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The World and Everything In It
11.25.25 Peace terms for Ukraine, states consider assisted suicide, and the first Bible translation in the New World
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- [00:06]
Mary Reichard
Good morning. A new draft peace plan for Ukraine is circulating in Washington. We'll talk with an expert about what's in it and what the risks are.
- [00:14]
Nick Eicher
Also today, more states are looking at assisted suicide laws, but pro life doctors worry we're wiping out the wisdom of dying well. And later, the story of the first Bible printed in the new world. And the pastor who learned a native tongue to help make it possible.
- [00:29]
Janie B. Cheney
They didn't have a written language. There was no litigation. There was nothing. And so you had to start from scratch.
- [00:35]
Nick Eicher
And world commentator Janie B. Cheney on the traces that a life leaves behind.
- [00:47]
Mary Reichard
It's Tuesday, November 25th. This is the world and everything in it from listeners supported World radio. I'm Mary Reichard.
- [00:54]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Iker. Good morning.
- [00:58]
Mary Reichard
It's time for the news with Kent Covington.
- [01:01]
Kent Covington
The Pentagon is weighing whether to pull retired Navy captain and Arizona US Senator Mark Kelly back onto active duty to face a court martial. Kelly was one of six Democratic lawmakers, all former military or intelligence, who appeared in a video calling the Trump administration a threat to the Constitution. And in that video, Kelly our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. That came as Democrats criticized lethal strikes against drug cartel vessels in international waters, calling them illegal. Senator Kelly insists he was simply citing what the law already says. But the White House says the message went much further. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt argued the intent was unmistakable.
- [01:43]
Lauren Canterbury
To try and give a wink and a Nod to the 1.3 million active duty service members who serve in our United States armed forces and essentially encouraged them to defy the orders of their commander in chief.
- [01:57]
Kent Covington
Kelly responded to news of the Pentagon probe with a lengthy statement listing his combat missions, his years as a NASA astronaut and his wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Gifford's survival of a gunshot wound, saying the administration is trying to intimidate him and it won't work. U.S. officials say they are optimistic that negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine are moving in the right direction. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says talks between US And Ukrainian officials in Geneva Sunday were substantive. But he also stresses that any peace plan must uphold Ukraine's sovereignty.
- [02:33]
Nick Eicher
Putin wants legal recognition for what he has stolen to break the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty.
- [02:45]
Kent Covington
Washington's 28 point framework peace proposal reportedly presses Ukraine to hand over some territory to Russia and reduce the size of its army. President Zelenskyy reportedly may make another trip to Washington as soon as this week to map out the next steps in peace talks. A federal judge has tossed out the criminal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. US District Judge Cameron McGowan ruled that the prosecutor who brought the cases, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed and therefore the cases she brought against Comey and James cannot stand. Comey reacted, saying the ruling sent a.
- [03:24]
George Barros
Message that the president of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies.
- [03:31]
Kent Covington
Both defendants claimed that the separate cases were purely political because of their past involvement in investigations of or cases against Donald Trump. But Attorney General Pam Bondi insisted Halligan was lawfully appointed and both cases were fully warranted.
- [03:47]
Lauren Canterbury
We'll be taking all available legal action.
- [03:50]
George Barros
Including an immediate appeal to hold Letitia James and James Comey accountable for their unlawful conduct.
- [03:58]
Kent Covington
The charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning that they could be refiled, but possibly not in Comey's case due to the statute of limitations. The judge's decision does not address the merits of the allegations. It focuses solely on what he said were procedural flaws in Halligan's appointment. Israel is again drawing criticism from the United Nations. UN spokesman Stefan Du Jarak called out the Jewish state on Monday over a weekend airstrike in Lebanon.
- [04:26]
George Barros
We are seriously concerned about the deadly Israeli strike on a residential area in southern Beirut yesterday. We urge all actors to exercise maximum restraint and to avoid any further escalation.
