← The World and Everything In It
The World and Everything In It
12.3.25 Analysis of the Tennessee election, World Tour highlights, and the friendship between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis
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Before we get started, it's my privilege to offer a word of sincere thanks to each one who responded yesterday on Giving Tuesday with the first time gift. Thank you. Your response lifts us up, especially the remarkable number who pledged ongoing recurring support.
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You know, at World, the journalists you support produce so many great stories all year long. And when you give, you can think of it as stepping into the story by making those stories possible. You can think of it too as stepping into the story, the story of independent Christian journalism. All week, we're continuing our new donor drive. If you're new and World is becoming a regular part of your daily routine, then you are the kind of listener we count on to support this program.
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Yeah. And if you've not yet made a gift of support, we understand. But this is the week to change that and join with so many other first time donors. You know, I really love that $50,000 challenge gift that kicked off the drive, not as a match but as a challenge and encouragement. It's a reminder that we're all in this together, that no one is expected to go it alone or carry the whole burden.
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And when you give you join the team, you step into the story. WNG.org Newdonor.
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Good morning. Today on Washington Wednesday, electoral politics, foreign and domestic, the law of war, the war on law and vetting refugees.
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Hunter Baker is standing by. Also today, world tour and later, recovering heroism and faith in the shadows of darkness.
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The survival of Great Britain, the survival of Western civilization is an open question. And these men are getting on with their callings in the midst of that.
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And the isolation of elite life. Commentary from World Opinions contributor Erik Erikson.
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It's Wednesday, December 3rd. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Lindsay Mast.
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And I'm Nick Eicher. Good morning.
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Up next, Mark Mellinger has today's news.
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The Trump administration is doubling down in its defense of a double strike. Lawmakers in both parties are concerned the second strike on a suspected drug boat from Venezuela three months ago could be a war crime. But the White House is defending the follow up hit which targeted survivors of the initial strike as a lawful act of self defense. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is distancing himself from the second strike, saying he didn't see survivors in the water while watching the initial strike live, didn't stick around for the conclusion and that the admiral in charge, Frank Bradley, made the right call in ordering the second hit. Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. Hegseth making those comments during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. Meantime, as lawmakers in both parties step up their scrutiny of the strike, some are calling for Hegseth's ouster. Democratic Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal Hegseth trying.
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To shift the blame and make Admiral.
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Bradley the fall guy ought to be.
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Reason to ask for his resignation or fire him.
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Admiral Bradley is expected to give a classified briefing to lawmakers overseeing the military Thursday. U.S. and Russian leaders met for five hours of talks at the Kremlin Tuesday, but where the effort to end Russia's war on Ukraine goes from here is unclear. A senior adviser to Russian leader Vladimir Putin called the talks constructive but says a lot of work remains. The advisor also says a compromise hasn't been found on the issue of Ukraine ceding territory to Russia and says there will be no resolution without that. President Trump sounded determined Tuesday.
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Our people are over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled. Not an easy situation, let me tell you. What a mess.
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Trump's son in law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff presented the White House's peace proposal to Putin and key aides. Some analysts criticized the plan at first for being tilted in Russia's favor, but it's since undergone revisions to give Ukraine more of a fair shake. After Democrats won prominent races in places like Virginia and New Jersey last month, Republicans were hoping for a bounce back win in Tennessee last night. They got it, but it wasn't easy. Republican Matt Van epps held Tennessee's 7th district congressional seat for the GOP in Tuesday's special election, fending off Democrat Afton Bain. Vaneps won by a solid roughly 10 point margin, but it was still a relatively close result considering President Trump won the district by than 20 points three times. Analysis from Hunter Baker is just a few minutes away in our Washington Wednesday segment as President Trump blames Minnesota's Somali community for a huge fraud scheme involving the state's social services. Leaders in Minneapolis are bracing for immigration enforcement operations in the next few days. Those operations will focus on unauthorized Somali immigrants living in that city. Mayor Jacob Fry promises local police won't support Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE activity.
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Our values and our commitment to the Somali community, to every community of immigrants and people in our city, is rock solid and will be unwavering.
