The World and Everything in It: September 22, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. My name is Jeff Pratt and I serve as the head of school at Calvin Christian School in Escondido, which is in the North County San Diego, California. I am at our daily mornings devotion with more than 200 elementary students and we hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Culture Friday: an LGBT outreach by a mega church in Atlanta will it be faithful to the gospel or make a theologically fatal compromise?

NICK EICHER, HOST: And former President Trump says abortion protections at six weeks is a mistake. We’ll talk it over with special guest Katie McCoy.

Also today, Return of the King turns 20 this year, but its story is timeless.

SAMWISE: I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!

And your Listener Feedback.

BROWN: It’s Friday, September 22nd. 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, Kristen Flavin with today’s news.

AUDIO: On this vote the yeas are 212. The nays are 216. The resolution is not adopted.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, NEWS ANCHOR: Congress Funding » The House of Representatives is no closer to passing a spending plan after lawmakers voted yesterday not to debate a yearly defense appropriations bill.

Five GOP lawmakers joined Democrats in voting against the procedural bill. It’s the second time this week lawmakers have halted the debate.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy:

MCCARTHY: It’s frustrating in the sense that I don’t understand why anybody votes against bringing the idea up and having the debate.

Republicans who voted no want to curb spending levels and rein in unconditional support for Ukraine.

Congress must take action on the budget by Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman confirmation » The Senate approved new leaders for the Army and the Marines and a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Thursday.

Each leader was approved in a separate floor vote.

GOP Senator Tommy Tuberville has kept the Senate from approving military officer promotions in batches for over six months.

TUBERVILLE: The hold will remain in place as long as the Pentagon's illegal abortion policy remains in place. If the Pentagon lifts the policy, then I will lift my hold. It's easy as that.

The Pentagon pays for female service members to cross state lines for abortions.

More than 300 members of the military await confirmation, including the acting chief of naval operations.

Rupert Murdoch retires » The creator of Fox News is stepping down from his leadership position. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: Rupert Murdoch founded Fox News in 1996 after decades of managing and owning newspapers and television stations.

The 92-year-old is retiring as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp, which owns outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and New York Post.

Murdoch says he is in good health and will transition to a new role as Chairman Emeritus in November.

Murdoch’s son, Lachlan, will take his father’s place.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Texas Border » In Texas, the city of Eagle Pass has declared a state of emergency as thousands of migrants cross the U.S. southern border daily.

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan:

PHELAN: It is a human, humanitarian, and legal and constitutional crisis, where 10s of 1000s of people come on over every single day, and there's nowhere to put them there's nowhere to house them there's nowhere to feed them, whether it's Eagle Pass or there's Del Rio, this is, this is a day in the life.

The city’s state of emergency will last a week. It allows local officials to get resources from the state of Texas to help manage the influx of immigrants.

Hundreds of military personnel and thousands of National Guardsmen are stationed at the border.

Venezuelan migrants work permits » Meanwhile, the Biden administration has responded to pleas from cities throughout the country to help them care for impoverished migrants. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more:

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: The Biden administration said it would offer work permits to hundreds of thousands of migrants from Venezuela who previously couldn’t work legally in the country.

Tens of thousands of immigrants are living in New York City homeless shelters, and many of them are from Venezuela.

The policy change could ease the burden on city social services, but it might also grant work permits to some who came to the country illegally. And critics say that could encourage more unlawful migration.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Zelenskyy Biden/Congress » Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington yesterday asking U.S. leaders for support.

He answered questions from Congress about how Ukraine has used American funds and weapons in the war.

House Speaker McCarthy:

McCARTHY: I think he was very direct about where the where the war currently stands and where and what the plan is going forward.

The White House says that Biden will soon announce a new package of military assistance for Ukraine.

National security advisor Jake Sullivan:

SULLIVAN : These capabilities will help Ukraine harden its defenses ahead of what is likely to be a tough winter, filled with renewed Russian attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure to try to deprive innocent people of necessities like heat and electricity.

Last month Biden requested an additional $24 billion from Congress in aid to Ukraine. But some Republicans are reluctant, saying the funds would be better used for domestic needs.

Congress has so far approved more than one-hundred-billion dollars in military, financial, and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine.

I'm Kristen Flavin.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with Katie McCoy. Plus, a trip back to the Shire in Return of the King.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, the 22nd of September, 2023.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

It's Culture Friday. Joining us now is Katie McCoy. She has a PhD in theology and she is author of the book titled To Be a Woman. Good morning, Katie.

