3.12.26 American citizenship laws, global religious freedom, and raising grandchildren

Summary

Podcast Episode Summary: The World and Everything In It (March 12, 2026)
Episode Theme:
This episode delves into pressing issues of American birthright citizenship laws and national security, worldwide religious freedom challenges, and the realities and sacrifices of grandparents raising grandchildren. Through expert interviews, field reporting, and commentary, the show explores the intersection of law, culture, faith, and family in today’s world.

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1. Birth Tourism and American Citizenship: National Security Implications

[06:12–11:22]

Key Discussion Points:

• Birth Tourism as an Industry:

  • The Senate Judiciary Committee examines the increasing trend of birth tourism—foreign nationals, particularly from China, traveling to the U.S. to give birth so their children can claim American citizenship by birthright.
  • Investigative reporter Peter Schweitzer testifies, explaining how this has grown into an organized and lucrative global industry:

    “Birth tourism is essentially an industry that provides concierge service at every step of the way…for a foreign national, in this case China, to pay the firm roughly $100,000, they will transport them to the United States, arrange medical care, arrange for citizenship for the child.”
    (Peter Schweitzer, 07:16)

• Scale and National Security Concerns:

  • Schweitzer reports over 1,000 Chinese companies facilitate this, and Chinese government estimates suggest 50,000 Chinese citizens a year give birth in the U.S. or its territories.
  • Many of these parents are reportedly high-ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party, military, or government:

    “These are not political dissidents. These are military officers, people from the Ministry of Propaganda, people that are high ranking officials in the Chinese Communist Party.”
    (Peter Schweitzer, 08:35)

• Long-term Impact:

  • Children born in the U.S. immediately return to China:

    “You're potentially looking at anywhere from between 750,000 to 1.5 million US citizens that are being raised in China.”
    (Peter Schweitzer, 08:53)

• Other Loopholes:

  • Surrogacy arrangements by foreigners, with one cited case involving a CCP official having 26 surrogate children in California and another case mentioning a billionaire with more than 100 surrogate children.
  • Dual citizenship remains officially banned in China but is tolerated in practice when advantageous.

• Call to Action:

  • Schweitzer urges policymakers to recognize the magnitude and close legal loopholes:

    “This is a serious national security issue. We need to close loopholes and we need to recognize the magnitude of this problem.”
    (Peter Schweitzer, 10:26)

Memorable Moment:

• The upcoming Supreme Court case could reshape the interpretation of the 14th Amendment regarding children born to illegal or temporary residents.

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2. Global Religious Freedom Under Threat

[12:03–22:06]

Key Discussion Points:

• USCIRF Annual Report:

  • The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its report urging more countries be designated as “countries of particular concern” due to severe religious persecution.
  • Nigeria added due to government’s failure to protect Christians—although this is both a step forward and a source of community tension:

    “It's forced the Nigerian government to acknowledge a problem that they didn't want to. … But on the other side, it's made it a little bit more complicated because it's created divisions in the community where now it's seen as Muslims versus Christians.”
    (Knox Thames, 16:34)

• New Additions and Ongoing Offenders:

  • Syria and Libya recommended as top offenders for failing to protect minorities or for state violence.
  • Turkey remains on a “watch list” for systematic restrictions against non-Sunni faiths.

• Global Overview:

  • An estimated 380 million Christians globally live in places where they cannot openly practice faith.
  • Specific government crackdowns in China, including bulldozing churches, genocide against Uyghurs, and repression of Tibetans:

    “These are some of the darkest days in Chinese history when it comes to religious persecution. … We've seen churches literally bulldozed to the ground in southern China.”
    (Knox Thames, 18:32)

• U.S. Response and Diplomatic Leverage:

  • Knox Thames, former special advisor for religious minorities, highlights that U.S. policy needs to place religious liberty on par with economic and security issues.
  • Effectiveness requires both prayer and persistent diplomatic advocacy:

    “We need to find new ways to use the blessings of liberty and prosperity that we've been given to help address these drivers of conflict...because it makes America safer, stronger, and more secure.”
    (Knox Thames, 21:16)

Notable Quotes:

• “Remember those who are in prison as if you were their fellow prisoner and those who are suffering as if you were mistreated. So it is our charge, we are charged to do this and it's a privilege to do this.”
  (Vicki Hartzler, chair, USCIRF, 14:57)

• “When religious freedom exists, we see the conditions for stable societies … not creating the drivers of extremism.”
  (Knox Thames, 20:55)

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3. Kinship Care: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

[23:44–30:10]

Key Discussion Points:

• Growing Trend:

  • About 2.5 million U.S. children are being raised by relatives, most often grandmothers, especially in the South and Midwest.
  • Many such grandparents, despite living below the poverty line, express gratitude for stepping up.

