The World and Everything in It: October 18, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. This is Pastor Dave Martin, and I pastor Heritage Bible Church in Cathlamet, Washington. I look forward to each week to hearing the segment called Washington Wednesday. I feel like I am well informed and ready to interact with those around me, because I listen to this program. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! House Republicans struggle to elect a new speaker. What do the early rounds of voting reveal about their priorities?

AUDIO: There's a lot of frustration and anger about the just events that have transpired over the last few weeks and some people expressed their frustration with their vote.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday. We’ll talk with our reporter on the ground. Also today, news from around the world on World Tour. And, church libraries face challenges from surprising places.

AUDIO: We have had some of the pastoral staff say to us that they just don’t feel like this is a valid ministry.

And WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney says free speech and appropriate library books for children are not incompatible.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, October 18th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BUTLER: And I’m Paul Butler. Good morning!

REICHARD: Now news. Here’s Kent Covington.

SOUND: [Air raid sirens]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden/Israel » In Israel, air raid sirens continue to blare as Hamas fires more rockets over the border from Gaza.

Nevertheless, Air Force One is expected to touch down in Israel today as President Biden pays a historic wartime visit.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says Biden wants to get—in his words “a fingertip feel for how things are going.”

KIRBY: That’s one of the reasons the president wants to go is to speak directly with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other government officials about their plans, about their strategy, about how things are going on the ground.

The trip is also meant as a strong signal of support for Israel.

The Pentagon has dispatched two aircraft carrier strike groups to the eastern Mediterranean. US officials say the move is designed as a show of force to dissuade Iran and its proxies, such as Hezbollah, from getting directly involved in the war.

Israel » Meantime, the death toll has continued to climb on both sides of the war.

SOUND: [Ambulance]

In Gaza, ambulances arrived to rush patients not to but away from a medical center after a massive explosion killed hundreds inside the al-Ahli Hospital.

SOUND: [Hospital activity]

Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike. But Israel said a misfired Hamas rocket triggered the blast.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Tuesday …

SINGH: It should be very clear that Hamas are the ones putting Palestinians or those in Gaza at great risk. I mean, they are putting their command and control units inside hospitals, inside areas where there are innocent civilians.

Israel has warned residents in northern Gaza to evacuate ahead of an expected Israeli ground assault.

U.S. officials say the Hamas terror attacks earlier this month were the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust.

Brussels update » In Belgium’s capital city of Brussels, authorities shot and killed a suspected extremist accused of shooting three Swedish soccer fans this week on their way to a nearby stadium.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo:

DE CROO: Three people left for what was supposed to be a wonderful soccer party. Two of them lost their lives in a brutal terrorist attack.

Police say the Muslim suspect posted a video online in which he claimed credit for the attack  and indicated that his attack was religiously motivated.

Speaker vote » Meantime in Washington, the House still has no speaker.

AUDIO: No person having received a majority of the whole number of votes cast by surname, a speaker has not been elected.

GOP Congressman Jim Jordan failed to win a vote on the House floor Tuesday, falling short of the 217 supporters he needs to become speaker.

But Jordan said if at first you don’t succeed …

JORDAN: We’re going to keep going. I had great conversations, great discussions with our colleagues. And frankly, no one in our conference wants to see any coalition government with Democrats. So we’re going to keep working and we’re going to get to the votes.

To win the speakership, Jordan will have to sway at least 17 more Republicans.

Trump back in court » Inside a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday a Trump company accountant, Donna Kidder, says she was told to make assumptions on internal financial spreadsheets that were favorable to the company.

She testified yesterday in a New York state civil trial against former President Donald Trump.

The former president again had strong words for the state official who filed the suit against him.

TRUMP: Letitia James, she shouldn't be allowed to be attorney general. She's defrauding the public with this trial.

In a summary judgment last month, a judge found Trump liable for alleged fraud.

Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, is expected to testify next week.

Wisconsin trans protections » Republican state lawmakers in Wisconsin have passed a bill that would protect children from transgender procedures.

The Help Not Harm Act would outlaw subjecting kids to cross-sex hormones or transgender surgeries.

The legislation now heads to Gov. Tony Evers desk, but that is where it will die. The Democratic governor has vowed to veto the bill.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: News from Capitol Hill on Washington Wednesday. Plus, the challenges of running a church library in 2023.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday, October 18th, 2023. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

PAUL BUTER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. It’s Washington Wednesday. The Senate is set to hold a confirmation hearing to appoint an ambassador to Israel, but is Biden’s nominee too soft on Iran? Plus, Former President Trump is hit with a partial gag order in the federal case related to January 6th.

