The World and Everything in It: September 20, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like you. I'm Johnny Franklin, one of the guys who stays up late to get the program to you early. We've got a great one lined up for you today.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Culture Friday …

AUDIO: Today a Republican candidate for president would never attack a woman for having kids.

More than 30 years after the famous Murphy Brown speech by Republican VP Dan Quayle, pop culture recycles ridicule for the current VP candidate.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk about that and more with John Stonestreet. He’s standing by.

Also today, WORLD Arts and Culture Editor Collin Garbarino has a review of a new animated movie.

AUDIO: Transform and roll out!

And one of the biggest CCM songs ever gets an update.

BROWN: It’s Friday, September 20th. 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-Hezbollah » The leader of Hezbollah vowed to retaliate for this week’s deadly attacks on the group’s communications devices.

NASRALLAH: [Speaking Arabic]

Hassan Nasrallah called the attacks on the Iran-backed terror group’s devices a “severe blow” that crossed a “red line.”

And Israel and Hezbollah exchanged strikes on Thursday as he spoke.

Meantime, the Biden administration continues to call for calm. Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke from Paris.

BLINKEN:  France and the United States are united, uh, in calling for restraint and urging de escalation.

Hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies blew up at the same time in an operation widely believed to be carried out by Israel. At least 37 people were killed and thousands more were wounded … most are believed to have been Hezbollah members. Though, others nearby were caught in the blasts.

The FBI says Iran tried to send hacked files to Democrats » The FBI says Iran tried to send hacked Trump campaign files to Democrats.

U.S. intel agencies are now revealing that at sometime over the summer, Iranian hackers were able to hack into the Trump campaign and steal information. They then tried to pass that off to what was then the Biden-Harris campaign.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre the U.S. government is well aware that foreign adversaries like Iran …

PIERRE: … are actively, uh, seeking to influence in our elections. And that's why you've seen us take actions to hold accountable, uh, those who teach, who seek to undermine confidence, uh, in our democracy and we will continue to do so.

The FBI says there’s no evidence that Biden or Harris staffers responded to any of those illegal offerings.

Biden Quad meeting » Karine Jean-Pierre also spoke to reporters about President Biden’s plans to host several world leaders at his home in Delaware this weekend.

This will be his final summit of the so-called "Quad" as president. The heads of Australia, India, and Japan are visiting for a private event. The four-nation group formed to counter China’s growing ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region.

PIERRE:  This is a private dinner. This is continuing the personal relationships that he has, fostering those personal relationships that he has with the leaders of the Quad.

This will be the sixth meeting of the leaders since President Biden took office in 2021.

Lawmakers on Secret Service failures » In Washington, lawmakers continue to raise questions – and demand answers – about the competence of the Secret Service, just days after a second assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

GOP Senator Josh Hawley claims a whistleblower told him the Secret Service failed to follow protocols.

HAWLEY: It has been Secret Service protocol to station agents at these known sites before Trump would play the course. That apparently didn’t happen.

And Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz said he sees a common thread in the two attempts on Trump’s life.

MOSKOWITZ:  The circumstances are different, the failures are different, the one similarity for me at least seems to be that the perimeter they're setting up around the former president seems to be too small. You can get too close to him.

President Biden and Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer want to boost the Secret Service's budget, though some GOP lawmakers say the agency is broken and throwing more money at the problem won’t fix it.

Senator Hawley added that it seems that agents did not perform a standard perimeter sweep of the area before the assassination attempt at Trump’s south Florida golf resort on Sunday.

Federal judge/Biden injunction » A federal judge once again put a pause on President Biden’s sweeping plan to erase federal student debt. WORLD’s Christina Grube reports.

CHRISTINA GRUBE: The federal order extended an injunction blocking the plan for two more weeks.

A coalition of seven states sued Biden’s Department of Education alleging it had instructed federal loan servicers to start canceling billions in student loans while still under a court-ordered pause.

U.S. District Judge Randal Hall ordered the extension after hearing arguments from both sides this week.

Biden has continued a push to find a way around a Supreme Court ruling last year finding his plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt unconstitutional.

For WORLD, I’m Christina Grube.

Jobs numbers » The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits dropped last week to the lowest number in four months.

The Labor Dept. says new claims ticked down by about 5 percent to 219,000, beating expectations. That’s the fewest since early June.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are thought to widely reflect the number of layoffs in the country.