- [04:39]
Kent Covington
Israel says the airstrike was targeting Haytham Ali Taptubi, a top official with the Hezbollah terror group, and that they successfully took him out. Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bhadrazhin the IDF.
- [04:51]
Mary Reichard
Attacked the Hezbollah chief of staff in the heart of Beirut, who led the strengthening and arming of the terrorist. Israel is determined to act and achieve its goals anywhere and at all times.
- [05:04]
Kent Covington
Lebanon's Health Ministry claims a total of five people were killed in the airstrike, with more than two dozen injured. It was the Israeli military's first such attack in Beirut in months. Boeing's troubled space capsule will not be carrying astronauts on its next flight, World's Benjamin Eicker reports.
- [05:23]
George Barros
NASA and Boeing have agreed that the next Starliner flight will be a trial run carrying only cargo, not no people. The company will work to prove that the capsule is safe eight months after the first and only Starliner crew had to be brought home months later in a SpaceX vessel that was due to technical problems and safety concerns with the Starliner. Engineers have since been poring over its thruster and other issues. The cargo run will happen no earlier than April, pending more tests and certification. For World I'm Benjamin Eicher A record.
- [05:59]
Kent Covington
Is expected to fall this week with a whopping 82 million people projected to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday. AAA spokeswoman Aixa Diaz says if you're flying, you should probably make plans to show up early at the airport. And if possible, it's best to fly on off peak days.
- [06:15]
Lauren Canterbury
Tuesday and Wednesday are notorious for being crowded at the airports as well as the Sunday coming back. We are advising give yourself extra time. We're expecting that people need to arrive at least two hours before a domestic flight.
- [06:29]
Kent Covington
The highways will also be packed. Aaa says nearly 90% of holiday travelers are planning to drive. I'm Kent Covington. And straight ahead, a US Backed Thanksgiving deadline for Ukraine. Is it a realistic roadmap for peace or a shortcut likely to fail? Plus, grief, collectibles and saying goodbye. This is the WORLD and EVERYTHING in it.
- [07:09]
Nick Eicher
It's Tuesday, the 25th of November. Glad to have you along for today's edition of THE WORLD and Everything In It. Good morning. I'm Nick Eickert.
- [07:17]
Mary Reichard
And I'm Mary Reichard. Up first, a peace plan. Axios last week revealed a draft of the Trump team's plan to end the war in Ukraine. It's a 28 point proposal, one that guarantees security and reconstruction funding but requires Ukraine to give up territory permanently to Russia.
- [07:37]
Nick Eicher
Many in Europe condemned the early outline, but this time Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not among them. Here he is on Friday ahead of talks in Geneva over the weekend, Zelensky saying here it's a choice between the dignity Ukraine loses in the plan or an extremely difficult winter ahead. Ukrainians in the western city of Usarat told World's Caleb Weldy the situation at this point is lose, lose.
- [08:07]
George Barros
If we give this territory, it's not stop a war.
- [08:11]
Mary Reichard
Sasha Kristoforov works for a humanitarian group. There's a he worries the plan rewards the wrong person.
- [08:17]
George Barros
Putin is liar. Putin is killer and terrorist and he wants all Ukraine.
- [08:22]
Nick Eicher
Evangelical pastor Vadim Kloba thinks that giving Russia what it failed to win on the battlefield will not produce lasting peace.
- [08:30]
George Barros
When we stop this war and Russia will not be punished for what they're doing. A couple years and they start again.
- [08:38]
Nick Eicher
So what's actually in this plan? What's changing after Geneva and is anything realistic before Thanksgiving? Joining us now is George Barros, Russia team lead at the Institute for the Study of War and a former advisor to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
- [08:53]
Mary Reichard
George, good morning.
- [08:55]
George Barros
Hi, Mary, good morning. Thanks for having me.
- [08:57]
Mary Reichard
Well, George, what do we know about the plan so far that it's based on reports of drafts. So really nothing set in stone here, but it sounds as though the White House is using the Gaza peace plan as a template for this one. So what stands out to you from what we know so far about this 28 point plan for Ukraine?
