4.3.25 Planned Parenthood and Medicaid, a classical alternative exam, and safeguarding an ancient language

Summary

Podcast Summary: The World and Everything In It – Episode 4.3.25

Release Date: April 3, 2025
Hosted by: WORLD Radio (Mary Reichardt & Myrna Brown)
Title: Planned Parenthood and Medicaid, a Classical Alternative Exam, and Safeguarding an Ancient Language

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Introduction

In this episode of The World and Everything in It, WORLD Radio delves into three major topics: the Supreme Court case involving Planned Parenthood and Medicaid funding, the rise of the Classic Learning Test (CLT) as an alternative to traditional college entrance exams, and efforts to preserve the ancient Aramaic language among Syriac Orthodox Christians in Germany. Additionally, the episode touches on President Trump’s new tariffs and a compelling human interest story about a lost dog’s reunion.

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Supreme Court Hearing: Planned Parenthood vs. Medicaid

Timestamp: 00:05 - 13:51

The episode opens with Mary Reichardt and Myrna Brown discussing the significant Supreme Court case examining whether South Carolina can sever ties with Planned Parenthood regarding Medicaid funding. With 600 Planned Parenthood centers nationwide compared to 19,000 federally qualified health centers that do not offer abortions, the case has sparked nationwide debate.

Key Points:

• Legal Battle: South Carolina barred Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funds in 2018, citing violations related to abortion services. Planned Parenthood challenged this decision, and the Supreme Court is now weighing whether individual Medicaid recipients can override state decisions on provider eligibility.

• Arguments & Perspectives:

  • Supporters of South Carolina's Decision:
    Josh Schumacher highlights concerns about Planned Parenthood’s management, citing claims of misused funds and fraudulent activities. Matt Staver from Liberty Council argues that Planned Parenthood’s history of questionable practices disqualifies it as a Medicaid provider (11:03).

  • Planned Parenthood Advocates:
    Supporters emphasize the vital preventive and reproductive health services provided, including cancer screenings and STD testing, especially in rural areas where alternatives are scarce. Shana Nash underscores the importance of these services in saving lives (09:14).

• Political Fallout:
  President Trump’s recent tariff announcements have influenced the political landscape, with some Republicans like Senator Rand Paul opposing parts of his economic policies, labeling them as detrimental to the U.S. economy (02:24).

Notable Quotes:

• Mary Reichardt: “That’s what the Trump tariffs are going to do, crash the economy.” (02:24)
• Cal Thomas: “The fact of the matter is this provider is unqualified because of its lurid history with regards to this human trafficking of aborted baby body parts.” (11:03)
• Hakeem Jeffries: “This is not Liberation Day. It’s recession day in the United States of America.” (02:24)

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The Classic Learning Test: A New Educational Frontier

Timestamp: 13:57 - 20:38

Transitioning from healthcare, the podcast explores the emergence of the Classic Learning Test (CLT) as an alternative to the SAT and ACT. Spearheaded by private and homeschool communities, the CLT emphasizes classical education principles, including critical thinking and the study of classic texts.

Key Points:

• Adoption and Implementation:
  The CLT is gaining traction, with over 280 universities accepting it. States like Oklahoma are considering legislation to allow CLT scores for in-state scholarships (14:35).

• Educational Philosophy:
  Dean Adam Rasmussen of Arizona Christian University praises the CLT for fostering deep intellectual engagement, contrasting it with the perceived limitations of Common Core-based assessments (15:43).

• Challenges and Criticisms:
  The College Board has criticized the CLT for lacking reliability and industry standards. Additionally, experts like Pepper Stetler highlight the limitations of standardized tests in measuring true intellectual capacity versus educational attainment (16:37).

• Growth and Future Prospects:
  Despite a national decline in college enrollment, the CLT is expanding, particularly in states supportive of classical education. The test's alignment with homeschooling and private schooling curricula positions it as a credible alternative (19:00).

Notable Quotes:

• Adam Rasmussen: “What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to flourish.” (15:43)
• Cal Thomas: “Our students don’t need to do a lot of independent study just to take a test.” (17:54)
• Kate Nix: “They can just come to school every day and read what we read and do the writing, do what’s expected of them.” (18:12)

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Preserving the Aramaic Language: Syriac Orthodox Christians in Germany

Timestamp: 21:25 - 29:28

The episode shifts focus to a heartfelt story of cultural preservation among Syriac Orthodox Christians in southern Germany. With their ancestral homeland in Tur Abdin, Turkey, these Christians strive to keep the Aramaic language and their ancient traditions alive despite decades of diaspora.

