The World and Everything in It: October 12, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. My name is Heather Hatfield, and I live in Tucson, Arizona. I am an architect, wife, and mother to three. I have been a devoted listener and fan since discovering this podcast in the fall of 2019. I enjoy listening every chance I get, but especially while exercising. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Drug overdoses are skyrocketing in the U.S., and those trying to save lives are scrambling for solutions.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today disagreement among pro-life advocates over the best way to protect life.

BURDICK AND WHITLEY: Apathy is a sin. Compromise is a sin. In society that is made up of believers and unbelievers we sometimes have to make compromises.

And preparing Christians for ministry in hostile places.

THORNBURN: My prayer is that in 20 years’ time, there’ll be a significantly different landscape of Christianity.

And Cal Thomas on the misguided formula for handling Hamas.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, October 12th. 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, Kent Covington with today’s news.

SOUND: [Israel] 

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel » Israeli airstrikes continue to pound Hamas targets in Gaza as the Pentagon rushes support to Israel.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin:

AUSTIN: The USS Gerald R. Ford strike group has now arrived in the eastern Mediterranean. We’ve also moved to extend U.S. Air Force fighter squadrons in the region.

And he said the U.S. will send more air defense, so-called iron dome interceptors, to help shield Israeli cities as Hamas continues to fire rockets over the border.

Congressman Dan Crenshaw serves on the House Intelligence Committee. He said in the past, Israel has largely carried out brief, surgical strikes in Gaza, but not this time.

CRENSHAW: This war will be going on for a much longer time. I think they will not stop until they have completely decimated Hamas.

And Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Peter Lerner seemed to say as much on Wednesday.

LERNER: We are preparing ourselves. We are making sure that Hamas can never, ever do this to us again.

UN Gaza civilians » The death toll in Israel from Hamas attacks has now topped 1,200.

And roughly a thousand people are also dead in Gaza. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres:

GUTERRES: Civilians must be protected at all times. International humanitarian law must be respected and upheld.

But protecting civilians in Gaza amid the war is difficult as Hamas operates from residential areas and has a long history of using civilians as human shields.

Power has been cut in Gaza and the territory’s only power plant is out of fuel.

Israel unity government » Meantime, in Jerusalem Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a leading opposition figure have formed a war-time unity government. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher reports:

JOSH SCHUMACHER: The newly-formed Cabinet will oversee the fight to avenge the stunning weekend terror attacks. The new government restores a degree of unity — at least for now after years of bitter, divisive politics.

The Cabinet will focus only on issues of war. It will consist of Netanyahu, senior opposition leader Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Republicans call on Biden to refreeze $6B to Iran » And in Washington, 20 Republican senators have co-signed a letter calling on the Biden administration to freeze $6 billion dollars set to be released to Iran as part of a prisoner exchange.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham:

GRAHAM: Hamas could not have done this without Iranian support. The Iranians are very much involved in this operation. They’ve been involved in supporting terrorism for decades.

Democratic Senators John Tester and Joe Manchin are also asking the administration to halt the release of those funds to Iran.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said those funds are not related to the attacks in Israel.

SULLIVAN: Not a dollar of that money has been spent. And I will leave it at that.

But the White House agrees that Iran is complicit in the Hamas attacks.

Ukraine aid » With the West largely focused on Israel, leaders in Kyiv are concerned that more support for Israel might mean less support for Ukraine’s military.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he thinks Russia’s counting on Western support being divided.

But America’s top general, Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown told reporters:

BROWN: I do feel we’re putting Ukraine in a good spot. I realize during the winter months it gets more challenging. But Ukraine has intent to continue their offensive operations throughout the winter months.

And U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the United States can and will continue to support both U.S. allies.

Zelenskyy joined a meeting of more than 50 defense leaders from around the world Wednesday to make a personal pitch for military aid.

Speaker Update » House Republicans are one step closer to choosing a new Speaker.

In a closed-door, secret ballot vote on Wednesday, GOP lawmakers picked Majority Leader Steve Scalise on a vote of 113 to 99.

SCALISE: I want to thank my House Republican colleagues for just designating me as the speaker.

Some have expressed concerns about the Louisiana lawmaker’s health as he continues to battle blood cancer.

But he still edged out Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on a vote of 113 to 99.

Scalise now faces a full vote on the House floor.

Biden junk fees » The Biden administration wants to ban so-called junk fees attached to everything from concert tickets to utility bills.

BIDEN: These junk fees can add hundreds of dollars weighing down family budgets, making it harder to pay family bills. These junk fees may not matter to the wealthy, but they sure matter to working folks and homes like the one I grew up in.

