The World and Everything in It - September 23, 2021

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

The Texas heartbeat bill went into effect September 1st. And pro-life groups are stepping up efforts to help pregnant women.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Also churches in Canada are still facing government persecution under the guise of pandemic measures.

Plus a grandmother who’s not only aging gracefully, but encouraging others to do the same.

And cutting through the fog of current events. We’ll meet the managing editor for WORLD’s newest editorial product—that starts next Friday.

BROWN: It’s Thursday, September 23rd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

BUTLER: And I’m Paul Butler. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington has today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden works to mend fences with France over AUKUS » President Biden worked to mend fences with French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call on Wednesday.

The French government is not happy about a new three-way defense deal between the United States, Australia, and the U.K., known as AUKUS. France felt blindsided by the move.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki described the phone call to reporters…

PSAKI: During the conversation, the president reaffirmed the strategic importance of France—of French and European engagement, I should say—in the Indo-Pacific region, something that we look forward to continuing to work with them on.

As part of the agreement, Australia will receive nuclear powered submarines. And with that, Australia pulled the plug on a prior agreement to purchase diesel powered subs from France.

While the White House struck a sympathetic tone, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said French leaders should get a grip.

JOHNSON: I just think it's time for some of our dearest friends around the world to prenez un grip about this and donnez-moi un break because this is fundamentally a great step forward for global security.

France recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia in protest of the new deal. But the French ambassador will return to Washington next week.

COVID-19 deaths soar to more than 2,000 per day » Deaths from COVID-19 have risen to levels not seen since February. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: More than 2,000 Americans are now dying from COVID each day, according to numbers from Johns Hopkins University.

The increasingly lethal turn has filled hospitals, complicated the start of the school year, and demoralized healthcare workers.

Dr. Dena Hubbard is a pediatrician in suburban Kansas City, Missouri. She said she has cared for babies delivered prematurely by cesarean section in a last-ditch effort to save their mothers, some of whom died.

She called it “heart-wrenching” and “soul-crushing.”

COVID deaths hit a peak of almost 3,400 a day back in January. Daily deaths plummeted to just over 200 in July before the delta variant triggered another wave of new infections.

Health experts say the vast majority of the hospitalized and dead have been unvaccinated. While some vaccinated people have suffered breakthrough infections, those tend to be mild.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Biden doubles US global donation of COVID-19 vaccine shots » Meantime, President Biden announced Wednesday that the United States will step up efforts to battle the pandemic globally.

He said his administration is doubling its purchase of Pfizer's COVID-19 shots to share with the world.

BIDEN: This is another half-billion doses that will all be shipped by this time next year, and it brings our total commitment of donated vaccines to over 1.1 billion vaccines to be donated.

It comes as world leaders, and global health and aid groups are sounding alarms about the slow pace of global vaccinations, especially in developing nations.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterris decried the lack of access to vaccines in poor countries.

GUTERRES: This is a moral indictment of the state of our world. It is an obscenity. We passed the science test, but we are getting an F in ethics.

U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said “no one is safe until everyone is safe” and that only a global response can defeat this threat.

Some Haitian migrants allowed to stay in U.S. » Authorities are now releasing a large number of mostly Haitian migrants at an encampment in Del Rio, Texas, into the United States. That despite the Biden administration’s public declaration that migrants will be turned away if they show up at the U.S. border.

The U.S. government has been expelling thousands of migrants under the CDC’s Title 42 rules, enacted during the pandemic, flying Haitian migrants back to Haiti. But thousands of migrants remain at the border camp.

Jen Psaki told reporters at the White House...

PSAKI: If there isn’t a flight ready yet, those individuals may be placed into alternatives to detention.

“Alternative to detention” means not detained. They are released into the country with instructions to appear in court at a later date.

The Border Patrol is instructing the migrants to appear at an immigration office within 60 days to speed up processing times as they try to clear the camp under the International Bridge in Del Rio.

As of Tuesday evening, 8,600 migrants are still camping out beneath the bridge.