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As part of the recently uncovered fraud scheme, Somali immigrants are suspected of funneling US Taxpayers money to an Al Qaeda linked terror group in Somalia. The suspect in last week's D.C. shooting that killed one National Guard member and left another fighting for his life now formally faces murder and assault charges. The Afghan national made a court appearance remotely from his hospital bed. U.S. attorney for D.C. jeanine Pirro says she's throwing the book at him.
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We are pursuing everything.
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There is nothing off the table right now. The suspect, who was shot himself in the encounter not far from the White House, said he was in pain and couldn't open his eyes. An attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. The technology mogul Michael Dell and his wife are pledging more than $6 billion to supercharge so called Trump accounts that allow families to invest in the stock market for their kids. Under the program, the treasury department will deposit $1,000 into investment accounts for all American children BOR between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028. But the Trump accounts are actually available to any American child under 18. Michael Dell says his gift won't cover babies getting the thousand dollar seed money. Instead, he says our gift will cover.
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Most of the children that are 10 and under that are not part of the Federal Program, the 0 to 2.
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Year olds and who also live in.
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Zip codes where the median income is $150,000 or less.
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The Dells say the accounts won't officially launch until July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of American independence. I'm Mark Mellinger. Straight ahead, Washington, Wednesday, Hunter Baker sizes up what happened in Tennessee last night and later exploring the friendship between Tolkien and Lewis. This is the World and everything in It.
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It's Wednesday, December 3rd. Glad to have you along for today's edition of the World and Everything in It. Good morning. I'm Lindsay Mast.
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And I'm Nick Iker. Time now for Washington Wednesday. Joining us, political scientist Hunter Baker. Good morning to you, Hunter.
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Good morning.
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Well, you heard the news from Mark Mellinger just a few moments ago. We kind of saw this coming as we went into Election Day yesterday. It does appear Republicans hold the seat, but just barely. And this in a district where President Trump a year ago carried it by 22 points. This was way closer than anyone would have expected in normal times. So, Hunter, what does a result like this tell you?
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The first thing I want to say is something I think that not many people are talking about, which is the decision of Representative Mark Green to abandon his seat halfway through his term. You're talking about a situation where the Republican majority is on a knife's edge and he is leaving midterm to pursue a job opportunity or a new business or something like that. And I'm just thinking to myself, when you ran for office. You ran to represent the people. And I just don't think that it makes sense to leave, especially when national policy is on the edge, to pursue a new interest. The term is only two years. Now, that having been said, yes, it's a big deal. It's a big deal for the Republicans to hold the seat, and it's a big deal that they barely held the seat. You're exactly right. This should be a very easy hold. And I think that's why the opponent, Ms. Bain, is such an odd opponent who has talked about how she hates Nashville and she hates all the bridesmaids and all the petal taverns and all these things like that. Normally, she would not register, but it looks like she has. And I think that that's not good news for Donald Trump because it indicates that there's tremendous resistance even in Trump country.
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Well, let's turn to Honduras. The presidential election there is in what officials call a technical tie. The two leading cand are separated by just a few hundred votes. The country's electoral council has halted the electronic count. It's begun a manual vote by vote verification. That could take weeks. The council's allowed up to 30 days. Now the reasonable listener is saying, this is Washington Wednesday right now, not world tour. Well, there's nothing wrong with your podcast player. This Honduras election does have a Washington angle, though, because of President Trump's huge footprint. He weighed in in favor of national party candid, Nasri Asfura. And just days before, the president pardoned a former Honduran president from that same national party, Juan Orlando Hernandez. He'd been convicted in a U.S. federal court for conspiring with drug cartels. But the word on the street was that he'd retained a level of popularity. That food vendor in Honduras saying Hernandez was not a bad president. His error was getting involved in drug trafficking. Just drug trafficking, though. No big deal, right? Yeah, Unless your name is Nicolas Maduro and you run Venezuela. So, Hunter, here's the question. What do you make of this? It is one thing to endorse a candidate. It's another thing entirely to pardon a kingpin collaborator.