• Personal Story – Carola Ben Bender:

  • Details the challenges and heartbreak faced by Carola, raising first her grandson and then her granddaughter Mercy due to her daughter’s struggles with addiction and absence.

    “She signed the papers giving us custody. And then eventually she just left.”
    (Carola Ben Bender, 24:43)

  • The commitment involved:

    “Once again, she said, yes, Lord, what do I need?”
    (Myrna Brown, 26:22)

• Health and Financial Struggles:

  • Carola and her husband face the normal trials of aging and financial limitations.

    “I broke my knee one time, and I never know what day or what step I'm going to take that's going to throw that out. I've got tremors… And here we are living on Social Security, basically living a month on a week’s salary.”
    (Carola Ben Bender, 28:54, 29:09)

• Community Support:

  • Local groups like “Grateful for Grandparents” connect and provide practical help for these families.

• Redemption and Faith:

  • Even through tragedy—Carola’s daughter died of a drug overdose in 2024—faith and love for the grandchildren guide these grandparents.
  • Mercy, now thriving, requested baptism and chose “Victory in Jesus” as her song of faith:

    “God wouldn't have put me in this place if it wasn't what was best for me.”
    (Mercy, 29:59)

Memorable Moment:

• The tenderness between Mercy and Carola, especially when Mercy calls her “Mama,” and the role of faith in healing and perseverance.

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4. Commentary: The Pursuit of Status Versus True Fulfillment

[31:01–36:04]

Key Discussion Points:

• Our Desire for Status:

  • Maria Baer explores how the human need for status shapes decisions, sometimes more than rational or economic incentives.
  • Individuals are often swayed by the pursuit of social approval, not objective reasoning:

    “The uncomfortable truth is that a desire for status shapes far more of our behavior than logic or even economic incentives.”
    (Maria Baer, 31:39)

• Cultural Trends in Family and Childbearing:

  • Despite economic improvements, declining marriage and birth rates suggest deeper cultural issues about what is considered admirable or desirable.
  • High-status lifestyles are exalted, while sacrificial family roles are devalued.

• The Church’s Role:

  • The church is called to reshape cultural norms—making marriage, child-rearing, and faithfulness honorable:

    “Marriage should be normal. Raising children should be honored. Quiet faithfulness to a spouse and family should be seen as a life well lived.”
    (Maria Baer, 34:44)

  • True status comes from Christ, not societal measures.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You're potentially looking at anywhere from between 750,000 to 1.5 million US citizens that are being raised in China...”
  — Peter Schweitzer (08:53)

• “When religious freedom exists, we see the conditions for stable societies...”
  — Knox Thames (20:55)

• “I felt like a failure as a mother…I never quit praying for her.”
  — Carola Ben Bender (29:18, 29:26)

• “God wouldn't have put me in this place if it wasn't what was best for me.”
  — Mercy (29:59)

• “The world chases status by climbing social ladders. The gospel offers something so much better, a status we did not earn granted by Christ himself.”
  — Maria Baer (35:45)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Birthright Citizenship & Birth Tourism: 06:12–11:22
• Global Religious Freedom: 12:03–22:06
• Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: 23:44–30:10
• Commentary (Status & Fulfillment): 31:01–36:04

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Tone:
The episode carries a thoughtful, compassionate, and investigative tone, incorporating personal stories, policy analysis, and reflections grounded in faith.

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For listeners seeking original reporting on the intersection of law, faith, and public life, this episode offers an in-depth look at two urgent policy debates—citizenship law and religious freedom—and a moving portrait of family resilience and Christian hope in difficult circumstances.

Transcript

[Mary Reichert]

Good morning. Experts warn birth tourism could deliver big problems for the US you're potentially looking

[Peter Schweitzer]

at 150,000 to 1.5 million US citizens that are being raised in China.

[Myrna Brown]

Also today, new recommendations to combat abuses of religious freedom. Later, grandparents raising their grandchildren.

[Carola Ben Bender]

She signed the papers giving us custody. And then eventually she just left.

[Myrna Brown]

And world commentator Maria Baer on seeking the right kind of status.

[Mary Reichert]

It's Thursday, March 12th. This is the world and everything in it. From listeners supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reichert.

[Myrna Brown]

And I'm Myrna Brown. Good morning

[Mary Reichert]

now news. Here's Kent Covington.

[Kent Covington]

President Trump is assuring Americans that fuel prices will come down after the market shock resulting from Operation Epic Fury in Iran. Speaking at a rally in Kentucky last night, Trump highlighted a coordinated move by 32 countries to release a record 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves,

[Nick Eicher]

which will substantially reduce the oil prices as we end this threat to America

[Harrison Waters]

and this threat to the world.

