The World and Everything in It: September 2, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. My name is Genevieve Marr. I live in St. Louis, Missouri, and I work as a high school history and worldviews teacher. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Legal Docket, a possible showdown in the Wild West. The federal government controls more than two-thirds of the land in Utah. And Utah is suing to change that.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today the Monday Moneybeat. Economist David Bahnsen is standing by, and on this Labor Day we’ll talk about a Christian view of work.

And the WORLD History Book. Today you’ll meet a man of industry, R.G. LeTourneau, known as God’s businessman:

AUDIO: Truly, from these modern factories, come earthmoving and construction equipment designed and built to make your planning succeed.

BROWN: It’s Monday, September 2nd. 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: Israeli hostages found dead aftermath » Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing that Hamas will “pay the price” for its actions after six more hostages were found dead in Gaza.

NETANYAHU (Translated): The fact that Hamas is continuing to perpetuate atrocities like those it carried out on October 7th, requires us to do everything so that it will be unable to perpetuate these atrocities again.

SOUND: [Israel protest]

Thousands of Israelis have surged into the streets in an outpouring of grief and anger.

SOUND: [Israel protest]

Many of the demonstrators are urging the Israeli government to reach a cease-fire deal to bring the remaining captives home.

Israel’s largest trade union has called a general strike for Monday to further pressure the government. A strike could disrupt major sectors of the economy including banking, health care and the country’s main airport.

Washington reaction to Israel news » But many other Israelis believe the pressure should be applied not to the Israeli government but to Hamas.

And in Washington, many Republican lawmakers agree, including Sen. Markwayne Mullin.

MULLIN:  You know, you're dealing with a terrorist organization and Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization. It's going to do whatever it can to get the rise out of the people to to look for a deal right now. Hamas is fighting for survival.

Most Democrats, though, say diplomacy is the correct and only path to ensure the safe return of the remaining hostages.

President Biden on Sunday said he remains optimistic about a cease-fire deal.

BIDEN: Our people are continuing to meet, and we think we can close the deal. They've all said they agree on the principles. So, keep your fingers crossed.

Israel believes that Hamas is still holding more than a hundred captives.

Presidential debate » Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are set to face off one week from tomorrow in a presidential debate hosted by ABC News.

But the campaigns still don’t agree on the rules for that debate. Senior Trump campaign official Corey Lewandowski says the rules had already been settled before President Biden bowed out of the race.

LEWANDOWSKI:  Kamala Harris's team was also part of that because we set the same parameters for the vice presidential debate. And what those parameters were, were you would stand at a podium or a lectern. You would have no notes available to you and the microphones would be off.

They would be off for one candidate when it is the other’s turn to speak.

The Harris campaign now wants the mics left on the entire time.

It’s unclear if either campaign considers the microphone rules a deal-breaker for participating in the debate.

49ers player Ricky Pearsall stable after shooting » Officials say a juvenile suspect is in custody after allegedly shooting San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall in the chest during an attempted robbery.

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott says Pearsall was walking alone when the suspect tried to rob him.

WILLIAM SCOTT:  A struggle between Mr. Pearsall and the suspect ensued and the suspect's gun struck. Gunfire from the suspect's gun struck, struck both Mr. Pearsall and the subject.

The 23-year-old Pearsall was listed in fair condition at a local hospital on Sunday.

Authorities have identified the suspect as a 17-year-old male resident of Tracy, California.

Gas prices » Holiday travelers have been enjoying friendlier pump prices. The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded stands at $3.33. AAA spokeswoman Aixa Diaz:

 We haven't seen gas prices this low since March of earlier this year. So that's good news for drivers. You're not paying quite as much as you were even earlier this summer or compared to last Labor Day weekend.

Mississippi still has the cheapest gas in the country at $2.86 per gallon.

California and Hawaii are tied for the most expensive with a per-gallon average of $4.65.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Utah’s land dispute with the federal government on Legal Docket. Plus, the Monday Moneybeat.

This is The World and Everything in It. 

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Monday the 2nd of September.

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. Time now for Legal Docket.

Today, legal reporter Steve West joins us to talk about a land dispute between Utah and the federal government. At stake are issues of state sovereignty versus federal power. And of course, at the end of the day how resources are divvied up.

So that’s coming in a few minutes.

BROWN: It is, but first, some updates from the Supreme Court. Morning, Steve!

STEVE WEST: Happy Labor Day, Nick and Myrna.

BROWN: Well, Steve, the justices return to session next month on the traditional First Monday of October. But I’ve seen several news stories about decisions of the court over the summer even though they’re in, what I understand is, a summer recess?

