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Contents , / ,
34 Gettin’ on board the gay marriage train
Same-sex advocates ruled the public arena surrounding Supreme Court arguments for two landmark cases. But it’s far from certain the legal locomotion on marriage is ready to roll
40 Countercultural warriors
Some Christian millennials are very publicly standing apart from their generation to defend marriage
44 Finding freedom
Imprisoned in Iran for almost a year, Christians Marziyeh Amirizadeh and Maryam Rostampour now can share their ordeal: ‘In Evin Prison, everything is a shock’
48 Default position
Students are taking on massive debts without thinking of the future. One result: Default rates, even at Christian colleges, have grown
52 Braggin’ on their King
Trip Lee and Andy Mineo are Christian rappers taking different paths to serve their Lord
56 Violent tendencies
Hollywood loudly denounces guns—as it uses on-screen gun violence to rack up killer ratings
5 14 16 18
23
: ; : .
News Human Race Quotables Quick Takes
23 Movies & TV 26 Books 28 Q&A 30 Music
48
61 Lifestyle 63 Technology 64 Science 65 Houses of God 66 Sports 67 Money 68 Religion
SUPREME COURT: JOSE LUIS MAGANA/AP
44
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3 Joel Belz 20 Janie B. Cheaney 32 Mindy Belz 71 Mailbag 75 Andrée Seu Peterson 76 Marvin Olasky
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“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.” —Psalm 24:1 EDITORIAL editor in chief Marvin Olasky editor Mindy Belz managing editor Timothy Lamer news editor Jamie Dean senior writers Janie B. Cheaney, Susan Olasky, Andrée Seu Peterson, John Piper, Edward E. Plowman, Cal Thomas, Lynn Vincent
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4/2/13 4:56 PM
Joel Belz
Nice going In giving up Truth, does a society also become angry and ugly?
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KRIEG BARRIE
A , I suggested in this space that you can fairly easily take every acquaintance you have and pigeonhole that person into one of four categories: ) People who you think are wrong about most things, and not very nice about their wrongness. ) People who you think are wrong, but pretty nice about it. ) People who you think are right about most things, but not very nice about it. ) People who you think are right about most things, and nice about it. We’ll come back later to the obvious question: Which category do folks who know you well use to classify you? But I bring this up again because I thought it might be helpful to our new secretary of state, John Kerry. Just as you can use this homespun system for categorizing friends and acquaintances, maybe he could use it to categorize nations. Category . Certainly it’s easy to think of countries— like North Korea and Cuba—that start with ugly assumptions, and then carry out those assumptions in ugly ways. Category . And you can point to many other nations—like Japan and Turkey, for example—whose dominant worldviews are rooted in error (like Shintoism and Islam), but who by God’s common grace make significant contributions to global prosperity, peace, and well-being. They typically act like responsible citizens of the world. Category . Around the world, on the other hand, are dozens of countries that have been historically blessed by the fruit of the biblical gospel, but have traded away those birthright benefits for a stew of collectivist restrictions and regulations. Take your pick of European nations that have cashiered their Reformation-style freedoms for empty packages of humanistic promises. Category . So does that allow us to describe at least a few of the world’s nations as societies rooted in the truth—hey, let’s call that the Truth with a capital T—and still demonstrating the ability to exercise that Truth in a positive and winning manner? Does a sweet spirit of kindness and generosity spill over into the lives of those people
Email: jbelz@worldmag.com
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affected by those nations’ policies and practices? And then on to the obvious point: Is there even a remote and wispy sense in which you still think of the United States that way—as a nation where God’s Truth is held high and lifted up—and that those engaged in such a hoisting exercise are doing it with a bright and winsome optimism? If you can’t say that any longer about the United States, is there any place in the world where it can be said? Is there not a single nation anywhere around this big globe that is like the person in Category above: Where you think most of the time the outlook is at least consistent with the Truth, and where everybody’s “nice” about making that proclamation? Out of nations, not a single one? For a couple of centuries, the United States probably had a right to such a claim. America could typically talk about its commitment to Truth. And, with a few exceptions, America was “nice.” It almost always deserved its reputation as a friendly force for good in the global community. But now this related question: In societies—both national and global—that appear to be drifting farther from the Truth, and increasingly alien to those who want to live by that Truth, what will help such Truth-tellers enhance their “niceness” quotient? How can we resist the tendency to live defensive, angry, ugly, and unattractive lives? How can we avoid filling up Category , and instead populate Category in engaging and compelling terms? Being “nice,” of course, is not ultimately what the Christian walk is all about. But neither is it just a low-level option for those who are commanded by Scripture to “speak the truth in love.” Even the order of that commandment—truth first, love second— suggests that being “nice” can’t happen unless such behavior is rooted first in the Truth. My suggestion is that that order is just as true for nations as it is for individuals. That’s a sober thought for citizens of a country that has forfeited so much of its inheritance of God’s eternal verities. Could we, in the process, also have given up our ability even to be “nice”? A
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
4/2/13 4:54 PM
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3/29/13 10:32 AM
Dispatches News > Human Race > Quotables > Quick Takes
Silent testimony in a
MOHAMMED EL SHAIKY/XINHUA/NEWSCOM
Can a new U.S. roadmap for religious freedom calm the crackdown on believers? BY JAMIE DEAN
region aflame
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A at the Coptic Orthodox Church in Benghazi offered a glimpse into worsening conditions for Egyptian Christians living in Libya: In mid-March, militants set the church ablaze with a priest inside. The priest escaped after local residents battled plumes of black smoke to rescue him, but the church was ruined. Smashed stained glass covered charred pews, and thick smoke saturated the building’s interior. The attack came two weeks after Libyan authorities arrested dozens of Egyptian Christians suspected of proselytizing. One died in custody. It’s another wave in a growing tide against Christians in Islamic countries, but human-rights advocates note Christians aren’t the only religious minorities suffering. In early March, the United Nations reported severe persecution against both
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Christians and the Baha’i religious group in Iran. The study found at least Baha’i adherents in jail for their religious beliefs, and awaiting trial. The prisoners include two nursing mothers and their infants. During the same month, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) met with family members of imprisoned Baha’i Iranians. USCIRF chair Katrina Lantos Swett noted a dark climate for Baha’is and Christians in Iran: “In fact, religious freedom conditions in Iran have regressed to a point not seen since the early days of the Islamic revolution more than years ago.” UNDER FIRE: Persecution against religious Inside the Coptic minorities in other countries— Orthodox including Nigeria, Egypt, and Church burned Pakistan—led USCIRF to publish by unknown an “executive branch roadmap” arsonists.
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
4/3/13 11:40 AM
Dispatches > News
LOOKING AHEAD Tax day
As the IRS filing deadline arrives on April , many Americans will write a big check to Uncle Sam—but none bigger than the one Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will write. Because of Facebook’s initial public offering in May and Zuckerberg’s decision to exercise a massive stock option, the young billionaire will likely owe a massive sum. A trio of California CPAs told CNNMoney that Zuckerberg’s tax liability could exceed billion.
Patented genes?
The Supreme Court on April will hear a case about whether a human gene can be patented. Myriad Genetics, a Utah-based company, says it lawfully holds patents on several genes that correlate with higher risks of several kinds of cancer. The company says these patents allow it to work more efficiently on cancer cures. But the doctors and researchers who brought the suit insist the company has no right to exclude the scientific community from examining and studying these naturally occurring genes.
Benedict’s birthday More than a month
after resigning as the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Benedict XVI will celebrate his th birthday on April —his first since becoming pope emeritus. According to the Catholic press, Benedict has spent the first few weeks of his retirement meeting with other Catholic officials, playing the piano, and resting.
Rock Hall induction
At long last fans of the Canadian prog-rock trio Rush will see their favorite band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rush joins female rock group Heart, singer-songwriter Randy Newman, Hip Hop pioneers Public Enemy, soul diva Donna Summer, and blues guitarist Albert King as inductees. Lou Adler and Quincy Jones are also slated to receive lifetime achievement awards during the April event in Los Angeles.
TRUDEAU: PAUL CHIASSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP • MYRIAD GENETICS: GEORGE FREY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • ZUCKERBERG: JEFF CHIU/AP • BENEDICT: FRANCO ORIGLIA/GETTY IMAGES • RUSH: ANDREW MacNAUGHTAN
for the White House. The document calls on the Obama administration to address religious persecution more aggressively in its second term, with steps that include establishing a working group at the National Security Council to coordinate strategy. It’s unclear whether the Obama administration will confront religious freedom abuses more pointedly during the next four years: Newly appointed Secretary of State John Kerry took months to call for the release of Saeed Abedini, an IranianAmerican pastor currently held in Iran. Meanwhile, leaders in Islamic countries continue to harbor aggression toward other religious minorities. In January, a news agency released footage of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi bashing Jews two years before his election to the presidency. In the videos, Morsi urged Egyptians to “nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred” for Jews. He also condemned “Zionists” as “bloodsuckers who attack the Palestinians” and “the descendants of apes and pigs.” The U.S. State Department condemned Morsi’s remarks, but the Egyptian leader claimed his words were taken out of context. That’s little comfort for Israelis wondering if Morsi will uphold Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel. During his video remarks from , Morsi told a Muslim crowd that hatred of Jews “must go on for God and as a form of worshipping him.” And though Morsi recently said he hoped Egypt and the United States could be “real friends,” his comments in were hardly amicable: He railed against America as a “Zionist” supporter, and called Obama a liar who promised the Arab world “empty meaningless words.” Back in Benghazi, leaders of Libya’s Catholic community (made up mostly of Asian and African immigrants) said they wouldn’t allow the escalating attacks against Christians to quench their work. From his church in Benghazi, Bishop Sylvester Magro told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church: “Notwithstanding the difficulties that may crop up every now and then, we strive to continue with our silent testimony of worship, of faith, of trust, of confidence and growth in the Word of God.” A
Liberal Party elections
Voting for the next leader of Canada’s Liberal Party will end April when the left-of-center group announces its winner. Polls leading up to the contest show Justin Trudeau, the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, leading. The next leader of the Liberal Party must find a way to strengthen the party after a disastrous parliamentary election.
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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Dispatches > News BUILDING TENSION: Kim Jong Un observes live ammunition drills deployed in the southwestern sector in North Korea.
Rhetoric and run-up
Syrian toll
continuing to work there. CFK works primarily in rural areas, where the government has granted it rare access, and still plans a relief trip in May. Both the U.S. government and the North Koreans have allowed select aid groups to provide direct assistance to North Koreans, who face one of the highest rates of impoverishment and starvation in the world. But recent tension could change that: On April the communist regime announced it would restart the nuclear reactors at its
More than , people died in Syria in March, the deadliest month since protests against the government began two years ago, observers say. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based activist group that opposes the Assad regime, said it recorded , deaths last month. Victims included at least women, children, , rebel fighters and army defectors, and , government troops. While the Observatory says the death toll may be much higher than the , deaths it has documented, the UN has said deaths in the conflict number at least ,.
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Booked Malala Yousafzai Yousafzai, the -year-old Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting girls’ education, signed a book deal worth million, according to the BBC. I Am Malala, set for publication this fall, will shed light on the life of the young activist who gained worldwide attention after the Taliban tried to kill her on her way home from school last October. “I want to tell my story, but it will also be the story of million children who can’t get education. I want it to be part of the campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school,” Yousafzai said in a recent press release.
KIM JONG UN: KCNA VIA KNS/AP • SYRIA: BULENT KILIC/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • YOUSAFZAI: MALALA PRESS OFFICE/AP
U.S.-based aid groups are continuing to supply aid to North Korea—despite threats of war from Pyongyang against South Korea and the United States. “At this point, there has been no effect on World Vision’s humanitarian assistance to the people of North Korea,” said Randall Spadoni, East Asia advisor for the relief organization. Christian Friends of Korea (CFK), another U.S.-based aid group that has provided medical and food aid to the country since , said it also is
Yongbyon complex, which have been closed since . The United States and other countries made closure of such facilities a condition of continued humanitarian aid. North Korea announced a “state of war” with South Korea and its allies in late March, with leader Kim Jong Un posing in front of maps portraying missile strikes on Hawaii and other U.S. Pacific bases. The United States has taken the threat seriously, flying F- Stealth fighters into South Korea, while recognizing the rogue nation’s history of “bellicose rhetoric,” said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council. Since then, the regime cut its military hotline with South Korea, adopted an ordinance to expand its nuclear weapons program, and on April blocked access to the Kaesong industrial zone, a complex it has run jointly with South Korea. And the Pyongyang government’s historic clampdown on North Koreans continues. Despite the high-level tension, “everything is business as usual” for those surviving in the countryside, said Terry Smith, program coordinator of CFK. “They don’t get the same news as Pyongyang or the rest of world gets.”
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3/28/13 1:29 PM
Dispatches > News
Fears of a new Somalia
A U.S. district court ruled March 29 that a cross-shaped steel beam housed at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum doesn’t violate the U.S. Constitution or mean the museum is “endorsing Christianity.” American Atheists sued the museum in 2011, claiming that displaying the cross affirmed Christianity, disrespected the contributions of non-Christian rescuers, and violated the constitutional separation of church and state. But U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts rejected those arguments and counterargued that the cross and its accompanying panels of text demonstrated “how those at ground zero coped with the devastation they witnessed during the rescue and recovery effort.” She ruled that the museum’s creators aren’t advancing religion, nor does the artifact “create excessive entanglement between the state and religion.”
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A Seleka rebel stands guard during Friday prayers in Bangui
himself president following the coup. Ousted president François Bozizé reportedly fled with hundreds of heavily armed soldiers. “We fear that there will now be no end to the rebellions in the country,” said one worker, who is not identified for security reasons. “Fears remain that the country could become another Somalia.” —Mindy Belz
Legalizing personhood North Dakota lawmakers on March 22 approved a “personhood” amendment that would ban nearly all abortions in the state, with exceptions for the life of the mother, incest, or rape. North Dakota voters in November 2014 will have to decide whether to add language to the state’s constitution protecting “the inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development.” The personhood amendment is one of several abortion bans North Dakota has passed this year. Many legal experts think strict laws like the personhood amendment will be overturned in court, but the amendment’s sponsor, state Sen. Margaret Sitte, is hoping for the fight: “We are intending that it be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, since [Justice Antonin] Scalia said that the Supreme Court is waiting for states to raise a case.”
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Sylvester Jacobs
9/11 cross cleared
looting and shooting continued throughout Bangui. Mpindi, French ministry leader for Back to God Ministries International (BTGMI), eventually found French soldiers who evacuated he and others to the airport, which had remained under French military control. They landed safely in Paris March 28. CAR is a majority Christian nation, but Djotodia is a Muslim, along with many of his rebel backers. In the days following the coup, rebels targeted government ministers with ties to Christian work in the l and-locked nation, surrounding their homes, ransacking livestock, and stealing vehicles. But the rebels, too, are divided, with some uncertain how long they will support Djotodia, who proclaimed
Central African Republic: Ange Aboa/REUTERS/newscom • 9/11 cross: JAMES TOURTELLOTTE/AFP/Getty Images • Sitte: James MacPherson/ap
The overthrow of Central African Republic’s French-backed government on March 24 caught foreign and local church workers by surprise and may prove the latest Islamic incursion in West Africa. Rebels supporting the Seleka Coalition led by Michel Djotodia looted and pillaged the Catholic Padre Pio Charity Home in the days following the coup, stealing its generator and leaving the home and clinic for orphans without water and electricity. At the same time, fighting forced other Christian workers to take refuge inside the French embassy in Bangui, the capital. Paul Mpindi, his wife Charlotte, and another worker, Jacky Chery, reported that many spent the night after the coup under their beds as
A work of art Edith Schaeffer, 1914-2013
Central African Republic: Ange Aboa/REUTERS/newscom • 9/11 cross: JAMES TOURTELLOTTE/AFP/Getty Images • Sitte: James MacPherson/ap
Sylvester Jacobs
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Edith Rachel Merritt Seville Schaeffer died on March 30, 2013, at 98 and at home in Gryon, Switzerland. She moved there 13 years ago, surrounded by memories, her music, her son’s paintings, and detailed care. She was the third daughter of George and Jessie Seville, who ran a school for girls in Wenzhou, China, and taught the Bible in Mandarin. Growing up in China, each of the three daughters rejected a conventional life. Edith’s oldest sister became a communist in 1930s New York. The second eloped. Edith married Francis August Schaeffer in 1935 and never was the typical wife of a pastor or missionary. She worked with her husband, as he wanted her to, teaching seminary wives and others to question, create, and make of life something with integrity. To put her husband through three years of seminary, Edith tailored men’s suits and made ballroom gowns and wedding dresses. From cow skins she made belts sold in New York stores. With little money she prepared tasteful, varied meals. She painted a fresco in the vestibule of the church her husband pastored in Grove City, Pa. They lectured together and urged people to understand what they believed and to analyze the surrounding intellectual and cultural ideas. They taught in churches and university halls from Finland to Portugal that Christianity is the truth of the universe, not a personal faith. She lived her life as a work of art, a portrait of true significance in a stunning and creative personality. She drew on life’s opportunities to show that God makes human beings for the enrichment of everyone’s life. With her husband she engaged in this work right from the start of their life together, and in 1955 founded with him L’Abri in
By udo middelmann Switzerland. She was in all things generous. The Schaeffers had three daughters and one son: Priscilla, Susan, Deborah, and Frank. Royalties from her 17 books—including Affliction, Tapestry, and Christianity Is Jewish—paid for annual reunions with the four children and their families so cousins would know one another. She always wanted to make available to a wide audience her husband’s and her ideas. She found and enjoyed interesting people anywhere and easily engaged them in conversation in the street, in planes, and over the phone. She stayed up nights to help someone out of their distress or need. She served imaginative meals and decorated the table with twigs, moss, and field flowers. She left the work of L’Abri after her husband’s death in 1984 and started the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation with her daughter, Deborah Middelmann, and myself. She wrote books, lectured widely, and twice returned to her birthplace in China. She once presented “Forever Music” at Alice Tully Hall in New York with the Guarneri Quartet. Through Steinway’s chief piano voicer she came to know musicians like Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Horowitz, Rudolph Serkin, Yo-Yo Ma, Jahja Ling, and Christopher Parkening. She met
B.B. King at a jazz festival, and he gave her his pass to the evening’s concert. On the island of Elba, saxophonist Sonny Rollins noticed her rhythm as she danced during his concert: He came off the stage and danced with her. On March 30 she “slipped into the nearer presence of Jesus,” from whom she awaits the promised resurrection to continue her life on earth and to dance once again with a body restored to wholeness. A
PORTRAIT OF TRUE SIGNIFICANCE: Edith and Francis (top); teaching at L’Abri.
—Udo Middelmann is an author, lecturer, president of the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation, and a visiting professor at The King’s College in New York; he is also the son-in-law of Edith Schaeffer
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OPPOSITE EFFECT: A nurse explains an ultrasound in Xi’an, China.
Dispatches > News SLUG: Caption.
