The World and Everything in It: September 26, 2025

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Culture Friday: From late-night politics to signs of revival.

Jimmy Kimmel, the FCC, and what forgiveness at Charlie Kirk’s memorial tells us about the power of grace.

NICK EICHER, HOST: John Stonestreet is standing by.

Also today, a big adventure for little moviegoers coming to theaters this weekend: Gabby’s Dollhouse.

PANDY: Gabby sent us.

DJ CATNIP: The Gabby cats were stolen and she’s gone to save them!

PANDY: We need your help.

BROWN: It’s Friday, September 26th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: New info about ICE facility » Federal authorities say the gunman who carried out a deadly attack on a Dallas ICE facility this week left behind handwritten notes leaving no doubt about his intentions.

Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson:

LARSON:  He wrote that he intended to maximize lethality against ICE personnel and to maximize property damage at the facility.

Investigators say 29-year-old Joshua Jahn called the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement “human trafficking.”

The shooter took aim at the ICE from a nearby rooftop with a rifle.

 LARSON: The tragic irony for his evil plot here is that it was a detainee who was killed, and two other detainees that were injured when he fired into the sally port.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons added:

LYONS:  He fired so many rounds into the building itself. Right? And then he didn't even know there were detainees in that vehicle. He was just shooting 'cause they were ICE vehicles. Detainees weren't even outta the vehicle.

Jahn took his own life after the shooting.

The FBI says he acted alone, showing a high degree of planning.

He legally purchased the 8-millimeter rifle used in the attack and had marked unused ammunition with “anti-ICE” messages.

Officials are investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism.

Anti-ICE rhetoric » In the wake of that attack, Trump administration officials have been blasting those that they say have promoted dangerous rhetoric and activism against ICE.

Marcos Charles is executive associate director of Homeland Security’s Enforcement and Removal Operations. He noted that the shooter is thought to have used an app created to track ICE agents.

CHARLES:  The media has been amplifying these apps, even as we warned them, it would only lead to more attacks on law enforcement. We truly wish we didn't have to say, I told you so, but here we are.

The administration and GOP lawmakers have pressed some Democrats and activists to curb language that paints ICE agents as villains and to stop using slogans like “abolish ICE.”

The top Democrat in the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies, for his part, said there is far too much political violence in the country:

JEFFRIES:  We need leadership that brings people together, not national leadership that tears people apart.

Vice President JD Vance this week said the political violence is primarily on one side of the aisle, and said Democratic leaders need to—quote—“look in the mirror.”

TikTok deal » At the White House, President Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at keeping the social media app TikTok alive in the U.S.

The president effectively signed off on a deal that he says meets the terms of a law passed last year. That statute forced TikTok’s Chinese owners to divest within the U.S. citing national security concerns.

 TRUMP: We have American investors taking it over, running it, highly sophisticated, uh, including Larry Ellison.

Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping has—his words: “given us the go-ahead” on the TikTok deal.

The order also grants negotiators roughly 120 days to finalize terms.

American investors would hold a controlling stake of a new joint venture and would control TikTok’s algorithm, which largely dictates what users see.

Oracle would oversee security of the app, and the data of American users would be stored within the US.

Erdogan at White House » Also on Thursday, President Trump hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip in the Oval Office.

The two leaders have clashed at times, both during Trump’s first term and since his return to the White House. But Trump today called Erdogan a friend.

TRUMP:  We do a lot of trade with Turkey and we're gonna continue. We're gonna do some additional trade.

In addition to trade, the two leaders discussed the sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to Turkey.

During Trump’s first term, the U.S. removed Turkey from the F-35 program because of concerns over Turkey's use of Russia's S-400 missile defense system.

ERDOGAN: (Speaking in Turkish)

But Erdogan said—his words: “We are experiencing a different period in Turkey-US relations.”

Erdogan has made clear he's eager to see the hold on F-35s to Turkey lifted.

Netanyahu readies fiery speech for U.N. General Assembly  » There could be some fireworks today at United Nations headquarters with a fiery speech expected today from Israel’s prime minister and his critics.

It's a big day at the United Nations. WORLD's Travis Kircher reports from Israel.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have plenty to say when he addresses the UN General Assembly.

NETANYAHU: [Speaking Hebrew]

Netanyahu said he plans to denounce leaders who want to grant statehood to the Palestinians in his view, rewarding the terrorists behind the Oct. 7 attacks.

