The World and Everything in It: October 27, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. I'm Stefan Bucek and I'm a sports cameraman in orange California openers in 20 seconds. Ok. No matter how much you may spin it, it only takes about half a minute to tell you that boy, I hope you enjoy The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Stefan, you’re my favorite! When your preroll arrived I had to savor it. So let me say, you made my day. And now the theme we play for it.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! Pope Francis, the media, and elite universities are failing to condemn the intrinsic evil of Hamas. We’ll talk it over with John Stonestreet!

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Culture Friday. Also today commentary on our new House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Christian conservative advocate for religious liberty.

And, a bestselling book about a female scientist trying to make her way gets the Apple TV+ treatment.

ELIZABETH: Of course, I would be much further along in my research if I wasn’t making excellent coffee for mediocre chemists.

And your listener feedback.

BROWN: It’s Friday, October 27th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel - US aid » The United States is sending more military help to Israel. Pentagon spokesman, General Pat Ryder:

RYDER: I can confirm that in addition to the Iron Dome interceptors that we’re flying to Israel, we’re also planning to provide the two U.S. Iron Dome systems currently in our inventory to Israel to further enhance their defense capabilities.

And newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson met with President Biden at the White House Thursday to discuss more aid for Israel and Ukraine, among other things.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre:

PIERRE: We invited him to a bipartisan briefing with leadership on the president’s supplemental national security package.

Israel - ceasefire/pause » Meantime, Israel says it has killed several Hamas commanders, including the mastermind of the October 7th terror attacks against Israel Shadi Baroud.

Israeli troops and tanks briefly raided northern Gaza, engaging with Hamas fighters and targeting anti-tank weapons to prepare for an expected ground invasion.

But as casualties mount in Gaza, some Western allies are asking Israeli leaders to hold their fire. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez:

SANCHEZ: I would like to see a ceasefire for humanitarian purposes. But if we don’t have [the necessary] conditions, at least a humanitarian pause in order to channel all the humanitarian aid the Palestinian population needs.

And the White House is now seemingly joining those calls for humanitarian pauses. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby:

KIRBY: These are localized, temporary, specific pauses on the battlefield so that humanitarian assistance can get in to people that need it or they, the people can get out of that area in relative safety.

But the United States has said a full ceasefire would only benefit Hamas, giving terrorists time to regroup and launch another attack.

Florida weapons to Israel » And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he has arranged to send drones, weapons and ammunition to Israel responding to a request by the Israeli consulate in Miami.

The governor’s office said the supply of weapons and ammo is privately funded, but did not provide details on exactly what the state is sending.

Florida has already sent cargo planes with healthcare supplies, body armor and helmets.

Chinese FM visit » Beijing’s top diplomat is in Washington this morning as the United States and China look to keep rising tensions from boiling over. WORLD’s Christina Grube has more.

CHRISTINA GRUBE: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi sat down with Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Thursday at the start of a three-day visit.

Yi is also slated to speak with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and reportedly President Biden as well.

Earlier this week, China accused the United States of being—quote—the “biggest disruptor of regional peace and stability” criticizing U.S. support of Israel and Ukraine.

That followed a report from the Pentagon citing the rising military threat posed by China.

For WORLD, I’m Christina Grube.

Maine mass shooting » Families are mourning in Lewiston, Maine after a mass shooting on Wednesday night at a restaurant and a bowling alley. Officials now say at least 18 people were killed with more than a dozen others wounded.

Governor Janet Mills:

MILLS: In memory of those we lost and in honor of those who were injured, President Biden and I have ordered all US flags and state of Maine flags to be lowered to half staff.

Police identified the suspect as 40-year-old Robert Card, an Army Reservist and firearms instructor.

He reportedly had known mental health issues.

Ford-UAW » Autoworkers have put down their picket signs at Ford plants after the United Auto Workers union struck a tentative deal with the carmaker.

UAW President Shawn Fain said the deal includes cost of living allowances, better retirement benefits, and bigger paychecks.

Fain: Since the strike began, Ford put 50% more on the table than when we walked out. Together, we are turning the tide for the working class in this country.

