The World and Everything in It: September 16, 2022

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Culture Friday: reading scores and math scores are dropping. We’ll talk about reasons and solutions.

NICK EICHER, HOST: John Stonestreet joins us and we’ll also talk about one senator’s abortion legislation and why the Republican leadership is running away from it.

Also today: stories of warfare.

And the weird rules of this language.

BROWN: It’s Friday, September 16th. 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: Railway contract » The trains will keep moving today. Railroad companies and unions reached an agreement on Thursday to avoid a strike ahead of today’s deadline.

A rail stoppage could have caused supply chain chaos across the country less than two months before midterm elections. That has the White House is breathing a sigh of relief. President Biden told reporters…

BIDEN: I am very pleased. This agreement is a big win for America, and for both, in my view.

The deal, which includes a 24% pay raise, will go to union members for a vote after a cooling-off period of several weeks.

Special master » A federal judge has named the independent legal expert who will review the documents the FBI took during a raid of Donald Trump’s Florida home.

Former federal prosecutor Raymond Dearie will serve as special master.

He’ll sift through the documents and potentially weed out any records that may be protected by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.

Trump’s legal team gave Dearie the thumbs up. And the Justice Department did also, though it opposed naming a special master in the case.

Ukraine aid, Russia sanctions » The United States is reportedly set to send another big military aid package to Ukraine and hit Russia with more sanctions. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The United States is rushing more weapons to fuel Kyiv's counteroffensive, which has reclaimed large parts of eastern Ukraine from Russia.

The Biden administration was expected to announce $600 million in additional aid. The package will include more heavy equipment and ammunition.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian authorities found a mass burial site near the recently recaptured city of Izium.

The State Department also slapped sanctions on dozens of Russian companies and officials—and some Ukrainian officials—for human rights abuses and the theft of Ukrainian grain.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Putin-China concerns » Vladimir Putin conceded publicly for the first time Thursday that China has concerns about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Putin sat face to face with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a meeting room in Uzbekistan.

Putin said, “We understand your questions and your concerns in this regard, and we certainly will offer a detailed explanation of our stand on this issue.”

The White House finds the continued alliance of Russia and China troubling.

PIERRE: We’ve made clear our concerns about the depth of China’s alignment with Russia, even as Russia prosecutes a war of aggression in Ukraine, a brutal war. This meeting is an example of that alignment.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre heard there.

Putin thanked Xi Jinping on Thursday for his—quote—“balanced” approach to the Ukrainian crisis.

China worries about the war making oil prices more volatile and economic uncertainty worse.

WHO: pandemic end ‘in sight’ » The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, but “the end is in sight.”

That’s the word from the head of the World Health Organization.

At a press briefing in Geneva, Tedros Ghebreyesus told reporters…

GHEBREYESUS: Last week, the number of weekly reported deaths from COVID-19 was the lowest since March, 2020. We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic.

But Ghebreyesus compared the fight against the virus to a marathon. He said, “Now is the worst time to stop running.”

In its weekly report, the WHO said COVID deaths fell by 22% in the past week, at just over 11,000 reported worldwide.

Hungary abortion » The government of Hungary now requires abortion providers to show signs of life to mothers seeking an abortion. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The decree issued on Monday states that abortionists must provide pregnant women with an “indication of fetal vital signs” before proceeding with an abortion. The rule took effect on Thursday.

In a statement, the Interior Ministry said that “nearly two-thirds of Hungarians associate the beginning of a child’s life with the first heartbeat.”

It added that the measure is intended to give mothers more information before making a decision.

Abortion laws in Hungary remained largely the same since the procedure was legalized during the country's socialist period in 1953.

The government enshrined in Hungary's 2011 constitution that “the life of a fetus will be protected from conception," yet it hasn't sought to significantly tighten abortion laws.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: on Culture Friday, plummeting math and reading scores and the reason behind that.

Plus, stories of warfare.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It's the 16th day of September, 2022. 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! Let’s bring in John Stonestreet. He’s the president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

Good morning!

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning!

BROWN: John, I know the new school year just started, but we’ve already got a report card to contend with. The Nation’s Report Card for schools is out, the first one since the pandemic.

No surprises here. It’s not good. Reading scores among 9-year-olds saw their largest drop since 1990 and math scores fell for the first time in 50 years. We’ll post a link in today’s transcript to the full report.

