The World and Everything in It - November 9, 2022

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

New rules were in place for yesterday’s midterms. We sent reporters to polling places around the country to see how it’s working out.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll also talk about the practical effect of those many changes to election rules.

Also today--life on a floating hospital.

And some feminists are saying the sexual revolution wasn’t such a great idea.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, 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: Now the news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Election 1 » Election Day has come and gone. And it wasn’t quite the red wave Republicans had hoped for. Both parties had their share of victories.

But at 2 a.m. this morning, a confident GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy told Republicans …

MCCARTHY: Now let me tell you, you’re out late. But when you wake up tomorrow, we will be in the majority and Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority.

That’s not a certainty as vote counts continue this morning, but it is very likely.

Republicans need a total of 218 seats to reclaim the majority, and the party appears on track to surpass that total.

Election 2 » But it’s still unclear this morning which party will control the Senate. And Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief after its Senate candidates held off GOP challengers in multiple tough races. That includes Pennsylvania, where Lt. Gov. John Fetterman told supporters …

FETTERMAN: You didn’t let us down. And my promise to all of you is I will never let you down!

His defeat of Republican Mehmet Oz flips a formerly red seat blue.

But in North Carolina, Republicans held onto a key Senate seat with Ted Bud’s victory over Cheri Beasley.

BUDD: Your hard work and your commitment to our party has kept North Carolina red, and it has fueled the conservative victory that we see tonight.

And in Georgia, echoes of 2020 as a tight Senate race there might be heading to a runoff election.

Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock …

WARNOCK: Whether it’s later tonight or tomorrow or four weeks from now, we will hear from the people of Georgia!

Election 3 » Meantime in Florida, GOP Sen. Marco Rubio cruised to reelection. He defeated Democrat Val Demmings by nearly 17 points.

In fact, it was a big night for almost every Republican on the ballot in Florida.

Gov. Ron DeSantis trounced Democrat Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points.

DESANTIS: After four years, the people have delivered their verdict. Freedom is here to stay!

As DeSantis spoke, the crowd began chanting, “Two more years!”  a reference to DeSantis potentially running for president in 2024.

DESANTIS: Two more years! Two more years!

The GOP also picked up several house seats in the once solidly purple state.

Tropical Storm Nicole » Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency in Florida as the state braces for another hurricane.

It has been almost a century since a hurricane last slammed the east coast of Florida. But that’s where Hurricane Nicole is expected to make landfall tomorrow morning--somewhere between Ft. Lauderdale and Daytona Beach.

But Jack Bevin with the National Hurricane Center cautions …

BEVIN: Because this storm has a larger size, the impact will cover a large area. People should not focus on the exact forecast track.

Forecasters said heavy rain could fall on areas still recovering from Ian's flooding.

U.S., Russia set to resume arms control talks » The United States and Russia will soon hold talks on resuming suspended nuclear arms control inspections.

Arms inspections had been on hold during the pandemic and languished after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington has made clear to Moscow …

PRICE: That measures imposed as a result of Russia’s war against Ukraine don’t prevent Russian inspections—inspectors from conducting New START treaty inspections in the United States.

He said he’s hopeful that both sides can resume those inspection soon.

The talks will likely take place in Egypt before the end of the year.

Alabama guitarist dies at 73 » 

SOUND: Mountain Music

Guitarist Jeff Cook, who co-founded the iconic country group Alabama has died.

He helped to steer the band up charts with hits like “Song of the South” and “Mountain Music.”

SOUND: Mountain Music

Cook had Parkinson's disease and disclosed his diagnosis in 2017. He died Tuesday at his home in Destin, Florida at the age of 73.

With Cook as its guitarist, fiddle player and vocalist, Alabama hit number one on the Billboard Country charts 33 times.

I'm Kent Covington. Straight ahead:

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday, November 9th, and you’re listening to the The World and Everything in It. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

First up today: Changes to the way we vote.

After the 2020 election, allegations of fraud led to changes in voting laws across the country. Yesterday’s elections put those changes to the test.

We sent reporters to polling places to find out if anyone noticed any differences. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has our story.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Preston McFarland is a voter in the suburbs of Atlanta.

MCFARLAND: It's just seventy-five percent of people tend to vote before the election day. The only reason I'm here today is because I moved and I was really busy the past couple of weeks, but I always vote early. It's really easy to vote early in Georgia.

Last year Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law that restricted absentee ballots and drop boxes. It also put in place a nonpartisan State Election Board to review election workers’ performance.

