← The World and Everything In It
The World and Everything In It
3.11.26 The administration’s foreign policy, Anglicans redefining the future, and including believers with disabilities
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- [00:06]
Lindsay Mast
Good morning. A change in the president's cabinet and the potential for change in Cuba.
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Hunter Baker
And it may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover. It wouldn't matter.
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Myrna Brown
That and more is ahead on Washington Wednesday with Hunter Baker also on world tour. Internal disagreement with the Church of England and a church seeking to meet the needs of everyone.
- [00:27]
Missy Farrington
Our friends with disabilities, they're human, they're sinful, and they need Jesus just as much as we do.
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Myrna Brown
And a courageous prisoner of war gets the Medal of Honor decades after his death.
- [00:47]
Lindsay Mast
It's Wednesday, March 11th. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Lindsay Mast.
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Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. Good morning.
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Lindsay Mast
Up next, Kent Covington with today's news.
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Kent Covington
The US Military just carried out its heaviest day yet of strikes inside Iran. That's the word for Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, who said the military is not doing the job halfway. Instead, they're looking to cripple the Iranian regime if the enemy can simply wait
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Hunter Baker
and then project power.
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Kent Covington
That's problematic and we've seen some spurts here or there. But ultimately the trend lines, if you
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Hunter Baker
look at the charts that we look at every day have gone like this, down to a flat. It doesn't mean they won't be able
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Kent Covington
to project, doesn't mean. He said Iran's ability to do damage has already been strongly degraded. And America's top general, Dan Kaine agreed, telling reporters that the strength of Iran's response is trending sharply downward. Ballistic missile attacks continue to trend downward 90% from where they've started. And one way attack drones have decreased 83% since the beginning of the operation. And the White House says the military operation is going exactly according to plan, perhaps even better. But there are some mixed messages from the administration about how long the mission might last. After President Trump seemingly suggested this week that the operation could wrap up very soon, the White House clarified that the mission will only end when Iran is in a position of unconditional surrender. In Israel, air raid sirens sounded over Tel Aviv yesterday as flashes appeared in the sky as Israeli interceptors blocked incoming Iranian missiles. There were no reports of any damage or injuries. Israel's military says it has already struck more than 400 military targets in Iran. Meantime, across Israel's northern border, an explosion rocked the Lebanese capital city of Beirut as Israel's air force hit a southern suburb. Israel says those attacks are targeting members of the Iran backed terror group Hezbollah who are active there. Four Iranian diplomats were killed in a strike in Beirut. Iran's Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeed Iravani.
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Hunter Baker
Diplomats have temporarily relocated to the hotel for their safety and security.
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Kent Covington
He called on the UN to condemn the strikes. Canadian police are investigating after two men apparently opened fire on the US Consulate in downtown Toronto on Tuesday. Toronto Deputy Police Chief Frank Barreto Two
- [03:16]
Hunter Baker
individuals emerged from the vehicle, discharged at
- [03:20]
Kent Covington
what appears to be a handgun at
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Hunter Baker
the front of the building and then
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Kent Covington
got back into their vehicle and drove southbound, he said. Police received reports of the shooting and arrived on the scene shortly thereafter. Police say they found spent shell casings as well as damage to the building. There were people inside the building. However, this building is highly secure, highly
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Mary Jackson
fortified and there were no injuries.
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Kent Covington
They released no information about possible suspects. Ontario Premier Doug Ford called the shooting unacceptable intimidation and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chao is linking it to recent gunfire at two synagogues. Chao says police have increased patrols at the US And Israeli consulates. She also warns that anti Semitic incidents often rise during international crises. On Capitol Hill, President Trump's plan for passing a law verifying voter eligibility is facing some friendly fire. World's Harrison Waters has more now from the nation's Capitol. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Tuesday he doesn't have the votes to get the Save America act through debate as is. It takes 60 votes to prevent bill amendments on the floor. President Trump wants him to use the so called nuclear option, changing the Senate rules to end the filibuster that would allow it to pass on a simple majority. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt he
- [04:35]
Mary Jackson
wants all options on the table and
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Missy Farrington
he wants the Senate to move as
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Lindsay Mast
quickly as possible through whatever means necessary.
