The World and Everything in It: September 3, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. This is Bill Peck, and I live in Bel Air, Maryland. I work at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, and my wife, three grown children and I have been following WORLD and the radio program for many years. I'm sure you'll enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Tension in the South China Sea as the U.S. tries to smooth it over with Beijing.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We will talk with an expert on the region. Also today, the graying of the prison population.

WRIGHT: The goal of rehabilitation is extremely easy to lose when our prisons are becoming nursing homes.

Later, the keeper of institutional knowledge. Every organization needs one, and the key is longevity.

ROTENBERRY: She was just always the person you would call. Way before Facebook, she was Facebook.

And the 40th anniversary of a prophetic book on the American public square.

RECHARD: It’s Tuesday, September 3rd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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

AUDIO: [Israel demonstrations]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Pressure on Netanyahu for cease-fire » Pressure continues to mount on the Israeli government to strike a deal with Hamas to ensure the safe return of the remaining Israeli hostages.

AUDIO: [Israel demonstrations]

Thousands of Israeli demonstrators poured into the streets on Monday calling for a cease-fire agreement after six hostages were found dead in a tunnel in Gaza over the weekend.

And many of the protesters blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

PROTESTER: And it's true that Hamas are the ones that pulled the trigger, but the fact that they're still there is on Netanyahu. 

And President Biden was also critical of Netanyahu when questioned by reporters.

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you think it's time for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do more on this issue? Do you think he's doing enough?

Hamas executed the six hostages inside of Gaza during a rescue effort by Israeli forces.

Netanyahu response » For his part, Netanyahu expressed his sympathies Monday to the families of the murdered hostages.

NETANYAHU (translated):  I apologize to you that we have not been able to bring them back alive. We were close, but we were not successful.

But to his critics in the street and in the media, he struck a much firmer tone.

NETANYAHU:  I don't believe that either President Biden or anyone serious about achieving peace and achieving the release would seriously ask Israel, Israel to make these concessions. We've already made them. Hamas has to make the concession.

And the U.S. State Department has seemingly agreed with the prime minister, declaring repeatedly that Israel has made serious concessions and that it was Hamas that was holding out.

He said caving to Hamas’ every wish only puts the Israeli people in further danger.

Mother of killed American-Israeli hostage/hostage funeral » Meantime, mourners gathered at a funeral in Jerusalem today for Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American hostage taken in the Hamas terror attacks on October 7th.

Hersh’s mother Rachael Goldberg-Polin said he was the “perfect son.”

POLIN:  Okay, sweet boy. Go now on your journey. I hope it's as good as the trips you dreamed about because finally, my sweet boy, finally, finally, finally, finally is free. I will love you and I will miss you every single day for the rest of my life.

His body was among six recovered from a tunnel in Gaza over the weekend.

It is believed that Hamas terrorists killed the six hostages during a rescue attempt by Israeli forces.

Polio vaccines » Health authorities in the Gaza Strip have begun a large-scale campaign of vaccinations against polio. The racing to prevent an outbreak in the war-ravaged territory.

SAITA: To stop the suffering from people of this preventable cause, we have to vaccinate 90 percent of the people less than 10 years old.

Authorities plan to vaccinate children in central Gaza through tomorrow before moving on to the more devastated north and south regions.

Israel has agreed to limited pauses in fighting to allow the vaccinations. Gaza recently reported its first polio case in 25 years — diagnosed in a 10-month-old boy.

U.S. hotel workers strike » More than 10,000 workers at 25 U.S. hotels and chains walked off the job over the Labor Day weekend.

They’re demanding higher pay, lighter workloads and the reversal of COVID-era cuts.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren joined striking workers in Boston.

WARREN: I walk the picket line with you today because one job should be enough. 

Thousands of others are striking in cities including Honolulu, San Francisco and Seattle.

The strikes targeting Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt hotels are set to last one to three days.

Trump assassination probe » On Capitol Hill, one of the members of the House task force investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump says many unanswered questions remain about the failure of the Secret Service to stop the shooting.

LEE: We have been getting briefings and answers and responsiveness from them, but there’s still a long way to go.

GOP Congresswoman Laurel Lee says House investigators have toured the site of the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania.

LAUTEL LEE:  And I will tell you, it is all the more inexplicable when you see it, because this is a small area. And we actually got up on the roof where the shooter was that day and got a perspective on just how close he was able to get to President Trump.

The FBI has not yet determined a motive for the shooting. Nor has it ruled out the existence of co-conspirators.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Defusing tensions in the South China Sea. Plus, a long career as church secretary.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 3rd 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.