Postmortem
Technology fail Chinese using ultrasounds to spur abortion by jamie dean
>>
While ultrasound technology may bolster pro-life efforts in the United States by producing vivid photos of unborn children, the same technology has produced an opposite effect in China: Many families abort their children if an ultrasound reveals a baby girl. In early March, Chinese officials handed prison terms to four people in Zhejiang province accused of performing 736 illegal ultrasounds and 15 sex-selective abortions in the back of a pair of minivans. None of the group had medical licenses. The case highlights a problem that Chinese authorities helped create with the country’s one-child policy: If a family can have only one child legally, many want boys. Millions have aborted baby girls. Chinese officials have tried to combat the resulting disproportionate number of men by forbidding ultrasounds that reveal the sex of an unborn child. But many women visit a flourishing black market of private clinics and individuals with no medical certificates to obtain the ultrasounds illegally. The Global Times reported the Zhejiang case involved a husband-wife team that handed out cards and invited pregnant women into the back of a van to discover the sex of their unborn children. If a woman was unhappy with the result, she could visit another van for a drug that induced an abortion. Sex selection isn’t the only reason for abortions in China: Many abort a second child to avoid exorbitant fines. In some cases, Chinese authorities force the abortions. Despite such realities, Chinese official Wang Feng insists the country won’t change its one-child policy. The Chinese government also revealed that since 1971, the country has aborted 336 million babies—a number equivalent to the U.S. population.
Busted
This month’s descent of Stockton, Calif., into bankruptcy could have nationwide consequences. The Chapter 9 bankruptcy case may decide whether federal bankruptcy law trumps a California law that says debts to the state pension fund must be honored. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein will decide whether Stockton, the most populous city in the nation to file for bankruptcy, will win the protection over objections from creditors who argue the city failed to first pursue all other means to right its financial affairs. If it receives bankruptcy protection, the city begins negotiations over debt repayment that some say could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. Stockton owes $900 million to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System to cover pension promises.
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WORLD • April 20, 2013
LANZA HOME: STEPHEN DUNN/MCT/Landov • ULTRASOUND: Ng Han Guan/AP • stockton: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Connecticut police aren’t sure what motivated Adam Lanza to kill 20 first-graders and six teachers and administrators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December, but at the end of March they released police documents from the day of the shooting. Search warrants from Lanza’s home, where he killed his mother before heading to the elementary school, showed he had an arsenal of weapons and ammunition, photos of a dead body, and a clipping from an article on a past school shooting. Lanza’s mother purchased all of the guns involved legally. According to the newly released information, police arrived at the school on the day of the shooting five minutes after Lanza broke in and found him dead with three guns, including an automatic rifle which he used in the shooting. They recovered 154 spent casings at the school and three unused 30-round magazines in addition to other partly used magazines. This month the Connecticut legislature agreed on details of tighter gun restrictions, including a ban on purchases of the type of high-capacity magazines Lanza used in the school shooting. But Connecticut gun owners will be able to keep their existing high-capacity magazines, a disappointment to gun restriction advocates. For now the U.S. Congress is not moving toward any new gun restrictions.
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4/3/13 11:42 AM
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4/1/13 3:59 PM
Dispatches > Human Race
APOLOGIZED Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a national apology on March to thousands of unwed mothers who were forced to place their babies for adoption. Gillard denounced the Australian practice of taking newborns and placing them with married couples from the s to the s. She pledged million to help affected families—a group of which gave her a standing ovation at the conclusion of her speech. ELECTED The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission announced March that Russell D. Moore has been elected to replace
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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outgoing president Richard Land. Moore, , is an author, commentator, and professor who since has served as dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Land announced last year that he would step down Oct. , completing years as ERLC president.
Broadcasters, submitted his letter of resignation to the organization on March . Wright served as the head of NRB since , but said he “prayerfully concluded that my season of service at NRB is drawing to a close.” His resignation will take effect Oct. .
DIED Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, known as the father of African literature, died on March at . Achebe was most famous for his work Things Fall Apart, which The New York Times called “the To Kill a Mockingbird of African literature.” The book sold more than million copies. Achebe, who was raised a Christian, spent the last decades of his life teaching at U.S. universities.
NAMED Compassion International, a Christian relief agency serving poor children around the globe, has named Jim Mellado its new president. Mellado, who grew up in Latin America, has for years been the president of the Willow Creek Association, an international organization helping local churches grow. He replaces outgoing Compassion president Wess Stafford, who has led the organization since .
RESIGNED Frank Wright, president and CEO of the National Religious
DIED British police are investigating the death of Boris Berezovsky, , an exiled Russian tycoon who was found dead at his mansion west of London. Initial reports suggested Berezovsky, a former billionaire and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died of an apparent
suicide, but authorities have not ruled out foul play. A member of Berezovsky’s staff discovered his body March on his bathroom floor.
DIED Vietnamese police are suspected of beating to death a Hmong church leader, Vam Ngaij Vaj, on March . Details are unconfirmed, but Vaj died in police custody after being arrested the previous day. Church leaders who examined the battered body suspect Vaj was also electrocuted—the autopsy report claimed he died of electric shock after sticking his hand in an electrical outlet. CONCERNED Florida Gov. Rick Scott on March called for an investigation into a college assignment requiring students to write “Jesus” on a piece of paper and then stomp on it. The incident occurred at Florida Atlantic University, and one student who refused to participate was punished with suspension. The university issued an apology, but Scott, a Republican, said he wants to ensure similar incidents won’t happen again at other Florida schools.
ACHEBE: MIKE COHEA/BROWN UNIVERSITY/AP • GILLARD: BAY ISMOYO/GETTY IMAGES • MOORE: SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION/AP • BEREZOVSKY: DOMINIC LIPINSKI/AP • NGAIJ VAJ: MORNING STAR NEWS • SCOTT: ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
DEAD AT 82: Nigerian author Chinua Achebe.
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3/29/13 10:36 AM
Dispatches > Quotables
‘Pray.’
‘We’re not big door lockers around here. It’s scary for our kids—and for us.’ Kindergarten teacher AMY GARDNER of Kaufman, Texas, on the March murder of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia Woodward McLelland, only two months after the murder of Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse.
‘There’s no way that 1 in 5 high-school boys has ADHD.’ Florida International University psychiatry professor JAMES SWANSON on new government data showing a percent increase over the past decade in the number of U.S. children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
‘An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the Christian holiday of Easter. It is the celebration of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, not his resurrection into heaven.’ A NEW YORK TIMES correction from an article on Pope Francis’ Easter message.
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AHMED SHEIKH, , whose family lives in a small cave in northern Syria to escape civil war. Twenty-five members of his extended family have been killed, he said, by government shelling in Syrians living in a cave Idlib province. The UN estimates that million Syrians have been displaced in a conflict now entering its third year.
‘As I woke up on this Monday morning for the first time in 33 years without the official mantle of pastor, the only tears that came were tears of thankfulness. ... It is finished.’ JOHN PIPER on ending his tenure as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis on March .
BOLDEN: BRIAN VAN DER BRUG/LOS ANGELES TIMES/AP • KAUFMAN: TONY GUTIERREZ/AP • SYRIA: AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • PIPER: HANDOUT
‘Our situation is like the man who is lost at sea. He finds a stick and holds onto it as long as he can.’
Worldmag.com: Your online source for today’s news, Christian views
4/3/13 12:50 PM
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NASA chief CHARLES BOLDEN’s advice for addressing the potential threat of a large asteroid hitting Earth. Bolden spoke at a congressional hearing on the threat after an asteroid recently hit Russia, injuring more than ,.
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4/2/13 3:33 PM
Dispatches > Quick Takes
After three years of deliberation, officials at the Internal Revenue Service are finally ready to admit the , Star Trek–themed –themed training video they commissioned may have been a bit much. In anticipation of a training conference, the IRS spent the money for tax-themed spoofs of former TV hits Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island starring IRS employees. The six-minute Star Trek video features IRS employees in Star Trek–style –style uniforms performing on a costly set. In a statement released March , the agency confessed, “There is no mistaking that this video did not reflect the best stewardship of resources.”
Decision-makers on the Mid Devon council say they wanted to make the roads safer. Instead they insulted the intelligence of their constituents and raised the ire of punctuation advocates. The council voted in March to remove apostrophes from signs around the town after receiving a risk assessment that claimed apostrophes on signs confused readers. But locals and punctuation advocates cried foul. “It is appalling, disgusting and pointless,” Apostrophe Preservation Society chairman and founder John Richards told The Scotsman. “They have no regard for the English language.” The outcry appears to have worked. On March , Councillor Peter HareScott recommended all apostrophes be returned to town signs.
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Forget looking for criminals. One United Kingdom anti-crime charity is asking Britons to sniff them out. Crimestoppers, in conjunction with UK police forces, is mailing out , scratch-and-sniff postcards to residences in order to educate people about the smell of marijuana. Authorities are asking that recipients of the cards learn the smell of the cannabis plant, then take a step outside and smell around for home-growing operations. If the novelty of the marijuana card is not enough, Crimestoppers is throwing in a , incentive for information leading to an arrest.
IRS: IRS/AP • MUENSTER: JUANMONINO/ISTOCK • BALIKA: NEW JERSEY STATE POLICE • APOSTROPHE: DAVID JONES/PRESS ASSOCIATION VIA AP IMAGES • POSTCARD: HANDOUT
One problem with stealing , pounds of cheese: What do you do with it? Police say Veniamin Balika, an Illinois truck driver, used fake documents to steal tons of Muenster cheese from K&K Cheese of Cashton, Wis. Balika apparently didn’t have a specific buyer in mind for the massive load. New Jersey State Police Sergeant Adam Grossman said police caught him trying to sell the cheese from his truck at a Ridgefield, N.J., rest stop: “He was attempting to sell a load to the first available buyer.”
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4/2/13 3:48 PM
AMBULANCE: IVAN SEKRETAREV/AP • BLADE: BILLY MCNEELY/THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP • DUST STORM: HANDOUT • WASHINGTON: GILBERT STUART • WHISKEY: HANDOUT • FIRE: CBS12.COM
IRS: IRS/AP • MUENSTER: JUANMONINO/ISTOCK • BALIKA: NEW JERSEY STATE POLICE • APOSTROPHE: DAVID JONES/PRESS ASSOCIATION VIA AP IMAGES • POSTCARD: HANDOUT
AMBULANCE: IVAN SEKRETAREV/AP • BLADE: YOUTUBE • DUST STORM: HANDOUT • WASHINGTON: GILBERT STUART • WHISKEY: HANDOUT • FIRE: CBS12.COM
Russians with a bit of cash and a serious lack of shame can now beat the snarling Moscow traffic. It’s not exactly legal, but that’s not stopping some entrepreneurial Russians from converting ambulances into luxury taxi cabs. For about per hour, Russian VIPs can book rides in ambulances as the drivers use the emergency vehicle façade—and sirens—to carve a path quickly through Moscow’s famous traffic jams. Some ambulance cabs are even decked out with a luxury suite in place of the passenger bay. After learning of the service in March, Moscow police promised to begin spot-checking ambulances for the doppelgangers.
For the past three years, Billy McNeely of Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories has been living with a three-inch piece of knife blade lodged in his back. The -year-old’s problems began in when a disagreement over a bout of arm wrestling turned into a brawl. McNeely was stabbed in the back during the fight. Unbeknownst to him, a three-inch piece of the blade snapped off and became lodged in his flesh during the fight. At the time, doctors stitched him up but did not perform an X-ray. “I always had back pains. There was always a burning feeling with it.” On March , the pain became too much for McNeely to bear. “I sat up, I tried to rub it and scratch it the way I always did, and then the tip of my nail caught a piece of something solid, something sharp.” With the help of his girlfriend, McNeely managed to discover the blade in his back. Doctors later cut the blade out. McNeely said he’s considering a lawsuit against the hospital that originally patched him up.
Authorities in Bowie County, Texas, are blaming a woman’s panic after encountering a snake in her front yard for a blaze that burned down her home. According to a sheriff’s department spokesman, the woman saw a snake in the grass outside her house on March . The spokesman said the woman then poured gasoline on the snake and set it on fire. “The snake went into the brush pile and the brush pile caught the home on fire,” spokesman Randall Baggett added. Several local fire departments responded to the fire, but the home was eventually lost in the flames.
Because it’s no fun being caught up in a vortex of dirt, the University of Arizona proudly rolled out its newest iPhone program: The Dust Storm app. The brainchild of a UA professor, the app uses GPS technology and weather information to alert users when they are in places where dust storms are likely to occur. Also included in the free app is sage dust storm survival advice, such as, “Do not drive into or through a dust storm.”
History books are filled with the exploits of General Washington and President Washington. Operators of George Washington’s Virginia plantation home, Mt. Vernon, would like to introduce you to Washington, the distiller of rye whiskey. Beginning on April , the estate will begin selling up to , bottles of rye whiskey made using Washington’s own recipe and distillery. It’s not the first time that someone has searched the first president’s journals for an alcohol recipe. In , the New York City Public Library commissioned a local brewery to prepare a batch of beer made by strictly following a Washington recipe.
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
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4/2/13 4:05 PM
Janie B. Cheaney
Cross purposes
It’s easy to walk in pride and self-interest unless we match our footsteps to the Lord’s
>>
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MARIDAV/ISTOCK
schools of theology: “I follow Paul.” “But Apollos’ W M; another name teaching is the only biblical view.” “Yeah, but Peter is might be Generation Awesome. One of the most the real apostle—” “Why are you even talking about extensive polls of young adult attitudes is the mere mortals? We go directly to Christ himself!” Freshman Survey, which since has queried There’s nothing wrong with theological debate; roughly million students about their self-image. what’s wrong is the use to which the Corinthians have In intellect, leadership ability, congeniality, ambition, put it: going beyond what’s written to make judgments and writing skills, today’s students are exceptional— about other believers and strut their superior faith. according to them. Self-confidence has risen by This, Paul reminds them, is not the percent in the last years. mind of Christ (:). It is the way But the Freshman Survey, as of the world. well as the National Study of Youth The world tells us to The world tells us to think well and Religion, indicates that comthink well of of ourselves, love and forgive ourmunity involvement and concern ourselves, love and selves, “actualize” ourselves, exalt for others have declined. Teens ourselves—but that almost always and -somethings are less forgive ourselves, happens at someone else’s expense. involved than ever in political ‘actualize’ ourselves, You’ve become kings, have you? activity, military service, and exalt ourselves—but Paul asks. Well, look at us, mocked volunteerism. that almost always and persecuted, harried from town Why? Plenty of reasons, from to town, bringing up the tail end of self-esteem training to socialhappens at someone the procession. Yet we are your media preening. But essentially else’s expense. teachers, and I am your spiritual they get it from us, as we got it father. And even I (he might have from our parents, all the way back added) never reached the depths of to Adam. degradation that Christ did. “And I take you now to the first cenyou are Christ’s, and Christ is tury and the thriving city of God’s” (:). Ephesus, which the apostle Paul There is only one way we can calls home. Spring has come to burn with passion about the gospel, Asia Minor, but his heart is stormy and yet not be puffed up with pride as he contemplates the news from about the gospel, and that is to that troublesome church in Corinth. match our footsteps to the Lord’s. Calling for a scribe and a pen, he They are bloody and faltering; they paces through the customary go down and down and down greetings and thanksgivings, before they go up and up and up. pounding a fist into his palm as he There’s no way we can leap that begins to lay out some home valley, though we continually try. The way is down. truths: “For consider your calling, brothers: not many But that’s where He will meet us, and often (usually? of you were wise according to earthly standards, not always?) the only place He can meet us. many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. That’s how God works: at Cross purposes with the But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame world. It will go on its way until that way is ended. the wise” ( Corinthians :-). Meanwhile the Spirit will be at work below the surface, The trouble is, once the ordinary and feeble are confronting and convicting, converting and conforming. elevated by God’s grace, they start acting like the And all the while, perhaps, sighing with holy patience exceptional and the powerful, as if the purpose of as Jesus “sighed deeply” before opening the ears of God’s grace were to make them Somebody. Welcome the deaf. to Corinth, where all the believers are above average. Bring us to grief, Lord, open our ears to Your sighs, But you can’t be Somebody until the multitudes that open our eyes to make out Your footsteps—and trample surround you are somehow inferior. The Corinthians our self-centered ambition and our stubborn hearts. A have cut and tailored the gospel into competing
Email: jcheaney@worldmag.com
4/2/13 3:32 PM
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3/29/13 10:50 AM
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World Mag Are You Serious 01 12.indd 1 8 MOVIES.indd 22
1/6/2012 8:59:33 AM 3/29/13 10:52 AM
Reviews Movies TV > Books > QA > Music
Historic number
MOVIE: faithfully tells a powerful American story BY J.C. DERRICK
LEGENDARY PRODUCTIONS
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A A is about to discover the man who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier: Before Rosa Parks, Freedom Riders, and Martin Luther King Jr., there was Jackie Robinson. The new Warner Bros. film stars Chadwick Boseman ((The Express) as Robinson and Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, the iconic Los Angeles Dodgers general manager who selected Robinson from among the many talented Negro League players in . “He’s a Methodist, I’m a Methodist, God’s a Methodist. We can’t go wrong,” Rickey says in one of the opening scenes. Rickey’s early proclamation sets up a key theme throughout: the role of faith for both men. Rickey and Robinson were devout Christians, and doesn’t diminish that fact. Academy Award– winning writer and director Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential) said illus( trating their faith wasn’t an accident— nor was it exaggerated. Robinson “felt like he was destined for this role— that God had picked him to go out and do this,” Helgeland told LARGER GAME: me. “That belief Chadwick gave him a lot of Boseman as strength to get Jackie Robinson through it all.” in .
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
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4/3/13 9:52 AM
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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the movie he realized he had “never seen a black love story in a major motion picture. You’ve seen Denzel [Washington] with a wife, but not a love story.” Ford is outstanding in his historical role of Branch Rickey, which represents a significant departure from his famous fictional roles in Air Force One, Indiana Jones, and the original Star Wars. Ford said he studied Rickey’s voice and appearance while undergoing significant physical alterations to fit the character of a plump man in the s. He said he realized early on that the movie would be “much better served by a Branch Rickey look-alike and not a Harrison Ford look-alike.” The movie has a PG- rating for mild language (including racial slurs) and thematic elements, but it has no sexually explicit material. Unlike many sports movies, boasts believable athletic performances from Bozeman and other players, many of whom were recruited from Division I college baseball teams. The film follows Robinson through the season, his only one as a first baseman and the first of six pennant-winning seasons in years with the Dodgers. Robinson’s heroic actions—on and off the field—amid a racially divided country are quickly becoming a distant memory four decades after his death, but brings his Hall of Fame story back to life in a film that should go down as one of the greatest baseball movies of all time. A
To the Wonder
>>
I ever gets a patron saint, his name might be Terrence Malick. Sparse dialogue, nonlinear narratives, and visually breathtaking scenes are Malick’s calling cards. He often uses them to great effect, as in The Tree of Life, which won over religious and secular audiences alike. To the Wonder also has strong religious imagery and stunning visuals, but the film’s underdeveloped, often sterile relationships undercut Malick’s examination of romantic love and its connection to divine love, as does the fleeting nudity that earns this film an R rating. The film’s thin narrative depicts an American soil expert (Ben Affleck) vacationing in France who falls in love with a beautiful European woman (Olga Kurylenko) and brings her and her young daughter (Tatiana Chiline) back to Oklahoma to live with him. Also living in their small community is a Spanish priest (Javier Bardem) who has lost his connection to God, his joy, and is striving to find it again. Because the film’s dialogue is so sparse, Malick relies on the expressiveness of his actors, and for the most part, they deliver. Kurylenko emanates patient, playful, sacrificial love, along with quiet anguish over where the relationship might be going. The sullen weight in Bardem’s otherwise stoic face prompts an elderly parishioner to tell him she will pray that he receives the gift of joy. In - minutes of screen time, Rachel McAdams gives perhaps one of the most impressive performances of her career as an old flame of Affleck’s character. Her vulnerable, lonely visage, eager for joy, reflects best the longing and searching all three of these characters experience. The weak link is Affleck, who is hardly the most expressive actor, even when he has dialogue. Armed with only a few lines, he is even less expressive than usual, making it difficult to view the romantic devotion of these two female characters for him as anything but pathetic. A little more something from Affleck would have made Malick’s efforts to illustrate how romantic and divine love can be elusive more believable.
