The World and Everything in It: May 7, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. Hello. My name is Stephen Ippolito. I love listening to The World and Everything in It with my wife as we eat lunch and plan for summer camps. I hope you enjoy today’s program.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning! The U.K. prepares to deport thousands of asylum seekers.

RISHI SUNAK: If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay, they’re much less likely to come.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today an immigration expert on the Rwanda Asylum Plan. Also today, a street-level view of anti-Israel protests at an elite campus in DC. And later, our Classic Book of the Month by Nabeel Qureshi.

BONNER: He was a tremendous gift to the church, passionate advocate for Christ, the truth of Christ, who loved the truth. And he longed to see Muslims set free

MAST: It’s Tuesday, May 7th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

MAST: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

SOUND: (Gaza celebration)

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel/Rafah/cease-fire talks » Palestinian citizens celebrating in the streets of Gaza after the terrorist group Hamas announced that it has agreed to a cease-fire deal. But those celebrations may be premature.

The deal Hamas says it accepts is not the same one offered last week by Israel.

State Dept spokesman Matthew Miller:

MILLER: I can confirm that Hamas has issued a response. We are reviewing that response now and discussing it with our partners in the region.

U.S. officials were unable to discuss any details of the proposed cease-fire, reportedly crafted by the governments of Egypt and Qatar. But Israeli leaders were not impressed, saying the proposal was “far from” meeting their “core demands.”

However, they are sending negotiators back to Egypt to keep working toward an acceptable deal.

Miller stated once more on Monday that the offer Israel put on the table last week was one Hamas should have accepted.

MILLER: Israel made significant compromises, showed that they wanted to reach an agreement that would lead to the release of hostages that would bring an immediate ceasefire.

While Israel says it will continue talking, it will also continue to take action.

Israeli Defense Forces — or IDF — said last night that it was “conducting targeted strikes” in and around Rafah.

Israeli leaders have approved a ground operation into Rafah in spite of a phone call in which President Biden once again voiced concerns to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday:

KIRBY: And the president was consistent again that we don’t support ground operations in Rafah that would put the civilians there at any greater risk.

But in a video address, Netanyahu made Israel’s position crystal clear.

NETANYAHU: If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. And I say to you, we will defeat our genocidal enemies. Never again is now.

Netanyahu says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas terrorist stronghold, and it is key to winning the war.

Israel just ordered some 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating the city. But some world leaders argue that there’s really no place for them to go.

Russia threatens nuke drills » John Kirby also weighed in on new threats out of the Kremlin to hold drills simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield.

Tactical nuclear weapons differ from traditional nukes in that they are less powerful and more limited in scope — relatively speaking, of course. They are also compact and easy to transport covertly.

Kirby told reporters …

KIRBY: It’s just reckless and irresponsible for the leader of a major nuclear-armed power to be saber-rattling the way that he is with respect to potential use for nuclear weapons.

Russia’s defense ministry says the move is a response to what it calls provocative statements made by certain Western officials.

U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron recently said that Ukraine would be able to use British long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia. And French President Emmanuel Macron has broached the possibility of sending French troops to Ukraine.

Greene meets with Speaker Johnson » Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene might be backing off from her plans to force a vote this week on a motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson.

GREENE: We just had a very long discussion with the speaker.

“We” being Greene and Congressman Thomas Massie, who has supported her bid to oust the speaker.

For his part, Johnson described the meeting this way:

JOHNSON: A lengthy, constructive meeting. We discussed some ideas, and we’re going to meet again tomorrow.

Greene has called Johnson a failed speaker, accusing him of caving to Democrats on major legislation. Last week, she said she would force that vacate vote despite not having the numbers needed to oust the speaker.

Trump trial, gag order » Donald Trump says he’s willing to go to jail to defend his First Amendment free speech rights which he says are being trampled on by a gag order in his so-called hush money case in New York.

The judge just fined him another $1,000 dollars for another violation of that order, again threatened to put Trump behind bars for future violations.

TRUMP: Frankly, you know what? Our constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day.

The judge said fining Trump doesn’t seem to be working, so he could end up putting Trump behind bars. He added that he understands the gravity of that decision.

