← The World and Everything In It
The World and Everything In It
1.16.26 Online narratives and misplaced conviction, analysis of film noir, the reshaping of language, and the PCA’s new leadership
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- [00:06]
Myrna Brown
Good morning. Today on Culture Friday, moral certainty, misplaced conviction, and what happens when online narratives collide with real life.
- [00:15]
Nick Eicher
Maria Baer standing in today for John Stonestreet. Also today, well, I know a lot.
- [00:20]
Film Noir Character (various)
Of smart guys and a few honest ones, and you're both.
- [00:24]
Nick Eicher
What classic film noir reveals about good, evil and the human heart. Max Bells has a review later. Wordplay George Grant on the linguistic accidents that make it into everyday speech and a new leader for the pca.
- [00:46]
Myrna Brown
It's Friday, January 16th. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Myrna Brown.
- [00:54]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Eicher. Good morning.
- [00:58]
Myrna Brown
Up next, Mark Mellinger with today's news.
- [01:02]
Mark Mellinger
President Trump is delaying his response to the killings of protesters in Iran.
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Various News Commentators
He has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter, and no one should know that better than the leadership of the Iranian regime.
- [01:17]
Mark Mellinger
That's Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz speaking at a UN Security Council emergency meeting on Iran Thursday. Demonstrations in Iran sparked by a poor economy and frustrations with the country's dictatorial leadership have been going on for more than two weeks. The U. S. Based human rights Activists news agency reports thousands of protesters have been killed in the Iranian regime's crackdown.
- [01:44]
Various News Commentators
Iran says it's ready for dialogue, but its actions say otherwise.
- [01:49]
Mark Mellinger
Waltz says Trump is still considering a US Military intervention, but Israel and Arab countries in the Middle east are warning the White House such a move could destabilize the entire region. Iran says if the US Launches a strike, it will retaliate. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado met with President Trump and US Senators in Washington and told reporters she presented Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal.
- [02:19]
George Grant
I presented the president of the United.
- [02:22]
Maria Baer
States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize.
- [02:28]
Mark Mellinger
Machado says she presented Trump with the medal, which he has longed to be awarded himself Thursday to recognize his unique commitment to Venezuela's freedom. It's not clear if Trump accepted the medal. Machado spent Thursday discussing her country's future with Trump. The visit comes less than two weeks after a US Raid ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro from power. Trump has so far dismissed Machado as an immediate option to replace Maduro, instead opting to work with acting President Delsey Rodriguez, who was Maduro's vice president. As the clashes between protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE agents rage on in Minneapolis, President Trump is threatening to invoke the Insurrection act and send in the military to restore order. The Insurrection act allows a president to deploy military assets to restore civil order. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says she's talked with Trump about invoking it.
- [03:30]
Maria Baer
He certainly has the constitutional authority to utilize that. My hope is that this leadership team in Minnesota will start to work with us to get criminals off the streets.
- [03:41]
Mark Mellinger
Protests have been going on for more than a week now in response to an ICE agent's fatal shooting of protester Renee Good. The White House insists the shooting was in self defense because Good was driving a vehicle toward the agent at close range, actually striking him. Protesters dispute that the agent's life was in danger. A second non fatal shooting of a protester has led to even more heated demonstrations this week. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz Thursday asked protesters to express their frustrations peacefully and asked Trump to back off his threat to send in the military. Several Democrat led state legislatures are now pushing for new restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. Lawmakers in states like California and New Jersey are proposing bills with a wide variety of provisions, ranging from blocking state police from cooperating with ice, to forbidding local and state officers from holding second jobs with the Department of Homeland Security. Chris Swanson, who's running in the Democratic primary for Michigan governor, says clashes between protesters and ICE in Minnesota have the nation on edge.
- [04:53]
Various News Commentators
The country is uneasy. They are not at peace. There's a better way to do all of this and that's not happening. And we continue to have these conflicts.