[Kent Covington]

The Iranian regime has been doing everything it can to drive prices up. It has been working to inflict pain on Arab neighbors and the rest of the world in hopes that others will pressure Trump to end the mission. It just targeted one of the world's busiest international airports in Dubai with drones and attacked more commercial vessels on Wednesday. Iran's terror campaign has largely shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping lane. In Washington, Democrats are blasting President Trump over rising energy prices amid the conflict. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer when oil

[Harrison Waters]

prices spike like this, it ripples across the entire economy.

[Peter Schweitzer]

Airline tickets, shipping costs, everyday goods go up, up, up in price.

[Kent Covington]

President Trump said this week that the price spike is temporary and his words a small price to pay for peace as the US Works to end the Iranian ballistic missile and gathering nuclear threat. And after returning to the White House last night, the president told reporters that the mission is crippling the Iranian regime.

[Nick Eicher]

Most people say it's already been won.

[Harrison Waters]

It's just a question of when.

[Nick Eicher]

When do we stop?

[Harrison Waters]

We don't want to let it regrow

[Nick Eicher]

and ideally would like to see somebody in there that knows what they're doing. In other words, they could build a country.

[Kent Covington]

The White House this week said the operation will continue until the Iranian regime reaches the point of unconditional surrender. Iranian leaders say they have no intention of surrendering. Trump said his administration is also aware of possible Iranian sleeper terror cells that he said entered the country due to what he called the open border of former President Joe Biden. He said authorities do know where most of them are and are closely monitoring threats. Meantime in Lebanon, explosions again rocked the suburbs of the capital of Beirut. The blast was part of Israel's latest bombardment to take out what the Jewish state says are footholds of the Iran proxy terror group Hezbollah. Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, says that since March 2, Lebanese militants have launched nearly 900 rockets and missiles at Israel.

[Harrison Waters]

Hezbollah itself has been very clear about why not to defend Lebanon, not to protect the Lebanese citizens, but to avenge the death of Ayatollah Khamenei and serve the agenda of the Iranian regime.

[Kent Covington]

He urged the Lebanese government to exert its own sovereignty and clamp down on Hezbollah. Tornadoes have killed at least two people in northwestern Indiana and leveled buildings in eastern Illinois. In Newton County, Indiana, an elderly couple died in their home in the town of Lake Village. Another resident of that town said the severity of the storm caught her family by surprise.

[Harrison Waters]

Then we went into the bathroom, got a piece of plywood, and within minutes I closed my eyes, the lights flickered and we just there was nothing. But during that time we just kept praying in the tub and we were holding each other and I was like, if this is the way we're going to go, I'm either going to be with the Lord tonight or I'm going to be able to wit to people tomorrow.

[Kent Covington]

In Illinois, the Kankakee County Sheriff's Office says a tornado there caused extensive damage in the town of Aroma park, uprooting trees, ripping off roofs and smashing vehicles. Iowa has enacted a law that prohibits cities and counties from creating special local protections based on gender identity. World's Benjamin Eicher reports.

[Harrison Waters]

Republican Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law this week. It ensures that civil rights protections remain consistent statewide, limited to established categories in state law such as race and sex. The law prevents activist driven local expansions, which Republican lawmakers said could confuse employers, schools and service providers. The legislation came after the state in 2025 expressly prioritized biological sex over subjective identity claims. Numerous cities, including the capital of Des Moines, had inserted gender identity provisions into local codes. Last month, Ames, home of Iowa State University, rushed through a similar ordinance. Multiple other states have similar laws preventing local expansions beyond state protections for World. I'm Benjamin Eicher.

[Kent Covington]

And I'm Kent Covington. Straight ahead, has birthright citizenship become a national security issue? Plus, grandparents step up to raise their children's children. This is the world and everything in it.

[Myrna Brown]

It's Thursday 12th March. You're listening to World Radio and we thank you for joining us today. Good Morning. I'm Myrna Brown.

[Mary Reichert]

And I'm Mary Reichert. First up on the world and everything in it, birth tourism and national security concerns. Congress held a hearing this week examining birthright citizenship and immigration policy. One witness argued that a little noticed practice known as birth tourism has grown into something far more organized and potentially risky. World's Nick Eicher reports.

[Nick Eicher]

For a century plus, American law has treated citizenship as straightforward. If you were born on U.S. soil, you are a U.S. citizen. That principle comes from the 14th Amendment, written after the Civil War to guarantee citizenship to formerly enslaved Americans. But some lawmakers say the rule, which was designed for a different era, is now being exploited. This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from investigative reporter Peter Schweitzer. He told lawmakers a global industry now helps foreign nationals travel to the US with one purpose in mind to to give birth to citizen children.