The Federal Trade Commission proposed the rule which would require businesses to give customers upfront and itemized pricing.

The president has also proposed a rule to ban bank charges for checking a consumer loan balance or requesting an old statement.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce earlier this year criticized the proposal as a “Washington-knows-best approach” that could lead to fewer choices for consumers and make the economy less competitive.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the one thing that is really and for true the thing that is straight ahead. Plus, something that’s ahead but not immediately straight ahead.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 12th day of October, 2023.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

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

First up, treating drug addictions.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fentanyl overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 49.

Some medical providers are turning to medications to help their patients fight addiction before it’s too late.

REICHARD: These medications have become the gold standard of care in many medical circles. But some private rehab facilities, especially faith-based ones, are wary of replacing drug addiction with lifelong dependence on medication.

The story that follows was written by World’s Compassion reporter, Addie Offereins.

EICHER: Let’s begin with basic background about how drugs work. Medicine to treat addiction to opioids falls into two categories: antagonists and agonists. Opioid agonists act like heroin or morphine in that they stimulate opiate receptors in the brain, although to a much lesser degree.

Patients who take medications like Suboxone go into withdrawal when they stop taking them.

On the other end are meds that block opiate receptors. These are opioid antagonists, drugs like naltrexone.

REICHARD: The medical community is divided over whether they should wean their patients off medications like Suboxone. Dr. Warren Yamashita is a physician who specializes in addiction in California. He’s a member of the Christian Medical and Dental Association, which he says advocates for a “whole person perspective to treatment.”

YAMASHITA: Their physical needs, their psychological mental health needs, and doing a spiritual assessment as well. And then creating a treatment plan that then incorporates all those aspects.

EICHER: He said medications like Suboxone are essential because of the abundance of fentanyl on the streets. Only two milligrams of the drug can be deadly—that’s about as much as can fit on the tip of a pencil. He said doctors should wean some patients off Suboxone, but not everyone.

YAMASHITA: The opposite of addiction is not abstinence. The opposite of addiction is really whole person restoration, allowing a person to restore their identity, their relationships, and for those with faith, their relationship with God. And that may, for some people mean that they eventually taper off Suboxone, others it may mean that they do use Suboxone lifelong.

REICHARD: Dr. Annie Peters is the director of research and education at the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers.

ANNIE PETERS: We were established in the 70s.The original members were mainly abstinence-based.

REICHARD: But she’s noticed a shift toward medically-assisted treatment.

PETERS: There's some people in the treatment world who think that if you're using an opiate agonist like Suboxone that you're still using, but I think that number of people who believe that is getting smaller. I think nowadays, in general, the belief is we have to keep people alive or they can't recover. And so to keep people alive, they often need an opiate agonist.

REICHARD: Some states require accredited treatment facilities to provide medications. Most publicly funded treatment programs have already adopted medication-assisted treatments. At the same time, private rehab organizations are shifting more slowly.

EICHER: Still, a large number of Christian rehab programs are sticking with an abstinence-based approach. Tom Reynolds is the director of His Way…a residential rehab program with campuses in Alabama and Georgia.

REYNOLDS: So most of our guys would view it as kind of a I mean, is it better than dying? Yes. Is it better than being unemployed? And on the streets? Yes, but it's not really sobriety, it's and most of our guys have a vision for sobriety and being dependent on nothing.

EICHER: Reynolds says drug users who’ve tried medication in the past found that doctors rarely encouraged them to wean themselves off.

REYNOLDS: And they wanted to kind of keep it prolonged because it's an income producer. And most of them have gotten really cynical about that.

REICHARD: Some rehab programs are seeking a middle way. One of them is House of Hope in Florence, S.C.

BRYAN BRADDOCK: I don't deny medical assistance in helping the addicted.

REICHARD: That’s CEO Bryan Braddock.

BRADDOCK: If they're currently working with a doctor, then we're not medical professionals. So we're not to tell someone to get off of something.

REICHARD: But he’s wary of switching out illicit drugs for a pill that would mimic the behaviors of addiction. Instead, he urges those under a physician’s care to stick to once-a-month injections of an opioid receptor blocker.

BRADDOCK: As a Christian, we know that man has a trichotomy that we are body, mind, and spirit. And so we feel that if you deny the spiritual side, that you're that someone isn't going to get true victory. There's no medicine that can give you joy and peace out there.

EICHER: You can read more about this online and we’ll include a link in the program notes.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Abortion abolitionists.