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There is a lot going on here, and I think that part of the reason that we are talking about Latin America so much is because Donald Trump is involving himself in Latin America so much and so often. The first thing I want to take note of is that we've been talking about Argentina, Bolivia, and now Honduras. And in each of those cases, we've seen a rejection of the parties of the left. Now, in Argentina, we had Trump directly saying to the people, I'm going to withdraw support if you don't vote for Milei, who is my candidate. And that seems to have happened again here in Honduras. So his involvement is extremely transactional, very specific, and, you know, it wouldn't necessarily always work. You could alienate the electorate of another country by inserting yourself into their national politics. But so far it seems to be working for Trump here. The pardon of the former president is pretty tough to understand. We are claiming that we're extremely unhappy with quote, unquote, narco terrorists and people who are bringing drugs into the continental United States, and yet we're pardoning this ex president, I guess, on the theory that it could marginally affect the calculus of that election. So the thing that I would say is I think that Trump should think about his principles versus just kind of a pure situational decision making that seems to be going on. We need to know what the United States stands for and then just to clearly pursue that kind of an agenda.
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Well, Hunter, let's talk about the other side of the quote, unquote, narco terrorist coin. I think we need to turn to that harder line that the US takes and a controversial one at that. Congress is now looking into a US strike on a Venezuelan drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean that killed the crew and according to the Washington Post, may also have killed survivors after the vessel was blown up. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denies giving any order to, quote, unquote, kill them all. That's what the Post reported. And a New York Times report citing different officials says that the follow up strike was authorized on the scene by Admiral Frank Bradley. And that name specifically came up in this White House statement by the press Secretary, Caroline Levitt. Let me play that. And most of it, Admiral Bradley worked.
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Well within his authority. And the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and, and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated. And I would just add one more point to remind the American public why these lethal strikes are taking place. Because this administration has designated these narco terrorists as foreign terrorist organizations. The President has a right to take them out if they are threatening the United States of America and if they are bringing illegal narcotics that are killing our citizens at a record rate, which is what they are doing. And under the previous administration, there was enough fentanyl trafficked into our country to kill every American man, woman and child many times over. And so that's why you've seen a drastic difference in this administration's policy with respect to the last and it's one of the many reasons the American public reelected this president and support this secretary of war in conducting these strikes.
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All right, so the White House saying here that the operation was lawful, that it was part of a broader campaign against what it now classifies as foreign terrorist organizations. Now, I read some friendly comments, commentary on this. It was in the Wall Street Journal by the editorial board, saying that the seriousness of the allegation demands full congressional oversight. The Journal says Congress needs the full paper trail, written orders, comms, rules of engagement, all that. It's not prejudging guilt, but it does insist on transparency. So there, I think, is the waterfront, Hunter. So let's draw on your legal training here, and maybe you can tell us what the pertinent legal questions are for Congress and as you wish, just pivot to the political angle.
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Well, I'm gonna start by using a highly legal term, which is this is what is known as a mess. It's a big mess. Now, what should get your attention when you look at any story about this are these words. Narco terrorists. That's because we're kind of setting out a new sort of way of engaging drug traffic. You can imagine that in the past we would, you know, maybe intercept these vehicles, maybe board them, maybe search them. Something really different is happening here. This is more like warfare. And so these are not just sort of drug smugglers. These are narco terrorists. Presidents have tremendous power to do things in the short run. I think that we've recognized early in the history of this country that you can't wait for Congress to deliberate on these things and to authorize presidents to act in the short term. However, I do think that there's a serious question here between what is criminal and justifies sort of police actions and what is warfare and justifies lethal force. One thing that I would say is in favor of the warfare interpretation is the state involvement. Based on what I've seen so far, it seems that we have kind of a union of cartels and the Venezuelan state, which is empowering this sort of drug trafficking. But, boy, we're getting into some scary questions, right? You know, we still don't know this idea of a second attack. Are we attacking survivors after the boat has already been disabled? And if we're. Are we changing the rules of warfare, even if it is warfare, what are the duties to survivors? So I think that there's more to unfold with this story.
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Well, Hunter, we've reported on an Afghan national who received asylum earlier this year who is now charged with killing A member of the National Guard blocks from the White House. He's also charged with the grave wounding of another. That attack has revived questions about how the government screens asylum applicants and how it keeps track of people once they're here. Now, we are assured again and again, and we've reported these assurances in our online stories, quoting refugee NGOs, including one that actually, according to the New York Times, helped this particular man. We are told that these individuals are well vetted, that the system works, that this guy just snapped. But he's just one bad apple. The administration, of course, disagrees. President Trump has already paused new asylum applications, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has floated a new travel ban aimed at countries that are unable or unwilling to provide information about their citizens. The administration's satisfaction. So that's the policy landscape. The shooting, the claims of strong vetting, the pause on asylum, and now the prospect of a broader ban. Hunter, what are the core questions the administration is going to have to answer on vetting?