Key Points:

• Historical Context:
  Originating from Tur Abdin, an area with deep religious roots dating back to the 6th century, the Syriac Orthodox Church faced severe persecution during the Ottoman Empire, leading to widespread diaspora (25:19).

• Language Preservation Efforts:
  Linda Guven, Germany’s first state-approved Syriac Orthodox theology teacher, is at the forefront of teaching Aramaic to the younger generation. Her efforts ensure that students remain connected to their heritage and religious identity (27:37).

• Cultural Challenges:
  Guven’s students navigate the complexities of maintaining their faith and language in a foreign land, balancing their identity between Turkish/Syrian roots and their lives in Germany (27:16).

• Community Impact:
  The declining population in Syria and continued persecution drive an increase in the diaspora community, bolstering the need for preservation efforts. Guven emphasizes that losing the language would mean losing their children and their identity (28:54).

Notable Quotes:

• Linda Guven: “Since we don’t have a country, a homeland, the only thing we have is the church and our faith.” (28:54)
• Ms. Guven: “I just want to give them a place where they can grow and find their identity.” (29:16)
• Student: “I really enjoy it. It didn’t feel like you’re reading about Jane and Jack throwing around a ball. It was very much like thinking through it critically.” (20:19)

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Human Interest: Reuniting with a Lost Dog

Timestamp: 21:06 - 22:14

In a touching interlude, Mary Reichardt and Kent Covington recount the emotional reunion of Melanie Epperson from Buffalo, New York, with her dog Snuggles, who had been missing for 11 years. Snuggles was found thanks to a microchip scan performed by a compassionate Samaritan, highlighting the profound bond between humans and their pets.

Notable Quotes:

• Melanie Epperson: “Me and Snuggles, he can live up to 18 years. So I got at least another good four to five years.” (21:06)
• Mary Reichardt: “So this tale has a happy ending with plenty of wag left in it.” (22:10)

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Death Penalty Debate: The Case of Kevin Burns in Tennessee

Timestamp: 30:02 - 33:51

The podcast concludes with a deep dive into the controversial case of Kevin Burns, a man on death row in Tennessee. Highlighting systemic issues within the justice system, the discussion underscores the urgent need for reform to prevent wrongful executions.

Key Points:

• Kevin Burns’ Story:
  KB, an African American man, has spent nearly three decades on death row for crimes he insists he did not commit. Despite favorable evidence exonerating him, including witness recantations, his appeals have been repeatedly denied by the Supreme Court (30:23).

• Judicial Failings:
  Justice Sotomayor’s dissent in the Supreme Court’s decision to deny certiorari emphasizes the grave possibility of KB’s innocence and the flaws in his original trial, including ineffective legal representation and suppressed evidence (32:00).

• Statistics and Implications:
  Referencing a 2014 National Academy of Sciences study, the podcast notes that at least 4% of death sentences are likely wrongful, with many prisoners remaining on death row for decades (32:30).

• Call to Action:
  The episode calls on Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to exercise his authority to pardon KB, aligning with Lee’s Christian principles of mercy and justice. KB’s exemplary behavior and genuine faith are presented as reasons for clemency (32:50).

Notable Quotes:

• KB (Kevin Burns): “He’s written a book with a surprising title, the Best Day of My Life.” (30:23)
• Justice Sotomayor: “The court's decision to deny certiorari means that Burns now faces execution despite a very robust possibility he did not shoot the victims.” (32:00)
• Cal Thomas: “The only person who can now save KB is Tennessee Republican governor Bill Lee.” (32:45)

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Conclusion

In this episode, The World and Everything in It offers a comprehensive look at pivotal issues ranging from healthcare funding and educational reforms to cultural preservation and the justice system. Through in-depth reporting and expert analysis, WORLD Radio provides listeners with a nuanced understanding of these complex topics, reinforced by poignant personal stories and authoritative commentary.

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Additional Content:

• Upcoming Segments:

  • Culture Friday: Katie McCoy returns to discuss cultural topics.
  • Film Review: Colin Gabbarino reviews a British comedy about a reunited music duo.
  • Behind the Scenes: Insights with the editor and editor-in-chief.

• Featured Reports:

  • Classic Learning Test: Report by Becca McCallum.
  • Planned Parenthood Case: Report by Harrison Waters.