- [05:01]
Mark Mellinger
This is not going to be the end of it. Meantime, Deep Red Tennessee is going the other direction. Lawmakers there are proposing bills in full support of President Trump's immigration crackdown, including checking the legal status of people who apply for public benefits, professional licenses or try to register vehicles. He is calling it the Great Health Care Plan. President Trump Thursday unveiled his administration's answer to rising health care costs. At its core, the plan would create a policy sending payments directly to American families to cover their health care costs. That's instead of the current system which sends federal subsidies to insurance companies on behalf of those families.
- [05:45]
Film Noir Character (various)
The government is going to pay the.
- [05:47]
George Grant
Money directly to you.
- [05:49]
Various News Commentators
It goes to you and then you.
- [05:51]
Maria Baer
Take the money and buy your own health care.
- [05:53]
Various News Commentators
Nobody's ever heard of that before and.
- [05:55]
Mark Mellinger
That'S the way it is.
- [05:57]
Various News Commentators
The big insurance companies lose and the people of our country win.
- [06:02]
Mark Mellinger
But critics say the plan falls short of addressing rising premiums. Trump called on Congress to quickly take up the plan and pass it. The average long term US Mortgage rate is now the lowest it has been in more than three years. The 30 year fixed rate mortgage dropped to just slightly over 6%. One year ago, that rate averaged more than 7%. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt says the market still has a long way to go.
- [06:29]
Maria Baer
President Trump knows America is strongest when it's a nation of owners, not renters. And he is determined to unlock that opportunity for as many Americans as possible.
- [06:39]
Mark Mellinger
The president has floated a number of ideas he says are designed to increase the purchasing power of potential home buyers. Those include blocking large institutional investors from purchasing houses and the idea of a 50 year mortgage to decrease monthly payments. I'm Mark Bellinger. Straight ahead, what happens when online narratives collide with real life? Maria Baer is here for Culture Friday. And later, what the film no noir genre reveals about good, evil and the human heart. This is the world and everything in it.
- [07:29]
Myrna Brown
It's Friday, January 16th. Glad to have you along for today's edition of THE and Everything in It. Good morning. I'm Myrna Brown.
- [07:38]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Eicher. It's CULTURE Friday. Joining us now, journalist Maria Baer. Now you have heard Maria voicing commentaries for World Telling Stories here on this program. And if you're a Breakpoint this Week listener, you probably are. You know Maria as John Stonestreet's co host. So with John away this week, we thought we would call up Maria. So, Maria, welcome and good morning to you.
- [08:04]
Maria Baer
Good morning, Nick and Myrna. I am honored to be here and I promise not to poke too much fun at John while he's away.
- [08:11]
Nick Eicher
Well, not too much, but enough, I think, right? Enough. Well, Maria, I wanted to make sure that you had heard a recent Allie Beth Stuckey podcast and you had and you found it just as interesting a take on the sad situation in Minnesota as I found it to be. But to catch the listener up who may not be familiar with it, I wanna retell in brief Stuckey's attempt to expl to her conservative audience why the woman shot in Minneapolis by an ICE agent acted as she did. Stuckey retold the Renee Good story from a sympathetic point of view by reconstructing the moral world that Stuckey believed good was living in. And in that telling, good had absorbed a steady stream of online narratives portraying immigration enforcement as a replay of history's darkest chapter, America as 1932, Germany, ICE as kidnappers and silence as complicity. And as Stuckey told the story, Good may have been convinced that history was testing her and she believed action was required of her, but certainly not because she was seeking violence, certainly not wanting things to end as they did. Now, Ellie Bethucky told this very Sympathetic story over about 4 minutes time on her podcast. And let me just play a few seconds of how she delivered it, just to give you a flavor of what it sounded like.
- [09:44]
Maria Baer
If evil is to be stopped, good men and women must do something. Renee knew this. She had been involved in protests before. As a queer woman, she felt fidelity to everyone who fell outside of the norms of the CIS hetero white patriarchy. And she felt obligated to lend her influence to the cause of equality. She was a mother, a wife, a fierce defender of progress for the sake of her children and her country.