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We really don't know if vetting would have prevented this incident. This young man may not have been the same sort of person when he came in that he has become. Some of these problems that we experience are the problems of basically and a free society. And part of how you lose a free society is if enough people act in this fashion, if enough people begin to act in unpredictable, dangerous and lethal ways, then the state grows and the restrictions are increased. So that's what we're facing. We have to figure out, are there things that we can do to make this sort of thing less likely? One thing that I would say, and I think this is gonna sound weak to people, but I mean, it is to police our discourse. I think that the way we talk about politics, you know, some people have heard the phrase conflict entrepreneurs. I think that there are conflict entrepreneurs out there who gin things up so much that they sometimes launch some of these people into dangerous sorts of ways of thinking and activity. So the first thing we can do is to discipline our discourse.
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All right, Hunter. Well, we have time for one more. This is a big story. We could have started any one of these, could have started the segment out. But major fallout this week over a fraud scheme involving a Somali immigrant community and the man who might have been vice president, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. This information is staggering. I think federal prosecutors say that dozens of people took more than a billion dollars from the state of Minnesota. That's billion with a B. These are federal numbers. Billion dollars in Minnesota. Taxpayer funds meant to help feed children During COVID Treasury Secretary Scott Besant announced yesterday that his department is looking into whether some of that money may have gone to a terrorist organization. A New York Times piece quotes one investigator who says that the situation grew because Democrats in the state did not want to t and did not want to face backlash from the Somali community, which is a key voter bloc for them. Now, this is not a Washington story per se, but this certainly says something about the leadership of a man who was very close to becoming vice president. So if you pair that with the increased scrutiny on immigrants and refugees right now, I think there's a lot here to unpack. What stands out the most to you here?
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Well, first of all, this, you said this is a national story. It is a national story. This is not just a Minnesota story. I think that we probably could go through the country and find many, many examples of this in the state governments and in the federal government. And really what it comes down to is that governments like to do the easy things and they don't like to do the hard things. It is always easy to dispense massive amounts of money to anybody who asks you for it or anybody who fills out an application. What's hard is figuring out who deserves the money and what is actually a justified request. And then what's hard after that is making sure that you actually police the system, that you find the people who are committing the fraud, that you stop the fraud, you stop it fast. You don't stop it after you're a billion dollars in the hole. And I just think that politicians don't want to do that. They haven't been doing that. And it's a betrayal of everybody who is working hard and doing things the right way. And it's a betrayal of the taxpayer. And I want to see some political leaders who are ready to tackle this problem.
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Hunter Baker is provost at North Greenville University. Thank you so much, Hunter.
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Thank you.
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Additional support comes from Ambassadors Impact Network, helping entrepreneurs with a purpose find the support they need to thrive with faith aligned financing options. More@ambassadorsimpact.com and from Water's Edge. Save more, do more, give more. Helping Christians support ministry by giving through a donor advised fund. Watersedge.com daf.
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Coming up next on the WORLD and Everything in IT World tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Adua.
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We begin today with expatriate Nigerian Christians and other supporters calling for an end to violence in the country. In Madrid, hundreds of protesters chanted and sang outside the Nigerian Embassy. Over the weekend, Nigeria has faced two separate school abductions in recent weeks, more than 200 children remain in captivity. Christiana Wariboko is president of the National Youth Council of Nigeria.
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We as Christians, we're standing on behalf of Christians, representing Nigerian Christians here.