Many thought the law would curtail voting by minority groups and Democratic voters. But then early voting in Georgia blew way past expectations. According to the Georgia Secretary of State more than two million people had voted as of Saturday, the weekend before Election Day.

In Cumming, Georgia, Carrie Lewis said the changes haven’t affected her, but they did cause her some concern.

LEWIS: I want to make sure that other people are able to vote and to be able to vote the way they're comfortable voting. I don't have a problem with absentee ballots and it worries me that some people do.

Voting in Texas has also changed. Kerri Townsend voted yesterday in the city of Round Rock.

TOWNSEND: I always come in person. I do not trust the mail in ballots after the whole debacle that we had not that long ago. So I refuse to do any mail in ballots. I prefer coming in person, just my preference.

Last year, the state Legislature rolled back pandemic voting accommodations such as drive-thru polling places and 24-hour early voting. Voters have to include more ID information on their absentee ballot, and the state limited who could send out unsolicited applications for mail-in ballots.

Sheila Marshall is new to Texas. She voted for the first time there yesterday.

MARSHALL: I just feel like they're they're kind of making extra steps for voters, which I feel like it's kind of unnecessary.

In Michigan, voters had the opportunity to decide yesterday how elections should be conducted in their state because of so-called “Proposal 2” on the ballot. The proposal would limit the states’ ability to enact stricter voter ID laws. It would also enshrine procedures for early voting in the state constitution.

Nineteen-year-old Samantha Kleis voted or the first time yesterday. Kleis voted for proposal 2.

KLEIS: If it's going to let more people vote and more easily than Yeah, I would, I would support that. It was only with the help of a bunch of people that I was able to come here.

Barb Miller of Grand Rapids voted against the proposal. She believes voter ID requirements make elections more secure.

MILLER: We can't go buy cigarettes, we can't buy alcohol. You know, there’s a lot of things we can’t do without an identification. Can’t get on an airplane can’t get tickets for certain things.

Back in Texas, 60-year-old Cliff Taylor reflected on his voting history, which began when he was 18 years old.

TAYLOR: It is a privilege to vote in this country. Yeah, it's a privilege. You know, some people don't because they don't the thought is that their vote doesn't count. But I'm a firm believer that every vote does count. And I still have faith in in the country.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And special thanks to WORLD’s Bekah McCallum in Georgia, Addie Offereins in Texas, and Leah Savas in Michigan for their reporting on Election Day.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Speaking of which, make sure to join our WORLD Opinions video livestream tomorrow night: the Meaning of the Midterms.

Join moderator Albert Mohler with panelists Andrew Walker, Allie Beth Stuckey, Erick Erickson, and Hunter Baker. They’ll consider the question: What do the 2022 elections mean for issues concerning evangelical Christians? A WORLD Opinions video livestream at WNG.org/live. 9pm Eastern / 6 Pacific

REICHARD: Next up on The World and Everything in It: new rules for voting this year.

Many states led by Republicans put new procedures in place for this year’s election. They said the idea was to safeguard elections and voters’ confidence in the integrity of those elections.

But Democrats claimed the changes were actually designed to suppress turnout among minority voters. Which was a case President Biden tried to make.

BIDEN: It is the most pernicious thing. This makes Jim Crow look like ‘Jim Eagle.’ This is gigantic!

Alright, well, ground zero in this fight is Georgia. Democratic activists even pressured Major League Baseball to move the 2021 All-Star game out of Atlanta because of the voting changes.

But Georgia this year recorded record-high early voting. More than 2 million Georgians cast a ballot before Election Day. And turnout among black voters also set a new record in the state.

Joining us now to talk about the voting changes, and what difference they’ve made is Mark Caleb Smith. He’s a political science professor at Cedarville University, a Christian college in Cedarville, Ohio.

REICHARD: Good morning, professor. Welcome back.

SMITH: All right. Good morning, it's always a pleasure to be with you.

REICHARD: Let’s talk first about Georgia. What changes to the voting system there led to the Democrats’ uproar?

SMITH: So good number of changes took place in

Georgia. What changes to the voting system there led to the Democrats’ uproar?

SMITH: So a good number of changes took place in Georgia. A few just quickly, poll hours can now only be extended by a superior court judge and not by a lower level judge. It limits the use of mobile voting unless there's a gubernatorial declaration of emergency. Probably the one that got the most attention is it prohibits anyone from handing out water to those who are in line to vote as long if they're within 150 feet of a polling place. But it does allow poll workers to hand out water if they choose to do that. It did limit the number of drop boxes for ballots for absentee ballots as well. And maybe most critically, in some ways, it requires an enhanced verification process for absentee ballots. So that's just a smattering. I mean, Georgia had a pretty widespread set of changes, but those were probably the highlights.

