian thing in March, April, into May, it was so violent in its impact, economically that it’s created a violent V-shape back and yet as the K-shape and the square-root shape and all these other silly things that we talk about, they’re all reasonably true. Now you’re seeing that the shape of the recovery, Nick, is different for one sector to another, for one economic group to another, just as the impact in the deterioration was very different sector by sector.

EICHER: Politics drowned out a lot of news last week, anything we missed?

BAHNSEN: The biggest economic story of the week was on Monday and the market had a big up week all week, but Monday was the real big day, and that was the ISM manufacturing number really outperforming expectations. So if there was an economic issue this week that I think was market moving, but more importantly, economically revealing—more than the labor data—it would be the continued move higher in manufacturing, in the recovery of some levels to pre COVID.

EICHER: Alright, so we had the AP declaring game over, Biden will prevail, with the Republicans likely to control the Senate, so divided government. How do you think economic policy changes with a new administration coming in?

BAHNSEN: Well, a new administration in the caveat of what you just said, which is that the Republicans have kept the Senate and the Democrats are reasonably defanged in the House as well—even though they’re going to keep a slight majority. Politics is always about momentum and margins. 

But it’s a really important theme. It’s not just when you have a majority, but when you have the ability to get things done behind some mandate. And I don’t mean a mandate you say you have in the media, I don’t mean spin, and that’s all part of the game too. But I mean, when you really have one. 

In this case, for the Democrats to have been expected, worst-case to add 15 seats in the House, and now they’re going to best-case lose 10 seats in the House, that’s a disaster. First time ever that a new party’s president’s coming in and not going to have control of the other side of government. 

I really believe that this is exactly what we could want for the economy, in that you’re going to get a stimulus bill now that’s going to be much smaller and more targeted and more thoughtful, because McConnell doesn’t have to go appease President Trump. He is going to be able to actually have these Republican senators do what they normally do, which is try to stand up to the president who wants to spend more money, but they couldn’t do that when it was their own party. 

They can do that with Biden, right? But more importantly, all of those significant events that were talked about as campaign components for Biden, of tax increases, green new deal, some of these more severe things. They’re not going to have the majority in the Senate to do it, and they’re not going to have votes in the House. 

And if anything, you’re going to really probably see a one year, I think this is going to last for half of the next congressional term, of moderate Democrats demanding that the democratic majority in the house move more to the center.

EICHER: David Bahnsen, financial analyst and adviser. Thank you.

BAHNSEN: Thanks so much, Nick.

NICK EICHER: Today is Monday, November 9th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. 

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

EICHER: Today, mortality of an Australian outlaw, a sperm whale, and the 1970 Marshall University football team. 

WORLD senior correspondent Katie Gaultney takes us through it.

MUSIC: [NED KELLY, JOHNNY CASH]

KATIE GAULTNEY, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: That’s Johnny Cash, one of many in Nashville, Hollywood, and beyond to immortalize Australia’s Ned Kelly as a tragic antihero. This Wednesday marks 140 years since Kelly’s execution. 

The bushranger made a name for himself by taking on the police in the Victoria-New South Wales borderland. He was born to Irish parents in the colony of Victoria, and he considered his violent tactics retaliation for unfair treatment of Australia’s working class. Actor Heath Ledger expressed that sentiment when he portrayed Kelly in a 2003 movie.

LEDGER: My Irish brethren have been unlawfully imprisoned and blacklisted from their selections. How do you expect me to behave other than to stand up against this treatment? 

He and his gang also orchestrated a series of daring robberies, capturing the public imagination—particularly because of Kelly’s suit of armor made from farming equipment. A scene from a 1970 Ned Kelly film starring Mick Jagger shows the bandit forging his first suit of armor. 

JAGGER: For months now, we’ve had to run. Because the traps have had all the power and all the steel. Now we can attack! With these, we can be invincible! (gun shot)

But, of course, no one is invincible. In June 1880, police got the better of the Kelly gang, taking Ned into custody. He was hanged at a Melbourne jail later that year, putting an end to the robberies and skirmishes with police, but not to the legend of Australia’s most famous outlaw. 

MUSIC: [NED KELLY, JOHNNY CASH]

From the Australian bush to the Oregon shore. 

MUSIC: [SEA SHANTY]

Fifty years ago this Thursday, a sperm whale created quite a conundrum for state beach patrols near Florence, Oregon. 

Fifty years ago this Thursday, a sperm whale created quite a conundrum for state beach patrols near Florence, Oregon. 