Battle lines drawn over govt. debt and funding plan » Republican and Democratic leaders are drawing battle lines over government funding, which is set to expire at the end of this month.

The Democrat-led House voted down party lines this week to approve a package that would provide stopgap money to keep the government funded to Dec. 3rd. It would extend borrowing authority through the end of 2022. It includes nearly $29 billion in disaster relief for the aftermath of Hurricane Ida and other extreme weather events, and more than $6 billion to support Afghanistan evacuees.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday...

SCHUMER: Every single Democrat will support this bill. Whether or not we avoid default is simply entirely up to the Republican senators.

But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell described House Democrats’ plan this way...

MCCONNELL: More debt, more borrowing, and more inflation on the shoulders of American families.

GOP Senator Mitt Romney said Democrats want to pass a $3.5 trillion spending bill without a single Republican vote, but—quote—“they think we should have to raise the debt limit for them.” He added “The Democrats could solve that problem all by themselves. They have the House, the Senate and the White House.”

But McConnell predicted that the government will not default on its debt, and that both sides will find a way to work out their differences before the fiscal year ends on September 30th.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: pro-life pregnancy centers face a new challenge in Texas.

Plus, the steadying influence of WORLD Opinions.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 23rd of September, 2021.

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

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. First up: advocating for life.

Starting September 1st Texas law prohibits abortion once babies develop a heartbeat. That’s usually around 6 weeks gestation. But pro-life advocates know that they—and the unborn babies they’re trying to save—are still living on borrowed time.

BROWN: Not long after the law went into effect, the Biden administration filed a lawsuit seeking a restraining order. A federal judge will hear arguments in that case on October 1st. The first lawsuits against abortionists who violated the law also reached state courts this week. They could set up a constitutional challenge to the abortion limits.

Until then, pregnancy resource centers are stepping up efforts to counsel women faced with making a very fast, life or death, decision.

WORLD Correspondent Bonnie Pritchett reports.

BONNIE PRITCHETT, REPORTER: Outside the nation’s largest Planned Parenthood facility in Houston, it appears little has changed since September 1st.

Cars still come and go from the fenced-in complex. Sidewalk counselors stand ready to speak with anyone willing to listen. People pray. And the Houston Coalition for Life’s mobile ultrasound unit is parked where it’s always been—across the street.

On this steamy afternoon, Sheri Frankum and Andrea Luster are standing at the parking lot entrance. They hold up posters directing drivers to the bus where pregnant women can get a glimpse of the life growing inside them.

Frankum explains why they made the hour-long trip from their homes in Southeast Texas.

SHERI FRANKUM: So, we have a group at the central Assembly of God in Angleton. And it's called Embrace Grace. And it's for single moms that have chosen life. It's like a support group, give them a baby shower. They're ready for the baby. We love on them. And we work with the Pregnancy Help Center Lake Jackson also. And so, it's just been on our heart to come out here and pray and try to talk to some people…

Texas’ new heartbeat law, for all intents and purposes, bans abortion in the state. This is the moment pro-life advocates prayed for. Fought for.

But were they prepared for it?

JAMIESON: You know, I would love to say that the pregnancy centers, you know, my colleagues, that we were all completely prepared for this. I think a little bit, we were like, you know, this is uncharted territory in a lot of ways…

That’s Leanne Jamieson, director of the Prestonwood Pregnancy Center. It serves women in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She and her colleagues across the state have seen an influx of clients since the law went into effect. Jo Markham kept count. She’s director of the Agape Pregnancy Resource Center in Round Rock, north of Austin.

MARKHAM: I ran numbers last week. So, since the law went into effect on September 1, we've seen a 38 percent increase in clients over the same time in August. And of those, most of them are abortion minded or abortion vulnerable.…

Markham and Jamieson say the women are panicked. Mad. Scared. More than usual.

Before the new law went into effect, Texas women had up until the 20th week of pregnancy to decide whether to have an abortion.

Jamieson says her counselors used that time to offer godly advice.

