The World and Everything in It: September 20, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. Sabah alkhayr, good morning. 10 years ago, I was a prodigal daughter that was transformed by the gospel when she heard it. I said yes to Jesus and now looking back, oh, what he has done. Currently, I'm away from my home and away from my family and learning a language that is foreign to me so that I can communicate it to those who have not yet heard. An sha’ allah, Lord willing, I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Congress has eight days to pass a plan to fund the government, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy is struggling to keep his party united.

MCCARTHY: And you know what? If it takes a fight, I'll have a fight.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday. Also today, news from around the world on WORLD Tour. And a missionary pilot faces challenges before he ever leaves the ground.

AUDIO: You've been through so much. You get hit by hurricanes, earthquakes, you lose hope.

And WORLD Commentator Janie B. Cheaney on catchwords that Christians might want to avoid.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, September 20th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Now news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: UN General Assembly » At UN headquarters in New York:

AUDIO: On behalf of the General Assembly, I have the honor to welcome his excellency, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

President Zelenskyy of Ukraine told world leaders that Russia is “weaponizing” food, energy, and even children abducted from Ukraine in its war against his homeland.

ZELENSKYY: Those children in Russia are taught to hate Ukraine, and all ties with their families are broken. And this is clearly a genocide.

And he warned world leaders that the same could happen to them, adding that, “When hatred is weaponized against one nation, it never stops there."

Hours earlier, President Joe Biden told the General Assembly that Russia alone stands in the way of peace.

BIDEN: Because Russia’s price for peace is Ukraine’s capitulation, Ukraine’s territory, and Ukraine’s children.

Zelenskyy is set to meet with President Biden in the Oval Office and then with top lawmakers on Capitol Hill tomorrow.

Austin on Ukraine » Meantime, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke out on the war in Ukraine from Ramstein Air Base in Germany. He told allies that air defense systems are saving lives in Ukraine.

LLOYD: So I urge this group to continue to dig deep on ground-based air defense for Ukraine, and we must continue to provide Ukraine with the air defense systems and interceptors that it needs.

Lloyd heard there at a meeting of Ukraine Defense Contact Group. That’s a group of more than 50 countries supporting Ukraine’s defense.

And America’s top general, Mark Milley said helping Ukraine in the coming months comes down to three top priorities: air defense, artillery and mechanized armor, such as tanks, that can move over frozen ground.

Kirby on Iran » Iran is now locking out all UN inspectors from its nuclear facilities.

Tehran made the shift almost immediately after completing a prisoner exchange with the United States this week.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby:

KIRBY: We urge Iran to let these inspectors in, to meet their international commitments and work in good faith towards deescalating the tensions.

The UN’s nuclear chief Rafael Grossi recently warned that Iran has been piling up more highly enriched uranium, bringing the rogue country closer to a nuclear weapon.

House defense bill fails » House Republicans tried to advance a defense spending bill on Tuesday, but …

AUDIO: On this vote, the yeas are 212, they nays are 214. The resolution is not adopted.

The failed vote shines as a spotlight on a rift between Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a group of staunch conservatives.

And it makes it even tougher to see how the speaker can corral enough GOP members to pass a government funding bill before a September 30th deadline.

MCCARTHY: I don’t think anybody wins a shutdown. Think for one moment what a shutdown does. It stops paying our troops. How do you have more leverage in that situation? I’ve watched shutdown after shutdown. Everybody loses.

But some House conservatives say Republicans can’t agree to continue Washington’s massive overspending and piling onto a $33 trillion-dollar debt.

First impeachment inquiry hearing » House Republicans will hold their first hearing in the impeachment inquiry against President Biden one week from tomorrow.

The House Oversight Committee will handle the hearing.

Majority Whip Tom Emmer says launching the inquiry does not necessarily mean that Republicans will move to impeach the president.

EMMER: If they uncover evidence of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors, then and only then will the next steps toward impeachment proceedings be considered.

GOP leaders allege that President Biden was improperly involved in his son Hunter’s business dealings.

Migrant encounters » Border Patrol agents are seeing a surge in migrants illegally crossing the southern border this month.

Agents reported nearly 10,000 migrant encounters on Monday alone. That means border traffic is once again approaching record levels set back in May.

Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez of Texas says the border crisis is draining resources across the country.