MR: Given all that, what do you think is behind the record early turnout in Georgia?

SMITH: Well, I think it would have to be the interest in the election mean, we're looking at turnout levels that we would sometimes more commonly associate with the presidential election. As you said in your introduction, last number, I saw 2.5 million people who voted early in Georgia, almost 750,000 of those are African Americans. And we even saw a pretty significant increase in young voters from 18 to 29. So turnout has been high, at least for early voting. But I think it would be incorrect to assume that the laws in Georgia had no effect. I mean, because we really don't know what the turnout could have been had those laws not been put in place. But if the laws were really punitive and coercive and designed to oppress turnout, we can at least say say they failed to do that.

MR: A group connected to Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia, Stacey Abrams, sued to block the voting changes in the state. But the courts have sided with the state. And it seems to me the common thread is that changes to the voting process in red states has held up under legal scrutiny, correct?

SMITH: Yeah, that's right. I mean, we would see these laws come under scrutiny if they were in clear violation of the 14th amendment in the Constitution, or if they were in violation of the Voting Rights Act from 1965, or its various amendments. But we really didn't see to my knowledge, any of those changes come under severe scrutiny from the courts for those kinds of violations. And so, while red states maybe did take measures into account that would make it a little harder to vote at the margins, none of those rose to the level really of being discriminatory, at least in a legal sense.

MR: Okay, what changes have we seen to voting rules in other states? What effect have those had?

SMITH: A pretty wide range, as you were saying before, a good number of red states have put changes in place. Some of those dealt with early voting decisions. So Iowa, for example, reduced early voting from 29 days before the election to 20 days before the election. As in Georgia, some states have gotten a little bit stricter with their signature verification process. In Arkansas, for example, voters have to add additional information to their signature. And so it could be a driver's license number could be social security number or other personal information that could then be matched to them.

I think as a political scientist, perhaps maybe the most potentially troubling set of changes. In some states, there have been changes that would maybe allow partisanship to enter into the process more directly. And so sometimes Secretaries of State are being pulled back in their power, and maybe more partisan groups like election boards are having more power. So in Arkansas, for example, complaints now go to the state board of elections, as opposed to county prosecutors, and those are the ones that I think I'm going to keep the most eye on to see where disputes are settled, how they're settled, and whether we can still be confident these elections are as neutral as they can be, and hopefully as bipartisan as they can be.

MR: Mark, do you think voters who doubted the integrity of the last election will be satisfied with the rules red states put into effect this go round?

SMITH: You know, I really don't think so. I hate to say that, but I really don't think so because I think a lot of the dissatisfaction or suspicion surrounding the last election was rooted in maybe misunderstanding. In some situations. For example, there's a misunderstanding about how and in what order votes are counted. And so people who vote on the day of the election, their votes typically get counted first, and then early, or absentee ballots get counted next. Well, that that process is much more time intensive, it takes much longer. And so given the fact that we've had close elections, and we've seen a rise in early voting, or absentee vote voting, it shouldn't surprise us that there's a delay in counting. But some people have read that to mean that it's opened up the process for fraud. And I'm not convinced that that's necessarily true. And so I'm worried that even though red states have done a good job, I think on the whole of trying to nail down their election laws, I'm not sure that'll be sufficient for a lot of voters.

MR: I know some blue states have moved to make voting a lot easier … and to make some of the pandemic-related measures permanent. Mark, talk about changes in blue states.

SMITH: We probably haven't seen as many dramatic changes, for sure. But I think two things that we have noticed is there's an increase in the amount of states that offer what we call ‘no excuse absentee ballots’. And so if you simply request one, then you can be given an absentee ballot. That's the case in 26 states. And so that's a high that we haven't seen before. We've also seen some states like Virginia, expand their use of drop boxes. So you can take those early ballots and turn them in in multiple different ways and multiple different places, which in theory should make it easier for people to vote. But on the whole, in the blue states or bluish states, we might say, not nearly as many changes.

MR: Okay, final question having to do with early voting across the county. Do you think we’re moving more toward a system where elections could potentially be decided before Election Day?