JAMIESON: But often also it was a standing weekly appointment where they came in and they sat with someone, and they got good guidance, and they discussed their situation. That element is gone for us. And so you know, Praise Jesus, that we have the Holy Spirit and his wisdom, but we are learning to pivot. And so, you know, no longer is the discussion, okay, you know, you've got time, but it's about how do you make a healthy decision…

Markham says they may not know it yet, but the heartbeat law is sparing women from the horrors of abortion.

MARKHAM: So, we know that these young women right now who are so terrified of beating the clock to get an abortion, and who don't beat the clock that they are being given a reprieve from something that they're being protected from something that's going to hurt their hearts for the rest of their lives. And they don't they don't realize that right now. But they will.

Both Jamieson and Markham know these frantic women can still decide to have an abortion in a neighboring state. And, so, for the most part, the heartbeat law hasn’t changed the way pro-life pregnancy resource centers operate.

JAMISON: You know, we just take it day by day. I don't know what the future of this law looks like for the state of Texas. I guess at the heart of it, our ministry didn't change with the law. It changed our client's situation more than it changed how we love and operate. Yes, we had to fine tune a few things. But at the heart of it, our mission has not changed. Jesus has not changed. The law changed.

If the heartbeat bill survives the legal challenges, Markham and Jamieson are confident their donors and volunteers are prepared to meet any increase in need.

Sheri Frankum and Andrea Luster, the women outside the Houston abortion facility, welcome the challenge. Frankum explains.

FRANKUM: Yeah, I know, just from our experience with our church, and it's not a big church, but they step up every time, every shower, we have, even through the pandemic, they have bombarded us with diapers and wipes. And that's all God, you know. So, I feel like, if we had an overwhelming onslaught, I feel like he always makes a way…

Luster called on people who say they are pro-life to, well, act like it.

FRANKUM: I feel like our little group will step up. Yeah, I do feel like it's time for those who say they believe a certain thing, like Sherry said earlier, to put their time and their money and their effort where their mouth is, and get off, get off the social media sharing little squares and little pictures and little opinions and do something.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett in Houston, Texas.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: COVID crackdowns on churches in Canada.

Many churches north of the U.S. border are still coping with heavy pandemic restrictions on worship services and other gatherings.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: The Canadian government has authorized a major expansion of police power over the last year and a half. And the COVID-19 rules have created tension between constitutionally protected religious liberty and the authority of the state to enforce pandemic restrictions.

Joining us now with an update is Marty Moore. He is an attorney with Canada’s Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.

Marty, good morning!

MARTY MOORE, GUEST: Good morning. Thank you, Myrna. 

BROWN: Marty, as we mentioned, the Canadian Constitution, like the U.S. Constitution, does provide protections for religious liberty. Remind us, if you would, how that is spelled out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. How strong are those guarantees of religious liberty?

MOORE: Yes, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as its very first protected constitutional right protects the freedom of conscience and religion and that includes the freedom to gather for religious worship, and to speak religious views in public without fear of persecution. But in the last year and a half in Canada, we've seen unprecedented and unheard of persecution where pastors have been arrested for holding worship services, where churches have been fenced off with double layered fencing to keep congregants from attending all because they did not adhere to particular health guidelines that they were mandated follow by the government.

BROWN: I know the COVID restrictions are not the same in every province. Give us a brief rundown of what the pandemic rules look like across Canada.

MOORE: Well, throughout the pandemic, there were a variety of approaches taken by the government. In British Columbia, for example, religious gatherings were prohibited entirely. While you could go to a restaurant with five other friends, you could not attend a worship service at all in person. We challenged that restriction and now those restrictions have been lifted. In other parts of the province, attendance was down to five, for example, in Ontario. We challenged that. They brought it up to 10. In other places, restrictions are now being reimposed. So for example, in Alberta, where no restrictions were last week, impositions and restrictions came, and now attendance is limited back down to 30 with masking and social distance requirements reimposed. And so there's a broad range of restrictions that have been imposed. And the penalties for violating these restrictions have come from things such as jail time to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

BROWN: From the perspective of the Justice Centre, what regulations do you find most problematic?