- [09:15]
George Barros
Yep. The key thing about the plan is that this is not going to be the plan that is going to be executed upon. Over the weekend we had numerous American officials, including, you know, Steve Witkoff and Marco Rubio and General Keith Kellogg and a variety of other officials explicitly state that the plan's evolving, it's going to be changing. They were listening to the critiques that the Europeans had that the Ukrainians had when they discussed this on Sunday in Geneva and Switzerland, and they are currently undertaking several revisions to that 28 point plan. And we could talk about what the initial reported 28 point plan was, but suffice it to say, really, this wasn't a peace plan. It was a plan to give Russia a piece of Ukraine and not give Ukraine the sufficient guarantees that it needs to deter Russia from a future war. So they had several deficiencies. I think the administration is taking a very constructive approach to that and we'll see what happens when the next iteration of the plan comes forward. But it will likely be a much stronger plan. That said, I strongly suspect the Russians are going to reject it anyway. Then that can lead us to some interesting further developments.
- [10:25]
Mary Reichard
Well, let's drill down into that some more, George. When we talked back in August before Trump's meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, you said land swaps would be a no go without robust guarantees of US Support for Ukraine. So what do you make of what's on the table this time?
- [10:42]
George Barros
Right. The land swaps as proposed in the current plan, which I suspect are not going to exist in the next plan, are absolutely no go, even if there were robust guarantees. Because look, the plan stipulates that Ukraine would lose all of Donetsk oblast and it would become a demilitarized zone and it would be a de facto recognized as Russian terrain. This is a big problem for Ukraine because Ukraine's best fortified and most defensible terrain right now is in fact, in the continued part of Donetsk oblast that Ukrainian forces still maintain. And that's why the Russians are so, you know, vested in having the Ukrainians diplomatically surrender terrain that the Russian military is very unlikely to seize in any sort of short timeline. And really, it's very difficult for there to be a credible defense of Ukraine without that terrain, because it's a Straight shot across the steps of Eastern Europe to go deep into the heart of Ukraine like just as the Russians tried to in 2022 without that lodgment. So that's a big deal there. Now let's talk about the meat and bones of security guarantees. The plan talks about how Ukraine should receive NATO like Article 5 like security guarantees. And I'm sorry to throw sort of a bit of a bucket of cold water on this, but we can do a better deal for Ukraine than NATO Article 5 because there are deficiencies with NATO Article 5. Many people don't know this, but if you actually read the NATO Charter and read the language of Article 5, Article 5 actually doesn't oblige a military response in reaction to an attack against one of the allies. It says that the member states should take steps as deemed necessary to respond to the situation, which can include military force, but it's not an obligation. And we already know that the Russians are engaging in acts of war against Europe, against NATO member states. We had sabotage in Poland, we've had assassinations in the uk We've had these unprecedented drone and even manned aircraft airspace incursions into European countries. And NATO has responded and decided actually not to treat these as attacks and to not respond in turn to these sorts of malign Russian acts. And I actually think that if we were to look at security guarantees and stronger treaty language that is actually likely to deter Russia from going in, we should look to more robust examples. For example, the treaty that the United States has with Japan that the US Senate ratified is much stronger than the deal than what we've given our NATO allies. The language there really is, if another state attacks Japan and they invoke the treaty, then the United States is obliged to help defend Japan. And that's a much stronger deterrent than Article 5 like language because unfortunately the language is actually quite mushy. But these legal details matter.
- [13:21]
Mary Reichard
I'm curious, what do you make of Zelensky's willingness to even consider the plan? I mean in the past he said giving Russia ill gotten territory is just a non starter, as we've mentioned. But now he is negotiating. So what pressures are at play here, you think?