REICHARD: But first, following the twists and turns of the Speaker’s race in the House.

Joining us now to talk about what’s going on in D.C. is Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta. Good morning!

CAROLINA LUMETTA, REPORTER: Good morning, Mary!

REICHARD: Well, it's been just over two weeks now since eight Republicans joined House Democrats in a vote to remove speaker Kevin McCarthy. And issues like the war in Israel are ratcheting up the pressure now. Well, yesterday afternoon the House held a vote to try to get a new speaker installed. Carolina, you were in the chamber for yesterday's vote. Can you summarize what happened during that first round?

LUMETTA: Well, after about a week of closed door meetings and back channel talks, the Republicans finally chose Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan as the nominee for speaker. But yesterday afternoon, he failed that first ballot with 20 defectors, which we're getting the impression that's a lot more than even his allies had anticipated. For those of us who've been covering Congress, this is giving us some deja vu from January, when it took Kevin McCarthy 15 tries to get the speakership. It's unlikely that we'll go to 15 rounds again, but we really don't know how long it will take for Jordan to either win those defectors or for them to pick a new person. With a very narrow Republican majority and full Democratic attendance, he can only afford to lose three votes.

REICHARD: I'm wondering what was the mood in the room like throughout all of this process, anything that C-SPAN cameras might have missed?

LUMETTA: Ironically, it was Kevin McCarthy who was the most chipper person in the room. He was all smiles, handshakes, talking to a lot of people and sitting right behind Jim Jordan as all the votes came in. As the tally continued, the mood got a lot more intense, especially on the GOP side. There was also a lot of confusion about some of these Republican votes. There was one member who nominated Mike Garcia, at which point, Congressman Garcia sat up a little straight, turned around behind him and mouthed “What?” So it was a surprise even on the floor. Most of the time when votes come to the house, we know exactly how they're going to go. There's no roadmap right now. After the votes I asked Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, about why he's voting for Jordan, he's taking his cues from Jordans camp. He's also surprised by how many fell away but he said this isn't necessarily a bad look for Republicans.

DONALDS: Look, I've been saying to y'all for a while, the days of just "oh, this is our person, everybody's just gonna rally," those days are over. Members are going to want to have real conversations with with whoever is going to try to go into leadership. And quite frankly, the members should have these conversations. Because, you know, we don't work for the leadership. The leadership didn't elect us to be here. We were elected by the people who sent us here. And we have to represent those interests.

REICHARD: What else did you hear from lawmakers you spoke to after the vote?

LUMETTA: It's really interesting this time around because, unlike with McCarthy's original vote, there's no single issue that everyone has against Jim Jordan. And just for some brief background reminder, Jim Jordan is a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, which is also part of the group that led the effort to vacate the chair and remove McCarthy. But it's not a House Freedom Caucus issue this time around. Some of the people who are voting against him are simply upset that the House Freedom Caucus had that power to do that about two weeks ago. Others simply don't like Jordan. There are also just a lot of pressure campaigns over the weekend that also soured some members. One of them was Florida Congressman Mario Diaz Ballard, who voted for Scalise and here's his explanation for why:

DIAZ-BALART: That millisecond when anybody tries to intimidate me is the moment where  I am no longer, I no longer have the flexibility. I will not be pressured or intimidated. I am where I am. I have no intention of moving. I have been transparent from day one.

LUMETTA: I also was able to talk to Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson. He's known for helping to whip votes. He's inside all of these negotiations, and talking with each of these detractors. Here's also what he had to say right before he hopped into an elevator.

JOHNSON: I'm an optimist and I remain very hopeful. I'm trying to help him as much as I can.

LUMETTA: Was it a lot longer than you thought it might be?

JOHNSON: Well, we expected it would be there's a lot of frustration and anger about the just events that have transpired over the last few weeks and and some people expressed their frustration with their vote. And so we just have a lot of issues to work through as a conference. So we'll do that. We're, we're working on it.

REICHARD: So the goal is to get everyone unified. But what's the next step for this race?

LUMETTA: Officially, the next step is voting again at 11am this morning. There will be a quorum call then followed by the same vote process. And we'll see where that where people land after a night of negotiations. The fact that Jordan waited until today to hold the second vote means that there was a lot of work to be doing.