Jurors on Monday heard testimony from former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney about the financial reimbursements at the center of the case.

Houston flood cleanup » In Houston, devastated families in Texas are starting the long process of rebuilding their lives after flood waters swamped many neighborhoods over the weekend.

First responders carried out hundreds of high-water rescues. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo says…

HIDALGO: 233 people have been rescued and 186 pets.

Across the state, flooding killed at least 3 people, including a young boy inside a car swept away by rushing waters.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott…

ABBOTT: Heart wrenching to see our fellow Texans be literally inundated with record waterfall, record rise in water… flooding homes, destroying homes, destroying lives.

Some parts of the state got a foot-and-a-half to almost two feet of rain in just a week.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the one thing that is really and for true the thing that is straight ahead. Plus, something that’s ahead but not immediately straight ahead.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 7th of May, 2024. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

First up on The World and Everything in It. The U.K.’s response to illegal immigration.

SOUND: (Doors slamming on vans)

Last week, the U.K. government said it rounded up a group who entered the country illegally. Their next stop? The Central African country of Rwanda.

EICHER: Britain’s Conservative government introduced the Rwanda asylum plan in 2022, but spent several years fighting legal challenges at home and in the European Court of Human Rights. Parliament eventually okayed the plan last month.

Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak:

RISHI SUNAK: If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay, they’re much less likely to come.

MAST: It’s a sort of “Remain in Mexico” program, only it’s Rwanda. The plan is for asylum claims to be processed there with resettlement offered to the tens of thousands who make a dangerous journey across the English Channel each year.

Critics of the plan say Rwanda is unsafe for refugees but the Rwandan government says it can protect them with help from the U.K.

EICHER: Joining us now to talk about the plan is Simon Hankinson. He served as a foreign service officer at the State Department, and now is a senior researcher on Border Security and Immigration at The Heritage Foundation.

MAST: Simon, good morning!

SIMON HANKINSON: Good to be with you.

MAST: Well, let’s start with this: why Rwanda?

HANKINSON: Well, you know, it doesn’t matter that it’s Rwanda, it could be, it could be anywhere. Australia did the same thing about 20 years ago, and they used the islands of Nauru and an island off Papua New Guinea, where they set up processing camps. The key thing here is to deprive illegal crossers of what they most want, which is the opportunity to disappear into the community, get a job, and send money home. Now, they don’t really care if their cases are going to be approved or not. Most of them know that they’re not actually going to qualify for asylum, but they’re looking for a job. So they figure as long as they can get in the pipeline, things will be so slow. The UK’s rate of processing asylum applicants is as abysmal as ours. There were like 100,000 illegal arrivals, as of like, this is about August of last year, of which 98% I think were still in the UK as of a couple months ago. So you know, they’re backlogged just as we are in the U.S., where we’re talking about maybe almost 3 million backlogs in the asylum system and waiting times of five or ten or even more years.

MAST: Some say that this plan could violate international asylum law. The UN’s refugee agency and others say that when people claim asylum from political or religious persecution, they must be protected until their case can be heard. So by relocating asylum seekers, some of whom came from dangerous parts of Africa to a country that’s also in Africa, Britain may put vulnerable people back in harm’s way. What do you make of that argument?

HANKINSON: I’ve met officials from Rwanda in the last year, and what I know of the country is that ever since the, you know, the the awful genocide in the mid-90s, it is one of the more prosperous, stable countries in Africa. And if the government promises that they’re going to treat people with respect, I have no reason to not believe that. We’re not talking about the the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or, you know, a country in the Sahel that’s undergoing a coup and all kinds of militant activity. So there are absolutely some legitimate asylum seekers out there, and their cases should be heard, and they should receive protection, but they are drowned in the sheer volume of economic migrants. So that’s what the Rwanda plan is trying to weed out. And I think it would be very effective if they could get it going.

MAST: Simon, you mentioned Australia’s plan to do something similar? How did that work out in that instance?

