The World and Everything in It: September 5, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. I'm Paul Gebel, and I am sweating it out doing my morning exercises in my garage in hot steamy Edmond, Oklahoma. Well, whatever you're doing this morning, I know that you will enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Most big employers require diversity training for employees. And it’s sparked a legal fight in Florida.

OHLENDORF: What they can't do is they can't require employees to attend. That's the that's the—

GRANT: How do you train an employee if they don't have to go?

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today: octogenarian and nonagenarian politicians. Too old? Who says so? We have a report from Washington.

And, WORLD’s Classic Book of the Month: kicking off football season with practical wisdom from a coach.

And WORLD commentator Brad Littlejohn says a new history book offers a compelling look at America’s origins.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, September 5th. 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: Time for news. Here’s Kent Covington.

SOUND: [Rally with labor union supporters]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden unions » President Biden rallied labor union supporters in Philadelphia Monday in a holiday address that took on the tone of a campaign event.

BIDEN: Hello Philadelphia! Hello, hello, hello!

Instead of standing at the podium, the president roamed the stage with a microphone in hand behind signs that read “UNION STRONG.”

BIDEN: Folks, on this Labor Day, let tell you what we’re celebrating. We’re celebrating Jobs, good-paying jobs, jobs you can raise a family on - union jobs!

UAW » The president was also asked whether he thinks autoworkers building Ford, GM, and other vehicles will soon trade the assembly line for a picket line.

One of the nation’s biggest autoworker unions, the UAW, says its nearly 150,000 members may walk off the job next week.

President Biden said he did not believe that would happen.

But UAW's President Shawn Fain said Biden must know something we don't know.

FAIN: If we don’t get our share of social and economic justice, I can guarantee you one thing, come September 14th, we’re going to take action to get it by any means necessary.

The union wants a 46% pay raise, shorter work hours, and a return to traditional pensions.

Major automakers say the union’s demands are unrealistic.

GOP Labor Day » President Biden wasn’t the only one rallying supporters on Monday.

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy was one of multiple GOP White House hopefuls stumping in New Hampshire Monday.

RAMASWAMY: I stand on the side of revolution. I stand on the side of the American revolution. I stand on the side of a revival.

Former Vice President Mike Pence and former Arkasas Gov. Asa Hutchinson also campaigned in the Granite State.

Hutchinson is still working to qualify for the next presidential debate, three weeks from tomorrow at the Reagan Library in California.

Raimondo » Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo revealed that while she was in China last week for trade talks, she called out the Chinese government after her email was hacked before her trip.

RAIMONDO: They did hack me, which was unappreciated, to say the least. I brought it up, clearly, put it right on the table.

China’s habit of stealing data and intellectual property from Western companies and governments was one of the big concerns she was there to discuss.

She said she pulled no punches in raising other concerns on behalf of U.S. businesses and national security.

Grain deal » Vladimir Putin says he will not revive a landmark deal allowing Ukraine to ship grain safely out of its own Black Sea ports until the West meets his demands. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sat down with Putin in southern Russia on Monday, hoping to talk him into restoring the grain deal.

But Putin dashed those hopes — at least in the minds of many in the West, even though Erdogan struck an optimistic tone.

Putin backed out of the deal in July, claiming the West hasn’t honored a separate agreement to lift obstacles to Russia’s exports of food and fertilizer.

Erdogan said he believes all sides will resolve their differences and revive the deal soon.

But German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Putin is playing a “cynical” game with global food supplies.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Gabon leader » In the Central African nation of Gabon, the leader of a military junta that seized control of the government last week is now serving as interim president.

SOUND: [Clapping]

Sounds from a ceremony naming General Brice Nguema as interim president.

Soldiers ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba just hours after he won reelection in a disputed presidential vote.

The junta claimed the vote was rigged, voided the election results and placed Bongo under house arrest.

The takeover in Gabon came just one month after a military coup in Niger.

I'm Kent Covington.

A legal battle over diversity training required by major employers in Florida. Plus, something that’s ahead but not immediately straight ahead.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday, the 5th day of September, 2023.

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. Hope you had a good Labor Day weekend, and now it’s back to the office. And for some, back to the office may mean workplace diversity training.

If you work for a big company or organization in the public sector, there’s a good chance you’ve been required to attend some kind of DEI workshop. That is to say, training on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Right now in Florida: a legal battle over whether companies can force employees to attend diversity workshops or whether it’s within government’s authority to protect employees from them.

REICHARD: Here to fill us in is WORLD legal reporter, Steve West. Good morning!

STEVE WEST: Good morning! 