KATIE MCCOY: Hey, Nick, and Myrna. Great to be with you.

BROWN: Good to see you.

EICHER: Well, Katie, Andy Stanley's North Point Community Church, it'll be a week from today, and over there, they will be wrapping up day two of a two day conference on supporting parents and LGBTQ+ children in their churches. Now I'm quoting here and I'll continue to quote, “You will be equipped, refreshed and inspired as you hear from leading communicators on topics that speak to your heart, soul and mind.” This is billed as the premier event and this topic, presumably, the topic of supporting parents and LGBTQ+ children in their churches, they say we'll be approached quoting again, “from the quieter middle space.” Now Albert Mohler, who is Editor of WORLD Opinions pointed out that two of the conference speakers are men who are in marriages mandated by the Obergefell decision of 2015, which is to say same-sex marriages. Another speaker is public intellectual David Gushee. Gushee is author of the book called Changing our Mind subtitled A Landmark Call for Inclusion of LGBT Christians. Now, the church where this is to be held, as I say, is North Point church in Atlanta, headed by Pastor Andy Stanley. And so let me quote near the end of the Mohler column at WORLD, he writes, “Maybe the conference will surprise us. Maybe Stanley will present a resounding affirmation of biblical authority and the Christian Church's long standing convictions concerning sexuality, marriage and gender. But then that would require a reversal of Stanley's trajectory, and a bold correction of his platform guests to state the obvious, that is not what is advertised.” So Katie, if there are no surprises, if the conference goes on, as advertised, what then?

MCCOY: This was such an unfortunate story to read on many levels. First, I am a graduate of Union University, and I was a student there when Dr. Gushee was on faculty, and I remember him being one of the most kind and empathetic professors. I think what's unfortunate on the surface of it—looking at the lineup and speakers—is this false conflation of kindness and empathy and acceptance not only to the person who might be strugglingor to the person who might be confused, but kindness being translated as, “I'm not going to challenge your beliefs; I'm not going to tell you what you may not want to hear in the name of truth”.

Then along with that when I heard about this conference was this familiar phrase, this idea of supporting people in the LGBTQ community, and I always have to ask, “Support for what? Support to what end goal?” Because if it is support to help someone struggle in the strength that Christ provides by the Spirit against the flesh, that's one thing. But if it is support to affirm or accept one's lifestyle, one's choices, one's sexual preferences going contrary to the Bible, that is a completely separate issue.

So when people talk about same-sex couples, people who struggle with same-sex attraction, or transgender people, and they say we need to provide support for them, I always feel like they are not finishing that sentence, because we've not defined what support means. Not only that, but what is the end goal of that support? What is it that we're trying to support them to do? Is it to live in accordance with God's design or not?

This reminds me also of a quote by Pastor John Mark Comer, and his book Live No Lies where he describes how sexuality has for all of the history of the church been the place where God's people most sharply contrast their culture. Specifically, he talks about it as the primary test of our generation's faithfulness to the way of Jesus over the world's ideas and ideologies. This is going to be ever present with us: It is going to become more and more rare—even among professing evangelical circles—to hold fast to a biblical sexual ethic, according to God's design for our bodies and our lives.

Are we going to compromise on that truth in the name of kindness? Are we going to conflate support with acceptance? Or are we simply going to say the hard things like every other generation of the church has done?

BROWN: Yep, so Katie, I want to talk to you about a woman who is very clear on what she believes about marriage. Biblical marriage, that is. Kim Davis is back in the news and, and she's still standing up for biblical marriage. In 2015, she was the county clerk in Kentucky who refused to sign a marriage license for two same-sex couples. Both couples filed civil lawsuits against Davis. And last week, two juries, two juries, reached different conclusions on how much she should pay for mental anguish the four men said she caused when she refused to sign the marriage licenses. So here's the update. Katie Davis's attorney will appeal and in a statement indicated the jury verdict has paved the way for this case to go to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, it may still be a long road to vindication for Davis. My question is, how long of a road do you think?

MCCOY: Well, unfortunately, we can measure the length of that road by how litigious our society is. And it is ridiculous. When I hear that this county clerk was sued for mental anguish… you've got to be kidding me. There was nobody else that could sign marriage licenses for whom it was not a conflict of conscience?

We're just asking the government to afford people the right to express and worship according to their conscience. If this is the case, then they are going to see a retreat of people of faith from government jobs. And it won’t be just Christians affected, but other faith traditions as well: Judaism, for instance, and even Islam. Do you see people suing Muslims for some of the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that they have out there? No, it's just the Christian faith.