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Kent Covington
Bethune says there is not enough support in the Senate for ending the filibuster. Trump has said he will not sign any other legislation until the SAVE act hits his desk with a few changes. He wants Congress to include rules blocking mail in ballots along with bans on men and women's sports and transgender surgeries for minors. Reporting for World, I'm Harrison Waters in Washington. The FBI found explosive residue in a Pennsylvania storage unit after two men were charged with bringing homemade bombs to a protest outside the home of New York City's mayor. Police said the FBI conducted controlled detonations after finding the materials at a public storage facility in Langhorne. Democratic Mayor Zoram Mamdani reacted saying he would not be intimidated.
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Hunter Baker
I think first and foremost just to make it clear to everyone that extremism and hatred of any kind will not be tolerated in our city.
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Kent Covington
18 year old Amir Balat and 19 year old Ibrahim Kayumi were arrested Saturday near Gracie Mansion in Manhattan. Investigators say the suspects were inspired by isis. I'm Kent Covington. And straight ahead, Hunter Baker is here for Washington Wednesday. Plus, how one church welcomes those with special needs. This is the World and Everything In It.
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Myrna Brown
It's Wednesday, March 11th. Glad to have you along for today's edition of the World and Everything In It. Good morning. I'm Myrna Brown.
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Lindsay Mast
And I'm Lindsay Mast. Time now for Washington Wednesday. Joining us is political scientist Hunter Baker. He is a world opinions contributor and provost at North Greenville University. Good morning, Hunter.
- [06:37]
Hunter Baker
Good morning.
- [06:38]
Lindsay Mast
Well, Trump's pick for the new head of Homeland Security is gearing up for his confirmation hearing next week. Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen will face colleagues he's served with for the last three years. Mullen is a business owner and former MMA fighter, and he's brought some of that fight into the Senate in 2023. A verbal fight with the Teamsters President, Sean O' Brien during a committee hearing. Almost turned physical.
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Kent Covington
Sir, this is a time, this is a place if you want to run your mouth. We can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.
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Hunter Baker
Okay, that's fine. Perfect. You want to do it now?
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Kent Covington
I'd love to do it right now. Well, stand your butt up then.
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Hunter Baker
You stand your butt up.
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Kent Covington
Oh, hold it. Stop it.
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Lindsay Mast
Mullen later said he's forged a working friendship with o' Brien and he's got wide support on the Hill to take the job at Homeland Security. So, Hunter, what does Trump's choice of a replacement here for Kristi Noem tell you about his priorities?
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Hunter Baker
Just want to say that In Mark Wayne Mullen's short MMA career, he was 3 0, so the Teamsters president may have been wise to avoid that confrontation. This is a, this is a big deal. The Secretary of Homeland Security is a major position in the Cabinet, despite its relative newness starting after September 11th. For her to leave at this point is, you know, it's not a good development for her political career. I mean, I know that she's going over to be the envoy for the Shield of the Americas. But what this tells you is, is that she has lost the president's favor, she's lost his confidence. And I think there's a couple of reasons for that. I think that, first of all, that the action in Minnesota did not go well. I think that it hurt the president on his strongest issue, which is immigration. I think that, you know, he may have lost, I don't know, 12 to 15 points of approval on that issue. Alone. And so what had been a strength has turned into a vulnerability. And in addition to that, there was the controversy over her spending considerable amount of money on ads that put her front and center, and then saying that Trump had approved that massive expenditure, therefore embarrassing him. So that leads to going to Mark Wayne Mullen. Mark Wayne Mullen is a total Trump loyalist. He has built his reputation alongside of Trump basically all the way. And despite that, I'll say despite his sort of pugnacious reputation, my understanding is that he is well liked across the aisle and that he may be able to leverage those relationships into good things for Homeland Security.
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Myrna Brown
Hunter, as you just said, Noam will be joining Marco Rubio's Latin America team as envoy to Shield of the Americas, a new partnership with 13 core member countries in Central and South America aimed at combating drug trafficking and cartels. During the opening summit, Trump announced that with improvements coming to Venezuela, his attention is moving closer to home.
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Hunter Baker
We're also looking forward to the great change that will soon be coming to Cuba. Cuba's at the end of the line now.