REICHARD: Could you give us some context for the law in Florida that’s at the center of this fight, and what’s behind the challenge brought against it?

WEST: Well, earlier this year, in March, Florida legislators passed the Individual Freedom Act, which is also called the “Stop Woke Act,” or “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis backed the act. His concern—and the concern of many—is that racially divisive training for employees has proliferated, whether it’s called anti-racist training, critical race theory, or just diversity, equity, and inclusion. So the concepts banned by the Florida law include teaching that one race is morally superior to another, that a person is inherently racist or sexist simply by virtue of their race or sex, or that virtues such as merit, excellence, hard work, fairness, neutrality, objectivity, and racial colorblindness are racist or sexist. Those are all ideas that would be a surprise to most Americans. Two companies and a diversity consultant challenged the law on free speech grounds. A federal judge blocked the law. And then the state appealed.

REICHARD: I see that back on August 24th, a panel of circuit judges seemed skeptical of the state’s defense. They had a lot of questions for the attorney for Florida. What did they find troublesome about that side?

WEST: The case raises free speech concerns—that is, the free speech rights of private companies to communicate concepts and principles to their employees that the company believes in. Florida’s attorney argued that this wasn’t about speech at all, it’s about conduct, about whether an employee could be forced to attend objectionable training. And then Circuit Judge Britt Grant, a Trump appointee, questioned that distinction.

JUDGE GRANT: If you can't tell whether the law applies to this purported conduct, unless you know what the speech is, how is that not restricting speech?

Judge Grant asked if the reasoning of Florida’s Individual Freedom Act would also require social media companies to delete followers from accounts on the basis of, say, pro-communist viewpoints, and if such an action would count as speech or conduct. Here’s state attorney John Ohlendorf’s reply, and the exchange that follows:

OHLENDORF: Any company remains free to host speech, hosted workplace trainings, espousing any concepts, at least setting aside any independent Title Seven problems—

GRANT: You just can't actually train, you just can't actually let them train people at their workplace trainings.

OHLENDORF: What they can't do is they can't require employees to attend. That's the that's the—

GRANT: How do you train an employee if they don't have to go? I've had a lot of required seminars that I would have really liked to skip in my life. Of course, regardless of the content, you just have other things to do, right?

OHLENDORF: Of course, Judge Grant, I've been fortunate that we don't have very many of those. But I understand, Your Honor. But the fact remains that the company in that position is able to host the speech, the equivalent in the social media context, Judge Grant, would be some sort of requirement that people look at the speech that's been hosted, right?

REICHARD: Steve, how would you respond to the judge’s argument about speech and conduct?

WEST: Two points. First, I think this is a bar on conduct, not speech, even though we need to understand what content the employees are being trained on to determine if the employee can be forced to attend. It addresses whether an employee can be forced to listen to a very ideologically-charged message. But second, even if it is deemed to be speech, the state has a compelling interest in protecting employees from racially divisive workplace training and has used the least restrictive means of doing that—allowing employees to opt out.

REICHARD: Do you think it’s government overreach to prevent companies from making certain training mandatory?

WEST: No, I don’t think so. Much like Title VII operates to allow accommodation of employee’s religious views in individual cases, this law operates on a broader level to protect individual rights of conscience. Businesses remain free to train in controversial topics; they just can’t force employees to attend.

REICHARD: Did the judges ask the businesses bringing the lawsuit any tough questions?

WEST: Yes, Judge Grant again led the questioning of the business owners’ attorney, and she was less enamored with the argument that the law was too vague to understand—making it unconstitutional.

GRANT: I don’t have a hard time, I don’t think, understanding really what these eight topics are. How vague are these really to a person of common understanding who has been in Florida or the United States for the last five years?

WEST: On that point the business owners’ attorney could only talk about how difficult it would be for the employer to determine whether their training would run afoul of the law–which misses the point, as the employer can say whatever they like as the employee is the one deciding whether to opt out.

REICHARD: Which side would you say has the stronger constitutional case as far as view-point discrimination goes?

WEST: It’s unclear. Hard questioning by judges—particularly by one of three judges—doesn’t necessarily predict how a case will turn out, particularly if they think the answers to their questions helped. Sometimes they’re just playing the devil’s advocate, so to speak, testing the waters. But judging by this hearing, anyway, I give slight odds to the business owners, as the state’s attorney got the harder questions.

REICHARD: Final question, Steve. This may end up at the Supreme Court. What lines of reasoning would you expect to see there about individual freedom and workplace diversity training?