HANKINSON: It was amazingly successful. You now have a majority of Australians on both political sides who support this program, because it works. People no longer drown at sea because they’re trying on leaky boats to make it to Australia, because they know that 100% of the time, if you arrive illegally by boat, you will not be given asylum in Australia. Period. In the beginning, it was a little hairy. They had a few thousand people in camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea. By the time they closed the last camp, they had three people in it. So the word got out, and in the final years of the camps, they had nobody attempt to cross into Australia, like zero, going down from like 50,000 a year. So it was highly effective for the Australians, and which is why they’ve kept it in reserve. They pay about $350,000 a year to the government, I think it’s in Nauru, to keep that camp on standby, just in case they need it. Because you need to have that that threat possible in order to discourage people from trying again.

MAST: So what do you think it would take for the U.S. to do something like what Australia and the U.K. are doing?

HANKINSON: Well, we had it. We did it under the the migrant protection protocols, also known as “Remain in Mexico,” where for a couple of years, it got off the ground and there was never mass scale, but what we did is we required people who wanted to claim asylum in the U.S. to wait out the process in Mexico. And what it did is it discouraged all the people who were simply economic migrants looking for a job, if they knew that they would have to wait in a camp. The majority of people just just left because they had no intention and they would tell reporters and anybody who asked, “Yeah, I’m not going to wait in the camp because I’ll probably never get asylum.” So it’s it was a tremendously effective disincentive program. And it worked and and as for the mass deportations, you know, there’s gonna be a lot of labels put on that and there’s gonna be an awful lot of scare-mongering. But just to give you a couple of figures, there are already 1.2 million people in the U.S. illegally here who judges have ruled after due process, that they should be deported. So they have a final removal order against them. There’s also 400,000 convicted criminal aliens with removal orders. So think about that. I mean, you know, maybe you can send people up about mass deportations, but if you tell them that half a million people are here who’ve already committed serious crimes in our country, and have no right to remain, under what basis should they be allowed to remain? So you know, it’s a little difficult to gin up sympathy for people who’ve had every advantage to take the system all the way to conclusion. They’ve had their case heard over many years, but the decision was, “I’m sorry, you have to go home.” You could at least start with those people, and then work your way down the list.

MAST: Simon Hankinson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Thank you for your time!

HANKINSON: Happy to be with you.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: campus protests.

On Monday, Columbia University announced that it would cancel commencement because of them.

Across the country, tents have taken over campus green spaces while anti-Israel protesters–not all of them students–chant Palestinian slogans.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: So who are these people and who is providing the resources for them to spend weeks occupying the quad?

World’s Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta visited George Washington University to find out.

AUDIO: Hey, bring the flag back. Bring it back, bring it back. Gaza you are not alone. This campus is a freedom zone. Move, cops, get out the way. We know you’re Israeli trained.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: It’s Thursday afternoon and student protesters at GW are fighting with campus police for control of a flagpole in the University Yard. For more than a week, protesters have occupied the green space between the law school and other campus buildings just three blocks from the White House. After a few minutes of struggling, the officers give up and retreat while the students replace the university flag with a Palestinian one.

AUDIO: Who got the campus? We got the campus. Who got the flag up? We got the flag up.

The Metropolitan Police Department has denied the school’s requests to clear the camp. The police say they will only monitor the protest as long as it remains peaceful, though they did not intervene during the flagpole struggle. Signs along the border of University Yard declare it the “People’s University of Gaza” and “The Liberation Zone.”

REEM LABABDI: So these are some of the tents as you can see I said some of them have names of places in Palestine This is al-Quds which is Arabic for Jerusalem.

That’s Reem Lababdi, a sophomore and student organizer. She showed me around the 130 tents, past areas with medical supplies and food. There are charging stations for phones and electronics and a tent for art supplies.

Nearby, Lababdi points out a red cart piled high with books and handouts about Palestine, protest movements, and the situation in Gaza.

LABABDI: I am far too busy to read right now. There’s for example, 1804 books is a publisher that Palestinian Youth Movement works with and there this is not something that just we have like encampments all over the country have little libraries 1804 Books. Publishers have published a little encampment-like bundle that they’re sending out to encampments.

