The World and Everything in It - September 3, 2021

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

The Supreme Court declines to get involved in the Texas abortion law—for now. We’ll talk about an important milestone in the pro-life battle.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Culture Friday.

Also faith on the basketball court. We’ll review two books and a documentary about players and coaches who follow Christ.

And on Ask the Editor, Paul Butler explains why the start of each program is a bit like a family reunion.

BROWN: It’s Friday, September 3rd. 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: News is next. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden blasts Texas pro-life law, Supreme Court decision » President Biden on Thursday blasted the Supreme Court's decision not to block a new Texas law that bars abortions after a heartbeat is detected.

In a statement, he said his administration will launch a—quote—“whole-of-government effort to respond to this decision” and look at “what steps the federal government can take to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions.”

And Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters …

PSAKI: This extreme Texas law blatantly violates the constitutional right established under Roe v Wade and upheld as precedent for nearly half a century. It will significantly impair womens’ access to the healthcare they need.

But supporters of the law say healthcare saves lives and abortion does not fit that description.

The court voted 5-4 to deny an emergency appeal from abortion rights groups, ruling that they did not provide sufficient justification for blocking the law.

Jim Graham of Texas Right to Life celebrated the law’s legal survival. He said “Today marks a new era in the Pro-Life world,” adding “Texas can protect preborn babies from abortion who have detectable heartbeats! No other state has accomplished this.”

At least 45 dead in northeast after heavy rain, flooding » The remnants of Hurricane Ida killed at least 45 people in northeastern states Wednesday and Thursday.

The storm has now carved a path of destruction from the Louisiana coast—all the way to the Big Apple.

CURRAN: We actually did get an unprecedented amount of rain. We had three inches in one hour.

Nassau County, New York’s County Executive Laura Curran heard there.

The rain submerged subway tracks in the city. And floodwaters ravaged homes throughout the region.

In Pennsylvania, EMS director Jason Bobst described high water rescues in suburban Philadelphia.

BOBST: Because the river waters were coming up so high, the first floor of livable spaces was getting taken over by water, so we were taking people out of the second floor and even attics of their homes.

At least 23 people died in New Jersey. Thirteen people perished in New York City, 11 of them in flooded basement apartments.

And at least five people in Pennsylvania, one of them killed by a falling tree.

Although Ida had lost most of its powerful wind force, the storm kept its strong rainy core. Then it merged with a wet and strengthening non-tropical storm front, triggering an extreme rain event in the northeast.

British government signals willingness to work with Taliban » A day after the top American military commander said U.S. forces might coordinate with the Taliban on strikes against ISIS, the British government has signaled a willingness to work with the Taliban.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab...

RAAB: We will not be recognizing the Taliban, but we do see the need to be able to have direct engagement. Otherwise we can’t provide messages. We can’t listen to the response.

Raab heard there in a press conference in Qatar. Officials there are playing a key role in facilitating communications between the Taliban and the West.

Qatari Forign Minister Sheikh Mohammed said Thursday that "There is no clear indication” when the Kabul airport will again be fully operational.

The Taliban has said it will allow any remaining American citizens to depart. Whether the extremist group will keep its word and whether Americans in Afghanistan will trust it to do so remains to be seen.

But the United States is now heavily dependent on the Taliban to evacuate the U.S. citizens left behind.

Jobless claims reach pandemic low as ‘enhanced unemployment’ ends » Jobless claims have fallen to another pandemic low as enhanced unemployment benefits end. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: The Labor Dept. says unemployment claims fell last week by 14,000 to 340,000. That’s the best mark since the pandemic took hold.

But employers say they’re still having a tough time filling open positions, though not as tough as in recent months when job openings set new records.

Many experts say so-called enhanced unemployment played a big role in the worker shortage. With the extra weekly federal checks, some unemployed workers found that they took in just as much or more from jobless aid than they would have if they were working.

Twenty-five states ended those extra benefits early, but they are now ending in the other half of the nation as well. The enhanced unemployment program will expire nationwide on Monday.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Police, medics indicted in Colorado man’s death » A Colorado grand jury this week criminally charged three police officers and two fire department responders in the death of a black man in 2019.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced the charges.

WEISER: Each of the five defendants face one count of manslaughter and one count of criminally negligent homicide.

Two of the officers also face assault charges.

Twenty-three-year-old Elijah McClain died after officers put him in a chokehold and paramedics injected him with a sedative.

According to the indictment, police responding to a 911 call about a suspicious person confronted McClain in August of 2019, in Aurora, Colo., as he walked home from a grocery store.