- [10:11]
Nick Eicher
Well, now, Maria, this is one of those scenarios where you perceive that you are in a moment of history and you want history to judge you well. You want to be, as they say, on the right side of history, and moral certainty hardens into obligation to take action. What do you think about that? Does that sound about right?
- [10:33]
Maria Baer
Yeah, it's a great question. I was really compelled by Ali Beth's characterization of the situation and grateful for it because I think in her words, what she wanted to do was help those of us who maybe are a little bit more skeptical or trying to understand the situation from both sides. I want to be clear, I'm going to speak in generalities here because I, of course, did not know Renee Goode. I know Allie Beth didn't pretend to know her. I think there were a couple things at play here. The first one is, given the way we live our lives right now, which is increasingly online, I think a lot of interactions like this one feel less real to us than they are. I was struck by that after seeing this video, which I frankly wish I hadn't seen. You know, right now, our definition of doing something more and more means saying something online. And I think that that has had a real impact on how we perceive the situations we're actually in in the real world. I remember feeling this way after the shooting of Charlie Kirk and reading some of the text exchanges between the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, and his friend, or however you'd characterize this other person afterwards. And I felt the same watching Renee Goode. I think in the moments before her death, she was. You could see her kind of like dancing in her car. She didn't seem to understand the stakes that she was in a truly life or death dangerous situation. She was not acting like she was in that situation. So I think that's really important to understand her actions. First of all, Allie Beth's characterization was sort of of a valiant woman charging into battle, like, ready to lay down her life. And I Just don't think. Most of us think. Think about life that way. I don't think that's where her mind was. The other part of Ali Beth's characterization was that Renee Goode's actions can be somewhat understood by this phenomenon called misplaced mothering. Now, Renee Goode was, of course, a literal mother. She had children, which adds to the tragedy of the situation. But there is, you know, this idea floating around that as we have fewer children in America, women in particular are built with this innate design and purpose towards nurture and care for children. And when they don't have children, that that design and desire gets directed to something else. And as Ali Beth said, it could be pets or plants or political causes. But in this situation, I'm not sure that that applies. And here's why. You don't see people like Ali Beth was describing the sort of archetypal, liberal, progressive woman who is, you know, an activist. You don't see them typically doing the actual work of nurturing the people that they say they're caring for. And that's the distinction I'm drawing. If this were really an issue of misplaced mothering and the desire to nurture being misdirected, we would see actual nurture. And that's not what we're seeing.
- [13:49]
Myrna Brown
Aria, my ears perked up when I heard you mention earlier women, our innate desire to mother, which fits perfectly to this question that I have for you. Married motherhood. We've talked about this before on Culture Friday. How depression rates are generally lower in married moms. How rates of personal satisfaction are higher in married moms. Still, some young women today see married motherhood as low status. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think is behind that and how we can change it.
- [14:34]
Maria Baer
I think about it all the time. I think you're right that marriage and motherhood, particularly stay at home motherhood, is perceived as socially low status right now. I think there's a lot of factors as to why that is, but I definitely think that has contributed to the lower birth rates and lower marriage rates that we're seeing. And I don't think that's a positive thing. When I talk about the innate desire of women to nurture and that that needs an outlet that is a deeply human desire and a human need. Nothing provides that more than becoming a parent. Nothing requires the sort of relentless laying down of yourself like becoming a parent does. And it turns out we need to have the opportunity to rise to that challenge. It's a paradox because, you know, some of the Same surveys that show higher levels of satisfaction and meaning in married moms also show much higher levels of stress and lower levels of sleep. And all of the above for married moms. Which seems like a paradox because we we 10 to think of happiness as pleasure. But all of the happiness research shows it's not actually pleasure. It is meaning and satisfaction. And nothing gives us that like marriage and motherhood. Which is why it is so sad that it's been perceived as low status. I'm fascinated as to why that's happened. I do think one of the reasons is pretty basic. And it's that it's not something that you've proven that you can do that nobody else can do, and therefore you've made your mark on the world. But again, paradoxically, being a mom is one of the most unique individual things you can do for the world. Because many, many, many women can be mothers, but no one else but you can mother your children. And I think it's a lie from the enemy that it's commonplace or somehow boring or it's less impactful to be a married mom. I'd love to see the social status of being a married mom rise. I think one of the best ways we're gonna do that is by becoming married moms and making it look cool. And that is my personal goal. So.