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Mission Statement: WORLD Radio is committed to providing biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires. Through listener support, we deliver sound journalism grounded in God's Word, ensuring our audience receives reliable and meaningful content.

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Thank you for tuning into The World and Everything in It. Join us next time for more in-depth discussions and insightful stories.

Transcript

[Mary Reichardt]

Good morning. Outside the Supreme Court yesterday chants, prayers and signs as justices decide whether South Carolina could cut ties with Planned parenthood. There are 600 Planned Parenthoods in the.

[Myrna Brown]

United States, but there are 19,000 early qualified health centers that don't offer abortions.

[Mary Reichardt]

Also, a new college test is gaining traction. We'll tell you about it. And keeping alive an ancient language and.

[Myrna Brown]

Fai There is a little minority speaking the language of Jesus, preserving their ancient tradition.

[Mary Reichardt]

And world commentator Cal Thomas on a death penalty case in Tennessee. It's Thursday, April 3rd. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reichardt. And I'm Myrna Brown. Good morning. Time now for the news with Kent Covington.

[Kent Covington]

In the White House Rose Garden.

[Cal Thomas]

Thank you very much. What a good looking group of people. Well, we have some very, very good news.

[Kent Covington]

Today. President Trump addressed a crowd of supporters on what he dubbed Liberation Day. He called it a declaration of economic independence as he announced sweeping new tariffs.

[Cal Thomas]

April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed.

[Kent Covington]

He said. For decades, other nations have taken advantage of the United States with unfair trade practices. He announced a new 10% tariff on all foreign imports with higher reciprocal tariffs to be added to goods from about 60 different trading partners.

[Cal Thomas]

We will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, non monetary barriers and other forms of cheating.

[Kent Covington]

The European Union will see a 20% reciprocal tariff. And Taiwan, where most computer chips are made, will face a 32% import tax. The US is also imposing new 25% tariffs on many imports from Canada and Mexico. President Trump predicts the new tariffs will supercharge American manufacturing. Democrats, though, have a very different take. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

[Mary Reichardt]

This is not Liberation Day. It's recession day in the United States of America. That's what the Trump tariffs are going to do, crash the economy.

[Kent Covington]

And the Senate just signaled strong reservations about some of Trump's tariff plans.

[Cal Thomas]

The yeas are 51. The nays are 48. The joint resolutions passed.

[Kent Covington]

Four Republicans joined all Democrats to pass a bill to repeal the emergency declaration that allowed President Trump to impose tariffs on Canada. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was one of those four Republicans. He explained that his vote was more about how the import taxes were imposed rather than the tariffs themselves.

[Josh Schumacher]

We should not live under emergency rule. The Constitution said taxes are raised by Congress. Most specifically, taxes originate in the House.

[Kent Covington]

And come to the Senate. The vote was largely symbolic. While the Senate bill garnered a handful of GOP votes it faces long odds of passing in the Republican controlled house in the Middle East. Recorded missile alert warnings sounding out over southern Israel Wednesday, followed by Reuters captured what appeared to be rockets launching from the Gaza Strip toward Israel. It comes after the Israeli military announced a major expansion of a military operation in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is keeping the pressure on Hamas with the terror group still holding dozens of Israeli hostages. He says the military is seizing a new security corridor in Gaza, one that analysts say would allow Israel to isolate the southern city of Rafah. Israel has already ordered evacuations in Rafah. A federal judge has dismissed a corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The Democratic mayor told reporters in Manhattan.

[Mary Reichardt]

I'm now happy that our city can.

[Josh Schumacher]

Finally close the book on this and.

[Mary Reichardt]

Focus solely on the future of our great city.

[Kent Covington]

Judge Dale E. Ho granted a request by the Justice Department to set aside the criminal charges, and he dismissed them with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot revive the case later. Adams maintained that the accusations against him were false. He had pleaded not guilty to bribery and other charges. State lawmakers in California have rejected proposals to bar males from women and girls spaces and sports teams. World's Kristin Flavin has more.

[Myrna Brown]

The state assembly committee rejected two proposals to protect girls sports and private spaces. The Democratic majority shot down a pair of measures. One of those would have prevented boys from playing on girls sports teams. The other would have changed state law to determine access to private spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms by biological sex rather than gender identity. Governor Gavin Newsom recently said on his podcast that biological boys playing in girls sports was unfair. But according to KCRA News, Newsom's office refused to comment on the now dead legislation. The Trump administration recently warned that California could lose federal education funding if the state continued to allow males in female sports. For World I'm Kristen Flavin.

