The World and Everything in It: September 6, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. My name is Chelsie Ponce, and I'm an interior designer in Phoenix, Arizona, where I live with my husband, Joseph, and our two kids. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! Today on Culture Friday, Trump and the pro-life vote. Also: a desperation move on driving up literacy. And the birds and the bees, a conversation that will always be a work in progress.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Standing by is John Stonestreet, and we’ll talk to him in a few minutes on Culture Friday.

Later today, a classic told in a completely unexpected way. And Ask the Editor.

BROWN: It’s Friday, September 6th. 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: Israel latest » Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is firing back at those ramping up pressure on the Israeli government to reach a cease-fire deal with Hamas, a group of critics that includes President Biden.

NETANYAHU:  The other day when they murdered in cold blood six of our hostages, uh, so to ask Israel to make concessions after this murder is to, is to send a message to Hamas, murder more hostages, you'll get more concessions. That's the wrong thing to do.

Hamas terrorists murdered six hostages over the weekend during a rescue attempt by Israeli forces.

Netanyahu also refuted reports that his government is holding up a cease-fire deal over control of the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip of land between Gaza and Egypt. He stressed that it has been and remains Hamas that is holding up a cease-fire deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.

Pentagon leaders head to Germany » Top U.S. military leaders are in Germany today to huddle over Ukraine’s wartime needs, after Russia carried out one of its deadliest airstrikes of the war earlier this week.

Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh:

SINGH:  We're in this fight with Ukraine for the long haul. We are standing with them for what they need on the battlefield, both in the long and short term. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. C.Q. Brown are meeting with military leaders from more than 50 nations at Ramstein Air Force Base.

The allies face renewed calls from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for additional air defenses and loosened restrictions on how far into Russia that Ukraine can fire American-provided munitions.

Blinken in Haiti » In Haiti Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Thursday pledged more support from the United States as the Caribbean nation tries to loosen the grip of gang violence that has plagued the country.

He noted that the U.S. is already the biggest contributor of humanitarian aid to Haiti.

BLINKEN:  That includes an additional 45 million in humanitarian aid that I'm announcing today, bringing the total U.S. aid to over $210 million this year.

The secretary said the U.S. is invested in “the potential of the Haitian people.”

Blinken’s visit came just one day after government officials in the country expanded the declared state of emergency nationwide.

Georgia school shooting aftermath » In the wake of this week’s deadly school shooting in Georgia authorities have arrested the father of the accused teenage gunman.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey:

HOSEY:  In coordination with the district attorney, with District Attorney Brad Smith, the GBI has arrested Colin Gray, age 54, in connection to the shooting here at Appalachee High School.

He faces charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Investigators say he “knowingly” allowed his son to possess a gun.

The 14-year-old suspect is being charged as an adult with murder.

Four people were killed and nine wounded.

The teen reportedly denied threatening to carry out a school shooting when authorities interviewed him last year about a menacing post online. And authorities say, at that time, investigators did not have enough evidence to justify an arrest.

Hunter Biden legal » Hunter Biden on Thursday admitted to not paying more than a million dollars in taxes on Thursday. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: President Biden’s son pled guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges of tax evasion in California after failing to pay one-and-a-half million dollars across four years.

Biden first tried to switch his not-guilty plea for what’s known as an Alford plea. That would have enabled him to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him.

But prosecutors rejected that plea, pushing him to plead guilty to all nine charges.

Hunter Biden was already convicted of three gun-related federal felonies in June, and his lawyer says his client only admitted guilt so as to avoid another public trial.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Trump legal latest » Meantime, in a courtroom in Washington, attorneys for former President Donald Trump entered a not guilty plea in his federal election interference case.

Trump is facing a brand-new indictment after July’s U.S. Supreme Court immunity ruling narrowed the scope of actions for which former presidents can be prosecuted.

Trump’s lawyers called the new indictment illegitimate and asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to toss it out, but she declined that request.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, Ask the Editor.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday the 6th of September, 2024.

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 time for Culture Friday, and joining us now is John Stonestreet. He’s president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

Morning, John!

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning.

EICHER: Alright. Well, let's talk about Donald Trump and pro-lifers, John. Let's do that first.

Several developments since we talked last, beginning with this: Trump infuriated pro-lifers by saying on social media that a second Trump administration would be, his words now, “Great for women and their reproductive rights.” Great for women and their reproductive rights.

Now, we know the euphemism – pro-lifers know what it means. Pro-abortion partisans, they know it too. They cooked it up. But additionally, Trump equivocated, we could say, over a coming ballot initiative in Florida on abortion, then he offered up an in vitro fertilization-free-for-all plan. It's going to open a door to ethics, obviously, but also questions of who will be eligible.

That's all apart from the economic questions, but suffice it to say, Trump appears to be in danger of losing evangelical voters, pro-life voters, over all of this. Is he, do you think, and should he be?