[Peter Schweitzer]

Birth tourism is essentially an industry that provides concierge service at every step of the way. For a foreign national, in this case China, to pay the firm roughly $100,000, they will transport them to the United States, arrange medical care, arrange for citizenship for the child.

[Nick Eicher]

And Schweitzer says that what once happened occasionally has become something far more organized.

[Peter Schweitzer]

The scope of this is industrial. In China alone, we have identified more than 1,000 birth tourism companies that are almost exclusively focused on the United States. The Chinese government gave an estimate a few years ago. Their estimate was that on average, 50,000 Chinese citizens a year were giving birth in the United States or at US Territories like Saipan.

[Nick Eicher]

Some senators questioned how much of that can actually be quantified.

[Harrison Waters]

You've got some big claims, but when

[Kent Covington]

it comes to numbers, you ought to be able to tell us how many.

[Knox Thames]

No.

[Peter Schweitzer]

The initial number of the estimate of Chinese birth tourism comes from Chinese sources.

[Nick Eicher]

Schweitzer acknowledged the government does not track birth tourism systematically. But he told senators that the gap in the data is part of the problem. Without formal tracking, he argued, the true scale may be impossible to measure. And he says some of the known cases involve people closely tied to the Chinese government.

[Peter Schweitzer]

These are not political dissidents. These are military officers, people from the Ministry of Propaganda, people that are high ranking officials in the Chinese Communist Party. In other words, these are part of the CCP establishment.

[Nick Eicher]

Schweitzer says the long term implications could be significant.

[Peter Schweitzer]

So if you do the math, you're potentially looking at anywhere from between 750,000 to 1.5 million US citizens that are being raised in China because these children are born here, as soon as they are capable of flying. They are flown back to China and that is where they will be raised.

[Nick Eicher]

So called birth tourism is only one pathway, he described. Another involves American surrogacy arrangements. In one case, Schweitzer told senators about a California property connected to a businessman with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

[Peter Schweitzer]

There was a CCP official in California in May of last year that was found by California Child services. He had 26 children through surrogacy in the state of California. All of those children, of course, would become US Citizens.

[Nick Eicher]

Other reports suggest even larger numbers.

[Peter Schweitzer]

The Wall Street Journal about eight weeks ago had a front page story about a Chinese billionaire who's also close to the CCP, who has more than 100 children done through surrogacy in the United States.

[Nick Eicher]

Schweitzer says cases like these raise complicated legal questions. China officially bans dual citizenship, but in practice, he told the senators, authorities often tolerate it when it serves their interests.

[Peter Schweitzer]

China does not officially recognize dual citizenship, but they allow de facto dual citizenship to operate.

[Nick Eicher]

Schweitzer argues the larger concern is whether American law is being used strategically by foreign actors.

[Peter Schweitzer]

This is a serious national security issue. We need to close loop polls and we need to recognize the magnitude of this problem.

[Nick Eicher]

Meantime, the Supreme Court is preparing to weigh in on the broader question of birthright citizenship. The justices are scheduled to hear arguments in a case in April. It'll test whether the government can restrict citizenship for children born in the US to parents who are in the country illegally or only temporarily. The outcome could reshape how the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment is interpreted. For now, though, the current rule remains in place, leaving a deeper question whether the US can continue offering one of the world's most generous definitions of citizenship without turning that generosity into a strategic vulnerability. Reporting for world, I'm Nick Iger.

[Kent Covington]

Additional support comes from Ambassadors Impact Network. Their report shows how Christian entrepreneurs advance the gospel through business. Ambassadorsimpact.com reports from Dort Discovery Days, an academic summer camp for sixth through eighth graders to grow in their faith and build friendships.

[Knox Thames]

Dort.

[Kent Covington]

Edu Discovery and from Pensacola Christian College, Academic Excellence Biblical worldview Affordable Cost Go pcci. Edu.

[Myrna Brown]

Coming up next on THE WORLD and everything in it. Faith under fire. Last week, Yousef the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, sent the State Department its annual report included our recommendations for fighting the persecution of religious groups worldwide.

[Mary Reichert]

That government organization compiles lists of countries that commit or tolerate violations of religious freedom and encourages the State Department to call attention to them. Washington producer Harrison Waters looked into the report and has this story.