Workers are still striking outside GM and Stellantis plants with labor talks ongoing.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday. Plus, a closer look at the new speaker of the House Mike Johnson

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday the 27th of October, 2023.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s Culture Friday.

Joining us now is John Stonestreet, the president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint Podcast. John, good morning.

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning.

BROWN: Pope Francis declared today (Oct. 27) as World Day of Prayer for peace, inviting all Christians and people of any faith to join.

But it's what he's not saying about Israel and Hamas that's drawing sharp criticism.

WORLD Opinions contributor Daniel Suhr writes, At a time of nearly universal outrage and condemnation for the brutal terrorist attack on Israel, one voice on the world stage has been especially troubling—Pope Francis.

He goes on to say, Even as the pope finally recognized Israel’s right to defend itself, he immediately criticized how Israel has gone about defending itself without placing the moral responsibility on Hamas for starting the war in the first place.

The Pope is being called out by other voices around the world as well. Is this calling out warranted you think?

STONESTREET: Yeah, I mean, I think it's part of the long history of Catholics calling out Pope Francis for confusing or misleading or far from conclusive statements that seem to walk back either historic understandings of Christian theology or historic moral conclusions about righteousness and evil. And this is another example. I think, also, he's been called out a lot for the ideas that have shaped his worldview. And most of us remember the sort of concern that was voiced when he was identified as a candidate for the papacy and eventually named Pope is that, where's his formation really been? What ideas have really shaped his view? 

And he comes from a part of the world in which there was a strong influence of a kind of a syncretistic theological framing of Christian theology with Marxism, kind of a liberation theology. And he often speaks and thinks and talks in categories that smell a little Marxist, and is the way that justice is often talked about by whole segments of the church. And he's been an example of that. So I think it's a real problem. I think a lot of members of the church are very uncomfortable with it. My understanding of the faith doesn't place him in that role as a theological authority in that sense. But it certainly affects an awful lot of people. And it's also widely recognized as a voice of Christian authority by the wider world. So it is a source of confusion, it does confuse the moral witness of the church, and that what the church is supposed to have to the wider world.

EICHER: Well, help us think this through, John, properly. I know you’re well versed in the principles of just-war theory. We know where the pope is coming from on this, we know where a lot of the secular moral-equivalence, both-sidesism is coming from. Talk about the Christian frame for thinking through this conflict.

STONESTREET: Well, it's gonna be really hard to think this through because every single major media voice right now immediately trusts the words of the ones who have proven themselves to be evil. You know, the story of the bombing of the hospital, I thought Ben Shapiro's analysis which certainly came out of a good deal of I think righteous anger was really accurate. It goes, you know, really at the heart of this is not only that the explanation that Israel bombed this hospital didn't really make sense, but that the information came immediately from the organization we know carried out all these other atrocities. So the fact that the entire world, particularly the media elites and the academics of the world, believe the ones that beheaded children, when they say, this is what happened here and this is the numbers that we have. The fact that they immediately take this information from Hamas, and then turn around and proclaim it as if it's true, tells you the moral backwardness of the institutions that are getting their information. So before we get any further, that's this is the place that the rest of us find ourselves in, who don't have access to government reports, who don't have access to intelligence briefings is that we know now clearly that the information that's coming is from morally upside-down people. I don't know how else to say it. I mean, it has proven to be just an absolute disaster, morally, these institutions. 

But what we're talking about here are those who think the good guys are the bad guys and the bad guys are the good guys and we're not talking about people that are in a close race. We're talking about Hamas. We're talking about the activities of warfare that were completely common throughout human history until Christians stepped up and said, You know what, this is what we know to be true about human people so there's this thing called just war. But the thing is, is what Hamas did on October the 7th changes the whole ethical debate, it changes the whole moral framework. They have to do this, in order to honor the innocent, or they themselves are evil. This is the idea of just war. And it's a framing that has deeply influenced international law. And it's a framework that Christianity gave the world and that the world has embraced, because it's the only one. Otherwise, it's the only one that offers an innocence for civilians. It's the only one that can offer a distinction between a combatant and a civilian. Otherwise, everyone's guilty by who they belong to, which, by the way, is the fundamental premise of critical theory, ironically. So the framing of the human person that underscored the worst atrocities in the history of war throughout human history, are the same assumptions about human identity that are then driving these upside-down, backwards Harvard students to completely get this ethically upside down. I mean, look, it is a crazy time right now to try to do any ethical analysis, because we are so far away from any solid foundation. 