[Kent Covington]

The ruling military in Myanmar has declared a temporary ceasefire in the country's civil war amid ongoing relief efforts that is in the wake of last week's devastating earthquake. That quake is now blamed for more than 3,000 deaths in the country. State controlled media said the truce would run until April 22. That followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule.

[Mary Reichardt]

Foreign.

[Kent Covington]

I'm Kent Covington. And still ahead, the U.S. supreme Court considers whether South Carolina can cut ties with Planned Parenthood. This is the world and everything in it.

[Mary Reichardt]

It's Thursday 3rd April. Thank you for listening to World Radio. Good morning. I'm Myrna Brown. And I'm Mary Reichard up first, taxpayer dollars and abortion. Thousands of people rallied in front of the Supreme Court yesterday. Pro lifers on one side, supporters of abortion giant Planned Parenthood on the other. Inside the court, the justices heard arguments in a case out of South Carolina. Yeah. Back in 2018, South Carolina barred Planned par Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds, saying the organization violates state policy because abortion is a major part of what it does. Planned Parenthood sued and a lower court sided with it. Now the Supreme Court will decide, can individual Medicaid recipients override a state's decision about which providers receive public funding? Now, we'll cover the legal arguments in Monday's legal docket. But for today, what this case means for Americans who showed up to make their voices heard. Here is world reporter Josh Schumacher. You got yours, you're ready. You got your shirt. There you go.

[Josh Schumacher]

Myra Rodriguez worked for planned parenthood for 17 years in Arizona.

[Mary Reichardt]

I once came to D.C. to advocate for them not to be defunded, right? I told people, hey, no, we do more than abortions. But the reality is that Planned Parenthood's only concentration, it's abortion.

[Josh Schumacher]

After she became facilities director, Rodriguez discovered some troubling things.

[Mary Reichardt]

And I saw how those facilities were misusing the funds, our tax money. They were misbelling insurance to commit fraud purposely. Right.

[Josh Schumacher]

She reported the mismanagement as well as harm to women receiving abortions. But instead of fixing the problems, her employer fired her.

[Mary Reichardt]

They're a multi billion dollar organization. It's not for the people. They're a corporation.

[Josh Schumacher]

The Supreme Court is considering whether patients have the right to sue South Carolina for disqualifying Planned Parenthood. But supporters and opponents of the company are debating a more fundamental question. Does the organization provide qualified medical care?

[Mary Reichardt]

It supports basic preventative care, not. We're not talking abortions.

[Josh Schumacher]

Chelsea Aliena works with the group Rise and Resist in Oregon. She says the years long case about funding Planned Parenthood is now connected to efforts by the Trump administration to cut back Medicaid.

[Mary Reichardt]

We're talking about 30 million Americans who.

[Myrna Brown]

Potentially will go without health insurance.

[Josh Schumacher]

On Monday, the Trump administration paused grants for family planning services while it investigates how the funds are being spent. Another volunteer, Shana Nash, told World she regularly goes to Planned Parenthood for cancer screening Pap smears.

[Mary Reichardt]

In a lot of rural communities, Planned Parenthood is typically the only facility in.

[Myrna Brown]

The area that provides reproductive or sexual health care. So your cervical cancer screenings, your Pap.

[Mary Reichardt]

Smears, your birth control, your STD testing.

[Myrna Brown]

Your STI testing, breast exams, those things are important and if these clinics shut down, that means we're going to lose lives.

[Josh Schumacher]

But others say the math tells a different story.

[Myrna Brown]

There are 600 Planned Parenthoods in the United States, but there are 19,000 fairly qualified health centers that don't offer abortions.

[Josh Schumacher]

Hannah Lape leads a chapter of Students for Life at Wheaton College in Illinois. She points out that Planned Parenthood is far from the only option available for many communities.

[Mary Reichardt]

So I think we should be focusing.

[Myrna Brown]

On shifting our attention and our funding to those federally qualified health centers that already exist and are already funded by the government. We don't need Planned Parenthood.

[Josh Schumacher]

In South Carolina's brief, Healthcare Department director Eunice Medina points out that there are 140 federally qualified health clinics in her state, but only two Planned Parenthood affiliates, and they don't provide a variety of the preventative services proponents say they do. So blocking funds will not substantially reduce access to services like breast exams and STD testing. Add to that Planned Parenthood's track record of questionable business practices.