- [13:35]
George Barros
Well, the big issue here is that I think Vice President J.D. vance threatened to cut off military aid and intelligence sharing with the Ukrainians if they don't accept this deal by Thanksgiving. That was the original reported deal. And the Ukrainians of course understand that their center of gravity for this war is the international coalition of which the United States plays a big role. And so when you threaten to pull out the American support for Ukraine, that can tank your ability to continue waging a defensive war. And it's a massive issue. So that is essentially an act of coercion to bring the, the Ukrainians into accepting massive concessions. Now, again, the good news here is it appears that the plan is not going to be executed quite that way. And candidly, I think we need to explore using coercion not just against the Ukrainians to bring them to the table, but use coercion against the Russians to bring them to the table. Senator Lindsey Graham has a wonderful sanctions bill that can be used to try to bring the Russians to the table. And of course, the US Maintains options to destroy more of Russia's oil and gas refineries by giving longer range weapons like Tomahawks to Ukraine, which would certainly hurt Russia's economy and perhaps use some sticks to bring them to the table as well. The sad critique that I have about this particular administration's approach to this negotiation seems to be we use more carrots with the Russians who define us as an adversary, and we tend to use more sticks with the Ukrainians who are our allies, when I think maybe the approach should be inverted.
- [15:02]
Mary Reichard
Right, let's talk about that some more. The early reported drafts do give Russia everything it wants. Permanent control of captured territory, a road to reentering the international community, anything Russia might have to give up in the final deal.
- [15:15]
George Barros
There's a couple things that are some minor Russian concessions within the deal as originally reported. So, for example, it does state that you would have a lockdown on the southern front line and that Russia would would no longer have a claim to the other provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which the Russians illegally declared as annexed terrain, even though they don't control at all of it in 2022. And this deal would in principle force the Russians to relinquish their claims on that. For that reason, I think the Russians are very unlikely to do that. I think it's very difficult to compel Putin to try to amend his constitution because it would be a massive embarrassment to him. But that would be a concession. Another concession would be amnesty for war crimes. That one of the points in the reported deal would be amnesty for both sides for war crimes. And essentially that would mean that we let the Russian war criminals and rapists and murderers who have committed a litany of war crimes that would all in principle be lifted.
- [16:12]
Mary Reichard
So there's a lot still up in the air with all this, including buy in from European allies. George, how likely do you think it is that the President gets Zelensky to sign a deal before Thanksgiving?
- [16:25]
George Barros
This is not going to happen before Thanksgiving. I'm fairly confident of that. The recent commentary that we got from Secretary Rubio over Sunday indicated that this is still being workshopped. You know, they're, they're talking down, they're sitting, they're receiving feedback, there's counter proposals. I think it's going to take a little bit of time and thinking to develop this deal. And of course, as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday which is imminently upon us, I think it's very unlikely that we're going to get there because things move slowly in Washington this week.
- [16:52]
Mary Reichard
George, is there any aspect of the story that you think people should be paying more attention to or that is underreported?
- [16:59]
George Barros
It seems that President Donald Trump is really trying to rush to a deal and the timeline seems to be sort of a self imposed one. Whereas Moscow and Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin, they're in no particular rush to get to a deal particularly quickly. I mean, Putin is actually trying to, he's trying to do a variety of things, but he's trying to play a long game here and get to a deal that really benefits Russia. And one of the points in Donald Trump's book, the Art of the Deal, is when you're faced with a bad deal, you walk away. And so I think it would be prudent for the president to heed his own advice and understand that actually there are tools in the American arsenal that we can employ to degrade Russia's negotiating position and get a deal that better puts the American interest first and not let the hasty deal be the enemy of the ideal deal. And really there's no reason for us to rush into it for any of that. The front line is not at a risk of a major collapse. And the longer this war protracts, the hairier and the less sustainable it becomes for Russia. Those are the key things that we should keep in mind.
- [18:01]
Mary Reichard
George Barros is Russia team and Geospatial Intelligence team lead for the Institute for the Study of War. George, thanks so much for your time.
- [18:09]
Paul Butler
Of course.
- [18:10]
George Barros
Thank you so much, Mary, and wish you a happy Thanksgiving.