WEST: You’re partly right, Myrna. Every year, around the end of June, the Supreme Court issues its last—and sometimes most controversial—opinions. And then it goes on recess.

The justices do get some down time, but they’re also getting ready for the next term of court that begins, as you say, the first Monday in October. They read petitions for review and deal with motions that need quick action—their emergency docket, or what’s sometimes called the “shadow docket.”

BROWN: So what happened?

WEST: Yes, a decision last week, last Wednesday. The justices issued an order denying a request by the Biden-Harris administration to allow it to put into effect a student debt relief plan for low-income borrowers. The plan ties monthly payments to income and household size. There were no dissenters from the unsigned order.

BROWN: The student loan saga continues.

WEST: Yes, you’re recalling that the administration had proposed a much larger plan that the court struck down last year. The White House was shooting to cancel up to $400 billion dollars in student debt. The court said that exceeded the administration’s authority.

So, with this new program, the administration’s scaling back its ambition, and using a different provision of the law. It’s using authority under the The Higher Education Act of 1965. That law requires the Department of Education to offer student-loan borrowers repayment plans tailored to their incomes.

But like the other plan, this one has also been challenged.

BROWN: So, you said the Supreme Court denied the Biden-Harris administration from moving ahead with that less-ambitious plan. So, does that mean it’s over?

WEST: No, not yet. It means the plan can’t go forward while the legal issues get sorted out.

The state of play is that one federal appeals court in Denver allowed the government to put the plan into action, while a different appeals court in St. Louis blocked major provisions of the plan. These are not final rulings. Those have to be finished up, and when they are it’s almost certain that both will likely be back before the high court—because I’m assuming the different circuits will again rule differently. That’s a classic high court appeal resolving conflicting decisions of the appeals court system.

So, we’ll no doubt have more to report on.

EICHER: Well, Steve, let’s get to that land dispute case. I know it’s unusual for a lawsuit to be filed directly in the Supreme Court. But the state of Utah did it, and it’s suing the federal government. They want control of their land. But start with the background.

WEST: Many don’t know this, but the federal government actually owns over two-thirds of the land in Utah. National parks, forests, and monuments make up about half of the Feds’ holdings. But the other half of federal land is unappropriated—that means it’s without a designated use.

And Utah isn’t happy about that, because even though unappropriated land isn’t being used, it’s still off limits to the state. And local leaders have no say in how it’s used. That's up to the Washington bureaucrats, not locally-elected leaders.

I’ve got some audio from Utah Governor Spencer Cox. Here’s what he had to say last Wednesday as his state officials filed suit.

SPENCER COX: For the entire time we have existed as a state, Utah’s public lands have been a treasured heritage for all of us. For many years—decades even—the question of how to best manage Utah’s lands has been at the forefront of our state’s critical issues. We’ve collaborated. We’ve argued. We’ve negotiated. We’ve even fought about how different parcels of land should be used. The crazy thing is that all this time we have not had control of nearly 70 percent of our land.

So you can see that this has been a continual frustration for some leaders in the state. Local governments can’t tax federal holdings, meaning Utah doesn’t collect taxes on about 70 percent of its own land.

And the federal government actually makes money off the state’s resources and rents out the unused lands to private entities for livestock grazing, commercial filmmaking, and harvesting natural resources like oil and timber.

EICHER: Follow the money, but I noticed the governor harkening back to Utah’s existence as a state. Does it go back that far?

WEST: It does, yes. This case goes all the way back to the very beginning.

The federal government gained title to the land that makes up Utah and a large part of the West in an 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War.

Two years later it formed the Utah Territory. When Utah gained statehood in 1896, it agreed, like many other western states, to cede title to all unappropriated lands in the state to the federal government.

And that’s where the issue comes.

Utah argues that that turnover of land was temporary, only until the lands could be disposed of by the federal government, selling it to the state or private parties.

On the other hand, the federal government believes it holds title in perpetuity—as long as it wants.

BROWN: So is this a matter of Uncle Sam not keeping his promise?

WEST: Well, Uncle Sam actually did keep his promise, that is until something called the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976.

This legislation essentially re-wrote the government’s intentions with unused land, changing its goal from disposing of unused land to retaining it. This meant states that hadn’t bought back unused lands by 1976 were now in an uphill battle.

So that’s what Utah is asking the Supreme Court to decide: Is the government allowed to indefinitely hold millions of acres of the state’s land for no designated purpose.

BROWN: Is this fundamentally about the national parks?