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Please save the lives of Christians. In October, kidnappers abducted a priest, Edwin Achi, along with his wife and daughter in north central Kaduna state last week. Anglican leaders confirmed that fighters killed Achi and his wife and daughter are still with the abductors. Gunmen also abducted nearly 36 people over the weekend in northern Bornu and Kano states and have targeted other parts of the country. The ongoing violence has left Nigerians fearful. Rashidat Enyola says her recent journey by road to northern Kano worried her family and friends. I'm worried each time, each moment that I'm getting closer to my travel time. I'm thinking, I'm asking myself, am I doing the right thing? Am I supposed to be here? Everybody have spoke about the trip today are telling me they don't have money to pay for ransom. Authorities have closed down several schools in the country over the rising attacks. Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu also declared a state of emergency for the entire country and authorized the recruitment of more security forces. In Hong Kong, authorities are still uncovering more details from the city's deadliest fire in decades, which has left more than 150 people dead. The flames began last week at the residential complex, which housed nearly 5,000 people. Some of the residents previously raised concerns about the safety of ongoing renovations. Eric Chan is the chief secretary for administration of Hong Kong. He says samples from seven locations across the complex failed to meet fire resistance test requirements. Officials said. Some exterior netting used on scaffolding also failed the tests. Thousands of people queued up to lay flaws near the complex. Authorities also temporarily detained a student over his petitions for the government to prevent similar disasters from happening. On Sunday, the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan held snap parliamentary elections. Critics say the vote will solidify President Sedera Japarov's hold on power. Allies of the president won all but a handful of seats in an election where no official opposition party was allowed. Djaparov came to power in a 2020 revolution and has since changed the electoral system so that only one party can participate in elections. Kyrgyzstan was once long considered Central Asia's most democratic state, but that reputation has eroded under Dzhaparov. His government has cracked down on political opposition and media freedom in the country. Kyrgyzstan is a close ally of Russia and has stepped into the trade gap created by Western sanctions on the country. We Wrap up. In Brussels, where vandals disrupted a nativity scene at the Christmas market in the main city square, the thieves stole the figure of baby Jesus in a nearly life size display. Officials say the vandalism happened between Friday night and early Saturday, just days after being set up. Critics blame pro Palestinian protesters who crashed the Christmas market on its opening night. The unauthorized protesters set up smoke bombs and chanted pro Hamas slogans, causing market visitors to flee the area. The Brussels nativity display was already controversial this year. The city replaced traditional wooden figurines with faceless cloth ones. Flat patchwork panels cover the heads where faces would be. An organizer says leaders discuss the artistic choice with local churches and that the display is meant to allow everyone to project themselves onto the characters of the Christmas story. But critics are calling the display woke and saying city authorities are pandering to Muslims. Authorities say they have replaced the figure of baby Jesus and that they will keep a closer eye on the manger the rest of the season. That's this week's world tour. I'm Onize Odua.
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In western North Carolina. A driver calls 911.
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Okay, you may not believe me, but I just had a bald eagle drop a cat through my windshield.
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Positive ID of a bird mid flight while she's cruising at highway speed. A bit difficult to believe, but the dispatcher's like, okay, yeah, just another day at the office.
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I do believe you, honestly. Okay. I had a witness. He's like, that is the craziest thing I've ever seen.
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The impact shattered the passenger side, presumably where that eyewitness was sitting. But, ma', am, just one final question.
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Is the cat still alive? No, it is not.
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So she was directed to a highway patrolman who would take her report. And apparently this is not unheard of for birds of prey to drop what they're carrying. What's unusual is the bullseye. It's the world. And everything in. Today is Wednesday, December 3rd. Thank you for turning to World radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Nick I.
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And I'm Lindsay Mast. Coming next on the world and everything in it, recovering moral and spiritual truths.
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In the years leading up to World War II, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis sensed the threat from dangerous ideologies gaining influence over the world. The friends and colleagues set about fighting against it through writing fiction.
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Joseph Leconti's new book explores their friendship and the way it influenced what they wrote and in turn, the world. He is the author of the War for Middle Earth, and he joins us to talk about it. Joseph, good morning, Lindsay.
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It's great to be with you. Thanks so much for having me.
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Sure. Tolkien and Lewis are often lumped together, but in one sentence, what would you say about how they were profoundly different from one another?
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That's a fabulous question. I would say that Tolkien was much more concerned in his imaginative life. He wanted to create these worlds with a very deep, rich history, a real antiquity. As he said in one of his lectures in Beowulf, a deep antiquity of sorrow is so much of the backdrop of the worlds that he's creating. And CS Lewis is not as interested in that. And I think part of the reason is he does want to get to his main message, his deeply Christian, evangelistic message, much quicker, I think, in his works. And Tolkien is more restrained, you might say more modest about that. I think that's one of the significant differences in how they approach their imaginative works.