- [18:13]
Mary Reichard
Same to you. Coming up next on the World and everything in it, more states considering assisted suicide laws. Pro life advocates warn that hastening death short circuits lessons unique to the final season of life. And doctors and disability advocates warn the guardrails never stay in place. World's Lauren Canterbury reports.
- [18:40]
Lauren Canterbury
In the early morning hours of October 31 Illinois state senators passed a bill that not even the governor expected to come up for a vote. The measure would allow doctors to prescribe life ending drugs to terminally ill residents aged 18 or older who were not expected to live more than six months. Robert Gilligan is the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois.
- [19:02]
George Barros
And so what happened is in Illinois, the legislature passed a lot of very significant, controversial pieces of legislation, what they call the veto session. Technically, there are supposed to be times when the legislature acts on the governor's veto.
- [19:18]
Lauren Canterbury
The state's regular legislative session ended in May, with only the House having approved the bill. Then the Senate began a special session last month. Now the bill is sitting on Governor JB Pritzker's desk awaiting his signature or veto. But if he takes no action, the measure will still go into effect 60 days after it arrived in his office. Pritzker is not the only governor staring down an assisted suicide bill. As the year wraps up over the summer, New York lawmakers also approved a similar bill and sent it to Governor Kathy Hochul for consideration. Neither governor has publicly said what their decision will be.
- [19:56]
George Barros
Advocates will say they need this because they don't want to experience pain and suffering at the end of life. We all want to help people, but in the terms of helping people under the guise of compassion, we're actually not helping them. We're hurting society.
- [20:11]
Lauren Canterbury
Proponents of assisted dying claim laws like these provide a necessary end of life option for the terminally ill. But pro lifers argue the legislation is a slippery slope, claiming that assisted suicide targets vulnerable and disabled people. They say allowing people to kill themselves with the help of medical professionals deprives them of the lessons and experiences that are unique to the final season of life. Eleven states and Washington, D.C. currently permit medically assisted suicide. In 1994, Oregon became the first state to legalize the practice. Matthew Epinet is the executive director of the center for Bioethics and Human Dignity.
- [20:51]
George Barros
They talk a good bit about guardrails and safeguards like residency requirements, like waiting times. But what we've seen in state after state after state is there's then a movement to go in and amend bills that have been passed and to remove exactly those kinds of safeguards.
- [21:08]
Lauren Canterbury
In 2019, Oregon lawmakers removed the 15 day waiting period between a patient requesting lethal drugs and receiving them. In 2023, they allowed non state residents to request the medication. Five other states have also reduced their waiting periods. New York's newly proposed law has no waiting period. Illinois State Senator Chris Balkima spoke out against the bill before the October vote.
- [21:34]
George Barros
Every state and country that has enacted this has opened the guardrails over time and made it easier and easier to take one's life. The impact on Illinois's most vulnerable, the.
- [21:49]
Paul Butler
One and a half million people with disabilities, is huge.
- [21:53]
Lauren Canterbury
As of now, the states that allow assisted dying all limit it to individuals with diagnosed illnesses that will likely claim their lives soon. But disability advocates warn that states could expand the laws to include individuals who doctors say could have a poor quality of life. Conrad Reynoldson is the founder of the nonprofit called the Washington Civil and Disability Advocate.
- [22:16]
George Barros
You know I have a form of muscular dystrophy and you know it's a rare disease that's often misunderstood as terminal.
- [22:25]
Lauren Canterbury
When Reynoldson was diagnosed as a toddler, his doctor said he would likely have a poor quality of life and likely die young. Now, decades later, Reynoldson says doctors often wrongly assume people with disabilities will not experience the same fullness of life as others.
- [22:43]
George Barros
It's just sets up a two tiered system where you have, quote, unquote healthy people that get suicide prevention and then unhealthy people who get this.
- [22:56]
Lauren Canterbury
Every state that allows assisted suicide also operates suicide prevention programs. Epinet says these policies cannot coexist.