WEST: No, actually. Governor Cox made that part very clear. Let’s hear a little more of what he said:

COX: We’re not talking about national parks. We’re not talking about national monuments. We’re not talking about national forests. We’re only talking about unappropriated lands, which is about half of the federal lands in our state.

EICHER: But still getting control of half of anything the federal government claims control of seems like an uphill climb. How do you see this lawsuit going?

WEST: Well, the first part of the climb is to persuade the Supreme Court to agree to hear the case. You mentioned a few minutes ago this was filed directly with the Supremes without first going through a trial court and lower court of appeal.

The Constitution allows that when a state sues the federal government or another state, but it’s rarely exercised.

I spoke with John Ruple, a law professor at the University of Utah, and he’s not convinced the court will hear the case.

EICHER: And why does he not think so?

WEST: Well, for starters, he says that both the U.S. Constitution and Utah Constitution clearly give the federal government control over unappropriated lands. But the state isn't disputing the government’s claim, only how long the government can wield that claim and for what purpose it can hold the property. The state argues that the federal government held the land only until it could dispose of it—not retain it indefinitely.

Still, the law professor said the court would have to reinterpret both state and federal constitutions, and upset 150 years of previously established land law which would destabilize land ownership throughout the West.

EICHER: So, there’s still the option of starting in a federal trial court if SCOTUS says no?

WEST: Absolutely. The case will likely end up in a federal district court. I agree with Ruple that the arguments Utah is making here will likely not be viewed as evolutionary but revolutionary by the justices. On occasion the court has upended the law, overruling a longstanding precedent, for example, but it’s rare. I am doubtful that it will happen here. On the other hand, cases like this also bring an issue to the forefront of public attention and may give state officials bargaining power in some of the disputes that arise over management of these lands.

It’s personal for Governor Cox and for many families shut out of areas they historically have enjoyed. One last bit of audio here:

COX: As somebody who grew up as a child recreating on this land with my family, hunting and fishing and herding sheep with my family, it’s been a tragedy to see what this administration and past administrations have done to our land—closing down roads that have been open for generations, where people went to recreate, to spend time with their families.

So, this case has the ability to affect many residents of Utah as well as other western states. I suspect it’ll take years to resolve.

BROWN: Well that’s Legal Docket for this week. Thanks for your work, Steve.

WEST: My pleasure.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: The Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Time now to talk business, markets and the economy with financial analyst and advisor David Bahnsen. David is head of the wealth management firm the Bahnsen Group, and he is here now. David, good morning.

DAVID BAHNSEN: Good morning, Nick. Good to be with you.

EICHER: Well, Happy Labor Day to you. I thought we should use the occasion to talk a little bit about that. Of course, for the September issue of WORLD Magazine, you have a really great essay on the need for Christians to develop a robustly Biblical view of work, and I'd like for you to define what that robustly Biblical view of work is. But first, because you grounded your essay in your own personal story, people know you fairly well, but I don't think they necessarily know this: how you ground your essay in the story of losing your father at a young age. Why don't you tell that here?

BAHNSEN: Yeah, I'll try to be as succinct as possible, but there is a sense in which in my essay, I'm very transparent about the fact that there's a biography in addition to an ideology. You know, I have ideas that I think are rooted in Scripture, that I believe about work and why we do it, and what it was made for. And those ideas intersect with my own life story, and the passion I have for the subject comes from the combination of the two, not merely the ideas that themselves animate me. And what I mean by this is, you know, a lot of people have suffered a particular trauma in their lives and gone through a setback, a tragedy, a difficult situation, whatever the case may be, of different, you know, degrees of magnitude. My view is that losing my father at age 20, entering adulthood, and my mom was already gone. And the experience of first, the good side of the story being raised by my father, who was a Christian theologian and philosopher who himself advocated so much for the importance of work, the importance of a Christian worldview, the importance of the Lordship of Christ in all areas of life. So, there was a vocational theology in place for my upbringing, and then it was modeled by my dad. I saw how much he worked, how hard he worked, how much he loved his work, and then seeing him pass away when he was only 47 years old, it put me into a place, Nick, where I was very confused, very lost, very directionless. And it really was work that I think God used to help ground me a bit and give me a sense of purpose, a sense of direction, and I was able to, on a backward looking basis, hold fast to the things my dad had taught me. And on a forward basis, really, come to terms with the fact that God had a plan for my life, and that work was not only cathartic, but it was meant to be cathartic.

EICHER: Let's get into that Biblical view, David. You write this, you say that the Bible, of course, does not start in Second Thessalonians. It doesn't begin by saying, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” But you say, instead, it starts in the Garden of Eden. You write, “With God making mankind very good and tasking him to, well, work, God made us to be co-creators with him.” Could you talk more about what it means to be a co creator with God?