[Harrison Waters]

The report paints a concerning picture of religious freedom worldwide. It highlights the Trump administration's October designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern since the government there failed to protect Christians from Islamist attacks. The State department now designates 13 countries of particular concern, the highest on record. But YOUSERF is recommending the State Department call out several additional countries. Around 380 million Christians are living in countries where they cannot openly live out their faith. Vicki Hartzler chairs the usurf board of commissioners and recommends designating 18 countries of particular concern. That's up two from last year's recommendations and a new high we added this time and are recommending both Syria and Libya be added to the worst offenders group. Last year, the Trump administration softened some sanctions on Syria and its new leaders following the fall of the Assad regime in 2024. But Hartzler says Syria does not have a clean slate. The new transitional government has not adequately prevented or curbed or administered justice for multiple killings, kidnappings and egregious acts of violence against religious minorities that have happened this year. In Libya, the fragmented government is arresting Christians for their faith and evangelism, with 11 sentenced to prison last spring. Youserf also keeps a special watch list of countries the State Department should keep an eye on. That list includes America's NATO ally, Turkey. It is ongoing and it is systematic. The restrictions that they're putting on minority faith there, if you're not Sunni Muslim, then you're getting some government restrictions. Christians in Turkey have for decades been forbidden to run seminaries or Christian education. So many churches rely on foreign missionaries and pastors for discipleship. But that's getting harder. Since 2019, at least 375 Christian workers and their families who left Turkey on sabbatical or vacation could not return. They get to the airport and all of a sudden there's a designation on their visa, an immigration code that lists them as a national security threat, and they're barred from coming back in to the country. Hartzer says American law requires diplomats to consider religious freedom on the same level as economic and military issues when they negotiate with foreign leaders. She uses Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as an example. These world leaders, including Erdogan, wants to discuss with us about military hardware. We have this opportunity to bring up these religious freedom issues and to advocate for those who are being persecuted. Youserf advocates for people of all religions or no religion who face persecution at the hands of governments and extremist groups. Hartzler says Christians especially have a role to play in praying for the persecuted. I think of Hebrews 13:3 that says, remember those who are in prison as if you were their fellow prisoner and those who are suffering as if you were mistreated. So it is our charge, we are charged to do this and it's a privilege to do this. She says that's a unique opportunity for Americans to make a difference through both prayer and policy. Reporting for world, I'm Harrison Waters.

[Myrna Brown]

And now we want to bring in our producer Lindsay Mast, who has more on the state of religious freedom around the world. Good morning, Lindsay.

[Lindsay Mast]

Good morning, Myrna. Good morning, Mary. I wanted to find out more about some of the most pressing situations, so I reached out to Knox Thames. He spent 20 years in diplomatic roles with the US government working to advance religious freedom. He will soon become the executive director at the new center for Global and Religious Freedom at Dallas Baptist University. Knox, good morning.

[Knox Thames]

Good morning.

[Lindsay Mast]

Let's start with Nigeria. It was designated a country of particular concern several months ago. Now where do things stand? What's changed and what are you still looking for?

[Knox Thames]

I was just talking with a pastor from Nigeria about what's been the impact of the CPC designation by President Trump and he said it's been good and it's also created some problems. On the good side, it's forced the Nigerian government to acknowledge problem that they didn't want to. They've always said that this isn't a religious conflict, but now they've admitted that there's a religious element to this. They've started to work in partner with the US Government on ways to engage these terrorists that are victimizing Christians and others. But on the other side, it's made it a little bit more complicated because it's created divisions in the community where now it's seen as Muslims versus Christians and not a problem that's facing all Nigerians. It's going to take a long term investment on the ground to solve these ethnic and religious conflicts that go back decades if not centuries. And we need more than just a designation.

[Lindsay Mast]

Well, Iran is top of mind, of course, right now. What are your concerns there?

[Knox Thames]

Iran has been one of the global leaders in persecuting Christians, Baha' is and really anyone who challenges the rule and the theology of the clerics. Unfortunately, no administration, Republican or Democratic, has ever wanted to bring issues of religious persecution into the high stakes negotiations with Tehran. So far I'm seeing that same reluctance with the Trump administration. But if we're going to make sure that Iran doesn't start to look like Iraq, where our engagement led to the depopulation of historic Christian communities and other faith groups. This needs to be put on the top of the action list for policymakers. And if we choose not to, then these historic Christian Baha' I communities and new evangelical communities will certainly suffer.

[Lindsay Mast]

Well, speaking of global leaders and religious persecution, I want to turn now to China. The USURF report calls their religious liberties violations severe. What are you hearing out of China?

[Knox Thames]

These are some of the darkest days in Chinese history when it comes to religious persecution. And we're seeing what this fully empowered government can do with the technology it has at hand to monitor the daily lives of all 1 billion citizens and then use that to coerce them to behave in ways that benefit the Chinese Communist Party and are at the detriment to human rights, to the detriment of religious freedom. So we've seen churches literally bulldozed to the ground in southern China. We've seen the Chinese Communist Party perpetrating a genocide against Uyghur Muslims. And, you know, the Biden and Trump administrations didn't agree on much, but they both determined this genocide is happening as Uyghur Muslims. And of course, the ongoing repression of the Tibetan Buddhists. And our policy choices are limited because of the economic power and increasing military power that China has. It's. It's going to take a concerted effort to use what influence the United States has as disposal to see those policies change. But it's going to be a very long and difficult road.