GONZALEZ: Whether it’s in Eagle Pass, whether it’s in El Paso, whether it’s in New York City, Chicago, LA, it does not matter — small towns, big cities.

New York City says it’s now spending $10 million dollars a day to house migrants.

I'm Kent Covington.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 20th of September, 2023. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up: the government’s spending plan.

On Sunday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated a tentative deal with House Republicans he hoped would stave off a government shutdown looming next week.

He was trying to buy some additional time to pass House appropriations bills.

REICHARD: But not every Republican is on board, and the speaker is operating on very thin margins. He can afford to lose just four GOP votes.

Congress now has just eight business days to pass a budget plan and avert shutdown almost certainly to be blamed on Republicans.

What exactly is going on and how is it likely to resolve over the next few weeks?

EICHER: It’s Washington Wednesday, and here is Washington Bureau Reporter Leo Briceno.

LEO BRICENO, REPORTER: Every year, Congress has to fund the government through a process that includes “appropriations.” Before the federal government can spend money, the Constitution requires The House of Representatives to approve where those dollars go.

Traditionally, that’s done through twelve separate bills. One for agriculture, one for transportation, energy, and so on.

Or at least, that’s the way it’s supposed to work.

Starting in the late 1970’s, House leadership began bypassing the regular process by rolling all spending into one “omnibus” bill—sometimes thousands of pages long…and that’s the way they’ve been doing it for 30 years. It saves time, but frustrated Republicans today say it comes at the expense of meaningful congressional input.

Here’s Texas Congressman Chip Roy, speaking in opposition to last year’s bill.

CHIP ROY: What you see here is a 4,000-page bill cooked up by a handful of people behind closed doors brought before the rules committee with no ability to offer an amendment, no ability to debate, no actual discussion on the people’s House floor.

Kevin McCarthy, who was elected to become House Speaker less than a month after Roy’s speech, promised to bring back the 12 appropriations bills. That pledge was a key reason why he won Republican support to become speaker.

And it’s a promise McCarthy would gladly keep. But he’s running out of time to pass something by the deadline of October 1st. That’s led him to propose a minibus.

This stopgap measure would include three of the twelve appropriations bills that focus on security and defense. Dr. Jared Pincin, associate professor of Economics at Cedarville University, says it's a way to buy time.

PINCIN: So maybe it's a 10-day measure, maybe it's a 2-week measure. Maybe it's till the end of the year. They’re in place to get us to a longer-term solution.

But the Freedom Caucus, some of the most conservative members in the House, aren’t on board—at least not yet.

The group says it considers McCarthy’s resolution a non-starter unless they can secure a few concessions: reduced spending overall, more construction on the southern border wall, procedural FBI oversight, and stepping away from a “blank check” support of Ukraine.

In the eyes of the Freedom Caucus, it’s bad enough that McCarthy tried to suggest another omnibus bill—even a small one. Some members, such as Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, have proposed stripping McCarthy of his speakership altogether for not keeping his promise. Here’s Gaetz last week.

GAETZ: Mr Speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role. The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you into immediate total compliance or remove you pursuant to a motion to vacate the chair.

So far, McCarthy isn’t backing down…and that leaves the country positioned for a federal shutdown if Republicans in Gaetz’s camp hold their ground.

So what might a shutdown look like?

For starters, the government won’t stop completely. Social Security and Medicare, for instance, would continue to run. So would the IRS. And in 2019, government employees that went without work for a month eventually received back pay. Pincin predicts that the economic fallout of a shutdown would be minimal…but talking it up has political benefits.

PINCIN: Part of that is negotiation is you're negotiating out in the public, trying to curry public favor. And the real work is happening behind the scenes. So that’s the difficult part of piercing out what’s actually happening, unless you’re actually in those negotiations.

Pincin says markets are a better indicator of whether or not there actually is a crisis. While McCarthy, Republicans, and the White House will likely stress the severity of the shutdown to leverage their arguments, businesses will focus on substantive changes.

PINCIN: And right now, the markets are not anticipating any sort of large damage—really any damage at all, as far as I can tell; the markets aren’t adjusting. That’s telling me that there’s a lot of smoke rather than actual changes for the good or for the bad. No one is expecting anything radical.

For now, McCarthy is sticking to his guns.

