The World and Everything in It: September 24, 2024

PREROLL: Good morning…it’s Travis Kircher. I’m a breaking news editor for WORLD, and in today’s program I have a story about how Christian counselors are responding to a concerning executive order in Kentucky.

MARY REICHARD:  Good morning!

The governor of Kentucky bans so-called conversion therapy. Christian counselors say that goes too far.

NELSON:When there are minor children struggling with sexual identity issues, then we need to intercede.

NICK EICHER: Also today … the numbers of migrants crossing the southern border is down. But down from an unprecedented high. We have a report.

And a lending library born of loss.

ANNIE: She wanted to have a library and when she died we decided to build this library for her.

NICK EICHER: And theological sleight of hand by the vice president.

MARY REICHARD:  It’s Tuesday, September 24th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

MARY REICHARD: Time now for the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

Israel-Lebanon » Israeli interceptor missiles launched into the skies over the northern city of Haifa Monday … part of the country’s Iron Dome defense system.

Rockets keep flying into Israel from Lebanon … where the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah is based.

All of this comes after Lebanon's health ministry says Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed more than 300 people Monday.

But Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari says those attacks took out homes that were hiding long-range cruise missiles, rockets and attack drones.

HAGARI: We cannot accept terrorist groups storing weapons inside people's homes, using them to fire at other civilian communities. The international community must condemn Hezbollah's grave violation of international law and actions that endanger civilians on both sides of the border.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his own appeal:

NETANYAHU: I have a message for the people of Lebanon. Israel's war is not with you, it's with Hezbollah. For too long, Hezbollah has been using you as human shields.

Netanyahu urged Lebanese residents to evacuate dangerous areas …

Washington reacts to Israel-Hezbollah » Meantime, the White House says it’s working to tamp down tensions. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: 

PIERRE: The risk of escalation is real.  And so we continue to believe a diplomatic resolution is both achievable and urgent.

Vice President Kamala Harris says she’s personally been working to prevent escalation in the Middle East. But that drew a strong reaction from Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell:

MCCONNELL:  The only way to claim credit for working to quote, prevent an escalation is by pretending like Hezbollah's October 8th attacks or Hamas October 7th massacre weren't actually escalations themselves.

The U.S. is sending additional troops to the Middle East … on top of the 40,000 troops it already has stationed there.

Would-be Trump assassin » The Department of Justice says it plans to pursue attempted assassination charges … against the man accused of trying to kill Donald Trump last week in South Florida. And the DOJ says … he left a note clearly stating his intentions. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Officials say the note was placed in a box … that was dropped at the home of an unidentified person.

Also found inside that box … ammunition, a metal pipe, and other items.

It was left there months earlier, but the recipient reportedly did not open it until after last Sunday's arrest.

The note was addressed, “Dear World,” and was apparently premised on the idea that he would not succeed in assassinating the former president.

The Justice Department says the not plainly stated, “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best … It is up to you now to finish the job.”

The 58-year-old suspect faced a judge in the case for the first time on Monday. He already faces federal weapons charges. The state of Florida will likely charge him with multiple felonies as well.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Zelesnkyy / Blinken hosts Ukraine meeting » Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address the UN General Assembly today in New York. He’s expected to outline Ukraine’s plan to end the war — and Russia’s invasion. The plan includes specific military, political, diplomatic, and economic steps.

Zelenskyy arrived early in the United States … paying a visit to a munitions manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania. He spoke to roughly 400 workers there … who are hard at work, turning out ammunition for Ukraine’s military.

ZELENSKYY: I wanted very much to come here and to thank you.  400 people saved millions of Ukrainians because of the result of your work. I'm very thankful just from ordinary Ukrainians to you.

He’s also set to meet with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris later this week. 

Prisoners sent to Ukraine now committing crimes in Russia » A human rights expert says many Russian prisoners who agreed to fight for Moscow in Ukraine in return for their freedom … committed crimes against civilians in Ukraine … and now they’re doing the same back home in Russia.