[Lindsay Mast]

I know President Trump and President Xi Jinping are supposed to meet in April. What will you be watching for?

[Knox Thames]

Is, are human rights at all part of the public agenda? Xi Jinping is very sensitive to that. I'm doubtful it will. And so what will we hear about it being raised privately? We have some high profile prisoner cases. There's a pastor that was recently jailed. There's the owner of the Hong Kong newspaper that it continues. It was just sentenced to a very lengthy prison term. Will these cases be privately raised? It's gonna be hard for us to know, but we'll see if they're released. And that would be evidence of US government engagement. You know, it's only really, Mr. Trump that can raise those cases and use his personal diplomacy to see these individuals released. Normal engagements at lower levels just won't work. And so will that summit lead to prisoners being freed? I'm skeptical of any major policy changes on human rights, but at least that would save two lives. And if we can get other people out, that's a great use of US Influence.

[Lindsay Mast]

So as we wrap up, I want to step back, just big picture here. Religious liberty is not always part of the broader conversation in terms of the public's view of diplomacy. Tell me, why should it be?

[Knox Thames]

When religious freedom exists, we see the conditions for stable societies that are going to be productive. They're going to be not creating the drivers of extremism. They're not going to be a bad actor on the world stage. They're going to be better partners for the United States, which is going to create business openings. It's going to create security partnerships. And where we don't see religious freedom, where we see religious persecution, all those positive indicators go in the opposite direction. Religious freedom is part of our story. It's who we are as a country. And I was always proud when I worked in different diplomatic capacities to know that the United States does more than any other country in the world to advance religious freedom for everybody. But being the best doesn't mean we're doing enough to confront this pandemic of persecution that's victimizing Christians and members of other faith communities around the world. So it's, we need to redouble our efforts. We need to find new ways to use the blessings of liberty and prosperity that we've been giving to help address these drivers of conflict, these drivers of mass migration, these drivers of terrorism, because it makes America safer, stronger, and more secure. And it reflects who we are as a people.

[Lindsay Mast]

Knox Thames is a former special advisor for religious minorities with the State Department. He is soon to be the new executive director at the State center for Global and Religious Freedom at Dallas Baptist University. Knox, thank you so much for your time.

[Knox Thames]

It's my pleasure to be with you.

[Mary Reichert]

As the Paralympics continue in Milan and Cortina, two small mascots are turning into big collectibles. Fans crowd Olympic fan zones hoping to meet the cartoon weasels representing the Games. The animals appear on mugs, T shirts and pins, but the hardest item to find is the plush toy. Fans say they sell out immediately.

[Maria Baer]

We've tried to get plushies.

[Myrna Brown]

I think the only way to get them is to actually win a medal.

[Maria Baer]

But they are very hard to find.

[Carola Ben Bender]

Right.

[Mary Reichert]

Medalists did receive the mascots during the medal ceremony. But when the Canadian men's and women's hockey teams took silver, cameras caught players accepting the plushies with visible disgust. The moment quickly became an online meme. So if you're still trying to find one of those mascots, maybe check the locker rooms of the runners up. It's the world and everything in it.

[Myrna Brown]

Today is Thursday, March 12th. Thank you for turning to World Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Myrna Brown.

[Mary Reichert]

And I'm Mary Reichert. Coming next on the World and everything in it, kin care. In the US about two and a half million children are being raised by relatives and family friends. The largest stepping up for these children,

[Myrna Brown]

grandparents, grandmothers in particular. Six out of 10 of those caregivers are women. They are more likely to live in the south and the Midwest and below the poverty line. And, Mary, these caregivers say, despite their struggles, they wouldn't do anything differently.

[Carola Ben Bender]

So where we're headed, we're going over to the school to get Mercy right now.

[Myrna Brown]

Carola Ben Bender lives about a mile from her granddaughter's elementary school. I have to put my seatbelt on.

[Carola Ben Bender]

Yes, ma'.

[Harrison Waters]

Am.

[Carola Ben Bender]

Don't get us arrested.

[Myrna Brown]

The 71 year old uses the time in the carpool line to tell me about her children.

[Carola Ben Bender]

My oldest is a boy. His name is Eric. And then my next is a daughter, and her name's Chrisa. And then Amy, which is the daughter.

[Myrna Brown]

Bender has been married for 53 years. She says all three of her children had normal, healthy childhoods. But her youngest, Amy, struggled when puberty hit, truancy, drugs, and then a teenage pregnancy.