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Myrna Brown
When asked about it on Monday, Trump said, Marco Rubio is working on a deal.
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Hunter Baker
It may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover. It wouldn't matter, because they're really in. They're down to, as they say, fumes.
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Myrna Brown
So, Hunter, Cuba has been an American national security challenge for the better part of a century. What kind of changes do you think could be coming?
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Hunter Baker
I'm interested to see how this works out. Obviously, the relationship with Cuba has been fraught ever since the revolution at the end of the 50s. And, of course, we had the disaster of the Bay of Pigs during the Kennedy administration, then, of course, the terrifying Cuban Missile crisis after that. And we have been in a tense, sort of a standoff situation with Cuba ever since. You might have thought that once the Soviet Union collapsed and with it their support for Cuba, that Cuba would fall apart. And yet that hasn't happened. They have survived as a highly ideological regime headed by the Castro family now for decades after the fall of the Soviet Union. But if. Let's imagine, if it happens, that that regime falls and they enter into a constructive relationship with the United States. Could be amazing. I can just imagine what a tourist mecca Cuba would become. I could imagine a Major League baseball team in Cuba. It could be just a total transformation, but I'm waiting to see. I'm excited about what could be, but I don't know if we're going to get there or not.
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Beth El McGrew
Mm.
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Myrna Brown
Well, let's go to the main event, the war with Iran. We saw dramatic swings in oil prices early in the week with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed. We talked about the economic side of that a bit with David Bonson on Monday. But I understand you think there's an important political aspect to this. What are you watching there?
- [11:54]
Hunter Baker
One of the things that we've been saying now for several weeks, maybe even months, is that Americans are highly focused on affordability. When Trump tells Americans how good things are, there tend to be two things that he focuses on. One is the stock market, which is down right now, you know, couple hundred points at least. And the other is gas prices. He loves to talk about low gas prices. And with this action in Iran, we have seen the price of oil go up substantially. And Americans may have noticed, depending on where you live. I live in a relatively low gas price area of the country. A couple of days ago, we had a shock increase to about 320per gallon. And so that gives people the impression, regardless of how big a piece of the pie gas prices are, they do affect the price of everything. That price is constantly in your face, and it gets people's attention. And so we saw the price of oil spike, you know, went up from, say, about $70 a barre to something like $119 a barrel. Now. It's come back down some since then, but that just shows you the political risk. If those prices go up and stay up, then Trump is going to be in a real fight on the affordability front. So it's in his interest to figure out how to deal with this Strait of Hormuz problem. Something like 20% of the world's oil goes through that strait. So if Iran can impose enough economic pain through the Strait of Hormuz, then Trump could lose political support for his war. So he's got to figure out a way to gain control of the Strait and to do so fairly quickly.
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Lindsay Mast
Well, Hunter, let's move finally to what New York Times columnist David French is calling the Talarico moment. He's referring, of course, to James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas, who will face off against either John Cornyn, who currently holds the seat, or Attorney General Ken Paxton. They still have a running off to get through. Here's a bit of Talarico in his speech after he defeated Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett in the primary last week.
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Kent Covington
We're a threat to their corrupt system. Two thousand years ago, when the powerful few at the top hurt those at the bottom. That barefoot rabbi didn't stay in his room and pray. He walked into the seat of power
- [14:24]
Hunter Baker
and flipped over the tables of injustice.
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Lindsay Mast
He's supposedly running on the politics of love and often uses references to Jesus in his speeches. He went to seminary and is affiliated with the mainline Presbyterian Church usa. In French's article this week, he seems to be taking up Talarico's cause to an extent, calling him decent and one of the few Christian politicians who actually acts like a Christian. Now, we played a good bit of Talarico's comments on the program yesterday, so I won't rehash them here. But you, you'll notice, listening to him, how often he cloaks his progressive ideology in scriptural references. Yet even French himself says he thinks Talarico's far too progressive to win over many conservative Christians, but says there are, quote, legions of weary Americans who aren't motivated primarily by ideology. So, Hunter, here's my question. Is French right?