Now, none of this gets Israel off the hook. Israel has subjected itself to international law. In essence, it's subjected itself to these ideas that are rooted in just war theory, that they can't just wage war whenever they want, they have to have a just cause they can't just wage war any way that they want. They have to have a just methodology. And I think right now, the problem right now that they're really struggling with is what's the end game? And that's really hard. And I think that's one of the things that's delaying the ground invasion. But where are we going to end this? What's going to be the end of this? What's peace in the end? And those are the three ideas that shape just war, the three kind of categories of ideas that you have to wrestle with in order to get the just war. So, I don't know if I brought more clarity or just explained the confusion a little better, but that's kind of where we're at.

EICHER: No, no, that’s helpful, and I know this’ll be going on for awhile, so we’ll just keep watching. But we’re going to cut our time short because we want to add a little more about an interesting development in the House of Representatives, where an openly evangelical Christian, culture-war constitutional lawyer is now the speaker. So hang on for that, but first thanks to John Stonestreet. John, of course, the president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. We’ll not see you next week, but the week after. Thanks, see you back November 10th.

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

EICHER: Well, up next, getting to know the new Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Our colleagues at WORLD Opinions turned to political commentator Erick Erickson for a fast turnaround on Speaker Mike Johnson, and so we turn to him now for the same.

ERICK ERICKSON: After three weeks, the House of Representatives finally settled on a Speaker of the House. Republicans rallied around Congressman Mike Johnson of Shreveport, Louisiana. He'll be the most socially conservative speaker ever. Johnson is a Southern Baptist, who spent time in Louisiana House of Representatives before heading to Washington in January of 2017. His dad was a firefighter who was critically burned in the line of duty and took disability. The family relied on their faith during that time. Johnson grew up and went to LSU and its law school. After law school, Johnson became a pro-life warrior. He served as a national spokesman and senior lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom. The organization represents a lot of Christians in the Supreme Court, including Colorado baker Jack Phillips. Johnson and his wife led pro-life marches in North Louisiana for eight years. Johnson serves as a trustee for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. He and his wife also championed a Louisiana law in the 90s that ended no fault divorce in the state. 

In the state legislature, Johnson fought aggressively for religious liberty, life and traditional marriage. He authored religious liberty legislation. It failed to pass the state legislature but Governor Bobby Jindal at the time used Johnson's legislation as the framework for executive orders protecting faith-based small businesses from persecution by gay rights activists. Johnson has also been a very vocal opponent of Common Core, the program at one time backed nationally by business advocates sought to put students on common National Standards for Education. But the program actually made it more difficult for parents to help their kids with homework, degrading math education and disincentivized advanced reading standards. Despite strong business support for it, Johnson campaigned pretty vocally against it as a parent and helped kill Common Core in Louisiana. 

In 2016, Johnson ran for Congress and won. He's not been there long enough to become a committee chairman or play a role in leadership. He sits on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services Committee. Going back to his time in the Louisiana legislature, Johnson has always been considered extremely smart and a constitutional law nerd. Pundits suggest he'll be overwhelmed by the job and out of his league, but his background, demeanor, and reputation suggests he'll be smart enough to rely on those around him and seek solid advice without a lot of ego. In Louisiana, he was known to have a good sense of humor and be more accessible than some of his colleagues. 