Many of these pamphlets were published by American Muslims for Palestine and the Palestinian Youth Movement. According to the Anti-Defamation League, those organizations, along with several others funding the encampments, have a history of anti-Semitic rhetoric. They call Hamas terrorists “freedom fighters,” and tell students that violence is justified against Israelis and their supporters.

Those organizations also supplied tents and instructions on how to set up an encampment. The Party for Socialism and Liberation supplied drums.

JACK: It was really a remarkable effort. And everyone came together to get it done.

Jack is an organizer and a senior, but he was unwilling to tell me his last name or which college he attends. He was recruited to help set up the camp through his membership in his university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP. A coalition of SJP chapters planned this encampment in four days.

JACK: So I was reached out to by one of the members of the Executive Board. And they were like, “Hey, do you want a role in in making sure this event goes smoothly?” And I volunteered.

Across the country, similar encampments have organized student teams to provide security, cleanup, media contacts, and de-escalation. They follow the same protest instructions that pro-Palestinian organizations distributed after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Students at GW pulled up approved lists of chants on their phones during rallies.

Most of the organizers and students were unwilling to tell me which school they attend out of concern for their safety and the risk of suspension.

LUMETTA: Okay? And are you a student here?

RAF: I am a student.

LUMETTA: What year?

RAF: I’m… not going to disclose that information.

Some protesters gave me their full names, but I could not confirm their identities with local colleges or sources like social media. And most protestors covered their faces with masks or keffiyehs if they saw reporters coming.

SOUND: (Arabic song)

AUDIO: There is only one solution, intifada revolution. There is only one solution, a student-led revolution, a student-led revolution.

Protesters told me intifada simply means shaking off, as in oppressors. But to Jewish students, it means something different. The first intifada in the late 1980s centered mostly on nonviolent protests and boycotts, but the second one in the early 2000s turned far more violent. Palestinians resorted to suicide bombings and rocket attacks.

DAVID NUFTULIN: Because from my experience, Intifada has led to the deaths of thousands of Jewish people…

David Naftulin is a third year law student, with classes in the buildings surrounding the U-Yard. His exams have been relocated to other buildings because the noise permeates the classrooms.

NAFTULIN: I’m seeing how populations can just kind of turn on you. And how propaganda and misinformation can just incite people to hate you. You know, Jews in this country are vulnerable, we are 2% of the country. And if this is the future, then I think that’s pretty scary.

Other Jewish students I talked to said they’ve been taking alternate routes to classes in the buildings surrounding the encampment. Many of the students at the encampment are still cracking open their books and working on final projects.

LABABDI: I’m sorry are you wanting to do me a huge favor to help me study for my Arabic?

Just outside the University Yard, students and faculty sit in folding chairs to vape or smoke cigarettes and marijuana. When the campus trash and recycling bins fill up, students load garbage bags into their cars and drive them away. Some tents are decorated with succulents, night lights, and fluffy blankets.

After classes, they listen to speeches from professors and activists. Avraham “Miko” Peled spoke to students on Thursday evening. He praised the students for their demonstration.

AVRAHAM PELED: You guys are going to be remembered. This is going to be remembered as one of the most remarkable moments in the history of this campus.

Peled went on to describe Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel on October 7 as a group of poor fighters paralyzing an oppressor. He told the students not to trust media reports about Hamas’ documented war crimes.

GW President Ellen Granberg said in a press release on Sunday that the encampment has been illegal and violent, but the school does not have the resources to address it. And protestors have no plans to disband.

AUDIO: We’re not leaving.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta.

NICK EICHER, HOST: There’s a tourist town in Japan called Fujikawaguchiko where people come to see Mount Fuji.

But there may be more to it. In this location, in front of Fujisan, there’s an American-style convenience store called Lawson. It looks like anything you’d see in the U.S., and maybe that’s the draw: the juxtaposition of something iconically American in the foreground of something majestically Japanese.

Social media tourists have flocked to the little town to do it all for the ’gram.

Even when it’s foggy.

TOURIST: I noticed today that Mt. Fuji’s not even in the view, and people are still taking pictures, so that’s the power of social media I think.

The power to set people wandering into the streets with no regard for anything but their phone cameras. They block traffic, they litter, they trespass.