- [15:20]
Hunter Baker
So he may be right that there are Americans who are interested in hearing a Christian type of political political appeal that is not conservative or right wing in nature. But what I think that Talarico is peddling is not necessarily Christian at all. I think that he has Christian language. But if you look at what he has had to say, we are not in the neighborhood of orthodoxy. There's nothing there. I mean, we're talking about classic progressive Christianity of the type that, as Al Mohler pointed out, J. Gresham Machen referred to as liberalism, as opposed to Christianity. In other words, it's a different religion altogether. I was wondering about this as I watched the primary campaign. I wondered how he would do. And then after he won and I started to hear more of the things from his recent past, the past five or six years, I realized that the opposition file on him is going to be incredible. I mean, when people see the things that he said, and I understand it's been played here on the podcast, you know, trans people need abortions too, that kind of stuff. I think that most people in the state of Texas are going to be seriously turned off. And I don't think he's even going to present the kind of threat that Beto o' Rourke did a few years ago.
- [16:45]
Lindsay Mast
Well, Hunter Baker is provost at North Greenville University. Thank you so much, Hunter.
- [16:49]
Hunter Baker
Thank you.
- [16:59]
Kent Covington
Additional support comes from Pensacola Christian College Academic Excellence, Biblical Worldview, affordable cost go pcci.edu world from ambassadors Impact Network. Their report shows how Christian entrepreneurs advance the gospel through business. Ambassadorsimpact.com reports. And from Dort Discovery Days, an academic summer camp for sixth through eighth graders to grow in their faith and build friendships. Dort Edu Discovery.
- [17:46]
Lindsay Mast
Coming UP next on the World and everything in It An Anglican Divide and the Way Forward A group of conservative Anglicans gathered last week in Abuja, Nigeria. They took another step toward what they call the reordering of the Anglican Communion.
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Myrna Brown
World's Africa reporter Onize Odua attended the conference and brings us details on the group's decisions and how they may affect churches across continents.
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Onize Odua
Last week, more than 400 Anglican clergy and lay people gathered at Gafcon in Abuja, Nigeria, to sing, pray and discuss issues in the denomination.
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Hunter Baker
Stand up, stand up for Jesus.
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Onize Odua
At the end of the event, Reverend Lauren Tambanda reiterated its theme. He's the archbishop of the Church of Rwanda.
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Hunter Baker
Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
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Onize Odua
Gafcon claims to represent the majority of the world's approximately 90 million Anglicans, most of them across Africa and Asia. These Christians say they have remained true to the Anglican Communion, while the Church of England has strayed from biblical teaching. The conference theme of choosing whom to Serve signals the group's effort to reorganize Anglican leadership apart from the authority of Canterbury. Some observers of the disagreement had expected the group to appoint its own replacement for the archbishop of Canterbury. Instead, the group set up a council led by a top bishop. The council also includes other clergy and lay members who all have equal voting rights. The group selected Mbanda as chairman. He will serve as the primary spokesperson in both ecumenical and international contexts.
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Hunter Baker
And so it's more of a conciliated structure. It's a shared leadership. It is not just a one man show.
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Onize Odua
The group said the unexpected change in direction for its leadership followed prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit. Reverend Paul Donnison is the group's general secretary.
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Kent Covington
The Global Anglican Council has discerned that if we are to move past old structures, we must leave behind old titles as well.
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Onize Odua
Done told World. He sees the meeting in Abuja as the most important since the group was first founded in 2008. At that first meeting, attendees signed the Jerusalem Declaration, which all incoming members of the Global Anglican Communion must now sign. It lists out 14 affirmations with points including biblical inerrancy and God's design for marriage and sexuality. Since then, the group has increasingly called out the Church of England for changing its stance on several doctrinal issues. The latest objections emerged after the Church of England confirmed the first female archbishop of Canterbury. Doneson insisted the group isn't leaving the communion but is rejecting the Church of England led instruments of communion. The traditional leadership structures of global Anglicanism.
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Kent Covington
For a time maybe they did their job, but they certainly in the last 50 years haven't done their job well. And structures come and go. I mean the word of our God stands forever, but the structures, just like the grass of the field, fades and withers.
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Onize Odua
The new structuring will also forbid its leaders from attending the Anglican Communion's traditional gatherings, including the Lambeth Conference and Primates meetings. They can't approve any financial contributions to the Church of England and must eventually remove any reference to communion with Canterbury from their constitution. A spokesperson from the Anglican Communion acknowledged the division among the groups but insisted that Christ calls them to be one. Done. Says he and others in the global Anglican Communion expect the changes to come with challenges.