Parents who can afford it are turning to private school and homeschooling to get the help needed for their students. But what about those parents who can’t afford those alternatives. Some argue policymakers need to make changes so that parents without means will have options, too. But as fellow Christians, are we our brother’s keeper? What’s our role in this?

STONESTREET: Well, you know, it's a good question. And before we go there, we have to acknowledge that this isn't the whole story, the picture is so much worse than this. And it's not necessarily caused by the pandemic, it's what I often refer to as a pre existing condition of the pandemic, a social pre existing condition, when you talk about mental illness when you talk about kids struggling with anxiety when you talk about the over and hyper prescribing of medication and putting students on this, and all of this just got worse, right? When we sent everybody home and made them you know, look at screens all days and, and that not only that, but we'd lost track of a bunch of kids, there was a whole bunch of kids that just stopped going to school. And of course, in times past that might have been because you know, they had farm work to do. That's certainly not the case with many of them here. So this picture is so much worse than even what this report card says when you add in the other factors of it. And so the question is, what's our responsibility? What's an act of love to our neighbor? And, you know, I think Chuck Colson would answer that question, your question, Are we our brother's keeper? Absolutely, yes. In fact, a lot of people don't know this. But you know, Chuck, who was very concerned about the church, being the church and running into the plague, whatever the plague happened to be right before he passed away, this became a passion of his. And so he became a champion of things like school choice and policies that could actually make kids tax dollars, or parents tax dollars, go with their kids, to whatever school that they chose, and that they could make work out so that they would not simply be subjected to a bad education because of where they found themselves. Historically, Chuck thought that this was connected to what Christians had always done. Wherever Christianity went, education went, wherever Christianity went, the protection of children, and the securing of children's future that always was part of the way that Christians understood their calling to that cultural moment was to take care of kids particularly take care of kids learning. And of course, there's a philosophical foundation for education that is unique to Christianity. And that is the world is ordered, because it was created by God. And this God not only created the world that way, but he created people with an incredible capacity to learn and to know. So there's so many parts of the education story right now, a whole bunch of parents became, you know, clear eyed about what was happening to their kids, because of zoom classrooms, the ideas that were at work. And you also have more and more of a picture of kind of the brokenness that oftentimes comes into the lives of kids before they go to school. There's so many chapters of it, but the short answer is, we are our brother's keeper. I think the church has always understood that and I think we should care about that. The idea of public education itself was a Christian one, and I know you know, now, we've reached a point where all of that needs to be rethought and reframed. But I will say this, I think the brightest spot right now, in Christians interaction with culture, is the innovation that has come in the area of education. This is part of our Christian history. It's a good part of it. And there's a lot of educational innovation happening right now, which is good news.

EICHER: Question for you on the Lindsey Graham legislation on abortion. You saw his bill to ban abortion after 15 weeks nationwide. It includes exceptions for rape and incest.

He has supported federal bans before. If you go back to the time before the Supreme Court reversed Roe vs. Wade, he had a bill with a 20-week ban.

And we can get into the particulars if you want, but what I’m most curious about is the reaction of other Republicans. The leadership seems to be running away from this, and not because they oppose the rape and incest exception. It’s more because they don’t want to talk about abortion during mid-term elections.

Do you think that says more about internal Republican political dynamics or do you sense that pro-life is a political liability this fall?