When the Federal Reserve cut interest rates this week, it signaled it was shifting its focus from fighting inflation to bolstering a softening job market.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, shouting to the Lord in song.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday the 20th of September, 2024.

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 time for Culture Friday, and joining us now is John Stonestreet. John is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint Podcast

Good morning!

JOHN STONESTREET: G’mornin’

EICHER: John, another assassination attempt … and I’m struck by how much of a non-event it very quickly became … and how there’s been almost no letup on the temperature of the political rhetoric. You know, the first attempt on former President Trump did yield a bit of self-reflection on the part of the political class. But this one really didn’t register.

Peter Doocy of Fox News did try to shame the White House about calling Trump a threat … and not only did he get nowhere … he was accused of being dangerous in bringing it up.

Listen.

PETER DOOCY: How many more assassination attempts on Donald Trump until the president and the vice president and you pick a different word to describe Trump other than “threat”?

JEAN-PIERRE: Peter, if anything from this administration— I actually completely disagree with premise of your question, the question that you’re asking. It is also incredibly dangerous in the way that you’re asking it. …

But what’s your takeaway from all this?

STONESTREET: Yeah. Well, you know, look, I said this, I thought it was fascinating, despite how serious it was that when there was the first attempt on President Trump's life, that was the longest stretch we had been in since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, since one of our political candidates or sitting presidents had been assassinated or had been shot or shot at, and so, you know, have we turned a page now?

Because now we're up to, you know, two in the last, you know, just couple months. I think that is a really important conversation, that there are, you know, cultural norms that hold things back. And when those cultural norms are gone, then it's hard to hold those things back, you know. 

Secondly of all, the rhetoric of, you know, stochastic terrorism, and you know, which is always aimed at the voices on the right. Here we are another one, you know, from the left. And then the coverage from the media just continues to add to this thing that is undermining our ability to have a political life together, and that, of course, is just the constant erosion of trust—just cannot trust, you know, the reporting on this. You just cannot trust people giving analysis and commentary. I mean, look, but both sides have been in a kind of consistent pattern of saying they're the ones that are guilty and not and not us.

You know, it just even in the same week, you know, Trump's silly comments about eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. And then, you know, you turn around and blame the bomb threats and so on that took place in Springfield, turns out they were foreign actors, every single one of them. So, you know, to me, this is, you know, pointing to something that has to do with the erosion of trust, and I'm not sure how you have a community life together without that.

There used to be a whole lot of non-political space where we could at least hang out, where we could at least find a good bit of common life together. And we're just kind of running out of out of space. It's hard to imagine that any society really has a future together without some sort of non political ground, and in that ground there is a good bit of capital. And what I mean by that is trust. That's the capital of a society, is trust. We just don't have a lot of it right now.

BROWN: Well, I’ve got a confession. Back in the day not only did I watch, but I laughed-at the sitcom from the 1990s Murphy Brown.

This past weekend Candice Bergen—she was the title character journalist Murphy Brown—she was a presenter at the Primetime Emmy Awards this week, and of course, she brought up the very public spat between her and former Vice President Dan Quayle back in 1992. Let’s listen to it from back then.

QUAYLE: It doesn’t help matters when prime-time TV has Murphy Brown, a character who supposedly epitomizes today’s intelligent, highly paid professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another lifestyle choice.

Fast forward to this week, this is what Bergen had to say in recycling the ridicule.

BERGIN: My character was attacked by Vice President Dan Quayle when Murphy became pregnant and decided to raise the baby as a single mother. Oh, how far we’ve come! Today a Republican candidate for vice president would never attack a woman for having kids. So as they say, my work here is done. Meow.

So, John, do you even remember this controversy? You were just a kid, I’m guessing!

STONESTREET: I was a junior in high school in 1992, but I do remember Murphy Brown, and I do remember what really was one of the most ridiculous moments in American political history, which is saying quite a lot, in which you had a real life vice presidential candidate in a public spat with someone who actually didn't exist in real life, this character, Murphy Brown. And Dan Quayle got absolutely hammered for suggesting that we really ought not encourage, you know, children born outside of the context of marriage. And you know, he's called prudish and puritanical and attacking women's rights. But as soon as I saw this clip of Candice Bergen the other night, and of course, she was using the platform, you know, as the Emmys tends to do, for a political statement from the left, just completely ignoring—and I remember this piece when it came out 20 years after that incident in 1992 basically saying, “You know what, Dan Quayle is the one who got it right.” 