McAdams and Affleck
MAGNOLIA PICTURES
Helgeland shows Robinson pausing to pray before walking onto the field with the Dodgers for the first time, but he had to cut an expensive nighttime train scene showing Robinson praying for strength. “He prayed on his knees every night before he went to bed,” Helgeland said. Helgeland based as much as possible on actual events of Robinson’s life in and ’—a goal Jackie Robinson’s widow, Rachel, helped him achieve. Rachel Robinson, , owns the rights to her late husband’s story, so she had to approve the story and script. She visited the set while the movie was in production and was very particular about making sure the story was told the right way. The movie doesn’t explain how Robinson used Jesus’ “turn the other cheek” teaching from the Sermon on the Mount to combat racism, but viewers will see the evidence of it: Many scenes illustrate the verbal assaults, threats, and blatant prejudice Robinson endured in segregated American society. Robinson experienced it all with Rachel (Nicole Beharie), who was the only player’s wife allowed to travel with the team, although the two had to find separate lodging apart from the white players. The story creates a dynamic portrayal of marriage and family that is rarely seen in Hollywood, especially from the AfricanAmerican perspective (where percent of children are now born out of wedlock). Bozeman said partway through filming
MOVIE
See all our movie reviews at worldmag.com/movies
4/3/13 9:54 AM
G.I. JOE: PARAMOUNT PICTURES • TEMPTATION: LIONSGATE
Reviews > Movies & TV
MOVIE
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
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P to move the release of G.I. Joe: Retaliation (rated PG- for combat action, mild language, and one non-nude undressing scene) from June to early spring , a time when it faced little popcorn competition. Like most warm-weather blockbusters, it’s the sort of explosion-fest that features plenty of macho quips and slow-motion walks through smoking wreckage. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that. The problem is that even shoot-em-ups (or blow-em-ups) need to make a modicum of sense. And despite some solid performances from Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock), Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights), and Channing Tatum, very little of what happens in Retaliation does. The film starts out promising enough. Longtime members of the elite Joe team, Duke (Tatum) and Roadblock (Johnson) engage in some good-natured, testosterone-fueled ribbing while successfully carrying out a mission to relieve Palestine
of a few nukes. The chemistry between Tatum and Johnson works so well, it would be easy to see the pair in some sort of buddy movie. Unfortunately, that’s not what Retaliation is, so when Tatum’s storyline ends after the first minutes with the Joe unit being attacked by American forces, so does most of the fun. From there, Roadblock and the other two surviving Joes must try to piece together who in the government framed them and clear their names. With the help of the original Joe (Bruce Willis, who looks like he’d rather be anywhere else), they discover that Cobra commandoes have installed a body-double in the White House. The faux president’s posturing as an antinuclear peacenik is a ploy to disarm all Cobra’s enemies so they can threaten the world with an even more destructive weapon system. This storyline certainly has an interesting peace-throughstrength/Manchurian candidate subtext, but it’s lost when the film veers off to a mystical Himalayan ninja temple and is not only completely confusing, but also abominably acted. None of this has stopped Retaliation from becoming a boxoffice champ. But the Joes should relish their day in the sun before warmer temperatures bring more worthy competition.
MOVIE
Tyler Perry’s Temptation
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M can break lives, break hearts, and break famiSmollett-Bell and Jones lies—as Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor seeks to convey. The PG- film tells the story of a young couple—Brice (Lance Gross) and Judith (Jurnee Smollett-Bell)—who grow up together, fall in love, and get married at a young age. Deeply in love, they move to Washington, D.C., and begin life together. While he works to establish himself as a pharmacist in a small drug store and she plugs away as a marriage counselor for a high-end matchmaking service, life sets in with its frustrations and drudgery. Their dreams don’t materialize as quickly as they’d hoped, particularly for Judith, who’s dissatisfied with the banality of her job and the lack of attention from her husband. - He’s so busy pouring himself into work that he has little energy for much else— according to Box Office Mojo including his wife. He loves her dearly, but forgets to show it in tangible ways, like CAUTIONS: Quantity of sexual (S), violent remembering her birthday or validating her talents, personality, and beauty. These (V), and foul-language (L) content on a - scale, with high, from kids-in-mind.com seemingly small sins of omission create the perfect opportunity for temptation. In steps the silver-tongued seducer, Harley (Robbie Jones)—a social media milS V L lionaire and potential investor in the matchmaking service where Judith works. They 1̀ G.I. Joe: Retaliation* PG-13.. 2̀ The Croods* PG........................ begin spending long hours together to create an online dating rubric. He flatters her, 3̀ Tyler Perry’s sends her roses, and flies her to New Orleans on his private jet to pitch their program Temptation* PG-13.................. to his board of directors. With minimal resistance, Judith walks right into adultery. 4̀ Olympus Has Fallen R.......... The story gets a bit surprising at that point, showing the consequences of sin to be 5̀ Oz the Great uncomfortably far reaching. This plot twist redeems Perry’s otherwise predictable and Powerful* PG ................... morality tale. 6̀ The Host PG-13 .......................... Despite an unoriginal and melodramatic story, mediocre acting, and some steamy 7̀ The Call R .................................... scenes and drug use, the film holds merit for no other reason than it affirms marriage 8̀ Admission PG-13 ...................... and the immutable boundaries of God’s law, affirmations that are rare in Hollywood. 9̀ Spring Breakers R..................
MAGNOLIA PICTURES
G.I. JOE: PARAMOUNT PICTURES • TEMPTATION: LIONSGATE
BOX OFFICE TOP 10
10 The Incredible Burt `
Wonderstone PG-13 ...............
*Reviewed by WORLD
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APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
4/3/13 9:56 AM
Reviews > Books
Books about baseball are on deck, as are books on travel, time, and more BY MARVIN OLASKY
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I’ season, thanks be to God, and Intentional Walk by Rob Rains (Thomas Nelson, ) has lively chapters on St. Louis manager Mike Matheny and other Cardinals who profess Christ, including well-known players David Freese, Adam Wainwright, Matt Holliday, and Carlos Beltran. Filip Bondy’s Who’s on Worst? The Lousiest Players, Biggest Cheaters, Saddest Goats and Other Antiheroes in Baseball History (Doubleday, ) is an amusing record of bad, ugly, and knuckle-headed ballplayers. Lucas Mann’s Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere (Pantheon, ) tells us more about the low minor league season of the Clinton (Iowa) LumberKings—including occasional bad language—than we probably want to know. Peter Meltzer’s So You Think You Know Baseball? (Norton, ) is a succinct guide that will be published in June, so until then you’re on your own to learn how much pine tar on a bat is acceptable. On to other sports, such as combat travel and online matchmaking. Elizabeth Becker’s Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism (Simon & Schuster, ) includes thorough reporting on how countries and companies
compete for travel dollars: The chapter on cruises will make you less eager to take one. Dan Slater’s Love in the Time of Algorithms: What Technology Does to Meeting and Mating (Penguin, ) is similarly thorough about the past and present of internet romance, and reports on sites with highly specific sexual interests that reflect the weirdness of contemporary America. Claudia Hammond’s Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception (HarperCollins, ) is flush with curious tidbits about why time seems to slow down when we’re afraid and speed up as we get older. Because I Said So! The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids, by Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings (Simon & Schuster, ), tells us that kids don’t have to wait an hour to swim after eating, we don’t lose half of our body heat through our head, and we should not automatically feed a cold and starve a fever. I’ll conclude with four thoughtful books: Wayne Grudem’s Evangelical Feminism & Biblical Truth (Crossway, ) is a clear, thoughtful, and reverent -page response to criticisms of traditional gender roles. What is Marriage? (Encounter, ) by Sherif Girgis, Ryan Anderson, and Robert George is the best natural law defense of marriage I’ve seen, and a useful one to give those who disdain the Bible. Amity Shlaes’ Coolidge (Harper, ) is getting well-deserved praise, but Charles Johnson’s Why Coolidge Matters (Encounter, ) also offers useful leadership lessons.
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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STUART: ED WIDDIS/AP • BASEBALL: WILLARD/ISTOCK
Darwin and beyond
Paul Johnson’s Darwin: Portrait of a Genius (Viking, ) is a useful short biography of a man who brilliantly observed microevolution within species of plants and animals, but reached too far by theorizing macroevolution that he had not witnessed. (Darwin then went way too far in theorizing about man—and by doing so provided fodder for racists and anti-Semites.) Johnson points out that most scientists believed in evolution years before Darwin published On the Origin of Species, that Britain’s intellectual elite rapidly seized it, and that Darwin faced little hostility or organized opposition: In essence, he provided data that could be used to bulwark what most leaders already believed. Yes, some people have read Darwin and turned to atheism, but his writing has more often bulwarked what his readers already believed. Gerald Rau’s Mapping the Origins Debate: Six Models of the Beginning of Everything (IVP, ) has the soporific thoroughness of much academic writing, but it could still be a good gift to those who read only the work of their own camp. Concerning the materialist theory de jour—the existence of multiple universes—Rau notes that “the existence of these multiverses is no less a matter of faith for atheists than the existence of a supernatural is for theistic models.” –M.O.
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
3/29/13 8:59 AM
DAVID PAUL MORRIS
Spring sampling
BASEBALL BUNGLER: Dick Stuart garnered the unique nickname of “Dr. Strangeglove” for his poor defense.
NOTABLE BOOKS
SPOTLIGHT
Four books on Christian topics > reviewed by
Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson “Motherhood was something I planned for, something I wanted, so why was living it out so drastically different from my expectations?” This was Sarah Mae’s question during another difficult, tiring day of caring for her young children. In Desperate, Mae partners with Sally Clarkson to exemplify what Paul teaches in Titus :-, that the older women are to train the younger. Mae, the young and struggling mother, pursues the wisdom of Clarkson, the seasoned mother who could serve as mentor. In a book that is gentle, hopeful, and encouraging, they share equal parts Bible-based wisdom and practical advice. Young moms will read it and be encouraged, and young husbands who read it will better understand and love their wives.
Galatians For You Tim Keller Galatians For You is the first book in a new series of study guides resulting from a partnership between Timothy Keller and The Good Book Company. Employing a devotional format, Keller leads the reader through the book of Galatians section by section, focusing on the utter centrality of the gospel not only in salvation, but in all of Christian life and doctrine. He shows the reader how Paul was addressing the Galatian church’s failure to live out the implications of the gospel—a message that contemporary Christians need to hear. Application questions that are both relevant and reflective make it a powerful study for individuals, couples, or groups.
Mary Roach has a reputation for fascinating science writing. She finds a provocative subject with a “yuck” factor, discovers weird angles to explore, and seasons her writing with vivid figures of speech. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (W.W. Norton, ) allows readers to tag along as she explores digestion. She visits a professional taster and scientists who study saliva and the physics of crunch. Scientific obsessives like William Beaumont, whose journals describe him dipping various items into the unhealed stomach fistula of a French Canadian fur-trapper, fascinate her. So do tales of snakes or slugs in the belly. Roach inserts herself into labs and describes what she sees: “Lee snips up the midline of the belly and peels back the flaps of skin as if they were stage curtains.” Roach knows how
C.S. Lewis—A Life Alister McGrath The th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’ death is fast approaching, and in C.S. Lewis–A Life Alister McGrath has written a fine biography of a fascinating character. Many of Lewis’ previous biographers were friends of his: That allowed them to offer personal perspectives but also to protect their friend’s reputation by withholding some information. Although McGrath admires Lewis, he deals honestly with the Oxford scholar’s weaknesses and some of his peculiar sins and temptations, especially from the days before his conversion. McGrath brings clarity to Lewis’ relationship with Mrs. Moore, his strange marriage to Joy Davidman, and the timing of his subject’s conversion to the Christian faith.
to write, entertain, and inform. —Susan Olasky
If we had a world record for “most times asking Jesus into your heart,” J.D. Greear is sure it would be his. Like so many Christians, and especially those raised in Christian families, Greear struggled for many years with how to answer this question: How can anyone know, beyond all doubt, they are saved? In this book he teaches that assurance is not only possible, but the birthright of every Christian. His answer, drawn carefully from Scripture: “Salvation does indeed happen in a moment, and once you are saved you are always saved. The mark, however, of someone who is saved is that they maintain their confession of faith until the end of their lives.”
DAVID PAUL MORRIS
STUART: ED WIDDIS/AP • BASEBALL: WILLARD/ISTOCK
Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart J.D. Greear
See all our reviews at worldmag.com/books
8 BOOKS.indd 27
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
3/29/13 9:03 AM
Reviews > Q&A
The Daily Caller’s TUCKER CARLSON says he’s not out to change the world–but he’s on a mission to cover stories the liberal media have ignored BY MARVIN OLASKY
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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3/27/13 9:43 AM
LEXEY SWALL/GENESIS
Jungle journalism
>>
T C, , is editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller, a three-year-old political news site. He’s also a Fox News commentator and has been a newspaper reporter, a magazine writer, and an anchor and host on CNN and MSNBC. Before a student audience at Patrick Henry College he talked about editing what’s become a hot publication in Washington. You prefer the New York Post to The New York Times. The New York Post does not presuppose that you have an obligation to read it. The New York Times arrives on your doorstep and shouts at you, “Are you a decent person? Are you a good citizen? Are you smart? Then you will read me.” The Post has no such presuppositions. The Post knows you are busy. You don’t need to read it. Editors and writers convince you to read it. I’m always lecturing my employees: People don’t have to read The Daily Caller. People are super-busy. They have families to raise. You have to convince them that your stories are worth their time. How do you decide which stories to run? We have an editorial meeting every day at :. It’s a compulsory meeting. They hate it, but tough. The main purpose of the meeting is to entertain me: I own this business with my college roommate, and I want to be entertained. I call on the reporters: What are you working on? Entertain me. If you can’t get me excited, there’s no chance to move our readers. What are you trying to change in journalism? We embrace the basic conventions. On a basic level, we think
Lexey Swall/Genesis
‘My job is to cover the stories that aren’t being covered by the rest of the lazy, ideologically liberal press.’ —Tucker Carlson spelling matters. We think ages and dates matter. What sets us apart is that we don’t, at least on our best days, buy into the same dumb story lines, the nine narratives that the press by and large covers. What are the top three? Private enterprise is bad. Big companies are evil. White people are racist. I want reporters who come at the news with a fresher take. I don’t hire just conservatives. You can’t! If we limited our hiring to just conservatives, we’d only have four people. Conservatives don’t want to go into journalism, by and large. They want to go make some money, and they also don’t want to run bookstores or open restaurants—which is why bookstores and restaurant are always run by liberals, too. Why don’t conservatives want to go into journalism? Probably because it has a discredited odor. And for all the talk of diversity in news rooms, there’s no diversity. Everybody—black, white, Hispanic—went to Princeton. They all grew up on the coast. They’re all secular. They never owned a gun. They never go to church. Everyone has the same attitudes. So in the end, skin color is immaterial. What’s your role as editor-in-chief? I’m not here to change the world. I’m not here to win a victory for conservatism. I am conservative, very, and even more as I get older. But my job is not to wage a political battle. Tons of people
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
8 Q&A.indd 29
do that in the Congress. They don’t need my help. My job is to cover the stories that aren’t being covered by the rest of the lazy, ideologically liberal press. And that’s a pretty easy
a meritocracy. What I care about are your stories: Are they good or aren’t they? You want curious people? Absolutely: curious and highly aggressive people. I want
job, actually, because there is a ton of stuff to cover. Do your 30-or-so reporters come from Princeton? We do have two from Princeton, and I really like them both. But I don’t care where you went to school. I make a point of hiring people who didn’t go to college. I shouldn’t have gone to college. I learned nothing. I was drunk the whole time! I would have been much better off working in a newsroom as an apprentice, or working in a bank, or having real life experiences, rather than just waiting around to become an adult. So we have people who didn’t go to college, or dropped out. I don’t care. It’s
people with bad table manners, and we’ve got them. Trust me. I want people who do not care what other people think, by and large. Why? Because they have just one job, as far as I’m concerned, which is to ask difficult questions to people in authority, who by definition are not interested in answering questions. It turns out that a certain personality type is really good for question-asking. So we screen for that very carefully as we hire. Very, very, carefully. What’s your pitch to those you want to hire? I give them all the same lecture, which is: Life is short, you will die. And at the end, you won’t
remember a single easy job you ever had. The only job you will recall is the job that asked everything of you—and this is one of those jobs. You may not love it at every moment. We will pay you a terrible, ridiculous, laughable salary. But we will give you all the Pop-Tarts you can eat, and you can sleep in the office if you want. And we are going to work you like an animal. We are the Viet Cong. We are going to march 50 miles in truck tire sandals on a bowl of rice, and we’ll sleep in a tree and get up the next morning, and do it again. This is an all-in commitment. And I’d say about 70 percent of the people I interview are looking for the exit. They want to escape. About 8 percent start vibrating like a tuning fork. It’s like a dog whistle, they can hear it. They want in. Those are the people we hire. And so far it has worked. When you interview potential reporters for jobs, what sort of questions do you ask them? First, what do you read? I want to know what people read. We’re in the words business, so I want to hire people who love to use words and have a rich reading life. “I read The Washington Post” is not good enough: What books do you read? Personal qualities? Enthusiasm goes a long way with me. We have a very high tolerance for weirdness, so we hire a lot of people unemployable outside of journalism. Journalism is like the French Foreign Legion: You can just show up and get a new passport. As long as you can do the work, nobody cares where you came from. A —For additional Carlson comments go to WORLDmag.com
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3/27/13 9:44 AM
Reviews > Music SHUNNED: Shocked performs at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Shocked treatment Roots-rocker faces the music after challenging the gay agenda BY ARSENIO ORTEZA
movement. Apparently, nothing less than percent compliance with the liberal agenda exempts one from being stigmatized as intolerant. Third, Shocked brings to mind Dorothy Day, the late former socialist whose canonization the Catholic Church is currently considering. Day’s struggles were political; Shocked’s have been political and moral. But, like Day, Shocked has faithfully held her inherently liberal nose to the grindstone of God’s Word and experienced steady, if slow, growth. Conclusion? Pursuing sanctity now makes one an enemy of the state. Last, Shocked’s church’s statement of faith begins, “We believe the Bible to be the inspired and only infallible written Word of God.” What do liberals expect someone like Shocked to believe about behavior biblically defined as sin? Their outrage is obviously feigned. “Let’s go with reality,” said Shocked at Yoshi’s, “just for a little while.” As she soon discovered, there were few takers.