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Kent Covington
The truth is you cannot reform anything without there being pushed back. And so we are always prepared for it. We don't welcome it.
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Onize Odua
Some attendees found the week of prayers and conversations encouraging in light of the coming changes. Bishop Yasser Eric is originally from Sudan.
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Hunter Baker
There is a narrative that developed or the theology in the west where it is our ideas starting to guide the Gospel and the Bible and it's actually totally wrong. So our ideas and whatever we think should submit to the word of God and never be above the word of God.
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Onize Odua
The global Anglican Communion isn't the only conservative group disillusioned with the Church of England. The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches has also said it is open to hearing plans for reform done. Some may see last week's decisions as radical, but people have to make a choice on where they stand.
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Kent Covington
Everyone's got to work through this at their own speed. But my posture is friendship with the world is enmity with God. And I don't say that with a lack of compassion. I mean that we're here to seek the world, but friendship with the world over. Friendship with God is enmity.
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Onize Odua
That's this week's world tour. I'm Onize Odua in Abuja, Nigeria.
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Lindsay Mast
When is dinner more than dinner? Denmark wants to know. The country's culture minister is exploring whether gastronomy should officially count as art. One chef says his elaborate tasting menus are designed for more than a full stomach.
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Hunter Baker
We also convey messages through our foods. So our food is our medium of expressing.
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Lindsay Mast
Yeah, but not everyone's convinced. One Danish art critic says the whole debate is one big category mistake.
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Hunter Baker
Art is art. Gastronomy is gastronomy. But it's not like a very good
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Myrna Brown
bicycle turns into a car.
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Hunter Baker
It doesn't happen.
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Lindsay Mast
Denmark's parliament would have the final say. But if the idea passes, Danish chefs could one day have the same cultural cache as painters or opera singers. Meaning the next masterpiece in Copenhagen might be plated instead of painted. It's the World and everything in it. Today is Wednesday, March 11th. Thank you for turning to World Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Lindsay Mast.
- [24:33]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. Coming next on the World and everything in It, a church welcomes people with special needs. Most Protestant pastors and churchgoers say someone with disabilities would be welcome at the church. But one estimate states that about 80% of churches have no form of special needs ministry. And as autism rates rise, more and more families will face the prospect of feeling excluded from church life.
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Lindsay Mast
World senior writer Mary Jackson takes us to Scottsdale, Arizona, where one congregation took up the challenge to keep that from happening in their own church. Family,
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Mary Jackson
we're following you, bud. You're the leader. On a Saturday afternoon in October, Gloria Neissel and her son Cody gave me a quick tour of Highlands Church. It's a congregation of about 2,000 people. We're just going to follow you. Cody, do you want to tell Mary more about this? This is the worship center itself.
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Onize Odua
Okay.
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Lindsay Mast
And the nursery's here, going through the
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Mary Jackson
front way on that side. Cody is able to use some words, but he's considered non speaking. He has autism and a motor disorder that makes it difficult to speak. It's called apraxia. In 2004, Cody became the inaugural member of Highland Special needs Ministry. Missy Farrington.
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Missy Farrington
We started with one little boy. His name is Cody. And when he was four years old, he was diagnosed with autism. He was just struggling in the typical Sunday school classroom, so his parents at that time decided that one would stay home with him every Sunday and one would come to church with his older brother and then they would swap weeks.
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Mary Jackson
Cody's dad was an elder at the time, but he had to tell church leaders why they would not be seeing the family together very often.
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Missy Farrington
And the leadership said, well, that's unacceptable. That's an unacceptable solution. This is happening in your family. This must be happening in other families. You need to be in church together as a family. And Cody needs to come to church and realize that God has a plan and purpose for his life, too.
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Mary Jackson
Missy was a stay at home mom at the time, but she has a background in special education, so she agreed to spend time with Cody during the service.
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Missy Farrington
And we would pray and I'd tell him about Jesus and We'd play on the playground and, you know, and if we could go into the classroom, I'd sit with him in the classroom and, you know, we. And then it just. It just grew from there.