STONESTREET: I think absolutely, he's in danger of losing the pro-life vote, or at least pro-life voters. I think that backpedaling again on his nebulous answer about Florida's Amendment 4 and how he's personally going to vote, coming back and saying he's going to vote against it, that probably saved the day for some, but clearly he's getting some advice that the votes that he's going to gain from, particularly suburban housewives, is going to outdo the votes that he's losing on the pro-life side. And I think, you know, the rest of the pro-life community is really in a pickle in terms of trying to figure this out.

Look, a Trump administration, even if he follows through with all these promises, and I don't think he can, I will be surprised if he actually tries to move forward, for example, with the free IVF. But you know the alternative right now, the full on pro-abortion agenda of Harris and Waltz is the most radical and extreme thing we've ever seen. And so it really does come down to a calculation: is this the time to do a protest vote or not? And I'm not sure when you're really in a kind of a swing state like Pennsylvania, and you're a pro-lifer, and you're looking at this if that's the direction you're going to go.

But I do think that the Trump campaign is dramatically underestimating how committed people are who are pro-life. I think they have misunderstood that somehow this is really about the end of Roe. Now look, America is way better. I don't care what anybody says post-Dobbs, than it was pre-Dobbs. It's a world in which an evil law like Roe v. Wade exists is a worse one.

So Dobbs hasn't been a loser for the pro-life movement. What it's done is exposed where people really are, and the overwhelming cultural mood right now, particularly when it comes to sexuality and sexual freedom, that is basically relativism. It's just a full blown we want relativism. We want the ability to have sexual autonomy for ourselves and for the people in our lives, and that's really what needs to be addressed. A law can't do that. And the pro-lifers that I know are really clear on this.

I was encouraged by the backlash against Trump's position on IVF and Trump's position on an early position on Amendment 4, and that at least caused the backpedaling that we have seen. Because here's the last thing that I'll say, right now is a gamble that's being taken by the GOP. And the gamble is the reason for the GOP losses, the fact that we were too pro-life or too pro-Trump, and a case can be made right now both ways.

So, if your ultimate end, your ultimate goal is to win elections, and they haven't won national elections, or there have been a lot of losses, and the question is, is it because of the abortion issue, or is it because of Trump? And this election is going to be a referendum on that. So, you know, this isn't over by any stretch of the imagination, and it won't be over because of this election.

BROWN: John, interesting story out of Michigan. School officials there are resorting to paying high schoolers, dangling a financial incentive to get them to read on appropriate grade level. This looks a desperation move, the threat of a bad grade doesn’t motivate, and the reward of a good grade isn’t doing it either. Just money.

Do you think this is a good idea or bad idea? Can you think of any unintended consequences?

STONESTREET: Look, this is the definition of trying to stop the bleeding when the problem and the source of the bleeding is so much bigger and so much more fundamental than this. We just reached a point where we're realizing that the way we're doing education in America is failing. It can't be done around the parents. It can't be done at any sort of high level of excellence across the board unless the family is stabilized. And it certainly can't be done when the whole education project and those that are delivering it have been hijacked in their worldview by non-educational goals and an agenda that basically is about DEI in some form or fashion.

So, it might move the needle small, but it kind of reminds me of the, you know, the policies that we've seen across Europe to try to encourage procreation, try to encourage couples to have babies. And as an article said this past week, it's not working. Thinking that this can be accomplished with money assumes that it's a financial problem, but if it's not a financial problem, a financial solution is not actually going to ultimately solve it.

BROWN: John, excellent article in Breakpoint the other day on why the “birds and the bees” talk is just not enough these days.

Clearly, parents have to talk more. They have to talk more frequently. They have to have the talk in broader terms.

Now I am about to get in your business, John, so now’s the time to stop me, but here we go.

My question is how will your talk with your young son, Hunter, be different from the conversations you had with your girls?

STONESTREET: You know, it's not a bad question. It's an okay question. I, you know, I remember with our girls, there was these two moments in particular where I ended up having conversations with them about some of these issues way earlier than I ever expected.

The first was when the real life adaptation of Beauty and the Beast came out from Disney. And you might remember this was kind of a trend where they were taking these classic cartoons and turning them into real life adaptations. And the first one was Cinderella, which was unbelievable. So well done. Beautiful. Great message. And then, of course, Emma Watson was going to be Belle in Beauty and the Beast. They got super excited about it.

And then, of course, they announced a month out that there was going to be a gay moment. And it was such a cheap shot, really, from Disney, and was frustrated about it, but that was time to have a conversation, because they were very much looking forward to that film, and at that point, the scene was so kind of muted that we could have skipped it, and they would have never noticed. But we decided that that was a problem. In other words, to not notice that is really the thing that we were trying to point out. We didn't want things to become normalized in their hearts and in their minds.