- [16:57]
Myrna Brown
Well, we talked about poking a little fun at John earlier and so now we get to do it. I didn't bring this up last week talking about ccm. Cause CCM is not John's thing. So I thought I have a chance now. So we're talking about Amy Grant. Last week on January 6th, she released a new single and it is called January 6th. You've heard it. Part of the lyric. I hear the words John Lennon said, asking me to Imagine, referring to his anti Christian worldview song Imagine. A lot of chatter on this. Christians split down the middle, different sides. Some people say, you know, you know, they're rushing to her defense, she's being viciously attacked. And then others say, well, anybody who believes that Woodstock or John Lennon's Imagine are things to celebrate has truly lost their way. So, Maria, does this sound like someone simply wrestling with pain and division through artistic expression?
- [17:59]
Maria Baer
I love this question, Myrna. And I am going to dedicate myself to finding a way to bring this up on Breakpoint this week, just so I can see John's side eyed glance at me, which would signify we are not going there. I have heard the song. I have to say it made me nostalgic for riding in the car with my mom, listening to the radio and hearing her sing. She sounds incredible. This song is strange, Myrna. You know, when January 6th came and went this year, I did have a moment where I was like, oh my goodness, that's right. This was supposed to be the day that ended everything and that, you know, our democracy just flew away in the. In the middle of the day and we all, you know, we woke up to a new world the next day and it just remarkably does not feel like that. And I thought of all the other things that felt so much more serious, like the fact that during COVID we had wild west zones in cities like Seattle and Portland where there was no rule of law except mobs that had taken over full city blocks. And somehow that's not part of our conversation about, you know, the challenges to democracy. But this song, to me, more just, it felt again like the desire to be seen as the right kind of person. To be seen as the person who cares about the right kinds of things and says the right code words. I mean, to bring it all back to what we were talking about at the beginning. So much of this is posturing. It feels like a game. It's sending the signals that you're the right kind of person and you think the right things and you're in the right club and the wrong kind of people will not like this song. And therefore I'm the right kind of people. I mean, it's hard not to, you know, again, be cynical, but to see it that way, just because it was such a melodramatic song and it still seems strange to me, given the state of our at least somewhat functioning democracy at this point, to point to January 6th as being anything other than an embarrassing riot.
- [20:01]
Nick Eicher
You know, Maria Baer is a journalist and co host of Breakpoint this week. Maria, enjoyed the visit. Thank you.
- [20:09]
Maria Baer
So good to see you, Nick and Myrna, thanks for having me. Hey, mister, where's the road to Yasgar's farm? He stares at me with pity and alarm since night crowd left here long ago Scattered all the hell and heart Harvest Fairy.
- [20:42]
Myrna Brown
On 6 January. On the 6th of January.
- [20:55]
Various News Commentators
Additional support comes from his words Abiding in you, a podcast where listeners memorize Bible verses in each episode. His words abiding in you on all podcast apps. From Rich Haven Camp in North Carolina and Iowa Summer camp registration Open now@richhaven.org and from Ambassadors Impact Network where investors collaborate on due diligence to fund faith based companies and venture funds. Ambassadorsimpact.com.
- [21:44]
Myrna Brown
Today is Friday, January 16th. Thank you for turning to world radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Myrna Brown.
- [21:53]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Eicher. Coming next on the world and everything in it, one of America's great movie styles, film noir. Now, you are likely familiar with the telltale signs of film noir. The private eye, the femme fatale, the double cross, the unsolved crime.