REICHARD: Well, let's cross over to the Senate now - another story that you are following is the nomination hearing of a new ambassador to Israel. Democrats want to fast track this confirmation process, but some Republicans have concerns. What's the background of this story?

LUMETTA: Right, so last month, President Joe Biden nominated Jack Lew to be Israel's next ambassador, and now with Israel in the midst of a war, the Senate is really hoping to speed this through, make sure they get somebody into that post. However, Jack Lew is not without his controversial past. He was a former Secretary of the Treasury under the Obama administration, and in 2016, he was the man in charge of facilitating a cash settlement to Iran in the amount of about $5.7 billion. Iran was not allowed to get this money through any U.S. banks. Lew has been accused of misleading Congress and using some backchannels to convert that U.S. money to Iranian currency. A 2018 Senate report found that he had issued specific licenses and pressured U.S. correspondent banks to help convert that money and get it to Iran. And that kind of has soured him for at least Republican support ever since. Tom Cotton is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and he gave this comments to Fox News on Sunday.

COTTON: Jack Lew is an Iran sympathizer who has no business being our ambassador. It's bad for the United States. It's bad for Israel to have an Iran sympathizer as our ambassador to that country.

LUMETTA: However, Senator Ben Cardin is a Democrat also on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and he spoke for his party saying that we just need somebody in this role as soon as possible. The war is too important to leave it empty.

REICHARD: Alright, one more story from Washington. On Monday federal district court judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, imposed a partial gag order on former President Donald Trump. Later in the day, Trump responded this way while campaigning in the city of Clive, Iowa:

TRUMP: I'll be the only politician in history that runs with a gag order where I'm not allowed to criticize people. Can you imagine this, that you believe this? I'm not allowed to criticize people. So we'll see. We'll appeal it. And we'll see, but it's so, so unconstitutional.

REICHARD: Carolina, what does this gag order do and doesn't really limit Trump's first amendment liberties.

LUMETTA: So this is a partial gag order, which means it's limited to the people involved in the case. But it does not apply to DC residents at large. It does not apply to the Biden administration at large. Basically, this means that if former President Trump chooses to, he can still call any of these indictments, political persecution, he can still criticize the Justice Department. However, he cannot extend that to any direct comments about court staff, prosecutors, potential witnesses. For example, if he went on to Truth Social and continue to call Special Counsel Jack Smith, deranged, that could violate this gag order, because it also applies to witnesses. This could also mean he's not allowed to directly criticize his former Vice President Mike Pence for his involvement in the case. Chutkan did say and I'll quote here, "First Amendment protections yield to the administration of justice and to the protection of witnesses. His presidential candidacy (talking there about Trump) does not give him carte blanche to vilify public servants who are simply doing their job." She did say that there are sanctions that will be enforced if he breaks this gag order, but she did not clarify what they are or how she would enforce them. This does give Trump room to appeal, which he did submit on Tuesday afternoon. And his main argument is that his speech is being restricted. And it’s because he's a political candidate. Also in that hearing, Chutkan clarified that the trial date for this case, which is the one involving Trump's alleged involvement in riots at the Capitol on January 6, will move forward as planned in March and that she's not accepting any arguments to delay it until after the election.

REICHARD: Carolina Lumetta is a reporter for WORLD’s Washington Bureau. Carolina, thanks for your reporting.

LUMETTA: Anytime. Thanks for having me.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our Africa reporter, Onize Ohikere.

AUDIO: [Dancers and singers]

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Belt & Road Initiative — We start today’s roundup in China, where dancers and marching troops have welcomed foreign leaders to the third meeting of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

Diplomats from more than 140 countries are attending the two-day forum that ends today.

This year’s meeting also marks the 10th anniversary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. China began the project in 2013 to build power plants, roads, and other infrastructure linking Asia with Europe, Africa, and other continents along the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

AUDIO: [Ongoing meeting]

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Taliban representatives from Afghanistan are also attending the meetings. Foreign ministers from Russia and China met Monday ahead of the forum to discuss bilateral relations and other global issues—including the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Kenyan President William Ruto is also seeking additional loans from China’s initiative and a review of a Chinese loan repayment plan for a railway project.

China hosted the first two forums in 2017 and 2019.

Australia referendum — Next to Australia, where voters have rejected a government plan to amplify indigenous voices.

All six states voted “No” in a weekend referendum on whether to amend the Constitution to create a committee of indigenous people to advise parliament.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was disappointed, but he respects the decision of all Australians.