Delicately dignified The liberal fantasy world has no clearer musical expression than John Lennon’s “Imagine,” a cover of which is the only thing that’s wrong with Lost in You (The End), the otherwise masterly new album by Petula Clark. Besides breaking the octogenarian barrier, Clark has crowned her remarkable career—and life—with a delicately dignified and wistfully gorgeous collection of songs that sounds like nothing so much as what Susan Boyle could achieve if only she weren’t so fragile as to need over-buttressing. The highlight: a reflective revisitation of Clark’s biggest hit, “Downtown.” As fantasy worlds go, it’s worth inhabiting now more than ever. —A.O.
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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SHOCKED: C FLANIGAN/FILMMAGIC/GETTY IMAGES • CLARK: ILYA S. SAVENOK/FILMMAGIC/GETTY IMAGES
by celebrity “meltdowns,” the episode probably seemed like business as usual. It wasn’t. The treatment Shocked received involves portentous complexities. First, Shocked has attended the West Angeles Church of God in Christ for over years. Most of its members are black and therefore, statistically speaking, Obama voters. When condemning “homophobes” trumps alienating the party faithful, celebrating homosexuality has not only replaced tolerating homosexuality but also has become the modern-day equivalent of those Babylonian edicts of which Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ran afoul. Second, despite having long alluded to her faith in even ostensibly nonreligious songs (the infectiously hardrocking “Giantkiller,” for example, from her album Soul of My Soul), Shocked has also devoted songs and stage rants to assailing George W. Bush (on To Heaven U Ride, for example, her live-Telluride-Bluegrass-Festival gospel set) and supported the Occupy
Email: aorteza@worldmag.com
4/2/13 2:46 PM
TIMBERLAKE: JASON KEMPIN/GETTY IMAGES FOR MYSPACE • HAYWARD: DAVID BECKER/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES
>>
T the Ides of March, the roots-rocker Michelle Shocked initiated a Julius Caesar–like assassination of her career by addressing gay marriage from the stage of San Francisco’s Yoshi’s club. “I was at a prayer meeting yesterday,” she began, “and you gotta appreciate how scared folks on that side of the equation are. I mean, from their vantage point—and I really shouldn’t say ‘their’ because it’s mine too—we are nearly at the end of time. … [O]nce preachers are held at gunpoint and forced to marry the homosexuals, then I’m pretty sure that will be the signal for Jesus to come on back.” The predictable backlash followed. Outlets mainstream, left-stream, and trickle condemned Shocked as a hateful bigot unworthy of further depriving an already fragile ecosphere of oxygen. Next came the predictable perp-walk apology. (Shocked insisted she was merely speaking on behalf of fundamentalists to whom she was spiritually related but with whom she did not agree.) Then came the predictable liberal refusal to accept the apology. To news-cycle junkies made cynical
NOTABLE CDs
New or recent pop-rock releases > reviewed by
The Next Day David Bowie Bowie has now been releasing “comeback” albums for longer than he released the albums that defined wherever it is he’s coming back to. But this much-ballyhooed effort is impressive. Musically, it sounds like a logical extension of the impressionistic-yet-hooky art-rock of Lodger () and Scary Monsters (). So why does the cover art paste over the cover art of “Heroes” ()? More important, why are three of the session’s catchiest tracks available only to those who purchase the limited-edition Japanese deluxe edition?
SPOTLIGHT
Fire It Up Joe Cocker
SHOCKED: C FLANIGAN/FILMMAGIC/GETTY IMAGES • CLARK: ILYA S. SAVENOK/FILMMAGIC/GETTY IMAGES
TIMBERLAKE: JASON KEMPIN/GETTY IMAGES FOR MYSPACE • HAYWARD: DAVID BECKER/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES
The title track of what’s arguably Cocker’s best album since ‘s Sheffield Steel proves that anthemic brotherhood rock, done right (i.e., soulfully and guilelessly), still has a place in the jaded, oversaturated communal SoundCloud. The rest proves that the individual strands of a done-right anthemic brotherhood-rock anthem, lovingly extracted and incubated, can, in their own right, push emotional buttons worth pushing. As for the salubrious effects of Cocker’s years of sobriety on a voice that once seemed destined to blow out, they’re palpable.
Need You Now Plumb After successful years in the crossover-CCM game, Tiffany Arbuckle Lee doesn’t need to prove her modern-rock bonafides. Yet prove them she does. Whether beginning “Say Your Name” by asking “When does a scar become a tattoo?” or judging the judgmental in “Unlovable,” she cuts to the quick. And, as if to prove that sometimes good intentions pave heavenly roads, she has named the album Need You Now not to confuse Lady Antebellum fans but to help bear the burdens of the Sandy Hook Elementary community. Second Coming Stryper This album isn’t a “comeback.” That distinction, such as it was, belongs to ’s Murder by Pride. Rather, it’s a “flashback,” an opportunity for the most famous and successful Christian heavy metalists ever to re-record cuts from their back catalogue with renewed vigor and aplomb. So how does refurbished, evangelical ’s metal sound years past its sell-by date? To quote the title of Track One, “Loud n’ Clear.” Of course, then as now, “Deep n’ Wide” would’ve been preferable. But obviousness has its place.
See all our reviews at worldmag.com/music
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Forget Justin Bieber. When it comes to contemporary pop, the Justins who matter are Timberlake (above) and Hayward. Not that either of them matter much. Although the former’s latest album, The / Experience (RCA), has debuted atop the Billboard album chart and is not without its Michael Jackson–channeling, R&Bgenre-mashing charms, it’s ultimately shallow. And although the latter’s latest album, Spirits of the Western Sky (Eagle Rock), extends his legacy as the Moody Blues’ cliché-prone, symphonically inclined lead singer with dignity, it’s ultimately dull. What makes them interesting to consider together is what they have in common: cutting-edge recording technology as audio steroids. Send Timberlake back years, and he’d be dismissed as a flimsy sail in the tempestuous winds of disco. Send Hayward back, and there’s no way he could’ve managed the two dance-club remixes of the Moody Blues’ “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere” that end his new album with a bang.
Hayward
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
4/2/13 2:49 PM
Mindy Belz
In all the noise, sounds of silence Too often the church has failed to be profound in the profound debate over gay marriage
>>
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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in Revelation . In every instance it’s the distinctives of the parts, male and female, that make the whole. So it follows logically, as one organizational statement on the LGBT movement affirms, to say: “Homosexual desire itself is contrary to the design of God for human sexuality. In that sense, it is rightly thought of as a fallen condition and, in general terms, a consequence of sin and brokenness.” And quickly we must add: All have sinned and fallen short. It was the couple yoked in marriage according to God’s order in the garden, after all, who led us into the fall and all sins that have followed. Homosexuals have no corner on sin, but the practice of homosexuality is sinful. That’s why the silence and acquiescence in many evangelical churches is so profoundly disturbing and dismantling. The refusal of too many pastors and seminaries to teach clearly on why homosexuality cannot be the basis for marriage—the fear to be accused of bigotry—has left shrill voices and violent haters filling the public square. And it’s left many Christians and normally astute thinkers bewildered, unsure. To be sure, the climate is fearsome. The organizational statement quoted above is a profound and helpful document distributed internally to guide employees of a national Christian organization. But we’ve agreed not to name the group at this time or publicize the statement—as helpful as we believe it could be—because that group has a legitimate fear for its staff and of legal action from pro-gay activists. And for pastors, as Louis Giglio learned in January, preaching on homosexuality even years ago gets you disqualified from giving the inaugural benediction. But silence and retreat (including our own) has allowed distortion and exaggeration to carry the day. Far beyond leaving a few editors in stylistic limbo, the failure to speak boldly, accurately, and kindly does damage not only to the church but to the gay community, and to American society at large. We do no one a favor, no matter how many ships Rob Bell proclaims have sailed, to permit by our actions or inactions what contradicts so deeply what God has designed. A
KRIEG BARRIE
W WORLD have had a hard time— not with knowing where we stand on gay marriage but knowing how to punctuate it. After several readers chastised us for using the term “gay marriage” as though it were a legitimate phrase, we decided to put inside quotations the word “marriage” when it referred to a union between a man and a man or a woman and a woman. In time—and with the increasing need to use it—we’ve wearied of seeing “marriage” that way: It looks more snarky than serious and gives the impression we have doubts about any concept of marital union. In this issue’s cover story and in our online and print coverage moving forward, we generally will use the term gay or same-sex marriage without quotes, recognizing it as a now understood cultural construct (similar to the way a term like “wired” acquired altered meanings or the way we’ve learned what’s meant by “casual sex”). The task of Christian journalists is to report the world the way it is, while keeping in mind the way we wish it to be. But the context of our reporting and commentary shows that gay marriage is not a construct we buy. The lexicographers have succumbed to pressure to amend their definitions of “marriage” (MerriamWebster added “being united to a person of the same sex” as a secondary meaning in , but a petition drive is underway to make it part of the first listed meaning). For Christians, “marriage” between members of the same sex—no matter who redefines it—is an ontological impossibility, and not only because the apostle Paul condemned homosexuality in Romans . Marriage is woven purposefully and intimately (if you will) into the narrative of the Old and New Testament, enfolding the entire canon of what is accepted as the basis for the belief system known as Christianity. It is the created order of humankind in Genesis , celebrated as a gift leading in turn to the gift of children in Genesis , confirmed by Jesus in Matthew , set as a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church in Ephesians , and the visual used to capture the final scene of time itself
Email: mbelz@worldmag.com
4/2/13 9:52 AM
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4/1/13 3:55 PM
MOMENTUM: Advocates of redefining marriage rally at the court March 27. JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
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4/3/13 7:14 AM
GETTIN’ ON BOARD
THE GAY MARRIAGE TRAIN
Same-sex advocates ruled the public arena surrounding Supreme Court arguments for two landmark cases. But it’s far from certain the legal locomotion on marriage is ready to roll BY EMILY BELZ in Washington, D.C. APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
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4/3/13 7:20 AM
E
dith Windsor, the 83-year-old lesbian who brought the challenge to a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), walked down the front steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on the last day of the March arguments in two major marriage cases. Her hundreds of supporters outside the court blasted Alicia Keys’ hit “Girl on Fire” when they caught sight of her and let out a massive cheer. The stylishly dressed Windsor waved like a rock star and then went to a bank of microphones to talk to reporters on the court’s portico. 4 Paul Clement, the bespectacled con servative legal star who defended DOMA, left the court building by himself, carrying his scuffed-up leather briefcase. He slipped out to the court’s north side, avoiding the scrum of press on the south portico. Lawyers arguing court cases usually come to the court’s portico to talk to reporters after arguments. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in the courtroom to hear the DOMA proceedings, assessed Clement’s defense of the law: “What a stale role to play in life.”
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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n the first day of arguments, when the court considered Prop 8, traditional marriage advocates held a march outside the court several thousand strong—a diverse crowd, with a strong presence of Hispanic and Chinese families, indicating demographic points of strength in the movement. The challenge to Prop 8, a state voter-passed constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman, is the biggest threat to traditional marriage laws: If the court finds California’s law to be discriminatory against gays, that would threaten all 41 states with similar traditional marriage laws. On the second day of arguments, as the court considered Section 3 of DOMA, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman for the purpose of federal benefits, traditional marriage supporters were scarce outside the court. The most visible opponents of gay marriage were the Westboro Baptist protestors, holding their shocking signs that said things like “God hates fags.” The handful of Westboro protestors reinforced the message of gayrights activists that opponents of gay marriage are first of all a minority, and secondly, bigots. Taking that message to social media, young people that same day changed their Facebook profile pictures to the Human Rights Campaign’s red logo of an equal sign, an expression of support for same-sex marriage. Inside the court Chief Justice John Roberts told Windsor’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, that the gay movement was not politically powerless as it argued it was, a characteristic of a class that deserves heightened protection from discriminatory laws. “Political figures are falling over themselves to endorse your side of the case,” Roberts said. Just that day Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., who previously opposed same-sex marriage, announced that she had changed her views. The day before, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said the same. Nine Democratic senators who opposed same-sex marriage during the
WORLD • April 20, 2013
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4/3/13 7:39 AM
top: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images • bottom: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
EMBLEMATIC: Windsor greets supporters.
The Supreme Court cases challenging two marriage laws, California’s Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, are far from decided, but Clement’s back-door exit and Windsor’s parade down the front steps are emblematic of the two sides in the wake of the oral arguments—and a runaway public campaign aimed at media, politicians, and other public figures to force acceptability of samesex marriage. Even though traditional marriage advocates represent about half of Americans, they kept a low profile because they face not only the label of dissenters, but bigots. In the national debate gay marriage advocates appear triumphant, even though the Supreme Court justices strongly indicated they don’t intend to issue the sweeping ruling that gay advocates want. Despite the political pressure, the justices don’t appear ready to say that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, but instead in the arguments they sought to narrow how they decide the questions before them.
top: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images • bottom: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
2012 election have changed their position in the few months since. Only a handful of Democratic senators remain who support traditional marriage. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also changed her position in March, announcing her support for same-sex marriage. Her announcement followed a March 7 Washington Post op-ed by former President Bill Clinton, who signed DOMA into law in 1996, but now says the law should be overturned. Clinton announced his support for same-sex marriage in 2009. Former pastor Rob Bell, who challenged biblical teaching on hell in his 2011 bestseller Love Wins, challenged church teaching on marriage in a March 17 forum at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, calling it “narrow, politically intertwined, [and] culturally ghettoized.” Saying “the ship has sailed” on samesex marriage, he jumped aboard too in the lead-up to the Supreme Court cases. But orthodox religious leaders aren’t conceding the point so quickly. As Bell announced his position, Timothy Keller, the pastor of perhaps the largest theologically conservative church in New York City, Redeemer Presbyterian, addressed the issue at an Ethics and Public Policy forum for journalists in Miami. Keller said that even though views on gay marriage may be changing politically, personal
STRONG PRESENCE: A diverse crowd supporting traditional marriage walk in the March for Marriage (above); gay marriage supporters and opponents argue their points.
r eligious views against homosexuality are likely to remain more rigid because they form a core part of the Bible. In that way, homosexuality is different from race, he argued. “[The Bible] is very clear on marriage and sex,” Keller said. “There’s an inertia in the Bible that allows a person to get a lot of leeway in politics … but it doesn’t give you a lot of leeway on those social issues and basic theology.” Keller, whose views on homosexuality and gay marriage drew wider media scrutiny after the Miami event, acknowledged the political winds are strong against even admitting to
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WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN? A gay marriage supporter dances in front of the court.
believe the concept of biblical sexuality. He cited the White House forcing Pastor Louie Giglio to remove himself from offering a prayer at the president’s inauguration this year because of Giglio’s orthodox Christian views on sexuality. “What we were being told was, ‘You’re beyond the pale,’” Keller said. “Not just that you’re wrong, but respect for you is wrong. That was heard loud and clear in the conservative Protestant world … that we don’t even have a right to be in the public square.”
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olls show the country shifting rapidly toward greater approval of same-sex marriage, but it’s not a majority view yet. A Pew Research Center poll released before the Supreme Court arguments showed 49 percent of the country approves of legalizing same-sex marriage, compared to 33 percent a decade ago. But The Washington Post recently pointed out a “Bradley effect” in polling on the issue—when voters express support for an African-American candidate in polling because they don’t want to appear intolerant, but they’ll vote differently in the privacy of the ballot box. In the voter initiatives on same-sex marriage that passed last year, polling ahead of Election
Day showed much higher margins of victory than the measures actually garnered in the end. The high court seemed ready to let that battle in the ballot boxes continue, which is what traditional marriage supporters had advocated. Both the DOMA and Prop 8 cases are exceedingly complex, and the court has many options for resolving them. The justices could issue broad rulings, issue narrow rulings, or dismiss the cases on technicalities like standing or jurisdiction. If the court does decide the cases on their merits, Justice Anthony Kennedy, the key vote who has written the court’s two major gay-rights opinions, seemed unwilling to go as far as the challengers to Prop 8 and DOMA want: that gay marriage is a constitutional right. During arguments he said gay marriage advocates were asking the court to go into “uncharted waters,” and he wasn’t sure which metaphor those waters led to: a “wonderful destination” or a “cliff.” The one thing that apparently held Kennedy back was the lack of social science evidence of the effect of gay marriage on children. In the Prop 8 arguments he noted, “We have five years of information to weigh against 2,000 years of history or more.”
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Kennedy’s reasoning parroted a brief by two conservative scholars, Leon Kass and Harvey Mansfield. The pair argued that same-sex marriage is a recent innovation (it didn’t exist anywhere until the year ) and not enough time has elapsed for any reliable scientific information on children raised in such households to emerge. Keller, in his Florida talk, similarly argued, “Give it years … to some degree, the proof will be in the pudding.” The courtroom, even though it was packed in both cases, had a serenity to it that was absent in the political fervor and demonstrations outside—no cameras, no cell phones, and no signs allowed. No one stood up and made a scene. It was an intense intellectual conversation between nine justices and a bench of lawyers, punctuated by a sick Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s sneezes. Of course that serenity is by design, because the court is supposed to be immune to political noise. But the political noise may get to Kennedy over the next couple months, in the way that some imagine political pressure played into Roberts’ surprise decision upholding the healthcare law. If Kennedy is the key vote toward legalizing same-sex marriage, having written the court’s two major gay rights opinions (Romer v. Evans in and Lawrence v. Texas in ), he might see himself gaining a glowing place in history. Still, even liberal justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg never described same-sex marriage as a constitutional right in the arguments. Because the justices seemed uninterested in giving gay marriage the status of a civil right, the subject of potential threats to religious liberty—a key point in the debate for traditional marriage proponents—didn’t come up. One central justification for traditional marriage laws—encouraging responsible procreation—did arise, but it didn’t gain traction with most of the justices, even though six are Catholics and three are Jews, faiths that emphasize the intertwining of marriage and procreation. Briefs from religious leaders like the National Association of Evangelicals and Catholic professor Robert George of Princeton University argued that the state should continue to preserve marriage as an institution between one man and one woman because only that relationship produces new human beings. The lawyers defending Prop and DOMA avoided that topic. In California, for one, same-sex couples can already adopt children regardless of whether they are “married.” Charles Cooper, the lawyer defending Prop , dwelled briefly on the procreation argument, saying that redefining marriage would make its purpose not raising children but the “emotional needs of adults.” Culturally speaking, procreation is already distant from marriage’s purpose: In a Pew Research Center survey, percent of respondents named “love” as an important reason to get married, while only percent said having children was an important reason to marry.