NEWSREEL: The Oregon State Highway Division not only had a whale of a problem on its hands, it had a stinking whale of a problem. What to do with one 45-foot, eight-ton whale, dead on arrival…

If crew members buried the dead whale, the tide would soon uncover it. No one wanted to cut it up. And burning it wasn’t feasible. So they went to the next logical solution—explode it? 

AUDIO: [EXPLOSION]

The unsavory sushi rained down on the beach and…

NEWSREEL: … the humor of the entire situation suddenly gave way to a run for survival as huge chunks of whale blubber fell everywhere.

Remarkably, no one was injured—just completely grossed out. Even the seagulls that officials had expected to scavenge the remains steered clear. 

NEWSREEL: As darkness began to set in, the highway crews were back on the beach, burying the remains, including a large piece of the carcass that never left the blast site. 

Moving now to a tragic milestone: 

CBS NEWSCAST: Good evening, a chartered jet carrying the Marshall University football team home to West Virginia crashed last night as it tried to land at the Huntington airport…

This Saturday marks 50 years since the accident that claimed the lives of all 75 aboard Southern Airways flight 932. The doomed flight included 37 members of the Marshall University “Thundering Herd” football team. 

It remains the deadliest air disaster for any single sports team in U.S. history. The community of Huntington, West Virginia was so stunned by the tragedy that Marshall almost disbanded its football program altogether.

Jack Lengyel took over as coach after the tragedy, cobbling together a football team of junior varsity players and other college athletes. Many had never played football before. But Lengyel said recovering from difficulties is a crucial part of sports. 

LENGYEL: We have an opportunity to exemplify what I think is one of the greatest lessons in athletics and that is to face adversity, get back up off the ground, and to continue to success.

The rebuilding effort became the subject of a 2006 movie, We Are Marshall, starring Matthew McConnaughey as Coach Lengyel. He leads his team in their signature chant. 

CLIP: We are… Marshall! We are… Marshall! We are… Marshall! Funerals end today. (cheers)

MUSIC: [“WE ARE MARSHALL” SOUNDTRACK]

That’s this week’s History Book. I’m Katie Gaultney.

NICK EICHER: Today is Monday, November 9th. 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 now is WORLD editor in chief Marvin Olasky.

MARVIN OLASKY, EDITOR IN CHIEF: Some of our listeners are depressed about the presidential election news, but I won’t quote here the sour partisan notes I’ve received. Instead, I’ll quote one that came yesterday—one of the sweetest I’ve ever enjoyed. 

It went like this: Dear Dr. Olasky, In 1999 you told a freshman class of 500 students at The University of Texas at Austin, ‘Raise your hand if you are a Christian.’ I remember fearing the attention my raised hand would shine on me, but I raised it nevertheless. Only a few hands went up. You then said Christian journalists are becoming rare in the United States, and some who are Christians worry about publicly identifying themselves as such. 

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve reflected on that moment in the past 20 years. It was a defining moment for me – a moment in which I was assured I would never hide my faith. I simply want to say thank you for the warning, and thank you for that defining moment in my life. Your lecture that day gave me the resolve and determination to stay true to my faith.

Wow. I had forgotten about that course. I like to think I’m a pretty good seminar teacher, but I know I’m a mediocre lecturer. I hadn’t thought anything good came of that lecturing, but one life-changer makes it all worthwhile. There’s a lesson in this: We often don’t know what we do that has a good effect on others, but the Holy Spirit might fan into flames the tiniest of sparks.

Keeping that in mind, I’ll return to politics for a moment. A research paper last year entitled “Lethal Mass Partisanship” found two of five people in each major party view the opposition as “downright evil.” About one of five agree that their political opponents “lack the traits to be considered human—they behave like animals.” Twenty percent also agree that the U.S. would be a better country if many of their political adversaries died.

Why such answers? A Brookings Institution senior fellow, Jonathan Rauch, says humans are “tribal creatures who try to ingratiate ourselves with our group. We do that by standing on the hillside shaking our spears at the tribespeople on the next hill.” That’s probably true, because of original sin. As Christians, though, we gain new hearts so we can love people of other tribes. In Christ there is neither Jew or Greek, black or white, Democrat or Republican.

So, to all the partisans among us, I have a social media recommendation. Make half of your Twitter feed people who disagree with you. Maybe some of them will follow you. Read their tweets and don’t shake your spear in response. Write and retweet what edifies. 

I’m Marvin Olasky.

NICK EICHER: Tomorrow: Foreign interference in American elections—we’ll tell you about the extent of it this year.

And, we’ll explore the effect third-party voters had on the election in toss-up states.

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.

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. 

Go now in grace and peace.

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