WEST: This Supreme Court has been one very supportive of First Amendment rights, and as it has shown in the Groff v. DeJoy ruling in this past term, it is supportive of broad accommodations for religious employees under Title VII. In the past few years, employees have objected to ideologically charged training for a variety of reasons—some religious, some not. Often they don’t speak up for fear of losing their jobs. Yet I cannot imagine a court majority which has upheld and supported a law allowing accommodation in individual cases would not leave in place a state law which makes that same accommodation for all employees. You can have your free speech; you just can’t make everyone listen. That seems like a win for all.

REICHARD: Steve West is a legal reporter for WORLD…Steve, thanks for bringing us this story!

WEST: My pleasure!

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next on The World and Everything in It: Aging politicians.

Last week, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate minority leader, went silent during a press conference in his home state of Kentucky. He was presented with a question about his plans following the end of his current term.

REPORTER: What are your thoughts on running for re-election in 2026?

MCCONNELL: What are my thoughts about what?

REPORTER: Running for re-election in 2026.

MCCONNELL: That's uh...

AIDE: Did you hear the question, senator running for re-election in 2026?

MCCONNELL: Yes.

[Several moments of silence]

AIDE: Alright, I'm sorry, you all, we're gonna need a minute.

REICHARD: The episode is one of several that have dogged McConnell and others in Washington in recent months.

Meanwhile, out on the campaign trail, the two top candidates for president in 2024 are over the age of 75. Joe Biden ran in 2020 calling himself a bridge to the next generation of Democratic leaders. This time around, he’s said nothing of the sort.

EICHER: So how much does age and all that comes with it play into the actual physical and mental readiness of the nation’s leadership?

WORLD Washington reporter, Leo Briceno, has our story.

LEO BRICENO, REPORTER: During a press conference back in July, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell was discussing the progress of the National Defense Authorization Act.

MCCONNELL: This week, there’s been good bipartisan cooperation, and a string of uh…

And then suddenly he froze.

AIDE: You ok Mitch?

During the 20 seconds of silence, everyone in the room could tell something wasn’t right.

JOHN BARRASSO: Anything else you want to say to the press?

Concerns about McConnell’s ability to lead have followed the minority leader since he suffered a concussion earlier this year and spent several nights in the hospital. Despite assertions that he was “fine,” the freezing incident has raised new questions. Particularly now, following the senator’s second freeze at a press event in Kentucky.

And McConnell isn’t the only legislator who has needed help from aides during a public event.

Back in July, during a Senate appropriations committee meeting, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California mistakenly began giving a speech instead of casting her vote.

DIANNE FEINSTEIN: It funds priorities submitted—huh?

PATTY MURRAY: Just say aye.

FEINSTEIN: Ok. Aye!

MURRAY: Thank you. Senator Durbin?

Feinstein had spent 10 weeks in the hospital earlier in 2023 due to a severe case of shingles. She turned 90 in June and has ceded power of attorney to her daughter.

And by now, President Joe Biden is famous for his verbal gaffes, such as last Spring at Supreme Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation ceremony.

BIDEN: America is a nation that can be defined in a single word: (incomprehensible) I was in the foothills of the Himalayas with Xi Jingping…

And after attending a memorial to victims of the wildfires on Maui, the President ignited a social media firestorm when he was caught on camera apparently nodding off.

Episodes like this underscore concerns captured in a recent APNORC poll that found over three quarters of respondents think the president is too old to effectively serve a second term. That includes almost 70 of Democrats.

So is age a political problem for lawmakers?

Well, not necessarily—at least, in terms of age itself. Sherri Snelling is a gerontologist and the CEO of the Caregiving Club.

SNELLING: A Gerontologist is someone who studies biology, psychology, and sociology and the intersection of those three areas that determine how healthy we will be, how happy we will be, and how long we will live.

Snelling believes the conversation around age in politics has become too one-dimensional. Different people, she says, experience the effects of age differently. For example, Donald Trump will turn 78 in 2024—the same age that Joe Biden was when he was elected president in 2020. But in the AP-NORC poll, only 51 percent said Donald Trump is too old to serve. So age alone isn’t enough to draw a line across the board.

SNELLING: And when it comes to things like some of the missteps we’ve seen, the actual falls, the pauses, yeah, those are cause for concern, and I would look at that on an individual basis. I wouldn't just say across the board anybody over the age of 80 needs to go. You know? But what I would say is, ‘yeah I’m really concerned about those folks’ and I hope and pray that people around them love them enough to tell them "you know what? This might be the time to take the bow."

Another reason to be skeptical of age limits is that in a country where the legislature writes the laws, experience is essential to the process.

Jim Curry is the Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Utah’s political science department. He points to former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who got a lot more done in her later years compared to earlier on in her career.