- [22:12]
Myrna Brown
Perhaps most well known is the film the maltese falcon from 85 years ago starring Humphrey Bogart.
- [22:19]
Film Noir Character (various)
You're gonna have to talk to me before you're through, sonny. Some of you will. And you can tell the fat man I said so.
- [22:24]
Myrna Brown
World film reviewer Max Bales now with a few worthwhile examples of the genre.
- [22:31]
Max Bellz
Film noir is French for dark film. Italian movie critic Nino Frank coined the term to describe American crime movies in the 1940s. One notable example is a movie from 1947 called out of the past.
- [22:46]
Film Noir Character (various)
That Bailey who burns you up, he run the gas station?
- [22:49]
Myrna Brown
You know him?
- [22:51]
Film Noir Character (various)
I might have once.
- [22:52]
Maria Baer
If he keeps mooning around Jim's girl, nobody will know him. And that'd be too bad.
- [22:58]
Max Bellz
The movie opens in Bridgeport, California, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Jeff Bailey, played by Robert Mitchum, works at a gas station, and we meet him picnicking with his girlfriend next to a sparkling mountain lake.
- [23:11]
Film Noir Character (various)
You've been a lot of places, haven't you? One too many.
- [23:14]
Maria Baer
Which did you like?
- [23:16]
Film Noir Character (various)
This one right here.
- [23:18]
Maria Baer
Bet you said that to all the places.
- [23:20]
Max Bellz
But a visitor comes to town looking for Jeff and tries to pull him back into his murky past. Jeff's past invades his present.
- [23:29]
Film Noir Character (various)
A guy that showed up today. Yes? Want to take a ride with me up to Lake Tahoe?
- [23:35]
Maria Baer
Now?
- [23:36]
Film Noir Character (various)
Yes, now. I want to tell you something. All right, Jeff.
- [23:40]
Max Bellz
A long flashback reveals that a gangster named Whit Sterling had hired Jeff to find his missing girlfriend, Kathy. Jeff found her in Mexico City and fatefully fell in love with her.
- [23:51]
Film Noir Character (various)
And then I saw her coming out of the sun, and I knew why. Whit didn't care about that 40 grand.
- [23:57]
Max Bellz
They try to run away from wit, but he uses his clout to win Kathy back. The timeline of the movie then returns to the present. Wit forces Jeff back into a web of blackmail and betrayal, where he finds Kathy again, But this time he's wary of her. Jeff is groping around in a dark world all alone.
- [24:17]
Film Noir Character (various)
So I just followed that 90 pounds of excess baggage to Mexico City. She had been at the Reform and then gone. I took the bus house like she did.
- [24:25]
Max Bellz
Jeff wants to start over in this idyllic small town, but unsavory characters from his previous life draw him back into a life of coercion and secrecy. He wants to shed it all, but the struggle for survival is real.
- [24:38]
Film Noir Character (various)
Find her, Jeff. Bring her back. Why me? Well, I know a lot of smart guys and a few honest ones. And you're both.
- [24:47]
Max Bellz
Much of the movie hinges on the great performance and loose ease of Robert Mitchum. Heavy lidded, his face shows little and his attitude is relaxed even as he bears his burdens. As one of the characters notes, buddy, you look like you're in trouble because you don't act like it.
- [25:04]
Film Noir Character (various)
Let's go down the bar. You can cool off while we try to impress each other.
- [25:07]
Max Bellz
The source material for film noir was often the hard boiled crime fiction popular in America at the time. Post war prosperity is well documented, but the movies of the 40s carry a heavier weight than the madcap films of the 30s. Perhaps the grave losses from World War II made people more sober.
- [25:26]
Film Noir Character (various)
Don't you see?
- [25:27]
Myrna Brown
You've only me to make deals with now.
- [25:31]
Film Noir Character (various)
Build my gallows high, baby. No.