Email: ebelz@worldmag.com
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Clement, in defending DOMA, didn’t mention procreation at all, but the other side did. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr., arguing against DOMA, said the law had no connection at all to promoting procreation in marriage. The liberal justices also attacked that point. Only Roberts defended the idea: “When the institution of marriage developed historically, people didn’t get around and say, ‘Let’s have this institution, but let’s keep out homosexuals,’” Roberts said. “The institution developed to serve purposes that, by their nature, didn’t include homosexual couples.” Even if the procreation argument floundered, traditional marriage defenders may get roughly what they wanted. The National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Heritage Foundation prepared a booklet on the issue ahead of the cases. Its conclusion? “The Supreme Court should let the people choose.” 70 % favor by generation If the justices do what it looks like Kennedy may want them 51 to do—ban the federal govern49 ment from defining 41 marriage and 38 give that power 33 31 to individual states—the polit17 ical future is not
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Millennial
born after
Gen X
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Baby Boom -
Silent
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necessarily inevitably and 2003 2013 nationally SOURCE: PEW RESEARCH CENTER victorious for gay marriage advocates. As of now, states have defined marriage as between a man and a woman, and nine have legalized same-sex marriage. Despite polls shifting in favor of same-sex marriage, states remain that will probably maintain traditional marriage laws for the foreseeable future.
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DOMA , several Supreme Court litigators sat in the court’s cafeteria drinking coffee and parsing the arguments. One had printed out the transcript from the previous day’s arguments, which he thumbed through as his colleagues brought up points. They made educated predictions, but landed ultimately where the most novice Supreme Court observer is: They have no idea what the court will do when it rules on the cases this summer. A
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COUNTERCULTURAL
WARRIORS
Some Christian millennials are very publicly standing apart from their generation to defend marriage
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BY EDWARD LEE PITTS in Washington
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to speak live at the rally, Howard began to learn the importance of marriage when she was years old. Rummaging through her father’s truck looking for snacks, she discovered a wallet-sized baby photo of her dad. Howard asked her father why she had never seen a baby picture of him. He said his mother abandoned him at a hotel when he was an infant. He spent the rest of his childhood in foster care. It’s her father’s ordeal as a parentless youth (he told stories about having his hand held over a lit stove for punishment) compared with the Christ-centered family he reared as an adult, that Howard often thinks about when she defends traditional marriage. “My generation grew up in a culture that does nothing to support and protect marriage,”
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percent of young evangelicals oppose same-sex marriage. And a number of them, like Howard, are willing to face scorn by taking very public stands against the redefinition of society’s most basic institution. Many of them did not grow up expecting to stand on the front lines of the marriage debate. “Everyone I know who is working on this issue would rather be doing something else,” said Ryan Anderson, , who co-authored the book What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense. “But we feel like we have an obligation to be doing this.” Just how many of Anderson’s generation will answer this call and take up the banner of biblical marriage? The answer may go a long way toward determining the future of the family in America.
Alison Howard
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at the March marriage rally in Washington, D.C., Alison Howard ran to the stage’s microphone in an adrenaline-fueled burst. The -year-old graduate of Liberty University said she wanted to “talk to the grown-ups” supporting traditional marriage at the event on the National Mall. 4 “Do not give up on us young people,” said the communications director for Concerned Women for America. “The media will tell you that I don’t exist. Well, I’ll be the unicorn. I do exist, and I believe in the marriage between a man and a woman.” 4 It would be easy to dismiss Howard’s plea as a voice crying in the wilderness. A recent Pew survey found that percent of those in the millennial generation (ages to ) favor same-sex marriage. But the same poll shows that
MARCH: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • SEERY: FRANK WOJCIECHOWSKI
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Howard said at the speech. “We bear those scars that saw divorce just tear apart our country.” As Howard spoke, Caitlin Seery, , listened with a group of students. They had left Princeton University by bus at a.m. to make the event. Seery is the director of programs for the Love and Fidelity Network, which offers a conservative viewpoint in campus debates on marriage, family, and sexuality. Her first job was at a New York consulting firm. The company decided to celebrate National Coming Out Day by having its employees wear badges in support of the gay community. Seery, a Catholic, dealt with the social
debate the way many in her generation do: by blogging. That led to her position with the network, which has chapters in schools. Confrontation remains part of the job: In February, a liberal group at Columbia University hijacked a Love and Fidelity values conference by reserving the bulk of the tickets. They interrupted the speaker, standing to protest with signs. But Seery doesn’t believe the marriage cause is lost: “Just because things are polling one way today doesn’t mean that will always be the case. Forty years ago the media said that all young people are becoming pro-choice. We proved them wrong. The youngest generation is the most pro-life generation.” She said Christian students are hungry to learn ways they can show compassion to family and peers who are gay without retreating from their belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.
TAKING UP THE BANNER: Traditional marriage supporters march in Washington.
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first day of the Supreme Court’s marriage hearings, Anderson, the author and a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, defended his views in the lion’s den of the mainstream media. “I think marriage exists to bring a man and woman together as husband and wife to be mother and father to any children their union produces,” said Anderson during a live appearance that night on Piers Morgan Live on CNN. Anderson didn’t get invited to the studio’s table where Morgan sat with Suze Orman, the best-selling author, financial guru, and aggressive advocate for gay marriage. They looked down on Anderson from an elevated stage as he sat in the audience. The lecture they gave included calling the young conservative and his ideas bizarre, odd, offensive, and uneducated. “It’s interesting to me that someone of your age still maintains this kind of view,” Morgan told Anderson.
Eric Teetsel
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ric Teetsel, the 29-year-old executive director of the Manhattan Declaration, also spoke at the March 26 rally in Washington, encouraging the crowd not to grow weary. Teetsel sees young believers who struggle with being fully Christian while enmeshed in contemporary culture. They go to church, but they also watch The Daily Show. And, according to Teetsel, they often don’t do well integrating those worlds. Fearing blowback on Twitter and Facebook, many young Christians remain silent on marriage even if they have not embraced the changing attitudes. “We wasted a generation by being complacent and by believing that people would always understand what marriage is and why it matters,” said Teetsel, whose group promotes life, marriage, and religious liberty. “That’s no longer true, and now we have got to show them.” That teaching should not ignore contemporary tools like web films and social media. “We have no excuse,” Teetsel said. “Even if we can’t be on CBS, we can reach people in a thousand different ways.” While Teetsel and Howard spoke at the rally on the
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teetsel: Michael Temchine/genesis • anderson: Heritage Foundation
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“It’s not fair, it’s not tolerant, it’s not American.” The studio audience applauded, but Anderson is far from uneducated. The Princeton graduate postponed finishing his doctoral dissertation on ethics and economics at Notre Dame so he could take a post on the firing lines of the marriage debate. “We don’t do a good enough job articulating that there are civil society solutions to government programs, and the key institution of civil society is the family,” said Anderson, citing a study from the left-leaning Brookings Institution that $229 billion in welfare payments between 1970 and 1996 could be attributed to the breakdown of marriage. Anderson, one of five brothers, brushed off the criticism and attacks: “I had three older brothers who would pick on me, and if I picked on the younger brother then I’d have three older brothers who would defend the baby. So I was placed in just the right birth order to have this temperament.”
Ryan Anderson
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strachan: Jason Coobs/SBTS • fiedorek: Alliance Defending Freedom
‘We wasted a generation by being complacent and by believing that people would always understand what marriage is and why it matters.’ —Teetsel
teetsel: Michael Temchine/genesis • anderson: Heritage Foundation
strachan: Jason Coobs/SBTS • fiedorek: Alliance Defending Freedom
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ours before Anderson’s televised showdown, Owen Strachan had positioned himself for his own marriage clash. The 31-year-old father of two had flown into Washington the day before the rally from Louisville, Ky., where he is a professor of Christian theology and church history at Boyce College. He maneuvered his way to the second row of marchers headed past the U.S. Capitol toward the Supreme Court. Hispanics, Asians, and African-Americans strode alongside him. “This reflects the diversity of the body of Christ,” he thought. When they turned onto the street that runs past the court, they ran into a blockade of gay marriage supporters trying to halt the march. The Owen counter-protestors refused to move. A man in fishnet stockings, devil horns, and a rainbow-colored tutu danced and taunted the marchers. In the midst of the chaos, Strachan and the others offered a unified response: They knelt where they stood and prayed aloud. Strachan grew comfortable being countercultural while growing up as a Baptist in Maine. As an undergraduate at a liberal Maine college, he stood up during a school-wide assembly memorializing the Sept. 11 attacks and, with legs shaking, shared how the gospel can provide hope during tragedy. His academic studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School near Chicago on gender roles led him to realize that defending traditional marriage had to be a touchstone issue for his ministry. “Many of us have drafted off the importance of marriage for years. We’ve known at a subconscious level that this institution is important. Now that it is threatening to be undone culturally, we are waking up. It seems unthinkable even five years ago that this issue would be vaulted into the culKellie Fiedorek tural mainstream.”
Email: lpitts@worldmag.com
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Now that the future of marriage is center stage, Kellie Fiedorek hopes that the Supreme Court does not offer a radical ruling that cuts short the debate. A lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom, Fiedorek, 29, sat in the courtroom as the justices heard the arguments. She’s been to seven states this year testifying before legislatures about the ways redefining marriage would interfere with religious freedom. Strachan She’s learned that many citizens have never had to think about the meaning of marriage and why it matters. Now that people are alert, social conservatives have the opportunity to make their case to a young generation that has both rallied for life and dealt with the aftereffects of divorce. “I think that, as more young people engage in the issue, we will see more of them eager to defend marriage, recognizing how important it is to parents and children,” Fiedorek said. Young Christians still will face growing temptations to conform to the world’s understanding that marriage is primarily about emotional fulfillment. The scorn they endure may one day include discrimination in the workplace. Anderson, for example, faces uncertain job prospects in secular academia as an author of a book defending traditional marriage. But Christian millennials were among those taking a stand on the stage, among the crowd, in the march, on television, and inside the courtroom on the day that marriage went on trial. And as these Christian millennials stand against the tide, an even younger generation is already facing decisions. Howard gets calls from her younger sisters in New Jersey who navigate a world where teachers advocate for same-sex marriages in the classroom. Her advice? Get away from cell phones, computers, and peers—and pray. A —with reporting by J.C. Derrick in Washington
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Finding fre Imprisoned in Iran for almost a year, Christians Marziyeh Amirizadeh and Maryam Rostampour now can share their ordeal: ‘In Evin Prison, everything is a shock’
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in Iran and spoke with WORLD near their home outside Atlanta. These days, they’re grateful for freedom in the United States, but they remain burdened for millions of Iranians living under an oppressive regime. “We feel that all of Iran is a prison,” said Amirizadeh. “It isn’t just about Evin.” Indeed, the women’s arrest in 2009 marked a significant moment in a fresh wave of persecution against Christians in Iran. Last September human-rights experts at the UN confirmed what persecution watchdogs had reported for months: Iranian officials have intensified their clampdown on evangelical churches. Sometimes that means intimidation or harassment, but the UN estimates Iranian authorities have also arbitrarily arrested and detained more than 300 Christians since 2010. Some Christian groups estimate the number is far higher. The highest-profile cases have included Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani: Officials jailed him in 2009 for apostasy against Islam and sentenced him to death by hanging. (After intense international pressure, Iranian authorities released Nadarkhani in September 2012.) Others remain in jail: IranianAmerican Pastor Saeed Abedini has languished in Evin Prison since authorities arrested him while visiting his family in Iran last September. Abedini’s
Tyndale Momentum
eep inside the walls of Evin Prison in Iran’s capital city of Tehran, a team of officials guard as many as 15,000 inmates they deem some of the most dangerous offenders under the current Islamic regime. The charges include murder, rape, and theft. For nearly 300 days in 2009, the offenders in Evin Prison also included a pair of young women facing a charge they didn’t deny: embracing Christianity. Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh gained international attention after their arrests in Tehran in March 2009. Authorities charged the Christian women with apostasy, antigovernment activity, and blasphemy—all capital crimes in the Islamic republic. The arrests stemmed from a flurry of Christian activity over three years. The
women, who met at a conference in Turkey in 2005, had spoken with many others about Christianity, and had hosted Bible studies in an apartment they shared near the prison. One Bible study, called “Mary Magdalene,” served prostitutes. The pair also distributed some 20,000 New Testaments across Tehran and other cities. (These Farsi-language Scriptures offered an accurate translation that countered state-endorsed Bibles depicting Jesus as only a prophet.) It’s unclear how much Iranian authorities knew about the women’s activities, but during a raid on their apartment, they confiscated Bibles and other Christian material. During interrogations, they pressured the women to cease all Christian activity. They refused, and Amirizadeh remembers telling one interrogator: “Unless you cut out my tongue, I will keep feeding the people’s hunger for truth about Jesus.” After intense international pressure, officials released the women after 259 days. They fled Iran to protect their families and friends, and gained refugee status to enter the United States in 2011. They chronicled their experience in their recently released book Captive
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reedom Amirizadeh (left) and Rostampour
Tyndale Momentum
wife, who lives in Idaho with the couple’s two children, has spoken widely in the United States for his release. Others receive less attention: For example, Iranian house-church pastor Farshid Fathi has been in Evin Prison over two years and faces four more years in his sentence. Officials deemed
his Christian activities “actions against national security.” In a letter to his family last November, the husband and father of two children mentioned other Christians he met in prison. “The narrow way that I am passing through I see as a cup that my Beloved has given me, and I will drink it to the end, whatever that end might be,” he wrote. “What really matters is that I
am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.” The same reality sustained Amirizadeh and Rostampour. The women endured deprivation, sickness, and threats in Evin Prison, but they cherished their faith in Christ and their opportunities to speak with dozens of other women about the gospel. Those conversations—and their prearrest ministry in Tehran—gave the pair rare exposure to some of the most oppressed people in Iranian society:
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women with little protection and little hope. “For women, life is very stressful in Iran,” says Amirizadeh. “You always wonder what will happen next. You worry about everything.”
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One drew young people. Another drew poor women and prostitutes, a despised and beleaguered segment of Iranian society. Many of the women they met were widowed or divorced by their husbands. With limited opportunities for women to support themselves, and others facing abandonment by their
extended families, some turned to prostitution to provide for their children, says Amirizadeh: “They would say, ‘We don’t want to do this, but what can we do?’” Amirizadeh, who worked in a beauty salon, planned to teach some of the women cosmetology, but after perhaps weeks of surveillance, police
Tyndale Momentum
f Amirizadeh, 34, and Rostampour, 31, worried about their Christian activity in an Islamic regime, it doesn’t show. The pair grows animated when they talk about their three-year ministry in Tehran. Both women grew up in Muslim homes in separate cities in Iran but professed Christianity after encountering the teachings of the Bible. Amirizadeh began attending a house church. Rostampour attended an Armenian church, one of the only official churches allowed in Iran. A pastor baptized her at midnight in a secret service in the basement of another church. Though both women say they never embraced Islam, Iranian law forbids citizens from Muslim backgrounds to convert to Christianity. It also forbids promoting Christianity. That’s a command the women wouldn’t heed. Instead, they launched a project to bring some 20,000 New Testaments into the country and to distribute them across Tehran and other cities. Since Bibles are scarce in Iran, they believed distributing Scripture was critical to expanding the country’s understanding of Christianity. (The London-based Elam Ministries provided support for the women’s ministry during their time in Tehran.) On a recent afternoon, Amirizadeh pointed to a copy of a map that hung on the wall in their Tehran apartment. Hand-drawn circles and crosses showed all the places the women had distributed Bibles. For nearly two years, they walked the streets, quietly slipping New Testaments into mailboxes all over the city. When they think about the miles they walked—sometimes through snow—they don’t mention fatigue or fear. “We had passion,” says Rostampour. “We were following our dreams.” The pair’s work also included hosting Bible studies in their homes.
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“We were more free inside the prison than on the outside”: A copy of the map (left) that hung in their Tehran apartment (top); the door at Evin Prison where families enter (bottom).
Tyndale Momentum
arrested the women at their apartment in March 2009. At the police station, authorities hung signs around their necks before snapping their photos. The signs bore their names and the charge: “accused of promoting Christianity in Iran.” The women spent most of the next eight months in Evin Prison. In addition to violent criminals, it’s notorious for holding enemies of the regime— political opponents, human-rights activists, and religious minorities. The prison is infamous for torturing its inmates. (Abedini—the IranianAmerican pastor—recently wrote a letter to his wife describing beatings and torture in Evin Prison.)
Conditions were deplorable: Cells were packed with crowding that went from “extreme to unimaginable” when authorities arrested thousands during the country’s disputed elections in 2009. The food left many sick or undernourished. One regular meal was a stew of “water and fat” with a few unwashed vegetables. For those who did grow sick, medical care was meager and sometimes nonexistent. Both Rostampour and Amirizadeh suffered serious illnesses during their imprisonment. A doctor who disdained Christians barely treated them. The wards included women guilty of murder, and gangs and lesbianism proliferated. But the wards also included women accused of writing bad checks or incurring bad credit. Without intervention from family or friends, most would remain there. Many women had their children in prison with them. With no family to care for them, some children languished in the same conditions as their mothers. Another shock: executions of cellmates. Amirizadeh grows emotional when she thinks about women executed during their imprisonment, including a close friend convicted of political activism. “In Evin Prison,” says Rostampour, “everything is a shock.” Despite the shock and difficulties, the Christian women spent their days helping fellow prisoners (including giving their own food to sick prisoners) and talking with them about the gospel. They hosted afternoon gatherings in their cells to talk about the Bible and to pray. After years of enduring Islamic rule that oppresses women, Rostampour says: “They were so open when they heard about grace and a God that loves them. … They can’t believe that God loves them.”
Indeed, Amirizadeh says their imprisonment became their greatest opportunity for ministry in Iran: “We were more free inside the prison than on the outside.”
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till, those on the outside were working for their release. Rostampour’s sister talked with Voice of America radio about their plight, and Elam Ministries publicized their cases. Thousands of letters poured into the prison from all over the world, and though the women never saw them, they say guards would occasionally read them and ask questions like: “What does it mean that Jesus is a shepherd?” The international attention mounted, including pressure from the UN. Authorities released the women in November 2009. The pair worried they would endanger their families and friends by staying, and they fled to Turkey in May 2010. In Atlanta both take classes at a community college and hope to pursue studies in international law or journalism. (Rostampour spoke English before arriving, but Amirizadeh spent a year learning the language from scratch. Today, she speaks it with ease.) They’ve largely recovered from their physical ordeal, though Amirizadeh still suffers back problems. Rostampour says the remaining challenges are mental and emotional. “Sometimes I don’t feel free, even though I am living in a free country,” she says, “because many people are still in prison in our country.” The women say they’ll continue to speak out for Christians in Iran, especially those who have few advocates. They’ve seen the effectiveness of international pressure in their own cases, and they say it’s important to keep highlighting those who are suffering. They also ask Christians to pray for those who remain in Iran. The women say they found many Iranians tired of Islam and open to Christianity. “For over 30 years it’s been darkness and wrong rules and suppression in Iran,” says Rostampour. “We should pray that people will see that hope and salvation can only come from God.” A
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Defa SERIOUS MONEY: Kim Woody continues to pay off student loans long after graduation.