MCCARTHY: Threats don't matter, and sometimes people do those things because of personal things and that's all fine. I focus just like anything else. If you watched most people get to speaker on the first round, it took me 15. I'm a little Irish, ok? So I don't walk away from a battle. I knew changing Washington would not be easy. And you know what? If it takes a fight, I'll have a fight.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

REICHARD: Well, joining us to continue the conversation is Erick Erickson. He is an attorney, host of the Erick Erickson Show, and a WORLD Opinions contributor. Erick, good morning!

ERIC ERICKSON: Good morning.

REICHARD: Well, the president of Ukraine is heading to Capitol Hill tomorrow to lobby for a new aid package. Where do you think Republicans in Congress are on sending more money to Ukraine?

ERICKSON: I think most of the Republicans, particularly in the Senate, support it. In the House, there's a real division. Kevin McCarthy, privately, I'm led to believe, supports it, but understands he has these divisions. I don't see how this gets passed without funding Ukraine. The Senate Republicans will insist on it, including Mitch McConnell, who increasingly sees it as part of his legacy.

REICHARD: I want to turn now to another story we’ve been following on Thursday, Hunter Biden was indicted on three federal felony charges related to lying about his illegal drug use on an application to buy a gun. The prosecution earlier had first tried to get a plea deal to drop the gun charges if Hunter pled guilty to misdemeanor tax charges. So Hunter could have avoided jail time with that. But now with the felony charges, if he’s found guilty he could face 25 years and a $750,000 fine. What do you make of this development?

ERICKSON: You know, it's interesting in that there is an argument his team is making that this is unconstitutional. Essentially, for those who don't know, when you buy a gun, you fill out a form, and that form asks you questions, including about drug usage. And so they're essentially getting him for saying he didn't use drugs on the form and lying about it. And there's a question of constitutionality there. I do think however, the the prosecutors, by pushing this are showing they were willing to be reasonable with the deal that was rejected, and now they're going to go after everything. I suspect we'll get tax charges here shortly.

REICHARD: Well, when you consider that, that his father, President Biden has been pretty stringent on his rhetoric about the importance of gun laws and restricting gun use, do you think that factors into how this is being handled at all?

ERICKSON: Not on the Hunter Biden side, ironically, I mean, Hunter Biden could give second amendment advocates a huge win if this is declared unconstitutional, as his legal team seems to want. But as far as the prosecution goes, by charging him with this, it was somewhat nonsensical for them to avoid it to begin with, given the facts that are not in dispute in the case. By now doing this, of course, I mean, the Biden administration can say it goes aggressively, even against the president's own son. I'm not sure how far they'll be able to get with it, though I think the constitutional argument has merit.

REICHARD: Erick, I know you saw this but on Sunday, former President Donald Trump gave an interview to Kristen Welker of NBC’s Meet the Press. She’s the new host.

Along the way, Welker brought up late-term abortion saying falsely that they don’t happen.  Trump pointing out what some Democrats have said about it. Then Welker asked Trump what he would do if handed a bill banning abortion at the 15-week point. Listen:

TRUMP: I would sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something, and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years. I’m not going to say I would or I wouldn’t. I mean, DeSanctus is willing to sign a five-week and six-week ban.

KRISTEN WELKER: Would you support that? You think that goes too far?

TRUMP: I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.

REICHARD: Erick, it’s encouraging on the one hand to hear the former president continue to oppose late-term abortions, but what do you make of his assessment that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made a mistake in passing a 6-week ban?

ERICKSON: I think there is something troubling about the former president saying that heartbeat bans are a mistake, particularly because it didn't cost the Republicans in Ohio, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Florida, where these had been passed, but also his boldness to assert that he'll come up with a compromise that Democrats will be happy with a national ban on abortions. There will be no ban Democrats are happy about, and his desire to want to be liked by Democrats, will potentially undermine him. But also, I'm a little bit alarmed by a lot of pro-life activists who have not vocally spoken up in defense of these fetal heartbeat bans since he said it. 

REICHARD: I want to talk more broadly about this now. This is the first Republican primary since the 1980s when Republicans don’t have the clear goal of overturning Roe v. Wade to rally around. How divisive do you think this issue will be going into primary season and where do you think the majority will land to draw the line?