- [25:33]
Max Bellz
The camera in film noir drew on the shadowy photography of earlier German movies. The faces of the characters drift out of and then back into the light. Whole portions of the screen are in darkness. The lighting fits the shifting moral ground the characters travel. The light can be warm, but also foreboding as it catches the outline of a face or the brim of a hat. It's not clear right away whether the person means good or harm. Cigarette smoke diffuses the light and even small amounts of light reveal big actions. The settings are clearly American people in suburban neighborhoods living normal lives, like Fred McMurray's character, an insurance salesman in Double Indemnity, another high water mark of the genre.
- [26:19]
Film Noir Character (various)
Hi. Kil Diedrichson, me Walter Neff, insurance agent. 35 years old, unmarried, no visible scars. Until a while ago, that is.
- [26:29]
Max Bellz
Or in the lesser known detour from 1945, the main character, Al Roberts, assumes the name of a man who mysteriously died.
- [26:39]
Film Noir Character (various)
There was no time to lose. Every minute I had to be Charles Haskell was dangerous.
- [26:43]
Various News Commentators
Hey, you.
- [26:44]
Mark Mellinger
This your car?
- [26:45]
Film Noir Character (various)
By that time, I'd done just what the police would say I did even if I didn't.
- [26:48]
Max Bellz
Al is down and out, and the rip current of life pulls him under again. We have a desperate person exposed to the ugly side of human deception.
- [26:57]
Myrna Brown
You know, you're rather charming yourself, but.
- [26:59]
Film Noir Character (various)
I'm afraid I don't quite understand you. Well, if you'll drop this Junior League patter, we May get the conversation down where it belongs. You worried about something? I don't know. Should I be?
- [27:09]
Myrna Brown
Not if you do what you're told.
- [27:11]
Film Noir Character (various)
That's why I'm here. I do what I'm told. People trust me. Do you?
- [27:16]
Max Bellz
By all appearances, film noir characters are often ordinary people. But when evil forces emerge, they are lost in a scorched moral landscape. Frequently, as in out of the past, the scrambled timeline shows the psychological side because the moral struggle can be expressed inwardly through the voiceover monologue.
- [27:34]
Film Noir Character (various)
Now, the first thing I want to get off my chest. My name isn't Bailey. It's Markham.
- [27:38]
Maria Baer
Markham. Jeff Markham.
- [27:41]
Film Noir Character (various)
I should have told you before. I meant to, but I kept putting it off.
- [27:46]
Max Bellz
Whether it's greed or murder, film noir thrusts people into moral quandaries. Though the physical reality shows a calm exterior guilt and temptation course beneath the surface. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said that the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. Film noir is a visual expression of that struggle, making these movies worth revisiting. I'm Max Bellz.
- [28:15]
Nick Eicher
Well, we have done all the totaling up and double checking on the December giving drive and it all adds up to this. We owe you a word of thanks. You are always there for us. Each of these giving drives just proves it further and further and it is what keeps us going to every single giver of every single dollar in our December giving drive. Thank you.
- [28:37]
Myrna Brown
Yes, thank you. You once again showed up in a big way. Your generosity strengthened this work as we're off and running into a new year. And it's been such an encouragement to our entire staff.
- [28:51]
Nick Eicher
So whether you considered your gift large or small, whether it was one time or ongoing, it is going to make a real difference for us in 2026. Well, up next on the world and everything in it, mistaken meanings that stuck.
- [29:07]
Myrna Brown
From printing mistakes to mispronunciations, George Grant has a look at the linguistic accidents that somehow made it into our everyday speech. It's wordplay for January.