Stepping into the position is going to be challenging. The nation is less than 30 days from another government shutdown. Johnson is believed to want to cut a short term spending deal with the Senate that would last until no later than April 15 of next year. During that time, he wants to push the House to go through the regular appropriations process, something that hasn't been done in quite a while, and pass all 12 of the required appropriations bills Congress is supposed to do. Each of those bills would then go to the Senate. And the House and Senate could negotiate on those bills. Congress lately has instead passed continuing resolutions that just increased government spending based on prior budgets. Passing that last short term continuing resolution provoked the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, a fate Johnson hopes to avoid. 

Can he survive? Most likely he can, because there really are no other options. The moderates don't want to fight. The conservatives think they've won the fight. And even if they don't get much legislatively, they like Johnson. They've got one of their own in office. The media and Democrats will assert Johnson's an election denier. He did, in fact, challenge the results of the 2020 election and push litigation before the Supreme Court to throw out those results. But Johnson is savvy enough to make the fight about the future, the debt, and the present culture, not dwell on the past. 

What Johnson has going for him is October. We head into the holidays and then into the heart of the presidential election season. This was the year to get anything accomplished. The season of hard sells and aggressive pushes is now going to give way to retail politics and campaigns. Congressmen will be distracted by reelection. That buys Speaker Mike Johnson, the most prominent federal politician from Louisiana since President Zachary Taylor in the 1800s, buys him more time to stretch his legs and learn the ropes.

EICHER: Commentary from WORLD Opinions writer Erick Erickson.

Erickson is a lawyer by training, has served as a political contributor for CNN and Fox News, and hosts the Erick Erickson Show broadcast nationwide.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, October 27th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a new TV show based on a bestselling book.

Apple TV+ might not have a catalog as large as Netflix’s, but it’s gaining a reputation for being the home of prestige TV. Apple seems especially dedicated to literary adaptations. So far in 2023, Apple TV+ released six series based on novels.

BROWN: The latest is Lessons in Chemistry. It's based on a novel of the same name by Bonnie Garmus, a book that spent almost a year on the New York Times bestseller list. Here’s a review by WORLD arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino.

STATION MANAGER: Rolling. We’re live in 5, 4, 3…

ELIZABETH: Welcome, viewers. My name is Elizabeth Zott, and this is Supper at Six.

AUDIENCE: [Cheering applause]

COLLIN GARBARINO: Lessons in Chemistry is an eight-part series about an independent-minded woman trying to make her way in the 1950s. It begins with Elizabeth Zott, played by Brie Larson, standing before a live studio audience as she hosts her wildly popular television show Supper at Six. But Elizabeth never intended to become a television personality. How did she end up here?

ELIZABETH: Let’s get started, shall we?

We quickly flashback seven years to a time when Elizabeth was a budding scientist struggling for recognition while working in a world-renowned chemistry laboratory. She’s brilliant, but sexism in the lab relegates her to fulfilling menial tasks for the men.

ELIZABETH: Of course, I would be much further along in my research if I wasn’t making excellent coffee for mediocre chemists.

Elizabeth’s situation changes when the laboratory’s star scientist recognizes a kindred spirit in Elizabeth, but the road to love and acceptance will be a bumpy one. But those chemistry skills come in handy when preparing the perfect lasagna.

ELIZABETH: At about 92 degrees, the solid milk fat in the cheese liquifies and the bonds holding together the casing proteins break, but the melt isn’t smooth.

Like most of Apple’s other bookish inspired series, Lessons in Chemistry is rated TV-MA. But like other Apple offerings, the series doesn’t contain nudity, apart from one brief glimpse of a man’s backside while showering. Some episodes have foul language, but the language leans more PG-13, except in the one in which Elizabeth’s station manager, played by Rainn Wilson, unleashes a profane tirade.

STATION OWNER: Let me explain something to you.

ELIZABETH: Men are always trying to explain and women are expected to sit and listen.

Larson plays her role with a wide-eyed earnestness, and Elizabeth’s dedication to her work despite living in a world that doesn’t value her abilities gives her a sympathetic quality. But the first two episodes are so heavy handed they almost undercut our sympathy. The clumsy script trots every imaginable stereotypical example of sexism.

ELIZABETH: How many female scientists can you name?

CALVIN: Madam Curie.