ALBANESE: This moment of disagreement does not define us, and it will not divide us. We are not 'yes' voters or 'no' voters, we are all Australians.

Supporters have said the changes would pave the way for reconciliation. But opponents argued the proposal lacked clarity and could cause more division.

The weekend vote marks the second time Australians have voted against a referendum to recognize indigenous people in the constitution. Indigenous Australians make up nearly four percent of the country’s population.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Guatemala protests — We head next to the streets of Guatemala, where protests have crippled the capital and other cities.

Thousands of farmers and indigenous community members began setting up roadblocks about two weeks ago.

They are demanding the resignation of Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras over several investigations her office has opened into a presidential runoff vote that took place in August.

The protesters call the investigations an attempt to keep progressive President-elect Bernardo Arévalo and his Seed Movement party from assuming office in January.

PROTESTER: [Speaking Spanish]

This protester at one roadblock in Guatemala City said he had no plans to leave until Porras resigned.

The Organization of American States has also criticized judicial actions.

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Friday told protesters he can’t remove Porras from office and called for the roadblocks to be lifted.

A day later, hackers supporting the protesters crashed multiple government web pages.

CHOIR: [National anthem]

France unrest — In France, authorities are grappling with rising terror threats.

Authorities on Monday evacuated a high school in northern France over a bomb alert—the same school where a former student fatally stabbed a teacher last week.

French intelligence officials were already surveilling the former student over suspected radicalization.

Monday also marked three years since the murder of Samuel Paty, another school instructor killed near his school in Paris. Students and teachers across the country observed a minute of silence on Monday for both instructors.

ATTAL: [Speaking French]

French Education Minister Gabriel Attal pledged a response as he said the threats are attempts to frighten and intimidate people. He said French schools have faced nearly 170 bomb threat reports since early September.

France stepped up its national threat level and mobilized up to 7,000 soldiers nationwide. Authorities also evacuated the Louvre Museum in Paris and Versailles Palace after weekend bomb threats.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Monday said security forces have also detained more than 100 people linked to antisemitic attacks across France since the Hamas attack on Israel began. The suspects include 27 foreigners.

DARMANIN: [Speaking French]

He says here that authorities have already detained 11 of the foreign suspects and called for the withdrawal of their residence permits.

AUDIO: [Victory celebrations]

South Africa rugby victory — We close today with a victory celebration with the South African rugby team. The team defeated France in a narrow 29-28 victory in the World Cup quarter-final.

FAN: The boys brought it home, and now we're coming for the semis, we're coming for England. We're coming for you, boys.

The South African team will play against England in the next round of semi-finals on Saturday.

That’s it for today’s WORLD Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: A 200-year-old boat is causing a traffic jam in downtown St. Augustine, Florida. That’s because last week, construction workers at a busy intersection uncovered wood and other artifacts in the ground.

James DelGado is an archeologist working the site.

DELGADO: So we’ve seen fragments of old ceramic containers. We’ve seen bottles. We’ve seen rusty bits of iron.

And evidence of what they had for dinner:

DELGADO: As well as cuts of bone probably from somebody’s chops that just scraped the plate into the water.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Easy clean up!

BUTLER: He said the boat looks to be built locally and likely used to fish or maybe for carrying things around. And as for people trying to get around in St. Augustine now? The project is still on schedule.

REICHARD: Now, that’s surprising!

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

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 18th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. This week on Concurrently: The News Coach Podcast, co-hosts Kelsey Reed and Jonathan Boes respond to feedback from parents and educators. Here’s a short preview.

BOES: Our first piece of feedback comes from Deborah. And she is writing to us about the episode we did on school choice where we were joined by Amy Auten.

REED: Deborah says, "I listened to your recent episode on school choice, and I want to thank you for your thoughtfulness. In particular, I appreciate the reminder that fear cannot be the motivating factor in our choices. I noticed, however, that public school was portrayed mostly in a very positive or at least neutral light. And perhaps because I'm from California, I see public schools very differently. I've had very different experiences in the public school system that led me to resign from teaching English at a public high school to homeschool my own children. In reading Christ centered curriculum to teach my own children, I realized half of what I was teaching to my students was just awful. Should Christian parents consider how curricula points to or detracts from God as truth. Current public school teachers have been trained by some very anti-Christian universities. What content do they transmit, even if they have hearts that long to serve God?"