I was flabbergasted when I heard this story, it's a little bit like what happened with that poor baker out in Colorado. Can people not just leave this man alone and let him live his life in peace according to his convictions? So unfortunately, it sounds like this county clerk in Kentucky is headed for a long road, and I think it is absolutely absurd that this has to go to the Supreme Court in our society. Why can't they just find someone else to sign the stinking marriage licenses?

Instead, we have to make it an entire issue. Don't you know? This is going to end up being subjects of debates in primaries, both Republican and Democratic (if we end up having one.) So this is absurd. It's just a sign of how much we have left common sense. I wish that young college female athletes had just as much of an on-ramp to sue schools and administrators for the mental anguish that they were put in by having to share a locker room with a biologically intact male. We're not going to see that level of media attention, because this type of outrage is reserved for Christians living out their convictions in the public square.

EICHER: Katie, you mentioned political primaries, and on that score, I want to shift to the pro-life issue. We've covered this pretty extensively on the World and Everything in It this week. President Trump's position on, uh, former President Trump's position on protecting unborn life. Concerning the six week pro-life protections signed in Florida by his distant second place challenger Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump said on national TV It was a terrible mistake on the governor's part to sign that bill. So President Trump deserves credit for the Supreme Court that reversed Roe vs. Wade, clearly, but he seems to be saying now that the freedom that the court gave the states shouldn't be exercised quite so freely as Florida exercised it. He seems to be, in the words of another of our WORLD Opinions writers, retreating on abortion. So I ask, has the former president and front runner for 2024 made a terrible mistake in your view?

MCCOY: He certainly is retreating from his pro-life stance, and time will tell the political implications of that, especially in this Republican primary season that we're in. President Trump did give the Supreme Court three justices—I don’t want to call them pro-life. It wasn't that they were pro-life, it's that they had a philosophy of jurisprudence that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. But what we're seeing now with President Trump is it is no longer politically expedient for him to be pro-life, and I think it behooves every voter who, in the past, perhaps justified a vote for President Trump on the basis of his pro-life stance to say, “Does this candidate's policies actually support your values?”

Now, let's take a zoom out of former President Trump. And look at the state by state debates over abortion and access to it since the overturning of Roe. Overwhelmingly, states have voted to protect abortion rights or to not allow legislation that would impede those abortion rights. What this tells us is that at the core, this is not just a legislative issue, this is not just a political issue. We can have Roe v. Wade overturned and we still have to win over the hearts and the minds of a new generation as to what it is that abortion does, as to who it is that abortion kills. Until we do that, we're going to continue this ideological lobbying back and forth over who's the right candidate to support abortion because the sad reality is—even among a political party known for its pro-life stance—it's becoming unpopular; it's becoming something that is no longer politically expedient.

It's no longer becoming something that we can assume of the candidates of that party. Whether it's same-sex marriage legalization, whether it's LGBTQ issues, or whether it's abortion, I think it is a sign that we—the people of faith, the family of God—need to get very used to being a cultural minority.

BROWN: All right, Katie McCoy, her PhD is in theology, and she's author of a book just released titled To Be a Woman. Thanks, Katie.

MCCOY: Thanks for having me.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, September 22nd. 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: Arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino takes us on an unexpected journey back to Middle-earth.

MUSIC: [LOTR THEME MUSIC]

COLLIN GARBARINO: This month, I’ve been marinating in J.R.R. Tolkien. I’m listening to The Lord of the Rings audiobooks again, and I recently finished reading a book about Tokien’s various writings and their adaptations. I even received my new copy of The Hobbit in the mail yesterday. Sure, I already have four different editions, but this one features illustrations by Tolkien himself. It’s only appropriate to spend so much time on Tolkien this month, since it marks the 50th anniversary of his death.

2023 also marks the 20th anniversary of Peter Jackson’s final Lord of the Rings film adaptation, The Return of the King, so I thought it might be fun to revisit this classic movie.

FRODO: And thus it was. A Fourth Age of Middle-earth began. And the Fellowship of the Ring, though eternally bound by friendship and love, was ended.

The Return of the King arrived in theaters during the holiday season of 2003. New Line Cinema had released the earlier installments—The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers—during the previous two years, and audience anticipation was high.