[Kent Covington]

The fact of the matter is this provider is unqualified because of its lurid history with regards to this human trafficking of aborted baby body parts.

[Josh Schumacher]

Matt Staver is founder and chairman of Liberty Council, a nonprofit law firm and ministry focused on issues of life, family and religious freedom. His firm represented investigative reporter Sandra Merritt after her 2015 expose on the sale of baby body parts landed her in court.

[Kent Covington]

As a result of Sandra Merritt, there were several states in the country that began to defund Planned Parenthood, the first of which was Texas. And there is a case that was actually upheld by the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, citing specifically the videos of Sandra Merritt and David Daleyden. With regards to Planned Parenthood, California reached.

[Josh Schumacher]

A deal to drop criminal charges against Merritt earlier this year. Now Liberty Counsel has submitted a friend of the court brief supporting South Carolina.

[Kent Covington]

There's a lot of reasons why Planned Parenthood is not qualified in that South Carolina is correct in saying that Planned Parenthood cannot be a qualified provider for the state's Medicaid funds.

[Josh Schumacher]

The law authorizing Medicaid says states will provide federal and state funds for low income patients to receive care from any qualified provider. Planned Parenthood argues that patients have the right to sue the government for blocking funds from going to the provider of their choosing. But South Carolina and supporters like Staver say no such right exists in the law.

[Kent Covington]

The statute needs to give you that and explicitly grant that kind of right for an individual or an individual entity to sue. Absent that, you can't just simply infer that everybody has this individual right to sue.

[Josh Schumacher]

Even so, the courts are split on whether states can block Medicaid funds from going to the abortion provider.

[Kent Covington]

There are five courts of appeal that say Planned Parenthood should win. There are two courts of appeal that say, no, the state should win. That's why I think the Supreme Court took up this case. And I'm optimistic that the Supreme Court will side with South Carolina. If not, what happens across the country is that the individual state's decision on these critically important matters will be controlled by a federal mandate.

[Myrna Brown]

I don't care if women die.

[Mary Reichardt]

Pro life is a lie.

[Josh Schumacher]

Planned Parenthood supporters outnumbered pro life advocates in front of the court on Wednesday. But advocates like former facility director Rodriguez are hopeful the court and lawmakers will put Planned Parenthood on notice.

[Mary Reichardt]

They're not only misusing our tax money in our country, but they use it to kill babies in every other country, too. So it's time for us to say Enough.

[Josh Schumacher]

Reporting for World, I'm Josh Schumacher in Washington, D.C.

[Mary Reichardt]

Up next, a new kind of college test based on ancient ideas. It's called the Classic Learning Test, or clt. It measures skills usually highlighted in classical education programs. It's gaining traction as an alternative to the ACT or the satisfaction, and several states are considering it. On March 11, Oklahoma's House of Representatives passed a bill that would let students use CLT scores to qualify for in state scholarships. But how does the CLT compare to other standardized tests? World's Anna Johansen Brown has the story.

[Myrna Brown]

Sarah Catherine Grace took the SAT twice in high school. Then she applied to New College Franklin, a private Christian university in Tennessee, and learned she'd need to take a different entrance exam, the Classic Learning Test.

[Grace Snell]

But the nice thing was that I.

[Myrna Brown]

Had gone through a lot of this.

[Mary Reichardt]

With my schooling because classically educated and kind of was how it progressed anyway.

[Myrna Brown]

So I just kind of had to.

[Mary Reichardt]

Brush up on a few things.

[Myrna Brown]

New College Franklin is one of more than 280 universities that accept the CLT. The test first rolled out in 2015 and covers subjects like reading, writing and arithmetic. But unlike modern standardized tests, the CLT uses classic texts from authors like Charles Dickens and Voltaire. I think in the sat, it was a lot of like we just kind of picked this passage or it was.

[Mary Reichardt]

Very generic, whereas here it was a lot of primary sources of philosophers and.

[Myrna Brown]

Different, you know, correspondence between two main political figures. That emphasis on critical thinking is part of the reason Arizona Christian University accepts the CLT. Here's Dean of ACU's College of Arts and Humanities Adam Rasmussen that differentiates them.

[Kent Covington]

From students who maybe have had more bland education, that it's more, you know, one size fits all across the nation type of education. And maybe that education is not exploring some of the greater questions that we explore at our school. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to flourish?