And so the other occasion was the Obergefell decision, which, of course, they weren't paying attention to the Supreme Court at age 11 and nine and seven, I think is how old they were, but we knew that that legalization was then going to further normalize things that in their minds and hearts can't be normal. With Hunter, it's far more aggressive. The primary conversations with the girls were about sexual morality.

The primary conversation with Hunter, even already is about identity. What does it mean to be a boy? What does it mean to be a girl? And my daughters sometimes make fun of me because I, you know, some of the stereotypes that I kind of reinforce in his heart and in his mind about, you know, work and play and things like that. And the reason is, is because I said, Look, I told the girls this. I said, you know, even when you were growing up, there was a bunch of cultural norms that we could rely on to reinforce at least that there were boys and there were girls and they weren't the same thing. But in Hunter's life, he's going to be told it every different way from every different voice, that there's not a difference, and he's going to know, and if he's going to know, it's going to be because of us.

So, even after a particular basketball practice when he was five, we had a conversation, because one of his teammates at age five said out loud, well, boys can be girls and girls can be boys. This happened during lay-up lines, which, by the way, lay-up lines for five year olds is absolute chaos, but it actually happened during lay-up lines, and we're like, look, we're going to be really, really clear about this over and over and over, and also have expectations. The expectations are different because you're a boy, my daughters are girls, and we're going to actually act like those things are real categories.

So, that's been our experience, because it used to be like, you know, you got to have the talk, and you got to have it before they're 12, and it's got to be about the mechanics, so that they don't, you know, themselves get into trouble in high school. No, no, no. This is an ongoing conversation that the rest of the culture is having with our kids, non stop from the beginning to the end in almost every expression.

So, our conversation has to be non-stop. One of my mentors has said it is one talk, but it's one talk that never ends. You just continually have this conversation and continually come back to it. You don't let anything slide, and that's the approach that we've taken. We don't let anything slide.

EICHER: Lay-up lines, though, John I, you know, I'm a hockey guy sitting there thinking I can't come up with anything. It's like a it's like a missed lay-up. Well, John Stonestreet is president of the Colson center, and he's host of the breakpoint podcast. It's always great to get together, John, thanks so much. We'll see you next time.

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, September 6th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a classic tale told in an unexpected style.

EICHER: Last week, animator Hayao Miya-zaki was among the winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards—considered the Nobel Prizes of Asia.

Miya-zaki received the award for using art to help children understand complex issues  and for creating many of the most memorable and beloved films in the world.

BROWN: His studio is best known for anime films such as Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and The Boy and the Heron.

Today reviewer Chelsea Boes takes us back to an earlier project—the animated Anne of Green Gables series from 1979.

NARRATOR: While Anne was boarding the train that would take her to the little station, Matthew Cuthbert, wearing a white collar and his best suit, was on his way to the station to meet an orphan boy.

CHELSEA BOES: When you think of Anne of Green Gables, do you also think of Japan? You should. Lucy Maude Montgomery’s 1908 novel was introduced to Japan by Canadian missionary Loretta Leonard Shaw. One of Shaw’s students translated the tale of the whimsical redhead, and the Japanese version was published after World War II. Over the decades, Anne has become a national heroine there, and Japanese artists and writers continually reinterpret her story. In 1979, famed animator Hayao Miyazaki joined forces with Nippon Animation to create an anime version. It’s a 50-episode show and Miyazaki supplied the scene setting and screen composition for the first 14 episodes before departing the project.

The orphan Anne might be rendered in classic anime style, but she still rings true to the character Montgomery penned. She’s scrawny, uncared for, outrageously talkative and dramatic, and, for all that, charming. Though made in Japan, the production is set in Canada like the original novel. The backdrops of pre-industrial countryside feel refreshing. The precise, delicate drawings of Marilla’s spotless kitchen and Matthew’s trim farmstead feel nourishing. And that’s a good thing. Because we’re going to be here with Anne for a long, long time. The anime series runs 25-minutes per episode and covers the entirety of the novel.

ANNE: The best thing to do is if you called me by the name Cordelia.

MARILLA: What! Good heavens, child, Cordelia? Is that really and truly your given name?

ANNE: No, not exactly, but I’d like for people to call me Cordelia.

The episodes, all on YouTube, follow the novel’s chapters to a T. Anime Matthew is more talkative than he should be—much more so than the stellar Matthew from Kevin Sullivan’s 1985 classic version of Anne. But Marilla’s stern Protestantism is very much intact, clashing with Anne’s whimsy to create the wry humor that makes Anne’s story great.

MARILLA: Don’t you know about God?

ANNE: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only begotten son.

MARILLA: Well, at least you know something about it, thank goodness.