ELIZABETH: Exactly. Do you think that’s just by happenstance?

Sexism isn’t the only social ill Lessons in Chemistry attempts to address in its eight episodes. The series also includes subplots on race relations and neurodiversity awareness and, in one brief scene, ticks the LGBT-inclusivity box to boot. At times the series feels a little overstuffed.

It’s a shame the first two episodes are a little cliched and cringey because the series gets much better as it continues. By episode four Lessons in Chemistry really hits its stride, asking thoughtful questions we don’t usually see on TV.

CALVIN: We are quite bad at celebrating Christmas.

ELIZABETH: Christmas is a fiction.

CALVIN: Right. Christmas is a fiction. I forgot about that.

Elizabeth is an atheist, and chemistry is her god. She hopes her research will allow her to discover the origins of life, and she’s shattered when personal turmoil steals that research away from her. The second half of the series becomes a slow-burn family mystery revealing that seemingly disparate storylines all come together to suggest life has meaning beyond chemical bonds.

ELIZABETH: Sometimes you can’t count on a formula. Sometimes you can’t control each variable. Sometimes. Many times, things just turn out messy.

Despite so many competing themes, the series finds room to explore questions about the relationship between faith and science. What’s even more surprising than the inclusion of a religious plotline is how well the series pulls it off.

WAKELY: But I believe that the mystical and the natural are not fundamentally opposed. The way I see it, science is the how and religion is the why.

We learn that Elizabeth adopted her atheism from a place of pain rather than sense of conviction. Over the course of the series Elizabeth and her family find themselves surrounded by church-attending Christians who love and help her.

WAKELY: I’m Reverend Wakely. This is my church.

MAD: I’m Mad Zott. I don’t have a church because my mom said God isn’t real.

This series showcases the kind of respectful dialogue between believers and unbelievers that feels too rare these days. While you shouldn’t expect any “come to Jesus” moments, by the end of the series, the dialogue tips ever so slightly in the direction of belief.

And, as with many of Apple’s other series, the TV show is actually better than the book.

MUSIC: [Lessons in Chemistry theme]

I’m Collin Garbarino.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Up next, listener feedback for the month of October.

We begin with a note from a college student studying elementary education at Colorado Christian University.

He offered a correction after our story on October 19th regarding Oklahoma’s approval of a religious charter school. In the interview, guest Ernie Walton from Regent University Law School defined a charter school as a “private school that operates with a contract with the state to educate children.”

NICK EICHER, HOST: But listener Nathan Baylor points out that while charter schools do maintain their own board of governance and are operated independently of the public school system—it is still considered a public school, not a private one.

Our next correction comes from the news yesterday. We described the gun believed to have been used in the shooting in Maine as an “assault-style rifle.” Now, assault rifles are capable of both automatic and semi automatic fire. But AR-15’s—like the weapon we described—are not capable of fully automatic fire, so the term “assault rifle” is a misnomer.

BROWN: In general WORLD tries to avoid the term “assault-style weapon” even as many other outlets use it as a catch-all term. We apologize for letting that slip through the editorial process.

Our first listener comment comes from Patrice Brink. She lives in Landenberg, Pennsylvania, and she responded to a recent commentary by Bethel McGrew:

PATRICE BRINK: I just wanted to make a positive comment about Bethel McGrew's commentary on the three progressive anti-abortion uprising activists who were found guilty for their protest outside of the Washington D.C. abortion clinic. Her comparison of these three with the Good Samaritan is an entirely apt comparison, and I was very pleased with the report. We should support them because we are all in support of unborn life. Thanks for your great reporting. I appreciate it.

EICHER: But a pro-life activist and WORLD listener named Maryln from Washington state thought that we left out some important information in that commentary.

MARYLN: I agree that pro-life advocates do not need to adhere to every aspect of a Christian worldview, and we can appreciate these activist commitment to protecting preborn children. However, many of us cannot agree with their aggressive tactics, not only are they unlawful, they are ineffective. These aggressive methods may also limit access for peaceful sidewalk advocates as buffer zone laws are put into effect as a response. So let’s emphasize what works. Thank you for all you do to defend life.