Mary, so good to have you back, easing into hosting again!

REICHARD: Listen, it’s hard to articulate just how profound that statement is! I mean, I’m just glad to be here on the planet for a while longer.

EICHER: Well, we’ll take it slow. Speaking of which, that’s not necessarily happening on the South China Sea.

SOUND: [Boat being rammed and people talking]

That’s a Chinese Coast Guard vessel ramming a Philippines fishing boat last week. It was not an accident.

It happened in waters that both the Philippines and China claim. For some time now, there’s been a cool standoff that has at times heated up.

REICHARD: U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week. Among other issues while in Beijing, Sullivan addressed the South China Sea. You’ll hear him say PRC. He’s referring to the People’s Republic of China.

JAKE SULLIVAN: …nobody is looking for a crisis, not the Philippines, not the United States, and we hope not the PRC, but I did raise our concerns about some of the destabilizing actions that have taken place…

EICHER: How concerning is the dispute, and what does it mean for the U.S.?

Joining us now to talk about it is Joshua Eisenman. He’s a Senior Fellow for China Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington.

RECHARD: Joshua, good morning.

JOSHUA EISENMAN: Good morning. It's good to be with you.

REICHARD: So glad you're here. Well, we have followed conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe pretty closely on this program, but not so much what's happening in the South China Sea. Can you fill us in on what's going on there now?

EISENMAN: Well, what's going on there now is China is in tension with the Philippines over a place called the Sabina Shoal, which is very close to the Philippines and very far from China. And this is a product of China's claims in the region—used to be called the nine dash line, now the 10 dash line—which bring it into conflict with numerous countries in Southeast Asia which have competing claims. The UN ruled in 2016 that the Philippine claims were legitimate and that China's claims were not. That has not stopped China from trying to enforce its claims, you know, based on some historical precedence that it points to, and using a variety of different techniques that we've seen most recently, including denial resupply of ships in the region. And so, what we see is the kind of outgrowth of these tensions with no end in sight.

REICHARD: And what is the role of the United States in this situation? I mean, I recall that the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, met with President Biden earlier this year, and Biden said U.S. commitment to the Philippines defense is “ironclad.” So what does that mean in concrete terms, if China and the Philippines were to come to blows?

EISENMAN: Well, it means a lot, because the Philippines is the only U.S. treaty partner in Southeast Asia, and the U.S. has been, as you say, continuously reminding Manila that it's going to be there to support it. In fact, the relationship got even closer under the current president when they allowed the U.S. access to a variety of islands which are extremely close to Taiwan, in the case of a Taiwan contingency. But in terms of the South China Sea, the U.S. is committed to defending the Philippines in the case of violent actions towards it, and has even volunteered to escort Filipino ships through these disputed areas. The Philippines has been reluctant to take that because they don't want to escalate the situation. However, the U.S. has that as a standing offer, and it's likely at some point that we will see U.S. ships escorting Filipino ships through their own sovereign waters. So, the U.S. relationship with the Philippines has expanded quite significantly under the current president, and the trajectory seems like it will continue.

REICHARD: I want to go back to U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's trip to China. The Wall Street Journal reports that Xi Jingping used the meeting to “push for stability in ties between the two global powers,” ahead of the U.S. presidential election. What do we know about President Xi’s priorities?

EISENMAN: Well, President Xi's priorities are to continue to have the Communist Party of China rule China, and to do everything in his power to make that happen. And one of his key foreign policy priorities is to retake Taiwan. I guess he would call that a domestic policy priority, but for the rest of us, it's a foreign policy priority. He also wants to have, I think, a workable relationship with the United States. And there's a bit of concern about what the U.S. presidential elections will bring. China's in kind of wait-and-see mode. And while some have suggested that this would be a good time for China to move on Taiwan, I would actually think that it would be a pretty bad time, since any administration, especially one like the Biden administration, which doesn't have a future, certainly has no reason not to respond robustly. The idea that America would be distracted with an election, I just don't see that to be the case. So I think rather the opposite, that China would prefer to not see itself take front and center stage in the U.S. political arena.

REICHARD: Well, speaking of the U.S. election coming up, our candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, talk about foreign policy, they tend to talk about the Middle East and Ukraine. That's their biggest focus. What do we know about their policy views on China?