The movie certainly didn’t disappoint fans who longed for a satisfying conclusion. Audiences gave the movie a rare A+ CinemaScore, and the film’s box office revenues outstripped the earlier films.

Not only did we get to see good triumph over evil, we got to spend another 3 hours and 21 minutes in the company of old friends we had come to love.

Or in the case of Andy Serkis’ Gollum, maybe not love, but love to quote.

GOLLUM: She must eat. All she gets is filthy Orcses.

SMEAGOL: And they doesn’t taste very nice, does they, precious?

GOLLUM: No. Not very nice at all, my love.

The Lord of the Rings tells an epic story of high adventure steeped in a deep textured lore featuring kings and faerie folk, political intrigue and betrayal. Fans of the books were shocked at how well Jackson’s adaptations captured that sense of living amidst the ruins of time. His blending of practical effects with the wizardry of computer generated imagery was better than anything that had come before it.

New Zealand’s stunning scenery and Jackson’s well-crafted visuals caused jaws to drop, it was the story of close friendship that grabbed people’s hearts.

EOWYN: Courage, Merry. Courage for our friends.

Depictions of true friendship in movies are rare. Depictions of male friendship, even rarer. With The Lord of the Rings, audiences saw trust and affection develop between men brought together by a common purpose. Who could forget the unexpected and delightfully competitive friendship between the dwarf Gimli and the elf Legolas?

GIMLI: Never thought I’d die fighting side by side with an Elf.

LEGOLAS: What about side by side with a friend?

GIMLI: Aye. I could do that.

The more time I spend with The Lord of the Rings—both books and adaptations—the more I begin to understand that Frodo’s loyal friend Samwise Gamgee is the real hero of the story. Sean Astin captured the spirit of this unsung hero perfectly in the films.

SAM: Come on, Mr. Frodo. I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you. Come on!

Jackson preserves Tolkien’s focus on deep friendship, but I think, on a fundamental level, Jackson doesn’t understand what Tolkien’s getting at in the books because Jackson leaves out some important scenes. I can’t really fault him for skipping over Tom Bombadil—I wouldn’t know what to do with that either. But I’m sad the first movie doesn’t include the hobbits' trip through the Old Forest, which shows that Sauron isn’t the only source of evil in the world. Even more disappointing was Jackson’s choice to omit the Scouring of the Shire, in which the hobbits return to desolate homes after victory.

GANDALF: I will not say, “Do not weep,” for not all tears are an evil.

Tolkien had a tragic view of the world, in which heroes fight the long defeat. In the books, if Sauron wins, the good guys lose. But if Sauron loses, the good guys still lose, just not quite as much. Neither men nor elves can achieve a final victory to set the world right.

Despite Jackson’s unwarranted optimism, there’s a lot to like about his The Return of the King, as well as his other two Lord of the Rings movies. He knows how to stir up our emotions when we see good make its stand against evil. Twenty years on, Gondor’s last stand still brings a tear to my eye.

ARAGORN: A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day.

The Return of the King won a record 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and it grossed more than a billion dollars worldwide. It’s easy to forget that when New Line Cinema gave Jackson the greenlight to make three back-to-back epics, they were taking a huge risk.

Not only did that risk prove profitable, but it had a hand in changing American entertainment, ushering in an era characterized by multi-film franchises, sweeping epics, and high fantasy entertainment.

Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema recently announced they planned to reboot The Lord of the Rings franchise for the big screen, but it’s hard to imagine they could have the same impact as these classic films.

ARAGORN: For Frodo.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: listener feedback. But first something for the young viewer, my friend and colleague Brian Basham is here from WORLD Watch. He's actually on the set of WORLD Watch. Howdy, Brian.

BRIAN BASHAM: Good morning!

EICHER: Getting started. Yeah. We talked about this a few weeks ago and I know quite a few listeners took us up on the offer. But I thought that since this is about to expire, and it’s such a great offer, I wanted to bring you back one last time before this goes away.

Maybe the listener we’re talking to didn’t hear this back in August and with vacations and whatnot, that can happen. So imagine you may be talking to a listener with school-age kids maybe homeschooling, maybe looking for a good current-events supplement. Or maybe a listener who’s a grandparent like me and we want news literacy for our loved ones, without an unbiblical political agenda, and more positively, just a professional news program that provides all the context, doesn’t talk down to kids, but doesn’t assume knowledge about news stories that they’re just not going to have.

Describe the typical day’s WORLD Watch, Brian. What does the viewer get?