United Nations analyst Mariana Katzarova:

KATZAROVA:  Many of them who return and this is an emerging trend have been, um, perpetrating new violent crimes to begin to begin with against women, against girls, against children, uh, including sexual violence and killings.

Katzrova says domestic violence and violence against women generally was already at very high levels in Russia.

Biden meets UAE president » President Biden is in the middle of a busy stretch of meetings with international allies … with many already in the country for the UN General Assembly.

On Monday, he hosted the president of the United Arab Emirates.

BIDEN: Mr. President, uh, I want you to know that I remain committed to the UAE’s security …

Biden heard there hosting President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the White House.

He has more meetings scheduled at the White House, including that sitdown with Volodymyr Zelenskky.

Over the weekend, he hosted the leaders of India, Japan, and Australia at his home in Delaware.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Counseling in Kentucky. Plus, a Texas family's library legacy.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 24th of September.

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

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

Up first…controversy over psychiatric counseling. 

Last Wednesday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed an executive order … unexpectedly.

BESHEAR: We see you, we care about you. And now I’m gonna sign an executive order ending conversion therapy in Kentucky.

MARY REICHARD: Conversion therapy is the practice of using psychiatry to change a person’s sexual attraction. Until 1973, psychiatrists classified homosexuality as a mental illness that warranted treatment. Those therapies have since been abandoned.

NICK EICHER: Many Christian counselors instead use treatment based on biblical principles to guide patients away from unwanted same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria. But now they are concerned that Beshear’s executive order bans any licensed counseling based on Biblical values.

WORLD’s Travis Kircher reports from the Kentucky capitol.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: About a dozen speakers gathered in the rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol Friday morning. They included Christian counselors, state legislators, and theologians—all of whom were speaking out against Governor Andy Beshear’s executive order banning conversion therapy for minors.

One of those speakers—Richard Nelson of the Commonwealth Policy Center—says he agrees with the governor’s view that psychiatric conversion therapy is harmful.

RICHARD NELSON: As we said in this conference, we are opposed to physically abusive practices, shame-based practices. Uncategorically, we're opposed to that.

He says the problem is that the governor’s definition of conversion therapy is overly broad and would prohibit any counseling that would point a struggling minor toward adherence to a Biblical view of sexuality.

NELSON: The governor is essentially saying that anybody who tries to help a minor identify with their born gender—in their in a heterosexual identity— that they are wrong. And that's a problem.

The order defines conversion therapy as any practice, treatment, or intervention that seeks or purports to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity. That includes efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.

The governor’s order requires licensed counselors to support a minor’s same-sex attraction or gender expression or at the very least, remain neutral. And it goes on to prohibit the use of state or federal funding for any form of treatment that refuses to do so. State licensing boards are also authorized to discipline professionals who fail to comply.

JONATHAN BENNETT: They're confused about their identity. We want to give them a certainty in their identity that they are in Christ.

Jonathan Bennett describes himself as a Gospel-based Biblical counselor. Because he’s not licensed in Kentucky, he can’t be penalized by the governor’s executive order, but the order does urge him to report licensed counselors who fail to comply.

Bennett says affirming a sinful sexual lifestyle or gender identity is no different than telling an alcoholic he or she can’t change and that goes against the Gospel.

BENNETT: Alcoholics Anonymous and those kind of 12 step programs will teach you, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic, or once an addict, always an addict. The scriptures say the opposite. Whatever your sin of choice is, and whatever lifestyle you've embraced, and whatever identity you have embraced, that is not you anymore you are in if you're a Christian, you are in Christ, and God sees you as righteous. He sees you as righteous like his son, and that is your identity.

But Governor Beshear sees it differently. Just down the hall from Friday’s gathering, he was holding his weekly press conference. I asked the governor how he would respond to counselors who say his executive order requires them to go against historic Christian teachings on sexuality. The governor doubled down.

BESHEAR: I am a Christian. My faith tells me that I'm supposed to love everyone, everyone. And that means everyone, regardless of their sexuality.