- [27:05]
Mary Jackson
Cody's grown a lot, too. He's 24 now. 6 5, 225 pounds. The morning after I toured the campus, I met Cody and his parents in the noisy foyer just before the Sunday service.
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Myrna Brown
Good morning.
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Mary Jackson
Cody usually sits with his family for. For the singing portion of the service. Then he heads to the special needs class. On a given Sunday, up to 100 people attend classes. Missy says the ministry is not babysitting. It's built on the premise that participants understand a lot more than we may
- [27:50]
Missy Farrington
think we believe without proof that they are understanding everything that we're teaching. I believe that someday I'm going to be held accountable, and I never want to stand in front of the Lord and say I didn't teach them because I didn't think they would understand because that's not an acceptable answer. My job is to teach them, and it's God's job to do the rest.
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Mary Jackson
The lesson is from Two Kings.
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Kent Covington
All right, let's see what you learned today.
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Mary Jackson
That's Steve Richards. He's been volunteering in Highland special needs ministry for about four years.
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Hunter Baker
Are you ready, Karen?
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Kent Covington
In today's story, who is God's prophet? Elisha, Elijah or Jeremiah?
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Hunter Baker
Show me Jeremiah.
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Kent Covington
Good job.
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Onize Odua
Listening.
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Mary Jackson
He's roving the room with a mic. Most of the participants are at a table, coloring. One looks out a window, another fiddles with a toy. The next question is for Cody.
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Hunter Baker
Hey, Cody, this one's for you. To God decided it was time to stop getting second chances, then third chances, then fourth chances, then fifth chances.
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Kent Covington
Yes, that's right.
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Hunter Baker
God decided it was time.
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Mary Jackson
Steve teaches the adult class every Sunday. The church hopes to recruit more teachers. Missy admits that as the ministry grows, staffing is a challenge, especially since volunteers need specialized training to handle the range of physical and emotional needs they encounter.
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Missy Farrington
Probably the biggest obstacle is always having enough volunteers. I mean, there are so many things that we would love to do, but we just need more help.
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Mary Jackson
But she tries to keep focused on the mission.
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Missy Farrington
Our job is to, as teachers, to teach them about Jesus. Everybody needs Jesus. Our friends with disabilities are. They're human, they're sinful, and they need Jesus just as much as we do.
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Mary Jackson
She hopes to find more ways to involve everyone in the church.
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Lindsay Mast
Last day for Vicki.
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Mary Jackson
After class, Cody volunteers at the church's coffee spot, serving drinks between services. Cody and his friends have put on plays with the church's theater ministry. Every year, the church hosts a prom experience sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation. They call it Night to Shine. Missy and her husband, who is a special needs pastor, have helped other churches start special needs ministries. They hope more catch the vision.
- [30:30]
Missy Farrington
We tell them our story and how we started. It's also important for me for them to realize that their story is not going to look like our story. Just because this is what a special needs ministry looks like at Highlands doesn't mean that that's what God has planned for their church.
- [30:46]
Mary Jackson
Back in Cody's class, Steve closed with
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Lindsay Mast
prayer as we trust in him as
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Kent Covington
our Lord and Savior.
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Hunter Baker
We get to walk free.
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Kent Covington
We are truly free.
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Hunter Baker
Thank you for all you do. We love you, we praise you. We give you all the glory in
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Onize Odua
the mighty name of Jesus.
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Hunter Baker
Amen. And Jamie says Amen.
- [31:05]
Mary Jackson
Reporting for world, I'm Mary Jackson in Scottsdale, Arizona.
- [31:10]
Hunter Baker
And remember, we always say love God, love people in his life.
- [31:21]
Lindsay Mast
To read more about how non speaking individuals are learning to communicate using a method called spelling, you can read Mary's story in the February issue of World magazine.
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Myrna Brown
Good morning. This is the world and everything in it from listening. Welcome back to listener Supported World Radio. I'm Myrna Brown.
- [31:48]
Lindsay Mast
And I'm Lindsay Mast. President Trump last week awarded the Medal of Honor to three soldiers, two of them posthumously, one of them in person. One of those honors went to a World War II prisoner of war whose courage saved the lives of more than 200 fellow soldiers. Here's World Opinion's Beth El McGrew.