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Sure. What do you find that each man admired most in the other that readers today maybe tend to overlook or don't know about?
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Yeah, that's another great question, which I have not been asked before, what they admired about each other, because they encourage one another in their writings, as you know. And Lewis really saw the potential in Tolkien to take these stories that he was working with, these short stories, the Fall of Gondolin, the Hobbit itself, when he had the draft in 1933. And he really encourages Tolkien that he is onto something. He is recreating or redesigning or reimagining the heroic ideal and reinventing it for the modern mind. And I think Lewis saw the potential in Tolkien to do that, and that was just remarkable. I think, for Tolkien, he really encouraged Lewis when he first started thinking about his own imaginative fiction, to introduce people to the Christian story. And that was out of the Silent planet. Tolkien helps Lewis to find a publisher. And I think what Tolkien sees in Lewis is this man understands the Christian faith at a profound level, at a deep level, and he's going to use the genre of fiction, science fiction, epic, to communicate that message. And Tolkien was a huge supporter of that effort.
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I'm curious about if there's anything, maybe something you uncovered in your research that maybe most changed your view of either man, something you didn't know or weren't expecting.
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I think the thing that has one of the most profound effects of working on this book, on me personally, was to see how these men pursued their callings as Christian authors and scholars at a moment of civilizational crisis from 1939 to really to 1945. The survival of great Britain, the survival of Western civilization is an open question because of Nazism, communism, scientism, totalitarianism. And these men are getting on with their callings. In the midst of that, they are just determined to push back, to create this beachhead of resistance against the ideological madness that they are awash in. And to me, that's an example of cultural leadership at a moment of cultural crisis that we rarely see nowadays, but we certainly saw it there at Oxford with these two men.
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I'm curious, what's a question about either their friendship or their work that scholars still debate? So much is written about them. So what is out there that is still being debated, and where would you land on whatever that is?
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I guess one of the debates is, how much did. Did Lewis affect Tolkien? How much did Tolkien affect Lewis? That's an ongoing debate because you have these letters between them or letters that they're writing to others which will suggest sometimes that, well, Lewis didn't have any effect on Tolkien or Tolkien didn't have any effect on Lewis. But, you know, when you really unpack their lives, their correspondence, their relationship, their meeting together in the inklings, this group of fellow Christian authors every week right through World War II, the meetings that Tolkien and Lewis had, regular lunches there at Oxford, I think we have to really conclude that neither man would have produced the works that they did without the other. Without the other. At the end of the day, I think you have to come to that conclusion. And Tolkien says explicitly he never would have finished the Lord of the Rings without Louis encouragement. He read virtually every chapter of the Lord of the Rings out loud to CS Lewis, who would respond with encouragement or suggested critique. That's a pretty amazing thing to say. Without that profound encouragement from Lewis. Give me more Tollers, he would say. Give me more. And, of course, Tolkien's influence on Lewis is profound. We know the relationship they had together. The famous walk, conversation on addison's walk in 1931 that leads to. To Lewis's Christian conversion. The capacity for Tolkien to speak into Lewis's mind at that moment of kind of spiritual crisis for him was also profound. So these men had an incredible impact on one another. If you think about it, it's probably one of the most consequential friendships of the 20th century, given the impact of their work.
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Sure, the book was heavy and difficult at times to read, but I found a lot of. I'm glad that I read it. If readers take away maybe only one idea from what would it be? What should keep them going through reading about some of these really dark times in history.
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Yeah. I think the theme of friendship and the importance of friendship between these two men, particularly in this moment of crisis, civilizational crisis, as they're pursuing their callings in that crisis, is really crucial. There is a line from Tolkien. He's writing to his son, one of his sons, during the Second World War. And I think he's going through a rough patch. And he says friendship with Lewis compensates for much. And I love when I read that line for the first time, I thought, wouldn't you love to be the kind of person of whom people say friendship with La Conte compensates for much? So that is a really important part of the storyline here, how their friendship together during those moments of crisis, it really helped them not only to just get through or to endure the Second World War, but to thrive and to offer this amazing vision of life as it could be.
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Well, Joseph Laconte is a New York Times best selling author. His newest book, the War for Middle Earth, is out now. Joseph, thank you so much for being with us.
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Thanks so much for having me. Great to be with you.