- [23:05]
George Barros
At the very least, it gives a tacit endorsement to the idea that there are some lives that should simply come to an end at a person's own hand.
- [23:13]
Lauren Canterbury
While assisted suicide proponents claim the laws are intended to save people from suffering and pain, pro life doctors say medical advances have drastically improved pain management options. Dr. Sharon Quick was an anesthesiologist and now leads the Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation.
- [23:32]
George Barros
And you never, ever need lethal drugs to manage pain, ever. I think we have this attitude in our society that youth, beauty, strength, independence, intelligence are valued. And when you start losing those things as you do at the end of life, then there's even. Even patients will just feel like they're not valuable anymore.
- [23:54]
Lauren Canterbury
According to Oregon's most recent report on its law, the top three end of life concerns for people seeking assisted suicide were loss of autonomy, decreased ability to participate in activities, and loss of dignity. People who support assisted suicide point to these fears as reasons to help people end their lives. But Dr. Quick and others argue the responses show a need for our society to change how we view death. Instead of dreading the natural end of life, we should learn how to care for our loved ones and allow ourselves to be cared for when we need it. Quick recalled watching her father lose his abilities as he struggled with multiple diseases near the end of his life. Instead of growing bitter, he allowed his family to meet his needs and always found something to be grateful for. An attitude that stuck with quick.
- [24:44]
George Barros
But when you can learn to recognize your value even in the midst of all of those losses, that is a freedom that is amazing for people to have that their value is not dependent on their circumstances.
- [25:00]
Lauren Canterbury
Reporting for World. I'm Lauren Canterbury.
- [25:15]
Kent Covington
Additional support comes from Dort University where pre med students gain knowledge through undergraduate research and hone skills through hands on simulations. Dort. Edu from Free Lutheran Bible College, grounding students in the word of God for life in Jesus Christ on campus and in person in Plymouth, Minnesota, flbc Edu World and from Cedarville University, equipping students for professional excellence and gospel impact. Cedarville. Edu World.
- [26:05]
Nick Eicher
In Germany, a runaway farm animal slipped the slaughterhouse and went on the lamb. Now I'll have to spell that one for you. L A M B. Because the fugitive hid out among a flock of about 200 sheep. She did stand out. She was a good bit bigger. She moved differently and spoke some kind of foreign language. Meet Mucha the cow. And according to the shepherd, she fit right in. He said she sniffed, she mingled, she behaved almost like a sheep. And the flock accepted her, no questions asked. But this was not to be a long term arrangement. The shepherd did track down Mucha's owner and offered to help her. The farmer though, changed his mind and agreed to let her live her years out in a local sanctuary. So a clean getaway, a safe landing and a very assimilated bovine. It's the world and everything in it.
- [27:08]
Mary Reichard
Today is Tuesday, November 25th. This is the world and everything in it. Good morning, I'm Mary Reichert.
- [27:14]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Eicher. Coming next, World's Paul Butler on the first Bible ever printed in the New World. Only a handful survive today. It's a testament to the pastor who learned a native tongue to help make it possible. One of those Bibles sits inside a climate controlled room at Gordon College.
- [27:36]
Lauren Canterbury
We rebound this in 2021. We had a conservator come in and do some work on it. So the binding is a bit tight, so when you open it, it might feel a little resistant.
- [27:48]
Paul Butler
College archivist Sarah St. Germain holds the first Bible printed in the New World. This copy at Gordon College is one of 37 that remain. It's St. Germain's job to keep it in good condition.
- [28:00]
Lauren Canterbury
So we have our big H Vac, which you can probably hear in the background that humming noise that, that keeps our environment stable.
- [28:08]
Paul Butler
This Bible is bound in smooth brown leather. Its simple cover has a straight border with fleur de lys embossments at the corners. It looks a lot like it would have in 1663.
- [28:20]
Lauren Canterbury
The pages, the fore edges were painted yellow at some point. So all those, the top, bottom and side edges, it's kind of cool.