BAHNSEN: Yes, and answering that question requires me to first define what it doesn't mean. And obviously, we all should know as believers that it does not mean we can create out of nothing, that God alone creates ex nihilo, but that this language is very important: God made the world incomplete. In other words, he made it with potential, and he made us in His image to be the only product of creation that shares these attributes with him, by which we can use our creative capacity, our productive capacity, our ideation, to create and to extract from the raw materials of the world, and build new things. 

And so, the analogy I've used all over the country, speaking about this subject, is the iPhone that just so many people have. It's the most successful consumer product in world history, and yet there's nothing in it that didn't exist at the Garden of Eden, the raw materials were part of creation. But what we did as mankind, using the creative capacity that God gave us as image bearers of him, was add, over thousands of years, ingenuity, ideas and so that the silicon and the materials that become the rubber and plastic and metal and whatnot, fabrications over time, combined into ideation that resulted in this product. That's what I mean by co-creation. When we learned how to start a fire, when we invented the wheel, we're using our creative capacity given to us by God before the fall to live out the mandate he gave us in Genesis 1, to be fruitful, to multiply, to grow, to fill the earth. And then in the subsequent verses, to have dominion over the world, to cultivate it, to care for it, to rule over it, caring for the garden, stewarding the habitat in which we were made. It elaborates on it further in Genesis chapter 2, these are all different verbs I can use that are synonyms of work.

EICHER: So, David, when you see the labor force participation rate, for example, that's not just a number to you, that has theological implications to it, doesn't it?

BAHNSEN: It absolutely does. And this is one of the great mistakes I believe that many on the right will make, is to, in their own arguments, reduce work to merely the economic output. The notion that, well, we are getting by, you know, we are producing, the standard of living is doing better, and ignoring the fact that there are 3.3 million men missing from the workforce who are between the ages of 25 and 35. That's a very young bracket of age. And on the trend line of labor participation since the first decade of the 2000s were off in that age bracket alone, just 10 years a period total were down somewhere between 12 and 14 million. But just 25 to 35 year olds, men alone were down 3.3 million. And that is a spiritual issue, a cultural issue, and ultimately, I feel it's spiritual and cultural, because it is a theological issue.

EICHER: Alright, David, so this is really going to date me. I'm thinking of the 1980s classic rock song "Working for the Weekend," kind of the anthem of transactional economics. I didn't like the song then, and I especially don't like it now, but it really did sort of speak to our culture, didn't it?

BAHNSEN: Well, and that early 80s cut also was criticized by a lot of Christians and whatnot, because it implied a certain hedonism. It was, ‘you work through the week and you're going to party on the weekend,’ and people push back against that, but I'll tell you, it's the same message that so many Christian evangelicals say about retirement that, oh, we're working to get to be age 58 or 62 and then we can cut out. And it may not be partying over the weekend. It now may be this 25 year life of solitude and relaxation. And many are familiar with John Piper's famous moment of yelling, you know, for people to not waste their life as folks wanted to travel around the country collecting seashells. This is not against leisure. It's against it's for a biblical understanding of leisure. And that's where I think the ‘working for the weekend’ mantra, the retirement mantra goes wrong is failing to understand that productive capacity is not a curse, it's a blessing, and it's ontological. It speaks to the very being and essence of humanity.

EICHER: Well, David, there is so much to say on this topic, but not a whole lot of time left. I just want to leave an open lane here for you as we go out, just in case my questions didn't allow you to touch on something that you wanted to add. So I'll just do that right here.

BAHNSEN: Yeah, I think the essay tried to capture that we right now have a really bad message from the culture, and what I want is to at least let the church become an antidote to that message, not a complement to that message. And and when I refer to work being cathartic in my own life, we are right now told that work is the problem with our lives, that people are working too much, what we need is more me, time and terms like self care and work life balance. They seem innocuous to people. Everyone wants to be able to relax a little and have some hobbies and recreation, and obviously I'm not against any of that, but when the society is saying our problem is we're working too much, when there are millions and millions of people not working, and what's impoverishing their souls is, in fact, a lack of productive purpose, because they were created to have it, I am desperate for the church to prophetically stand against the culture's message, not get in line with the culture's message.

EICHER: All right. David Bahnsen, founder, managing partner and chief investment officer of the Bahnsen Group. You can check out David's latest book, of course, it has to do with work, Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life. Fulltimebook.com, that's the website. I hope you have a terrific Labor Day, David and a great week. We'll talk to you next time.