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Good morning. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Lindsay Mast.
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And I'm Nick Iker. World Radio World Opinions contributor Eric Erickson believes isolation is harmful for anyone, but especially those who wield power and influence.
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Several weeks ago, millions of people watched all or part of the memorial service for Charlie Kirk. A surprising number of well educated progressives admitted on social media that what they saw seemed foreign and alien to them. The most viral of all the comments came from Thomas Chatterton Williams. His Twitter biography describes him as a staff writer for the Atlantic, a member of faculty at Bard College, a trustee of the American Academy in Berlin, and a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Williams tweeted, I've spent half of my adult life in one foreign country or another, and I don't think I've ever felt so estranged from the surrounding culture as I am from the aesthetics and sensibilities of this movement. Not even a criticism. I just feel more at home in Greece than in these images. The images he's referring to were of Erica Kirk hugging Donald Trump as he pointed up, as well as photographs of worshippers at the memorial service with their arms in the air singing praise music. Williams followed that tweet with this I feel more at home in spots where I can't read the road signs than here. From age 5 to 15, my family lived in Dubai. Every few months we had to leave for visa renewals and My father's oil company would send us to just about any country in the Eastern Hemisphere. Even now, at 50, I've been to more nations than states in our union. At 7, I was eating tablerone bars out of a mini fridge in a Malaysian hotel with the President of Pakistan. At 15, I met Margaret Thatcher. I speak multiple languages, have a postgraduate degree. I have multiple passports. Because I filled up all the pages, I should be among the elite of the elite. But at 15, when my family repatriated to the United States, we settled in rural Louisiana, where I had been born. Our parish, Louisiana has parishes, not counties, is East Feliciana Parish. It remains one of the poorest in the state. My mother's from there. I was born there. Only two of my graduating class left the state. A girl with a sports scholarship who went to Indiana and me. Rural Louisiana, like so many places in America, has a rhythm. Sundays still involve church and family lunch and afternoon football. The small town restaurants are more integrated in the kitchens and in the dining rooms than many restaurants in Manhattan. The schools are more integrated too. The taco is as ubiquitous as the pot of gumbo and the hamburger. It is an American culture that would be recognizable to a person from rural Wisconsin or the exurbs outside of the D.C. beltway. Christianity is similar. There are approximately 2.6 billion Christians on earth. Drop a Christian from one part of the world into another, and though he may not speak the language or recognize all the songs, much of the flow of worship will be recognizable and understood even across the broad expanse of Christendom. From Catholicism to the Greek and Russian Orthodox to the strip mall non denominational Protestant church Christians can recognize Christian worship. What is amazing is how so many of the elite who shape the opinions of their fellow elite cannot recognize either the patterns of living outside a metropolis nor Christian worship. The national press corps drops into Des Moines, Iowa, once every four years in the middle of January to cover presidential primaries and caucuses. It might visit Ames, Iowa, for a fair. But the reality is that Lafayette, Louisiana, Bainbridge, Georgia, Carbondale, Illinois and Dodge City, Kansas, are all still foreign lands to our elite. Mr. Williams and his cohort of elite writers, thinkers and commentators at the Atlantic, the New York Times, cnn, abc, cbs, NBC, pbs, NPR should perhaps spend less time in Athens, Greece, where I've been, and more time in Athens or Rome, Georgia, or maybe Paris, Texas. I would invite them to join me in a pew at the First Presbyterian Church in Macon, Georgia, and on my front porch on a Sunday evening where a group of friends spend the night eating and talking about life watching football. After Covid, Americans live increasingly isolated existences. But long before the pandemic, many of America's elite have chosen to isolate themselves from Americans who live different lives at a different pace. Isolation is unhealthy for anyone, but especially so for the elite, who increasingly feel entitled to wield the levers of technocracy and bureaucracy for and against a population they no longer understand or relate to. I'm Eric Erickson.
- [42:58]
A
Tomorrow, more on what Christians are facing in Nigeria and a call to action to prioritize marriage and family in black communities. That and more tomorrow. I'm Lindsay Mast.
- [43:10]
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And I'm Nick Icker. 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 Bible says, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed. Rightly handling the word of truth. Verse 15 of 2 Timothy, chapter 2. Go now in grace and peace.
- [43:40]
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Sam.