BASHAM: Yeah, and as you mentioned, it is a video show. So it's got tons of cool video attached to it. So obviously, it's a world product. So you know, we're gonna take a big bite of the whole big world as we tell our news stories every day. And so like, we might do a story about the U.S. government, something that might be happening in the U.S. government right now. And we don't like to just tell you what is happening. But we like to kind of get your thinking about why it's happening, kind of why they're saying things are happening and kind of given critical thinking to it as well. And so it's not just that you're hearing a new story, but there's a lot more going in behind it. Of course, we try to do it as fun as we can. But like we might do that first and then jump to another part of the world, say Israel, maybe to an archaeological site. And we've done several of these where they are uncovering things that happened in the Bible biblical sites. And it's really cool because it gives us an opportunity to show how the Bible is alive and true. And that's kind of a key component for us. We also have a bunch of like features that we do, we have several reporters and they each have their own special branded segments. And so you might learn something about science one day, we've got Caleb does these great segments with with different people doing different jobs and kind of gives you an exposure, but has a lot of fun while doing it. And it's just cool, Nick, we kind of just jump all over in 10 minutes, and it's it's edited, really fun. And so the kids really look forward to it every single day. It's awesome.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Hey, Brian, you mentioned Caleb, I want to give a shout out to Hannah, and Michelle, Caleb, Taylor, of course, the new faces Nick and Chloe. I just love the team. You and our friend, Rich Bishop have built, you know, this young, talented, biblically solid TV journalist for real.

EICHER: You mentioned, Nick, there's a young Nick, I'm not a new face. But don't get the wrong idea.

BASHAM: It's a good looking face, Nick, but it's not as young as our Nick. Let's put it that way. Not at all. Yeah. And it's a great crew and Myrna you left your own name off that if you guys haven't watched the show yet, and you love Myrna. She shows up on our show all the time. And she is phenomenal. You've been doing this for years. And it just adds another element. That is that is that is great. But yeah, this team is really fun. And you'll see him get together a lot. They show up in each other's packages all the time. And the kids just love them. And so it kind of gives them somebody look up to role models, but they do phenomenal work to their incredible.

EICHER: Yes they do. So all of that. And we want to make it as easy as possible to get started with WORLD Watch. It's not cheap to produce a program like this, let alone do it all year round. But we have figured out how we can do it and offer it for just $6.99 a month. But the great deal that I want you to talk about here, Brian, is that three months free? Talk a bit about that. And how does a listener to the world and everything in it take advantage of three months free of WORLD Watch, because I think you've really got to see it and make it a habit to understand just what a great value it is.

BASHAM: Yeah. And the cool thing is, is that when you think about this as a parent, and you're gonna show this to your kids, is you don't have to force your kids to watch it either. They're going to look forward to it. Some people use this as they play our opening music and it gets them pumping. And that's how they get the kids out of bed and downstairs. So they can start their homeschool. It's it's really cool. But anyway, it is as you mentioned, it's going to be the first three months free and you can just go to WORLD Watch news.com WORLD Watch news.com. When you go right to that first page, it'll show you how to sign up and get that But I think once you see it, you're never going to want to give it up. And it is really good, especially for people who are you know, counting every penny and trying to keep track of their money. And it's sometimes it's scary to kind of just commit to something without seeing it. This is a great way to expose your family to it and get a good really good idea. Plus, once you pop on there, you can watch everything we've ever done. So we've been running now for three years plus, and you can watch everything we've ever produced and so people will jump on there and binge watch old new shows. It's awesome.

EICHER: That's when you know you've got something when you binge watch news, World Watch news.com We'll put that link up on today's transcript in case the listener is unable to write it down at the time WORLD Watch news.com Brian Basham right there on the set of World Watch. He's the fearless leader. He's the daily anchor of WORLD Watch and good morning to you. Thanks for dropping by.

BASHAM: Hey, have a good one guys.

NICK: All right, let’s get to that listener feedback for the month of September. And we will begin, as per normal, with a couple corrections. The first one this morning comes from last week’s Culture Friday conversation with John Stonestreet. We were discussing JRR Tolkien’s legacy. John compared Tolkien and CS Lewis:

JOHN STONESTREET: Narnia was much more allegory, it was much more direct one to one. Middle Earth is not that way, Middle Earth holds a remarkable amount of insight into what it means to be human, and what it means to live in the world. And I think that’s why it has staying power.

Caroline Aungst of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, attends a classical Christian school where they study Tolkien and Lewis.