There are two stories this month that generated a lot of mail. The first one was the two-part story from you, Myrna, on church libraries. And here is listener Rebecca Payne:

REBECCA PAYNE: As an early childhood literacy specialist and a Christian, I just wanted to thank you for your recent episode about church libraries. For a family with financial constraints who needs to use libraries to fuel their children's reading—and their reading to their children—the church library having access to books that are God honoring that the city library usually doesn't have, is an excellent resource and something that I'm thankful that church libraries do exist and are able to provide. And I'm hoping that your piece will bring more light to them.

BROWN: Thanks Rebecca. Listener Kaylee Feeny was also grateful for the stories, though she reminded us that not every church has a robust library—meaning some families still have to rely on their community library. She writes:

“As Christians, we can enter these spaces with humility and wisdom and most of all, trusting God. [I] just want to remind people to not feel guilty or afraid about visiting their public library. I don't want Christians to ‘cancel’ their public libraries. How sad that would be!”

EICHER: There were also a handful of listeners who wrote in to tell us about personal lending library services as another alternative, and we’re looking into those for a future story.

And now onto a story that generated more mail than anything else we’ve done in recent memory: Emails from those who enjoyed the extended Culture Friday interview with Rosaria Butterfield which we featured last weekend.

Here’s listener Matt Brown:

MATT BROWN: Oh my, I’m deeply moved, deeply impressed, deeply convicted, deeply challenged, and I will be reading her book, and I will be following any podcasts that she does. Another clarifying voice when we so desperately need to hear from in our world of muddled thinking among evangelicals. Again. Thank you so much for this segment. Have a great day.

BROWN: Long-time listener Joan Lasseter from Montgomery, Alabama, adds: “This had me sitting up, taking notes, and rejoicing with her final psalm-singing! Everything she said was offered intelligently AND humbly, truly instructive and thoughtful! Loved this, and might listen to it every day for a while (lots to unpack-and so very timely).”

EICHER: Dennis Daise of Goodland, Kansas writes to say he thought the extended version is an excellent idea. He thought Rosaria answered questions that the listener could relate to in this day and age! In other words, Christians don’t always have to be on the defensive!

BROWN: And there were many just like that. The majority of the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and nearly everyone asked for more.

EICHER: Well, we’re working on it, and hopefully we’ll have some more to say about that in the weeks ahead. Thanks to everyone who wrote and called in this month. We’re grateful that you listen, and that you take the time to provide thoughtful feedback.

BROWN: And thanks to everyone who has left comments and ratings on Apple iTunes. If you have comments to share with us you can send them to editor@wng.org. And if you’re writing, why not take a moment and record your comments on your phone and send those along as well? We’ve included instructions on how to do that on our website: wng.org/podcasts. If you’d rather call, then you can reach our listener line at 202–709-9595

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, it’s time to say thanks to the team members who helped put the program together this week:

Mary Reichard, David Bahnsen, Emma Perley, Mary Muncy, Aidan Johnston, Bethel McGrew, Grace Snell, Brad Littlejohn, Leo Briceno, Addie Offereins, Cal Thomas, John Stonestreet, Erick Erickson, and Collin Garbarino.

Thanks also to our breaking news team: Kent Covington, Lynde Langdon, Steve Kloosterman, Travis Kircher, Lauren Canterberry, Christina Grube, and Josh Schumacher.

And, breaking news interns Tobin Jacobson, Johanna Huebscher, and Alex Carmanaty.

And thanks to the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Our producer is Harrison Watters. Our production team includes Kristen Flavin, Benj Eicher, Lillian Hamman, Emily Whitten, and Bekah McCallum.

Anna Johansen Brown is features editor, and Paul Butler is executive producer.

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

The Psalmist writes: “Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man! Let them extol Him in the congregation of the people, and praise Him in the assembly of the elders.” —Psalm 107 verses 31 and 32

Be sure to worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ, in church this weekend. And Lord willing, we’ll meet you right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.