Wow. I mean, this first email from Deborah was one of the best ways to just continue to challenge us to think carefully about how we engage our children, how we engage the schools that they're in, and even to do deeper work for understanding content and language and how can we know truth?

REICHARD: You can listen to Concurrently wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more at concurrentlypodcast.com.

Well, from schools to libraries. Yesterday, you heard from a Florida mom who shares her love of books with her children at a church library.

BUTLER: But what happens when the church library closes? WORLD’s Myrna Brown picks up the story in a part of the country where that very thing is happening.

WORLD Journalism Institute Assistant Director, Naomi Balk helped with this story.

DENISE ROBERTS: I took my grandchild to the public library and ended up with a book about two mommies.

MYRNA BROWN CORRESPONDENT: Standing before a group of her fellow church librarians, Denise Roberts tells a story that still haunts her.

ROBERTS: And I didn’t realize that and I just handed it to her. And my daughter-in-law said, did you give her this book? And, of course I felt quite bad because I didn’t look at the title. It didn’t occur to me that I would have to look at the title in a board book.

Roberts is not only a book lover. She’s a second generation church librarian.

ROBERTS: My mother was actually the librarian and had been for 30 years. And then in 2013, she asked me if I would be the librarian and I told her I would do it differently than her but that I would be willing. And I knew nothing.

But what she lacked in experience, she possessed in resourcefulness. First, Roberts partnered with a fellow church member who studied linguistics and library science in college. Then in 20-16 she joined the ECLA, The Evangelical Church Library Association. A 53-year-old fellowship of individuals, churches, publishers and library suppliers.

AUDIO: [CONFERENCE CHATTER]

Today, Roberts is hosting about 50 of her fellow church librarians at her church in Portage, Michigan. It’s their annual Fall conference.

ROBERTS: So please find a seat quickly so we can get started.

Sitting in padded folding chairs, church librarians from Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois take turns sharing their victories.

AUDIO: I want to read you an email that we received . I just want to say thank you for having an array of books for me to choose from in the library.

their discoveries…

AUDIO: There’s a lot of wonderful nonfiction books I can get in people’s hands that will be real help to them.

…and their struggles…

AUDIO: It’s just hard to sift through all of the titles and all of the authors and all of the publishers and all of the agendas and even books off of the award list you can’t trust anymore.

SOUND: [CONFERENCE CHATTER]

This year, attendance at the conference is low. Roberts calls it a sign of the times.

ROBERTS: It was a huge opportunity for librarians and then it started to get smaller and smaller as so many of the churches began to remove their libraries.

Roberts says she knows of at least ten churches in nearby Grand Rapids that have either closed their libraries or had their budgets slashed. The reasons vary,from a lack of pastoral support to church librarian burnout. Church space is also an issue.

ROBERTS: I read about a few libraries recently who needed the space for a nursery or needed the spaces for another Sunday School class. And so they looked at that as a bigger importance than having a place for books.

Carlene Rhode and Julie Doby are church librarians in Madison, Wisconsin.

AUDIO: We have had some of the pastoral staff say to us that they just don’t feel like this is a valid ministry. The location of our library is telling. We are up on the balcony. There is no elevator. A lot of our readers are seniors and they are not going to be climbing the stairs. And we do not have any children’s books in our library and that breaks my heart.

And what about librarians serving in other parts of the country? Are the doors of their church libraries closing, too?

MORLEE MAYNOR: No, and my real filter for this is the Church Libraries Network.

That’s Morlee Maynor. She lives in Franklin, Tennessee and runs the Church Libraries Network. It’s a website she created in 2001, back when she served as a library specialist for Lifeway Christian Resources.

MAYNOR: There are 2,035 members as of this morning. They post questions and they share ideas and post pictures of their libraries. It’s a very interactive kind of website for church librarians.

Maynor says she gets membership inquiries from church librarians around the country and in some parts of the world.

MAYNOR: The Northeast I get very few, that is true. Now Northwest, I’m getting lots of new members to the Church Libraries Network. But the South, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia to some extent. I’m getting new members.

Back in Michigan at the church librarians conference, Randy Morgan is one of the few men in attendance. He says while the future of church libraries hinges on pastoral leadership, it doesn’t have to end there.

RANDY MORGAN: Take the books that’s objectionable from the library, go to your pastor or go to your board chairman and say there’s a mission field out there that’s our kids. This is the junk they’re reading. We need a better library.