CURRY: Are you willing to sacrifice that potential skill in our government, you know, in order to have these age limits, which may come with benefits of their own, but that's the trade-off.

Curry says that age might be a very visible issue at the moment. But it’s not a new issue. Leadership on Capitol Hill used to be older—actually by default.

CURRY: Up until the 1970’s, seniority, or how long you'd been on a committee, was the sole determining factor in whether or not you were chair of the committee. If you were in the majority and you were the longest-serving member of the majority on that committee, you’d become the chair.

Over about 30 years starting in the 1970s, the parties in both chambers changed their rules so that committee leadership would be determined by party leaders rather than seniority alone. So while there are certainly a handful of key leaders serving into their 80s and beyond, younger representatives are also moving into positions of leadership much sooner than they used to.

CURRY: It’s hard to make predictions, but I do think it’s probably a blip where we’ve already seen turnover in the House. And so you’ve seen that transition happen there and it's pending in the Senate.

Concerns over age and physical readiness in presidential politics are also nothing new. Back in 1984, Ronald Reagan famously turned the issue on its head with a bit of humor.

MODERATOR: President Kennedy had to go days on end with very little sleep. Is there any doubt in your mind that you would be able to function in such circumstances?

REAGAN: Not at all Mr. Truett, and I want you to know; I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I will not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.

[Audience laughter]

Forty years later, voters still have to weigh whether older candidates—who have stood the test of time—have the wisdom and ability to perform their duties in office. Whether that office is in the House, the Senate, or the West Wing.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

NICK EICHER, HOST: You’ve heard the expression bull in a china shop. The word picture is meant to convey the idea of clumsy or reckless behavior.

But one particular bull riding shotgun in a Ford Crown Vic, just heading down a highway in Nebraska several days ago, was neither clumsy nor reckless.

And yet the police got a call to investigate a cow in a car.

REIMAN: They thought it was gonna be, you know, like a calf or something smaller, something that actually fit inside the vehicle.

But you know, it did actually fit, basically, somewhat inside the vehicle. It was an old police car retrofitted to accommodate a half-ton bull, the bulk of the animal towering well above the roofline.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Un-bull-ievable!

EICHER: Although, you know, the driver could still steer.

REIMAN: The officer chose to write him a warning and ask him to take the animal back home, and to leave the city.

In other words, you better be moooo-ving on.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 5th. 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: our Classic Book of the Month for September. Football fans may especially appreciate today’s pick, but so will anyone who could use some practical wisdom from a good dad. Here’s WORLD book reviewer Emily Whitten.

SPORTSCASTERS: Intercepted by Hayden. He may run it back all the way. He does! 

EMILY WHITTEN, REVIEWER: Back in 2007, the Indianapolis Colts were facing off against the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl 41.

That interception and touchdown seals the Colts’ win, 29-17. At one point, the camera zooms in on Colts’ Head Coach, Tony Dungy. He’s clearly elated with the win. But in our Classic Book of the Month, Uncommon, Dungy explains more of what that moment meant to him.

DUNGY: I was fortunate enough to coach a team to a Super Bowl win and reach what is recognized as the pinnacle of my profession. But it never has been an all-encompassing quest for me. It was not going to make my life complete if we won and not winning it certainly wouldn’t ruin my life. Instead, I tried to focus on those priorities I had already decided were important.

Dungy’s first book, Quiet Strength, tells more of his personal story, and it’s definitely worth reading for Christian football fans. Lots of locker-room discussion and behind-the-scenes NFL stories. But Uncommon may have broader appeal. In it, Dungy zeros in on his principles as a coach and dad—as the subtitle explains, he wants to help younger men find their own “path to significance.”

DUNGY: God’s scorecard is different from ours. He does want to bless us. But His scorecard doesn’t use money or material possessions or fame or status. He judges by the state of our hearts and our desire to serve him. But the Lord said to Samuel, Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 1 Samuel ? 

Dungy doesn’t fully unpack the Biblical roots of these virtues until later chapters. Early on, he focuses more on personal stories and principles that might intrigue non-Christians. For instance, the first chapter looks at the importance of character.

DUNGY: What you do is not as important as how you do it. Those are the words that keep coming back to me when I’m tempted to choose what is expedient over what is right.

For many NFL teams, results are all that count. As long as you win on Sunday, you’re a success. Dungy says that he coached with a different philosophy—and because of that, he lost out some talented players…something he never regretted.

DUNGY: For the Colts, character is a quality that can be measured just like height, weight, and speed. In fact, we put more emphasis in this area than we do on physical tools. Coaching ability or talent cannot make up for lack of character. In the draft, only a few things will knock a player out of consideration for our team, and this issue of character is one of them.