- [29:20]
George Grant
According to Mario Andrew Pei, the renowned Italian born American linguist, of all the words that exist in any language, only a small minority are pure, unadulterated original roots. The majority are coined words, forms that have been in one way or another created, augmented, cut down, combined and recombined to convey new needed meanings. The language mint is more than a mint. It is a great manufacturing center, he said, where all sorts of productive activities go on unceasingly. Sometimes, though, that linguistic manufacturing process goes awry and new words are produced not by design but by mishap. These accidental terms are sometimes called ghost words. They generally originate from typographical errors, misprints, misspellings, or mispronunciations. If the errors are widely repeated, ghost words can then enter into legitimate usage, taking on lives of their own. Examples abound. The word apron comes from the medieval French naperon. English speakers mispronounced a naperon as an apron, and over time the misunderstanding persisted. Algorithm comes from the medieval Latin algorismus. The word was simply a bad translation of al kwazarmi, the name of a pioneering Arab mathematician. The word sneeze was originally spelled with an f, not an s f neeze. In early typography, a lowercase f could easily be confused with an uppercase s. Eventually, this ghost misreading became normative. In Middle English, a single p was called appease. It was often misinterpreted as a plural word, however, due to its final s sound. As a result, a singular version of the word came into common usage, and the old plural passen was abandoned. The word varsity was originally versaty, an abbreviation of university. But somewhere along the way, a combination of mishearing, mispronouncing, and misspelling gave us a whole new ghost word. The French term n' per meant one without equal spoken aloud. A non per was erroneously heard as an, and over time the mistake morphed into our word umpire. Tornado is a mis rendering of the Spanish term tronada, meaning thunderstorm. Eventually, perhaps due to sloppy syntax, the r and o were inverted, creating the modern ghost word tornado. An echonym was an Anglo Saxon term for a secondary or unofficial name, literally an also name. Inevitably, echaname was misheard and repeated as a nickname. A host of other ghost words have found their way into our everyday conversations. Squeeze, ammunition, sachet, ok, expedite, culprit, ingot, abacot, and gravy. Though the story is perhaps apocryphal, my favorite ghost word is pumpernickel. It supposedly comes from a quip of Napoleon, who dismissed the dense, earthy German bread as CE pain pour nicole, meaning fit only for his horse. Perhaps James Joyce was right, declaring that mistakes are but portals of discovery even when it comes to our vocabulary. I'm George Grant.
- [34:14]
Nick Eicher
For decades, the Presbyterian Church in America has grown while many mainline denominations have shed millions of members. But a rare leadership rupture at the top of the PCA last summer has now put that record under strain.
- [34:29]
Myrna Brown
With the nomination of Fred Greco as the PCA's new stated clerk, church leaders are looking for steady behind the scenes leadership to restore continuity and trust. World associate correspondent Zoe Miller reports.
- [34:44]
Zoe Miller
The Stated Clerk is the top executive officer of the pca. It's a career position with enormous influence. And in the PCA's 50 plus year history, the first four men who held the job served decades at a time. The fifth one lasted just five years.
- [35:00]
Various News Commentators
Those are the names of the Scandalizers.
- [35:05]
Zoe Miller
The opening came after the abrupt departure of one of the PCA's most prominent figures. Brian Chappell resigned the Stated Clerk job last year after a podcast appearance in which he falsely accused accused more than a dozen well known figures of being what he called Scandalizers. Chapel claimed each had left the faith, left his family or taken his own life, which was demonstrably untrue. The incident triggered formal complaints, strained relationships with sister denominations and ended Chapel's tenure prematurely.
- [35:35]
Various News Commentators
In an unanticipated moment, I responded to a question in a way that did not accurately or well represent individuals, my church or my office.
- [35:47]
Zoe Miller
That's Chapel apologizing at the PCA General assembly last summer. Ever since his resignation, an interim has served in his place while a search for his replacement was underway. Now the PCA has nominated Pastor Fred Greco to take the job pending confirmation this summer.
- [36:05]
Mark Mellinger
Fred was above and beyond the best candidate. There was no question.
- [36:10]
Zoe Miller
Lay Elder Mel Duncan is one of the men on the committee that recommended Greco, considering him a stabilizer.
- [36:16]
Mark Mellinger
I also think there's just some trust problems in the pca.
- [36:22]
Zoe Miller
The PCA has work to do to restore church health after the damage of the Brian Chappell episode. Duncan believes Greco has the institutional knowledge to do it.
- [36:32]
Mark Mellinger
That was just a very awkward time for him and for the denomination and, and I'm very grateful for his legacy and he's done a lot of good for the church. But I'm very excited that Fred is now in that chair.