ERICKSON: You know, I don't know how this plays out long term. The pro-life community has almost been the dog that caught the car, they're trying to avoid getting run over by it. Roe v. Wade has ended and now the left is united on supporting abortion rights and the right is very divided on do we leave it to the states, or do we have a national ban? The reality is as much as a 15 week ban probably does make sense as a maximum amount. You're not going to be able to get it through the Senate because the filibuster is there. So they probably do need to focus at the state level and try to find state solutions where some states that are more progressive like California will have more expansive abortion rights and conservative states like Florida will not. 

REICHARD: Eric Erickson is an attorney, host of the Erick Erickson Show, and a WORLD Opinions contributor. Erick, love talking to ya!

ERICKSON: Thank you.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Nigeria, Onize Ohikere.

AUDIO: [Rescue work]

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Libya flooding aftermath — Today’s roundup starts in Libya, where rescue workers are still carrying body bags and scouting for survivors, more than a week after a devastating flood.

Two dams in the mountains above the coastal city of Derna burst, sending floodwaters about two stories high rushing into the city.

SOUND: [Woman crying]

This survivor lifted pieces of rubble from her brother’s home as she searched for their family. Ira

AUDIO: [Woman speaking Arabic]

She says here that the family hopes to find at least one body so they can bury and mourn them.

SOUND: [Street, truck]

On Monday, workers dressed in hazmat suits began sanitizing the streets of Derna, hoping to stave off waterborne diseases.

AUDIO: [Protesters chant]

Iran anniversary protests — On Saturday, protesters in the Canadian city of Vancouver chanted, “Only solution, revolution.”

Thousands of protesters gathered in other cities around the world to mark one year since the death of Kurdish-Iranian national Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Iran’s morality police had detained her for violating laws about head coverings.

Her death sparked nationwide protests that grew into calls to overthrow Iran’s leadership.

AUDIO: [Chanting crowds]

In Rome, protesters chanted “end to the regime.” And in London, others chanted “Women, Life, and Freedom.”

Fari Bradley joined the march in central London.

BRADLEY: It's now a solidarity movement. Men, young and old, are treating women with more respect, and women are finding ways to express themselves and then be supported by their male relatives and family and coworkers and even strangers in the street.

Similar protests crowded the streets in Washington D.C., France, and Germany.

AUDIO: [Meeting]

Brazil-Cuba relations — We head next to Cuba, where Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sought to rekindle relations with his Cuban counterpart.

Lula stopped in Havana over the weekend to attend the summit of the Group of 77 emerging economies—plus China.

The countries account for 80 percent of the world’s population.

Lula criticized the U.S.-led embargo on Cuba and Cuba’s presence on the U.S. list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

LULA: [Speaking Portuguese]

Lula says Cuba has stood for a more just global governance.

Lula’s visit is the first of any Brazilian president to Cuba in nearly a decade. The two-day summit came days ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, which started Monday in New York.

SOUND: [Protest]

Germany Eritrea protests — In southwest Germany, dozens of people sustained injuries after violence broke out at an Eritrean cultural festival.

Shortly before the event started in the city of Stuttgart, protesters supporting Eritrea’s opposition began throwing stones and bottles at police and participants.

Authorities arrested more than 200 people. Several groups considered to be supporters of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki organized the Saturday event.

Tens of thousands of people have fled Eritrea for Europe, over alleged mistreatment under Afwerki’s government.

BRENNER: [Speaking German]

Stuttgart police spokesperson Timo Brenner saying authorities levied bans and restraining orders against the suspects.

Back in July, more than 25 police officers were injured after a similar Eritrean festival in the central German city of Giessen.

AUDIO: [Chanting protesters]

And earlier this month, clashes between Eritrean opposition and government supporters in Tel Aviv sparked one of Israel’s most violent street confrontations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the immediate deportation of those involved.

SOUND: [Parade music]

Germany Oktoberfest — We close today at the world’s largest folk festival in another German city.

Hundreds of people wore Bavarian costumes as they marched down the streets of Munich on Sunday.

Keeping with Oktoberfest folk festival tradition, the men wore leather trousers with checkered shirts, wooly socks, and a hat with a feather. The women donned corseted dresses with a lace-up front and aprons.

Germans trace the annual Oktoberfest traditions back to a horse race in 1810 that celebrated the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.

Cecilia—originally from China—joined other parade onlookers who lined the streets.

CECILIA: [Speaking German]

She says she was excited to participate in everything, since the culture is different from her home country.

More than 700 guests also joined a four-mile-long procession of 40 floats. They included guests from Austria, Italy, and Serbia.