- [32:08]
Beth El McGrew
On a cold February night in 2009, Christopher Ed sat at a laptop Googling his father's master sergeant, Roddy Edmonds. Almost 24 years had passed since Roddy's too young death from congestive heart failure. Christopher had grown up to become a pastor and have a family of his own. One of his daughters had just done a history project that focused on her pawpaw and how he had been a POW in World War II. The family kept a couple of fading diaries she carefully scanned. But Christopher still felt like he hadn't helped his daughter enough. Because the truth was, his father never wanted to talk about those days. To make things more mysterious, some of those diary pages were missing. Others were taken up with a list of names and addresses. His father's fellow POWs. How many of them were still alive? Christopher couldn't shake the nagging drive to learn more. That night, he scanned the results of his search and clicked on a 2008 New York Times article that seemed at first to have nothing to do with his father. It was about how Richard Nixon had struggled to find a residence after his famous scandal, and how a Democrat named Lester Tanner had generously stepped forward to sell the disgraced ex president his own townhouse. In one passing sentence, Tanner said he felt moved to do this because a man had saved his life in a POW camp during the war. A man named Roddy Edmonds. Soon, Christopher would learn the full story.
- [33:26]
Mary Jackson
On the evening of January 26, 1945, the Germans announced that only Jewish American
- [33:31]
Lindsay Mast
prisoners would fall out for roll call.
- [33:33]
Mary Jackson
The at the threat of execution, Master Sergeant Edmonds directed his senior leaders to have all 1,200American prisoners present themselves for roll call. The Nazi commandant became incredulous. After realizing that so many Americans were standing in formation, the commandant removed his pistol, pressed it hard against Master Sergeant Edmonds, forehead between his eyes, and demanded
- [33:58]
Lindsay Mast
that he order all Jewish American prisoners
- [34:00]
Mary Jackson
to to step forward or he would be shot.
- [34:03]
Lindsay Mast
Master Sergeant Edmonds fearlessly held his ground.
- [34:06]
Beth El McGrew
That was when Edmonds gave the iconic reply, we are all Jews here. He told the commandant that not only would he have to kill Edmonds first, he would have to kill every last man standing because the end of the war was coming soon and judgment with it. At that, the German officer holstered his pistol, turned around and walked away. One of the Jewish men who stood by Edmond's side that morning would later change his name from Tannenbaum to Tanner. When they finally met, Tanner told Christopher that he believed his father deserved the medal of Honor. Yet despite his efforts to build a campaign, Tanner would not live to see it succeed. At first, the government judged Edmonds ineligible because his actions had not taken place in combat. But that judgment was reversed this year. At a special White House ceremony last Monday, Christopher Edmonds stood in for his father.
- [34:54]
Hunter Baker
Today your father gets the honor he sort of courageously earned and really amazing, right? It's an amazing story. Congratulations to the family of Master Sergeant Roddy Edmonds.
- [35:09]
Beth El McGrew
Although Christopher grew up knowing none of this remarkable story, he saw his father as a hero for simpler, quieter reasons. His constant fatherly presence, his steadfast Christian faith in church. He became famous for belting out how great thou art in a strong, booming voice. His favorite Bible verse was Romans 8. 37. Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors. Through him who loved us, he put that faith into action through faithful service to the community of Knoxville, Tennessee. After the war, he worked as a sales manager and quickly earned a reputation for honesty and customer care. Just go see Roddy, people told their friends. He'll treat you right. In a documentary interview, Lester Tanner laughs and jokes that Edmonds had probably never met a Jew in Knoxville. Yet when the moment of truth came, Edmonds met it unflinchingly. Roddy Edmonds is the only American serviceman named in Yad Vashem's Righteous among the nations, an honor he never sought and never lived to see. But through the memories of those he saved and the children's children who would never have been born without him, the story will endure for generations. For world I'm befell McGrew.
- [36:19]
Lindsay Mast
Tomorrow Congress hear about a new threat from China. We'll have a report and the benefits of family care across the generations. That and more tomorrow. I'm Lindsay Mast.
- [36:31]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Erna 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 Bible records the words of Jesus. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you. And from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to to you, do so to them. Verses 27 through 31 of Luke 6, go now in grace and peace.