Kansas has become an abortion destination in the Midwest as nearby states enact stronger protections for the unborn. Just last year, the number of women getting an abortion in Kansas shot up 50 percent over the previous year. Women from out-of-state accounted for most of last year’s abortions.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Some pro-lifers say things could have been different in Kansas this year if voters had passed a pro-life amendment last August.

The Value Them Both Amendment, as it’s known, would have declared there is no right to abortion in the state constitution. That would’ve effectively reversed a decision of the state Supreme Court that declared a right to abortion and invalidated existing pro-life laws.

REICHARD, HOST: But the amendment went down by a huge margin.

Surprisingly, a small percentage of voters who oppose abortion voted against the amendment as well, probably not so many that it would’ve changed the outcome. But their position is making a difference in the way Christians think about and talk about the pro-life issue.

WORLD’s Leah Savas reports.

LEAH SAVAS, REPORTER: To many Christians, supporting the Value Them Both Amendment was a no-brainer. But the elders at Heartland Community Church in Wichita, Kansas, recognized it wasn’t that simple.

JONATHAN WHITLEY: We were deciding as a church—our session, our elders—whether or not we were going to support the Value Them Both or not.

That’s Jonathan Whitley, senior pastor at Heartland. He and the other elders were in a unique position. One member of their church is pro-life state
Representative Susan Humphries. She supported efforts in the Kansas legislature to put the Value Them Both Amendment on the ballot.

WHITLEY: We allowed her to come and speak to the merits of the bill, from her perspective, as a church member and as a state representative.

But the elders ultimately decided not to take a position on the amendment.

WHITLEY: We tried our best not to impress upon our congregation that they they needed to feel compelled to be faithful to the Lord to vote one way or the other. Because the Value Them Both Amendment had some exception clauses in it, there were some whose consciences were, were binding them against voting in favor of it.

Whitley thinks it was around the time of those discussions that he became familiar with the abolitionist movement, Christians who oppose abortion but don’t accept the pro-life label. Abolitionists opposed the amendment in Kansas. Jared Burdick is leader of the abolitionist group Abortion Is Murder Kansas. Here he is reading the amendment.

JARED BURDICK: “Because Kansas values both women and children, the constitution of the state of Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion.” Now, if it stopped right there, I would probably have been okay with it.

But the amendment didn’t stop there.

BURDICK: It’s the next part that was the problem.

It went on to say that state lawmakers could pass laws regarding abortion, including—quote—“laws that account for circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or circumstances of necessity to save the life of the mother.”

BURDICK: We don't treat any other crime that way. It's not a proper response to abortion. And it fundamentally has to start with how does God view murder? And how does God view murderers should be prosecuted? It was not a just law, it was an attempt to regulate when you can kill people. And that's not biblical, that's not constitutional.

Whitley and the elders at Heartland Community Church recognized that some people in their own congregation might have similar objections to the amendment. But to Burdick and other abolitionists, how to vote on this amendment was more than just a conscience issue.

BURDICK: Ultimately, you're responsible for what you support. And so I do believe, for legislators, especially it would have been sinful to vote for the Value Them Both Amendment. Apathy is a sin. Compromise is a sin. You see this all throughout the Bible, all throughout Scripture.

Burdick pointed to the passage in James 2 that condemns partiality. To abolitionists, any law that allows for abortions at all shows partiality to a woman over her baby. So does exempting mothers who know what they were doing from punishment, as most pro-life laws do.

But Whitley sees the issue differently.

WHITLEY: I would also encourage them and maybe caution them, though, against calling another brother or sister who votes differently as a sinner, or in sin for voting for that, because of the complexities of the way that we operate in this society in terms of how we have to come to the table.

Sometimes in society that is made up of believers and unbelievers, we sometimes have to make compromises.

Whitley said the pro-life movement still has some important lessons to learn from abolitionists: one of them, keeping the end goal in mind.

He referenced recent comments from former President Donald Trump, who told NBC’s “Meet the Press” he’d push for a week limit on abortion that everyone could be happy with.

WHITLEY: If that's your pro-life approach, and that's the end, is just finding a middle of the road, let's let's all agree upon a certain number of weeks, then I think the pro-life movement has forgotten the end, which is the complete abolition of it.

But fundamentally, I believe, pro-lifers and abolitionists have in common the ending of abortion. And I think it's important for Christian pro-lifers to remember that.