SMITH: Yeah, we may be getting closer to that, which is a really interesting trend, I think. Right now 45 states plus the District of Columbia allow for early voting, and the numbers of early voters continues to increase pretty dramatically. In Pennsylvania, for example, you can vote up to 50 days before the election takes place in Minnesota, it's 46 days. And so a lot of people are casting ballots a month and a half or more before the election takes place. I understand the upside of that - it's convenient and makes it simpler for some people, especially if they have a jam packed schedule. The downside is sometimes you're casting your ballot before you know some key, critical information. And so a good number of Pennsylvanians, for example, cast their ballot for the Senate contest. Before that pivotal debate took place between Oz and Fetterman. You know, as a voter or potential voter in Pennsylvania, I'd have liked to have seen that debate before I cast a ballot. And so I think there are a lot of benefits potentially to early voting, but maybe some downsides as well.

REICHARD: For sure. Mark Caleb Smith from Cedarville University. Professor, thanks so much!

SMITH: Thank you.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, November 9th.

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

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: bringing the hospital to the patient.

Mercy Ships is an international charity that runs floating hospitals. They’re fitted up with medical gear and staffed with doctors, nurses, physical therapists, you name it: Self-contained medical centers that bring care to people in need.

EICHER: What’s it like to work on the other side of the world in a hospital that floats? WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown talked with one young volunteer about her experience.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Rachel Hooper knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up.

HOOPER: I wanted to be a chef until I was 16 years old. So I was convinced I was going to as an 18 year old move to New York City to go to the Culinary Institute of America.

But at 16, Hooper went to visit her great-grandmother. She was in the hospital at the end of her life. Hooper stayed for about a week.

HOOPER: And I watched the nurses that came into her room and said, Mary, have you pooped today, here are your pills and left, and the nurses that paused and said, Mary, how are you today and actually cared about her not just as a patient but as a person.

That’s when she started to change her mind. Or more accurately, God did.

HOOPER: I even told a mentor of mine who told me in my teen years, Rachel, you should be a nurse I said, Who wants to be a nurse? And the Lord said, you do. And he changed my heart.

BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY BAND

So at 18, she packed her bags and headed, not to big city lights, but to Boise State University…in her own backyard. She got her degree in nursing, worked two years at the same hospital she was born in, then applied to Mercy Ships. In February, she headed to Senegal.

Senegal is on the west coast of Africa. Sahara sand and grassy savannah in the north fade to green marsh and rainforest in the south. Most people live in the coastal region.

MAN SPEAKING WOLOF

They speak French, but with a mix of local African dialects.The ship the Africa Mercy docked in the port city of Dakar, home to 1.2 million people.

AMBI: KIDS PLAYING

HOOPER: My first day on the ship, I remember being picked up in the Mercy ship vehicle and driving down the narrow port and through the the gate to the port, I could just see where it said mercy.

When Hooper came onboard, she had to relearn some basics. Like how to keep records on a paper chart instead of on a computer. And other, more vital tasks.

HOOPER: What it looks like to care for patients with ebony black skin, when maybe for me, coming from the Pacific Northwest, I mostly start IVs and do blood draws and skills on people who have white skin where I can see all their veins.

A crew of local Senegalese worked on the ship, translating between patients and caregivers.

Hooper started off working in women’s health. In many African nations, girls get married too young. When they get pregnant, they often aren’t able to deliver the baby safely.

HOOPER: So these women after having these complicated pregnancies then losing their babies, there would be shame and isolation because they were considered unclean. They couldn't control their body functions, they would leak urine or poop, whenever they'd walk to the market. Some of them were divorced by their husbands, some of them were kicked out of their families.

Hooper remembers her very first patient. She had an obstetric fistula that caused her to leak urine. The Mercy Ships team performed surgery to fix it, but the surgery was unsuccessful.

HOOPER: And she continued to leak urine after the surgery. I was sitting with her when I was getting ready to discharge her. And I was discouraged. And the Lord convicted me so quickly and said, Rachel, I'm giving you the privilege of weeping with those who weep. And so to sit with this precious patient--to get to look her in the eye and say that I loved her, and I saw her and I cared about her, and that she had dignity and worth because she was an image bearer of a holy God. That was a precious moment.

When Hooper would ask her patients if she could pray for them, they always said yes.

HOOPER: As an American, I would fold my hands and close my eyes. But in Africa, they specifically open up their hands. So it would be common for all of the patients, even in the beds around the patient you were praying for, to then open up their hands because they wanted to receive what you were praying as well.

About 95 percent of people in Senegal are Muslim.

AMBI: SINGING

When Hooper talked with the local Senegalese translators, she often asked about that.

HOOPER: I could just say, Hey, tell me, why are you a Muslim? And how has that impacted your life?

Her favorite shift was the night shift. 3am while all the patients are asleep is the best time to have those deep conversations.

HOOPER: And that would just be a huge catalyst to be able to understand more about them and their culture, but then also, in turn, get to share about the hope that I have and my love for Jesus Christ.