AUDIO FROM OLIVE BAPTIST CHURCH: Take your Bible let’s go to the book of Acts.

Ted Traylor is pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. It’s the church library the Rugullies family gets to visit. Pastor Traylor says it hasn’t been easy keeping the church library doors open for families like theirs.

TED TRAYLOR: We had to make a decision. Everything going online and people reading on their phones and tablets and all of those things, but we saw it as an important investment.

An investment that has proven to have eternal dividends. Two years ago, Maureen Rugullies was compelled to write and send a letter to Pastor Traylor.

TED TRAYLOR READING LETTER: She says pastor this email is long overdue and spans twenty years. Six weeks after the birth of my second child, Demaris, I went to your church library….

MAUREEN RUGULLIES READING LETTER: Demaris, I went to your church library and introduced myself to Joan Hoyt…..

AUDIO: [RUGULLIES READING LETTER]

Rugullies goes on to write about how her four-year-old daughter Demaris in 2006 made a profession of faith in Christ while reading a book checked out from the church library.

RUGULLIES READS: And right then and there, she was adamant that we pray together to accept Christ as she wanted to be the daughter of the King of Kings. She is now 20, married and serving God and still loves to read Christ-honoring material. Thank you for your vision, and leadership and ministries. Love in Christ, Maureen Rugullies.

Reporting for WORLD. I’m Myrna Brown, with Naomi Balk, from Pensacola Florida and Portage, Michigan.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 18th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney says free speech doesn’t mean libraries should stock the shelves with explicit books for children.

JANIE B. CHEANEY, COMMENTATOR: When my brother-in-law was a small-town teenager, he tried to check out a copy of The African Queen at the local library. The librarian peered over her glasses at him and asked accusingly, “Philip, do your parents know you’re checking out this book?” That’s the way he told it, and I don’t remember if she let him walk out with The African Queen. I wonder now if she was a member of the American Library Association (also known as the ALA). If so, she would likely be shocked at the drift of that organization, just as many parents today are shocked at the kind of books the ALA considers suitable for middle-graders and teens.

Banned Books Week concluded October 7 this year. It’s the ALA’s annual campaign to shame anyone who “challenges” a library book or questions its appropriateness for their library. The cynical take is that Banned Books Week is a breast-beating exercise, and I admit to growing cynicism the last couple of years, as the organization obsesses over a rise in book challenges. Yes, free speech is important, but is democracy really in danger because graphic content is being removed from library shelves? For example, Gender Queer, which tops this year’s most-banned list, is the memoir of a biological woman’s quest for a nonbinary, asexual identity. But there’s plenty of sex along that journey, some of it in pictures.

The ALA has made so-called censorship an official cause since 1982, when Banned Books Week was instituted. The first list included Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century, The Grapes of Wrath—and for reasons I can’t imagine, The American Heritage Dictionary. But let’s get one important distinction out of the way right now: “banned” doesn’t always mean the book is unavailable. If the book is withdrawn for consideration, restricted based on parental permission, reshelved to the adult or teen section, or removed altogether, it is considered “banned.” Many book bans or challenges happen in school libraries; in those cases, readers determined enough to get a public library card can probably access the book.

This year’s Banned Books motto is “Let Freedom Read.” Apparently it’s “dangerous” to suggest that Lawn Boy, which includes graphic homosexual descriptions, or Fun Home, depicting the author’s journey to lesbian love, might not be appropriate for teens. According to Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, “Students are losing access to critical information, and librarians and teachers are under attack for doing their jobs.”

As for access to information, Caldwell-Stone is forgetting the internet. As for teachers and librarians doing their jobs, there’s a great deal of confusion about what that job is. Is it transmitting the wisdom of the ages, or promoting the latest from the left wing? Does “critical information” ever include books that challenge LGBTQ ideology—books like Irreversible Damage, which outlines the permanent harm to young girls who are sucked into the transgender craze?

I know many dedicated librarians who don’t buy into banned-books rhetoric. And I hear of overzealous activists who can’t separate the wheat from the tares–the thoughtful treatments of controversial subjects from literary trash. But let’s be clear about which side is pushing the envelope. It’s not the parents.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Tomorrow: Parental rights in public schools.

And, What Do People Do All Day at WORLD’s headquarters? We’ll have a behind the scenes report. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Paul Butler.

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

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Psalmist writes: “I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.” —Psalm 101, parts of verses 2 and 3.

Go now in grace and peace.

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