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K W the hilly, tree-covered campus of Bryan College for the first time in March , she knew she’d found the place she wanted to spend the next four years. The small Baptist school in Dayton, Tenn., about an hour east of Chattanooga, offered the Christian education she wanted, close to home. But it didn’t come cheap. During that first visit, Woody and her mom sat down with the financial aid director to find out how much her degree would cost and how she could pay for it. He handed them a piece of paper that detailed tuition, room and board, and other fees, about , per year. That’s a lot of money, Woody remembers her mom telling the director. Then she asked him what options they had, other than taking out loans, to pay for it. “He just sort of shrugged and said, good luck with that,” Woody recalled eight years later. “He didn’t really offer any help or anything.” Woody had several small scholarships that gave her about , per year, leaving her with a , annual bill. Her parents offered to pay for half, but for the rest, Woody felt she had little choice but to take out federally subsidized loans. At the time, it seemed like an investment, and very few people she met on campus were getting an education loan-free. Everyone looked at it as a cost of doing business, or at least getting qualified to do business. She and her classmates had so much optimism about what they would accomplish in the world, she said. But just after the start of their senior year, the economy collapsed, dragging down
their optimism with it. By the time they walked across the stage in May , they understood they were entering a changed world where getting by would be a lot harder. Six months after they picked up their diplomas, Woody and her fellow borrowers received their first loan payment note from Uncle Sam. Woody had a teaching job at a small Christian high school in Memphis. She only earned , a year. By the time she made her student loan payment and her new car payment, she had little left over. Like many of her former classmates, she moved back in with her parents to make ends meet. Woody never missed a payment, but others did. By the end of , of her fellow Bryan graduates—. percent of those who took out subsidized loans—had stopped making payments for an entire year, ending up in default.
fault position . : , , by LEIGH JONES
/
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C , Bryan had one of the worst default rates in , higher than the . percent national average for private schools. Despite their emphasis on financial responsibility as an extension of a Christ-like character, many Christian colleges struggle as much as their secular counterparts to make sure students pay back what they owe. Of Christian colleges WORLD reviewed, three had default rates higher than the private school average in — Union University in Jackson, Tenn., Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Bryan. Only three had default rates below percent—Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio, and Gordon College in Wenham, Mass. David Haggard, Bryan’s current director of financial aid, blames the school’s default rate on the economy. The tough times hit the students in Bryan’s adult degree completion programs especially hard, he said. As the economy improves and graduates have an easier time finding jobs, borrowers will feel more confident in repaying what they owe. He also hopes the school’s new financial education efforts will help more borrowers realize they have no excuse for going into default. The government offers income-based repayment plans, which could temporarily wipe out the monthly payment for borrowers who don’t have jobs. Borrowers also can apply for forbearance or deferment, depending on their circumstances. The school’s biggest challenge is getting the information to the students, Haggard said. Woody doesn’t remember Bryan offering any kind of financial seminars during her time there. But today, the school offers one-on-one financial counseling with incoming students and group sessions for graduates. Administrators get lists of students who miss payments, and a financial aid counselor calls each one to see what the school can do to help. B A University (PBA) adopted similar measures after watching its default rate jump to . percent in , up from . percent the year before. In ,
Percentage of federal loans in default SCHOOL
2010
2009
2008
Default rates listed by year
Azusa Pacific University
1.4% 1.5%
2.1% 1.3% 1.6%
Biola University Bob Jones University
2.4%
0.6% 0
1.5%
Bryan College Calvin College Cedarville University
2% 2.1%
0.8% 0.8% 0.5% 0.5%
3.4% 4.1% 2.8%
Colorado Christian University Covenant College
1.9%
Gordon College
4.6%
3.5% 3.1% 3.4% 4%
Geneva College George Fox University
2.2% 1.6% 1.1% 0.5% 1.2% 1.1%
Indiana Wesleyan University
3.1%
4.8% 4.2% 4.1%
Liberty University
3.7%
4.9% 6%
Palm Beach Atlantic
5.9%
Union University
Wheaton College
8.4%
4.3% 3.7% 3.2%
Regent University
Westmont College
6.5%
3.9% 4.2%
3.2%
4.5%
5.5%
2%
1% 1.4%
1.5% 1.1% 0.6%
SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION; TWO-YEAR OFFICIAL COHORT DEFAULT RATES FOR SCHOOLS
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the rate dropped to percent— of the students who took out federal loans defaulted. The school now requires all graduates to take an online financial literacy course. Administrators also offer in-person exit counseling. And they’ve stopped giving students a full loan package when they enroll. Instead, financial aid counselors talk to students about how much they really need to borrow and encourage them to take out only what they must to pay for school. Todd Martin, PBA’s financial aid director, agrees with Haggard about the role the economy plays in pushing graduates toward default. But he also thinks some students are just more likely to default, no matter what the school does. When schools are more selective about the students they accept, focusing on higher test scores and grade point averages, they tend to have fewer students taking out loans, he said. Students with lower scores and grades coming into college typically have higher financial needs and borrow more. PBA wants a mixture of both types of students, but the school is offering more scholarships now in hopes of attracting higher-achieving students. As the campus demographic changes, so should the default rate, Martin said: “We want all students here, but we want to make sure we have a slice of students that are highly motivated leaders on campus because they bring an influence to the whole student body.” J U (BJU) saw the biggest increase in the number of students taking out federal loans—from . percent in to percent in . But only students—. percent of borrowers—defaulted that year. Like Bryan and PBA, BJU has a default prevention plan that requires financial counseling and includes calls to former students who miss payments. The difference between BJU and other schools is its students, Director of Financial Aid Kevin Delp said. Slightly less than percent of BJU students take out loans, both federal and private, but the majority aren’t wealthy. They just work hard to earn money to help pay for their schooling, Delp said. But work ethic and responsibility are hard to quantify, and other factors likely play a role.
Four of BJU’s top degree fields are in high demand and offer better starting salaries than the average liberal arts degree—nursing, accounting, criminal justice, and engineering. From a practical standpoint, graduates with those degrees have a better chance of finding a job and earning enough to pay back their loans, Delp admits. H, an accounting major, had a job even before he graduated from Union University in . He described his degree as almost recessionproof because companies need accountants, whether they’re making money or not. But Helms, , didn’t have to worry about paying back loans. When he started classes at Union in , he decided he wouldn’t borrow anything, if he could help it. Knowing he would have a fixed income and a lot of steady expenses when he graduated, Helms viewed college as a time to work as hard as he could to prepare for the rest of his life: “As much as possible, I wanted to get ahead of the game and stay out of debt.” Helms worked during high school to save up for college and held down two jobs during most of his time at Union. A scholarship covered almost half the , annual cost. His grandfather chipped in about ,, and Helms paid for the rest. He doesn’t remember talking to many of his friends about their debt, although most of the people he knew who had loans intended to go into ministry or some other field that didn’t pay very much. Many of them
went on to graduate school after getting their bachelor’s degrees. When students take out loans, they think they’re postponing the bill for their education for a time when they can afford it, Helms said. But they don’t realize they’ll end up paying much more over time for the four years during which they actually spend the money: “Not everyone who defaults is financially illiterate but it definitely plays into it,” Helms said. Both Haggard, at Bryan, and Martin, at PBA, said students don’t think enough as freshmen about how they will pay off their loans once they graduate. Woody admits she didn’t. All she thought about was getting an education. But her history major and biblical studies minor turned out to be less valuable than she expected. “I thought I was making an investment in my education,” she said. “That justified taking out loans, but then I got out and realized I might have to start flipping burgers just to pay for this terrible decision I made to borrow money. It seemed like a terrible choice.” believe their schools’ default rates will go down in , data the government will release later this year. Students who entered college after Woody and her classmates had more time to prepare for a dismal job market. They also had more warnings about how difficult life would be if they left school with heavy debt loads. And they’ve had more attention from counselors attuned to the dangers of excessive borrowing. But that might not be enough to keep students from doing whatever it takes to get the education they want. Even Woody’s regrets over her undergraduate loans didn’t stop her from taking out more loans for graduate school last year. She has about , in undergraduate loans left—roughly half the total—and expects to add about , to that when she graduates from Vancouver’s Regent College in with a Master of Arts in Theological Studies. “It’s just something I felt led to do,” she said. A
‘I thought I was making an investment in my education.’ —Woody
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Braggin’ on their King TRIP LEE and ANDY MINEO are Christian rappers taking different paths to serve their Lord
HANDOUT PHOTOS
by ANGELA LU
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’
At the sound
of the first few notes, the 4,000 fans packed into the Hollywood Palladium work themselves into a frenzy. The bass pounds, multicolored lights flash, and gospel rapper Trip Lee runs on stage with the rest of the 116 Clique, singing a rousing chorus about being unashamed of the gospel: “Look all I need is one sixteen, to brag on my king, Romans 1:16, We brag about Him daily ’cause He run this thing!” Fans jump and sing along as Lee raps, “I ain’t got no white collar, He made me a priest though.” The lyrics aren’t just words: Lee, at 25 one of the most successful Christian rappers, is turning his focus from performing to pastoral ministry. That’s despite seeing his fourth album, The Good Life, hit No. 17 on the Billboard charts, the third-highest-charting Christian hip-hop album of all time. “I’m not retiring from music,” Lee says: “My desire has always been to show people God and His Word, I’m just expanding and shifting my priority into pastoral ministry.” Another 25-year-old Christian rapper in the 116 Clique, Andy Mineo, is choosing a different route. His much-anticipated debut album, Heroes for Sale, with an April 16 release date, mixes rap with reggaeton, electric guitar riffs, and jazz, and reveals personal struggles with surprising candor. He says, “I don’t want to be a Bible CULTURAL WARRIORS: preacher. I want to use my Trip Lee (far left) and Andy Mineo; scene from part 2 of the Between Two Worlds “Reflections” video.
handout photos
life experiences and my mistakes and the things I’ve learned from them as a means of creating common ground.” The two 25-year-olds are part of a new wave of believers trying to reach young urban men who grew up in the culture of hip-hop, which idolizes fame, wealth, sex, violence, and drugs. They’re standing up against a culture with fatherlessness, abuse of women, and gangsters turned into role models. Through their separate journeys, Lee and Mineo are learning how God is calling them to fight, pastorally and musically.
Lee,
originally William Lee Barefield III from Dallas, started rapping at age 12. Once he professed faith in Christ at youth group at 14, Lee said he had an “insatiable desire to know God and His Word.” He wanted to use his
musical talents and love for hip-hop to show the bigness of God. Lee met rapper Lecrae Moore at a concert in 2004, which he said was the first time he heard “Southern-style rap that was good for the soul.” Moore later mentored Lee, letting him write devotionals for the website of Moore’s label, Reach Records. Lee released his debut album, If They Only Knew, in 2006 soon after his high-school graduation. Much of Lee’s music and teaching reflects Reformed theology, especially that of Minneapolis preacher John Piper, who has featured him on his Desiring God site. Lee’s songs tackle the idolatry of fame, sex, money, technology, and hedonism and sing of the ultimate hope found in Christ. In “Beautiful Life” on The Good Life, Lee raps against abortion, “I agree that we should give women rights / That goes for unborn women, too / Give them life.” As Lee’s unique voice and smooth flow caught the attention of audiences, he started traveling the world performing his music. His third album, Between Two Worlds, received two Dove award nominations and won the Stellar Award for Best Hip Hop Album in 2011. But even as Lee’s fan base grew and his music drew acclaim, he still felt called to teach the Bible more directly: Preaching, Lee says, is “my No. 1 passion,” so he enrolled in Boyce College to pursue a degree in Biblical and Theological Studies. Lee sees what God has done through his music—fans often approach him after shows to share how his songs convicted them about issues like porn and forgiveness—but feels his main priority has shifted: “I love going places to proclaim the goodness of God; it’s a pleasure to share the gospel to folks, but I always leave. I don’t get to walk with them.” After eight years on the road he seeks the stability of a local church community with week in, week out consistency—but his tour schedule has become more demanding as Reach Record’s fame grew, making it hard for Lee to spend time with his wife and 8-month-old son. For now, Lee is using his time away from music to learn and train under the pastor of his church in Washington, D.C. He said he would still do collaborations with his label-mates, but only occasionally so he can focus on serving the church. Eventually he wishes to pastor his own church. As different as pastoral ministry and rapping may seem, Lee sees how the struggles overlap, especially dealing with humility. As fans constantly swarm Lee after his shows for photos and autographs, he said it’s difficult not to take the glory for himself: “Humility was a struggle before I was a rapper, so I think for me it takes a lot more intentionality to not believe the hype.” Especially in a genre of music known for self-promotion, he’s found it important to stay around people who see him as a brother, rather than a celebrity. He says fellow rappers he tours with keep each other accountable in keeping their pride in check and their eyes focused on Christ: “Because I have a public ministry, I have to have a strategy to deflect glory from myself. I have to know beforehand how I’m going to deflect the glory towards God; that’s true for me as a rapper and a pastor.”
A p r i l 2 0 , 2 0 1 3 • W O RL D
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Lee has written a book, also called The Good Life. Response to it helped him see the need for a voice like his: “I love John Piper, but young urban people are not going to relate to it. I don’t think there’s anything new to say, but I’m , African-American, urban—just different culturally. … I want to proclaim truth, and say it from a different perspective.”
For Mineo,
that different perspective comes from growing up in a single-parent home in New York, dealing with anger issues, and spending time at a behavior modification school. He spent years building up his name in underground freestyle rap battles and making money producing and recording local artists in his home studio. While he professed faith in Christ at a summer camp in eighth grade, he quickly fell away without a church community or anyone to model Christian behavior. It wasn’t until college that he started taking his faith seriously. Through discipleship and participating in T.R.U.C.E., an urban ministry that used performing arts to evangelize, Mineo realized he had either to follow Christ wholeheartedly or leave the faith. He says he purged his sinful habits and closed his studio—and as his Christian walk improved, his music more and more started to reflect a Christian worldview. Mineo now wants to use his rapping skills, well-crafted wordplay, and mix of musical influences to create music that draws in both nonbelievers and believers. “I want to encourage Christians, but I ... want you to be able to say ‘I can play this for my non-Christian friends and they love it musically and are able to relate to the content and also hear about Jesus.’” It’s a tall order, as “Christian rap” has historically been a subculture for those who already believe, with little playtime on radio stations or publicity in mainstream hip-hop circles. But Lecrae Moore has begun to straddle that line, with collaborations with mainstream rappers like Big K.R.I.T. and producer Don Cannon. Mineo looks to be following in Moore’s footsteps, as Heroes for Sale goes deep into personal and societal issues, sprinkled with pop-culture references and hip-hop slang, yet ultimately pointing to the only One who can save.
Mineo’s delivery is polished, at times rapping at breakneck speeds, and rivaling much of the music played on mainstream hip-hop radio stations. Mineo, who had gained a following from his previous collaborations and EPs, said he’s anxious about his new album because in the songs he opens up about the pain of failed relationships, bitterness against his father, and struggles with lust, pride, and temptation. Still, he believes that’s necessary: “I can share these experiences because … it’s ultimately going to be a testimony of how He’s redeemed me.” As the Heroes for Sale album title suggests, Mineo aims to deconstruct the idea of creating superheroes out of ordinary, sinful humans—himself included. He believes the music boils down to one main sentiment: “I’m not great, but I know a God who is great and who redeems us.” He deals with the pain and hurt he’s felt from his absent father and other loved ones in the Eminem-esque “Still Bleeding.” The force of delivery escalates as he raps about words that still sting years later, yet his message doesn’t end with that anger: “I don’t even got it inside me to give forgiveness / I got to find it in the place where He said ‘It is finished.’” Mineo says some Christian fans are quick to judge him because he hangs out with non-Christian rappers, without seeing how he’s cultivating those relationships. Such misplaced zeal turns off nonbelievers, who—when they hear the term Christian rap—turn away because they assume the songs will be cheesy and terrible. But what really differentiates the work of Lee and Mineo from mainstream hip-hop is the hope in something greater. Mineo’s album closer “Death Has Died” lists the brokenness in the world: failed relationships, school shootings, abuse, cancer, shame, and natural disasters. He doesn’t pinpoint an earthly solution but finds the antidote in the hope to come: “One day He’ll wipe every tear from our eyes / He’ll come and make all things right / We’ll sing death had died / But until that day this won’t be forever.” A
JOHN ROZIER PHOTOGRAPHY
‘I don’t think there’s anything new to say, but I’m , AfricanAmerican, urban—just different culturally. … I want to proclaim truth, and say it from a different perspective.’ —L WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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posted on the Funny or Die website on March , Jim Carrey became the latest celebrity to take aim at the National Rifle Association (NRA) and show his support for stricter gun legislation. The video features Carrey doing an unfavorable impression of former NRA president and star of classic films like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston. The -year-old comedian then sings a country song that mocks Heston’s famous line that the government can have his gun when they “pry it from my cold, dead hands” and asserts that firearm enthusiasts like Heston are only trying to make up for certain anatomical shortcomings. The parody ends with Heston, who died of pneumonia in , accidentally shooting off his foot while the cast of Hee-Haw laughs uproariously. In response to public outrage following the release of the skit, Carrey tweeted, “‘Cold Dead Hand’ is [about] u heartless motherf***ers unwilling bend the safety of our kids. Sorry if you’re offended by the word safety!” He later added, “I’m
appalled at [what] I’ve seen on [this] stream the last few days, all in hatred’s defense. No wonder it’s so dangerous to be a child today.” But like Jamie Foxx (star of the ultra-violent Django Unchained), Chris Rock (co-star of Lethal Weapon ), and other actors who’ve recently spoken out in favor of gun control, Carrey’s career choices appear to undermine his cause. His most recent production, slated for release on Aug. , is the sequel to the bloody R-rated film Kick-Ass that featured a gun-toting -year-old girl who gleefully kills dozens. An early trailer for Kick-Ass shows Carrey’s character, a conspirator of the now--year-old vigilante, giggling while aiming a revolver at a man tied to a chair. The movie makes the timing of Carrey’s statements especially ironic as the Parent’s Television Council (PTC) recently released a study showing that gun violence is Hollywood’s favorite form of violence. The PTC found that of television shows monitored over a one-month period, of them contained violence; —nearly a third— contained gun violence. “Every network aired programs that contained violence and gun violence, but CBS, CW and Fox had the highest percentage of programs with gun violence at percent,
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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KICK-ASS 2: UNIVERSAL PICTURES • COLD DEAD HAND: FUNNYORDIE.COM
l o i V en t
t n o ledencies en — s n u g s e c n u o n e d y l d u o l e d c o n o e l w o i y l v l o n H u g n e e r c s AM n o s EG A N BA S H M e y s b u s t g n i t as i a r r e l l i k to rack up
KICK-ASS 2: UNIVERSAL PICTURES • COLD DEAD HAND: FUNNYORDIE.COM
IRONIC: Jim Carrey in a scene from the upcoming movie Kick-Ass (above) and in the “Cold Dead Hand” skit (right).
percent and percent, respectively,” said PTC President Tim Winter, adding, “Those three networks also aired the highest number of scenes containing violence and gun violence.” It’s worth noting that shows featuring heavy gun use tend to be popular with audiences. CBS, which the PTC found had the highest percentage of gun violence, is also currently the No. one network. For the first weeks of the - broadcast television season, it placed first among the viewers advertisers care most about, adults -, as well as in audiences of all ages. CBS dramas like NCIS, Person of Interest, and Criminal Minds, which regularly depict shoot-outs and gun use, routinely win their time slots, often beating the competition by millions of viewers. But Winter said that may be because the networks aren’t abiding by the law and informing parents of the content of their programming. He argues it’s not just gun regulations that are going unenforced, but the television ratings system.