STONESTREET: I think a lot of people do think it's a political liability, whether it should be or not. And I think certainly the media has largely embraced that narrative and are trying to kind of make sure that it is the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade. And there's been a real problem, I think, from Republicans framing that what this is, and being able to tell the difference. I think that one of the ways that we've missed it is that there's a thought that because we care about this issue everybody else does, which is why the pre political work for those of us who are pro life is so important. Essentially, you've got diehard, pro-abortion forces, and they're willing to lie, they're willing to say whatever. And that is what you hear from the kind of these diehard folks and then you have diehard pro lifers. And then between the middle, I think most of America is in a, I don't really want to think about this until it affects me. So I think it's a miscalculation for the Republican leadership to run away from this thing from Lindsey Graham, I think maybe it's a miscalculation from Lindsey Graham to put it out there. Or maybe it's a political calculation. And I think it's an intriguing one to turn around and say, not only should we have more bans on abortion, and by the way, if we're going to do it, you know, you know, obviously, we don't want it to stop at 15 weeks, I think maybe he's calling where the polls tend to say people are, which is they don't like, when they understand what Roe v. Wade did, they don't like this kind of abortion free for all, that America was characterized by, they also don't want kind of full bans on abortion. And so I think he's trying to basically steal this issue back from being an issue on the left and saying, Look, if you want common sense restrictions, the only way to get it is with Republicans. I mean, that's my best guess on this. But I'll say this, that for those of us who really care about protecting pre-born lives, you'll see that these little political juggling acts are going to be at times important and at times posturing. But the real work is happening right now outside of politics, the real work is happening not by politicians, but by neighbors and moms and dads. That's where the real work to defend life has to happen. So, you know, I only see this as kind of an interesting thing happening, you know, on the other side of the planet, and it may or may not affect me in the long run.

EICHER: On the subject of politics or political issues, it looks like we’ll be seeing a vote on something called the Respect for Marriage Act basically grows out of the abortion decision at the Supreme Court.

But I’m noticing here another trend among elected Republicans to shy away from certain issues and basically concede same-sex marriage and take the position that the debate is over we need to move on.

Do you think the debate is over?

Is same-sex marriage here to stay?

STONESTREET: I'd like to know when the debate began. I don't remember ever having a debate on same sex marriage. I remember a bunch of memes, a Will and Grace television series, and then all of a sudden, anybody that disagreed was a bigot. I mean, I don't think it's over. But not because I think it's happening. I don't think it's over. Because there's now no way to stop this runaway train of calling any relational arrangement we want 'marriage', and it's directly connected to this crazy thing of calling any identity that I want to claim as legitimate. In other words, if you just say, This is my relational arrangement, and therefore you have to call it marriage, because who are you to say that love isn't love? There's no end to that. And I think we haven't quite seen where that has gone. Same sex marriage, the legalization made the conversation about gender that we're currently having, and if we're having a conversation about it possible, it's going to make polyamorous marriage the next thing on the docket. There won't be any possible way to restrict that. We'll have local governments allowing that, extending marriage licenses to thruples and quadruples and then it'll be incestuous marriage, and I don't mean forcing incestuous marriage. But I think we've got a situation where who's to say that extended family members, children and step parents and the siblings can't fall in love if love is love. And of course, the reason that we've historically banned those things is because love isn't love. Love between a brother and sister has physical consequences for children that love between others don't have. And because of that, that's why we've, in other words, we've actually pretended as if the body matters, and physical realities matter. And, you know, that's kind of out the window. So it's not over, but it's not over because we're actually able to have the debate, it's not over because the floodgates are open the water's running down the hill, and eventually we're going to look around going, "Oh, wait, this is not a good idea." And we're going to have to figure out, "Well, how are we going to stop it?" You know, we've already removed any sort of ideological fences that would, you know, hem in marriage and, and we didn't do what GK Chesterton wisely warned, which is, before you move a fence, you need to ask why it was put there in the first place. And you know, that's all gone. So I think the debate will be a necessary consequence of not having the debate, if that makes sense. We'll kind of look around and go, "How do we get down the bottom of this pit? And how do we climb out of it?" And it'll be hard. There'll be a lot of people, particularly children, because that's the way the sexual revolution has gone. That are the victims of those bad ideas.

BROWN: Well, John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Thank you, John.

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

A raccoon walks into a bar.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Oh, no. 

EICHER: What, you heard it?

BROWN: Mmm. Not sure?

EICHER: I guess I really should be precise: A woman brought a raccoon in to show her friends during happy hour at the Maddock Bar in Maddock, North Dakota.

As the president might say “not a joke” even though it sounds like one.

She was asked to leave and eventually she did, just not immediately. So state health authorities issued a rabies alert. Evidently there’ve been six reports of rabid animals in the state. This raccoon, however, not among the suspects.

But you can never be too careful.

The bartender confirmed there was no biting and the woman held on to the animal the whole time, but added, “I had no idea what she was thinking.”

That’s pretty much the story. Nothing unusual, just slow news day at the Bismarck Tribune, which reported the story and it made the national news wire because, let’s face it, everybody wants to write a story that begins, a raccoon walks into a bar. It’s a lead begging for a punchline.