But Nelson says Christian counselors show love by guiding children to a Biblical view of sexuality.

NELSON: We're told to love our neighbors, but loving our neighbors, and in particular, children, means that we intercede for them. And when there are minor children struggling with sexual identity issues, then we need to intercede.

The question now is whether Beshear’s executive order will stand up in court. GOP state representative Josh Calloway admits it caught legislators off-guard.

JOSH CALLOWAY: On Tuesday evening an email goes out at 5:30 that says this is gonna happen at 10 am the next morning. None of us had seen the executive order. It was kept very close—very tight—for a reason. And so the public is really just now being informed that this has happened.

Republican state representative Shane Baker says Beshear signed the order because the General Assembly repeatedly voted down similar bans in prior legislation. He says that puts the order on shaky ground.

SHANE BAKER: The legislature is elected to write law. The governor is not. He is to, to execute the law that's written by the, by the legislature, the people's body. And he's overstepped his constitutional authority in what he's done in this executive order, and yes, we will fight it.

Calloway says the state’s Republican attorney general is already reviewing the order and lawsuits are also in the works. I asked Governor Beshear if he believes his executive order will withstand legal scrutiny.

BESHEAR: I expect it to hold up in court. Every major medical association has said that so-called conversion therapy harms and significantly harms children.

But representative Calloway says if the legal options don’t work, he and his fellow lawmakers will take legislative action when the state General Assembly reconvenes in January.

CALLOWAY: And on day one, if it's not fixed, we will have a bill filed to repeal it.

Richard Nelson says it’s not personal. It’s about holding the governor to the Christian values he espouses.

NELSON: There was a group of us that prayed for the governor before this press conference began. We pray that he would seek God, but also that he would be faithful Biblically, too.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher from the state Capitol Building in Frankfort, Kentucky.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It:

The U.S. southern border.

Illegal border crossings have hit record numbers under the Biden-Harris administration: More than 10 million people have been reported to enter the country illegally since President Biden took office.

The numbers peaked late last year, with nearly a quarter million illegal crossings in December alone. In February, the number was about half that, but still, six figures.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: But the numbers are trending downward. In July and August, illegal crossings fell to around 60,000 per month. Which is still 50 percent higher compared to what happened under the Trump administration. Then the average was around 40,000 per month.

The question is: why the recent drop? And will it last?

Here’s WORLD Radio’s Anna Johansen Brown.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: Michael DeBruhl vividly remembers December 2022, when throngs of people gathered on the streets of El Paso, Texas, around Sacred Heart Church—just a few blocks from the port of entry connecting Texas with Mexico.

MICHAEL DEBRUHL: There were 1000 people outside the shelter and the church. Temperatures got down to about 28 so most of the people had to stay outside. The parish pastor, in a great leap of faith, just opened the doors to these people.

The Roman Catholic parish welcomed immigrants into a basketball gym converted into a shelter able to house up to 160 people. At the beginning of this year they were full. But since then, their numbers have dwindled, and the shelter’s leaders are preparing to close it up.

DEBRUHL: A few weeks ago, one day we had nine people in here. So encounters across the Southwest border have decreased significantly, and we are seeing very few people.

So what’s behind the drop? One factor is weather…blistering summer temperatures typically deter people from making the dangerous trek across desert borderlands. Crossings usually pick back up during the autumn months.

But what about border policy?

BIDEN: I took executive action to secure the border. It’s working.

In June, President Joe Biden barred most immigrants from asking for asylum if they cross illegally between ports of entry without an appointment. Immigrants waiting in Mexico can request an asylum appointment in the United States using a mobile app called CBP One. Currently, there are about 14-hundred spots available per day. Immigrants often have a 6-month wait to snag one of those spots.

But some experts argue that Mexican enforcement is primarily responsible for the decline. Not only are fewer immigrants crossing illegally into the United States, fewer are reaching the U.S.-Mexico border in the first place.

RUIZ SOTO: Since February, when we began to see, month by month, decline in apprehension southeast Mexico border.

Ariel Ruiz Soto is a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.