The encounter escalated, with officers stating McClain reached for one of their guns and three of them restrained him. The indictment said the paramedics who arrived miscalculated the appropriate dose of a powerful sedative and gave him too much. He soon lost consciousness and later died at the hospital.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: celebrating a pro-life win in Texas.

Plus, getting to know listeners.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, September 3rd, 2021.

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

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

It’s Culture Friday. I want to welcome John Stonestreet, the president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. 

Morning, John.

JOHN STONESTREET, GUEST: Good morning.

EICHER: Let’s talk about the Texas law that took effect on Wednesday that has the effect of banning most abortions in the state in a legally unique way.

Some pro-abortion commentators noted that Wednesday, September 1st marked the first day since January 23rd, 1973, that abortion was illegal somewhere in America. Big cultural signpost. What are your thoughts?

STONESTREET: Well, I think it's great news. I think it's great news that the court is allowing a state to make these decisions. I mean, we have seen state restrictions on abortion stand and we have seen them be struck down. What is different is I think there was kind of this gut level feel that it had to do with the overall number of abortions. And this is kind of the first example we have that maybe it's not about the sheer number of abortions that’re going to be made illegal, a lot of the restrictions that have stood were largely irrelevant. This one's very relevant in terms of the number of actual children that will be safe. 

So great news, and the other thing that it underscores is just something that we've said before here, and that is, even if Roe v Wade is somehow overturned holistically by this court, the fight is going to go back to the states. So the ending Roe v Wade is a goal of the movement. It's not the goal of the movement. It is a great sign if Roe v Wade is made to be a matter in the dustbin of history. But it doesn't end our calling to defend innocent human life, especially when you talk about how abortion has changed since 1973 to more chemical abortion and all the other ways that human life is under threat. 

So good news, it points to potentially good things ahead. And that we'll see where it goes from here.

EICHER: Let me get you to comment a bit on the public relations piece of it. I mentioned this is a unique law where the state is not doing the enforcement. It’s relying on private parties to sue, to go after the abortionist or the abortion business and that’s the enforcement mechanism—not a prosecutor.

So the abortion industry and abortion advocacy groups are calling this vigilante or bounty-hunter kind of stuff. What do you think about the messaging here?

STONESTREET: Well, the one thing you can never count on from the pro abortion side is to say anything remotely accurate to what is actually happening. You know, they flat out lie about the place of abortion in Planned Parenthood's budget, or at least in terms of their business plan. They flat out lie about whether or not there's body parts actually being sold and marketed. I mean, there's nothing you can count on in terms of media coverage of this, to tell you the truth. 

This is a similar approach to how prostitution has been best dealt with. In other words, let's go after this quote unquote, “the owner of the business” and seeing this as a business that promotes something so evil, like abortion, then go after the providers. I think that makes actually a lot of sense. And many pro-lifers don't want to see women be penalized, don't want to see women who are in difficult life situations be thrown in prison for making a decision that they feel like they have to make. 

I think it's going to be more complicated the more this goes and rightly so. But this is a great first step and a great first way to do it.

EICHER: John, the bathroom wars just got a tad more interesting. Hobby Lobby was found to have violated the Illinois Human Rights Act for barring a transgender employee from using a restroom of the employee’s choosing. Mary Jackson reporting for WORLD wrote “A nearly decadelong legal dispute between Hobby Lobby and a transgender employee over women’s restroom access came to a close … with an Illinois appeals court ordering the … company to pay $220,000 in fees for causing ‘emotional distress’.”

Going on: “The ruling … could become a new norm for businesses in more than 20 states with nondiscrimination statutes for employment and public accommodations … .”

What struck me about this John is that this particular Hobby Lobby had installed a unisex bathroom and that was not an acceptable compromise. I’m not seeing any room here for that, for compromise.

STONESTREET: There's not any room here for any sort of compromise, and that includes schools. We had that case a decade ago here in Colorado Springs, where a local public school had made that sort of adjustment, allowing an elementary student to use a restroom that was reserved for teachers and was single use. And that wasn't enough for the parents who said that it's still isolated or ostracized, their child.

It's never been about the bathroom, just like it's never been about the cake. It's been about social approval and the full recognition that there's nothing different. And I know this is something that many teachers are facing. I've had conversations even heading into this year of teachers in Virginia, who are facing a, you know, a school district’s trying to align themselves with this law that Virginia passed on this issue. And basically, what the law says is, you have to do anything that the student demands. In other words, you can try this. But if the student isn't comfortable, then you just have to keep changing. And that's basically what they should have said is that you have to do whatever the student demands. 