So we put all our best people on it and our colleague Claire Hopple came up with: A raccoon walks into a bar and almost winds up behind bars!

AUDIO: Not a joke.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, September 16th! 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: Stories of warfare.

These kinds of stories often reveal life and human nature in powerful ways.

Today, Emily Whitten recommends two such stories–the first, a book and movie combo that gets us up close and personal with some real-life World War II heroes.

The other fictional story is better suited to families with younger kids, but it conveys many of the same values of courage and self-sacrifice.

CLIP: At 0600 hours we will begin training to go to war. This is not Dog Company. This is Easy Company. The first and finest company in this regiment…

EMILY WHITTEN, REVIEWER: That’s a clip from the 2001 HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers. It’s based on the book first published 30 years ago by Stephen Ambrose. Both the book and the series cover the founding of E Company paratroopers in 1942. They also cover the unit’s role on D-Day, as well as their engagements in Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge. By the time the unit disbands three years after its inception, Ambrose says the soldiers have formed an uncommon bond.

AMBROSE: They found combat to be ugliness, destruction and death, and hated it. Anything was better than the blood and carnage, the grime and filth, the impossible demands made on the body. Anything except letting down their buddies.

Ambrose has been accused of plagiarism in some of his other books. I’m not aware of plagiarism in Band of Brothers, though he certainly relies heavily on source material. To his credit as an historian, he even includes unflattering material such as American soldiers looting German citizens. Speaking of unflattering material, be aware that the HBO miniseries easily earned its TV-MA rating for offensive language, drinking, and sexual content as well as graphic violence. The book contains similar content as well.

CLIP: [SHOOTING]

It’s also worth acknowledging, especially for teens watching for the first time—there’s a reason you don’t see black men in this story. Racial segregation was army policy back then.

These negatives don’t erase the positives, though. The men of Easy Company powerfully show Christian virtues of courage, perseverance, and most of all, sacrificial love. Major Dick Winters (played by Damian Lewis) especially models godly leadership and humility. At one point, Winters stands alone on a road while enemy fire rains down—he yells, kicks, whatever it takes to pull his men from near-certain death to victory. Another time, he defends German POWs from one of his own soldiers.

CLIP: You have one round. Johnny, how many prisoners do we have? Got 11 right now, sir. You drop a prisoner, the rest will jump you. I want all prisoners back at battalion CP alive. Yes, sir.

In the following clip from the miniseries, the real Major Winters quotes a fellow soldier’s letter to him after the war.

WINTERS: I cherish the memory of a question my grandson asked me the other day. ‘Grandpa, were you a hero in the war? No, but I served in a company of heroes.’

It’s natural for Christian parents and grandparents to want to pass on these values, but many kids aren’t ready for such mature content yet.

That’s where my second recommendation comes in. Families with kids ages 9-12 can explore similar themes in another author’s work: Christian writer S.D. Smith’s Green Ember series and his Tales of Old Natalia. His third installment in the Tales of Old Natalia came out this March, and it’s titled Prince Lander and the Dragon War. Here’s a clip from the audiobook narrated by Eric Fritzhius.

CLIP: ‘Hold a line,’ Walters called, and the bucks tightened up, making four compact rows. Lander saw Nichols form up behind him alongside Walters, blades bare and eyes keen on the enemy. Lander spun back to the water. An enormous dragon swam in front of the others. He reached the shallow water and rose with a roar. He stepped ahead, kicking up water as he came. ‘Hold,’ Walters called. Before Lander knew what he was doing, he rushed away from the line of bucks and leapt for the dragon.…

If you’re not familiar with this series, Smith jokingly calls these “rabbits with swords” stories. Like the Redwall series, the animals act a lot like humans, talking and wearing clothes. Unlike most fantasy stories, though, Smith deeply imbues his tales with Christian morality. For instance, we see the concept of honor in how the good characters treat one another, even in how they speak. We also see what happens when rabbits reject the demands of honor and become traitors.

In the following clip from Chapter 1, the noble rabbit king—King Whitson-–is holding a counsel of military leaders.

CLIP: Whitson whispered just loud enough for Lander to hear. I have laid a trap for Grimbal. You see, son, we have a traitor among our innermost counselors. I had to confirm some suspicions.