EISENMAN: Well, it's a great question, because surprisingly little, right? Donald Trump, when he came into office, turned the tables on U.S.-China policy in a way that I think was actually necessary. From Henry Kissinger to a lot of the folks on the left also were enamored with China for various reasons. And I think that Donald Trump brought a kind of realistic slap in the face to both sides, and in many ways, changed the China discussion in Washington forever, or at least for the time being: from one that was focused on engagement to one that was focused on avoiding conflict, but maintaining a pretty rivalrous relationship. And I think that's become bipartisan China Policy at this point.

So, I think that they're both similar in that regard. I don't imagine that either one would walk back tariffs or any of that. However, the Trump group has made some suggestions which suggest it might not be as friendly to Taiwan as it was in the first term, which is to say that Donald Trump has referenced Taiwan “stealing our chips,” talked about, you know, paying the fair share and kind of riding on U.S. coattails. So, whereas in the first Trump administration, you had an outreach to Taiwan, an expansion of government-to-government engagements, even military relations expanded, we don't know if that is what will happen under the next Trump administration if he were to win the presidency. Moreover, the GOP platform does not mention Taiwan at all.

By contrast, the Democratic platform actually does mention Taiwan, and it mentions the six assurances to Taiwan. At the same time, the Biden administration actually did quite a lot to build on those aspects I mentioned that the Trump administration created, and even made four statements independent that the U.S. would defend Taiwan in case of a military crisis.

So, there is really a question going forward about whether the Harris administration would maintain that policy. My hunch is they would. But I think there's more questions about whether a Trump administration would be able to maintain the alliance structure that the Biden administration has constructed to bolster U.S. interests, and whether or not it would actually come to Taiwan's aid.

REICHARD: Joshua Eisenman is a Senior Fellow for China Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council. Thanks for your time!

EISENMAN: Thank you. It was great to be here.

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

As of last year, the U.S. median age had hit its highest level ever, almost 40 years old. In the U.S. prison system you really see it. Soon, one in three inmates will be 50 or older. We’re talking 400,000 prisoners.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Are prisons equipped for the challenges of aging? Are taxpayers going to be able to pay the costs? And are there other options?

Here’s WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: In 2006, a New York prison made headlines for creating the nation’s first dementia unit. There, prisoners could wander through brightly lit rooms that looked more like nursing home rooms than prison cells.

Today, specialized units designed to accommodate aging prisoners are more widespread. Michigan’s Department of Corrections has two specialized units for prisoners who need some level of assistance on a daily basis.

MARTI KAY SHERRY: You know, if they have dementia or if they're having difficulty, you know, needing some prompts with their activities of daily living, then they might be candidates for these two units.

Marti Kay Sherry is the Health Services Administrator for Michigan’s department of corrections.

SHERRY: We classify, you know, our older prisoners as 50 years and older. And mostly that's just because the chronic health conditions that they come into are more complex than what a community member would have.

Prisons were designed for young, healthy individuals. But now 30% of American inmates serving life sentences are 55 or older. And working with older inmates requires a level of care and training that some facilities aren’t equipped to offer.

SHERRY: You know, We're seeing an increase in our prisoners needing wheelchairs, either permanent wheelchairs. We are converting and making more wheelchair accessible beds.

In some cases, elderly inmates will spend their final days behind bars. Staff train younger prisoners to serve older prisoners in the state’s hospice program.

SHERRY: They realize that at some point this could be them, or it could be a family member, and they wouldn't want them to be alone, so it’s typically our younger prisoners that are doing that.

The growing mismatch between America’s birth rate and retirement rate means that caring for the elderly continues to be a widespread challenge. But past policies also played a role in why so many of America’s elderly are behind bars.

WRIGHT: This is essentially due to two things that happened around the same time.

Rachel Wright is the national policy director for Right on Crime, a conservative criminal justice reform initiative. She points to a combination of factors: improvements in healthcare and politicians imposing lengthy sentencing guidelines for a variety of violent and drug-related crimes.

WRIGHT: So when these individuals were in their 20s and 30s, committing crimes and receiving a decades long mandatory minimum sentence, they're now in their 60s, 70s and 80s and still serving time.

States spend between $25,000 and $300,000 per prisoner every year. A 2013 study found that older prisoners cost prisons up to nine times more than younger, healthier inmates.

WRIGHT: The goal of rehabilitation is extremely easy to lose when our prisons are becoming nursing homes. Your elderly prison population is just growing really, really rapidly.

So is turning prisons into assisted living centers the only solution? Some criminal justice advocates say changing the rules for sentencing and release could help.

Heather Rice-Minus is the president and CEO of Prison Fellowship:

RICE-MINUS: Although we don't support the release of prisoners solely due to advanced age, we work diligently to reform sentencing practices to address unduly harsh penalties that, in effect, have more men and women spending time in their later years in prison.