Which brings up the question in my mind, if a student can demand access to a bathroom reserved for people of the opposite biological sex based on sexual identity, why can't they actually make that same demand based on sexual desire or sexual attraction? In other words, if identity is a deeper category than attraction, you would think they'd have to allow that as well. And I think that some of us remember our days of junior high enough to know that that's going to be a real thing, in one way or another. 

But this has never been about privacy or safety in the bathroom. What it's been about is, is a recognition that the language one uses to call themselves can rearrange reality in order to change what is true. And you know, that's, that's the situation here, I think.

BROWN: John you tweeted about the term deconstruction and questioned Christian leaders advancing the idea of deconstruction being a good part of faith. Growing up in the South, at least twice a year we had Spring revival and Youth revival—week-long times of nightly gatherings to recommit, a time for corporate repentance and restoration. John in your tweet you ask: why not just call it reform? So is this semantics or is deconstruction a totally different thing to be avoided at all cost?

STONESTREET: Yeah, it was an interesting conversation. It sparked quite a debate on my Facebook page and and I just want to be clear, I was not actually asking you know, whether deconstruction itself as a word should be abandoned. Because deconstruction does describe something very real every time that I have seen deconstruction used, particularly by those who are doing the deconstructing, it has ended in a walking away from the faith, it's ended in either a heterodoxy or maybe all out embrace of apostasy. My question was different. My question had to do with seeing more and more Christian leaders who would I you know, claim to be Christian, and who are seeing this trend of questioning among students in particular, but also just millennials, especially, but also others in the Christian fold, kind of going through this kind of self reflection doubt process, and encouraging the process of deconstruction in a prescriptive sense. And I just think it's really unwise because deconstruction itself has to do with going after foundations not going after peripheral issues. Deconstruction is about tearing down. There's nothing in deconstruction about building up. And so I guess I was just confused why so many Christian thought leaders are actually prescribing deconstruction as some sort of good thing. It seems unwise it doesn't seem like a word or a concept that is actually consistent with any Christian worldview. And let me just be clear, a Christian worldview is very open to doubt. It's very open to questioning. It's very open to to having hard questions for God. Read the book of Job, really the book of Psalms, Israel's hymnbook, is full of times when David and the sons of  Korah and Moses and other authors of the Psalms are going, “God why, God what? I don't understand this, you say this in your word and this doesn't…” So the idea of doubting, the idea of questioning, the idea of making sure that what you inherited from your family, what you grew up with actually is in line with what's true, completely valid. I just don't know why we would a call it deconstruction or encourage what we know to be deconstruction as a valid method to pursue in order to get past these doubts.

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

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Sometimes cards and flowers just aren’t enough.

An Australian sheep farmer in New South Wales recently found an amazing way to honor a beloved relative.

Ben Jackson’s Aunt Debby lived 250 miles away in Brisbane, and amid strict COVID-19 lockdowns, he was not allowed to visit her, even as she was rapidly losing her battle with cancer.

She passed away last month, but Jackson couldn’t even travel to her funeral. So he found a creative way to pay tribute.

Jackson loaded the bed of his truck with feed and carefully dumped it in a very specific pattern.

He then sent his drone-mounted camera into the sky and the video footage captured what happened next.

Hundreds of sheep trotting into the field and stopping to eat where Jackson dropped the feed in the shape of a gigantic heart.

His video played at his aunt's funeral—a living work of art.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, September 3rd. 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: faith on the floor.

In May, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame honored its latest round of inductees. The list included WNBA player and announcer Tamika Catchings, who happens to be an outspoken Christian. That got reviewer Emily Whitten thinking about basketball stories that point us to Christ.

EMILY WHITTEN, REVIEWER: Great basketball stories aren’t hard to find these days. From ESPN’s 30 for 30 series to last year’s biopic of Michael Jordan, The Last Dance…

CLIP: Whenever they speak Michael Jordan, they should speak Scottie Pippen.

Audiences can’t seem to get enough of slow-mo slam-dunks, heartfelt interviews, and locker-room antics. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find Christian role models in the sport. Hard, but not impossible. And today, I’m thankful to recommend three.

First, Coach John Mosley. He’s featured in Last Chance U: Basketball, an eight episode documentary that debuted last March on Netflix. Mosley serves as head basketball coach at East Los Angeles College.