As the story develops, we learn that old King Whitson is near the end of his life, and Prince Lander struggles to fill the king’s shoes. Old wounds lead to factions among the good rabbits, even as a final showdown with the dragon king looms. Lander knows that to have a chance, he’ll need to unite the rabbits somehow-–and wield the star sword which no one can wield.

CLIP: It’s too powerful for anyone to use and not be changed.

The book does merit a few cautions. Some kids won’t be ready for the PG-level violence, and some families won’t like elements of dark magic used by evil dragons—especially one scene in which rabbits are tempted to child sacrifice. That said, for kids who are ready for the challenge, this is a large, generous, captivating story—and one that adds value to Smith’s previous collection.

Like the Band of Brothers book and movie, Prince Lander and the Dragon King can grip our imagination and teach us to love courage, wisdom, perseverance and self-sacrifice.

This quote from the Band of Brothers’s audiobook sums up both resources nicely.

CLIP: They also found in combat the closest brotherhood they ever knew. They found selflessness. They found they could love the other guy in their foxhole more than themselves. They found that in war, men who loved life would give their lives for them.

I’m Emily Whitten.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, September 16, 2022. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. It’s time now for Word Play.

Actually, today we’re playing with letters.

And if spelling isn’t your strong suit, well, George Grant is about to make you feel a lot better. Or worse, maybe.

GEORGE GRANT, COMMENTATOR: Though it is now indisputably the world’s lingua franca, English remains one of the most challenging languages to learn for non-native speakers. Even though it is rife with rules, those rules are challenged at every turn by exceptions, inconsistencies, and illogical constructions.

For example, the “silent final E” rule asserts that when a word ends in E, the vowel simply amplifies the prior syllable, as in made, done, and skate. It is unpronounced, except when it is, as in fiancé, recipe, and macrame.

Strictly enforced the rule, “never end a sentence with a preposition,” can result in extremely awkward prose. As Winston Churchill quipped, “It is rule up with which I will not put.”

The rule, “I before E except after C,” is supposed to be an easy way to remember the spelling pattern of common words that came into English from French, including receive, conceive, and ceiling as well as deceit and receipt. But of course, there are many weird exceptions like, well, the word weird. The many different sources of our language, Latin, Greek, German, Norse, Gaelic, and a panoply of dialects, all have their own spelling paradigms—and that means English does not have anything like a systematic orthography.

Grammarians, inclined as they are to order, have created rules aimed at making English tidier and easier to learn. Alas, their rules often were created long after most words passed into common usage.

Many of the words that seem to be exceptions to the “I before E” rule have roots in Old English—words like eight, weigh, neighbor, and sleigh. So, in an attempt to take this into account, some English-as-a-Second-Language curricula have created a variant to the old rule: “I before E except after C; Or when pronounced A, as in neighbor and weigh.”

Alas, even that adapted rule has exceptions. So, Webster’s Online Dictionary has proposed this variant of the variant: “I before E except after C; Or when pronounced A, as in neighbor and weigh; Unless the C is has a SH sound as in glacier; Or it appears in comparatives and superlatives like fancier; And also, except when the diphthong is sounded as E as in seize; Or I as in height; Or also in ING inflected words ending in E, as in cueing; Or in compound words, as in albeit; Or occasionally, in technical words with strong etymological links to their parent languages, as in cuneiform.

Perhaps Catherynne Valente was right when she quipped, “English loves to stay out all night dancing with other languages, all decked out in sparkling prepositions and irregular verbs. It is unruly and will not obey—just when you think you have it in hand, it lets down its hair along with a hundred nonsensical exceptions.”

I’m George Grant.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s time to give credit to the team that made this week’s programs come together.

Kent Covington, David Bahnsen, Collin Garbarino, Lauren Dunn, Caleb Bailey, Steve West, Onize Ohikere, Amy Lewis, Janie B. Cheaney, Bonnie Pritchett, Gary Perilloux, Cal Thomas, Emily Whitten, Josh Schumacher, Mary Muncy, Anna Johansen Brown, and George Grant.

Thank you all.

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

Kristen Flavin is our producer. Paul Butler is our 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 Bible says: Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Cor 3:16-17 ESV)

Remember to worship alongside your brothers and sisters in Christ this weekend. God willing, we’ll meet you right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

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