Changing sentencing rules would help ease the strain on prisons down the road, but what about for those currently behind bars? One option is moving inmates to detention at home or other facilities. The Federal Bureau of Prisons ran a home detention pilot program for elderly inmates between 2019 and 2023. Non-violent offenders who were over 60 or suffering from a terminal disease could serve out the last third of their sentence confined to their homes.

Here’s Rachel Wright.

WRIGHT: So it was a good use of the taxpayer dollar, a good balance of that accountability and rehabilitation. It is currently lapsed, and Congress is not currently considering reauthorization for this program.

Another option is called compassionate release. Every U.S. state except Iowa allows for some form of compassionate release, often referred to as medical parole. But applying for it is not an easy process.

WRIGHT: And so some argue for expansion of eligibility, meaning that statutorily, it should talk about terminally ill patients or perhaps bringing down the age range.

Research shows that elderly inmates are less likely to reoffend. But proposals to expand compassionate release across the board pose critical questions about justice.

WRIGHT: It should not be a knee jerk, wholesale, if-you-are-this-age-you-get-out. That is not an effective policy that puts victims' voices at the table.

Some inmates should spend the rest of their lives in prison. But Heather Rice-Minus says prison officials and ministries like Prison Fellowship can still ensure they are treated with dignity and compassion as they age.

HEATHER RICE-MINUS: You know, where justice requires that a person remains in prison until their death we believe that corrections officials should be resourced and accountable to provide care that reflects the God given dignity of the elderly, even if they're in prison.

This story was written and reported by Addie Offereins. For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: A museum at Israel’s Haifa University keeps some historical artifacts behind glass, just not all of them.

Some they keep out in the open for a closer look.

Sometimes, though, too close.

AUDIO: Ohhhhhhh …

A four year old by the name of Ariel Geller put his hands on an ancient vase predating Kings David and Solomon, and you know what happened.

This is his mom talking to the BBC.

AUDIO: And the next thing I know it’s a very big ba-boom.

Well, not that big, but it didn’t need to be to break an artifact 35-hundred years old.

AUDIO: Of course it’s my fault. But it was just the destruction of a second!

That’s all it takes!

But no hard feelings, the museum says the vase can be restored and invited the family back for a tour.

… a guided tour this time.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 3rd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Another in our occasional series that we call “What Do People Do All Day?”

Many people use their days working all the angles to retire early. But today we meet a very capable church secretary who has done just the opposite.

WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson has the story.

SUE NELL MCMILLAN: And this was my first office right here . . .

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR WRITER: Sue Nell McMillan knows her way around First Baptist Church in Mendenhall, Mississippi.

MCMILLAN: And when I first started the pastor’s office was right here . . .

She was just 28 years old when she took the job as church secretary. Now, she’s 90. Do the math, and you realize McMillan has accomplished something extraordinary—62 years on the job. Sixty-two years at one job. In one place.

Just think about how technology changed in that time.

MCMILLAN: I remember the old Gestetner printing machine. I used to hand crank it. You had to pump the ink in, and I've had it all over me before.

These days, McMillan’s desk sits in an office plex named in her honor. Two other secretaries share the space. McMillan’s desk is noticeably computer-free.

SHERI WARREN: The computer's in there. She doesn't want it on her desk. She likes to greet and talk to people, and she does still have bookkeeping duties and financials.

That’s Sheri Warren, the church’s music secretary. She says McMillan’s greatest strength isn’t a skill you can get in secretarial school.

WARREN: The people. She has been here so long, she knows everybody that lives here. She's a great historian too, because if you need to know something, she's the one that you can go to.

McMillan has served under 8 pastors. She typed their letters, took their calls, sent them on hospital visits. Sometimes it was hard to reach them.

MCMILLAN: You remember the old bag phones? They had them for a while. I thought, “What in the world?” But they were very helpful. A lot of times I called them on that.

James Smith was the church’s pastor in the 60s and 70s. He remembers McMillan had a knack for learning how to use office equipment.

JAMES SMITH: …copying machines when we got one, and an addressing machine when we got it, folding machines when we got it…

And she knew how to protect a pastor’s study time.

SMITH: She only bothered me when she knew I was studying if she felt like it was an emergency or something I needed to attend to. She was very perceptive in that area.

A big part of McMillan’s job as church secretary is answering the phone.

CHRISTY ROTENBERRY: Whenever you hear of anybody passing away, you call 847-2488.

Church member Christy Rotenberry explains.