[Myrna Brown]

Rasmussen says public education doesn't usually ask those fundamental questions. About a decade ago, the SAT and ACT began using Common Core standards, which set benchmarks for student progress. But Rasmussen points out an annual college dropout rate of more than 30% and says common Core based assessments aren't reliable indicators of student success.

[Kent Covington]

So when we say we've got a system that is creating people that are college ready, I would question that. I would say maybe they're not ready for college.

[Myrna Brown]

Problems with modern standardized tests existed long before Common Core benchmarks, sats and ACTS grew out of intelligence tests, basically starting around the late nineteen teens and into the nineteen twenties. Pepper Stetler is the author of A Measure of Intelligence, a book exploring the history of IQ tests. In World War I, there were efforts to create a kind of intelligence test that could be standardized and given to thousands and thousands of army recruits. Stetler says some standard tests ignore an important distinction and intellectual capacity is kind of like a biologically ingrained trait, whereas education is like testing whether you have been to school and you have received a quality education. And those tests, things aren't necessarily the same. The CLT might be a better metric of what classically educated students have learned, but it could put some students at a disadvantage if they've gone to a.

[Kent Covington]

School, public or not, where they haven't.

[Cal Thomas]

Been asked to read difficult text and do a lot of writing and thinking, critical thinking, reading, writing. Then yeah, I think this ELT is.

[Kent Covington]

Going to feel very tough.

[Myrna Brown]

Keith Nix serves on the advisory board for the CLT. He's also the head of Veritas School in Richmond, Virginia. It's a K through 12 program he says pairs well with the CLT assessment.

[Cal Thomas]

Our students don't need to do a lot of independent study just to take a test.

[Kent Covington]

They can just come to school every.

[Cal Thomas]

Day and read what we read and do the writing, do what's expected of them.

[Myrna Brown]

According to the creators of the clt, a new standardized test might not only benefit homeschooled and private schooled students, it could eventually influence what gets taught at the public school level. But that depends on whether states decide to teach to a classically based test. CLT Chief Financial Officer Noah Tyler but the College Board has enjoyed a position of prominence. They have been the silent shadow department of education, like curriculum Setter. That might explain why the College Board, which administers the sat, has targeted the clt. Last year, the College Board issued a statement saying the CLT hasn't been around long enough to be reliable. And the board also said the study comparing the CLT to the SAT did not meet industry standards. Tyler says that at the legislative level, the board has exercised some leverage. College Board has a lobbying budget. You know, that's north of a million dollars. According to RealClear Investigations, the board spent around $830,000 on lobbying in 2023. Lobbying efforts may continue, especially as test makers vie for a diminishing market share. The thing that may be more difficult for the standardized tests and the admissions departments generally is the what's called the demographic cliff, where there just may not be enough students for all of the colleges in our country to survive. Despite a dwindling number of college students, the CLT is growing. Between 2016 and 2023, roughly 21,000 high school juniors and seniors took the alternate test. Last year alone, students took ten times that many. The number of students considering the CLT may increase thanks to bills in Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia and Iowa. Adding the CLT at publicly funded universities. For now, the Classic Learning test remains most popular among members of its original target audience, private and homeschooled students like Sarah Catherine Grace.

[Mary Reichardt]

It didn't feel like you're reading about.

[Myrna Brown]

Jane and Jack throwing around a ball. It was very much like thinking through it critically. And I think that's another thing was they really wanted to tackle how you thought through things. And you're not just memorizing a bunch.

[Mary Reichardt]

Of random facts for a test to get a good grade.

[Myrna Brown]

For World, I'm Anna Johansson Brown.

[Kent Covington]

Additional Support comes from Letourneau University, the Christian Polytechnic University.

[Cal Thomas]

More at letu.edu.

[Mary Reichardt]

Well, here's to her reunion, 11 years in the making. Melanie Epperson of Buffalo, New York, never thought she'd see her lovable pup Snuggles ever again. He disappeared during the chaos of a move more than a decade ago. But then a call from the city shelter sound from WKBS Buffalo.

[Kent Covington]

When I got that call, at first I thought my daughter was joking like Chantelle. Stop playing.

[Mary Reichardt]

Well, it turns out a good Samaritan brought Snuggles in for a microchip scan. That scan led to Epperson's daughter Chantel, who took the call. Now, after all this time, Snuggles is back home.

[Kent Covington]

Here we are.

[Mary Reichardt]

Me and Snuggles, he can live up.