The UK was one of several Western nations to join a long list of nations that now recognize a Palestinian state. And British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also slated to speak today.

The United States is holding out arguing statehood should be part of a final wide-ranging agreement that resolves the entire Middle East conflict.

Netanyahu is also set to meet with President Trump once again during his visit to the U.S. to discuss the effort to defeat Hamas and bring home remaining Israeli hostages.

Reporting for WORLD, I'm Travis Kircher in Jerusalem.

Hegseth summons military leaders » Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called the military’s top brass to assemble in Quantico, Virginia next week.

He has ordered hundreds U.S. generals and admirals—one-star rank and higher—to attend.

The Pentagon has offered no public explanation.

The gathering is extraordinary: about 800 top officers are scattered around the globe in dozens of countries and time zones.

Pulling them all together at such short notice underscores how rare and logistically tough this gathering will be.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: John Stonestreet on late night television and Ligoneer’s latest theology survey. Plus, Collin Garbarino reviews a weekend opening at the box office.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Friday, September 26th. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. It’s Culture Friday! Joining us is John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center and Host of the Breakpoint Podcast. Good Morning John.

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning.

BROWN: John, I want to talk about the late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel, because I think there's an interesting point I'd like for you to engage with, and it's this. Right after Kimmel was reinstated after a brief suspension and some clearly threatening comments from the chairman of the FCC. I got the chance to talk with the general counsel of National Religious Broadcasters, Mike Farris. I asked him about whether it was proper—from a constitutional perspective—for the government to be pressuring a TV network about a comedian's freedom of speech, however repulsive. And I'd like for you to hear what Farris had to say.

FARRIS: The Supreme Court took up a case in the last cycle about this very issue. It arose from the Biden administration's meetings it had with Facebook, Twitter, other social media organizations where the Biden administration regularly said, silence this voice. Let this voice be heard. Silence this message. They were clearly pressuring the social media agencies to stop people from speaking. Now, I filed an amicus brief for National Religious Broadcasters, taking the position that it is improper for the government to ever when we're talking about protective speech, to ever say, silence this voice. Now Supreme Court didn't agree with me. They took the position that the Biden White House had, in a few instances, violated the First Amendment, but in the majority of instances, they were simply pressuring them, perhaps, but not coercing them. And so what the president did and what Brendan Carr did seems to me to be in line with what the Supreme Court approved. I take a more rigid stand than that, the government shouldn't do this at all, but the Supreme Court let them get away with it, and the Biden administration, I don't see any material difference in this circumstance.

Isn’t Michael Farris right? Shouldn’t Christians be free-speech people all the time?

STONESTREET: Well, we should, but we need to be really clear on what that is. The problem is, when the federal government starts pressuring this way, this is, I think, where the lines are being crossed.

And so it’s interesting now that Jimmy Kimmel has been put back on the air by ABC. There’s an awful lot of affiliates who have decided not to platform him, despite the fact that ABC has decided to do that.

So some of this really has to be kind of wrestled through. No freedom that we have is limitless. There are limits that have to be understood—what you can say and what you can’t say—but then also that you have to, even if you have the freedom to say it, you don’t have the freedom then to not deal with the consequences of what you have said.

What we don’t want—and I think this is what’s clear—is getting into a place where one particular viewpoint is privileged and the other one actively silenced, like what we see in the UK right now, like what we see in Canada right now, like what we see in a lot of European nations, where certain criticisms aren’t allowed.

And I think a lot of Americans feel like we went through that during the COVID era, during the former administrations. But look, I mean, this is also the danger of expecting politics to solve your problems. Because if you win by politics, you lose by politics, and it becomes a very fickle thing from one administration to the other. And that’s just the reality of it as well.

EICHER: John, let me stay with Jimmy Kimmel for a moment. In his monologue he seemed genuinely struck by what Erica Kirk said at the memorial service for her husband. I thought it was worth hearing. Let’s play that.

KIMMEL: A moment over the weekend, a very beautiful moment. I don't know if you saw this. On Sunday, Erika Kirk forgave the man who shot her husband. She forgave him. That is an example we should follow. [Applause] If you believe in the teachings of Jesus, as I do, there it was. That’s it. A selfless act of grace—forgiveness from a grieving widow. It touched me deeply, and [Applause] I hope it touches many. And if there's anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that, not this.