But as the Value Them Both campaign revealed, abolitionists and pro-lifers have very different ideas of what “ending abortion” should look like. That conflict will continue to affect efforts to protect unborn babies.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leah Savas.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Even city folks know, don’t they? You can’t leave the barn door open [don’t let the cows out].

Seems obvious, but not obvious enough for some suburbanites in Wisconsin who recently gained some unwanted wrangler experience.

Audio from WISN-TV.

MAN: We were in our backyard when the cows came stampeding down the hill and they were movin’!

I’ll say! Turns out, wrangling is a lot easier in the movies.

WOMAN: We would get the cows going one way and then all of a sudden they’d be like, “Oh, whatever, we want to go this way.”

The results were, let’s say, predictable.

WOMAN: They left their droppings all over. And they were big droppings!

Well, they’re cows. Good news is all the cattle are back on the farm. All’s well.

REICHARD: Udder chaos averted!

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Thursday, October 12th. 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 up next: the challenges of campus ministry. It’s more difficult in some countries than in others.

Resources may be hard to come by. The political climate might be antagonistic. That leads campus ministers to seek help from networks of Christians in other countries.

EICHER: WORLD reporter Amy Lewis takes us to a conference in Southeast Asia to hear about the work taking place on college campuses around the world.

AUDIO: [Muslim call to prayer]

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: On the northern coast of Jakarta, Indonesia, daily Muslim prayers echo through the smog.

But at a local convention center, nearly a thousand ministry workers from 160 countries join to sing praises to the one true God.

MUSIC: You alone are my strength and shield. To you alone may my spirit yield…

It’s the World Assembly of IFES or I.F.E.S. That’s the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. The ministry workers are here for encouragement, training, and networking.

Every continent except Antarctica is represented here. Dozens of heart languages fill the air.

MUSIC: Marcharemos cheios de coragem…

Many speakers and workshops explore the theme of perseverance—a crucial quality for those engaged with campus ministry in difficult parts of the world.

Like in the case of the IFES-affiliated campus ministry called FOCUS Zimbabwe.

EPHIAS NDAHWI: My name is Ephias Ndahwi. I’m from Zimbabwe.

Ephias Ndahwi is the national director for about 35 colleges around the southern African country of Zimbabwe. He has a bold vision of seeing the entire country transformed by the gospel. One student at a time.

NDAHWI: But if we share the gospel, it brings transformation. And the students are very key, very strategic. Because after studying, they take high offices. They go to different parts of the nation of Zimbabwe. So they go out as ambassadors if we fully disciple them.

It’s that discipleship that’s the hard part—training followers of Jesus in a country full of political, economic and spiritual upheaval. A coup in 2017 threw the country into turmoil. More than 90 percent of Zimbabwe's college graduates cannot find a job. Teen alcoholism and substance abuse is a national disaster. And with prosperity gospel churches blanketing Zimbabwe, Ndahwi has also seen an epidemic of poor Biblical teaching.

On the other side of the world, campus ministers in a dangerous Latin American country persevere under different circumstances. This is David.

DAVID: Tengo veintiséis años…

Carmen Castillo is David’s supervisor from IFES. She interprets for him.

CARMEN CASTILLO: I am 26 years old. I am a doctor. And I also serve as the General Secretary of Koinonia, which is the Christian student and professional group.

Because of the potential danger to David and his ministry, we aren’t revealing what country he’s from. But when asked what challenges he faces, he doesn’t talk about finances or political oppression. Mainly, he says, he faces discouragement.

DAVID: Uge lanome que…

CASTILLO: Sometimes for a leader what gives them joy in their work or encouragement in their work is to see how their work flourishes or gives fruit.

Too often he doesn’t have that privilege.

DAVID: Pero in context Latino Americano…

CASTILLO: But in a Latin American context where everybody’s looking to migrate and so many people end up leaving. And you can’t see the fruits of the work that you’ve invested in students who leave after they graduate. That’s very discouraging.

The ripe field of disciples frequently moves away and he doesn’t get to see the harvest. This is true of most college ministries, but because his students emigrate out of the country, staying in touch is hard.

DAVID: Y muchos me contrantando trabajan tullo, y necesito creo que…

CASTILLO: And many times I found myself crying and I’ve had, I needed people to come and say and remind me this work is not yours. This is not your work. That’s probably the greatest challenge.

Like any campus minister, he gets to collaborate and partner with local churches.

DAVID: Simpremo…

CASTILLO: It’s important for us, for ministers to help us maintain the focus on Christ-centered and for us to have the proper doctrine. So we have a lot of support from local churches and pastors.