- [28:30]
Paul Butler
On the brown space, small gilt letters spell the word biblum. It's not in English, but a dialect of the Native American language Algonquin. This book is known as the Eliot Bible.
- [28:42]
Ted Hildebrandt
The Elliot Bible is a Bible of firsts.
- [28:45]
Paul Butler
Damon Diirmaro is a language professor at Gordon College. He spoke with associate correspondent Anne Bergdorf and says the Eliot Bible is one of the first translations completed by a non native speaker done for a language with no prior writing system.
- [29:00]
Ted Hildebrandt
Eliot claims to have discovered new ways of grammar, namely new possibilities for organizing language and thinking grammatically.
- [29:08]
Paul Butler
John Eliot is the translator of the Eliot Bible. He was a Puritan minister, remembered as the apostle to the Indians.
- [29:15]
Ted Hildebrandt
He believed in education and that's why, you know, he believed in literacy, that not just translating the Bible but teaching people to read. And he put together primers, catechisms, other grammars.
- [29:31]
Paul Butler
Elliot came from England to Massachusetts. In November of 1631. He was ordained to pastor a church in Roxbury. And his mission was to share the gospel with Native Americans. To do that, he enlisted an indentured native to help him study Wampanoag, a local dialect of the Algonquin language. Elliot was fascinated with its complexity.
- [29:51]
Ted Hildebrandt
Most people thought that these were just barbarians and I think that linguists know this too, that every language has its inner logic and is organized in a different way.
- [30:01]
Paul Butler
Eliot also loved that the language organized its nouns by distinguishing between animate or inanimate.
- [30:07]
Ted Hildebrandt
And so he said that they had a notion of the soul of something being alive. And so that was very encouraging to him that as a pre evangelistic tool he could use that to try to minister to them.
- [30:20]
Paul Butler
After 15 years in Massachusetts, Eliot delivered his first sermon in the Wampanoag language. Biblical scholar Ted Hildebrandt worked on the new Living Translation project and in a video lecture posted online he says that Elliot opened the floor for questions. After that first sermon, Elliot and this.
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Janie B. Cheney
Was I think one of the keys to understanding Elliot. After the sermon they had a question and answer period of three hours. John Elliot respected the Indians so much that he allowed them to ask questions and he wrestled with their questions for three hours.
- [30:57]
Paul Butler
But there was one question in particular that drove Elliot's mission.
- [31:00]
Janie B. Cheney
How do I get to heaven. And he basically said, you know, read the Bible, hear what Jesus says and pray. And he realized that they couldn't read the Bible in their own language. They didn't have a written language. There was no literature, there was no nothing. And so basically he had to start from scratch.
- [31:17]
Paul Butler
Eliot had translated the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer into Wampanoag. But the entire Bible was a monumental task. And Wampanoag is not a simple language.
- [31:27]
Janie B. Cheney
I've had, you know, Akkadian, I've had Ugaritic, I've had Hebrew, I've had Greek, I've studied Latin and German and stuff like that. And this language is much, much more difficult than anything I've ever seen.
- [31:38]
Paul Butler
Eliot completed the Bible in 1663. Harvard University printed a thousand copies on a press sent from England specifically for Eliot's Bible. The King James Bible, published a half century earlier, had been translated in seven years by 54 scholars. Eliot, working largely by himself, completed his translation in 14 years, all while ministering.
- [32:03]
Ted Hildebrandt
Traveling and preaching for about a 20 year period. Eliot's ministry was very successful. I mean, it was, it was idyllic, it was utopian. He had achieved what he wanted and it was really going very well.
- [32:17]
Paul Butler
Unfortunately, Eliot's vision was short lived. In 1675, war broke out between the Wapanoag people and the colonists. Those on both sides destroyed many copies of the Eliot Bible, resenting it as a connecting point between them. However, Eliot's love for the Wapanoag never faded. Ten years after the war, he published a second edition of his Bible.