So, John, when you think about what Erika Kirk said—how she said it, and where she said it—wasn’t that the very definition of a public Christian witness?

STONESTREET: Yeah, well, it was. And what made it even more brilliant, and what made it stand out even more, was how sharply it contrasted with the president’s comments right after her.

You have to take that seriously. When you see faith in action, it is something that stands out, even from moral outrage or anything else like that inaction.

Listen—what happened Sunday, which is remarkable, is the largest evangelistic event in human history. There’s never been anything like this. And now, if you’re talking about percentages of the population, you might want to look at Jonah and Nineveh, but if you’re looking at just sheer numbers, it’s absolutely incredible.

And then you think about the voices and what they said. I mean, Marco Rubio with a full summary of the gospel in under two minutes. Frank Turek with such a powerful, profound way of articulating gospel truth: that Charlie Kirk is not in heaven because he sacrificed himself for Jesus, but because Jesus sacrificed himself for Charlie Kirk.

I mean, think about the power of that message—that this is in the end all about Jesus. This is in the end all about what Jesus did on the cross, and that in and of itself is the reality that grounds what Erika was able to do in offering forgiveness.

It’s another example in a line now that continues to get longer, going back to the Amish mothers of the school girls, the Mother Emanuel church members, and now Erika Kirk offering forgiveness.

And that stands in such sharp contrast with a critical theory-driven culture like ours, where people are morally guilty and without hope.

I think that forgiveness is something right now—I mean, you think about the worldviews that are at work in our society, and I don’t know that there are any other worldviews that are grounding the reality of forgiveness in something substantial and something true.

And that Christians offering forgiveness is going to be one of the most significant and unanswerable aspects of Christian witness in the culture today. And I think what Erika did is a great example of that.

EICHER: John, a lot of people are asking whether what we’re seeing right now might be the beginning of a genuine revival in America. Not because of a television event, but because there seem to be real signs—young people coming to faith, churches filling up, a cultural hunger for something more. Not to mention, public officials so open about their faith in Christ. The vice president was impressive. The secretary of war. The secretary of state. Like virtually the entire leadership of the executive branch. That is a serious topic of conversation.

STONESTREET: It is, and it’s not just because of what we saw on Sunday—as remarkable as that was in terms of the size and the scope.

I mean, think about it. It wasn’t that long ago on this program we were talking about the rise of the nones, who had all this church baggage, and people were not willing to be religiously affiliated or anything like that.

And we were talking about these intellectuals who were telling everyone that God is a delusion and religion poisons everything and things like that. And then we’re starting to see signs of record numbers of young people getting baptized and young men in particular showing interest in spirituality and being willing to go back to church.

I think it should at least drive us to be hopeful that ultimately this is something that God does. This is something that God brings. And that’s something that’s really a part of American history.

You can go back, and there was an expectation within the American form of Protestant religion that had this expectation of frequent awakenings. It started—you know, we talk about the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening—and there were many ways in which those two things were quite different.

But there was an expectation: the Businessmen’s Revival that took place at the turn of the 20th century, the Jesus People Movement, where you just have these kinds of aspects of American culture in which there’s an awakening to things of the Lord.

What’s interesting is that Jonathan Edwards wrote about this, and he talked about signs of revival. And, you know, for him it was: Jesus is exalted—that’s a key thing. Sin is abhorred and repented of—that was another aspect of this.

And Edwards also talks about the unique sign of it being among young people. Edwards talks that it was primarily happening among churches with highly doctrinal preaching—in other words, not squishy churches but real, theologically sincere churches.

I mean, you add all that stuff up together, and it sounds awful familiar to today, doesn’t it? That the churches that are filling up are those that seem to be more serious about things like truth and doctrine and things like that.

The squishy mainline denominations are the ones that aren’t seeing the same sort of growth.

There’s an increased awareness of sin and the impact of sin, a fear that God has, you know, withdrawn from the land, and an exaltation of Jesus.

I mean, those are the things to look for. We could see signs of that, I think, over the last several years—praise God.

And ultimately we need to remember that if God brings that sort of awakening, it’s out of his kindness. And we want to join it.

And I think right now there’s a lot of Christian voices that are really quick to condemn it in various ways and for various reasons.

I don’t want to be that guy. I want to be that guy that jumps on the bandwagon of a revival and an awakening in whatever form that it is, trusting that the Lord’s bringing what the Lord’s bringing.