CAROLINE: But in school, we learned Narnia was actually a supposal and not an allegory. Supposals are defined as a narrative that is not symbolic but starts by the author supposing something.

Caroline, thanks so much for listening, and for calling in. You’re correct.

But I should note we weren’t identifying Narnia as an allegory, just that it is much more allegorical than the worlds Tolkien created. So thanks for giving us the opportunity to clarify that point!

BROWN: Regular listener Brent England took exception to one of our recent humorous news stories—about the farmer who was caught driving his car with livestock in the front seat. We framed the story as being about a “cow in a car.”

EICHER: Yes, and in framing the story we quoted the police department, so tell it to the officer on scene.

BROWN:But Brent ran with this, explaining that a cow is a female who has calved . As the bovine in question was male, we should have called it a “bull in a car”—since it was a male capable of siring a calf. All I’m going to add here is, ah, thanks for steering us to the truth…

EICHER: Next, we heard from quite a few listeners about a mispronunciation during Monday’s History Book on Joseph Smith. Listener Fred Anson put it this way:

Any Mormon who might possibly be listening is either laughing hysterically or cringing at the mispronouncing of the angel’s name as “Moronee” instead of “Moroni.” This is a common rookie mistake for those Never-Mormons who are unfamiliar with Mormonism.

We’ve corrected the pronunciation and we reposted the segment with the right pronunciation. Thank you.

BROWN: Speaking of Monday’s History Book, it generated a lot of feedback. Some like Fred took exception to the story, thinking it was overly critical. Laurie Murray thought the story was embarrassing compared to the usual professionalism of the program. And Laura Robins believed the whole segment was a major departure from the spirit of our podcast. But the Moyers family from Centennial, Colorado wrote in praising the segment as “succinct” and exposing pertinent error. And Chuck Hendricks from Dallas appreciated the reminder of the gracious gift of God’s word being sufficient.

EICHER: And while God’s word is always sufficient, sometimes our memory of where to find certain verses isn’t. Listener Thomas Shaw pointed out that on Tuesday, we ended the program with a passage of scripture we incorrectly referenced as Psalm 27:1-2. Those verses are actually in Proverbs.

And one more correction. Yesterday, Commentator Cal Thomas explained that Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, planned to uphold a ban on all new gas and diesel car sales by 2030. But on Wednesday, after Cal had written and recorded his commentary for us, Sunak announced a delay of that ban for 5 more years. The ban on new gas and diesel cars will now go into effect in 2035. As for the rest of Cal's commentary, it remains just as relevant, laying out many significant problems in switching from gas to electric vehicles.

Now to a couple voicemails. Austin Smith listens to the program in Egypt. He sent us this comment from Cairo:

SMITH: Just listened to Myrna’s review of the three singing families on the podcast. I love the way WORLD covers music and arts, so keep up the good work. Appreciate it.

BROWN: Adam Carrigan listens in Columbus, Indiana. He called in a couple times this month. He loved Leah Savas’s story about the life-like baby models on display at the Creation Museum. But he was especially appreciative of a classic commentary from Joel Belz.

CARRIGAN: It is amazing to me how relevant it is for today. I'm very grateful for Christian journalists who are going to take the timeless truths of God's word and apply them in a timely way but still write them in a timeless fashion. I'm also very grateful that you are training the next generation of journalists who are going to continue on with that tradition. Thanks and keep up the good work.

EICHER: Thanks to everyone who wrote and called in this month. We’re grateful that you listen, and that you take the time to provide thoughtful feedback.

BROWN: And thanks to you if you left a comment and rating on Apple iTunes.

If you have comments to share with us for listener feedback you can send them to editor@wng.org. And if you’re writing, why not take a moment and record your comments on your phone and send those along as well. We’ve included instructions on how to do that on our website: wng.org/podcasts.

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

Mary Reichard, David Bahnsen, Will Inboden, Onize Ohikere, Leo Briceno, Mary Muncy, Janie B. Cheaney, Steve West, Cal Thomas, and Collin Garbarino

And a new voice this week…WORLD Opinions contributor Barton Gingerich (GEEN-grick).

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Psalmist writes: "I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God is holy. What god is great like our God? —Psalm 77 verses 11 - 13

Take time to worship the one, true King with your brothers and sisters in Christ in church this weekend. Lord willing we will meet you right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

But before you do, let’s hear Dr. Pratt’s students at Calvin Christian School. 200 young voices singing the hymn on which our theme music is based: This Is My Father’s World.

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