SOTO: Mexico's enforcement since December has scaled up significantly. For example, in northern Mexico now there's more enforcement at railways and at Coastal points that traditionally had been used by migrants to get to the US Mexico border. In states like Coahuila, Chihuahua and others. it's not just that they're more doing more enforcement, but that they're doing more targeted operations closer to the Mexico border to keep migrants from getting to the Mexico border.

In July, Mexico encountered nearly 120,000 immigrants, but it doesn’t have the capacity to deport that many people. So, Mexican officials have been shuttling immigrants further south to ease the strain on northern border communities.

SOTO: Just because we're seeing less people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border doesn't mean there's less people on the move. In fact, we are seeing that more migrants are actually in Mexico waiting for a CBP One appointment.

Migrants are also encountering more stringent enforcement before they reach Mexico. In July, Panama’s president pledged to turn back some migrants crossing through the roadless stretch of jungle known as the Darien Gap, which connects Panama with Colombia.

Sami DiPasquale is the executive director of Abara, an organization that supports a network of border shelters and churches. In July, DiPasquale visited Colombian towns situated along the entrance of the Darien Gap.

SAMI DIPASQUALE: The numbers had dropped in the towns that we were in, but they seemed like they hadn't decided for sure if it was going to be, you know, a sustained drop or not, but the numbers were less.

Though migration through the gap declined in July, numbers still remain high. The United States promised to pay for repatriation flights in return for Panama’s stricter measures. The U.S. government is only beginning to follow through on the promised support, and Panama’s president said he can’t forcibly remove the migrants without more help.

And back in Mexico, Ariel Ruiz Soto says it’s unclear how long the country can sustain its current level of enforcement.

SOTO: Mexico also cannot afford to have migrants waiting in southern Mexico, either. Southern Mexico has been, is among the most impoverished places of the regions in Mexico, and therefore they need assistance and to try to control better flow of migrants.

The results of this year’s U.S. presidential election could reverse the decline. Asylum-seekers waiting for an appointment may decide to risk crossing the border illegally in case policies change after November.

VICTOR MANJARREZ: The polls that we do here in the United States, they get broadcast globally.

Victor Manjarrez Jr. served with Border Patrol for more than 20 years and is a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso.

MANJARREZ: When people perceive a certain administration being soft or hard on immigration, it's usually to hurry up and get there by a certain date. Let's say former President Trump wins the election in November. I expect from November to the time he takes office to have some of the highest activity levels for immigration.=

Back at the Sacred Heart shelter, Michael DeBruhl says he can’t predict what will happen at the border after November. But for now, the shelter is planning on closing on October 7th with no plans to reopen in the foreseeable future.

DEBRUHL: With the number of people that we have now, there's significant capacity in El Paso now for migrants. And so that mission just simply no longer exists for the shelters.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown. Addie Offereins wrote and reported this story.

NICK EICHER: Well, Scott Greenberg was driving past a construction site in Ft. Myers, Florida last week when he couldn’t believe his eyes:

GREENBERG: I had to do like a double take. And I seen a car on top a dumpster. And I’m like, are you serious?

NICK EICHER: Yes, quite. An SUV perfectly balanced on a dumpster. Could this be a prank?

GREENBERG: And then I text my buddy. I’m like, is that fair game? Is that free? It’s in the dumpster. I wasn’t sure.

NICK EICHER: Ah, not exactly. The construction crew had a schedule to keep and the aforementioned S-U-V was simply in the way.

So, a deft forklift operator got ’er done. Lifted the vehicle and cleared a path.

Only later on was the SUV put back in a proper parking space.

But isn’t it funny the first thought was a dumpster diving opportunity?

NICK EICHER: Today is Tuesday, September 24th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD:And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Lending Libraries, part three!

So far we’ve heard from families turning away from the public library and to the lending library movement. Their discontent with the public library is the common thread.

NICK EICHER: But today, WORLD’s Myrna Brown concludes her series with a Texas family who started a lending library for a very different reason.