And this history is a really, really important history. G. K. Chesterton talked about what he called the triangle of truisms when it came to family and society. And he described it as mother, father and child. And he said, you know, the triangle of truisms cannot be destroyed. It can only destroy civilizations who disregard it. In other words, when we're talking about family, we're talking about gravity, we're not talking about a speed limit. And so this push, though, that happened in the latter part of the 20th century, to fully divorce sex, marriage and babies in such a holistic way. Now, of course, we know the 60s was really about separating sex from marriage. The pill enabled that by separating sex from babies. But here you had, in this scenario, the separation of marriage and babies, and it started with this wanting to have babies without marriage. And of course, now we have marriage without babies. And even back then, that was maybe even more unusual than babies without marriage. 

There was this sense that marriage, when able, should be procreative, and you can actually see that in the history of liturgies and marriage ceremonies in the church. And of course, now we're so far beyond that this conversation seems quaint. Where now we want to have not only sex without babies, but we're having babies without sex. So, the divorce of sex, marriage and babies, has been thorough and complete now, but this was an important chapter in it. And yet, you know, 20 years later, you get the fact check. And it's so much like these political stories, you know, where it ain't happening, it ain't happening, it ain't happening. And then, you know, on the bottom page of the fourth section of the newspaper, it's like corrections, oh yeah, it really did happen. 

This was a case of that where the Brookings Institute basically said, you know what, kids need a mom and a dad. And so the idea of intentionally robbing a child of a mother or father was the first stage. And one wonders—although I would definitely say it differently than J. D. Vance has been saying it—one wonders if in 20 years, we're going to get a hey, turns out that J. D. Vance was right about the ruling class.

BROWN: So, are you saying J.D. Vance was right, just like Dan Quayle was right?

STONESTREET: Well, not in the way he said that. But you know, the overall idea that fertility is this enemy of a woman being her true self is a poisonous fruit of this separation of sex, marriage and babies. And you know, it's fascinating to watch, particularly some of these Catholic female theologians and public intellectuals who have emerged in response to John Paul II's call for a new Christian feminism. And what they've all articulated, I'm thinking of Erika Bachiochi at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Mary Eberstadt—I mean the names go on and on. What they have articulated is is that one of the things that feminism has done is that it has taught women that the fertility is an obstacle to their true selves, so they actually have to fight against their fertility. 

Alongside of this has come this idea that children are pets. I know we talk about it if pets are children, but actually, on the ground, one of the impacts has not been to elevate pets to children, it's been to demote children to pets, that they're this kind of lifestyle accessory that I want to go along with my purse and the little puffy dog, you know, that goes in the purse these days. Man that sounded like a “get off my lawn” line. But I'm really serious. It's really a problem how we think and talk about children as accessories. 

And that's exactly the mentality that J. D. Vance is talking about, that there is something that happens when, as a culture, think of children as pets or as lifestyle accessory options. In that part, yeah, I think it's right. And you know what? There's already people writing that article saying J. D. Vance is right. No one's willing to say he should have used the kind of attitude in the way that he did it. I won't say that, but you know, the number of professional women going. “I was sold something and it wasn't true, didn't give me what I wanted.” So we have people already writing the article saying that J. D. Vance was right.

EICHER: Alright, John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Thank you John!

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, September 20th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Coming up on The World and Everything in it: arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino reviews this weekend’s new animated feature film, titled, Transformers One.

COLLIN GARBARINO: I remember when the Transformer toys came out back in 1984. My mom was like, “Oh, that’s nifty. It’s two toys in one, a robot and a truck.” As an eight-year-old child, I could merely shake my head in disappointment. She just didn’t get it. These plastic figurines weren’t about getting two toys for the price of one. Transformers was about the epic struggle between good and evil… order and chaos.

ORION PAX: It’s time to show ‘em that we are more than meets the eye.

Transformers developed an intricate lore through its toy lines, comic books, TV shows, and movies. Multiple story arcs and reboots take place across time from one end of the galaxy to the other.

Now the franchise celebrates its 40th anniversary with Transformers One, an animated film that turns back the clock to explore the origins of its most iconic characters. It’s the first animated Transformer film to hit theaters since 1986, and it definitely capitalizes on a nostalgic vibe.

ORION PAX: Transform and roll out.