As part of IFES, David finds encouragement when he meets regularly with ministers in his region. He also has access to global resources and teams who can walk alongside him. He doesn’t work alone.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe team also has international partners.

One of those is a group in Australia. Tim Thorburn has been involved with FOCUS Zimbabwe for the past ten years. He’s worked to establish apprenticeships in Zimbabwe so that students can learn to do ministry by doing ministry.

THORBURN: The idea is as old as Elijah and Elisha. Particularly Paul and Timothy is the place we see it most clearly I think in the Bible. And Timothy has learned ministry by working beside Paul preaching, teaching, being entrusted with a ministry gradually more…

NDAHWI: Well we really thank God for other partnerships from other movements. Australia has been doing this apprenticeship model that we have also adopted and it has been working…

Thorburn continues training pastors and teachers in Zimbabwe-—he'll be there next month. Representatives from multiple churches in Australia regularly meet and pray with Ephias Ndahwi and his team online. They share Ndahwi’s vision to see Zimbabwe transformed by the gospel, starting with college campuses.

CAM: Lord, we thank you that your Spirit has stirred up within us a desire to see students and people of Zimbabwe and come to know you and to come to grow into maturity. Jesus sake. Amen.

Ministry is hard under any circumstances. But offering support and help to people in ministry can have long lasting Kingdom-wide effects.

THORBURN: My hope and prayer is that as they do ministry, they do ministry not only in a biblically faithful way, but they have the vision and the prayer and the determination to raise up the next generation and train them. So, my prayer is that in 20 years’ time, there’ll be a significantly different landscape of Christianity.

MUSIC: Come bend and break us, revive your church, Lord. Oh breath of God, come breathe within, revive, restore in every part. Reveal in every part. The love of Christ, afresh to win, revive your church in every part.

Reporting for WORLD, I'm Amy Lewis in Jakarta, Indonesia.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Thursday, October 12th. 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. WORLD Commentator Cal Thomas now on how the Hamas attack proves that Israel should stop making concessions.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTARY: On Sept. 22, 2005, Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. It did not take someone with the power of an Old Testament prophet to predict what would come next. Hamas almost immediately filled the vacuum and began planning terrorist attacks that have continued since then.

Last week’s attack, which nearly overwhelmed the Jewish State, has resulted (so far) in the deaths of hundreds of Israelis, the wounding of many hundreds more, and the taking of hostages including Americans by Hamas. Israeli soldiers and civilians, some of them women, children, and the elderly and disabled were also targeted. Babies have been murdered.

The Biden administration and several European governments condemned the attacks but encouraged the terrorists by pressuring Israel over many years to do more to seek peace with the Palestinians. The more concessions Israel has made, the more the terrorists are encouraged in their pursuit of eradicating Israel.

Wasn’t “land for peace” supposed to be the magic formula? Didn’t the West believe in this doctrine and hasn’t Israel done all the giving and received only war and terrorism in return? The West should concede the formula is wrong.

This is the premise in Israeli commentator Caroline Glick’s book, The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East. She writes: “Between 1970 and 2013, the United States presented nine different peace plans for Israel and the Palestinians…and for the past twenty years, the two-state solution has been the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy. But despite this laser focus, American efforts to implement a two-state peace deal have all been dismal failures.”

Her proposals include a full annexation of the West Bank which Israel and the Bible refer to as Judea and Samaria. It may sound radical, until one considers the alternatives the West has been pushing almost since the founding of modern Israel in 1948. Continuing to follow the same path that hasn’t worked in the past only guarantees more terrorism and war in the future, as we are witnessing in the present. Wishful thinking never produces the results the wishers seek to achieve. Instead of more of the same, what’s needed is less of the same and in fact none of the same.

In an appearance at the White House Tuesday afternoon, President Biden made the familiar statements about supporting Israel, but said nothing about Iran which funds Hamas and trains its terrorists. Later, national security advisor Jake Sullivan said there was no evidence implicating Iran directly in the attack. Well that’s like pouring gasoline around the house and having someone else light the fire. In response to a question about refreezing that $6 billion on the way to Iran, Sullivan weakly responded it hasn’t gotten there yet.

The lesson that never seems to be learned is that when one bargains with evil, like Hamas, evil wins. The goal should be to defeat evil and in that pursuit Israel deserves the support of all who share her greater goal of true peace.

I’m Cal Thomas.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Culture Friday. We’ll talk with John Stonestreet. And, three classic romance movies that turn 30 this year. Do they age well? 

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 Bible says: “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”— Isaiah chapter 43, verses 14 and 15.

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.