ANNIE CUNNINGHAM: Ok…these are the Christian books. These are the holiday books. These are the early reader books….

MYRNA BROWN: It’s not often you walk into a room full of books and your librarian is a 4 foot, 6 inch, 10-year-old. Meet Annie Cunningham.

ANNIE: That’s grandma…

She’s pointing to a frame of a picture of her grandmother resting against a wall.

ANNIE: She wanted to have a library and um… when she died we decided to build this library for her.

Annie is too young to remember all of the details, so her mother, Elizabeth picks up the story.

ELIZABETH CUNNINGHAM: My mom loved books and children’s books in particular. She was the school librarian at a small private school.

Elizabeth says in 2019 the two talked about starting their own lending library.

ELIZABETH: And she liked the idea but we had plenty of other things going on. So, we never really did anything with it.

Then in 20-20 an ovarian cancer diagnosis.

ELIZABETH: She passed away exactly a year later.

Cunnigham says after her 62-year-old mother’s death, family and friends wanted to know how they could help.

ELIZABETH: You know how people would give gifts, in lieu of flowers or something.

Donors gave 50 thousand dollars and the idea of a private lending library resurfaced. Cunningham says they used the money to convert an old bedroom in her parent’s house into a lending library. Their church donated the book shelves. And they bought the books online.

ELIZABETH: So our library is called Living Literature Favorites Library. We called it that because that’s my mom’s initials. LLF.

About a year after her mother’s death, Elizabeth Cunningham opened the LLF library and quickly realized she needed more space. And in Dallas, that can get expensive. So, they decided to move the library into their house. But that required a home makeover.

MYRNA TO ANNIE: Were you excited to watch it being built?

ANNIE: Yes, I was so excited. But I was also kind of frustrated because we couldn’t be in our house while it was being built because the whole roof was off!

Annie, her parents and two siblings moved in with her grandfather for six months. When they returned to their home, it was the only two-story house on the block. Part of the new construction includes a long playroom that opens into a 20x20, five-thousand book library. Today is library day.

AUDIO: [PARKER KIDS ARRIVING]

Shae Parker and her two kids are the first to arrive and scamper up the stairs. The eight and ten year olds head straight for the playroom’s mini fridge to reap the benefits of meeting this week’s reading challenge.

PARKER KIDS: Oh, there’s no more of these and I wanted these.

After their ice cream treat, it’s through the glass french doors and into the library they go. Another mom, Ashley Smith and her three daughters come in next. And bringing up the rear, Alex Cosse, a mom of four. She's a friend of a friend.

ALEX COSSE: And when Ashley told me, Alex there’s this library and she has beautiful classical books. They've been waiting to come today.

CHRISTIAN COSSE: Whoa!

That’s Alex’s 12-year-old son, Christian.

CHRISTIAN COSSE: This is my kind of place.

Along with the Cosses, Cunningham says ten other new families started coming to the library this year.

ELIZABETH: It seems radical or shocking to have sort of an open door policy on your own home and I guess it is, but we’re happy to do it. To this point, it’s always been somebody who found out about it through somebody I do know. There’ve been some points of connection that made me feel very comfortable with how it’s gone. And just trust the Lord.

MOM ASKING QUESTION: So Annie, is there a number of books…

Families pay a one-time security deposit and a yearly fifty dollar fee that covers buying more books and supplies like ice cream for the kids and coffee for the parents.

MIGUEL PICARTE: I love coming here and probably the only dad you’ll see among us.

That’s Miguel Picarte. He is indeed the only dad I saw in the bunch. He’s been bringing his 12-year-old daughter Grace to the LLF library since its inception. Growing up in Puerto Rico, he wasn’t a reader until he started coming here and reading volumes of books with his daughters.

PICARTE: I mean we plowed through that whole series and it was very enriching to me and my daughters and it opened me up.

For Mandy Cowden, it’s not just about the books.

ANDY COWDEN: Thursdays are about relationships as well as just checking out good books. Elizabeth and Micah, her husband exhibit a generosity of spirit that you don’t see a lot.