The first 14 episodes introduce us to all the main ingredients that make readers love Anne. Her overactive imagination. The mouse drowning in the plum pudding. And, of course, Anne breaking her slate over Gilbert Blythe’s head when he calls her Carrots. (Speaking of the slate breaking, one word of warning: A hilarious but not kid-friendly translation blunder occurs at that point in the English dub.)

ANNE: Stop it, you louse!

CHILDREN: (gasping) What did she do?

Each episode ends on a cliffhanger, so kids will be eagerly waiting for tomorrow night’s episode.

NARRATOR: Summer was over, and once again fall had come to Prince Edward Island. Matthew and Jerry Boot had a great deal of work to do in the field. Meanwhile, Anne and Marilla were harvesting the apples . . . 

In the anime and in the book, it’s dialogue—not events—that drives Anne’s story. You may see one of her most famous lines posted around social media in the coming weeks: “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

The show is restful, wholesome, and a whole lot cheaper than a flight to Prince Edward Island, Canada—where 3,500 Japanese tourists visit each year to celebrate their red-haired heroine.

I’m Chelsea Boes.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, September 6th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming up next, Ask the Editor. Here is Executive Producer Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER: After our recent profile of the Black’s Law Dictionary editor, long-time listener Tom Chapman from Acworth, Ga., had a question for me. Here’s what he writes:

I've always appreciated the little stories of personal interest, people who do interesting jobs, and other shorts. It is encouraging to hear how God calls people to so many different ways to serve Him. Over the last couple of weeks, I seemed to notice a trend of these stories not necessarily having a faith component and no mention of God.

Am I perhaps incorrect in thinking this is a recent trend or does this reveal a shift in your reporting? I would rather be incorrect than to think that WORLD would take the focus off of presenting stories that relate back to how believers are making a difference in "the world and everything in it".

Thank you and God Bless you.

Tom, thanks for your encouraging note and your question.

To answer your question most directly, there has not been an intentional shift. Our commitment has always been to highlight interesting stories on everything God has made in this world. WORLD’s founder Joel Belz set that course early. That our organization would be committed to a theology of God’s purpose, design, and will in all things. Some Christian news organizations focus on God’s obvious work in the world…gospel outreach through the local church, missionaries, and non-profit ministries. We don’t want to neglect news from those areas, but we also cover much more than those as we believe all that the world contains belongs to God. There are a lot of interesting things in this world that don’t have what some call a clear faith component … and we don’t want to invent or force one. We acknowledge—and highlight—common grace in our world.

That said, your question motivated me to go back and actually look at the data and analyze the last three months. I categorized each human interest feature into two broad categories: those that explicitly mentioned God, the scriptures, or faith … and those that didn’t. Here’s what I found. In July there was a spike in the number of stories that weren’t overtly faith-based. While most months include only a few, we had nine such segments that month. Looking at June, July, and August features together, there were seventeen total pieces that were more “general interest,” while there were twenty four clearly faith related.

That got me curious, how does that compare to the same period a year ago? In 2023 we had nine pieces that were general interest and thirty pieces that were overtly Christian in approach and topic. So that is a measurable difference. But it doesn’t signal a shift. The stories that came in from our reporters this past July just happened to be more general interest.

Besides our theological reasons for including more general interest stories in our lineup…there is another reason for doing so. I see these sorts of stories as outreach. There are a lot of unethical journalists today. We want to expose our broader society to reporters who are righteous, redeemed, and committed to truth…who treat people with respect and dignity. Covering these more general interest stories gives us the opportunity to spread the salt and light just a little broader. And if I’m honest, I also want to do a little fishing. By talking with and reporting on people who aren’t usually in our circles, not only are they exposed to our brand of Christian journalism, they may also share our stories on social media and introduce WORLD to audiences that aren’t already looking for it. And I hope that they’ll stick around for our more overt stories…praying that it’ll prove to be life-changing information, education, and inspiration.

For WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, it’s time to say thanks to the team members who helped put the program together this week:

Steve West, David Bahnsen, Emma Perley, Mary Reichard, Addie Offereins, Anna Johansen Brown, Kim Henderson, Daniel Darling, Lindsay Mast, Carolina Lumetta, Onize Oduah, Emma Freire, Janie B. Cheaney, Leah Savas, Amy Lewis, Andrew Walker, John Stonestreet, and Chelsea Boes.

Thanks also to our breaking news team: Kent Covington, Lynde Langdon, Travis Kircher, Lauren Canterberry, Christina Grube, and Josh Schumacher.

And thanks to the night owls Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz who make it possible for you to be the early bird.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Our producer is Harrison Watters.

Our Senior producer is Kristen Flavin and Paul Butler is Executive producer, with additional production assistance from Benj Eicher.

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 Psalmist writes, “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” —Psalm 55:22

Be sure and worship Him with brothers and sisters in Christ in church on the Lord’s day. And Lord willing, we’ll meet you right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

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.