BROWN: Well John, at the risk of making you that guy, there’s talk of revival on the one hand, but then the new State of Theology survey from Ligonier Ministries shows a lot of confusion about core gospel truths. More than 600 self-identified evangelicals were questioned, and the results are striking to me: six in ten said everyone is born innocent before God, half said people are basically good, and almost half said God accepts the worship of all religions. So I wonder what’s driving this kind of theological instability. You know, by some accounts, it's the church prioritizing unity over sound doctrine. But I want to key in on something I’ve heard you say again and again: Is this what you mean when you say the church needs to be the church?

STONESTREET: Yeah, it is. And I would say it’s not even prioritizing unity over doctrine, as much as it’s prioritizing comfort and marketing over doctrine.

Listen, it was 20 years ago that Christian Smith looked at the religious and spiritual beliefs of young people—he’s looking at 13- to 18-year-olds at the time—and this is where he coined the phrase “moralistic therapeutic deism.”

In other words, these folks had an understanding that religion was about being good and about feeling good about yourself, and God really wasn’t imposing anything on us, but he was always there as a kind of phone-a-friend—that was back in the days of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

And that’s kind of the way we were seeing God—as kind of this Santa Clausian game-show-host sort of resource that’s available to bless us when we need to be blessed.

And that’s primarily the form of Christianity that many people received—one really low on catechism, really low on formation.

And what it ended up producing was a worldview that was not big enough for the actual challenges of the world—the challenges of radical Islam, the challenges of radical secularism, the challenges of woke anger, the challenges of even understanding oneself in a society in which our resources of establishing identity were becoming more greatly reduced.

So you might say that if he was onto something back then, what Ligonier is onto something is what moralistic therapeutic deists become when they grow up, which is kind of what we’re dealing with right now.

But I do think that there’s a sense—it’s one thing to have a worldview that’s too small. It’s another thing to realize you have a worldview that’s too small and want to do something about it.

And maybe that’s where I would stand, if you really ask the revival question. I’m hopeful, and I think that there are some signs of self-awareness that perhaps can bring the church to prioritize formation, catechesis, and not just believing the right things but articulating the call of God to be courageous, to tell the truth, to stand on the truth in a culture like ours.

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

STONESTREET: Thank you, both.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, September 26th.

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: It’s time to get tiny.

Many parents with small children are already familiar with the popular kids show on Netflix called Gabby’s Dollhouse. This weekend, Gabby and her gang of toy kittens are making their way to the big screen. Here’s arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino on Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie.

GABBY: [singing] A pinch on my left. A pinch pinch on my right. Grab Pandy’s hand and hold on tight!

COLLIN GARBARINO: Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie follows the adventures of a girl named Gabby who plays makebelieve with a colorful crew of toy cats living in a magic dollhouse.

Just like in the show, Gabby is played by Laila Lockhart Kraner. But in the movie, she’s on her way to spend a week with her Grandma Gigi, played by once-upon-a pop star Gloria Estefan. They pack up the dollhouse, along with all the kitty friends, and head to Cat Francisco.

But shortly after arriving at Grandma’s there’s a mishap, and Gabby’s dollhouse falls off its trailer and rolls away. An eccentric cat lady named Vera, played by comedian Kristen Wiig, gets her claws into the dollhouse and puts it in her collection of esoteric cat memorabilia.

VERA: What do we have here? Vera wonders aloud as a man in the street yells at her.

MAN IN THE STREET: Seriously, lady, what is wrong with you?!

I confess I walked into the theater with pretty low expectations. If you’ve seen the Netflix series, you know the show won’t entertain an adult. Each episode begins with a live-action scene of Gabby in her bedroom. Then she pinches the ears on her cat headband, and using her imagination she enters into an animated version of her dollhouse. For the most part, the adventures she has with her feline friends are a little pointless and mindnumbing.

But I’m happy to report that the movie isn’t half bad. It might not be the kind of thing parents will want to sit through multiple times, but it has a coherent plot, cute characters, and a few truly funny scenes.

GRANDMA GIGI: Carlita? What’s wrong?

PANDY: Gabby sent us.

DJ CATNIP: The Gabby cats were stolen and she’s gone to save them!

PANDY: We need your help.

GRANDMA GIGI: I’ll get my keys.

PANDY: No, Gigi. This is a dollhouse problem.