“Every single program that contained violence or gun violence during the study period [Jan. and Feb. , ] was deemed to be appropriate for children aged or younger,” said Winter. The PTC study found that ABC and NBC in particular regularly failed to provide a “V” descriptor for shows that contained violence, as required by The Parental Guidelines system enacted by Congress in to inform parents of negative television content. The PTC was inspired to conduct the study after Vice President Joe Biden met with entertainment industry executives to discuss what measures could be taken to prevent another shooting rampage like the one that left children and six adults dead in Newtown, Conn. Though few details emerged from the meeting, the Directors Guild of America, Independent Film & Television Alliance, Motion Picture Association of America, National Association of Broadcasters, National Association of Theatre Owners, and National Cable & Telecommunications Association did issue a joint public statement. “This industry has a long-standing commitment to provide parents the tools necessary to make the right viewing decisions for their
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
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SHOT TOPIC: A scene from the CBS drama Criminal Minds.
CRIMINAL MINDS: ADAM LARKEY/CBS • TV: JAZZIRT/iSTOCK
families. We welcome the opportunity to share that history and look forward to doing our part to seek meaningful solutions.” aftermath of the Newtown massacre, we have But Winter doesn’t buy it. “The industry representatives did seen proposals put forth to authorize studies of the impact what they routinely do when called to task by our public servants. of violent entertainment on minors … we would recommend They told the vice president how responsible they are, and they that, prior to another review of this topic, the federal pointed fingers at parents as the problem, hiding behind the government take stock of its existing studies and determine purported ‘tools’ they foist on parents as the only protection what new knowledge could be generated.” A from harmful program content.” Consequently, Winter said, the PTC decided to put Hollywood’s claims to an empirical test and discovered that their tools are failing. “The notion that the entertainment industry is somehow being ‘responsible’ with the volume and degree of violence it is producing and distributing is laughable. The industry must come out from 392 television shows were monitored over behind its armies of lobbyists and do the right thing by a one-month period* exercising real responsibility for the content it produces and distributes.” 193 of them Following the Biden meeting, the Entertainment contained violence Merchants Association (EMA), a lobbyist group for home video and video game retailers, sent a letter to the vice 121 contained president’s office touting their own efforts to abide by gun violence ratings regulations and cautioning against further federal investigations into links between violent entertainment and real-life violent behavior. “Make no mistake: blaming movies and video games is an attempt to distract the attention of the public and the *Study done by media from meaningful action that will keep our children the Parents safer,” said the EMA. The letter later stated, “In the Television Council
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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Notebook
Lifestyle > Technology > Science > Houses of God > Sports > Money > Religion
Life changer Film spotlights South Korean pastor’s work— and overflowing joy—saving disabled and abandoned babies BY ANGELA LU
KIM HONG-JI/REUTERS/LANDOV
>>
T of a film that celebrates life saving—and changed the filmmaker’s life. In December , University of Southern California junior Brian Ivie and his crew of flew to Seoul, South Korea, to film Pastor Lee Jong-rak and his house full of disabled children who had been abandoned. The result is a -minute documentary called The Drop Box that won the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival’s “Best Sanctity of Life” award and the
“Best of Festival” Jubilee award in February. Ivie, now , received a , reward, which he said he would use to continue telling important stories: “I would rather tell the plainest truth with , than the most sophisticated technological lie with million.” He also said creating the film changed his life because he became a Christian while making it: “I saw all these kids come through this drop box with deformities and disabilities, and
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eventually—like a heaven flash—I realized that I was one of those kids too; that I have a crooked soul, and God is a father who loves me still.” The story of the film begins years ago with Pastor Lee’s love SAFETY for his son, born with DEPOSIT: cerebral palsy that led A drop box (left) for to brain damage. At unwanted first Lee could not infants at understand why God Lee’s allowed this to happen, church.
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
3/27/13 10:15 AM
Notebook > Lifestyle
Crain’s Chicago Business reported recently on a nationwide shortage of cadavers: One nonprofit business, the Anatomical Gift Association, needs about bodies a year to meet the demand of Chicago-area medical students, and barely met that quota “in three of the last six years.” Three decades ago the association regularly received about bodies a year, but organ donations may have cut into the market for whole bodies. The article said that the association may help its bottom line by producing plastinated cadavers, which sell for about , each. Those are popular in museum exhibits and education, but aren’t good for doctors in training, since plasticized bodies can’t be dissected. —Susan Olasky
Gloomy forecast California faces immediate economic woes and long-term demographic problems. Fewer couples are having children and few are migrating to California, creating a dearth of children, according to a study by the University of Southern California and the Lucile Packard Foundation. While children made up percent of California’s population in , the number is expected to drop to percent by . This coincides with an unprecedented number of baby boomers retiring, which will greatly skew the ratio of working-age adults to seniors. The smaller pool of children will need to replace their parents’ generation of workers and taxpayers and somehow support the massive number of retirees. From to , the state saw a . percent decline in children under , as the birthrate fell to . children per woman, below the replacement level of .. While the decline rate is comparable to other East Coast and Midwest states, California has historically relied on migrants from other states and countries to grow its economy. Now California is losing them too, and found itself with a net loss of , people in . The study’s conclusion from the findings: Provide better healthcare and education. It didn’t mention lowering taxes, removing burdensome regulations, improving the overall economy, and promoting marriage. –A.L.
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
8 LIFESTYLE and TECH.indd 62
Worldmag.com: Your online source for today’s news, Christian views
3/27/13 10:21 AM
FENCE: JIM WEST/SIPA PRESS/NEWSCOM • THUMB: G1.GLOBO.COM
IVIE: ALICE LEE • JONG-RAK: HANDOUT • CADAVER: MARTHA IRVINE/AP
child abandonment. He set up a but looking at his son, Eun-man (which Kickstarter campaign in September means full of God’s grace), he saw the that raised , for buying equipment preciousness of life. Lee started visiting and sending a college-age crew to South other disabled children in the hospital. Korea. There the students saw the comSoon people started asking him to care for mitment of Lee, , who has adopted their disabled children. Many left babies children and is adopting four more: at the doorstep of his four-room home, “Some of those kids would hurt themnestled in a Seoul neighborhood. selves, most would scream and wail. … But Lee’s house also funcwhen you’re with them, you’re called to tions as a church and remember that none of us are easy to an orphanage, love. That all of us kick and scream, and housing about yet God died for us.” disabled children Although few in the crew spoke Korean ages to . In and Lee’s household couldn’t speak he created English, they grew close eating together, the drop box at taking field trips with the kids, and playthe side of the Ivie ing with them. The children, who have building to keep the disabilities ranging from Down syndrome babies warm. Next to the to cerebral palsy to quadriplegia, filled the box a sign in Korean says, “This is a facility house with cries and laughter, temper for the protection of life. If you can’t take tantrums, and giddy dancing—all under care of your disabled babies, don’t throw Lee’s loving care. Ivie says, “You them away or leave them in the look around and think, gosh, street. Bring them here to a what a burden this must be. place of safety and protecAnd then you look up and tion.” When someone pulls the man in middle of it all is the latch, a bell rings inside, grinning from ear to ear.” alerting Lee that a baby The Drop Box does not yet awaits. have a release date, as the The government has tried team is working on final edits to shut down the home, saying Lee Jong-rak and finding a distributor to get it doesn’t meet safety regulathe film in theaters, but the threetions and encourages women to minute trailer available on the film’s abandon children. But Lee has fought website has already garnered attention. back, countering that the drop box has During Ivie’s acceptance speech at the saved many lives—and he is working on film festival, he spoke about the illusion building a larger home. that we can be self-reliant and what he Ivie read about the drop box in a Los had learned from the orphans: “We rely Angeles Times article and decided to on God for every breath that we take.” make a film about it and the practice of
Notebook > Technology
Buggy border Border Patrol sensors are bedeviled by aging hardware and false alarms By daniel james devine
Ivie: Alice Lee • Jong-rak: handout • cadaver: Martha Irvine/ap
FENCE: Jim West/Sipa Press/NEWSCOM • thumb: G1.GLOBO.COM
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A $1 billion i nitiative to bulk up the virtual fence blossomed under President George W. Bush, but it failed to meet its goals and got the ax in 2011, after only 72 miles of the Southwestern border were planted with sensors. A $1.5 billion follow-up initiative called the Arizona Border Surveillance Technology Plan aims to upgrade border radio tower, camera, and sensor equipment. But that project has bumped against delays of its own, most recently in February, when a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman said the agency was having trouble adding new wireless equipment to its old surveillance infrastructure due to radio bandwidth problems. Many existing sensors have been ravaged by nature, the Los Angeles Times reported last fall. Ants have eaten wires and
Most of the fences straddling portions of the 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico are made of concrete, steel, wire mesh, and sometimes chain link. Another fence is invisible: It consists of a network of “unattended ground sensors”—motion, sound, metal, and even seismic detectors, often buried in the ground and designed to alert border patrol agents wirelessly to the presence of humans or vehicles. A virtual fence sounds like a smart solution to border security at a time when illegal immigrants and drug smugglers routinely go around or dig tunnels beneath the physical fences. In reality, the border sensor strategy has been dogged by problems for years. Some of the approximately 13,000 sensors now dotting the border are outdated and deteriorating, and send out more false alarms than real ones.
PERSISTENT CHALLENGE: A tower on the U.S. side of the border fence in Nogales, Ariz., contains cameras and other sensors to detect fence crossing.
rain has corroded battery terminals. In 2005 government officials said weather, animals, trains, and other false alarm sources were triggering one-third or more of all sensor alerts. Along the Southwestern border, a sensor was triggered about every 44 seconds, and most of the time Border Patrol agents never determined the cause, due to a lack of manpower needed to check each alarm. When the sensors detected actual illegal
aliens, they got away two times out of three. Last October a false alarm turned deadly when Border Patrol agents investigating a sensor accidentally fired on one another in the dark, killing one agent and wounding another. A string of problems doesn’t always mean we should abandon a goal, but it highlights the persistent challenge of stopping i llegal crossings. Another border security technology, flying drones, may help close gaps the sensors haven’t. The Border Patrol’s 10 Predator and Guardian drones helped authorities make 143 arrests and seize 66,000 pounds of narcotics last year.
Thumbs down
Fingerprint scanning would seem to be a foolproof identification method, but doctors at an emergency clinic near São Paulo, Brazil, have proved it isn’t. Police arrested 29-year-old Thaune Nunes Ferreira in March after learning she was using silicone thumbs—complete with embedded fingerprints—to fool the clinic’s employee identification system and falsely clock in for her colleagues, who cooperated in the fraud. The fake fingers enabled six or more fellow doctors to skip night shifts on a regular basis. Ferreira said her supervisor forced her to clock in for the workers and pocketed money generated by the scheme. —D.J.D.
Email: ddevine@worldmag.com
8 LIFESTYLE and TECH.indd 63
A p r i l 2 0 , 2 0 1 3 • W O RL D
63
3/28/13 10:08 AM
Notebook > Science
Egg
Heather has two mommies
A proposed fertility technique would create children with genes from three parents BY DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
Nucleus
and donor’s eggs have both been fertilized—resulting in the death of one of the embryos. In both cases, the Mitochondrion baby that is born would have . percent of his or her parents’ genes, plus a tiny amount of mitochondrial DNA from the egg donor. Several children worldwide have already been born with this sort of thirdparty genetic arrangement, and some are likely teenagers now. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration warned researchers to stop creating such pregnancies over a decade ago. Ethical questions abound: Like other forms of in vitro fertilization, manipulation in a lab carries inherent risks to the life of the embryo. It’s also unclear what the long-term health consequences of the genetic “repair” will be, since the donated DNA can be passed down indefinitely to successive generations. Stuart A. Newman, a cell biologist at New York Medical College, called the procedure part of a dangerous “new drive toward DNA-based eugenics.”
Throw ’em back
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
8 SCIENCE and HOUSES.indd 64
BREAKTHROUGH: Investigators Rivière, Sadelain, and Brentjens (left to right) are collaborating on gene therapy for leukemia.
As federal regulators consider whether to allow sales of the fast-growing “AquAdvantage Salmon,” the first genetically modified animal intended for the U.S. food market, some grocery stores are posting “Keep out” signs. Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and some regional grocery chains have pledged not to sell genetically engineered seafood. A large proportion of plant ingredients in U.S. foods already come from genetically modified crops, such as corn and soybeans. Regulators say the products are safe, but some consumers have begun avoiding them, worried about unproven health effects. —D.J.D.
MITOCHONDRION: JACK0M/ISTOCK • SPERM, EGG: ROCCOMONTOYA/ISTOCK • RESEARCHERS: MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER • SALMON: AQUABOUNTY TECHNOLOGIES/AP
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S in the United Kingdom could soon give birth to babies with genes from a father and two mothers, if Parliament approves the idea. The country’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority gave a green light in March to special lab procedures allowing women with genetic defects to bear an apparently healthy child. Biology lesson: Mitochondria, rodshaped power generators found inside cells, contain DNA that is separate from other DNA in the cell nucleus. Children inherit this mitochondrial DNA from their mother, but not their father. Around woman in , is affected by mitochondrial mutations that can be passed along to her children and cause muscle, heart, bowel, and other diseases, sometimes resulting in death. To avoid passing on damaged mitochondrial DNA, doctors can perform a genetic switch in one of two ways: The first method is to remove the nucleus from the mother’s damaged egg and transplant it into a healthy egg from a female donor. Afterward, the resulting egg can be fertilized and implanted in the mother’s womb. The second method is similar but involves switching the nucleus after the mother’s
Sperm
Doctors at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City have apparently cured three patients of a serious form of leukemia using a promising gene therapy technique. The doctors extracted immune cells from patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia—a rare blood cancer with a percent fatality rate—and genetically reprogrammed them to fight the disease. One -year-old patient’s leukemia went into remission in just a few weeks using the procedure. The doctors, who described the treatment in Science Translational Medicine, are watching to ensure he does not relapse. The technique of engineering a person’s own cells to battle disease carries potential for other cancers as well. —D.J.D.
Worldmag.com: Your online source for today’s news, Christian views
3/28/13 10:19 AM
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MITOCHONDRION: JACK0M/ISTOCK • SPERM, EGG: ROCCOMONTOYA/ISTOCK • RESEARCHERS: MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER • SALMON: AQUABOUNTY TECHNOLOGIES/AP
ANDRE JENNY/NEWSCOM
Notebook > Houses of God
Established by Presbyterian missionaries to the Nez Perce Indians in (with the building finished in ), the
First Indian Presbyterian Church
in Kamiah, Idaho, continues to hold services today.
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
8 SCIENCE and HOUSES.indd 65
3/28/13 10:21 AM
Pitch perfect
>>
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
8 SPORTS and MONEY.indd 66
been worshipping his own version of God: one who bases His love on good behavior. “That’s totally wrong thinking,” he said, and “not anything like what Jesus teaches in the Bible.” The birth of Humber’s first child, John, days after the perfect game helped reinforce what the Bible does teach: God’s unconditional love for His people. “[John] is going to disobey me, but I’m never going to love him any less or bring him anything but good,” he said. “The reason I discipline him is because I love him.” Humber’s deepened understanding helped him at home, even though results on the field remained lackluster. The White Sox released Humber after the season, and now almost a year after his magical day, Humber’s name is synonymous with “perfect game.” It brings up countless Google search hits; it’s why he’s been featured in everything from Sports Illustrated to The New York Times; and it’s what every new reporter, teammate, and coach wanted to talk about when Humber arrived at Houston Astros spring training in February. “There are a lot worse things to be known for,” he said. Humber said he’s happy the perfect game happened, although he doesn’t dwell on it. He donated his hat and a game ball to go with his plaque at the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., but everything else from that day is tucked away in a box under the bed. He says the confidence he gained through the perfect game is the main way it changed him on the field. While that didn’t equate to success in the rest of , he’s off to a good start in Houston: He earned the third spot in the Astros pitching rotation after posting a . ERA and holding opponents to a . average this spring—the thirdlowest mark in baseball. Humber, a member of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas, said coming back home to play in Houston— where he led the Rice Owls to the College World Series title—is a perfect fit: “We’re both coming off a rough patch and looking to move forward.” A
NUCCIO DINUZZO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/MCT/LANDOV
achieved something Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, and a long list of Hall of Fame pitchers never did. In the aftermath of the perfect game, Humber had one thought on his mind: to prove the game of his life wasn’t a fluke. But by season’s end, the former firstround pick was sitting in the bullpen and the White Sox were sitting out the playoffs. Humber’s season ERA of . was the highest in baseball among pitchers who logged at least innings. Humber had struggled before, but this time it was under the national spotlight. After he was sent to the The game of a lifetime for PHILIP HUMBER bullpen in August, led to an unexpected season but also an opposing fans unexpected lesson BY J.C. DERRICK delivered a steady barrage of insults: “When you pitch a perfect game and pretty much fall on B as Philip your face after that, you’re an easy Humber walked off the pitching target,” Humber told me during a mound at U.S. Cellular Field in March phone interview. “I can’t say at Chicago for the final time in times they didn’t say things that made . Humber, , had just given up me mad.” eight runs while recording only one out But what Humber “thought was in a nine-run loss to the Minnesota terrible actually couldn’t have been Twins, and the crowd was quick to better,” because God redeemed the voice its displeasure. post-perfect Humber says that game on Sept. game slump. was the low point of a season that THE OTHER SIDE Pride—in the started with so much promise: On April OF PERFECT: form of self, he tossed the st perfect game in White Sox catcher pressure to live Tyler Flowers (left) the history of Major League Baseball, with Humber on the up to others’ retiring all opposing batters in a row. mound amid a expectations— It was Humber’s first career complete -run fifth inning left Humber game, first shutout, and first win of the by the Minnesota Twins, Sept. . realizing he’d season, and in the process he
Email: jderrick@worldmag.com
4/3/13 8:35 AM
ANGEL FOOD HEADQUARTERS: MANDI SINGER/COVINGTON NEWS/AP • ONE HARVEST LOGO: HANDOUT • ECCU: GREG SCHNEIDER/GENESIS PHOTOS
Notebook > Sports
Notebook > Money
Up from the ashes Angel Food Ministries disappeared amid corruption, but a smaller and leaner ministry is taking its place BY WARREN COLE SMITH
NUCCIO DINUZZO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/MCT/LANDOV
ANGEL FOOD HEADQUARTERS: MANDI SINGER/COVINGTON NEWS/AP • ONE HARVEST LOGO: HANDOUT • ECCU: GREG SCHNEIDER/GENESIS PHOTOS
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G- A F M (AFM) started as a great idea: Buy large quantities of food in bulk and sell it to poor families cheaply, using churches as distribution points. By cutting out almost all retail and distribution costs, AFM could provide a family of four with a week of food for as little as . The system worked almost too well. Founded in , AFM grew explosively. By it claimed to feed more than , families a month and had an annual budget of more than million. But former board member Tony Prather said “greed and corruption set in.” In , founders Joe and Linda Wingo and their children took more than million in compensation from AFM, and used the ministry’s planes, intended for rapid food distribution, for private use. When a former employee filed a sexual harassment claim against one of the sons, Andrew Wingo, WORLD began to report on the ministry’s problems, which soon exploded into a national scandal. A lot has happened since then. Because AFM accepted federal funds, the FBI opened an investigation in . The negative publicity—and a lawsuit filed by Prather and another AFM headquarters board member, Craig in Monroe, Ga. Atnip—caused the ministry to implode. In September , it shut down for good. On Feb. , AFM founders Joe and Linda Wingo, along with their son Andy, pleaded guilty to federal charges that included money laundering. A judge will sentence them on May . Joe and Andy Wingo face a potential seven-year sentence, plus fines. Linda Wingo will likely pay a fine and serve probation. But this ministry’s story didn’t end there. Prather started One Harvest Food Ministries from the ashes of AFM. “The original idea was a good one,” Prather said. “We felt like there was a way to do the ministry and do it right.” Prather says One Harvest feeds approximately , families in states, on a budget of about million per year. That’s a fraction of the size of AFM but, according to Prather, getting too big too fast was part of Angel Food’s problem: “Slow growth is to our advantage.”