[Kent Covington]

To 18 years old.

[Mary Reichardt]

So I got at least another good.

[Kent Covington]

Four to five years. To Snuggles. Snuggles.

[Mary Reichardt]

So this tale has a happy ending with plenty of wag left in it. It's the World and everything in.

[Myrna Brown]

Today.

[Mary Reichardt]

Is Thursday, April 3rd. Thank you for turning to World Radio to help start your day. Good morning, I'm Mary Reichardt. And I'm Myrna Brown. Coming next on the World and everything in it. Keeping an ancient language and heritage alive. For centuries, Christian communities thrived in Turkey's southeast region of Tur Abdin. It's home to the Syriac Orthodox Church, also known as the Arameans. They practiced their faith there for more than 1500 years. Their spiritual roots go back to the church at Antioch, the place the Book of Acts tells us where the disciples were first called Christians. But waves of persecution drove most of these people from their homeland. Today, nearly all of the world's 5 million Syrians Syriac Orthodox Christians live in diaspora, scattered far from where their story began. World's great Snell visited an Aramean community, keeping that story alive. She met a teacher working to pass on the faith to the next generation.

[Grace Snell]

In a classroom in southern Germany, two dozen students stand beside their desks, facing east and chanting the Lord's Prayer in unison. They're speaking Aramaic, the language scholars agree Jesus spoke. It's the language Mark used to record Jesus anguished last cry from the cross. And it's the language Syriac Orthodox Christians still use in their liturgical worship. But Aramaic is in danger of dying out as believers raise their children far from their original homeland. Linda Guven is on a mission to change that. Guven is Germany's first state approved high school teacher of Syriac Orthodox theology and she's fighting to keep her students language and their faith alive.

[Myrna Brown]

The most important thing in teaching is to make the students understand why. If they don't understand the meaning behind the thing or the intention of, then it's always difficult to live it, to feel it.

[Grace Snell]

At the front of the room, Guvan directs her students to take their seats. Today they're learning about Jesus. The Bread of Life from John, Chapter six. Guven students mostly come from Turkey and Syria. Most of their parents or grandparents moved to Germany decades ago. But some arrived with their parents as toddlers before that. Their roots run deep in one special corner of southeast Turkey.

[Myrna Brown]

Originally, we are all from Turab Din, Turkey.

[Grace Snell]

Turab Din is a mountainous plateau whose name means mountain of the servants of God. And it's the historic homeland For Syriac Orthodox Christians, monasteries and churches here date back to at least the 6th century. After the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. the Syriac Orthodox Church split from the Greek and Latin churches. They disagreed over the nature of Christ, whether Jesus had two distinct united natures, divine and human, or one incarnate, divine, human nature. In 1915, the same year as the Armenian genocide, the Ottoman Empire carried out a sweeping massacre of Syriac Orthodox Christians. It's a time Arameans remember as the seifo, literally the sword. Although exact numbers aren't known, historians estimate Ottoman troops murdered over 90% of the Christian population in some places. After that, the remnant of Syriac Orthodox believers started leaving in search of a better life. Today, only about 25,000 still remain in Turkey. The rest are scattered abroad. An estimated hundred thousand live in Germany, and Guven said the community is growing.

[Myrna Brown]

The Christians in the Middle east are still suffering, so there's a growth in the community. Like people from Syria are coming and Iraq. So we've got a lot.

[Grace Snell]

In 2022, she started teaching a class of about 50 students. Since then, the student body has more than doubled. Gouven students say they're grateful for the country's religious freedom.

[Myrna Brown]

I think we are very lucky to live here in Germany, that we can live our religion, our faith, like we want to and don't, like, have problems with that.

[Grace Snell]

But Gouven says her students still have to navigate life between two cultures.

[Myrna Brown]

Migrating splits your heart in half, makes you foreign for the country you left, and you're too foreign for the country or homeland you found somewhere you're in between.

[Grace Snell]

Guven students are hungry to understand who they are and where they came from.

[Myrna Brown]

Frau Guven tells us very beautiful parts.

[Mary Reichardt]

About our traditions and something like that.

[Cal Thomas]

And we can hold on to them.

[Mary Reichardt]

I get to learn things about my background and about my ancestors, and yeah.

[Myrna Brown]

I really enjoy it.