In this straightforward adventure, Gabby must rescue her friends and liberate her dollhouse. Along the way she helps rehabilitate the antagonist by reintroducing her to the world of imagination. There’s no deep philosophical subtext here, but the movie will tug on the heartstrings a little. It reminds parents how sad it can be when our kids outgrow beloved toys.

Kids who love the Netflix show will enjoy the fact that the film keeps many of the elements of the TV series. Like Gabby’s tendency to break the fourth wall.

GABBY: Alright everybody, it looks like Vera needs our help. So let’s help her.

VERA: I’m sorry. Who… who are you talking to?

The movie also contains both live-action and animated elements. But whereas the TV show keeps these elements mostly separated, the movie blends them seamlessly. Dreamworks has created an immersive environment in which tiny colorful animated characters look at home both in real world settings and the magical dollhouse.

MERCAT: She’s coming right for us!

Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie is rated G, which is a tough rating to get these days. We don’t see many G-rated options. However, there were a couple of moments I felt the film pushed the boundaries of that G-rating a little bit. But the filmmakers had plenty of incentive to rein in any crudity and keep the movie clean and positive. After all, the film’s target demographic is the five-and-under crowd.

This really is an ideal option for anyone who’s looking to take a preschooler to a movie theater. It’s the kind of movie that encourages the audience to sing along and cheer at the good parts. Kids in that preschool age range will love Gabby’s big bold adventure as she rescues her friends. And honestly, most parents won’t mind spending an hour and a half at the dollhouse either.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, September 26th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Time now for Listener Feedback for September.

First up, listener Shannon Sutton on our reporting on the Catholic School shooting in Minneapolis: 

SHANNON SUTTON: I wanted to comment today on the piece following the terribly tragic shooting at the school …and just say that it felt insensitive to follow that piece by just layering on another journalistic piece about the shootings that happened a couple years ago at the Christian school in Nashville. … it was just a bit of an emotional overload. … Again, overall, I appreciate so much what you all do. Rarely have anything at all, even the slightest bit negative to say. So keep up the good work and I hope these comments will be helpful.

EICHER: Well, they are. Just by way of explanation: The first story was intended to be more informational, covering the latest facts about the shooting. But we wanted to think beyond the immediate aftermath by bringing on a veteran reporter who’d been through the aftermath of the Nashville shooting to help listeners think about what’s likely to come next for these heartbroken families in Minneapolis.

It was not our intent to emotionally overload any listener—but for this one and any others who did feel overloaded, we’re certainly sorry about that.

Next, we return to Tuesday’s segment on Israel’s allies saying they were ready to recognize a Palestinian state. Listener Alan Skiles was hoping for the arguments to be more rigorously engaged with, and he makes an excellent point here that we need to do better.

ALAN SKILES: You've interviewed and given the perspective of two audiences. One is our brother, a Palestinian Christian, who's basically saying, "Don't forget about us. We're caught in the crossfire." And then You have the American foreign policy experts who represent a pro-Israel position in the matter. And what I see is them all articulating their positions as a starting point. And I feel like it might be helpful to those of us listening if we actually then heard them take it a step further and address the arguments being made by one another.

So for example, our Palestinian Christian friend, I would love to see his argument being interacted with by the American foreign policy expert who's pro-Israel. I would love that particular expert to be asked: “What about the Christians in Palestine?” I think his answer would also be something I'd like to see our Palestinian Christian friend engage with which is that we have serious doubts as to whether or not Palestinian Christians would be safe in an independent Palestine that has full recognition in the world scene and so it would be wonderful to see those two ideas interacted with. Right now we just have the two parties arguing past each other.

BROWN: Next, an appreciation. Many families this month have dropped off young students for college, and we’ve featured a couple commentaries on the topic the last few weeks.

BRIAN ETCHISON: I'm Brian Etchison from Brentwood, Tennessee. Thanks to Ted Kluck for bringing back so many wonderful college memories. Like worrying about how many minutes I was racking up on the phone bill calling my girlfriend long distance. Turning down the heat in our apartment to save money and sitting in sleeping bags while we studied on olive colored vinyl upholstered chairs. We never knew we had it so rough.

Beside Ted Kluck’s humorous look at college dorm rooms, we also featured a story this week from associate correspondent Rachel Coyle. She had a very different angle from the perspective of a mother dropping off her first. That got the attention of Edith Marrero, who found Rachel’s story “delightful and encouraging”, agreeing with the sentiment that “it’s God who keeps them safe.” Our listener said she hopes the piece encourages more mothers and grandmothers to pray that He will.