The story revolves around best friends Orion Pax and D-16. They are humble Cybertronian worker robots who mine their planet for energon, the Transformers’ increasingly scarce energy source. Neither of them, nor the thousands of other worker drones, have the ability to transform into cool vehicles. That’s a privilege reserved for the upper classes.

But the impetuous Orion Pax isn’t content to remain the low robot on the totem pole, and he drags his reluctant friend into an adventure that will change the direction of their mechanical world.

D-16: If we survive this, I’m going to kill you.

ORION PAX: I accept those terms.

This adventure culminates with their transformations into the heroic Optimus Prime and the villainous Megatron, locking the Transformers into an eternal civil war between the noble Autobots and the evil Decepticons.

Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic handles the film’s animation. And the style will definitely appeal to Gen X fans of the franchise. The design owes much to the cartoons from the ‘80s, but everything is on a larger scale and coated with a digital metallic sheen. The film also boasts an all-star voice cast. Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry voice Orion Pax and D-16. But we also get Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, and Laurence Fishburne.

ALPHA TRION: I see strength in you. Take these and access your full potential.

This story adds some nice twists to the Transformers’ mythos, and it’s bound to appeal to both longtime fans and their children. It’s rated PG for sci-fi violence and some mild language, and it contains plenty of action and humor. But the narrative gets a little clumsy in how it handles some of its themes and characters.

Cybertron is a world of haves and have-nots. Orion Pax and D-16 are definitely in this latter group. These little guys want to change the world, and to do that they’ll need to stand up to oppression.

ORION PAX: We need to hurry.

D-16: I still think we have better odds fighting than outrunning them.

ALITA: Wait! We have cogs we can transform now.

It’s hard not to think the film intends to communicate a message about American politics in its critique of tyranny. We see a bad guy relying on misinformation and lies. This bad guy oppresses others. He says the truth is whatever he wants it to be. It seems the filmmakers were casting some stones at a certain former president. On the other hand, the good guys champion freedom and personal autonomy. Everyone should be able to transform into the person they want to be. That sounds very ummm… liberal of them.

There’s a clunkiness in the presentation of these themes, as if the filmmakers didn’t trust the audience to catch a more subtle subtext.

ORION PAX: So… how long do you think we’ll be here?

D-16: I’m not talking to you.

More disappointing for me was that the characters’ transformations toward the end of the movie feel unearned. Throughout the movie, Orion Pax, longs for personal freedom, but he doesn’t exhibit any particular aptitude for leadership nor does he demonstrate the kind of concern for the community that would justify becoming the heroic Optimus Prime. The film never satisfactorily squares its celebration of personal autonomy with the individual’s duty to his fellow citizen. Likewise, D-16’s fall into villainy seems rushed and ill conceived.

ORION PAX: We could have built the future together.

D-16: I don’t think so.

The breaking of their friendship occurs because that’s what has to happen by the end of the movie, but neither their personalities, nor their actions up to that point, give the moment a feeling of authenticity. It’s as if both characters lost the ability to make rational decisions.

But these deficiencies probably won’t bother most Transformer fans. The movie adds a clever wrinkle to the 40-year-old saga that will leave nostalgia-addicted moviegoers asking for more.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, September 20th. 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. Coming next: Shout to the Lord! It’s one of the most celebrated songs in contemporary Christian music.

BROWN: This year it turned 30! The Christian artist who wrote and recorded Shout to the Lord, is marking the big anniversary by releasing a 21st century version of the song. I listened and here’s my review

MUSIC: [ORIGINAL SHOUT TO THE LORD]

MYRNA BROWN: Originally released in 1994, the song Shout to the Lord is one of CCM’s most well known examples of Scripture set to music.

MUSIC: My Jesus, my savior….

But how does it hold up three decades later? Curious, I uploaded the song to my phone, grabbed my recorder and hit the streets of my hometown. Turns out, the first few seconds of Shout to the Lord is all it takes to stir up memories for a 44-year-old taking a walk…

REX WILSON: Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah. We sang that all the time.

…A group of girlfriends on vacation…

GROUP OF WOMEN: Oh…oh yes… [group singing together]shower of refuge and strength. Let every breath….

And one lady who surprised us all.

BROWN: Tell me what you were just doing? 

ERICA WYDEN: I was signing to Shout To The Lord and I learned to sign in eighth grade.