But Cunningham says it’s her family that benefits the most. Like other families who start lending libraries, the Cunninghams have learned how to serve and to better love others. But they say they’ve also experienced the love of a heavenly Father, who gives beauty for ashes.

ELIZABETH: We started this project essentially the week after my mom passed away. So in that year after she passed, I spent a lot of time with my sisters and with my dad and also with my mom’s friends. Talking a lot about her. And that was really helpful and just a blessing to me.

AUDIO: Annie, would you like to show them where to find all the sections?

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Dallas, Texas.

AUDIO: This is non-fiction…this is geography…. These are stem….

MARY REICHARD: Today is Tuesday, September 24th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER:  And I’m Nick Eicher. World Opinions Contributor Candice Watters now…with what Vice President Kamala Harris gets wrong about faith in action.

CANDICE WATTERS: During this month’s presidential debate, Kamala Harris said this:

KAMALA HARRIS: One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.

She’s partly right. We don’t belong to the government. This is deeply ingrained in the American psyche and our representative form of government. But neither do we belong to ourselves—at least not in the radically individualistic, deterministic way Harris meant it.

From a civics perspective, we belong to the communities we join or are born into. We are members of families, volunteer organizations, and churches. Our memberships require things of us, and we are not free to neglect or defy those obligations without consequence. These community bonds make for rich cultural relationships. They knit us together in ways that enrich us even as we enrich others. All of this is free from government intrusion and control—and rightly so. But, the freedoms we cherish as enshrined in the Bill of Rights, are rooted in bodily integrity, not autonomy. We are not free to do whatever we want with our bodies. Every parent lives this out experientially. A young girl who beats up her younger brother doesn’t get off by claiming she “can do what she wants with her body.” If she tries, wise parents will respond with fitting consequences.

Does Vice President Harris really believe the government should have no power to determine what we do with our bodies? Doubtful. Instead, she wants the government to remove all obstacles to a pregnant woman getting an abortion. With slippery words, Harris assures us that we can agree with her and remain faithful to our “deeply held beliefs.” This is where she goes doubly wrong.

We cannot, must not, join in the doublespeak that calls murder “healthcare.”

What we do with our bodies affects other people. When those effects are harmful, governing authorities rightly intervene for the protection of the innocent. This is why the Declaration of Independence says “Governments are instituted among Men” to secure the right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” for all. That’s the most fundamental purpose of the U.S. government—a purpose most urgently needed for the most vulnerable people among us: the unborn.

The declaration’s reference to rights “endowed by their Creator” points back to the creation, when God made “man in his own image.” Christians who believe in what Jude 1:3 describes as the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” know that we are not our own. The Apostle Paul reminds the church in Corinth: we were bought with a price—the very blood of Jesus. We must not do whatever we want, but instead glorify God in our bodies .

We cannot defy the image of God in fellow human beings, even unborn ones, without defying God Himself. He has spoken clearly on this. God forbids murder in Exodus 20:13. In Provers 24:11 He commands us to “Rescue those who are being taken away to death.” And in Revelation 21 verse 8 He promises that eternal punishment awaits murderers. He will hold every person accountable for how they respond to His Word, or don’t.

Harris said her view isn’t inconsistent with deeply held beliefs. She added that embracing abortion doesn’t mean abandoning the faith. But she’s no theologian. If it’s faith in Christ Jesus, the God-man who shed His blood to ransom sinners, that’s exactly what following her views on abortion would mean—abandoning Him. In 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 19 Paul calls it having “made shipwreck of their faith.” We need to be shrewd and wise, thinking deeply about what’s at stake, and not be duped. These are treacherous waters. The culture of death or faithfulness to God, we can’t have both.

I’m Candice Watters.

NICK EICHER: Tomorrow: Conservatives in Congress have picked a new leader … so will that mean confrontation or cooperation in the battle over the federal budget?

And, women have long been more active in church than men have … but that trend is changing. We’ll have a report.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard.

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: Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. —Ecclesiastes 7:9, 10

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