Dan Johnson from Chicago enjoyed Rachel’s piece, too. And he caught an Easter Egg in the production.

DAN JOHNSON: I just wanted to give a shout out to the audio team for the great work they did on Rachel Coyle's reflection on college 30 years later after she brought her own daughter to college. The Wayne Watson music: Class of ‘95 at the very end was really appreciated. I caught what you were doing there…Keep up the great work. I love the show. I love listening to it every day.

The last few weeks have included coverage of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. We’ve received a lot of feedback from listeners. We’d like to share two of those comments with you.

First from Celisse Ellis. She lives in Leavenworth, Washington.

CELISSE ELLIS: I've been listening to The World and Everything in It for a few years now, and I was recently encouraged as I realized how, when I hear about news being discussed around me, I no longer have the urge to go search for that story and hear the latest updates. Instead, my first reaction is, "Oh, I'll look forward to hearing about that tomorrow morning on The World and Everything in It."

Your excellent reporting on Charlie Kirk's assassination was a perfect example of that. Instead of getting sucked in to minute-by-minute updates, my confidence in knowing you'd report on it thoroughly and with a biblical perspective freed me up to focus on the things that the Lord has for me in my day and has kept me from the temptation of neglecting those things to search out news. I so appreciate how your ministry is helping me in my ministries. Thank you.

EICHER: One more voicemail today. This from a listener in Loveland, Colorado:

BRITTANY: I just wanted to reach out about your coverage on the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I felt like just having Mary talk about her personal experience was really powerful. And the young man…his firsthand take was just really powerful. And was just really impressed by his level of maturity. And also really appreciated his--yeah, just his encouragement at the end of just how, we live in a fallen world and ultimately, like, “vengeance is mine, I shall repay, says the Lord.”. It doesn't make it any easier, but just so thankful for you all and just how you report on things and how tactful you bring truly horrific and tragic stories to life and not glorify the evil that was done. … so tthank you.

BROWN: Thanks for that. We can tell how you were struggling with the loss, the call having come in the very next day, so the hurt was obviously very fresh. Thanks for calling in.

EICHER: You know Myrna, I really liked the interview you did with Matthew Ward last week; the worship musician, talking about how he was processing the news. His reflection on that verse in Psalm 34 was poignant, “the Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Good job on that!

Well, we thought we’d end the week with another song inspired by Charlie Kirk.

This one is from Brian Curl. He’s an independent record label owner and an American Society of Composers and Producers songwriter. As he reflected on the life of the Turning Point USA founder he also put his thoughts to music, and for him it was a patriotic anthem of faith. Paul Butler and I got on the phone with him the other day after he reached out to us. This is just a demo record at this point but he gave us the go-ahead to play it for you.

And I wanted to because as I watched the hundred-thousand people gathered at Kirk’s memorial service last weekend, I was struck with how this moment isn’t just a historical event we’ll never forget, but it may very well be a turning point for many.

BROWN: Right, I really resonated with what John Stonestreet had to say about that today.

EICHER: As did I. So as we end today, here’s a little bit of Brian Curl’s demo song titled: Prove me wrong.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s time to name the crew who put the week’s programs together:

David Bahnsen, Hunter Baker, Leo Briceno, Anna Johansen Brown, Janie B. Cheaney, Rachel Coyle, Emma Eicher, Collin Gabarino, Travis Kircher, Lindsay Mast, Bekah McCallum, Mary Muncy, Onize Oduah, Arsenio Orteza, Mary Reichard, Elizabeth Russell, Grace Snell, John Stonestreet, Cal Thomas and Caleb Welde.

Thanks also to our breaking news crew: Kent Covington, Christina Grube, Steve Kloosterman, and Daniel Devine.

And thanks to the Moonlight Maestros, staying up late so the program’s ready early: Carl Peetz and Benj Eicher …

Paul Butler is executive producer.

Harrison Watters is Washington producer, Kristen Flavin is features editor, and Les Sillars is editor-in-chief. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

If you enjoy this podcast, help a friend find it, too. Send a link to a favorite story or the whole podcast right from your app. It’s a simple click that helps the program grow.

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 records Peter telling the people, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” —Acts 3:19-21

A reminder to worship at a Bible-believing church this weekend. Encourage others, and be encouraged. And Lord willing, we’ll be right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

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