Oktoberfest celebrations will continue until October 3.

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

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 20th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: what it takes to be a missionary pilot.

Learning to fly takes lots of training, even flying under ideal conditions—and missionary pilots have to fly into some of the worst. We’re talking about flying people and supplies in and out of jungles, mountains, and forests,  almost always on minuscule runways.

REICHARD: The path to learning those skills can be a daunting runway of its own, but for one young pilot, obstacles at home make it all the more challenging.

WORLD Reporter Mary Muncy has the story.

SOUND: [AIRPLANE]

MARY MUNCY, REPORTER: In May of 2018, Haitian Zacharie Francois was flying through the mountains in his country. At the time, Francois was an airplane mechanic for Mission Aviation Fellowship, and he was riding along with an MAF pilot.

After landing, he and the pilot waited with the plane on the grass runway.

FRANCOIS: When we land, the kids of the village would come around so all whole bunch of kids came up to us.

Francois and the pilot chatted with the kids about the plane and answered questions. Then this little Haitian kid piped up.

FRANCOIS: Out of the blue, everyone's talking and he just said ‘a Haitian will just never be able to fly or work on this thing.’

Francois just sat there.

FRANCOIS: I get it. He’s gonna grow up here. He's gonna live his entire life here. He's probably never been in a car before. You've been through so much. You get hit by hurricanes, earthquakes, you lose hope.

It’s a long road to becoming a missionary pilot, and Francois didn’t have any of the usual resources.

He was the first in his family to graduate high school. How was he supposed to come up with the funding and visas to make even training possible?

But he says that moment with the little boy in Haiti steeled him. He was going to become MAF’s first Haitian pilot mechanic.

But it wouldn’t be through his own strength.

Back in 2013, when Francois was a teenager, MAF let him ride along on a flight to bring supplies to some villages.

SOUND: [PLANE]

He says God showed him two things on that flight.

FRANCOIS: My country is gorgeous, just absolutely gorgeous. The mountains, the landscape, the texture is just phenomenal. A lot of my people are poor, and they're very isolated, just completely disconnected from so much.

They stopped in a few places and handed out supplies. When they landed, Francois says God showed him how much mission aviation can help people.

He applied to school a year later, and that’s when he hit the first roadblock. Money.

He tried fundraising. But in Haiti…

FRANCOIS: I discovered very quickly, it is not possible to do that.

He tried government support. Haiti’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had an ad running at the time that said they would support people trying to get an education in another country and then come back to Haiti. Francois went to the government building to try to get that support, but they wouldn’t even let him in.

FRANCOIS: I'm like, can you just get the letter to the Minister like you guys say, you're advertising. He's like, ‘no, just get just get out.’

Then, in 2017, a missionary told him about the School of Mission Aviation Technology, or SMAT. So he applied just for mechanic’s school at first. And God opened the door.

FRANCOIS: I announced on Facebook about that. And just like that, [snaps] I had all-all the funds to go.

It was the first time a Haitian had gone to SMAT.

Francois completed his mechanic’s training in a year and returned to Haiti. He was halfway to his goal.

The next step was flight school. But just as he was about to leave for that training, his home country was thrown into chaos.

AUDIO: Haiti’s president assassinated at home.

AUDIO: Haiti’s police chief says officers killed four suspects, two others are under arrest.

FRANCOIS: I was about to leave for SMAT. And I did not want to leave.

Francois says his body went up in the plane, but all of his emotions stayed in Haiti.

He arrived in August of 2021. But he wasn’t himself. News from home left him feeling bruised, again and again. One day, one of his instructors found him crying.

FRANCOIS: So he's like, ‘Are you doing okay?’ and so I told him what was happening he prayed and he just kept on checking up and he just, he made it easier.

He kept studying.

At flight school, Francois learned everything from how to plan a flight, to how to fly with no visibility. By the end of the year, he was cramming in flight hours to graduate on time: Wheels up at 6:00 in the morning and wheels down at 5:00 in the afternoon.

By his last practice flight, Francois was exhausted and not flying well. It was just a few days before graduation and his flight back to Haiti.

FRANCOIS: My instructor is like you technically passed your test but you're struggling. I’m like, ‘I know. I know. What you want me to do? I've done everything I can.’