She says it was drastically different from the US, where many people get offended if you try to talk about God. People in Senegal thought it was an honor to be asked and in turn to ask their own questions.

HOOPER: I was asked questions like, Rachel, how do you know that Jesus rose from the dead? Or do you believe that the Old Testament contradicts the New Testament? Or do you worship Mary because Mary is the mother of Jesus?

Those conversations led to deep and lasting friendships. When she first left the Africa Mercy, Hooper was devastated.

HOOPER: It felt like my heart was being ripped open, I burst into tears as soon as those airplane wheels took off the ground.

Coming back to Boise, Idaho, left Hooper feeling lost. Where was her home now? Boise or Senegal? And she was confused. Confused by the abundance of Costco and Trader Joe’s.

HOOPER: We have way too many types of things. I remember being in the the baking aisle of Walmart, and there were nine different types of marshmallows.

Hooper is still figuring out what comes next. She’s teaching part time at a local nursing college, and doing in-home care for a three year old boy with a trach. But someday, she wants to go overseas again. Long term this time, not just on a temporary floating ship, but somewhere she can be immersed in the culture and put down roots.

HOOPER: At this time, I don't know where and I don't know when. I believe I can be on mission no matter where I'm at. I get to serve Christ and be an ambassador for the Lord no matter where I'm at. And if that's washing dishes in my kitchen sink with excellence, that brings glory to God. If that's working in Africa, helping a child who had a reconstructive plastic surgery and I do it with a heart to glorify God, then that brings him glory.

RACHEL HOOPER DANCE AUDIO

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, November 9th. 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. Next up, the sexual revolution. Turns out it’s not all that some feminists thought it would be.

Here’s WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney on what they’re saying and what God says.

JANIE CHEANEY, COMMENTATOR: By the time I graduated high school, old barriers were tumbling down. At church, pastors railed against “the new morality” and “situation ethics,” but bumper stickers preached otherwise: “If it feels good, do it.” The playing field had leveled. Women were liberating themselves! Adventure awaited!

Within a decade, social observers were calling it the sexual revolution: a profound shift in traditional mores. Now, though, after 50-plus years of experimentation, a growing number of young people are questioning whether it was true liberation.

In March, Washington Post columnist Christine Emba opined, “Consent is not enough. We need a new sexual ethic.” British journalist Louise Perry complained on Substack, “I’m 30. The Sexual Revolution Shackled My Generation.” In another Substack article titled “Generation Swipe,” Suzy Weiss wondered about the hookups facilitated by Tinder and other dating apps: “Why are my peers lonelier… than ever?”

Disappointment isn’t new. Within a generation after the revolution began, women expressed shock at the crass behavior of certain men. Oberlin College published a list of steps to increasing intimacy, each requiring verbal consent. Absent that consent, they declared, “No means no.”

Treating physical intimacy like a football game wasn’t fun, and it didn’t work. Healthy young adults did not conduct their personal lives with a checklist in hand, and too many dates fueled with alcohol or drugs led to disillusion and dissatisfaction. Women felt guilty for feeling guilty—why couldn’t they just have fun with hookups?

As Emba and Perry and Weiss suggest, it might be time to admit that that sex can neither be conducted by a scorecard nor regarded as a level playing field where the only rule is “consent.” It’s “our most unruly activity,” according to Emba, which has “vast consequences.” Who knew?

We knew. Almost everyone born before 1960 knew these basic facts of nature, yet chose not to know them in anticipation of a brighter, freer future. It hasn’t freed anyone. Suzy Weiss reports conversations with young men who as much as women are paralyzed by the dating scene. Dating apps create unrealistic expectations, social media generate anxiety, and hookup sites like Tinder cull all but the alpha males and females. Some young singles have given up, not just on marriage, but on sex itself.

It used to be easy, or at least natural, to meet people in classrooms or at church or social events, to cultivate a circle of friends of both sexes, and to settle on one as a potential life mate. Mistakes were made, but the solution was not to tear up a time-tested playbook and replace it with a wild experiment. We don’t need a “new sexual ethic,” as Emba suggests. What we need is a Biblical one: of persons created, male and female, in the image of God, blessed by Him to complement each other and be fruitful. And eternally happy.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: a follow-up on a few more races and ballot initiatives from Tuesday’s election.

And, we'll take you to one of the oldest tea farms in the country.

That and more tomorrow, Lord willing.

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.

I see what you did there. The Book of Proverbs says, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring." (Proverbs 27:1)

Go now in grace and peace.

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