MOORE: Well, it certainly is incredibly problematic when a government is treating religious organizations far worse than other gatherings of individuals. So in BC, for example, required that religious services shut down entirely while you were able to go to a restaurant, the malls, the even the movie theaters for a while, that was such invidious religious discrimination. It causes very much concern and we launched a challenge against that. But frankly, the most shocking incidences are where pastors are arrested. In Alberta, they were kept in solitary confinement for weeks simply for holding religious services in accordance with their faith. This causes us and has caused us a lot of concern. We've been defending those pastors in court.

BROWN: We spoke with your colleague John Carpay back in February about the case of Pastor James Coates. He is the pastor of GraceLive Church in Alberta. He actually spent a good bit of time in jail for allegedly violating pandemic regulations … and would not agree to pledge that he would follow the lockdown rules, which he considered unjust. Update us on that case, if you would please. Where does that stand?

MOORE: That case is still ongoing. There was an initial hearing on the matter, but the full matter needs to consider the constitutional rights of Pastor James Coates, and that matter has not yet been determined. Of course, in Canada, your rights can be infringed but only where the government demonstrates evidence supporting the necessity of infringing those rights. In our submission, there is no evidence that Pastor Coates or any members of his congregation were affected negatively by their choice to worship in accordance with their religious beliefs.

BROWN: What other legal battles should we keep an eye on to get a sense for how this struggle is playing out in Canada?

MOORE: Well, we are representing churches, for example, in Ontario. Trinity Bible Chapel has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars simply for holding services. There's other churches that have been fined in Ontario for holding services outside. We are at the Court of Appeal in the province of British Columbia appealing on behalf of churches—the orders that were imposed on them, prohibiting them entirely from gathering for religious worship.

BROWN: Okay, Marty Moore with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms has been our guest. Marty, thank you!

MOORE: Thank you, Myrna.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: It took two Japanese sisters a very long time to break this particular world record, but they finally did it!

Umeno Sumiyama and Koume Kodama received their Guinness World Records certificates on Tuesday.

Sumiyama and Kodama are identical twins. Having two girls in one family was somewhat rare in Japan when they were young. And the sisters recall being bullied because of prejudice against children of multiple births in Japan. They were the third and fourth of 11 siblings.

But the two remained close, and in recent years, they began to think they might just have a shot at the record they just broke.

And it only took them 107 years to break it.

Sumiyama and Kodama are now the world’s oldest twins—107 years, 321 days, to be exact.

Due to anti-coronavirus measures, the sisters received their certificates by mail at their separate nursing homes. Guinness reports that Sumiyama accepted hers with tears of happiness.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, September 23rd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: seniors and social media.

Social media is, of course, especially popular among young people  and so-called “influencers” who use their platforms to sell brands, promote messages, and market content.

BROWN: But there’s an increasing number of older people growing their own accounts. They’re nicknamed “grandfluencers.” WORLD’s Sarah Schweinsberg recently spoke with one who’s using her platform to create more positivity around aging. Here’s her story.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: Candace Cima spent her career watching people age. Literally.

CIMA: So actually, for the last 32 years, I owned a senior housing community.

Seeing the different ways people changed with the years really interested her.  

CIMA: I would watch people that age and wonder, Well, why did this person age like this? And why is this person like this? And, you know, I don't know why just, I've always had a fascination with aging.

When she was in her 30’s, she remembers standing in a grocery checkout line and looking at the magazines. One had a headline that said, “How to Look Your Best in Your 20s, 30s, and 40s.”

CIMA: But I'm thinking what happens after you're 40. Do they think everybody's dead? Nobody cares anymore?

Things like that bothered her. She felt like society told older people that after retirement, after children and grandchildren, after wrinkles, they were irrelevant. Especially women.

When Cima turned 72, she began to feel a sense of what now? She had raised her two children. Her grandchildren were grown. She and her husband sold their business.