CLIP: Don’t put on a show. Win the game. Don’t put on a show. Freaking win the game. Welcome to East Los Angeles College, Huskies basketball

Mosley coaches at the junior college level, and that means many of his players hoped to get a Division 1 scholarship. But for whatever reason, they didn’t make the leap. Take Joe Hampton, whose knee injury led to too much downtime and eventually prison for a drug-related offense.

CLIP: I was supposed to be in a position to help my family a long time ago, and you know, I’m here. So, yeah, I wish I did a lot of things differently.

Coach Mosley says the young men in his program are often surrounded by drugs, poverty, and violence. And he understands their situation, because that’s his background, too.

CLIP: I grew up in the hood. I grew up in South Central.The majority of the kids I deal with, they don’t have but one door. And if they make a mistake, that door is closed.

Last Chance U: Basketball isn’t a Christian production. And the players’ constant use of foul language earns it a TV-MA rating. That said, Coach Mosley makes the series worth watching for mature Christian adults and teens. The film shows him teaching Sunday School and praying for his players.

CLIP: Thank you for Joe, Lord. Help him to be a better person, a better man.. Lord, we pray you get the glory in all of this. And in the end, you glorified. In your son Jesus’ name. Amen.

We also see Mosley’s Christian faith at work on the court, especially as he challenges his players to become all that God wants them to be.

CLIP: You want me to chill and be happy and not hold people accountable? Is that what you want? Because All I’m trying to do, all I want is for you to get what you came to get.

Mosley isn’t perfect, and not everyone will appreciate his methods. He often loses his cool and can sometimes manipulate his players. But with the help of assistant coaches and advisors, something extraordinary happens. Players begin to achieve far more than they ever thought possible, on and off the court.

In terms of plot, the series builds toward end-of-season playoffs. The Huskies find their skills and teamwork tested as action on the court takes center stage.

CLIP: Harding, another steal by Hampton. Go L. Corner, corner. Highler straight to the basket. Finishes. [CHEERING]

Viewers can expect a surprising twist at the end, but Mosley never takes his eyes off the real goal.

CLIP: These African American young men, this is the only way out. There’s no doors open. Let’s bust open the door and let’s surprise everybody. Let’s let em know, you closed the door and I had something left. That’s why I’m here.

You don’t have to be a basketball lover to appreciate the way Coach Mosley practically and sacrificially loves his players—and the surprising ways they respond to that fatherly love.

My second recommendation is a basketball story with cleaner language: Tamika Catchings’ autobiography. Catchings published it back in 2016 with the help of Ken Peterson. It’s titled Catch a Star: Shining Through Adversity to Become a Champion.

You might think Catchings just stuck her name on the book cover. After all, she was a real baller—a 10-time All Star, five time Defensive Player, winner of four Olympic gold medals. And she remains the WNBA all time leader in steals. Teammate Dawn Staley described her this way in a Hall of Fame Retrospective:

CLIP: Catch was a giver. She was the best teammate anyone could ask for. Her presence on the floor is unmatched.

But Tamika Catchings also epitomizes the best kind of student athlete. She loved to read and expressed herself in journals growing up. The book contains quite a few of her original poems. Those simple lines belie a deep thoughtfulness and sensitivity. And that makes her an exceptional role model for young girls.

For instance, teens will likely relate to her feelings of isolation and failure early on. Fellow classmates called Catchings slow because of her partial hearing loss and a speech impediment. But Catchings found her footing on the basketball court and later learned to see God’s hand in that success through the help of her pastor, Tony Evans. Here’s how Catchings described herself in a Hall of Fame induction speech.

CLIP: An awkward, introverted tom boy, born with a hearing disability, a speech impediment and dream big and change the world. Basketball chose me, but God had even bigger dreams for me.

Finally, young boys (and their parents and grandparents) may want to check out an excellent 2020 biography of Steph Curry. Here’s a Youtube clip of a game winning shot this May.

CLIP: Steph one more time for the advantage. It’s good!

In this first of his Epic Athletes biographies, journalist Dan Wetzel teams up with illustrator Zeke Peña for a clear, well-written look at Curry’s rise to basketball fame. Wetzel focuses on Curry’s basketball journey, but he doesn’t edit out Curry’s Christian faith.

Peña even ends the book with a drawing of Curry pointing upwards in thankfulness to God. It’s a visual reminder of Curry’s faith, which he often speaks about publicly. Here’s his 2015 Most Valuable Player acceptance speech.

CLIP: This is a tremendous honor. First and foremost, I have to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for blessing me with the talent to play this game. I can’t say how important my faith is for how I play the game and who I am. I’m just blessed and I’m thankful for where I am.