[Carola Ben Bender]

He was born in 94. She was 17 and still living at home.

[Myrna Brown]

So you all became grandparents at what age?

[Carola Ben Bender]

Oh, I was 39.

[Myrna Brown]

Bender says she prayed her daughter would outgrow rebellion and take responsibility for her son.

[Carola Ben Bender]

And she just could not step up to motherhood. And she signed the papers giving us custody. And then eventually she just left and quit checking in with them.

[Myrna Brown]

Bender and her husband raised their grandson as their own. Today he's 31, employed, and engaged to be married. But Amy continued to live recklessly estranged from her parents, abusing drugs, and eventually giving birth five more times with five different men. Her youngest child, Mercy, was born in 2015.

[Carola Ben Bender]

So of course they tested the baby, and she was on drugs, too. So the state immediately took custody of Mercy. And Amy knew that. And so she just left the hospital and just left Mercy there.

[Myrna Brown]

Bender got a call from one of her church friends, a nurse at that hospital.

[Carola Ben Bender]

She said, carol, she said, I sure this is your granddaughter. And she said, she's due to go to an orphanage tomorrow. And I was like, oh, please don't. No, just please let me get there. Don't do that.

[Myrna Brown]

Bender got there and faced the same choice she had two decades earlier. Once again, she said, yes, Lord, what do I need?

[Carola Ben Bender]

Help me Lord, what do I need?

[Myrna Brown]

But this time, Bender and her husband were 60 year olds making a commitment to raise a very sick baby girl.

[Carola Ben Bender]

And she had enterovirus, rsv, pneumococcal pneumonia and H flu, which was all lung infections.

[Myrna Brown]

After 10 days in the pediatric intensive care unit, doctors said Mercy would survive but would likely grow up with developmental disabilities.

[Carola Ben Bender]

She pulled through. Then she starts talking. I'm like, there's nothing wrong with this other than she's super busy.

[Myrna Brown]

Bender says Mercy is a hard worker and gets straight A's.

[Carola Ben Bender]

Gorgeous million dollar smile that she wears 99% of the time. Ate up with personality. Now she is 10. She's got a little bit of that attitude, but she forgets I was 10, too, and I still remember that attitude. So we can go at it if we need to.

[Harrison Waters]

8:49 to the front. 849.

[Myrna Brown]

That spunkiness is easy to spot. Mercy hears her number and steps off the sidewalk. She slides into the backseat.

[Harrison Waters]

Mama, when I get in, can I really quickly change into shorts?

[Myrna Brown]

Bender beams when Mercy calls her Mama.

[Carola Ben Bender]

They find it to be an honor that they're raising these kids. But on the flip side of it, it's hard.

[Myrna Brown]

Jennifer McCrary works in the local school system. She's also the founder of Grateful for Grandparents. It's a support group she started after meeting multiple grand families like the Benders.

[Carola Ben Bender]

Well, the very first time it happened, I was at elementary school and a great grandmother came in and she came in to pay for field day, and I thought, wow, this lady is raising a great granddaughter. Well, come to find out, she was raising four great grandchildren. She was in her 80s.

[Myrna Brown]

Mcquary helps these grand families find community and more.

[Carola Ben Bender]

All of the things that we take for granted because we know how to do it so easily that they don't. A lot of these people don't even email, much less have a cell phone. So we have a group of people that we all come together. And like last summer, we did three registration days. We had computers. They may not have a computer. So we're trying to be all encompassing.

[Myrna Brown]

But some things aren't easily fixed, like Bender's aging body.

[Carola Ben Bender]

I broke my knee one time, and I never know what day or what step I'm going to take that's going to throw that out. I've got tremors. I don't know if you've noticed this hand. I can't hardly use it at all.

[Myrna Brown]

Her razor thin finances.

[Carola Ben Bender]

And here we are living on Social Security, basically living a month on a week's.

[Myrna Brown]

Salary and her shattered heart.

[Carola Ben Bender]

I felt like a failure as a mother.

[Myrna Brown]

Bender's daughter amy died in 2024 of a drug overdose.

[Carola Ben Bender]

I still grieve her. I didn't like what she did, but I loved my child and I never gave up hope. I never quit praying for her.

[Myrna Brown]

A year after Amy's death, Mercy asked to be baptized. She also had one other request.

[Carola Ben Bender]

Yeah, I wanted them to play on the piano.

[Harrison Waters]

Victory in Jesus.

[Myrna Brown]

And why is that?

[Harrison Waters]

Because that's my favorite song. And mom always listens to it in the car.

[Carola Ben Bender]

And we sing and we sing, sing

[Myrna Brown]

and cling to his promises and each other.