ROTENBERRY: “Sue Nell, can you give us some information?” You know, I mean, if people are sick, she was just always the person you would call. Way before Facebook, she was Facebook.

Sometimes the phone calls are hard. You could even say it’s a ministry to the person on the other end of the line.

MCMILLAN: I try to listen. Lots of times you can't solve the problems for them, but you can listen and then maybe refer them to someone who could.

It’s a job that requires confidentiality. Discernment and wisdom.

MCMILLAN: I can be very quiet, but it does bother me to see that you try to keep that information within the church office, and then sometimes you get to town, and here it is. You wonder how it travels like that.

KIDS: Hey, Miss Sue! 

MCMILLAN: Hey!

McMillan still works 5 days a week. The highlight each day is lunch. She walks down the hall and eats with children who are there for preschool.

MCMILLAN: What’d we have for lunch? (kids talk) You save me some?

McMillan never married, and she lives alone in the house where she was raised. She doesn’t need a walker, and she doesn’t need hearing aids. She’s pretty amazing.

AUDIO: [Music from church]

In July, the church honored her long service with a “Sue Nell McMillan Day.” A church member pinned a corsage on her lapel.

PASTOR: Sue says be careful. She doesn’t want to get a tetanus shot. (crowd laughs) But I want you to see the wonder of a person’s faithfulness through all these years. This beautiful arrangement of roses up here…

62 red roses for each year McMillan has served as church secretary. But among all the red roses, a single yellow rose stood out. It signified her ongoing service. No retirement in sight.

MCMILLAN: It's the people that I enjoy working with. I've always heard this, and I think it's right. Love God, love people, and work accordingly.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Mendenhall, Mississippi.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 3rd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. World Opinions Commentator Daniel Darling now on what Christians can do to reclaim the public square.

DANIEL DARLING: Prominent atheist Richard Dawkins shocked the world a few months ago by declaring that he is a “cultural Christian.” Some scoffed at his desire to enjoy the fruits of Christianity after decades of sawing at its branches. But others saw an apologetic benefit to Dawkins’ words and, perhaps, a sign that the atheist is making an ever-so-slight turn toward faith.

What is indisputable is that Dawkins’ candid admission is an affirmation of the prophetic words offered 40 years ago by Richard John Neuhaus in his classic work of political theology, The Naked Public Square. Neuhaus, a Lutheran convert to Catholicism, presciently recognized the peril of pushing Christianity to the margins of public life in favor of secularism. “In a democratic society, state and society must draw from the same moral well. In addition, because transcendence abhors a vacuum, the state that styles itself as secular will almost certainly succumb to secularism.”

If only Neuhaus could see how his words became reality. The steady march of the sexual revolution, the loneliness brought about by an atomized self-sufficiency, the abandonment of public virtue, and the decline of the family have left even atheists like Dawkins recognizing the social benefits of Christianity.

Neuhaus saw religion as essential for democracy. He writes: “The chief threat comes from a collapse of the idea of freedom and of the social arrangements necessary to sustaining liberal democracy. … Indispensable to this arrangement are the institutional actors, such as the institutions of religion, that make claims of ultimate or transcendent meaning.” 

Without these institutions, what fills the void is worse. Neuhaus feared that a naked public square would not be naked for long but would be adorned by less virtuous actors, particularly the state. He said, “The truly naked public square is at best a transitional phenomenon.” He goes on to say, “a perverse notion of the disestablishment of religion leads to the establishment of the state as church.”

Forty years after its first publication, The Naked Public Square is still a good word for Christians struggling to understand their place in the life of our nation. Neuhaus’ prescription is not, as some suggest, to abandon democracy for an established state church. Rather, it’s for Christians to do as Jeremiah did…encouraging the exiles of Babylon to actively seek the welfare of this great country. We do this by stewarding our citizenship responsibly by speaking, voting, and, perhaps, running for public office. But we also work and pray for moral and spiritual renewal brought about by evangelism, discipleship, and revival.

For the health of our nation, for the flourishing of our neighbors, for the glory of God, we must not retreat from America’s aspiration toward “a more perfect union.” And all Americans are served when Christians bring their faith commitments with them into the public square. This is what Richard John Neuhaus believed and, apparently, what even atheists like Richard Dawkins are beginning to grudgingly accept.

I’m Daniel Darling.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: What the battleground state of Arizona shows us about the 2024 election. That’s Washington Wednesday. And, a homeschooling family in Brazil defies a law classifying home education as illegal. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: 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.

Jesus said in the parable of the dishonest manager: “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” —Luke 16:10

Go now in grace and peace.

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