- [36:46]
Zoe Miller
George Sayor is with the PCA's mission to North America and works as a pastor with Ministry to State its outreach to governments. In his mind, Greco is a big shift in the right direction because he understands the history of the PCA and has the nuance required for the application of its doctrine.
- [37:03]
Various News Commentators
Two stated clerks ago, Roy Taylor like just universally respected. Didn't he had a knack for explaining things without, without giving his opinion on those things. And that's very important for the state of Clerk's office. So yeah, I think Fred Greco knows how to do that well and that's why again he received just universal acclamation for his job as our moderator a couple of years ago.
- [37:30]
Zoe Miller
For Sayor, Greco's nomination is a direct result of his performance at the 50th General Assembly. He served as moderator, the man tasked with navigating the PCA's complex rules of order. Greco turned what could have been a fractured, contentious meeting into a masterclass in leadership and discretion.
- [37:47]
Various News Commentators
Fred Greco was universally hailed as one of the best moderators we've had in recent history. In what could have been a very contentious General Assembly. He just showed great adeptness at and fluency with, with our polity, adeptness at applying it in the moment. He does it with levity, he does it with strength. It's. Yeah, he's going to be great, I think.
- [38:14]
Zoe Miller
Some of the conversation surrounding the PCA's leadership transition has played out online. In a social media post, Danny Morgan, an associate pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Austin, welcomed Greco's nomination while raising a concern about whether denominational governance could begin to eclipse mission and evangelism. Still, in the minds of many, Greco is what the PCA needs going forward. After a rare and public failure at the top, Greco himself told me he hopes he lives up to the hype.
- [38:44]
Various News Commentators
One of the main things that the state of clerk is to do is to serve as that practical function that the ligaments that bind the body together, if I can use a Pauline analogy, and I think that helps the advancement.
- [38:59]
Zoe Miller
Of the church, he says. The church needs to be forthright about the roles and responsibilities of their elders and deacons, how they are accountable and be transparent about that.
- [39:07]
Various News Commentators
I think it will continue to be a breath of fresh air in our society. We have one church, we have one standard, we have one goal, and we work together as the body of Christ in a broader sense than just in a local congregation.
- [39:23]
Zoe Miller
At a time when the PCA is growing in number, the way church leaders conduct themselves bears directly on the trustworthiness of the message they preach. For Greco, it's a matter of stewardship. There is a lot at stake. The PCA's legacy is one of standing for biblical doctrine against a tide of mainline liberalism. It did, after all, grow out of the mainline Presbyterian movement. Half a century later, there have emerged very real divisions under the surface in PCA leadership, and Greco's moment is about navigating them and holding firm to its founding. Reporting for world, I'm Zoe Miller.
- [40:06]
Nick Eicher
All right, time now to name the crew who helped with this week's programs. Mary Reichard, David Bonson, Mary Muncie, Elizabeth Schenck, Bethel McGrew, Juliana Chan Erickson Hunter Baker, Onise Addua, Cal Thomas, Claire Wilkerson, Emma Emma Frere, Maria Baer, Max Bells, George Grant and Zoe Miller. Thanks also to our breaking news crew, Kent Covington, Mark Mellinger, Steve Klosterman, Travis Kircher, Daniel Devine and Christina Grube. And thanks to the Twilight techs, the moonlight maestros, the overnight outfitters serving up the program each weekday bright and early, Benj Iker and Carl Peetz Harris. Harrison Waters is Washington producer, Kristen Flavin is features editor, Lindsay Mast is producer, and I'm executive producer Nick Eicher.
- [40:58]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. 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, the Lord is my chosen portion of the and my cup you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night. Also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken, therefore my heart is glad, and my heart whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. Verses 5 through 9 of Psalm 16 Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart, and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly this weekend as you worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ in church on the Lord's day, and Lord willing, we'll meet you right back here on the Monday. Go now in grace and peace.