And for Fujikawaguchikoians enough is enough. So by mid-month, a black mesh net is going up 8 feet high, 66 feet long. Take your Insta somewhere else.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 7th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD’s Classic Book of the Month for May.

Emily Whitten reviews Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by the late Nabeel Qureshi.

EMILY WHITTEN: The last Youtube video of Christian apologist Nabeel Qureshi is from September 2017. He’s in a hospital bed. His lips are chapped and his body wrecked by cancer.

QURESHI: My whole point in teaching is for love to reign. And so as you consider my ministry, I hope it leaves a legacy of love, of peace, truth, of caring for one another…whether you’re talking to a Hindu, a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian, whoever you’re talking to, may it be out of love.

Just 3 years before, in 2014, thirty-year-old Qureshi published our Classic Book of the Month for May, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. It’s his story of conversion from Islam to Christianity. In this clip from the audiobook’s Prologue, he wrestles with God before his conversion.

AUDIOBOOK: (Prologue) “Please, God Almighty, tell me who you are. At your feet, I lay down everything I have learned. I give my entire life to you. Take away what you will, be it my joy, my friends, my family. But let me have you, O God. Light the path that I must walk.”

In the book’s first chapters, we meet Quereshi as the son of Pakistani immigrants. His father works for the U.S. Navy, and both of Qureshi’s parents come from devout Muslim families. At times, his background makes it hard to fit in at school, but his mother encourages him to work hard, to overcome prejudice, and be a positive ambassador for Islam:

AUDIOBOOK: (Chapter 11) Become the valedictorian, so people will think, “Wow! Islam produces good students!” Become the president, so people will think, “Islam makes good leaders!” But even if you become a janitor, be the very best.

As a college freshman, though, Qureshi makes a new friend named David Wood who is a strong Christian. Wood gives Qureshi unconditional love and friendship along with razor-sharp arguments for Christianity. After investigating Christianity for several years, Qureshi commits his life to Christ.

MATT BONNER: Nabeel, in the book, he said, you know, I would not have taken a lot of this seriously or I wouldn’t have thought through it as I did if it hadn’t been for this relationship with David.

That’s Matt Bonner. He helps train Christian pastors in Muslim countries through Equipping Leaders International. He believes that Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus has had a significant impact on Christian ministry to Muslims. He points out that by its third edition in 2018, the book sold more than 500,000 copies. And of course, it remains a bestseller on Amazon today. What makes it so popular?

For one thing, Qureshi published this book three years after 9/11. The Iraq war was still on-going…and in the midst of that clash of civilizations, Qureshi offered Americans real insight into their Muslim neighbors.

BONNER: He helps bring compassion for Muslim people the way that he describes his family upbringing. And I love that.

But Qureshi is no sentimentalist. Over roughly 300 pages, he shows the errors of Islamic theology. For instance, Qureshi initially argues with Wood over the reliability of the Bible.

BONNER: His friend David Wood who challenged him and pushed back and said, “Come on, Nabeel, you gotta do better than that. That’s not, that’s not a legitimate way to look at this.” You know, I loved how he was wrestling with that and how he just talks about that throughout the book.

In a later chapter, Qureshi believes the swoon theory which says that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross–he just passed out and later woke up. In one fascinating scene, Qureshi’s father, whom he calls Abba, argues for the swoon theory against apologist Gary Habermas at a neighborhood discussion group.

AUDIOBOOK: (Chapter 25) Gary spoke up again, “I don’t think a man could survive the kind of spear wound dealt to Jesus. The very reason they stabbed him in the chest was to make sure he was dead. The spear would have gone into Jesus’ heart, killing him instantly.” “But the Bible doesn’t say it went into his heart,” Abba pressed, “just that it pierced his side. Plus he was only on the cross for a few hours; he could easily survive that.”

Habermas rebuts that argument by saying that according to historians, “as far as we know, no one in history ever survived a full Roman crucifixion.” So, why would Muslims want to prove that Christ didn’t die on the cross?