CIMA: I think after my kids left when they're married and off on their own, and now, again, while my grandchildren are growing up, and they're going off on their own. You just feel like a lot of the things that you put your effort and your time into family wise, when that's taken away from you that really can bring that feeling home to you. Things like your kids growing up, spouses dying. Women feel very invisible and very lost.

But she decided this was not going to be it for her. There was more ahead. She wanted other older women to feel that excitement for the future, too. But she didn’t really have any way of sharing her views. Until…

CIMA: Two years ago, I had no idea what an influencer was. I didn't even know they existed. And I happened to be reading a magazine that was talking about them. And I thought, What are they talking about? So I had, you know, googled it and started looking it up. And then I thought, well, I wonder if there's any old people doing this. And so I thought, well, what would happen if I tried posting something? And so I did.

At first, Cima’s posts mainly talked about fashion.

AUDIO: So I just received this beautiful jacket from Coats of London. First of all, I love the style, the shape of it, that it’s made like a shirt with shirt tails…

She put together outfits. She gave tips for how other older women could utilize what’s in their closets or shop for cuts and fits that would look good on them.

But she was a little embarrassed. She didn’t want anyone she personally knew to know she was doing the whole Instagram thing.

CIMA: I was so afraid that I was going to look foolish. To me, it was crazy. A 72-year-old woman starts blasting her picture on the internet for other people to look at. So I put it under Leslie B. with Leslie as my middle name, and the B was for my maiden name.

But the mysterious and kind of creepy Instagram algorithms didn’t let her keep the secret for long.

CIMA: The only one that saw it, for some weird reason, was my granddaughter. I got a text. Grandma, something just came up with Style by Leslie B. And I said, Oh, no, you saw it. And I was ready to go in and cancel everything. And that's when she told me no, no, grandma. Keep it up.

Cima kept posting…

AUDIO: So I’m going to be doing something new. I’ve noticed lately that I’m getting a lot more messages. So I’m going to be starting something new called a Conversation with Leslie.

And she started to talk about what aging well can look like. How aging is actually an amazing opportunity—even though it comes with physical changes and challenges.

CIMA: What I wanted to talk about was how women can still feel good about themselves. They can still feel productive. They can still feel like they're contributing. When they're older, you know, yes, their children and their grandchildren may not need them anymore. But that is just part of their life. You know, there's so many things they could still be doing.

Candace Cima encourages women to stop chasing youth and beauty. Instead, focus on what you can actually keep and develop. Personal style, character, interests, and relationships.

CIMA: I get questions all the time about, you know, I don't know where to start. I've been unhappy. I haven't liked myself. I do encourage all of them to find things that they are liking to do as they get older, find new hobbies, find new interests. I always say, well, what were the things you wanted to do in life when you were younger that you didn't do? And maybe you can’t recapture it or do it the way you would have done it back then but maybe there is a different way to do it now at your age.

One of Cima’s ongoing interests has been exercise. She pushes her followers to also keep moving.  

AUDIO: Good morning. All of you know that I’m a huge advocate of exercise. But I wanted to remind you that you should be careful when you exercise, especially at an older age. I just turned 74…

Cima has advice for younger women too. Age is coming. Start developing habits and lifestyles that will project you toward who you'd like to be in your old age.

CIMA: We're always asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? Where do you see yourself five years from now? Nobody ever says, Where do you see yourself as an older person?

Today, Candace Cima has 40,000 followers. Her page is striking a cord with women as young as 40 all the way up to 80.

Cima’s bio says “Aging is Changing. Your best time is now!” And that’s what she hopes anyone visiting her page walks, shuffles, or rolls away with.

CIMA: Changing means you're moving forward. So that's really important to me to tell women you know, you're you're changing every minute, you're moving forward, you're still alive, you're still you know, able to contribute things. It's your time and your best time is now.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, September 23rd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

PAUL BULTER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler.