Email: wsmith@worldmag.com
8 SPORTS and MONEY.indd 67
Lots of financial institutions staggered during the Great Recession, and a record number fell into insolvency. But the banking sector seems to be recovering. In the first quarter of this year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has only four institutions on its list of failed banks, compared to in the first quarter of . One institution that has taken a giant step back from the brink is the Evangelical Christian Credit Union (ECCU). When we profiled the organization in , it faced a rapidly rising number of foreclosures and—perhaps more ominously—it had modified terms on more than million in loans. But according to spokesman Jac La Tour, the nation’s largest credit union serving the evangelical community turned a corner in . An improving economy helped, but actions ECCU took helped ward off disaster. The credit union dramatically increased its allowances for loan losses—more than million in alone—and, according to La Tour, “We created a team to work with struggling ministries that had never seen an economy like what we experienced in the last four years.” The results have been noticeable. After posting a loss of more than million in , ECCU expects to earn about . million in . ECCU is now a smaller institution than it was in , with profits nowhere near pre-recession levels. But its net worth climbed this year, to . million, allowing it to keep its rating of “well capitalized” by the National Credit Union Association. “Our ministry clients learned some lessons,” said La Tour, “and we learned some lessons, too.” —W.C.S.
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
4/3/13 9:34 AM
Notebook > Religion
Anglican challenges
New leader faces a changing church riven by controversy BY THOMAS KIDD
>>
J W has become the new archbishop of Canterbury, the clerical head of the Anglican Church, a global Christian communion with approximately million adherents. His appointment followed the naming of Pope Francis to lead the Roman Catholic Church, and Welby faces some similar challenges to Francis, including theological controversies, declining membership in areas of historic strength, and strong growth in places such as sub-Saharan Africa. Church officials symbolically acknowledged the Anglicans’ new realities during the inauguration at Canterbury Cathedral. For the first time, a woman participated directly in the installation: The
archdeacon of Canterbury, Sheila Watson, seated Welby in the cathedral’s diocesan throne. The Anglican Church has struggled to negotiate demands in American and English branches of the church to ordain women and gays, but late last year the Church of England voted against ordaining female bishops, in spite of Welby’s support. African Anglicans also played a prominent role at the installation, with Ghanaian dancers leading the procession down the cathedral’s aisle. The archbishop of Burundi, a small African nation where about onesixth of million residents are Anglicans, prayed in French for Welby during the service.
Pastor as predator A U.S. District Court has sentenced Jack Schaap, , former pastor of the ,-member First Baptist Church of Hammond, Ind., to years in prison for engaging in a sexual relationship with an underage girl. Schaap pleaded guilty in September and had hoped to receive a lighter sentence. Even if eventually released, Schaap will always have to register as a sex offender. While admitting that the relationship was inappropriate, Schaap tried to account for his behavior by citing stress and health problems. Prosecutors filed a sentencing document that painted Schaap as actively pursuing the victim, who was when the relationship started. The document states that Schaap had a church member bring the girl to retreats in Illinois and Michigan, where the two met alone, and that in the month prior to the discovery of the relationship, Schaap and the girl texted or phoned one another almost times. At sentencing, Schaap reportedly said that he had convinced himself that he was helping the victim, but that “in trying to be a hero, I became a fool.” —T.K.
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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CHURCH: HANDOUT • WELBY: MATTHEW LLOYD/GETTY IMAGES • SCHAAP: HANDOUT
Americans typically see the South as the nation’s Bible Belt and the Northeast as the country’s most secular area. According to a recent Gallup poll, the stereotypes are basically true: nine of the top most religious states are in the South, while the least religious are five New England states, with Vermont the least religious of all. But the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the country’s New City Church, largest Protestant Springfield, Mass. denomination, is not allowing the Northeast’s apathy to stand unchallenged. In the past years, the SBC has invested million in church startups in New England, setting aside , for this year alone. The SBC planted New England churches during the past decade, which represents a percent increase in the number of SBC-affiliated congregations in the region. Most of these churches do not include “Southern Baptist” in their names. (The desire for a more national appeal led the SBC to permit the use of “Great Commission Baptist” as an alternative church title beginning last summer.) Shaun Pillay, a native of South Africa, pastors Cornerstone International Church in Norwich, Conn., a congregation he and his wife started in . While the church’s name does not carry the SBC label, Cornerstone International openly states on its website that it partners with the SBC and its North American Mission Board. —T.K.
Email: tkidd@worldmag.com
4/3/13 10:54 AM
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Mailbag ‘When cities rot’
March A city will rot over time when Christians choose the comforts of their social club over the difficulties of presenting Christ in the marketplace. Christ called us to be salt and light, but too many give up and move out of the city to a “safe” place, neglecting the place and people we should know, love, and pray for the most. —J S, Haltom City, Texas
Now at I have eight kids, some tugging at my heart more than others, and one who can see comfortably over the top of my head. I depend upon WORLD, which has given me much to think about as well as how to think about it from a Christian perspective. —J Y, Tyrone, Pa.
‘Twelve worried men’ ‘Semi-liberated capitals’ March I lived in Ukraine for several years and found that some people who claim to be atheists admit in private conversations to believing in God. Despite the Orthodox Church’s resistance to Protestant movements, many Ukrainians have a seed of spiritual appreciation that sometimes blossoms into full-fledged faith. Three generations of Soviet rule were not enough to quench the flame entirely. —N G, College Park, Md.
‘Words search’ March To replace “compassionate conservatism,” I suggest “Lincoln conservatism.” This refers to Lincoln’s view of private enterprise as a means to freedom and hope for the future. As he wrote, the “prudent, penniless beginner” can work his way up and this is “the just and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way for all.” —J A, Fortuna, Calif.
We recently moved from Houston to a much smaller city. It seems to embody compassionate conservatism. Everyone knows everyone else’s business, but they also show up unannounced to
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help. I’d call it “Freedom to Be a Neighbor,” but the problem is that my former, big-city neighbors want to create more rules to ensure that their neighbors act neighborly. It seems that big-city conservatives don’t like people to have the freedom not to be a neighbor. —D S, Victoria, Texas
‘Ideal subscribers’ March I am one of the -year-old readers WORLD targeted many years ago. I am now . I so much appreciate your goal of reaching women who are “intelligent on half-a-dozen fronts” but find themselves in the trenches of fulltime mothering. —J L. G, Lafayette, N.Y.
Fourteen years after I got my first WORLD, each of the kids has a favorite section so I rarely get to read it until a week after it comes. I’m thankful you targeted me, but Joel Belz’s demographic ponderings should include the next generation. —C S, Elizabethtown, Pa.
I was one of your -year-old moms with two kids tugging at my knees.
March Great article. I attended the same church in Tyler, Texas, as Rep. Gohmert and had the privilege of voting for him in his first congressional race. Bravo to him and the other . But where are the rest? —A S, Big Canoe, Ga.
I have friends thinking about going into politics and I’m glad there are some good examples. They give me hope for America both spiritually and politically. —S M, Knoxville, Tenn.
‘Treadmill swerve’ March Believers need not be intimidated by so-called experts, even Harvard professors. The author of The Swerve, asserting that the world is “atoms and the void and nothing else,” is either dishonest or ignorant of scientific and intellectual developments outside his narrow academic specialty. I’d guess that the book’s rapturous reception has a lot more to do with academic in-group solidarity than the merits of Epicureanism as a better flavor of atheism. —A M, Wheaton, Ill.
‘Opportunity reports’ March I just listened to Ben Gormley’s performance of Marvin Olasky’s lyrics
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
3/28/13 10:31 AM
Amy
Mailbag
Writıng Awards
f or biblic a l jou r na lism in secul a r newspa per s, m aga z ines, or w ebsites
First prize:
10,000
$
14 other awards: $
24,000
Any size publication: city or college newspapers, local or national magazines, news and views websites original reporting preferred Deadline for first half articles: July 15, 2013 For more information, go to worldmag.com/ amyawards
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SHIHAPHUMI VILLAGE, INDIA submitted by Dave & Sarah Glass
for “Hallelujah.” It moved me to tears, knowing that my own sin held Christ on the cross. —G M, Vermontville, Mich.
‘Unlikely additives’ March Thank you for this article about titanium dioxide. My brother and I are both allergic to it; we break out in hives and have trouble breathing. Besides gum, candy, and toothpaste, it is also found in soap, icing, and some medications. I hope it will be banned. —J B (age 12), Lilburn, Ga.
‘The cavalry is not coming’ Feb. An excellent interview with Kay Coles James. I’m sure that many Republicans disagree with her, but our party needs to wake up before it totally runs aground. —M P, Rochester, Minn.
The horror of slavery is not what is dealing out wholesale devastation in the black community today. A political agenda has reinvented
prejudice and reversed racism. —R.C. H, Edneyville, N.C.
‘The day the music died’ Feb. This perspicacious column brought to mind a comment by the late Sen. Sam J. Ervin, chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee during the investigation that forced Nixon’s resignation: “God is not mocked: For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” That biblical truth is several times more apposite to events in our ill-led country today than it was in the s. —J N, Prague, Czech Republic
I agree with your premise but would say that the tipping point of distrust of our government was the Vietnam War, not Bill Clinton’s presidency. And while I oppose what Clinton did, his lies did not result in thousands of American deaths. Our military acted with honor and valiantly served our nation. I wish that could be said for our political leaders of both parties
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—B S, Phillipsburg, N.J.
‘Early maturity’ Feb. This article was encouraging. Marrying young and growing a large family has brought us to rely on Jesus more. It’s an opportunity for death to self, and we do experience joy in the storm and mess.
St anding
in the Battle for T ruth Strong
—E H, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
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‘Seeking and saving the lost’ Feb. Mindy Belz is correct that national believers often are the most effective in evangelism, discipleship, and church growth. My wife and I have seen this firsthand trekking for hundreds of miles across sub-Saharan Africa amidst Sunni Muslims and elsewhere.
What we’ve discovered about real grace for teens.
—D S, Salem, Ore.
‘Loaded questions’ Feb. Your caption for the photo of an AR- describes it as an “assault rifle,” but that weapon is a semi-automatic, which fires only one round with each pull of the trigger. “Assault rifles” are capable of firing multiple rounds with a single pull, an important distinction in this debate. —R M, Oakland Park, Fla.
LETTERS & PHOTOS Email: mailbag@worldmag.com Write: WORLD Mailbag, PO Box , Asheville, NC - Please include full name and address. Letters may be edited to yield brevity and clarity.
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Andrée Seu Peterson
Mission accomplished
When you plant seeds, keep in mind that God may want someone else to water
>>
KRIEG BARRIE
I of my boxed-up imagination that it took me eight years to start praying for Bubba with the missionaries instead of with the inmates. He is in prison, that’s a fact, but he is God’s man in prison, full of the Word and leading men to Christ. Someone will cavil that he didn’t get himself behind bars for good behavior, but which of us got where we are out of a practically perfect past? For my money, Bubba is an evangelist with portfolio, dispatched to a specialized mission field. When my son wanted to join the French Foreign Legion I was not thrilled. During his own incarceration three years ago, fervent letters home spoke of God’s total claim on his life. After his release I threw out a few suggestions about Bible institutes or phoning a man I knew with a car ministry to Belize. Instead he took work in a hardware store and then a landscaping business. But most notably, he got involved in the church’s youth group. Soon his life revolved around the junior high and reading the Bible. I myself enjoyed a new status at church as the mother of C. Adults I had never said boo to came up to talk—to him, not me. Now I had it all mapped out: C. would surely apply to Bible school, get ordained, go into full-time professional ministry, and live happily ever after. But what I have not told you yet is that C.’s other passion is the military. Here is where God’s jail plan put the kibosh on C.’s soldiering plan. So C. spent one and a half years researching the French Foreign Legion. A lifelong history buff, he knew of the valiance of the th Demi-Brigade at the Battle of Narvik during World War II. More relevantly, he knew that the former French colony of Mali was the new Islamic terrorist hot spot. He booked a flight for France. It was the sight of C. at the airport carrying nothing but a backpack and a well-worn Bible that birthed a new thought in me: “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him. … And he said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. … Carry no moneybag, no
Email: aseupeterson@worldmag.com
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knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road’” (Luke :-). Why couldn’t God do another out-ofthe-box missionary assignment? C. passed the physical trials with flying colors but failed the interview portion for reasons we may know in heaven if we’re still interested. (He was forthcoming about both jail and Christianity.) Though surviving the transfer from Paris to Aubagne, he found himself in the usual ratio of to dismissed without explanation. Back home the names tumbled out: “Christmas” (from Russia), “Waffles” (from Belgium), Kowalsky (from Poland), “DJ” (from Kenya). My C. they called “Priest.” Among the were also an Algerian, Albanian, Serb, German, a few South Africans and Italians, and a kid from Alabama (“Bama”). They all had stories. Waffles had done two tours of Afghanistan and couldn’t readjust to life where the biggest concern was who stole your parking space. Thin uniforms against the February chill left everyone with colds, but Christmas got sick as a dog. On the fifth night C. put his blanket on him. Other men sacrificed their coverings. C. laid hands and prayed over the Russian and the next morning he was well. Another time C. read his Bible out loud and drew a crowd. It’s not like in America, he told me: In the Legion when you pull out your Bible, men come and ask questions. “Everybody there is looking for something.” “I still trust God’s ways but I don’t understand why He didn’t keep me in the Legion when I was telling men the gospel,” C. said. “I guess your mission was accomplished,” I said. “He wanted Christmas to get prayed for. You planted seeds. Someone else will water.” God is not “cost-effective” in missions the way men count cost-effective. Once an Ethiopian eunuch struggled to read Isaiah in a chariot on the Gaza road, and God airlifted Philip for an ad hoc hermeneutics lesson. My understanding is that Philip had no formal Bible training. A
APRIL 20, 2013 • WORLD
3/28/13 10:41 AM
Marvin Olasky
Serious times
Remembering heroism and death years ago
>>
WORLD • APRIL 20, 2013
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Since I’m a Jewish Christian, I feel some personal involvement in this. My great-grandparents were probably among the Jews from the Ukrainian town of Olevsk forced to march to a ravine two miles away. (Olasky means “the man from Olevsk.”) Last fall I scurried along an overgrown road to where they died, and saw a small monument proclaiming in Russian, “German invaders killed children, women, and elderly people.” The Jews in Olevsk did not fight back. They were among the millions surprised to find neighbors helping Nazis. Even after Hitler took power in Germany in , and even after Kristallnacht (“the night of broken glass”) in , almost no one expected mass murder. On the latter day, as thugs with government backing broke the windows of , Jewish businesses and burned , synagogues throughout Germany and Austria, crowds did not shout, “Jews, die!” They shouted, “Jews, go to Palestine!” or “Go to America!” Problem: The British government then in charge of Palestine was placating Arabs by allowing in only a small percentage of the Jews who could otherwise have found a haven. Problem: The United States, which had welcomed tired, poor, and huddled masses until , had also slammed the door. Other countries were similar. As Chaim Weizmann, who would become Israel’s first president, put it, “The world seemed to be divided into two parts—those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter.” So German policy changed from killing a few Jews and expelling the rest to killing them all. My Jewish Ukrainian relatives were used to tornado-like pogroms that raced through their villages, destroying several lives and houses but leaving others untouched. They didn’t expect mass murder, and some thought German rule would be an improvement over Joseph Stalin’s brutal Communist regime. The machine guns surprised them. A LATTER DAYS: A monument to murdered Jews in Olevsk.
SUSAN OLASKY
T … We interrupt the annual joke column for a special announcement: For three years I’ve tried to relieve tax time depression and exhaustion by offering some humor, but this year a sad th anniversary trumps lightheartedness. I’ve put the jokes into two columns on Worldmag.com, so I have room here to address the question: Would you rather die in combat or in a concentration camp? Facts: The th anniversary is of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, which began on April , , and ended on May amid smoke and fire. Background: Hitler’s minions beginning in had packed about , Jews into . square miles. The official ration was calories per day for Jews and , for their German overlords. Nazi forces shipped , residents to the Treblinka “labor camp” and murdered them there. Warsaw starvation and disease killed close to , more. Jewish leaders at first bought the lie that Treblinka was a place to work rather than to die, but by the truth was out. Many Warsaw residents decided to fight back even though the Germans had tanks, flamethrowers, and other modern conveniences, while the ghetto residents had six rifles and one submachine gun along with handguns and grenades, but not much ammunition. German soldiers day after day drove the Jewish fighters from the streets and houses into sewers and bunkers, then used flamethrowers: About , Jews died in the uprising, probably half from smoke inhalation or being burnt alive. Marek Edelman, one of the few who survived—he became a noted cardiologist and died only four years ago at age —said, “There was no air, only black, choking smoke and heavy burning heat radiating from the red-hot walls. … We were beaten by the flames, not the Germans.” The winners shipped most of the , survivors to Treblinka and other camps, where almost all died. Edelman later said, “We knew perfectly well that we had no chance of winning. We fought simply not to allow the Germans alone to pick the time and place of our deaths.” He said the death of those at Treblinka “was far more heroic. We didn’t know when we would take a bullet. They had to deal with certain death, stripped naked in a gas chamber or standing at the edge of a mass grave waiting for a bullet in the back of the head. … It was easier to die fighting than in a gas chamber.”
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
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