Co-author Nathan Whitaker says the concept for Uncommon grew out of Dungy’s experience as a dad.

WHITAKER: We sat in his living room watching a Pacers game and just brainstorming the legal pad, the two of us and the thought was if you were driving your child to college to drop them off for their freshman year, what would be the checklist of things you wanted to make sure that you had covered?

That night, Dungy and Whitaker came up with seven things to include—from developing honesty and integrity, to loving your family and living out your faith. The book specifically targets young men, but it has something to say to anyone—a dad, a mom, a coach, a pastor.

My one caution—don’t get this book if you want fine theological details about justification or gender roles in marriage. Wisely, the book sticks to the main and plain things of godly living—and in that, it’s powerful, not least because Dungy lived what he preached.

Whitaker loves to recall one story on that point. On the night before Dungy’s first game as an NFL coach, he’d already gone to bed when his brother-in-law showed up at his hotel room. They debated for a while, but Dungy insisted on moving to the couch.

WHITAKER: And his brother-in-law keeps saying, Tony, your, your wife, my sister is gonna kill me if I sleep in the bed in the hotel and you have the pullout couch before your first NFL game as a head coach. And Tony said, well, you're my guest. And so this is darkened room and Tony's already in bed and his brother-in-law walks in and, and they have this debate and it just so sums up Tony and how you put others first.

Our Classic Book of the Month, Uncommon by Tony Dungy and Nathan Whitaker, offers principles that can help men find their footing in an unstable world. Ultimately, Dungy shows you don’t need a Super Bowl ring to be a winner in God’s book.

DUNGY: In football, when our team isn’t playing well, I might say we have to get back to our fundamentals referring to those basic principles that allow us to play the game successfully–blocking, tackling, running, catching. Right now, our society also needs to get back to the fundamentals, those basic principles that will allow us to succeed as men.

I’m Emily Whitten.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 5th. 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. Up next: the truth about American history.

WORLD Opinions commentator Brad Littlejohn says a new book on Christianity and freedom may help you get to the truth about liberty and justice for all.

BRAD LITTLEJOHN, COMMENTATOR: Christians in America have grown used to playing defense. Each new year seems to bring a new assault, whether it be on principles of public morality that nearly all Americans used to hold sacred, or a direct attack on Christians for their supposed bigotry, patriarchalism, and other alleged sins.

Many Christians have responded by internalizing the rhetoric of their accusers, taking a perverse comfort in lacerating themselves and their fellow Christians for various evils. Other Christians reverse the terms. It is not African-Americans, women, gays, or immigrants who are the oppressed victim class, but we Christians. If others will stoke resentment and present politics as a zero-sum battle between rival identity groups, then so will we. More responsible voices will try to argue that Christians should at least be left to be themselves within protected enclaves.

Such responses are understandable given the tide of vitriol that Christians routinely face today in many settings, but they are insufficient. In public debate, as in sports, the best defense is a good offense. And it’s time to look at the actual historical record. American historian Mark David Hall helps readers to do that in his new book, Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: How Christianity Has Advanced Freedom and Equality for All Americans.

Hall begins his story with Puritan New England, that supposedly drab theater of religious oppression. In fact, he notes that by relying on biblical law as a standard for civil law, the Puritans vastly reduced the number of capital crimes. They also rejected practices like torture that were still standard in European courts.

But that was just toward fellow whites, right? American Christians didn’t recognize that Native Americans had any rights, did they? Actually, in perhaps the most notorious example of Native American oppression—the removal of the Cherokees in the 1830s—it was the most irreligious segments of American society that supported removal, and evangelical Christians who were loudest in their support for Cherokee rights.

But what about that darkest stain on the American story, slavery? Now, there’s no question that Christians were complicit in this evil, and that many church leaders twisted Scripture to justify their oppressions. Christians today should not, must not hide from this admission. But again, we must reframe the question: Were self-conscious Christians, appealing to Christian principles, more or less likely to oppose slavery than the irreligious were? Here, Hall marshals a wealth of evidence from the Founding era till the Civil War. He shows Christians in the more devout Northern states first drew on biblical themes to outlaw slavery, and then expanded upon such themes to end slavery in the South as well. This story might well have been extended to Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” which drew extensively on Christian theology to resist to racial segregation.

It is high time for Christians to confidently tell this story in the public square, rather than the twisted progressive narrative. Christians in America have been far from perfect, but God has used their faith and love to help make this country a rare land of liberty.

I’m Brad Littlejohn.

CLOSING

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.