His instructor told him to go home, sleep, and talk to God. Francois started listening to Hillsong United’s song: Another in the Fire.

MUSIC: “There is another in the fire, standing next to me…”

The next morning during the final test flight—whenever he wasn’t talking—he was humming.

His instructor could hear him through the headset but didn’t question it. They went through the same maneuvers from the day before, and he did much better.

FRANCOIS: I was not flying that plane.

They came back and landed. He passed.

SOUND: [AIRPORT]

Today, Francois is fully trained as a mechanic and a pilot…but after six years of working towards his goal, Francois still isn’t flying for MAF. Because Haiti’s gang violence continues to escalate.

AUDIO: And the crisis has only deepened in recent months.

AUDIO: The island nation of Haiti is moving closer to the brink of collapse.

AUDIO: The UN estimates that gangs now control 80 percent of the Haitian capital.

MAF had to shut down the base because of the unrest…So Francois has been living in MAF’s hangar at the airport in Port-au-Prince and hasn’t been able to complete his last steps to be able to fly with them.

But Francois is confident in God’s call on his life. For him, becoming a pilot isn’t about flying—it’s about bringing hope to his people. So for now, he’s happy to wait for God to open another door. He’s playing the long game.

MUSIC: “There is another in the fire”

FRANCOIS: If they trust in God, believe in God, he can do stuff. He will stand by you and just walk with you and get you to where you need to be just to advance his kingdom.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 20th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: trigger warnings and other mistakes.

WORLD Commentator Janie B. Cheaney warns conservatives not to compound the trouble by giving in to unrighteous anger or claims of victimhood.

JANIE B. CHEANEY, COMMENTATOR: What’s music to the ears of a conservative Christian? The words “I was wrong” from a progressive secularist. Jill Filipovic’s piece on The Atlantic’s website titled “I Was Wrong about Trigger Warnings” attracted me like peach ice cream. “Trigger warnings” signal any distressing or “triggering” material in a written or spoken presentation, such as a discussion of racist or sexual violence. They began online but spread to the college campus, where instructors issued warnings if a lecture or assigned reading included potentially disturbing topics.

Filipovic is an author and outspoken feminist who accepted trigger warnings as a reasonable accommodation to sensitive readers. After a while, though, it seemed readers might be getting too sensitive. One complained that a humorous photo of cats attacking dogs triggered thoughts of domestic violence. Another asked for a warning about eating disorders when Filipovic mentioned gagging over a piece of conservative legislation. “In giving greater weight to claims of individual hurt and victimization,” she wonders, “have we inadvertently raised a generation that has fewer tools to manage hardship and transform adversity into agency?”

As someone who wrote about trigger warnings for the WORLD blog back in 2014, I can’t resist an I-told-you-so twinge of smugness. Though I understand handling real trauma victims with sensitivity, the definition of “trauma” has been politicized and expanded to include any adversarial ideas—especially conservative ideas. While “perception is reality” is common parlance in the mental-health community, many professionals warn against conditioning patients to live in their own reality rather than adapting to the real world.

I have to wonder, though, if we on the right are subject to our own form of triggering. If depictions of domestic violence and white supremacy send one side scurrying for cover, might ideas like “the elites” and “stolen election” carry the other side into the capitol building waving signs and chanting “Hang Mike Pence”?

Those are two extremes. Most of us are somewhere in the middle, where we try to sort our differences and get along around the dinner table. Meanwhile, political rhetoric is bull-horning into our phones and living rooms, so loud we can hardly hear ourselves think. There’s plenty to be righteously angry about in this world, and bad ideas have terrible consequences. But if we Christians find ourselves repeatedly “triggered,” and our anger leaves no room for compassion, we might be wise to put ourselves in timeout. As James warns us, “The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

Even on the left, people are people, not slogans. Jill Filipovic came to see how she was wrong about trigger warnings. Likewise, she was very negative about marriage until she found a man she wanted to marry. If someone is willing to admit mistakes, we should be open to listening rather than sneering. Besides, there’s bound to be something we’re wrong about.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Climate change is a top priority at the UN General Assembly this week, but are the delegates just blowing a bunch of hot air? And, what goes into making decisions as a high school speech and debate judge? That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Remember to rate, review, and share. We’re always excited to welcome new listeners to our program.

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

Jesus said: “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” John chapter 17, verses 14 and 15.

Go now in grace and peace.

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