BAHNSEN: Thanks so much, Nick.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Monday, September 2nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Now, the WORLD History Book. Today, a life of strong faith, hard work, and generosity.

Here’s WORLD Radio Reporter Emma Perley with the story of “God’s Businessman.”

EMMA PERLEY: In 1901, a 14 year-old boy named Robert Gilmour LeTourneau drops out of the sixth grade. R.G., as he’s known, is nearly six feet tall, and books and math don’t make quite as much sense to him as they do to his peers.

AUDIO BOOK: I was not only the biggest in the class, but also the dumbest.

That’s Karl Payton reading from R.G.’s autobiography, Mover of Men and Mountains. Audio here from Spotify.

AUDIO BOOK: (con’t) We call what I had an inferiority complex today, and I was crawling with it. I quit trying entirely and came to hate school with an almost physical violence.

Instead, LeTourneau turns to hard labor. He joins an already vast workforce of teenage employees. And begins an apprenticeship with an ironworker in Portland, Oregon.

LeTourneau spends the next decade working blue collar jobs. He tries his hand at welding, logging, and auto repair. After fixing up an old Buick race car, he challenges a friend to a publicity stunt. But a bad crash lands him in the hospital with a broken neck.

AUDIO BOOK: They tried to straighten me up with a rope arrangement that was first cousin to a hangman’s noose. It didn’t work. No matter how they tied my neck in place, and lashed my aching body to the bed, they’d find me in the morning with my head lying limp on my shoulder. “He looks,” said a doctor one day, “like a chicken trying to put its head under its wing … if he had enough neck.”

LeTourneau spends several months recovering at a friend’s house after being released from the hospital. And there, he meets his future wife, a young Christian woman named Evelyn. LeTourneau makes a full recovery, and marries Evelyn in 1917.

He lands a job repairing a tractor, and takes a keen interest in the earthmoving machine. As LeTourneau learns more about the equipment, he begins designing and inventing his own. In 1921, he starts an engineering workshop in California. His biggest projects include equipment used in building the Hoover Dam and paving the Boulder Highway. Audio here from R.G. Letourneau Inc.

INDUSTRY FILM: Truly, from these modern factories, come earthmoving and construction equipment designed and built to make your planning succeed. The LeTourneau power unit is considered tops in the construction field. There are more in use than all other makes combined.

LeTourneau eventually moves to Peoria, Illinois to establish a plant and be closer to Caterpillar, another construction company. The partnership flourishes, but soon his inventions and superior manufacturing outgrow Caterpillar’s engines.

AUDIO BOOK: I’m just a mechanic whom the Lord has blessed. As a mechanic, I like my machinery because I learned early that man is worth what man produces. And good machines help him produce more.

LeTourneau patents 299 designs, including a bulldozer, a portable crane, and other large earthmoving equipment. He even designs a machine that can build a house. It’s called: Bungalow Biddy. Audio here from AIRBOYD.

INDUSTRY FILM: R.G. LeTourneau, developer of the amazing machine, sees it rise off the completed house on hydraulic lifts. The machine can make one concrete and steel house in little more than a day at moderate cost.

LeTourneau’s neck injury prevents him from enlisting in World War II, but he finds other ways to contribute to the war effort.

AUDIO BOOK: During World War II, it was our organization that built over 50% of the earthmoving equipment used in combat. According to reports, more earth had to be moved during World War II than during all the combined wars of history.

He establishes the LeTourneau Technical Institute in an unused military hospital. The Institute has a combined focus on Christian faith, technical training, and traditional college curriculum. It eventually becomes known as LeTourneau University, and continues to operate in Longview, Texas. Audio here from a promotional video.

PROMOTIONAL VIDEO: Just as your namesake was committed to excellence, just as he was an innovative leader, so too has LeTourneau University become an institution known for its dedication to principles, and its vision.

LeTourneau eventually sold his manufacturing business for $25 million dollars. But he remained a humble man during his rise to success. Biographers estimate that he gave 90% of his lifetime earnings to Christian ministries and missions. And he traveled thousands of miles each week to speak at conferences and churches.

AUDIO BOOK: For 25 years or more, I’ve been traveling this land of ours and a few foreign countries trying to teach and preach by word of mouth and example, that a Christian businessman owes as much to God as a preacher does. The rest of the time, I build machinery.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Emma Perley.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Tension between China and the Philippines and what that means for the U.S. And, you’ll meet a woman who has worked the same job for 6 decades and has no plans to retire from it. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

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, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.” —Job 19:25, 26

Go now in grace and peace.

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