Everyone I talked to that day found it hard to believe it’s been 30 years, including the singer/songwriter I called up a continent away.

BROWN: Did the 30th anniversary of Shout to the Lord just sneak up on you? 

DARLENE ZSCHECH: One hundred percent! My children were the ones who actually said you need to do something.

That’s Darlene Zschech from Australia. The 59-year-old grandmother is the voice and the writer behind Shout to the Lord. Earlier this year, she went back into the studio, and recorded a special album, called Testament. The studio album includes a reimagined version of Shout to the Lord. It also features new renditions of other songs she’s recorded during her career.

But before I could sit down with the new version of Shout to the Lord, I wanted to first hear the heart behind the original. Zschech was a 27-year-old church volunteer back then.

ZSCHECH: I opened my Bible between Psalm 96 and Psalm 100. You’ll find the base of Shout to the Lord and I literally was just sitting at the piano worshiping Jesus. My two little girls running around my feet. And 20 minutes I think it took.

Zschech says she finally got the courage to share her new song with her church’s worship pastor and music director.

ZSCHECH: Yeah, every line I would say, you could change it. My Jesus….. My Savior…..I know it’s not very good, but I’ll just sing a little bit more. That’s how I sang the whole song to them. With apologies throughout the whole thing.

To her surprise, they not only liked it, they sang it as a congregation that very Sunday.

ZSCHECH: We started singing and people just started standing up in worship and left my mouth and left my life. I likened it to like God just went (makes woosh sound) breathed on it and it just took off.

MUSIC: [2024 VERSION SHOUT TO THE LORD]

The new version of Shout to the Lord begins with beautiful instruments from the Australian Christian Orchestra. It’s sweeping and gives the song a majestic feel.

MUSIC: My Jesus, My Savior Lord there is none like you….

You’ll also notice a difference in Zschech’s voice. She’s a cancer survivor.

ZSCHECH: Post chemo, I’ve got to say my voice really changed. I have to really work hard to get to those notes. Whereas when I was in my twenties and thirties, it was just a lot easier. And as I said pre-chemo, chemo kind of shifts everything about your body. Including your voice.

Zschech sings the new version in a lower key, which could make congregational singing a bit more challenging. Also, in this version Zschech’s daughter Zoe sings with her.

ZOE ZSCHECH SINGING: My Jesus, my Savior Lord there is none like you.

Some critics have not been kind to the 23-year-old. Granted, she did not inherit all of her mother’s musical genes. But that’s ok. I’m a mom, too, who gets to sing with my own two daughters. So, I celebrate Zschech’s mother-daughter collaboration.

Zschech’s oldest daughter is also a contributor on the new project. She co-wrote one of the new songs. Zschech says it’s a testament to trying to model a lifestyle of worship.

ZSCHECH: I know we tried for many years to make our children sit and do a devotional with us. Sometimes it worked, but sometimes they just needed to see it in action. Tell the stories, sing the songs. Fill the house with the praise of God.

Zschech is often regarded as a pioneer of so-called fresh music in the church. But I appreciate her wisdom of rejecting any notion that one era of music is superior to another.

ZSCHECH: I was filled with wonder actually at the worship of God when I got saved. It’s like if it wasn’t for the worship of that era, I wouldn’t have had any framework for where my expression of worship came from.

While she’ll likely be remembered for writing one of the most beloved songs in contemporary christian music, she says she’s also striving for another legacy.

ZSCHECH: You know I remember sitting in church singing I hear the sound…(starts singing a cappella) of the army of the Lord. I hear the sound of the army of the Lord. IT’s a song of praise. It’s a song of war. The army of the Lord is marching on. (stops singing) You’re not setting out to be a pioneer. You’re setting out to be a follower. You just want to be a follower of Jesus.

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

Lindsay Mast, Steve West. David Bahnsen, Emma Perley, Leo Briceno, Daniel Darling, Leah Savas, Onize Oduah, Bonnie Pritchett, Janie B. Cheaney, Mary Reichard, Mary Muncy, Cal Thomas, John Stonestreet, and Collin Garbarino.

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

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 Senior producer is Kristen Flavin and Paul Butler is Executive producer with additional production assistance from Benj Eicher.

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: “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.” That’s Proverbs 29:2

Be sure and worship Him with brothers and sisters in Christ in church on the Lord’s Day.

And Lord willing, we’ll meet you right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

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