- [32:40]
Janie B. Cheney
He loved the Indians. He respected them. He respected them and treated them with dignity and respect. He listened and interacted with their questions. He took their children and catechized and taught them the gospel and new ways of living and things, and they trusted him.
- [32:57]
Paul Butler
Over the course of his ministry, Elliot saw 1,000 converts. He published Wapanoag devotionals, catechisms and grammar books. In fact, linguists later used Eliot's works to resurrect the Wampanoag language around the world. Today, modern missionaries and linguists are still doing what Eliot pioneered, studying indigenous languages to create writing systems and Bible translations for them.
- [33:23]
Ted Hildebrandt
You learn other languages because you learn how other cultures and people think. Language is a reflection of how people think. And I think that that probably fascinated him and it's a reflection of God's creation and it does add a new dimension to knowledge of God for world.
- [33:42]
Paul Butler
I'm Paul Butler reporting from Ann Bergdor.
- [34:14]
Nick Eicher
Today is Tuesday, November 25th Good morning, this is the World and everything from listener supported World Radio. I'm Nick Eicher.
- [34:22]
Mary Reichard
And I'm Mary Reichard. Here's world commentator Janie B. Cheney on what's left when a loved one dies.
- [34:31]
Janie B. Cheney
My husband was a collector of whatever interested him at the moment. It might be guns. It might be paintings or prints that took his fancy at a flea market. After we bought our five acres, it was antique farm implements to hook up to his tractor. Most of all, model railroad equipment boxes and boxes of diesel engines, steam locomotives, track and rolling stock stored under his 8 by 12 foot layout. When we moved out of our farmhouse three years ago, most of those collections were gone, either given away or sold, except the model railroad. All those boxes came along with the layout, first to our temporary house then than to our permanent home. By then, though, Doug was well on his way to forgetting his oldest enthusiasm. He never asked about all the equipment I sold. He watched a stranger come and dismantle the layout and carry it out the door without a word of protest. I think he had forgotten what it was for, not to mention all the hours of time he'd spent painstakingly laying track and wiring switches since last August. Doug had gotten progressively weaker until two Mondays ago when he closed his eyes. We thought then that he had only a day or two to live, but he breathed on slow and steady until late Friday afternoon. Then he opened his eyes and looked at me one last time. I told him I loved him. He took three, maybe four breaths each with long pauses between, and then he was gone. While he was still here in those final days, growing progressively weaker and more unaware, his possessions meant nothing and his hours were cluttered with morphine, lorazepam, mouth swabs and wipes. But now the few remaining things he owned are weighted with memory. There's the cat he bought at Hobby Lobby emblazoned with Psalm 90, verse 2 because he remembered God. There's the 2 by 4 foot seascape he bought at a DAV thrift store because he remembered beauty. There's the handmade candle holder he bought at a children's craft fair, not because he liked candles, but because he liked children. Those were impulse purchases, not deliberate ones like his collectibles. But they all speak to me of what remained in him after so much was gone. My collectibles are furniture, books, craft supplies, fabrics and trims. I hope to use or ditch most of it before my kids have to, but I wonder how much, if anything, will remain of me. We occupy space while moving through this world, but in the end, we're limited to an 18 inch urn or an 8 by 4 plot of ground. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But I'm not sure what that means. I don't think it means instantly reunited with loved ones who've gone before. That joyful meetup will probably have to wait for our bodily resurrection. But present in that, my late husband lives in the mind of the Lord who shepherded him so gently into eternity. Lord willing, Doug will live in my mind, too. I'm Janie B. Cheney.
- [38:12]
Mary Reichard
Tomorrow Many Americans are struggling with the high cost of housing and health care. We'll talk about it with Hunter Baker on Washington Wednesday. And the latest movie in the Knives out franchise hits theaters to Colin Garberino has a midweek review. That and more tomorrow. I'm Mary Reichert.
- [38:30]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick 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, trouble and anguish have found me out. But your commandments are my delight. Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding that I may live. Verses 143 and 144 of Psalm 119 go now in grace and peace.