BONNER: It takes away the miraculous component. Because if he didn’t die, then he didn’t raise, he didn’t actually raise from the dead. There’s no resurrection. And if there’s no resurrection, then we don’t have to deal with the reality of who, who Jesus said he was, you know, and that he truly is the son of God, you know, that he, he is God…(fade out)

Qureshi’s book is so well-written, I was eager to see how it would end. After God answered his objections, would he have the strength to oppose his parents and live out his convictions?

One caution–while God can use dreams and visions, I worry Qureshi gives them too much emphasis in his conversion story. Compare his treatment to Paul’s vision in 2 Corinthians 12. However, I know Christians will disagree on this issue, and when I asked Bonner about Qureshi’s dreams, he made a good distinction.

BONNER: The way I heard it explained from Nabeel once is that, you know, God is, is, yes, he’s, he’s revealing himself to Muslims and dreams, but he’s, he’s not bypassing his word. He’s not bypassing Christians. And a lot of times he’s, he’s, he’s pointing people to the Scriptures or he’s pointing to people to missionaries.

In August of that 2016, Qureshi announced he had stomach cancer. He died on September 16, 2017, leaving behind his wife and young daughter. But his testimony lives on.

BONNER: He was a tremendous gift to the church, passionate advocate for Christ, the truth of Christ, who loved the truth. And he, he, he longed to see Muslims set free with the truth of Christ.

Our Classic Book of the Month for May is Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi. It’s a book that can help you see more of the glory of Christ–and share the gospel with your Muslim friends.

I’m Emily Whitten.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 7th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next: abortion and the “silent majority.” WORLD Opinions commentator Brad Littlejohn now on the everyday conservative Americans who didn’t know a world without abortion and who want to keep it that way.

BRAD LITTLEJOHN: In 1969, amid widespread violent demonstrations, Richard Nixon addressed himself to the “silent majority” of conservative-minded people in America. For more than five decades, conservatives have continued to appeal to what they felt sure was that silent majority–a demographic that opposed abortion, same-sex marriage, and “woke elites.”

Only it isn’t working anymore. The Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision in 2022, and since then, vocal majorities in many states have voted in defense of legal abortion. Former President Donald Trump boasted of his pro-life judicial appointments, but even he effectively threw in the towel in his recent abortion policy. What went wrong? Where did the “silent majority” go?

Well, nowhere. The silent majority is still there, and they are still “conservative.” The problem is, that word doesn’t always mean what we think it means. It is true, most people are conservative in that they are risk-averse and don’t like a ton of adventure; there aren’t too many skydivers in the world. And most people prefer some measure of cultural and political stability, so they can inhabit a world that makes sense to them, a world they’ve always known. But most people have short memories.

Consider these facts: The average American alive is 39 years old, and thus cannot personally remember a world before, say, 1989. Their only knowledge of life before legal abortion would have to come through education—either the handing down of wisdom by parents and mentors, or formal instruction at school. Only the conservative intelligentsia and a few religious traditionalists are still staunchly “conservative”–at least, in the sense of seeking to preserve traditional wisdom from centuries past.

For most Americans alive today, the world of Roe v. Wade simply is traditional. That doesn’t mean they love abortion, but they accept it as a fact of life, a fixture of the social and political world. The “rights” and values around abortion and the social expectations it makes possible—all of these have been internalized by the silent majority as part of the status quo. Voting to restore abortion is a way to return to that status quo.

Americans are still conservative in a sense, but many now want to conserve radical individualism and materialism. The median voter, then, will still vote against runaway immigration, for that is a disruption of the world he knows. But he will not go to the ballot to protest abortion, for that is the world he knows.

For authentic conservatives, who still know an even older world, this presents a challenge. Politics can shape culture, to be sure, but in a democratic polity, you cannot simply reverse a cultural tide by political means. You can, perhaps, slow its progress, buying time for cultural renewal, but that renewal will have to come at the level of the imagination. The silent majority of Americans will have to recognize that there is a world more real than the increasingly unreal one shaped by Roe these past 50 years.

I’m Brad Littlejohn.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Another challenge to the House Speaker is expected today, and we’ll talk about it on Washington Wednesday. And, speaking of the House: you’ll find out what it’s like to be a guest chaplain. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

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 reply of Ruth: “‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.’ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.” —Ruth 1:16-18

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.

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