[Grace Snell]

After class, Gouvern dismisses her students and dashes off to an evening prayer service. On her way in, she tugs a lacy white veil over her dark curls. Syriac Orthodox women cover their heads during worship as a sign of reverence. Under the church's high ceiling, the congregation worships as their ancestors have for more than a millennium. Two groups of men stand chanting at the front. Afterwards, everyone files by and kisses an ornately decorated Bible. Neumann Adjar is the church's former chairman. He says he's thankful for a teacher like Guven, and he hopes the next generation will stand firm in their faith. Standing in the church annex, priest Salih Badak agrees. Dak says if the church loses their language, they lose their children. Gouven says that's the reason she does this job.

[Myrna Brown]

Since we don't have a country, a homeland, the only thing we have is the church and our faith. I just want to give them a place where they can grow and find their identity. And as I said, language is a part of their identity.

[Grace Snell]

She says that's something she wants the wider Christian community to know.

[Myrna Brown]

There is a little minority speaking the language of Jesus, preserving their ancient tradition.

[Grace Snell]

And that's the way Gouven intends to keep it. Reporting for world, I'm Grace Snell in Wiedekein Bissingen, Germany.

[Mary Reichardt]

Today is Thursday, April 3rd. Good morning. This is the World and everything in it from Listener supported World Radio. I'm Myrna Brown. And I'm Mary Reichard. A man is on death row in Tennessee and world commentator counts Hamas weighs in on his case.

[Cal Thomas]

In his letter from Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King Jr. Wrote, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. There is a man who has spent nearly 30 years on death row in a Nashville prison for Mur that substantial evidence shows he did not commit. His name is Kevin Burns, or KB as he's known. He's written a book with a surprising title, the Best Day of My Life, co authored by a fellow pastor, Kevin Riggs. I say fellow pastor because while in prison, KB became an ordained minister. KB's story will be a familiar one to many. A black man who could not afford adequate representation received a court appointed attorney. According to the book, the lawyer did a poor job in KB's defense. KB says he got in a car with a group of friends and thought he was going to record rap music with them. Instead, they drove to a neighborhood where one of the men had a grievance against another. The men in the car pulled out guns and shot two of the men sitting in a parked car. Both died. KB insists he didn't shoot anyone. His fingerprints weren't on the murder weapons. Yet he was charged with two counts of felony murder and two counts of attempted felony murder and sentenced to death. Sometime after his sentencing, witnesses came forward and said the description of the killers did not match kb. But it was too late. Other witnesses changed their stories, one twice. The other three times during the appeals process, lawyers could only argue what was on the existing court record. New evidence was prohibited. When his case reached the U.S. supreme Court, the justices voted 6 to 3 to deny KB's appeal. Justice Sotomayor wrote in dissent, the court's decision to deny certiori means that Burns now faces execution despite a very robust possibility he did not shoot the victims, but that the jurors, acting on incomplete information, sentenced him to death because they thought he had. That alone should be grounds for overturning Byrnes conviction, either releasing him or giving him a new trial, one that includes evidence and cross examination of witnesses that was not properly done at the original trial, not to mention making sure he has a better lawyer. According to a 2014 study by the National Academy of Sciences, at least 4% of defendants sentenced to death are innocent. While not all are executed, most are sent to death row, where they remain for years without an execution date. According to the Death Penalty Information center, death sentence prisoners in the US Typically spend more than a decade on death row prior to exoneration or execution. Some prisoners have been on death row for well over 20 years. This is indefensible even by people who favor capital punishment. The only person who can now save KB is Tennessee Republican governor Bill Lee. It is a heavy responsibility to hold the life of another person in one's hands, especially when there is substantial evidence the condemned man is innocent. Governor Lee has spoken publicly about his strong Christian faith. Part of that faith includes the type of mercy God extends to everyone who truly seeks him. KB says he has sought and found God according to guards and all who have met with him. His behavior on death row has been exemplary. Governor Lee should extend the same mercy he has received to KB and pardon him. I'm Kyle Thomas.

[Mary Reichardt]

Tomorrow, Katie McCoy is back for Culture Friday and Colin Gabbarino reviews a quirky British comedy about an estranged music duo who reunite to perform a concert for one man. And ask the editor with our editor in chief. That and more tomorrow. I'm Myrna Brown. And I'm Mary Reichard. World's Becca McCallum wrote today's story about the classic learning test. And Harrison Waters wrote our report on the Planned Parenthood case before the Supreme Court. 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 that Saul fell to the ground. He heard a voice saying to him, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Verses 4 through 8 of Acts chapter 9 go now in Grace and Peace SA.