[Harrison Waters]

With me being like Christian and believing in God, I always can just turn on that and just think, well, God wouldn't have put me in this place if it wasn't what was best for me.

[Myrna Brown]

Reporting for World. Hi, I'm Myrna Brown in Loxley, Alabama.

[Mary Reichert]

Good morning. This is the World and everything in it. From listener supported World Radio, I'm Mary Reichert.

[Myrna Brown]

And I'm Myrna Brown. We all like to think we're immune to manipulation, that we make our own choices and chart our own path. World commentator Maria Baer says the reality may be a little less flattering.

[Maria Baer]

You might join a cult. Not intentionally, I'd guess, but human beings are far more susceptible to social pressure than we like to think. Journalist Ellen Hewitt studies cults. She says the most common reaction to her reporting is ridicule. People read about bizarre rituals or extreme obedience and think, oh, I would never do that.

[Harrison Waters]

But again and again, I spoke to

[Myrna Brown]

people who said like, well, I did it because I knew it was going

[Lindsay Mast]

to get me approval. I did it because people who were higher status than me in the group

[Harrison Waters]

told me that that's what I needed to do. I did it because I knew they

[Lindsay Mast]

would like me more if I did it.

[Myrna Brown]

I didn't.

[Maria Baer]

The uncomfortable truth is that a desire for status shapes far more of our behavior than logic or even economic incentives. Hewitt went on to suggest that the people most susceptible to persuasive hucksters are those most confident in their own immunity to them. Jonathan Haidt wrote compellingly about this in his book the Righteous Mind. We like to think we make decisions based on rational goals to pursue stability, safety, truth and goodness. But when those goals conflict with the pursuit of status, well, we don't have a great track record. As the biblical proverbs say, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. It's important to know this about ourselves. It's especially important when we're trying to make cultural change. Consider the debate about how to encourage more marriage and childbearing. When people talk about declining birth rates, the proposed solutions are usually economic paid leave, cheaper childcare, affordable housing. According to Jackie Eubanks, a young Catholic woman and Trump supporter who participated in a political debate for the Free Press a few years ago, that's just the ticket.

[Harrison Waters]

I would love to be a stay at home mom. I would love to be a homemaker and a wife. I would love to be able to

[Maria Baer]

live on a homestead and go milk

[Harrison Waters]

my cow and take the eggs out of the chicken coop and have one baby in the belly and on my hip and another toddler behind me.

[Maria Baer]

That's like my dream.

[Harrison Waters]

But I can't do that because the way the economy is set up is I'm forced to work.

[Maria Baer]

But as journalist Matt Iglesias pointed out recently, that kind of explanation doesn't fully fit the evidence. Adjusting for inflation, male earnings are higher today than in the 1960s, when single income families were common and birth rates were much higher. Surely beneath a certain level of material security, financial fears stop people from building families. But most Americans aren't in that situation. The U.S. census Bureau says just under 10% live at or below the poverty level, which is itself a contested number. And most Americans don't make decisions about marriage and children by auditing their budgets. We make these decisions emotionally, without a moral compass pointing somewhere outside ourselves. We'll choose whatever we think will make us happy, and what our culture thinks will make us happy is status. We want to belong. We want to have lives we think are enviable. Look at what people willingly sacrifice for high status lifestyles. They'll take on debt to travel, move to glamorous cities they can barely afford, delay having children while pursuing careers that save signal prestige. If and when they decide to have children, they'll often choose institutional child care, the costs of which have indeed skyrocketed in recent years, even when the cost nearly breaks even with the second salary it enables. Unfortunately, people do these things because our culture has conferred high status on the most unworthy things, and we've thereby allowed truly good and healthy things to become low status things like marrying young, having children, even sacrificing career and wealth to stay home and care for our kids in the early years. That's why I think Jackie Eubanks isn't getting married and having kids. Her comment captures something deeper about the cultural moment. The obstacle is not simply money. It's the kind of life. Our culture teaches young adults to want the church can shine a light in this darkness. It's in our DNA and our mandate from Jesus to create new cultural norms to reshape what counts as admirable in our communities. Marriage should be normal. Raising children should be honored. Quiet faithfulness to a spouse and family should be seen as a life well lived. The world chases status by climbing social ladders. The gospel offers something so much better, a status we did not earn granted by Christ himself. We belong to him before we accomplish anything at all. For WORLD I'm Maria Baer.

[Mary Reichert]

Tomorrow, John Stonestreet is here for Culture Friday and a review of a new PBS Masterpiece adaptation of the Count of Monte Cristo. That and more tomorrow. I'm Mary Reichert.

[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 Bible says, may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth Earth your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. Verses 1 through 3 of Psalm 67 go now in grace and peace.