A few weeks ago we told you about the coming debut of WORLD Opinions—it’ll be here in a little over a week. Daily opinion columns from respected Christian voices delivered online at WNG.org—all talking about the ideas and events that are attempting to redefine our world today.

We spoke with WORLD Opinions editor Albert Mohler to introduce the idea to you—that was two weeks ago—and today Andrew Walker is here. He’s the managing editor of this new project. He’s also a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, and an Ethics and Public Theology professor at Southern Seminary in Louisville.

Andrew, good morning.

ANDREW WALKER, MANAGING EDITOR: Paul Myrna, it's great to be with you and a great honor as well.

BUTLER: Always nice to welcome a new colleague. Let’s get to know you a bit. Tell us about your background and how you feel it prepared you for this new role.

WALKER: Sure. I am a professor of ethics at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and also teach in the areas of public theology. And my entire life, as I understand God's calling on my life, is to reflect upon the ways in which Christianity contributes to the common good of our culture.

I believe Christianity is dedicated to the proposition that it is good and true. And that where Christians bring that truthfulness into every sector and arena of life, what is good, ought to follow. And so for me, whether that's been at the Heritage Foundation, where I used to work earlier in my career, or the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, I've always been focused on what are the moral implications of the gospel?

So we have been renewed in Christ. Christ places His Spirit inside of us. And that results in an outward orientation to the world around us. And as we look all through Christian history, we have seen the ability for Christians to bring about tremendous good for their culture.

Ideas like the hospital, the idea of the university. Ideas like human dignity, and equality, and human rights. All of these are the result of Christians reflecting upon their place in the world. And that's really what I'm hoping to bring to this role at World Opinions, to bring together trusted voices, who are all coming from the same place as far as their convictions about the truthfulness of Christianity, and who all share a similar kind of outward orientation, in terms of how Christian truth manifests itself socially and culturally.

BROWN: We’re so excited about WORLD Opinions. I think a lot of people are feeling anxious about the direction we’re seeing the culture go and they’re finding a lot of unhelpful sources that just amp up the division. Talk about how WORLD Opinions will be a steadying influence, respectful, hopeful, seeking to preserve and defend the truth: but without the bombast and despair that’s all too commonly available.

WALKER: Yeah, I'm so glad you use all of those terms, because those are the terms that are kind of guiding our key focus and our mission at World Opinions.

You know, our vision, and our mission can only be lived out insofar as we have the right voices coming to bear on those issues. And so my role as managing editor has been to kind of curate these types of voices who we believe are trusted.

And obviously, the main opinions editor is Dr. Albert Mohler. We all know that he is a man of stalwart conviction and has high expectations for the type of tone and approach that World Opinions is going to take. And so my job in that role is to kind of operationalize that vision.

And so the list of writers that we have right now, I cannot wait to begin to share their names publicly. Because we have a lot of high caliber names. But I would say more than that. We have a lot of trusted names. We have individuals whose convictions you don't have to worry about.

And you mentioned in your question that we live in a time where there seems to be just a growing cacophony of anger, dissension, and disorientation. We don't want to contribute to that at World Opinions, we're going to be an outlet that offers steady, sound analysis, from trusted voices.

And so what we want to do is we want to bring light ultimately to the situation. So that means cutting through a lot of the fractiousness, cutting through bombast: I have been communicating to our writers over and over again, we're going to be a place of conservative conviction, but we're not going to be angry about it. We're going to have a certain disposition, and a certain dispassion that allows us to be the type of Christians and the type of conservatives who are not, again adding more conflict to the public arena but are bringing more tranquility and more understanding to the public arena.

BUTLER: WORLD Opinions—coming October 1st to WNG.org. Andrew Walker is the managing editor. Thanks! Glad to be working with you!

WALKER: Thanks, Paul. 

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Tomorrow: Amazon is lobbying Congress to legalize marijuana. John Stonestreet joins us to talk about that on Culture Friday.

And, a new animated movie the kids will be raring to watch.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Paul Butler.

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

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Psalmist writes:

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Go now in grace and peace.

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.