As a mom with young basketball fans, I’m thankful for these three Christian voices. They point me and my kids back to what really matters—both now and when the final buzzer sounds.

I’m Emily Whitten.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, September 3rd. 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. Coming up next: Ask the Editor. Our Editor in Chief Marvin Olasky is currently on a writing assignment so Paul Butler—our Executive Producer—is standing in and answering a question about the way we start every program.

PAUL BUTLER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: The last family reunion I attended before COVID included a table with name tags. The first thing everyone did as they arrived was fill out a large sticker with a Sharpie marker. Some names were in all caps—like mine. A few sported cursive inspired letters with tails. Those with longer names ran out of room as their letters got closer and closer to the edge. A few people underlined their name, or added little sketches and flourishes. Each name tag became a snapshot of the wearer.

Every episode of The World and Everything in It starts with what we call a “pre-roll” as one of our listeners introduces the program. It’s kind of like a name tag. About a year ago, a fellow podcaster told me he thought it was an “odd way to start the program.” He said it was “unpolished and unprofessional.” And he asked me, “so why do you do it?”

Well, in the biz we call it “listener engagement.” Since we’re not a live radio program, it’s challenging to find ways to interact with you. So our pre-rolls are one way you can positively participate with the podcast—it makes it a two-way communication. Frankly, it’s one of my favorite parts of the program as every morning I get to meet one or more of our listeners while I’m out walking the dog...

Today’s pre-roll was from a Texas 8th grader who listens every morning before school. In case you missed it, others this week included a retired military officer, a 6th grade homeschooler, a private music instructor, and a retired school teacher.

As I think back on the many prerolls over the years, I’m amazed at the diversity of our audience. Doctors, missionaries, salesmen, stay-at-home moms, farmers, students, bus drivers, college professors, pastors, computer technicians, government officials…and that’s just the start.

That doesn’t even begin to touch on the demographic diversity. Men and women. Children and senior citizens. Married, unmarried. Some who can donate thousands of dollars, while others sacrificially give just a few. There are listeners who didn't finish high school, while others hold multiple PhDs. Some families send their kids to public school. And others go to Christian school or educate at home. Some have 9 or more kids. While others long for one. We’ve had pre-rolls representing most U.S. states, plus many countries around the world.

I’ll admit, I find myself trying to picture what pre-rollers look like as I listen. I wish I could get to know them more. What’s their favorite book of the Bible? How has God been faithful to them? What church do they attend?

I get excited as I begin to think about all the denominations represented. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Pentecostals, Congregationalists, and folks from scores of other independent and non-denominational churches. I’m humbled by how we come together to listen to this program.

So back to our pre-rolls. We’ve recently discovered another reason to do them—and it’s more than just listener engagement. Last week, we featured a military mom whose son was serving in Afghanistan. Little did we know when we scheduled it, that it would end up being the same day of the suicide attack that killed 13 soldiers outside the Kabul airport. Many listeners emailed us saying that they were praying for her, and her son, and hoped for an update.

That’s amazing to me. Listeners literally around the world suddenly praying for someone they’d never met, hoping that everything was ok and working out for God’s glory. When we checked in with her later, she told us her son was unharmed, and that she marveled at God’s timing. She said she thought her son may have been the most prayed for soldier that day, and she couldn’t wait to tell him of God’s providence through such an unassuming part of our program. You see, God even uses a 15-second podcast preroll for His purpose.

As a Christian who listens to this program, you’re not just an audience member...you’re family. We’re brothers and sisters in Christ. So keep those audio name tags coming. Let us know who you are. Where you’re from. How we’re related. There are instructions on the website if you want to do so. And I invite you to join me in marveling every morning at the amazing diversity of the body of Christ—oh, and let’s keep watching for His purposes in, and through, each one of us while we do so.

I’m Paul Butler.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It is time to thank our team.

Caleb Bailey, Joel Belz, Anna Johansen Brown, Kent Covington, Kristen Flavin, Katie Gaultney, Kim Henderson, Onize Ohikere, Mary Reichard, Sarah Schweinsberg, Grace Snell, Cal Thomas, and Whitney Williams.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz are our audio engineers who stay up late to get the program to you early! Leigh Jones is managing editor. Paul Butler is executive producer. And Marvin Olasky is editor in chief. 

And you! Thank you, because your giving makes possible independent Christian journalism.

You have multiplied, O Lord my God your wondrous deeds and thoughts toward us. None can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

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

Go now in grace and peace.

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